These Things Are An Allegory

The sermon opens by recounting the Genesis 21:9 story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael, highlighting the conflict between the promised son of promise and the son born of a bondwoman. The speaker draws a parallel between the two sons and two ways of life: the law‑bound, flesh‑driven path represented by Ishmael and the promise‑filled, faith‑based path represented by Isaac. He then points listeners to Galatians 4, showing how Paul uses these figures as allegories for the old covenant of bondage versus the new covenant of freedom in Christ. From there the sermon moves into a broader theological argument: true salvation comes only through grace and faith, not by legalistic works or self‑righteous effort. The pastor contrasts the fleeting, fear‑driven attempts of the flesh with the lasting, joyous liberty of those born again by the Spirit. He emphasizes that works are the fruit of genuine faith, not the means of justification, and urges the congregation to embrace the freedom and hope found in Christ, especially as they begin the new year. The message concludes with a prayer asking God to strengthen believers’ faith and to keep them focused on the promise of divine freedom rather than human attempts at self‑salvation.

What is Houston's First Baptist Church?

Houston's First Baptist Church is a relevant biblical community where we gather our hearts, grow our souls and give our lives as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). This podcast provides weekly messages from Pastor Gregg Matte and others. Visit us at HoustonsFirst.org to learn more about HFBC, and visit us in person the next time you're in Houston!

When they were not yet 50 years of age, God had promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son. Now at age 100, still no son. One day God miraculously performed the answering to what he had promised to do, and this boy was born. His name was Isaac, but there was one small problem. They had disbelieved God in their younger days, had taken matters into their own hands, and had borne a son by a handmaid, Hagar, named Ishmael. And so now, Abraham had two sons, and there were problems that arose because of it. Now, I suppose of all the problems in the world, in -law problems are among the worst. But Abraham had problems with his in -laws. In the ninth verse of chapter 21 in the book of Genesis, A terrific story from the Old Testament, amplified so well for us as we shall see in the new, is presented. I want you to turn there in your Bibles and follow along, please. Genesis chapter 21, verse number 9. And Sarah, this was Abraham's wife, saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, her maid, the illegitimate boy, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman, in all that Sarah had said unto thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of the son of a bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. And Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of water and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, Ishmael, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, it was gone. And she cast the child under one of the shrubs, supposing that he would die. And she went and sent her down over against him, a good way off, as it were, about a bow shot. For she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sent over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad, and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What are you with thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. And God was with the lad, and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him alive out of the land of Egypt. Sometime ago, he called a very scholarly minister, bought for his mother, who was raised by herself in the hills of Kentucky, and who loved the Bible, and cherished it for years, and literally read it day and night through the decades, a very up -to -date and beautiful scholarly commentary on the Word of God. He mailed it to her for a Christmas present, and going back Easter could not wait to find the response of his mother to his Christmas gift. Well, about dinner time, they began to talk, and he said, Mother, did you get the present I sent you? The beautiful commentary explaining the Scriptures, and commenting and giving instruction in the Word of God. She said, Yes, I did. It was wonderful. She said, You know, son, the Bible really does explain that book. The Bible is the best commentary on the Scriptures. I have found no commentary anywhere to tell me what God had for us this morning in the 21st chapter of Genesis. But when I turned to the Bible, the Bible commented on the Bible and explains to us without question the point that God would have us learn today from this scripture lesson. It is in the book of Galatians. Please turn over there, if you will, in chapter 4, verse 22. The apostle Paul is writing on this story. And he tells us what God is saying to us. The Bible being its own commentary. The new on the old. Galatians 4, 22. Now I want you to find it and keep it there. We'll come back to it right after 1 and 2 Corinthians and before Ephesians. You know what it is written. Abraham had two sons. The one, that's Ishmael, by a bondmaid. The other, that's Isaac, the true one, by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman, Ishmael, was born after the flesh. But he, Isaac, of the free woman, was by promise, by faith, miraculously. Which things are an allegory, a sermon, an illustration, a story, a proof of these two covenants? The one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. You see, the law, which enslaves, which makes, gives bondage, which is of the flesh, which is of legalism. This one is of the law, legalistic, fleshly. But he says, and it answereth to Mount Sinai, to the law, and answereth to Jerusalem, the Israelite people, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. Those who are bound to the flesh, and the law, are in bondage. But he says, Jerusalem, which is up above, the heavenly Jerusalem, the spiritual Jerusalem, to which the Christian is going, by faith, is free, which is the mother of us all. Now the word us, and we, in the New Testament, means we Christians. All of us that are Christians. So he tells us very clearly, that these things are an allegory. The birth of these two boys are types. They are symbols. They are pictures. They are every man in the world. There are only two philosophies of life, two ways of life, two idioms of religion, two ideas of approach to God. One is the way of the flesh. Do it yourself. The religion of self -righteousness, the deeds of the flesh, by which no flesh shall be justified. But Isaac was born of promise. He was born of faith. And the Bible says, these two men are an allegory for us, of all of the men of the world. All through the Bible, we find contrasting the right way and the wrong way in the approach to God. Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Ishmael. And on and on the story goes. One born of the flesh. One born of the spirit. One born by natural means. One by supernatural. The Bible tells us that both of them were related in a sense by flesh. They both had the physical characteristics of their father. But the birth of one was natural and the birth of one was divine. I heard a very beautiful prayer at one of the ball games on television this week. And I, oh, it sounded so lovely. But the theology was so bad. And teach us of the wonderful fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. Not so. The Bible tells us that God is not the father of all men. Jesus said to the Pharisees, you are born of your father, the devil. And said, one only becomes a child of God, not by the works of the law, but by a spiritual birth. Now, to be sure, all men might be created by God. But so are snakes and buzzards and dogs. And we are certainly not brothers with them. We are fleshly in that sense related, but the Bible says that the spiritual relationship to God is the relationship of the human heart, not by the works of law and legalism and doing and striving. And once again, and how I love to see the works religious confounded, when over and over and over again, the Bible message is that by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. If this Bible is a book about anything, it is a book about the relationship of spiritual beings to a spiritual God by the spiritual medium of faith. It is a book of faith. By grace are we saved through faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. Externally, they were the same, but internally, they were different. Two types of different men in the church. The Bible says that until the very last day, the wheat and the chaff, those born of the flesh merely and those born supernaturally of the spirit will grow together, will cultivate together and will not be separated until the day of judgment. The Bible says when Jesus Christ comes, two shall be sleeping at a bed, one taken, the other left. Two shall be grinding at the mill, one taken, the other left. Of the flesh, they may all possess the princely characteristics of the Christian. All may tithe, all may be baptized, all may go to church, all may sing in the choir, but only God knows that man that lives within the flesh, the spiritual man in spiritual relationship to a spiritual God is born of God. Romans 9, 7 and 8 says, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac, through Isaac, or as Isaac came, shall thy seed be called. This is, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, they are not the children of God. These are not the children of God, but the children of promise are counted for thy seed. Now I realize that sometimes it seems that we overemphasize the importance of knowing whether you are saved or not, of knowing that your relationship to God is rightly established. And I know nothing to do as I preach through the Bible, but just exposit what God has to say. And so here he is reminding us, I think, not quite by accident on this first Sunday of the new year, that you make sure that yours is more than a fleshly relationship. Let me ask you this, of what was your, quote, quote, conversion? Of mere carnal excitement? Of mere temporary enthusiasm? Or was it a divine nature of the working of the nature of the Spirit of God? He says, these are types of men in the church. Isaac was given to his parents by faith, the other born of the flesh. Jesus said, that that is born of the flesh is only flesh. But he said, you must have a second birth, a new birth where the heart is transformed by faith in Jesus Christ, a birth of the Spirit as well. The Pharisees said, we are of our father Abraham. We have conformed to the law. We have complied to the responsibilities of the flesh. We have done this and we have done that. To which Jesus Christ said, no, you are of your father the devil. They were outside the same, but they had a different origin. One was born of flesh of the product of the work of man. The other was the promise of faith, the product of the work of the Holy Spirit of God. And that alone that is of the Spirit of God will stand the test of time. That revival, that experience, that program that stands the test of time is that that produces faith continually by the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. We can Madison Avenue anything today. You can sell anything today. You can do anything today. But it will come to naught except it is of the Holy Spirit of God. That that is born of the flesh, that that is the result manifest of man's hands is of naught. And how well we as a church must remember that our power as church and people is the power of the Spirit of God, and of us we are and can do absolutely nothing. Now the