You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to
encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to
the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses
you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way
today. And if you need prayer for
healing or breakthrough? Want to find out more about
Omega? Get to our website or Facebook
page through the links below. So we continue with our study on
the Book of Galatians, chapter 4, verses 21 to 31, 21 to 31.
Now in this yeah, I would like to ask this general question
again. Has anybody come having read
this passage? Ah, good.
All chocolates will go. Very good.
Please somebody take the I see improvement.
That's really good. Now tell me somebody, was it
easy? Easy to understand.
Very easy to understand. Yeah, that is good.
Well, I know the Bible is not a simple book.
And this passage is more complicated, very complicated,
because it goes against the common sense.
It goes against the common sense because you do not tell somebody
who is been rejected and who is looked down upon as the no, That
person is you. You look down on somebody and
say no, no, no, That person is you.
You don't like to be compared like that, isn't it?
So that's what Paul is actually doing here.
Now, what he says here is that the words he uses here, Where is
that? Yeah, I'm going to get the wrong
place. Yeah, 21 to 31 who I'm looking
into first. I said that's wrong, so why
don't I see it? So sorry for chapter 4 was 21
onwards. Tell me, you who want to be
under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
Basically he is arguing. You know, in the previous
message we have talked about why these people want to go back to
Jewish laws, practicing the Jewish laws, and he was telling
them please don't do it, please don't do it.
He was giving many reasons. And now he comes with one final
reason why they should not go back to Jewish system.
So he says, tell me, you know, it's just engaging them in kind
of a dialogue. Tell me, you who want to be
under the law, are you not aware that what the law says for his
return, that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and
the other by the free woman? His son by the slave woman was
born in the ordinary way, but his son by the free woman was
born as a result of promise. Ah, that's really beautiful.
It's very, very beautiful. This story is very, very simple,
common. Every Jew knows the story, but
the meaning that Paul is bringing out is not what they
had in their mind for 1500 plus years.
I would say even 2000 years, 2000 years, they knew the story,
this they grew up around the story.
But Paul says hey, you think you know it?
No, I am going to give a different meaning to it.
So he reinterprets what is a common knowledge.
He gives a new meaning and then he says what does he say here?
These things may be taken figuratively.
For the women represents 2 covenants.
In another class it says they are allegories.
What is an allegory? Allegory is an extended metaphor
that you can compare many things.
It is more, it is a metaphor. You know this is one of those
things. And do we have freedom to
allegorize everything? It is good we should have some
kind of a broad guidelines about how to allegorize things,
particularly with when it comes to studying the Bible.
When something is allegorized from the Old Testament and is
talked about in the New Testament, it gets a sanction
already because the Holy Spirit has used that particular apostle
or that particular disciple to do it.
We cannot just take a particular in the first few centuries.
There are few people like Oregon and you know another guy and who
were allegorizing everything. I will give an example.
They will say the Good Samaritan story.
When they talk about the Good Samaritan story, the four legs
of the donkey or the four gospels and he gives 2 coins.
Now one is the Old Testament, another New Testament.
Already you are laughing. Why it is not right is not
right. So we don't allegorize
everything. We need to have some boundaries
to do it. And the boundaries is the Bible
itself is the boundary. And Paul here goes out of his
way to explain and allegorize and he says these are two people
there, two women and their children are allegories for us.
They stand like stories. But then I want to tell you what
the deep meaning is, is what Paul is trying to say here.
But before I go launch further into it, I want to give an
illustration about what is the power power of the word promise.
Do you see there in verse? Why do I struggle every time?
Galatians 4 There it says by, but his son by the free woman
was born as a result of a promise.
Everybody say promise. What is a promise?
We break promises, do we?
It's very common for us to break promises.
But when God makes a promise, it is never broken.
When God makes a promise, it never fails.
It will come to pass. Whatever he says, he will come
to pass. So question is we have to hear
from God is more important not assume he has spoken now so many
times Christians have one big problem is they guess I think
God has said it yes to this matter.
And then after down the line, after a few months and years,
they say, oh, it's not working. So very what's wrong.
What's wrong is you assumed God spoke when he has not spoken.
That's why you're disappointed now.
So This is why we need to learn to hear God, cultivate the habit
of hearing God. And the promise is never going
to fall to the ground. From the book of Genesis to
Revelation, every promise has been kept and fulfilled.
And that is what is going to happen when he, he is going to
come back and we are going to be raised up with new bodies.
We are going to meet Him in heaven.
And if he is going to come down and we are going to reign, what?
