Well, good afternoon.
Once again, as we come to look in God’s Word, I want to remind my own heart and remind you of that principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable: total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit.
How we do thank the Lord for every help, every aid, every assistance, as we study this Book. We are so thankful for word studies, commentaries, concordances, the atlas, and all of the helps. But at the end of the day, we must come as little babes before the Lord, and God Himself must unveil the Lord Jesus to our hearts.
Only God can reveal God, and how He delights to do that.
I would like to share a passage before we go to prayer. Our brother Dana shared last evening about Joseph, the son of Jacob, and how he became a son, and then was able to lead his brothers into that sonship.
I was very moved as they got close to the moment of revelation. Joseph had such a desire to reveal himself, but his brothers were not ready. They were still being prepared, but they were so close.
They were strangers. The part that gripped me was from Genesis 43:32. Remember that banquet Dana referred to?
They served him by himself, and them by themselves.
Then, in Genesis 43:34, we read:
He took portions to them from his own table.
It gripped my heart how close they were. They were in the same room, but they were at different tables. They were in the same room, but they were still strangers. He had not yet revealed himself.
Even though he was feeding them from his table, and they were eating food from his table, yet they had not yet had the revelation of himself.
I thought, “Oh, our God, how He desires not just to feed us from His table.” He is certainly here. We have seen the presence of the Lord. But would it not be a tragic thing if we were in the same room, but at different tables?
His heart will not be satisfied until we are all in the same room and we are all at the same table, feeding from Him.
As we go to prayer, I know that is His heart. Let us pray that there would be no unclenched truth this weekend. We have gathered to hear from the Lord.
The Lord has desired to communicate His heart concerning this great theme of sonship. He desires that we all be sons, that we all know Him, that we are all in the same room and at the same table, feasting with the Son of God.
So let us bow together and ask Him to take us forward in that dream of His.
Our Father, how glad we are again this afternoon for the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts, who delights to ever show us the Lord Jesus.
Lord, we pray again this afternoon that You might take Your written Word and give us life. Show us Christ, the living Word. We know when we see Him, we will be changed; we will be like Him.
And so we ask that You take the veil away. Manifest again to our hearts the Lord Jesus, and then grace us to respond positively to that revelation. We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, I feel very privileged, as I said yesterday, to share on this awesome theme. By now, I think you have seen how awesome, how grand the scope of it is. What a wonderful theme indeed: spiritual sonship.
I believe the Lord would have me share that truth in its very earliest stages. I actually want to focus on the transition from children in bondage to sons who are set free.
I would like to begin by referring again to Galatians 4. If you will turn there, please, I am going to read the first three verses.
Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything;
but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the Father.
So also we, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.
Those three verses show us that it is possible to be a child of God, who is an heir of everything, and yet live a life no different from a slave—in bondage because still, in the unhealthy way, a child.
There is a healthy way to be a child, but there is an unhealthy way, and that is what Galatians speaks of: still living under the power of the old creation, living under the law.
But in Galatians 4:6-7, we read of another possibility:
Because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son;
and if a son, then an heir through God.
So the possibility is that we can be no longer children living as slaves, but now sons, living in the freedom of the Lord. That is what this weekend is about: that God would bring us all from being children to being sons.
Yesterday, I tried to show you what I think, in that whole process, is the end of the childlike experience. Remember, when Abraham was chosen as the illustration, remember his heart. He was not living in rebellion. We are not talking about a backslider. We are not talking about someone who is resisting the will of God.
We are speaking about Abraham, whose heart was set on doing the will of God. Sonship has to do with those who are pliable, open, responsive, and desire to know the Lord in His fullness.
Abraham desired the will of God. In fact, he was impatient to do God’s will. You remember the story we looked at yesterday afternoon: when God did not move on his time schedule, he and Sarah tried to rush the Lord along. They tried to help God.
The truth of spiritual sonship belongs to the children who earnestly desire to be sons of God. Yet they must, perhaps as Abraham did, be taught many principles in order to move from children in bondage to sons set free.
