Welcome to Worship! Use this online guide to connect with us and enrich your worship of our Savior.

May 24 Sermon Notes & Quotes
“Old Rivals”
Galatians 4:21-31

Sermon Outline

  • An Rivalry
  • An Rivalry
  • Whose Side Are You On?

An Old Rivalry (Genesis 16 and Genesis 21:1-21)

An Ongoing Rivalry (Galatians 4:8-31)

  • The Physical Lineage of
    • Son of Abraham and
    • Born of a slave; Born into Slavery
    • Born according to the ; Born by Natural Means (Gal. 4:23)
  • The of Ishmael’s Lineage in Galatians 4
    • Covenant based on (Mt. Sinai)
    • Justification by
    • The “Present Jerusalem,” which is the Earthly Jerusalem (Gal. 4:25)
    • The False Faith of Judaism
    • Slavery
  • The Physical Lineage of
    • Son of Abraham and
    • Born of a Free Woman; Born into Freedom
    • Born according to the ; Born by Supernatural Means (Gal 4:29)
  • The of Isaac’s Lineage in Galatians 4
    • The Covenant based on
    • Justification by Alone
    • The “Jerusalem Above,” which is the Heavenly Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26)
    • The True Faith of Christianity
    • Freedom

Whose Side are You On?

  • “Now you brothers, like , are children of ” (Galatians 4:28).
  • “We are children of the slave but of the free woman” (Galatians 4:31).
  • Do you believe that you are a child of promise like Isaac?

New Quotes This Week

  • “Often these verses [4:21-31] are presented as a great problem. But from Paul’s perspective, he is deploying a biblical argument to convince his readers from the Bible of the truth of the Gospel” (Carson, “Galatians 4: The Gospel of Grace: How to Read the Bible,” 38:20).
  • “The law is good, but it is not powerful. It is good, but it is not transforming.  It is prophetic, but it is not intrinsically life-generating” (Carson, “Galatians 4: The Gospel of Grace: How to Read the Bible,” 48:43).
  • “Paul begins here to apply the allegory directly to his readers. The Judaizers would most certainly have considered the Galatians to be Ishmaelites (not true children of the covenant) if they refuse to be circumcised.  Paul applies the allegory in a counterintuitive way.  The Galatian Christians are like Isaac, and they are the true children of Sarah” (Schreiner, Galatians, 305).
  • The Lord has promised good to me
    His word my hope secures
    He will my shield and portion be
    As long as life endures
    (Amazing Grace, Stanza 4)

Important Quotes from Previous Weeks

  • The Main Idea: “If the Galatians embrace the Mosaic law after their conversion, Paul’s apostolic labors have been in vain” (Schreiner, Galatians, 275).
  • “For all the basic differences between Judaism and paganism, both involved subjection to the same elemental forces. This is an astonishing statement for a former Pharisee to make, yet Paul makes it – not as an exaggeration in the heat of an argument but as the deliberate expression of a carefully thought out position” (Bruce, Galatians, 202-203).
  • “What is astonishing is that Paul equates subjection to Torah with paganism. One can only imagine the shock the Pauline assertion would have given the Judaizers” (Schreiner, Galatians, 279).
  • “God never promised to save anybody for his religious observance of ceremonies and ordinances” (Luther, Galatians, 105).
  • “To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but born of God” (John 1:12-13).