What? All these things are promises
but yet to be fulfilled. But promise is coming out of the
character of God. It is His nature.
And when it is, when you hang it on His nature, upon His
unchangeable, faithful nature, that promise is definitely going
to happen. It will never, it will never
become a mirage. You know something that looks
like water. It is not water.
It is never like that. It is never.
You go and drink and you are not satisfied with your thirst.
It is not going to happen. If it is God, it will come to
pass. But if it is not God, it may
pass by you. That is the reason why we need
to learn to receive promise from God, from God.
And when you stand on it, even though it does not make sense,
you stand on it, He will fulfill it because that is the nature of
a promise. The nature of a promise is it
will not make sense when you are standing on it.
Think of you, think of Abraham at the age of 75.
God says, OK, leave your people, your country, come show, follow
me. I will show you.
I will take you where I want to take you.
I will bless you. I will give you the land.
He starts following him and then after a few years he's still not
having children. He talks about it to God.
God said, no, I'm going to give you a son.
And then still he doesn't have a son.
And wife says, I know what what he means.
Take my servant and you will have a son.
And that servant, when she bears son, there will be my son.
And that's what God had in mind. Where does it come from?
From the flesh, not from the Spirit of God.
And Sara started the problem and even today we have big problem
because of that. So suppose your friend of
Abraham, you met him when he was 87.
Let us say let us go little back 84 when he was 8485.
Hey, did you say God told you you are going to have a son?
Yeah, 10 years are over. What are you talking about?
Why does it take 10 years for God to give you a son after 86?
He has one son through Hega and then he loves him so much for
nearly so many years. And then again God comes on the
scene when he was 99. I am going to bless you.
Don't talk about it, Sir. He was a said.
He was a said to God. God, please don't talk about it.
I waited for so long, 24 years. What are you talking about?
And you are his friend. You would have gone to Abraham
and said you I doubt whether you are really following God.
Who is your God 24 years, you don't have a son.
I tell you, this is the nature of a promise.
Is this that you must have patience to possess the promise?
Say I need to have patience, to possess the promise.
I'm telling you, my friends, this is my experience.
I have gone through it and we have started Omega.
Not because I want to start a church.
You ask my wife, you ask my people.
I even don't buy a magazine because I don't want to waste my
money. I'm that kind of a guy.
Once I make a decision, I never do it.
I said I won't write a book. I don't want to start an
organization, don't want to start a church.
But why do we start a church? Because of what?
A promise? In the year 2000, He gave me a
vision, but I did not start a church immediately.
God spoke, Let's start a church. That's not my way of doing
things. We take our hands off.
When God promises, He fulfills. He makes it happen not because
you want to do it. He wants to do it.
He will do it. That's what he did.
After 20 years, 2020, we have Omega.
Omega, you know I am. I am telling you the few things
just to get the inside of who where you belong to.
You belong to Omega. You must say thank you God for
making me part of Omega. Why we don't do things here on
my own decision. God is the leader.
He is the one who guides, including the name.
I did not decide upon it. I was just praying.
And one day he says many people have not many churches, but this
one will be called last one. To understand if it took us long
time, but then when we the time came, we said, OK, let's call it
Omega. Let's call it Omega.
He is the last one. Jesus is the last one.
So this is the place where you belong to.
I want you to know this is where you belong to.
And the promise is God's promise and we will possess it.
We will see the revival in the city through Omega.
Why? It is His promise, not my word,
is not my imagination. It is His promise.
If it was valid for Abraham to wait for 25 years to get a son,
we will wait if it takes 25 years to see the revival.
But we are based on our life is based on the promise, not a
guess work. So, you know, individualize, We
can have promises from God. Hang on, hang on, hang on.
Why? If it is God, it will come to
pass. If it is God, it will come to
pass. I was thinking about this word
promise. I said I don't know why I
hovered on that word and studied more.
And the more I said, I said it is rooted in the nature of God,
is rooted in the character of God.
And that will not fail. And you, if you had seen me
yesterday when I was thinking those things, and if you had
touched me, I would have been like become like a stone.
Why that was making me strong. When you think the thoughts of
God, you will not be the same. You will be changed because you
are thinking the thoughts of God.
OK to now he takes this common figure.
Ishmael is rejected and he was sent away along with the mother.
So the basic problem that we need to understand here is the
keyword key thought do that helps us to understand this
passage is a son's position is determined by the status of the
mother. The mother was a slave, son is a
slave and the mother is free. The son is free.
Am I communicating because Hagar was a slave?
Ishmael cannot be a free son, cannot be a free son.