The last thing, I think, we finally have to learn by revelation is that grace has these two parts that we looked at yesterday. We must see the promise of God. God is the One who promised it. But we must also see that only God can do it.
I have got to see that it is all by grace, but I also must see by revelation that I have a barren womb. I suppose if you sisters can be sons of the Lord, then we brothers can have a barren womb.
God has given His Word, His promise. God has shown us that He must perform it. We cannot do it.
I do not know if this has happened to you, but it happened to me, and I know it has happened to other believers. I have been accused of using the Lord as a crutch. Did anybody ever tell you that? “You are just using the Lord as a crutch.”
Now, I did for many years, but I do not use the Lord as a crutch anymore. You see, if you use the Lord as a crutch, you are trusting in the Lord and your good leg. That is what a crutch is used for.
I do not have a good leg. In fact, we do not have a leg to stand on. You understand what I am saying? Jesus is not my crutch anymore. He is my stretcher.
It is all the Lord. He promises it, and He must do it. When God dawns that on you, you are very close to saying goodbye to the child life, the slave life, and very close to this sonship.
In this connection, I love to put these two verses together:
“Nothing will be impossible with God.” — Luke 1:37
“All things are possible to him who believes.” — Mark 9:23
Nothing is impossible for God. All things are possible to him who believes. When God gives a promise, as we learn from Hebrews 4, it must be mixed with faith.
What that means practically is this: faith can do whatever God can do, because the object of faith is the Lord Himself, and we lay hold of Him.
With that revelation, God closes the door on the wrong kind of childlike living.
Now, I told you yesterday that I wanted to focus, in this great theme, on a very specific thing: the transition from living like a slave to sonship.
We have heard this weekend much about the end of sonship and how glorious that is going to be; the process of sonship and the development of sonship; and how God takes us forward and continually conforms us to the Lord Jesus.
But the experience of sonship must have a starting point—not only in the Godhead, but in our own experience.
Once we begin to experience it, the process never ends. We are continually going forward in maturing. But that experience, that subjective side, does have a starting point. There is a moment. There is a time. There is a crisis.
It becomes a process, but there is a time. God helping us, if we could just see that transition, perhaps God would take us forward in this whole truth of sonship.
I am going to ask you to follow along, please. Galatians 4. I want to read the allegory that the Apostle Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has chosen to illustrate sonship. Begin at verse 21.
Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman.
But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.
This is allegorically speaking; for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai, bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.
Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.
For it is written,
“Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear;
Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor;
For more numerous are the children of the desolate
Than of the one who has a husband.”
And you, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.
But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.
But what does the Scripture say?
“Cast out the bondwoman and her son,
For the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.”
So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.
Then one more verse, Galatians 5:1:
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
A glance again, if you would, at Galatians 4:30:
What does the Scripture say?
“Cast out the bondwoman and her son,
For the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.”
Clearly, it is God’s will—whatever it means—it is God’s will at some time to cast out the bondwoman and her son. We know that because verse 30 says, “What does the Scripture say?” So it is scriptural: cast out the bondwoman and her son.
It is not only what Scripture says, but it is what grace said. In this great picture, Sarah is a picture of the covenant of grace. In Genesis 21:10, Sarah is the one—the covenant of grace is the one—who said to Abraham, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son.”
In that culture, at that time, Abraham needed a special revelation from God to submit to his wife. When Sarah said, “Cast out the bondwoman,” God came and said, “It is okay. Do it. Do whatever she says.”
Not only does Scripture say, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son,” and not only does grace say it, but here is an interesting fact. Galatians 4:21 says:
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
Even the law says, “Cast out the law.” It is not only Scripture, and not only grace, but even the law.
Galatians 3:24 says:
The law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
The law is a schoolmaster. It is our tutor, and the law itself points away from the law. The law begs us, saying, “Please do not look to me. Look to Jesus.” Even the law tells us that.
I love the wording of Galatians 3:23-24:
Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.
Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ.
You see, it is a picture of a prisoner trying to get out of a dungeon. He is being watched over by the law. The law is the guard.