second word is this, having had two contrasting types of birth, one of spirit, one of the flesh, one of self, one naturally, one supernaturally of God, even though the outside may appear to be the same, even though Ishmael may have the priestly countenance, the kingly features of his father Abraham, he is different in the heart. Consequently, they have two corresponding different types of life, one born of himself, of the flesh can only reproduce the works of the flesh. Why is it that many times we strive and strain and so want to produce a good Christian life? So want a prosperous Sunday school class, a good ministry, a successful venture into life. Why do we struggle and strive so much? Because we try to do so much in the flesh. That that is born of the flesh can only produce the flesh. Oh, but when our lives and our homes are born of and saturated in the Spirit of God, there is a difference. There is all the difference in the world. The kind of life a man has so well parallels the corresponding kind of birth that he has. Indeed, the writer of James has said, from the lips of our Lord himself, faith without works is dead. What an absurdity for a man to believe that this implies that he must add works to his faith to have saving faith. Not at all. It simply means that a faith that is a genuine faith produces works. And the genuine test of the validity of your relationship to God is the life that follows. Now look at their lives. One of them was born of himself, born of the things of the flesh naturally. Ah, but the supernatural birth had a correspondingly different supernatural life. Ishmael camps in the wilderness and is a wild man. Isaac remains with his family and loves the things of God. Ishmael takes a wife down in Egypt. Isaac makes alliance with the people of God in Mesopotamia. Ishmael contentious and argumentative all the days of his life while Isaac meditates at noon day. Ishmael under the law lives in fear that he will be sent away. But Isaac lives in the freedom of grace that is his. I talked to a young lady this week who all of her life had believed she would lose her salvation and was literally driving herself crazy trying to work to keep it. And when I explained to her of the grace of God, I have never seen two eyes light up as brightly or shine more beautifully than did hers. When she said, thank God, I am saved forever. And I said, now what do you want to do? And she just shuddered and hugged herself and said, oh, I want to serve the Lord. You see, it is no license to sin. It is no motivation to do wrong. It is all the greater reason in the world to do right. The Bible says, God hath not given us the spirit of fear. And if you're afraid for the future, if you fear for your life and you fear for your salvation, you may be assured that that is satanic. It is of the devil. It's not of God. When God comes into a man's life and gives him abundance and joy and freedom and grace, there is confidence and poise. There is a difference in their lives. Now listen, going on again in your Bibles there in Galatians 4, now verse 31. So then brethren, we also are not children of a bond woman. We do not live this kind of legalistic, fearful life of constraint. We're not afraid of God. We do not live in an awesome fear that God will strike us dead. No, we serve God in freedom. We're free men. Legalism in the flesh tends to slavery and fear. But that that is of the spirit of God lends itself to freedom and joy and liberty. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound. And in case you all didn't know it, you won't believe this. And if you don't ever turn on the rock stations and know what's going on, you probably haven't heard it. But you know what's just about number one on the rock hit parade? Amazing grace. That's what. How sweet the sound. And it's no rock version. It's one of the slowest, sweetest arrangements you've ever heard. I cannot but believe that our God is doing something supernatural. He's making the whole world aware of the need of Christ. You know that one -third of the rock songs today are about Jesus. The kids are Jesus hungry. The world's grace hungry. Oh, church, if we're ever going to strike while the fire's hot and get out the gospel, it's now. It's now. The world's hungry for freedom. Tired of the slavery and bondage of fear and guilt and the liberty that there is in Jesus Christ. We have the answer. You see, they've tried freedom in dope and freedom in sex and freedom in government and freedom in religion and freedom everywhere. And it has enslaved them because it wasn't God's freedom. Freedom isn't the right to rebel. Freedom comes by harnessing yourself to the Lord God who said, if I make you free, then you'll really be free. No other way. The world's had a cheap second -rate disappointment experience in the wrong kind of enslavery and supposed freedom that only gave bondage and death. And now they are just a sitting duck, if you please, for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Brother, they've never been as ready for the real McCoy. Never has it been as easy to tell people that amazing grace is what you get through the new birth in Jesus Christ who's setting you free will make you free like you don't know what freedom is. Oh, boy, I'm excited. What a day to be alive. What a time to be alive. What a time for revival. While I'm on the subject, I know that two and a half weeks is a long time. But I promise you with all my heart, because you will hear a young man preach as you've never heard a boy preach in your whole life. The grace of God, people will come down these aisles. I mean it when I say we will probably see 3 ,000 or 5 ,000 people saved in those few nights. Some of you have heard him preach one night two weeks ago, had 170 teenagers. 