(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, Galatians chapter 4, the part that I want to focus on is starting there in verse 22 where the Bible reads, For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise, which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which generate the bondage, which is Agar. So this morning I want to preach on the subject Sarah and the nation of Israel. Sarah and the nation of Israel, and we see here in verse 24 that the story of Sarah in the Old Testament is an allegory, meaning that it is symbolic. It has symbolic meaning. Now I don't want you to misunderstand and think that it's also not a real story. It really did happen, but in addition to being literal events in the book of Genesis, these things are also symbolic of other things, and that's what I'm going to preach about this morning. Now there are a lot of great female characters in the Bible, and I think Sarah is probably the most interesting out of all the female characters in the Bible. She's talked about quite a bit in scripture as far as women in the Bible go. There's a lot of scripture on Sarah. She plays a really important part in the biblical story in the Old Testament. Now if you would flip back to Genesis 12. We're going to come back to Galatians 4 later and look more at this, but I wanted to start out by just showing you that the Bible tells us that this story involving the son of Sarah and the son of the free woman and the child of the bondmaid, that these things the Bible tells us are symbolic. They're an allegory, and I'm going to expound that allegory to you this morning and teach you what these things symbolize in the Bible. Now go back to Genesis 12. While you're turning there, let me just point out to you that in the story of Isaac being miraculously born unto Abraham and Sarah when they're very old, Sarah is actually the one who plays the lead role here. She is actually the focal point of the story. The Bible tells in Hebrews 11 verse 11, through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised. So in a list that is mainly comprised of great men of God and their faith and their exploits, it tells us in Hebrews chapter 11 that Sarah through faith received strength to conceive seed. Why? Because she is the key player in that story. You see Abraham had no problem producing children. He proved that with Hagar, right? He was able to produce Ishmael. And then later after Sarah is dead, he marries Keturah and has multiple children with Keturah. So the story about this miraculous birth really revolves around Sarah in the Old Testament from the beginning. Go back if you would there in Genesis. In fact, look at the very end of chapter 11. Even before the Abraham story starts in chapter 12, the emphasis is already in Sarah in chapter 11. In Genesis 11 verse 29, and Abram and Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren. She had no child. So God could have chosen to put this as well Abraham and Sarah didn't have children. But instead the focus is on Sarah. Sarai was barren. She had no child. And Terah took Abram, his son and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan and they came unto Haran and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran. Now look at verse 1, the famous passage in Genesis 12. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that cursed thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So let's get into this story here about Sarah. We're going to look at the life of Sarah and I'm going to show you how it's actually an allegory as God told us in Galatians chapter 4. It's symbolic. What does Sarah represent in the story? Well Sarah represents the believing Old Testament nation of Israel. So Sarah represents the children of Israel in the Old Testament when they were right with God, when they were God's chosen people. Basically the good aspect of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, believing Israel or faithful Israel. Isaac on the other hand, her son, represents Christ or Christians because Christians are in Christ. That's why the Bible said in Galatians 4, We as Isaac was are the children of promise in this allegory. So we know obviously that Isaac in the allegory represents Christ and he also represents Christians because we are in Christ and we are the children of promise. So you say well Pastor Sarah represents Israel? Well let me show it to you in the Bible. There won't be any question about it by the time I'm done explaining this to you. Let's start out with some things about Sarah. So we start out number one that Sarah is barren. She has no child and this represents the fact that it's going to take divine intervention to redeem Israel. Just as Sarah could not physically in her own strength produce a child, it's going to take a miracle isn't it? It's going to take divine intervention. But number two, Sarah starts out dwelling here in the land of Canaan. Look at Genesis chapter 12 verse 5. And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their substance that they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten in Haran and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan and into the land of Canaan they came. So Sarai starts out here, I'm just going to call her Sarah just to make it easier. She starts out in the story as Sarai later becomes Sarah. Let's just call her Sarah to make things easier. So Sarah starts out by entering the land of Canaan. Then next what does Sarah do? She goes down into Egypt. Look at verse 10. And there was a famine in the land and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was grievous in the land. Then number four, Sarah is taken into Pharaoh's house. Look at verse 15. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her and commended her before Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. Verse 17 tells us the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah Abram's wife. So you're starting to catch the drift here. We start out with number one, Sarah is barren. Number two, Sarah is dwelling in the land of Canaan. Number three, Sarah goes down into Egypt. Number four, she's taken into Pharaoh's house. Number five, God plagues Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah. Now you can start to see here how Sarah represents Israel because the nation of Israel starts out in Canaan, right? That's where the nation of Israel begins. Then they go down into Egypt, right? Then they are taken into Pharaoh's service as slaves and then God plagues the Egyptians. He plagues Pharaoh's house as a result of what? As a result of the Israelites being there. Here Pharaoh is plagued for Sarah's sake, but this represents Pharaoh and Egypt being plagued for Israel's sake later on, right, in the story in Exodus. Let's look at the next thing here. Number six, Pharaoh angrily sends Sarah and Abraham away like he will later angrily send the Israelites away. Look at verse 20, Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they sent him away and his wife and all that he had. Let's jump to chapter 13 verse 1. Number seven, Sarah leaves Egypt with Abraham, Lot, and a lot of material possessions here. Look at verse number one, and Abram went up out of Egypt. He and his wife and all that he had and Lot with him into the south and Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Now this is like when the children of Israel, they depart from Egypt and the Bible said they spoiled the Egyptians so they ended up taking a lot of material wealth with them. They left Egypt with gold and silver and a lot of cattle. Now what does Lot represent in this story because it's Abraham, Sarah, Lot, and all their goods and possessions and so forth. Well I believe that Lot represents the mixed multitude that left Egypt with Israel. You don't have to turn there but Exodus chapter 13 verse 28 says a mixed multitude went up also with them and flocks and herds even very much cattle. So when the children of Israel left Egypt with all their wealth, they also brought people with them that were not Israelites. There was kind of a mixed multitude that were not of the people of Israel who just wanted to go along for the ride and they ended up leaving with them. Now the next time we see that term mixed multitude mentioned is in Numbers chapter 11 verse 4 it says and the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting and the children of Israel also wept again and said who shall give us flesh to eat. So the mixed multitude that went out of Egypt with the children of Israel, they were covetous, lustful kind of people and they ended up being a bad influence on the Israelites, okay. Well think about this with Lot's life. What did Lot do? Lot went out of Egypt with Sarah and when he gets to Canaan land, he actually lusted after the well-watered plain towards Sodom and Gomorrah. Now this was a bad decision on his part. He should have stayed away from that area because the Bible tells us that the men of Sodom were sinners before the Lord exceedingly but that didn't bother Lot because all he cared about was just gratifying himself, fulfilling his lust for wealth or the love of money or whatever so he ends up moving his family there and pitching his tent toward Sodom, right. So he represents that mixed multitude that went up out of Egypt with Israel. Look at verse 3 of Genesis 13 and we see that step number 8, Sarah comes back into the Promised Land. Verse 3, he went on his journeyings from the south even to Bethel unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Hayat. So just to review real quick, Sarah's barren. She doesn't have a child. She's in Canaan. She goes down into Egypt. She goes into Pharaoh's house. Pharaoh is plagued. She gets sent out of Egypt. She leaves with Lot and Abraham and the mixed multitude, you know, figuratively speaking comes back into Canaan land. Okay, so now if we continue the story with Sarah, what happens next? Well the next time we see Sarah, we see Sarah having a lapse in faith. Go to Genesis chapter 16. You see, even though Sarah was a great lady that the Bible tells us had great faith and she trusted in the Lord, she was not a perfect person. In fact, none of the people in the Bible are perfect. If you study the Bible, especially the book of Genesis, you'll see that every character in Genesis makes serious mistakes, commits a lot of sins because the Bible is a book about real human beings and frankly it's because God wrote the Bible. You know, when man writes his history and if we go back into other texts from the ancient world, we'll see just heroes being glorified like they can do no wrong in many cases. Whereas the Bible tells us the truth about human nature, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that there's none righteous, no not one, and that there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sineth not. If you talk to Muslims about these same characters, Abraham, Sarah, Moses even, other characters in the Bible, King David, they'll tell you that these characters did no wrong. They say, oh, David didn't commit adultery. You know, Moses didn't lose his temper. He didn't do that. Abraham didn't do that. They just lie and whitewash all these characters that the prophets of Islam were just these perfect people pretty much and that Mohammed is just this perfect guy. You know, that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible shows that even great men and great women make mistakes. They're sinners. We're all human. It's only God that is good and right, and we are all imperfect people. That's the message of the Bible all the way from Genesis to the very end, okay? That's what we see in the story here with Genesis 16. We see that Sarah is not a perfect person, and she has a lapse in faith here, and the Bible says in verse 1 of Genesis 16, Now Sarah, Abram's wife, bare him no children, and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid, that it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. Again, she's playing the lead role here. It's her idea. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. Now was this the right thing to do? Was this God's plan? Obviously not. God's plan was to bless Abraham and Sarah with their own child, but as they get older and older, and Sarah's biological clock just keeps ticking, they, you know, they have a lapse in faith here, and she decides to kind of take things into her own hands and say, Hey, we're going to have this child by hook or by crook, so just take Hagar and have a child with her. Now flip over to Romans chapter 9. We'll come back to Genesis, but go back to Romans chapter number 9 in the New Testament. Now let me ask you this. Back to the allegory. Who does Sarah represent? Sarah represents the people of Israel in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel, and by that we mean believing Israel, the godly element of the people of Israel, because Sarah was a godly person, right? She loved the Lord. Well let me ask you this. Did Israel ever have times where they had lapses in faith and made some serious mistakes? Absolutely. So that fits the story perfectly. Now look at Romans chapter 9. We'll see a little more about Sarah in verse 6. Not as though the word of God had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, watch this, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. It's very important to God that the son of Abraham come from Sarah, his original wife, and so he says the word of promise is that Sarah shall have a son, and he says that those who are of Abraham, they're not all the children of God, they're not all God's people. He says it's the ones that are of Isaac. It's the ones that came through Sarah, which is a figure or an allegory or picturing the fact that they are the promised seed, not the children after the flesh. So he says in verse number 7, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. Now