He tries to get out the door, and the law says, “No, no, you cannot get out that way. That is shut up to you.” The prisoner tries to get out a window, and the law says, “No, no, you cannot go out the window. That is shut up to you.”
Then the prisoner tries to go out a tunnel, and the law stands there and says, “Oh, you cannot go that way. That is shut up to you. You have got to stay in the dungeon. You have got to stay in the prison.”
Then the prisoner tries to go over the wall, and the law says, “No, no, you cannot go that way. That is shut up.” Everywhere the prisoner turns, it is shut up, and the law says, “No, no, no, no.”
But then there is a light. The prisoner looks at the light, and it is Christ. The prisoner says, “I will try that way.” The law says, finally, “Yes, you can go that way.”
The law shuts up every door, keeping us in bondage until we come to Christ. The law is our tutor to bring us to Christ, and that is the ministry of the law.
Listen to the Scripture, listen to grace, and listen to the law. There comes a time when we are to cast out the bondwoman and her son.
That brings me to the heart of what I want to share: When do we do that? What is that time? When do we leave childhood and begin to experience sonship?
When is that fullness of time? What is that time appointed by the Father? Do not answer; just think. Have you cast out the bondwoman and her son?
Scripture says you should, grace says you should, and the law says you should. When do you do that? When does that process begin? There has to be a starting point. There has to be a beginning.
That is what is on my heart to share.
Sonship is a wonderful thing. My head spins when I begin to contemplate, or hear these brothers talk about, the day down the road that is coming when all creation is going to be set free as it sees the liberty of the sons of God. That is awesome.
Sonship and its development in the individual and in the Body, as He progressively conforms us to Christ and enlarges our capacity—how does it start?
There may be some brother here or some sister who says, “That is what I want. But tell me clearly: How does it begin? I want to enter into that. I do not want to play games with the Lord. I do not want to lag behind. I do not want to miss anything.”
“I will submit to the process. I will submit to the cross. How do I start?” Oh, may God give us life.
Let me give you sort of a theological answer first, and then we will get into the life and heart of it by going to Abraham’s illustration.
I want to begin with a fact. I will return to it in another connection. When you study the Bible under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, often, when you come to personalities—individual Bible people—they can illustrate more than one thing.
Our brother Dana proved that last night. He began by saying Joseph is a wonderful picture of our Lord Jesus, the Son, who went first to sonship and then brought many sons to glory. Then he said Joseph is also a picture of the believer, who was a son and learned sonship through testing, then brought his brothers to glory.
Well, just so, Isaac is at least a double picture. Look, please, at Galatians 3:16:
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.
When God promised a seed to Abraham, that is a picture, because He was promising Christ to the world. That seed is Isaac, but Isaac is a picture of our Lord Jesus.
When we talk about Sarah being a picture of the covenant of grace, and Abraham relating to grace in order to produce fruit, the fruit she produces is Isaac. No, that is just a picture. The fruit is always Christ.
Isaac is a picture of Christ: Christ manifested in me, Christ manifested in you, Christ manifested in us, Christ manifested through us. It is always Christ. Fruit is Christ.
God’s promise that He will supernaturally give a seed to Abraham to bless the world is His promise. If he relates to grace, he will produce Christ and give Christ to the world. Isaac is a picture of our Lord Jesus.
But look again at Galatians 3:29:
If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
Galatians 4:28 says:
And you, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.
And Galatians 4:31 says:
So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.
So Isaac is also a picture of the believer, the fruit of grace. The Apostle Paul goes back and forth as he talks about Isaac and develops this allegory. Isaac is Jesus. Isaac is the believer. Isaac is the church.
What a wonderful overlapping, because you cannot really separate Christ and His people. Paul is illustrating that.
Now let us get back to the question and this sort of theological answer: When does it begin? Follow these verses, please, and then I will state it in clear words.
Galatians 3:19:
Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.
Notice those words: “Until the seed would come.” The law was added until—not forever, just until. Until what? Until the seed would come.
Galatians 3:23:
Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith afterward to be revealed.