Abraham loved him, not one day, not one year, almost 1415 years.
And then God says throw him out. How painful that would be.
There comes a time we have to let go the most dear things, but
the decision is not ours. We have to let God decide.
If God says get rid of the woman, slave woman, you get rid
of the slave woman and her son. So now you take that example of
something that is negative and Paul says the whole nation of
Israel are thinking they are the children of Abraham, children of
Abraham and Sarah. And he is now telling them, hey
guys, you think you are the children of Abraham and Sarah?
No, no, no, you belong to Hagar and this Jerusalem belongs to
Hagar. The present existing Jerusalem
is Hagar. Why is he saying that?
When you are a son of promise, the promise is fulfilled by the
power of the Holy Spirit, who fulfills the promise is the Holy
Spirit. Power of the Holy Spirit
fulfills the promise. And here is son Isaac born to
Sarah by promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And he says to the Christians, you are those people who belong
to Sarah. Hallelujah, we are say we are
children of Sarah or children of Abraham through Sarah, children
of promise basically, and we are free.
It simply means we are free. We are not like Ishmael who is
in a slave in slavery. We are Born Free into this.
This is really good, good stuff, but we do not have the freedom
to allegorize as we like. But if the apostle has done it
because he had revelation to talk about it, I will tell you
something. I will tell you about it.
How much powerful is what Paul did?
It is two things. It is two things.
Imagine, imagine the Old Testament Tabernacle or think of
the temple built by Solomon. You got the three compartments,
outer court, inner holy place, most holy place.
It is like just tearing that wail and letting you see the ark
of God. It is something that's not going
to happen at all. And what Paul is doing is he is
doing so violently, staying off the wail and making you to see
into the Holy of Holies, to get a glimpse of the holiness of
God, to get a glimpse of the glory of God.
Gospel is the glory of God. You cannot believe in the gospel
and not partake in the glory of God because it is the power of
God. It is in the Old Testament you
had high priest wearing a E4, EPHOD E4.
If my pronunciation is wrong, pardon me.
So what is the E4? He had something on which you
had 12 Stones, 33334 rows of three, I think.
Whatever, Numbers 1212, Yeah, 12 anyway.
But when he wants to find out the mind of God, he wants to
check out the will of God. He will use the effort to find
out whether it is God's will or not in some matter.
For example, during the time of Solomon, when they wanted to
check out some of the priests, whether they really belong to
the priestly line or not. I think after Solomon's time,
and they were waiting for a priest who knows how to use that
effort, because not everybody knew.
It's the privilege of the priest.
But how does it happen? He wears the effort.
What is he trying to do? He is bearing the 12 tribes,
names of the 12 tribes on his heart before God with his
ministering. I tell you, this is how a pastor
should be. A pastor should carry the church
on his heart before God. And when matters are coming
before God and you are waiting there in the presence of God,
ask a question, is this happening?
Is this right or wrong? And the effort will shine with a
brilliant light. And then the then he knows it is
yes and is a they had they are actually Orim and Tamim as well.
And one shines is yes, one shines.
It is no something like that. What Paul was doing here is he
is shining the light on that effort, which is lifeless and
is, you know, this things if it is difficult, don't worry, you
just keep it aside. What I'm teaching sometimes, you
know, some, some people have told me already that I sometimes
speak at a graduate level or postgraduate level.
So it's something like that. So don't worry, but stray in
your mind to understand these things.
This is the privilege of children of God to grow into the
knowledge of God, to understand the deep things of God.
This is a call for each Christian.
And we can improve our capacity to understand the spiritual
things by thinking about it, meditating upon meditating upon
it and pursuing it. We can grow into it.
And here is a glimpse into the Holy of Holies.
Here is a glimpse into the heart of God is a glimpse into the
character of God you are. Born Free.
You are Born Free. If that sinks into your whole
heart, job is done. That's all we need to know.
You are Born Free. So he took this.
These things we were taken figuratively for the women
represent 2 covenants. 1 covenant is from Mount Sinai and
best children who are to be slaves.
This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai
in Arabia and corresponds with the present city of Jerusalem.
This is just that one sentence we need to understand is he is
changing the meaning of what is, what is held, what is understood
by common masses. He is saying, guys, you don't
understand it. You have to understand
differently. You are thinking you are free,
but you are not because the Jerusalem at that time when Paul
was writing was under the power of Roman rule, it was not free.
So he was saying it is like present Jerusalem, you are not
free. You are not free, but if you are
a if you are a believer, when you believe in Jesus Christ, you
are of the Sarah and you are Born Free.