we're going to see this more later in the story, but let me just point out right now that the physical descendants of Abraham today in 2018 are not the people of God. The children of the promise are counted for the seed. Galatians 3 makes it crystal clear that the seed is Jesus and that if we are Christ's we are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Who are God's chosen people? Who are the children of God? It is believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, not the physical nation of Israel. I'm going to prove that more later in the Bible. But you see, leading up to Isaac being born, if we read that story in the book of Genesis, there are three other heirs that could inherit, humanly speaking, as you're reading the story, but these are the heirs that God did not choose. When we start out reading the story, the logical heir is Lot because when they leave and go to Canaan, it's basically a man, his wife, and his nephew. No child, no son, right? So it's Abraham, Sarah, and Lot. So when you're first reading the story and he says, hey, I'm going to make you a great nation, you might think to yourself, you know, okay, well, maybe Lot is going to be the one. Maybe it's all going to go to the nephew, but God didn't choose the nephew. God said, no, it's going to be your seed. It's going to be your child, Abraham. And so Lot ends up taking a hike, right, pitching his tent toward Sodom, leaving his heart in San Francisco. And then we see another person brought up as a possible heir. In Genesis 15, Abraham says, well, right now my heir is this guy named Eleazar of Damascus, my servant, this guy that was born in my house. And what does God tell him? No, it's not going to be Eleazar of Damascus. It's going to be one that comes from your own body. So then in Genesis 16, Ishmael comes up, you know, okay, well, this came from my own body, but it's not with his wife. It's with the maidservant, the bondwoman, Hagar. So we have these three heirs that God did not choose, Lot, Eleazar of Damascus, and Ishmael. No, no, no. You're going to have a child with who? Sarah, right? Go back, if you would, to Genesis 16, and we see that the next thing in Sarah's story, after Sarah has this lapse in faith and does wrong here, we see that Sarah realizes and admits that she made a mistake. Okay, in Genesis chapter 16 verse 5, she realizes and admits that she made a mistake. It says, and Sarah said unto Abram, my wrong be upon thee, I have given my maid into thy bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived I was despised in her eyes, the Lord judge between me and thee. Now what does it mean, the Lord judge between me and thee? What she's basically saying to Abraham is that there is something that's happened wrongly between me and you. It'd be like if I had a conflict or a dispute with someone, and I said, hey, the Lord judge between me and thee. But in this case, Sarah is admitting that she's the one who's in the wrong. She says, my wrong. So she's owning up to her mistake, my wrong, and then she's saying, be upon thee. She's basically saying, I did wrong and it's adversely affecting you, the Lord judge between me and thee. This is her way of apologizing to Abraham saying, I messed up, I was wrong. Now again, back to our allegory about Israel. Would this make sense for Israel? There are times when they had lapses in their faith, there are times when they got away from the Lord, and then there were times when they repented and admitted that they were wrong and came back to the Lord. And that's what we see pictured here in this story. Now go to Genesis chapter 21, where eventually Sarah finally has the son that she's been promised, Isaac, in Genesis chapter 21. There's an interesting wording here that I'm going to compare with some New Testament scripture in Genesis 21. It says in verse 1, the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him, and Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. So here we see, according to verse number 1, that Sarah is visited with a son. Now that's kind of an interesting wording, isn't it, to say the Lord visited Sarah as he had said. Well, it's interesting, because that same wording is used about Jesus Christ in the New Testament, that God had visited the people of Israel by giving them Jesus. Because remember, in our story, Sarah represents the nation of Israel, and Isaac represents Jesus, or Christians that are in Christ. Listen to these verses. You don't have to turn there. Luke chapter 1 verse 68 says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. Luke chapter 7 verse 16, And there came a fear on all, and they glorified God, saying that a great prophet is risen up among us, talking about Jesus, and that God hath visited his people. And just as the Lord visited Sarah, and she had Isaac, God visited the nation of Israel, and they had Jesus born among them. Now go back to Genesis 21. Look at verse number 10. So again, let me just review the last few stages in the life of Sarah here. Of course, Sarah returns from Egypt, comes back into the promised land. She has a lapse in faith, but then she admits her mistake, admits her error, and then she is visited with a son. Well number 12, Sarah commands that the bond woman and her son be cast out. Now what's interesting here is that it's not God who initially makes this statement, cast out the bond woman and her son. It's actually Sarah who makes that statement. Sarah herself says that, and then God basically just says, she's right. Listen to her. Okay. Look what the Bible says in Genesis 21 verse 10. Therefore she said unto Abraham, cast out this bond woman and her son, for the son of this bond woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bond woman, in all that Sarah has said unto thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now let's go to Galatians four and dig into this passage now. Now that we've kind of laid the background for this allegory that God gives us in Galatians chapter four. Sarah says, cast out this bond woman and her son. She is not going to inherit. Her son is not going to inherit with my son. Look at Galatians chapter four verse 21. Tell me ye the desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? Now let me give you the context here. In the book of Galatians, from start to finish, chapter one to chapter six, God is dealing with the Judaizers. The apostle Paul is rebuking the Judaizers in the church that are trying to bring them under the law. They're trying to get them to keep days and months and years to follow a Jewish calendar, to get circumcised, to keep the law of Moses, and to follow those rituals. And he's trying to tell them over and over again that salvation is only by faith alone, there's faith in Christ, and that we're in the New Testament, New Covenant, and that many of these things of the Old Covenant have changed in the New Covenant. I mean, Galatians is one of the best books for proving that salvation is by faith. I mean, it preaches hard against works-based salvation in every chapter. And it also is really strongly against the Judaizers. And boy, do we have Judaizers today, the Hebrew roots movement, and these people that are constantly trying to creep in and to create a more Jewish Christianity. It's false, it's garbage, it's a whole sermon in and of itself. But that's the context here. So he's rebuking these people, and you can feel the anger. I mean, he's preaching hard against them. He's calling them foolish, and you've been bewitched, and I'm afraid of you. I stand in doubt of you. I mean, he's preaching. And then at the end, even at the very end, he's just like, for man's sake, let no man trouble me. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. He's just like, don't even mess with me. You know, I mean, it's a pretty caustic book from chapter 1 to chapter 2. I mean, he marvels that they're so soon removed from him that called them into the grace of Christ and to another gospel. Who bewitched you? What's wrong with you? I mean, it's hard preaching in Galatians. So he says in verse 1, oh, tell me, ye that desire to be under the law. Hey, did you even read the law? Oh, you love the Torah so much. You're so Torah-observing. Did you even read it? That's basically what he's saying. And that's what I want to say to these Hebrew roots people of today. They pick and choose what they want from the Torah. You know, when these Hebrew roots, Torah-observing types come up to me and say, oh, we've got to get back to the Torah and everything. I'm like, yeah, man, Leviticus, 2013. I love it. And let's turn there. Let's study the Torah. And they're like, oh, whoa, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm serious. Every time I talk to one of these Torah observers, I'm like, yeah, let's talk Torah. Leviticus, 2013. And they're like, well, no, that's that, you know, that was back then, it's different. Well, that's funny. So basically everything that the Bible said is different in the New Testament. They want to keep it the same. And then everything that should stay the same, they want to make a difference. Why? Because it's just a cult of Hebrew, Jew-worshipping false doctrine. But anyway, he's saying, hey, you know, you that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, verse 22, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, right? That's Ishmael, born of Hagar. But he of the free woman was by promise, which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants. The one from the Mount Sinai, which gentereth the bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth 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. For it is written, rejoice thou barren that bearest not. Make forth and cry thou that travailest not. For the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. So this is the Apostle Paul speaking to Gentiles, speaking to the Galatians, and he says to them, we are Isaac. We as Isaac was are the children of promise. Who's Hagar? Now all over America today, Fox News, Republican Baptist churches all over America that are more interested in talk radio and Sean Hannity on Monday morning than reading their Bible on Monday morning, and they're more into Trump and politics and Republican talking points than in biblical theology and doctrine. Here's what they say. Oh, well, you know, we all know Ishmael. That's the Arabs. That's the Muslims. Isn't that what they would say? Oh, all day long about, oh, man, Isaac, that's the Jews. Isaac is the Jews, Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall, the Israeli Defense Force, that's Isaac, and then they'll say, you know, Ishmael is Muslims, you know, and we got to kill them all and let God sort them out. I mean, that's their mentality, but is that what the Bible teaches? No, actually the Bible teaches that your precious Jews are Ishmael. That's what the Bible says. Welcome to the world of what the Bible actually says. The Bible interprets it right here. It says that Hagar is the Old Testament. He says two Testaments here, two covenants. There's the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Where was the Old Covenant put into place? Mount Sinai, right? The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So Mount Sinai represents the Old Covenant and the Bible says here that Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, verse 25. Okay, so what does that correspond to now? He says, well, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answer it to Jerusalem, which now is. So the current city of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which now is, is Hagar, Ishmael, the child of the bond woman, the physical offspring of Abraham, but not the spiritual offspring of Abraham. He says Jerusalem equals Ishmael. Jerusalem equals Hagar. Okay, then he says, but Jerusalem, which is above, is free. So the heavenly Jerusalem or the new Jerusalem, which descended from God out of heaven, that is represented by Isaac. So you know who Isaac is? It's the people that are going to heaven. The saved Christians, our citizenship is in heaven. Our citizenship is in the new Jerusalem and those who are citizens of the current city of Jerusalem, they are Ishmael. They are the children of the bond woman. They are not the children of the free because who's Isaac? Jesus. Isaac represents Jesus. You got to be in Christ to be Isaac. Otherwise you're Ishmael if you're just some physical seed of Abraham. And that's why he says we, brethren, as Isaac was of the children of promise, verse 29, but as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Now remember the book of Galatians is being written during the events of the book of Acts. You know, you can study Galatians chapter two and compare it with events around Acts 15 and you can see a lot of the same stuff going on when you compare Galatians with Acts, right? And what do we see in Acts? Who is consistently persecuting the Christians from the beginning of Acts all the way to the end of Acts is 100% of the time the Jews that are persecuting the Christians. You know, it was the Romans. No, the Romans are constantly protecting them from the Jews. It is consistently from start to finish the Jews who persecute the Christians. Why? Because he said it's just like Ishmael mocked Isaac. He says that those that are born after the flesh, the physical Jews, the physical seed of Abraham, they persecuted him that was born of the spirit. See we that are saved, what is that called being saved? Born again. Born of the spirit with life from above into God's family divine, right? You know, we're born of the spirit and they are born after the flesh and they hate the ones who are born after the spirit. They persecute them that are born after the spirit. They killed Christ. They killed the prophets and they have persecuted us, Paul said to the Thessalonians. They have persecuted us. But here's the key. Verse 30. Nevertheless, what sayeth the scripture, and remember who was it that actually said this? It was actually Sarah who said it, right? But it's the scripture because the scripture is quoting Sarah. Nevertheless, what sayeth 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're not the children of the bond woman, but of the free. Now is Paul the apostle physically Jewish? Yeah, I mean, he was raised Jewish. He was born into that family and everything like that. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews of the tribe of Benjamin, right? But he says, no, no, I'm a child of promise. I'm of Isaac. Why? Because he's born again. Because he's born of the spirit. Because he's saved, right? So God's chosen people, that group is made up of Jews and Gentiles. It's just whether they're saved is the only thing that matters. And then Ishmael is made up of unsaved Jews, unbelieving Israel, the physical seed who is not the spiritual seed. And 99.9% of so-called Jews living in Jerusalem are not saved. They don't even claim to believe in Christ. And therefore, they're Hagar, they're Ishmael. That's why he says Jerusalem, which now is, is in bondage with her children, right? Okay. So let's go back to Genesis now with that in mind. Cast out the bond woman and her son. The son of the bond woman shall not inherit with the son of the free. Now what's the inheritance someday? Now the inheritance is that one day we're going to inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ will have a kingdom on this earth where he will sit on the throne of his father David and he will rule all nations with a rod of iron and the 12 apostles of the lamb will sit on 12 tribes judging the 12 tribes of Israel in the regeneration, the Bible calls it. Regeneration is just another word for the resurrection. So when Christ returns, the dead will rise, okay? And the rapture will take place and so forth and Christ will set up his kingdom on this earth and he'll rule all nations from Jerusalem. He'll have that kingdom, right? Who inherits that kingdom? Who is going to inherit the earth? Well the Bible says the meek shall inherit the earth, right? We are going to inherit the earth. We are going to inherit the kingdom. Isaac inherits the land, right? So therefore when Christ returns and sets up his kingdom on this earth, it will be inherited by the saved, the children of promise, those who have been born of the spirit. You say well but also the physical nation of Israel is also going to inherit. No, Ishmael is not going to inherit at all. But you see this is what most Baptist churches are teaching unfortunately is like this hybrid view where they say well we're the spiritual seed of Abraham but the Jews are the physical seed of Abraham and so it's going to be both going into the millennium. It's going to be both inheriting, wrong, it's just Isaac and the bond woman gets cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You see the children of the kingdom of Israel, physical seed of Abraham, they will not make it into that promised land. Now they might be over there squatting on that land today and they can live it up and have their fun and enjoy it while it lasts but you know what? They're getting kicked out. They got to go. And you know who's moving in? Jesus Christ and the saved. Now you said well Pastor Erza, I thought you said that the apostles are going to be judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Yeah, that's because it's in the regeneration. So all the Old Testament saints are going to rise again. But guess what? Only the ones who were saved. You think everybody in the Old Testament nation of Israel was saved? No. And guess what? The unsaved are still going to be burning in hell. They're in hell right now and all throughout the millennium they're going to stay in hell. Who's going to come out of the graves and rise again and inherit the kingdom? The saved. Because there are Jews, there are Israelites, there are those of the 12 tribes who were born of the spirit. They are saved. They will inherit the land. So when the millennium happens, you know Christ is going to be ruling and reigning from Jerusalem and the 12 tribes will be there but they'll all be saved. I think there's even a verse about that. All Israel shall be saved. Okay, it's only going to be saved people at that time. All Israel shall be saved. Now was all Israel saved in the Old Testament? No. Is all Israel saved right now? No. Virtually all Israel is not saved right now, 99%. But in the millennium all Israel will be saved. Why? Because all the unsaved Israelites are going to be wiped out during the tribulation and God's wrath. Basically when God's wrath is poured out, they're going to be wiped out. So anyway, that's pretty interesting how only the children of promise will inherit that kingdom. Now I got to hurry up because I'm running out of time but what's the significance in Sarah saying that? Go if you would to Genesis chapter 23. Because remember it was Sarah that said, cast out the bond woman and her son for the son of the bond woman shall not inherit with the son of the free. Now I want you to pay close attention to this part of the sermon. I don't want to lose you now because this part requires you to think a little bit, okay? So far everything we've seen with Sarah's story has happened in order, hasn't it? She's in Canaan, she goes down to Egypt, the plagues are sent, she comes out of Egypt, she goes back into the promised land, she lapses in faith, she gets her faith back, she ends up finally having the child of promise being born. It's all happened in order, right? Exactly as it should. Now let's talk about chapters 21, 22, and 23. What happens in chapter 21? In chapter 21, Isaac is born and when Isaac is born, what does Sarah say? Cast out the bond woman and her son, the son of the bond woman shall not inherit with the son of the free. What happens in chapter 22? Isaac is sacrificed, which represents what? The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, right? The Bible says in Hebrews 11, by faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that an Isaac shall thy seed be called. Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. That's another word for the word figure, allegory, symbolic, right? So he says figuratively speaking, Abraham laid Isaac on that wood and was going to sacrifice him, represents Jesus being on the wood of the cross, he sacrificed for our sins, and then he ends up not killing Isaac, which is symbolic of Isaac in a sense coming back from the dead. You know, he was as good as dead and he came back. That pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then what happens in chapter 23? The first thing, because as soon as the story's over where Isaac is sacrificed, the next breath, chapter 23 verse 1, Sarah dies. Now that's not a coincidence. There's nothing in the Bible that's coincidental, incidental, or accidental. Why does Sarah die in Genesis 23 verse 1? And the whole chapter is about Sarah dying and being buried. Why is that? Well, because of the fact that when Jesus Christ died on the cross and was buried and rose again, you know what? After that, there's no more physical nation of Israel after that. And what does Sarah represent? Sarah represents the Old Testament nation of Israel, the righteous part of the Old Testament nation of Israel, which ceased to exist after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So that's why Sarah dies at that point in the story. Why? Because there's no more nation of Israel today. There are just Christians, God's people. Sarah lives on through her son Isaac, but Sarah is dead. And guess what? Israel died after Jesus Christ died and was buried and rose again. What happened? In 70 AD, they were wiped out. And by 135 AD, they were totally wiped out to where there was not even one Jewish person living in the city of Jerusalem. It was illegal for a Jew to even go within so many miles of Jerusalem after 135 AD. So that goes to show you right there how this is a perfect parallel. So think about it. Isaac's born. That represents the birth of who? Jesus Christ being born, right? And what happened after Jesus Christ was born? What's the preaching that's coming from the mouth of the righteous Israelites? Oh, men like who? John the Baptist. What did John the Baptist preach? He preached, cast out the bond woman and her son. You know what he said? Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees. Every tree that bringeth not forth fruit is hewn down, cast in the fire. What's he saying? Cast out the bond woman and her son. Lay the ax to the root of the tree. The physical seed of Abraham means nothing. Think not to say we have Abraham to our father. Ishmael, it doesn't matter if your father is Abraham. You are cast out. It's Isaac. And if you don't believe on Jesus Christ, you're not Isaac. If you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you're going to get cut down. You Pharisees, you Sadducees, you're Ishmael, and you're going to be cast out. So it makes sense that Sarah is the one who said cast out the bond woman and her son because it was Israelite preachers who said that. It was people like John the Baptist who said that. It was people like the apostle Paul who said that because Paul said it in Galatians 4. It was said in Genesis 21, so it was even said before the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Genesis 22 is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Sarah is saying it in chapter 21. Why? Because John the Baptist and Jesus and his apostles were already saying it before the crucifixion. They were already saying, now also, now the ax is laid to the root of the tree. Now. He was already plucking up trees that his father had not planted and saying, you guys are not of God. And they said in John chapter 8, well Abraham's our father. He said, you're of your father the devil. He was already saying that, right? Because Sarah already said it in chapter 21. Sarah says that in 21. Chapter 22 represents the death, burial, and resurrection. And then in chapter 23, Sarah dies because that's when the Old Testament nation of Israel ceases to exist. And of course, it was gone for almost 2,000 years. Now we have this fake fraud of white Polish people claiming to be Israelis. But that's another sermon that shall be preached in another time. So let me just wrap up the sermon. Let me just wrap up with some application. I'm going to give a quick review and then I'm going to make application of this great Bible character, Sarah. Sarah's a pretty interesting character, huh? She's actually a pretty important person. Now, you know, once you look at all this and put this all together, and when you read Genesis, now you understand why she's brought up so much because she pictures something even deeper than just being a godly woman, which she was. She also pictures the whole nation of Israel and the whole plan of salvation bringing Christ in the world. Christ came of Israel. But let me just wrap up with a little review here. So number one, Sarah was barren, representing the fact that God would have to bring divine intervention for her redemption, which, of course, Jesus Christ had to be born of a virgin. He had to have a miraculous birth just like Isaac had a miraculous birth. Number two, Sarah dwelled in Canaan. Number three, she went down into Egypt. Number four, she was taken into Pharaoh's house. Number five, God plagued Pharaoh in his house with great plagues because of Sarah. Think of the water and the blood and all the plagues that God did in Exodus. Number six, Pharaoh angrily sent Sarah and Abraham away. Number seven, Sarah leaves Egypt with Abraham, Lot, and a lot of material goods. And who does Lot represent? The mixed multitude that left with them that had to be cut loose, right? Just like Lot gets cut loose because of his worldliness in chapter 13. Then we see that Sarah, you know, is back in the promised land. Number nine, Sarah has a lapse in faith and suggests Hagar to Abraham. Number ten, Sarah realizes her mistake. She repents. She gets right with the Lord. Then eventually, I'm skipping a few events in the life of Sarah for the sake of time, but Sarah is visited with a son just like Israel is visited with the Lord Jesus Christ. Number twelve, Sarah commands that the bond woman and her son be cast out picturing that God is done with the physical nation of Israel that doesn't believe in him. If you don't believe in him, you're getting cut off. Now those who believe in him, they stay. And that's why I said Sarah represents righteous Israel or believing Israel of the Old Testament. It's only believing Israel who preached that kind of preaching that John the Baptist said, hey, cast out the bond woman and her son. The Pharisees and the Sadducees are not Sarah, right? They are represented by who? Hagar or Ishmael. And then also we said that after Sarah commands that the bond woman and her son be cast out, Isaac is sacrificed, which represents Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. And then right after that, Sarah dies, which represents the nation of Israel ceasing to exist at that point, dying and only living on through Jesus, living on through Christians, the new chosen people, God's chosen people in the New Testament. You say, well, that sounds like replacement theology. You got it right. It is replacement theology because God said the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. So Israel was replaced by Christians, just like Ishmael got replaced by Isaac, replaced, right? Now, anybody can be Isaac, red, yellow, black, white, Jew, Gentile, anybody who believes in Christ is Isaac. That's what the Bible says. So anybody who wants, you don't have to be Ishmael today. You can be Isaac. And I know that the vast majority of people here are. So here's the conclusion. Let's be like Sarah. We need to