Before faith came. That means there was a time when there was not faith. Before faith came, something was going on. We were in protective custody under the law until the seed came, until faith came.
Galatians 3:25 says:
Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
There is something very important here, and God is dropping us clues. The Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, is calling attention to the fact that the law—God’s law—has a ministry until.
Once that “until” happens, that ministry is over. We are no longer under the tutor, and so on. Until Christ comes. Until faith comes.
Galatians 4:4:
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son.
Ah, there we have it again. Something has to come: until faith comes, until the seed comes, until Christ comes, until the fullness of time comes. Remember, the context of all of this is sonship.
It cannot happen until the seed comes, until faith comes, until the fullness of time comes. Galatians 4:2 says that the heir is under guardians and managers “until the date set by the Father.”
Something has to happen in order to get out of that and begin this. You see, the Holy Spirit gives us that transition: until the seed comes, until Christ comes, until faith comes, until the fullness of time comes, until that time appointed by the Father comes.
Our brothers have been sharing, and so true it is, that moment is not dictated by us. For some, it might be two weeks, six weeks, or six months. It was seven years for me. Some have been thirty years and more.
Before I state the truth of God, let me illustrate it. Paul enlarges his illustration. He is saying, “I want you to stop being children. I want you to start being sons.”
The law has a ministry; it is true. You are going to be under teachers, tutors, and managers until the seed comes, until Christ comes, until the promise comes, until the fullness of time, until the date set by the Father, until Christ is formed in you—until, until, until.
Then he backs off, widens it out, and gives three illustrations.
The first illustration is in Galatians 4:3-5:
So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
In this first illustration, he pictures the whole world from Adam right down to Christmas. He says the whole world was in darkness. The whole world was in slavery until Christ came.
You know that wonderful Christmas carol, “O Holy Night”:
O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees;
O hear the angels’ voices.
O night divine,
O night when Christ was born.
His first illustration is that the whole world was in slavery until Christ came.
Then he gives another illustration, a little closer to home. Galatians 4:6-9:
Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.
But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?
Just as really as this whole world was in darkness until Jesus came in the fullness of time, so the sinner is in darkness.
Now he gets personal. He says, “Before you were saved, it was like that—until the seed came, until faith came, until the fullness of time, until God revealed His Son to you.”
Do you remember the day? You did not get saved because you made a decision. Salvation is not a decision; it is a revelation. “When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me.”
We sang about that this morning: “And Can It Be.”
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I rose, the dungeon flamed with light.
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Do you remember that day when you got saved? You were in darkness until the seed came, until Christ came, until faith came.
Just as really as Christmas can be dated—we do not know exactly when, but there was a historical moment when He was born, the incarnation—many can point to a date when they were saved.
Probably you are wrong when you say, “I got saved on such-and-such a date,” because the wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it begins. So is everyone born of the Spirit.
I used to think the wind was a picture of the Holy Spirit there. It is not; it is a picture of the Christian. So is everyone born of the Spirit. Most of us do not know when it starts, when God begins to work.
You might know when you were born; you just do not know when you were conceived. If somebody asks you, once you get saved, let us go back, as our brother did, to the foundation of the world. That is really the date.
But just as the world was in darkness and slavery until Christ came, and the sinner was in darkness and slavery until Christ came, Paul is now showing us that in the Christian’s experience, Christ must come.
The seed must come. Faith must come. The fullness of time must come. A time appointed by the Father must come. A time where Christ is formed in us must come.
It is possible for a person to be saved and have the indwelling Spirit of the Lord. In fact, that is the very argument of Paul. Galatians 3 says, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
They were Christians, but they were doing what Abraham and Sarah were trying to do: reach a spiritual end by carnal means.
Paul is so burdened for these Christians. In Galatians 4:19, he says:
My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.
Just as really as there was a history and Christ came to the world, and there is a history and Christ came to the sinner, there must be a history in the Christian’s life where God reveals that it is just Christ.
It is just Christ. In that moment, faith is also born, because faith comes by hearing. This is not a contradiction. Thousands of Christians go on and on, and they have never seen Christ as their life.