151 were saved. Breached to 50 and 48 were saved. They always come like that. Oh, what an opportunity. No school, no TV program, no vacation, no business deal is as important as these 18 nights. I want you to know, to tell me what was number one on the hit parade when you were a kid. Are you listening to me? Adults, are you tuned in out there? What was it? Five foot two, eyes of blue, or black bottomed Susie? It was, if you were that far back, what was it? But I want you to know today, it's Jesus as a soul man. And I want to go to that great, what's that thing in the sky? The spirit in the sky. Man, that's what they're singing. And they're singing Amazing Grace. I never thought I'd live to see it. It hadn't happened in 2 ,000 years. And if we don't jump now, there's a very good chance by July or September or December, it'll all be over. Oh, I mean it. This is hot. It's priority. God's moving. Let's move. Now, stand fast. Verse 1, chapter 5. Therefore, in the liberty wherein Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Now, some of you are vacillating out there, so if you are listening to me, Christ has set you free, and you're trying to go back under the legalistic approach of bondage. I repeat, Pete, freedom in Jesus doesn't mean live like the dickens and do what you want. It is a beautiful freedom. It is a choice slavery. I am in total bondage. You bet I am. But it is a willing bondage to Jesus Christ. I'm his slave, but I'm his love slave. I'm his because I want to be his. And in so doing, I have perfect freedom. Well, let's go on. Now, I notice a very strange thing coming up here. Verse number 9. Now, he says these things are a type of picture, a symbol, an allegory. Now, the bonds, the bondswoman's child child of the flesh, child of the law, child of enslavement, Ishmael was mocking. Isaac, child of God by faith. Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Now, let's carry that a little bit further. Works, religionists, hate, grace, religionists. They still do. Let me show you something else. Turn over to Galatians 4, 29. Galatians 4, 29. But as then, as it was then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. I want you to know that folks who are legalistic, who are bound up and got to do this and got to be baptized and got to be perfect and got to hold out faithful just cannot stomach amazing grace. They really can't. Now, that's the truth. The honest truth. It breeds a pride, a self -righteousness. Why else did our Lord say, By grace ye say through faith, not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Why did he tack that on? The Spirit of God had nothing to do, so he just put on three extra words to fill up the Bible. Well, not at all. Because the philosophy that establishes its own righteousness, that works its own way to heaven, that lifts its own self up, gets so striving and so hard that it tries that it becomes proud. Look what we're doing. And it does lend itself to exalting the flesh, to boasting, to pride, to self -satisfaction. Oh, but the humble Christian who's saved by the grace of God understands in his flesh there is no good thing. It is all the finished work of him who cried in victory. It is finished, stands with humble head bowed in submission before the great finished work of Christ on the cross and says from a glad and repentant heart, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a poor wretch like me. What two contradicting approaches to life? One that boasts and exalts itself and sees itself as worthy of finally having persevered to heaven and the other that says with abject humility, I am but a worm, a wretch. Oh, God, in me there is nothing. It is all of grace. It is all of thee. It is all of the Spirit of God. Oh, that ought to make a man happy. I'll tell you something else. If you read the book, it ought to make you a Baptist. All right. Now, another word. The works, religionists, can be saved, but only by turning to Jesus Christ. Now, that's in here, too. Look at it. Verse 17. God heard the voice of the lad. He always hears the cry of the despondent, those in need. The angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said unto her, What aileth he, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. God always hears the man that really wants help, though he has depended on himself and his own self -righteousness attempted to establish. God is always merciful. So God, listen, God sought them. That's the way the Spirit of God is. You see, it's all of heaven. He does it all. I'll tell you when you can save yourself, when one good work you do will add one inch to your salvation, you go home and stand in the middle of the floor and you get hold of yourself anywhere you can grab and you stand there and when you have lifted yourself up one jillionth of one inch off of the ground by your own efforts. And that day you will have proven to me that in the same way you can lift yourself and help save yourself. You see, it's all from heaven. You see, it's all from heaven. It's all of God. They didn't cry out to God. God saw their plight and came to them. God always comes to men that want him and that need him. God sought them. Now what did God do? Look at verse 19. And God opened her eyes. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Why? I'll tell you why. Because we praise thee, O God, for the Son of thy love and we praise thee, O God, for thy Spirit of light who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night. How hopeless, how hapless and helpless, how dismal, dank and dark the poor man, lost in the bondage of sin, trying to do and unable to do to get himself to heaven. And then, thank God, the Spirit of God comes and opens his eyes and helps him to see it's all of Jesus. Praise thee, O God, for thy Spirit of light who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night. You can put it down. Had not the Holy Spirit of God first come to you and scattered the night of sin and made you realize it was Jesus all the time who alone could save you. You never would have been saved. Now the last part of that 19th verse, God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. When God opens your eyes, what does he point you to? The water of life. Who's that? Jesus. There was Jesus, able to save, ready to save. She repented. She left the boy and went to the well with her empty cup and came back full. How many folks have sung? Like the woman at the well, I was seeking for things that did not satisfy. Then I heard my master speaking, drank from my well that never shall run dry. When the Spirit of God came to her and opened her eyes and showed her the water of life, she took it and the boy who was dying lived. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Is it any wonder the glad heart of the Christian responds with amazing grace? How sweet the sound. When the Spirit of God opens the blinded eye, helps a man to see it is not of himself, the finished work of Christ is done. We are men of faith. Ours is a religion of faith. We are saved by faith. We don't call the Christian religion the Christian faith for nothing. It is all of faith. Thank God, but it is faith in him. A little blind girl was being let alone by the hand of her father. A stranger came and picked her up. The father and the man began to chat. They walked right along side by side. The little girl said, Darling, the father said to the little girl, Darling, aren't you afraid? Afraid of what, daddy? She said, Well, you don't know who's got you. Aren't you afraid? She said, No, daddy, but you know. But you know. You see, God knows. God sees in the dark. God knows what's got us. God knows who's got us. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow. He holds the world in his hands. My life is not of self. It does not depend on me and my efforts. Oh, whatever abysmal, dark experience you might be facing in this new year. Remember, we're men of faith. Our religion is the Christian faith. In faith, we know who's holding us. Our God knows whether we know or not. It doesn't matter whether we know. God knows. There need be no uncertainty, no fear of the future. Well, may I in closing say this? After repentance and faith, the boy was accepted back into the family. God said, All right, I'll bless you too. God has a place for works, but not at the center of the Christian faith, religion. It's on the periphery. It's the result. It's the outworking. It's the proof. It's the evidence. It's the fruition of our faith. It's not at the center of our religion because grace and faith are there and works are outside it. He was accepted back in the family, but not all the way back in. He was always still a stepchild. It was still always second. Grace is always first. It's always at the heart. It's always the darling of the heart of God. He went back, but he wasn't accepted as a full -fledged member. He was still the stepson born of the flesh. Our God wants us to work and serve him. In fact, it is the very evidence, the very proof of our salvation, the very result. It has a place, but not at the center. A young man was an architect, a Britisher. He was traveling across a country in which there were foreign forces to him, and he was captured. He was sentenced to death, and someone discovered that he was a tremendous architect. They asked him if he would design for them a beautiful Muslim mosque because they were Muslims, and if he agreed to do so, they agreed to let him go. He did. They were rejoicing in his beauty and were about to release him when someone noticed that he had designed a beautiful mosque, but he had made it in the form of a cross. They were angered, and ran upon him, and gnashed him, and killed him. They, like Nicodemus, they, like the rich young ruler, they, like so many, admired the plan of salvation, but rejected the cross. What is Christianity? What is our relationship to God all about? What to what have you young people that have just become Christians committed yourself to a life of struggle, and fighting, and hanging on, and up, and pessimism, and despair, and gloom? Not at all. You have committed yourself to a victory that is one sign sealed and finished by the conquering conquest of the Christ. It's done. He is our sufficiency. He the same yesterday, today, and forever. He the eternal. He the way. He the truth. He the life. He the rope. He the ladder. He the vine. He the branches. It's all in Jesus Christ, the lily of the valley, the rose of Sharon, the bride of morning star. Why? Why the cross? Because the cross is I crossed out. Symbolizes my total insufficiency and complete need of Jesus Christ. He's done it all. He's done it all. I live a life by faith. A life of freedom. A life of promise. A life of encouragement and hope. A life of faith. A life of optimism. Why? Because I know who's got a hold of me. Let's stand together and pray. Our Father, we thank Thee that in struggling to know what Thou wouldst have us to know from Thy Word, Thou hast very clearly spoken to us. And in this passage particularly has said, these things are an allegory of two types of men and two types of lives. And dear Father, for those who have been attempting to be a Christian, to be saved, to have the Christian life, or for Christians, Lord, who have known Thee personally for years, who are trying to live the Christian life of themselves, help them to know how futile is their blighted attempt. And in faith and courage and submission, yield themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, who in faith has done it all for them, and who just awaits the penitent heart, the guilty sinner, the weary pilgrim, the discouraged traveler, to rest in faith on the bosom of our Lord Jesus. Thank Thee as we start the new year, that we don't care what it holds. We know who holds it. And our lives are Thine. Fill us with courage and faith, this day in Jesus' name. Amen.