be like Sarah. You say, this is Mother's Day. Preach a Mother's Day story. Well, Sarah is one of the greatest mothers in the whole Bible. And Sarah was a mother. And in fact, her whole story is about her wanting to have a child and eventually having that child, right? So how can we be like Sarah? Well, what were the greatest attributes about Sarah? The biggest thing that Sarah is known for is her faith. Turn if you would to 1 Peter 3, this is the last place we'll turn, 1 Peter 3. Sarah's greatest attribute was, number one, her faith. Remember in Hebrews 11, 11, it said, through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed. So Sarah had great faith. She's in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. Her faith is reiterated here in 1 Peter 3, verse 5. It says, for after this manner, in the old time, the holy women also who did what? Trusted in God. And trust is another word for faith or belief, right? So Sarah was known for her faith and she was known for trusting in God. The holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves being in subjection to their own husbands even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord whose daughters ye are as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement. So the second attribute of Sarah was her obedience. She was very obedient to Abraham. When God wanted to pick a wife from the Old Testament to be the poster child for obeying your husband, who did he pick? He picked Sarah as being the woman with the most faith and he picked Sarah as being the one who obeyed her husband the most. Now obviously in our allegory, this pictures Israel obeying the Lord. Israel having faith in the Lord. Here we see Sarah had faith in God and she obeyed Abraham calling him Lord whose daughters ye are as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement. Well, you already found out today that if you're saved, you're Isaac, right? You're the child of promise. You're the son of Abraham. You're a daughter of Abraham. You're a daughter of Isaac. But how do you become a daughter of Sarah? If you want to be like Sarah, he said, you know, obey your husband. Trust in the Lord. Be like Sarah. But I'm going to add a third great attribute of Sarah besides her faith and her obedience was her ability to admit when she had made a mistake. This is a great attribute in anyone male or female. And this is one of the most lacking attributes in the world today unfortunately is that people just never want to admit that they make a mistake and it's the most annoying thing in the world. When you have an employee like that, it's the most annoying thing in the world. When you try to correct your children and they won't admit that they've made a mistake or if a husband goes to correct his wife and she just won't admit that she's made a mistake, this is a terrible attribute. This is like Cain where he couldn't admit that he made a mistake and just get the offering right. You know, I think one of the great things about Sarah is that she said, hey, my wrong be upon thee. You know, I'm sorry, I screwed up. I messed up. I made a mistake. She was able to admit that to her husband and say, hey, I made a mistake here. I was wrong. And that's a great attribute. We need preachers who can admit when they've been wrong. We need Christians who can admit when they've been wrong. Children who will admit to their parents, yes, mom, yes, dad, I did wrong. I guarantee, children, you'll get less punishment from your parents when you just admit that you did wrong than when you try to argue and prove that you were right. That doesn't work. Just admit you're wrong. You know, when you mess up on the job, admit it. Admit it. Preachers who preach false doctrine, they need to admit it. And look, there are so many preachers that are dug in on so many false doctrines and it's like you prove it wrong. They see that they're wrong, but they just don't want to admit it. It's like they can't admit that they ever preached something wrong in the past. So it's like, well, if I used to preach that Israel was God's chosen people, I got to just stay with that until the bitter end. Well, if I used to preach the preacher rapture, I guess I better just stay with that even if it's proven to be false. Now, isn't that an irritating thing? Now look, every preacher is going to make mistakes and say wrong things, myself included. Look, I've been preaching now as a pastor for 13 years. Before that I preached, I counted how many sermons I preached before that, it was over 500. So I preached over 500 before I started pastoring. Since I've pastored, I think I've preached about what, 2,000? Because I preach approximately 150 times per year, okay? So do the math on that, 150 times 13 years, what's that, 1,950, and then I'm already deep into this 14th year of preaching. So I've preached over 2,500 hours of preaching, and the vast majority of that is online. So there are literally over 2,000 hours of my preaching on faithforwardbaptist.org. And I got news for you. If you go back through 2,500 hours of preaching, you're going to find mistakes that I've made. I'm going to find mistakes that I've made. I'm going to go back and listen to stuff and say, you know what, I was off on that. I was wrong on that. Now here's the thing. At that point, as a preacher, I've got two choices. I can say, well, if that's what I preached back then, I better just stay with that until Jesus comes because I can't ever admit that I made a mistake. Or I can say, you know what, I was wrong about that. Now I'm going to preach it right. Now what do you think makes more sense? And who are you going to have more respect for, the guy who preaches it right or the guy who just digs in and refuses to change even when he's proven wrong or even when he just finds out that he's wrong? Now look, there have been things that I've preached over the years that were in error. Now that doesn't mean that I'm a horrible person. It just means that I'm a human being. And any preacher is the same way. I've had some people literally point out to me and say, hey, you said this wrong thing and so now I feel like I can just never listen to you again because I just can't trust you. You know what, you shouldn't have been trusting me in the first place because you know what, I'm human and you should search the scriptures daily whether these things are so and not just blindly listen to preaching anyway. You should be following it up. Now thank God I can't point to any huge, massive, horrible mistake that I've made in my preaching. You know, at least up to this point I haven't preached something that was horribly wrong. But I could name for you things that I was wrong about over the years and that I had to correct later and say, you know, I used to think it was like this but now I realize it's like this. Now if the pastor's changing what he believes every week, that's a scary thing. And there are going to be times even when