Until that happens, you cannot begin that process called sonship.
There is a moment of revelation in the Christian’s life when the Holy Spirit shows that Christ is preeminent, where your heart says, “For me to live, Christ.”
You have got to see Christ. When Jesus fills the entire landscape of your life, when you finally see it, that is the transition moment. That is the earliest stage of sonship. That is the beginning of moving into sonship, away from that bondage.
When Christ is seen as all, as my life, that is the end of the minority and the beginning of the majority.
Some Christians live for thirty, forty, fifty years as children in bondage, trying to help God out, living in the energy of the flesh, using Jesus as a great model, trying to imitate Christ.
They never know that He is more than a model; He is a Substitute. He has come to live in your heart, and we need to appropriate His life.
For years in my life, before I saw Jesus, I was focused on everything but Jesus: spiritual disciplines, the means of grace, prophecy. I wallpapered our house with my charts. I had all these profiles. I knew everything about the end times—give or take seven years.
I focused on missions, the will of God, surrender, faith, spiritual warfare, ministry, the Body of Christ, the Bible, doctrine, holiness, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I focused on everything but Christ.
I will tell you, I lived in slavery, running after all those things.
But one day, God brought an instrument into my life—a dear man of God. He is with the Lord Jesus now. God used him to point me to Christ.
God opened my eyes, and I saw my barren womb. I saw it was only the Lord. In that moment, when God showed me Christ—I will tell you—that was in 1965, and that was a festive occasion. Nothing has been the same since.
There has been a lot of progress now, and we need to go on. There is maturing constantly and growth, and there is still a lot of unconquered ground and uncrucified filth. There is a lot of work to be done.
When I was in my mother’s womb, I read that He saw my unformed substance. Well, there is still a lot of unformed substance, and I have no more power over it than I had when I was in the womb. It is all the Lord.
God waits for that hour. God waits for that fullness of time, where we finally see we cannot do it. It is all Him. God opens our eyes and shows us Christ.
Ah, it is time to cast out the bondwoman and her son. Until that time, do not you dare try to do that. What a transforming miracle in the Christian’s life.
Brother Stephen was absolutely right when he reminded us that, objectively, sonship begins in the heart of God. When we receive the Son of God, sonship begins. But subjectively, it is when, by revelation, we begin to focus on Jesus alone.
Look again at Galatians 4:30:
What does the Scripture say?
“Cast out the bondwoman and her son.”
The theological answer as to when we do that is: when Christ comes, when faith comes, when the seed comes, in the fullness of time, when God reveals His Son. That is the theological answer.
But the illustration Paul uses is so paradoxical. In the record, when were the bondwoman and her slave son cast out? The answer is: at the weaning of Isaac.
At the weaning of Isaac. You see, what the New Testament calls sonship, the Old Testament illustrates by weaning.
Let us read the record. Genesis 21.
The Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised.
So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.
Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.
Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.
Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.”
Again, verse 8: you see, it was when Isaac was weaned that the bondwoman and her son were cast out.
Remember, there was another occasion—I referred to it yesterday—when Hagar and Ishmael left. They were not cast out then, because the seed had not come.
They could not be cast out because the seed had not come. That was before Isaac was even conceived, probably thirteen or fourteen years before the seed would come.
Hagar was driven out by Sarah. Once again, I believe, because the seed had not come, that was the flesh trying to drive out the law. When that happens, the Angel of the Lord—the Lord Jesus—just sends her back.
We need the law until the seed comes. We need it. The law cannot be thrown out too soon.
I know Christians who have thrown out the bondwoman and her son when they were not ready to. They need the law because the law is a tutor that brings us to Christ.
There are some Christians who discovered the bondage of legalism, the bondage of rules and regulations, but they have not seen Jesus yet. They have seen the barrenness of works. They say, “I do not want to be legalistic. I have heard about grace. I want to live by grace, not legalism. So I do not need rules.”
“Do not tell me to get up early for devotions. I do not want to hear that. Do not tell me that I must tithe. Why do you keep bothering me about the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is?”