Amazing. So he goes forward again, and he
quotes from Isaiah 54 verse one be glad or bear a woman who
bears no children. Break forth and cry aloud.
You have no labor pains because more of the children of the
desolate woman than of her who has a husband.
It is again difficult to understand.
It is again difficult to understand why it is difficult
to understand Isaiah when he was talking about it.
He is talking about be glad of barren woman who is a barren
woman. The Israel in captivity is
compared to barren woman. Israel in captivity is compared
to a barren woman because comparing it to the status of
Sarah before she had a child, she was barren.
So longing for a child she has grown old.
No power to conceive and no power to deliver.
It is 90 plus years. It is impossible for a woman to
bear and deliver a child at that age.
But what he is saying is OK, you are like this barren woman who
bears no children. Break forth and cry aloud.
You who have no labor pains, you have not gone through it.
I don't think he means C-section because more of the children are
the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.
So who is this the one who has husband?
Hagar, because she had a child through the natural means.
But Sarah has delivered a son by promise.
So what he's saying is you, you are going to have more children
than the one who are husband. Now think, look at the world
today. How many Christians are there in
the world? How many Christians believers
are there in the world? They all belong to Sarah because
your children will be more than the one who had husband.
That is who belong to the old covenant, who belong to the, I
mean the Jewish people, handful of people today only few
millions, but you have got hundreds of millions of
believers all over the world and that is the fulfillment of
Isaac. 54 verse one. Now you brothers like Isaac are
children of promise. What a powerful words they are.
You are like Isaac, a child of promise.
No one chooses to be saved by himself.
It's God who chooses you. He looks at you and He has
determined to save you before the foundation of the world.
He set His love upon you and saves you.
I tell you, this is mystery. It's amazing to me.
When I look into my whole life, it's amazing to me.
I have so many relatives, hundreds of them, but I am not
in touch with anyone because they don't like to connect with
me because I'm a Christian. Basically, they don't like me.
They don't visit us, we don't visit them.
It's very simple. When you believe in Christ,
something happens to you and that sometimes turns you against
other people as well. I'll tell you one story about a
soldier who was ferocious, a fighter, and anybody picks a
quarrel with him that will he will beat him till they are
dead. So he had such a reputation, but
one day he wandered into the Chapel where the preacher was
preaching the gospel and this man got converted.
He believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, Lord, I'm so sorry, I make you my Lord, come into my
heart. Then after a couple of months,
he was having food in a mess. When he was sitting at the table
eating food, there were people who were afraid of him before to
fight him because they knew he was powerful.
He will beat them to death. They were afraid of him.
But after these two months, one of them says, I will check it
out whether he has become really a Christian or not.
So he took the hot soup bang he throws on his chest.
So the hot soup lands on his chest.
It burned him. And then what did he do?
He got up, tore his upper garment and wiped off his chest
and then looked at the people, bunch of people who were trying
to cause trouble. This is what I am called.
This is what happens when I when I become a Christian.
This is what happens to a Christian, and I'm happy about
it. And they were stunned to see the
transformation. He was like a lion before, and
they thought when he threw the soup, the lion is going to rise
up from inside, but he was like a lamb.
The gospel brings transformation, and that's very
powerful transformation. And we are the children of
promise. We ought to be like the lamb,
not like the lion that is not dead.
So here the children promised at that time, the son born in the
ordinary way persecuted, the son born by the power of the spirit.
But there's also a tussle going on the the Son of a slave is
persecuting son born by the Spirit by promise.
And this thought carries on into his writing.
In chapter 5, he talks about how there's a tussle going on inside
the heart, how the spirit lusts after the flesh and flesh lusts
after the spirit. There is a King James language
and he gives you the list of things that are come out of the
flesh and he gives you a fruit of the Holy Spirit and gives you
a list. And he expands his idea further
in the next chapter. We will wait for it at that
time, but this is just a glimpse.
So there should be a place and time when we should get rid of
the slave woman and her son. The key is very, very simple.
Listening to the voice of God is the key.
Whatever God said to Abraham, he just did it.
God says offer your son as a sacrifice to me, Isaac, He did
not say, let me go and talk to Sarah.
God told me to kill our son. Offer him as a sacrifice.
What you would have said you're out of your mind.
I thought you are a great man, my great husband, but today you
are a mad guy. Why will God tell you to
sacrifice him? And he himself has given you the
son. I do not think Abraham must have
considered her. You are just took the fire, pot
of fire and some wood and few servants set on told the son let
us go and offer the sacrifice and he says, oh you have got the
fire, we had the wood, where is the Lamb?