you do diligence and even when you're careful and you try hard and study, you are going to make mistakes, I'm going to make mistakes. You know, I think about my Revelation series that I did. I preached through the book of Revelation back in 2007. And you know what, there were several things that I got wrong. And then when I re-preached Revelation in 2013, I preached it right. I didn't just say, well, I better make sure this matches 07 because, you know, I don't care what 07 Steven Anderson said because 2013 Steven Anderson had learned more and tweaked some things and corrected some things and gotten some things right, okay. And then, you know, I preached on Daniel back in 2010 and then I just preached Daniel again recently. You know what, my Daniel series from 2010, I, you know, I made a bunch of mistakes. I hope you'll listen to my new Daniel series and focus on that. Why? Because I learned more. You know, some people learn and some don't. Some people grow and some don't. And so I'll stand up here right now and tell you, you know, in my Revelation series in 2007, I got the 144,000 wrong. I didn't get it. I didn't understand it. I was just shooting from the hip, you know, because that subject confused me. But by 2013, I figured it out. And I guarantee you that there's something in that 2013 series that isn't right. Go find it. Go pick me apart. You know what? But I'd rather get up and preach thousands of hours of preaching and make a couple mistakes but still be preaching the truth, preaching right in general, even though I made a few errors than to just accomplish nothing. Like the critics who sit back and have no achievements, you know what I mean? And they want to pick apart people who are willing to admit they're wrong. And you know what? Pastors all across America would just admit that they're wrong on some things and just get them right. You know, we need to get used to doing that. But the sad thing is that when you correct something, people, they don't often give you credit of, oh, well, good, at least he was willing to admit that he was wrong and get that right. Here's what they'll say, oh, you flip-flopped. Here's what you preached 11 years ago and now you flip-flopped. Listen, I'm not a politician. So I don't flip-flop. I guess, you know, politicians flip-flop where like before they're elected, they say one thing and then as soon as they get elected, it's the opposite. Or before they run for office, they say one thing and they say, look, I've been in office now for over 13 years, so there's no flip-flop needed. But you know what? There are some things where you just learn more. And when someone points out, well, you preached this 11 years ago, you know what? When I preached that, I was wrong. So what? Listen to the current stuff that I'm preaching. Because guess what? You're not going to believe this, but when I was 24 years old, 25 years old, 26 years old, working 80 hours a week at my fire alarm job and pastoring a church at age 26, I made some mistakes. I said some dumb stuff. I preached some things that were incorrect. But you know what I'm going to do? Correct them. Fix them. Change them. I'm going to be like, oh, well, I better make sure that my new Daniel series matches my old Daniel series exactly. I don't give a rip because I'd rather make sure it matches God's Word exactly. It's more important to me that on whatever today's date is, oh, wait, here we go. Today is the 13th Sunday. It's more important to me that on May 13th, 2018, I match up with God's Word than that I match up with Steven Anderson from 2008. Now thank God 99% of my preaching from 2008 is going to match 2018, and that's why I leave all those sermons online. I leave all those MP3s on the website so that people can listen to them, and you can go all the way back and listen to all that preaching. But you know what? If I had preached something seriously wrong back then and it was a major error, you know what I would do? I'd go back and delete that sermon. Oh, you're trying to hide stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Why would I want to put something that's inaccurate front and center? You know, look, I went back and deleted my old Daniel series because I was like, there's a new Daniel series. Why would you listen to the old one? And there wasn't anything seriously wrong with the old one. It was just little things, but I felt that the new Daniel series superseded the old Daniel series. But if I had something that was seriously wrong, seriously an error, I'd go back and delete it and preach it right. And that's what these bunch of pre-trippers need to do. That's what these bunch of Zionists need to do. They need to just delete that stuff and say, I was wrong, let me preach it to you right. And if you think that any preacher is 100% accurate or never makes mistakes, you're a fool. So why would you attack someone for correcting their doctrine? That's a lot better than digging in on the wrong doctrine. It's way better to say, hey, I made a mistake, here's the right doctrine. Then to just say, well, I just don't change. We just don't change. Well you know what? I do change. I do change. I learn more and I grow more. And I'm not the same as I was. You're just not the same anymore. Yeah, you're right. I learned some new stuff. And I went to God, every pastor would keep learning. But that mentality is a wicked and stupid mentality and it caused people by their pride to just stick with false doctrine because they're not willing to change when confronted with the truth. Okay, how do we apply that to our lives? You know what? When your husband has to correct you, why don't you just admit that you made a mistake and just take the correction? When your parents have to correct you, take the correction. When someone shows you from the Bible, hey look, what you believe about this passage is wrong. You know what you should say? Wow, you're right. I was wrong about that. This is a great attribute. So why was Sarah such a godly person? Why is she the greatest female character arguably of the Old Testament? She was a person of great faith. She was a person who obeyed her husband and obeyed the Lord. And she was a person who could admit when she made a mistake. And we should take all three of those characteristics and be like Sarah. Especially ladies can emulate Sarah. But even us men, we can work on what? Our faith, our obedience to our God-given authorities, and our ability to admit that when we've made a mistake and correct it and get it right. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. And we thank you so much for this great lady in the Bible, Sarah, Lord. I pray that she would be a role model for every woman in our church. That every woman in our church would say, you know, I want to be like Sarah. I want to be a godly daughter of Sarah. And Lord, help all of us to increase our faith. And Lord, just help us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.