“You do not need to tell me I need to die to myself. Do not tell me about the cross. Do not tell me about washing people’s feet. Do not tell me about humble service.”
“Why do you keep telling me it is important to get my marriage in order, love my wife, and forgive my enemy? Do not tell me about wearing veils. Do not tell me about breaking bread. Do not tell me about studying the Bible. Do not tell me about supporting missions.”
“I have seen the grace of God. I am free. I do not need rules and regulations.”
But have you seen Christ?
The Christian life is not the absence of legalism. It is the presence of Jesus. It is Christ.
The law keeps us in protective custody until Jesus comes. We need that, or there is anarchy. I see a lot of Christians out there, and it is nothing but anarchy.
They say, “I am free,” but they are free to do their own thing, not to do the will of God. They have not seen Christ.
God is faithful. If you throw out the law too soon, Jesus just sends it back, and you are going to be in more bondage than ever.
Until the seed comes. Once you see that Christ is your life, and once faith comes, and you begin to appropriate Christ as the Holy Spirit proposes Him to you, then there is no room for the bondwoman and her son.
I told you I would return to this truth that Isaac is a double picture. I want you to picture Isaac here not only as the Christian, but first as Christ Himself.
If you see this as a picture of Christ, then in the story of the weaning, Abraham and Sarah have become Isaac-centered—seed-centered. They are wrapped up in this Isaac.
God has turned the laugh of unbelief into the laugh of faith. You would go up to Abraham and make this suggestion: “Oh, say, Abraham, any chance that Eliezer of Damascus is going to be the heir?”
He would laugh and say, “No, no, no. Isaac! I have seen God’s promise. I have seen God do a miracle on a barren womb. Do not talk about Eliezer of Damascus.”
“Any chance that Ishmael is going to be the heir?” “Oh, no. It is Isaac. It is Isaac. It is the son of promise.”
They are now heir-centered. They are now Isaac-centered. At that very point, you see the conflict begin in Genesis 21:9, and Ishmael begins to mock.
We do not really understand that word mock. When Galatians refers to it, it is a lot stronger. Some say that it has the word violence in it. I have read commentators who said Ishmael actually made an attempt on Isaac’s life. There is a war going on now.
At the weaning of Isaac, when they became Isaac-centered and Christ-centered, when the seed came and faith came, they understood: “This is it. He is the heir.”
At that point, Hagar and the fruit with her have got to go. “I will not relate to you anymore. There will be no more confidence in the flesh producing the fruit of the flesh.”
Remember, Ishmael was very familiar with the house. He had lived many years in the house. He knew his way around the house. But once you see Jesus, if Ishmael ever comes back, he is an intruder. He does not belong.
There is no more room. With the crowning of Isaac, that unholy alliance and union with Hagar—the flesh, confidence in the flesh, and the fruit of the flesh—has got to go.
Isaac not only pictures Christ, and Abraham and Sarah are now Isaac-centered, so Ishmael must go. But here is an amazing thing. What a paradox.
Weaning is this picture of sonship. You say, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Have we not heard all weekend that sonship has to do with maturity, with manhood, with coming of age, with the placing of sons for responsibility and privilege?”
When they became sons, they could get married. When they became sons, they could go to war. When they became sons, they could buy and sell and trade. They could own property, mortgage property, manage a household, teach, instruct, and have authority. They had privilege.
How can weaning illustrate maturity? It does not make sense. They were weaned at two or three years old. You say, “Let me tell you a picture about being mature: here is a three-year-old baby.”
Yet he uses weaning to illustrate adoption, the placing of sons. What a festive occasion it was.
I believe there are at least two reasons the Holy Spirit uses weaning as an illustration.
Hebrews picks this up, because weaning is a moving from milk to solid food. Hebrews 5 says:
Everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
That is maturity: moving from milk to meat.
You say, “What is the difference between milk and meat?” Let me tell you what it is not. Many think milk is simple truth and meat is profound truth—deeper truth. That is not what meat is.
