July 26th, 2026 - Faith That Saves, Part 3: Children of the Promise (9:00 AM)

Paul roots Galatians 4 in the long, frustrating story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac. God promised Abraham and Sarah a son, and God promised that Sarah would become the mother of many nations. That promise did not move on Abraham’s timeline. That promise waited until human hope was gone, until Sarah’s womb was as good as dead, so that Isaac’s birth would be seen for what it was: God doing what only God can do.

God’s delay exposes a real struggle in faith. God speaks, and then nothing seems to change. Abraham and Sarah waited month after month, year after year, and the disappointment kept building. The temptation in that place is always to “help God out.” Sarah gives Hagar to Abraham, Ishmael is born, and the whole thing becomes a mess because “desperate people do dumb things.” Scripture shows Abraham as a real man of faith, but not a perfect man, and that matters for people who know they have fallen short.

Paul takes that Old Testament story and says Hagar and Sarah show two covenants. Hagar stands for Mount Sinai, the law, and slavery. The law is good, but it is a mean master when a person tries to be made right with God by living up to it. Human effort can produce religion, discipline, and outward behavior, but it cannot produce salvation. Paul’s point is sharp: trying to earn righteousness through the law is as foolish as Abraham and Sarah trying to manufacture the promise through Hagar.

Sarah stands for the promise, freedom, and the heavenly Jerusalem. Isaac was born by the power of the Spirit, not by human effort. In the same way, spiritual life comes when the Spirit gives new birth through faith in Jesus Christ. Abraham was counted righteous before the law of Moses ever came, because Abraham believed God. Salvation has always rested on trusting the living God, not on performing enough religious work.

The fake plant picture presses the point home. A fake plant can look real, and religious people can mimic the real thing. Kindness, prayer, church attendance, baptism, and Bible study can all appear on the outside without spiritual life on the inside. The gospel says something far greater than moral improvement: God takes people dead in sin and makes a “fake plant real.” Children of the promise trust God’s word, wait on God’s timing, and rest in the miracle only the Spirit can produce.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God’s timing grows real faith. God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah did not fail because it took twenty five years. The delay became the place where faith had to keep trusting when circumstances seemed to argue against God’s word. God’s timing often feels frustrating, but the waiting strips away the illusion that human control can produce divine promise. [38:43]
• 2. Human effort cannot birth promise. Hagar’s son was born from a plan to help God out, but Isaac was born from God’s own power. The contrast exposes every religious attempt to manufacture righteousness by effort, rule keeping, or personal discipline. Human effort can make impressive things, but it cannot create the life God promised. [44:21]
• 3. The law becomes a hard master. The law of Moses is good, but it enslaves when sinners treat it as a ladder into God’s favor. Its standard keeps revealing failure, and its weight keeps producing shame. Paul’s contrast shows that freedom does not come from lowering God’s standard, but from receiving righteousness through Christ. [45:09]
• 4. Fake plants can look real. A fake plant can fool the eye because it carries the shape and color of the real thing. Religious people can also carry the outward signs of life without having life inside. The decisive question is not whether a person looks spiritual, but whether the Spirit has made that person new in Christ. [56:54]
• 5. The Spirit makes dead people alive. Isaac’s birth came by the power of the Spirit, and new birth in Christ comes the same way. The gospel does not merely improve a person’s behavior or polish the outside. God does the miracle of taking the spiritually dead and giving real life through faith in Jesus.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [30:41] - Review of Galatians and the Spirit
• [34:23] - Sarah, Hagar, and God’s Promise
• [36:08] - Waiting When God Seems Slow
• [39:31] - Abraham and Sarah Help God Out
• [42:08] - Paul Explains the Two Women
• [43:59] - Hagar, Sinai, and Slavery
• [48:30] - Sarah, Isaac, and the Spirit
• [50:24] - Abraham Was Counted Righteous by Faith
• [51:37] - The Fake Plant Illustration
• [56:54] - Outward Religion Without Inward Life
• [58:53] - God Makes Fake Plants Real
• [60:12] - Spirit Filled Christians Change History
• [62:52] - Children of the Promise Trust God
• [64:23] - Prayer for New Birth and Trust

Bible Reading

Galatians 4:21-31
“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 by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem 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 promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 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.” [42:10]

Genesis 17:15-16
“And God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’” [34:45]

Galatians 3:6
“just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’?” [50:29]

Galatians 6:15
“For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

Observation questions

1. In Galatians 4, what contrasts does Paul make between Hagar and Sarah, and what words keep showing up in those contrasts? [43:59]
2. According to Genesis 17:15-16, what exactly did God promise Abraham about Sarah, and how large was that promise?
3. In the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, what human plan was used to “help” bring about the promise, and what kind of trouble followed from it? [39:31]
4. In the fake plant picture, what outward things can make something look alive even when real life is missing? [56:54]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul says Hagar represents Sinai, law, and slavery. Why would something good like God’s law become slavery when people try to use it to make themselves right with God? [45:09]
2. Isaac was born through promise and by the Spirit, not by human effort. What does that help explain about how a person becomes spiritually alive in Christ? [49:15]
3. Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God before the law of Moses was ever given. What does that show about the true basis of salvation, both then and now? [50:29]
4. Galatians 6:15 says what counts is a new creation. How does that sharpen the difference between outward religion and inward spiritual life? [57:04]

Application questions

1. God’s timing often stretches faith. Where is waiting hardest right now—in family, health, work, or some other burden—and what would it look like to keep trusting God there instead of giving up? [38:43]
2. Desperate people often try to force what only God can give. Where is the temptation strongest right now to “help God out” rather than wait on him? [39:31]
3. The law is a hard master when someone tries to earn God’s favor by performance. When does the Christian life start to feel more like pressure, shame, and scorekeeping than trust in Christ? [45:13]
4. A fake plant can look real. Which outward signs of faith are easiest to hide behind—church attendance, prayer, Bible knowledge, kindness, baptism, or something else? How can a person tell whether those things are flowing from real life in Christ? [57:20]
5. God makes dead people alive. Has there been clear evidence of new life and real change in the heart, or has faith mostly stayed at the level of outward habit? [59:18]
6. Children of the promise trust God’s word more than their own conscience, effort, or timing. Which promise of God needs to be held onto this week in a very concrete way? [01:03:08]
7. The Spirit produces what human effort cannot. What would it look like this week to depend on the Holy Spirit in one specific area instead of just trying harder? [32:55]