Hello, this is Pastor Steven Anderson from Faith Forward Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.
Today I want to talk about Galatians chapter 4 verses 22 through 26 where the Bible reads,
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free
woman.
But he who was of the bondwoman 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 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.
So according to this scripture, Abraham's two sons are an allegory.
His son Ishmael represents the old covenant and the children of the flesh, the physical
children of Abraham.
Isaac, on the other hand, represents the spiritual children of Abraham, the children of promise.
That's why the Apostle Paul says unto the Gentile believers of Galatia in verse 28,
Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
So here in Galatians 4-28, he says that we that believe on Christ are the children of
promise.
The fleshly children of Abraham that don't believe on Jesus Christ, they are spiritual
Ishmael according to this scripture.
So a lot of people will try to teach that, oh yeah, the Jews over there, you know, they
are the sons of Isaac, they're the sons of Israel, and that land belongs to them.
But wait a minute, God doesn't recognize them as such.
God says they're a spiritual Ishmael.
And people will often say, oh, the Palestinians, those are all the children of Ishmael.
You know who the real children of Ishmael are according to the New Testament?
God looks at the Jews today that don't believe on Jesus Christ, and he says, you're of Hagar.
You are Ishmael.
So when we study Galatians 4, we see that the allegory here, the symbolism of the Old
Testament is that Isaac represents the saved believer, the true son of Abraham, and Ishmael
represents the bastard son of Abraham, the one who is of the flesh.
And the Bible says that's the unbelieving Jews today.
They're the bastard sons of Abraham.
They're not going to inherit with the son of the free woman.
Ishmael was cast out.
He doesn't inherit.
It's Isaac that inherits the kingdom, and that would be Bible-believing Christians according
to this passage.