They say meat has to do with the deeper things. “Talk about election—that is meat. Sovereignty—that is meat. God’s everlasting purpose in Christ Jesus—that is meat. That is a deep thing. Sonship—that is meat.”
Do you realize there is no such thing as deeper truth? Truth is a Person. His name is Jesus.
Let me ask you this: “Jesus loves me.” Is that milk or meat? Do you think you will ever get to the end of that?
“Christ died for me.” Milk or meat? “Christ lives in me.” Milk or meat?
Here is the difference: milk is simple truth. Meat is simple truth appropriated. That is the only difference. When you take it, it becomes meat.
God chose weaning to illustrate maturity: when we go off this milk, come onto solid food, and begin to appropriate the truth.
But I think there is another reason He chose weaning: to retain the picture of childlikeness.
We think of maturity and manhood. When I heard this theme and was invited to speak here, my early thought was, “Forget it. If it is manhood, I have not arrived, and I am not going to get there. How am I going to tell these people anything?”
But 1 Peter 2:2 says:
Like newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.
He wrote that to sons. Maturity has to do with childlikeness and helpless dependence.
Several times attention has been called to that wonderful word Abba in Galatians 4:6:
Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
The word Father there is Greek. The word Abba is not Greek; it is an Aramaic form of Hebrew. He is not repeating it twice, once in Hebrew and once in Greek: “Father, Father.”
The word Abba is a very intimate form. One commentator I read called it “the child’s prattle.” It is like “Daddy.” It is like “Papa.” It is intimate. It is childlike.
I think what makes that so powerful is Mark 14:35-36, in the Garden of Gethsemane:
And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by.
And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”
In the Garden of Gethsemane, the day before the cross, our Lord Jesus looked into the face of His heavenly Father and called Him, “Daddy. Papa.” The most intimate form.
I used to think the greatest thing about the Garden of Gethsemane was its intensity, because He sweat drops of blood. But I think now it is this childlikeness: our Lord Jesus called Him Abba.
That Spirit is put into our hearts—that familiar Spirit, that childlikeness.
We have no time to follow Isaac. If you want to study sonship as Dana followed Joseph, follow Isaac. You will see the same thing.
Here is a brother who was made rich by a gift. He received everything his father had, and the Bible says he got richer and richer and richer. That is sonship.
This was the one who was willing to be done unto. This is one whose life was constant submission. You talk about the cross and so on.
There is much to study about sonship, and a lot that God is going to do. But it has to start somewhere. It has to begin sometime.
May I suggest this is where it begins: when the seed comes, when you start seeing Jesus.
I am talking about by revelation. You do not follow it through a concordance: “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” That is not how it is.
When God opens your heart and you see that it is not you, that your womb is barren, that it is all Him, and Christ is everything—that is where it begins.
When you got saved, as our brother so wonderfully reminded us, you received a Person, the Lord Jesus. With Him, God gave you everything He is ever going to give you except one thing: eyes to see it.
He gave you His Son. Now the only thing He can give you is eyes to see what you already have.
As God opens our eyes and shows us the Lord, when Christ comes, every time you see Christ, you are going to be set free more and more.
Pretty soon, that woman and her son will be so far out of your life. But you stop looking to Christ, and Ishmael is coming back. He knows his way around. He is an intruder.
The only thing—the one thing—I pray that God will do for us is put a passion in our hearts like Paul prayed after thirty years of knowing Jesus:
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
That I might know Him.
If you are really serious about sonship, ask God to take the veil away and show you Jesus. Once you see Him, your life is going to become very exciting, because now this is the festive occasion.
That is how it begins: by the revelation of Christ.
May God help us. Let us pray.
Father, thank You so much for Your Word.
We thank You, Lord, that by Your grace we can get off the milk and start for solid food, and we never mature past childlikeness.
Lord, give us a weaning, even here, even this afternoon. Open our eyes that the seed might come.
May it be, for some brother or sister, the fullness of time. May this very afternoon be the time appointed by the Father, when we begin to see the Lord Jesus in all His reality.
Work that for us, we ask in Jesus.