God will provide. See that is a mark of a man who
he has got. There is a mark of a man who he
has got. I wish we all are men and women
who hear the voice of God and obey him, because that is the
only time you will see revival. We ask, We want revival.
So many times these days I am hearing this question, why is
Omega not growing? Why will it grow when we are not
serious about it? Everyone must be serious about
it. Pray about it.
Agonize. God, I'm going to this place.
I want to see your glory manifested.
I want this gospel to impact the city.
I just don't want to warm the chair for 30-40 minutes and come
home. No, I want to know you.
I want to know the power of resurrection.
I want to know the power of the Holy Spirit in my life.
If there is that kind of a hunger in you, this church will
multiply. It's not one, one person.
It doesn't depend on one person. And we have not grown to that
stage where we can pray and hear God and be guided by him, be
directed by him. If you know, there's a man
called, I think Larry Cunningham.
Cunningham, he wrote a book. God, Is it really you?
If you can find it in the second hand book stall, find it and
read that book. They make decisions because they
hear from the Holy Spirit. Not one person.
All of them pray together, fasting and praying until they
hear God and they it has to be verified by at least two people.
There can be 100 people praying, but what one says God is saying
should be confirmed by one more. Until then they pray and then
they decide do it. What God says they do it.
I tell you, I was so impressed by that model.
We are nowhere nearer to practicing it.
Nowhere nearer anyway. That is how we should be.
So they were thrown out basically.
Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but
of the free woman. We are children of the free
woman, and that is he. He makes a powerful statement in
chapter 5 verse one and he says it is for freedom that Christ
has set us free. Stand form then and do not let
yourself be burdened again by yoke of slavery.
Don't go back to Jewish system, don't go back to Passover, don't
go back to circumcision. Don't go back to doing all
things in the Old Testament. God has set you free from it.
Don't go back. It's very simple but very
powerful way Paul has brought the arguments.
And if some of you want to catch up with what really Paul was
saying in this chapter, you can listen to our podcast.
The previous versions previous messages explain more of Paul's
heart. So now it's time for us to pray.
Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord, thank you Lord.
Before I close, I think I have something here.
This is from he talks about Hagar and Sarah and the
covenants. And this is again, a little bit
deeper truth. When I say deeper, just by
listening once, we may not understand it.
You may have to read or hear more than once.
So please feel free to listen to the podcast again when you go
home to understand what I'm reading it out here.
This is from Warren Wisbe, a great pastor and teacher.
And he said Hagar was not married again.
She was thrown out, but she didn't marry again.
God never gave the Law to any other nation or people,
including His church. For the Judaizers to impose the
Law on the Galatians Christians was to oppose the very plan of
God. In Paul's day, the nation of
Israel was under bondage to the Law, while the church was
enjoying liberty under the gracious rule of the Jerusalem
which is above. Judas wanted to wed Mount Sinai
and the heavenly Mount Zion. But to do this would be to deny
what Jesus did on the Mount Calvary.
Hey, God is not to be married again.
We don't go back and create the Old Old Testament system again.
We can try to change them. This must fall, for we cannot
change either the law or the old nature.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and we might add, it
always will be flesh. God did not try to change
Ishmael and Hagar either by force or by education.
Neither can you and I change the old nature and the law.
We cannot change our old nature. We cannot change the law by our
own effort. It is a work of the Holy Spirit.
We badly need the work of the Holy Spirit.
Very deep work in our heart. I do not have much time to talk
about the heavenly Jerusalem, which is coming down from here,
from the sky, from heavens. Maybe I'll try to cover in the
next message, somehow fit in. So let's just bow down our heads
and pray. Father God, this morning we
praise you, we praise you, we praise you for your word.
Your word is established in heavens and Your word is
eternal. Your word is unchanging.
We thank You, Father, You are God and you are on the throne,
and we are humans. We are trying to do a little bit
of things that we can do, but we need your power to believe You.
We need your power to obey You. We need Your power to do what
You want us to do in the short time, to the glory of Your name.
So bless each one of us. Bless each one of us that we may
pursue with a passion, we pursue with that hunger and thirst
which will not bindle away with time, will keep growing with
time. And help us, Lord, to know You
and to see You as you are, and to worship in spirit and truth
and to obey you. Bless these words to the glory
of Your name. In Jesus mighty name we have
asked, Amen. Thanks for joining us at Omega.
If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough, or simply to
find out more, please head to our website or Facebook page in
the links below.