Part XCIX on Galatians Study

II Peter 1:21
"For the prophecy (or again the speaking forth) came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved (or carried along) by the Holy Ghost." And that’s the inspiration of Scripture. And we can pick it up all the way through the Book. We don’t ridicule very often, but when people will make foolish, stupid, statements like "Luke must have been a tremendous keeper of a diary or he could have never written any of the Four Gospels and the book of Acts." Now, to us, that is ridiculous. No writer of Scripture went back to notes in a diary. They didn’t write on what they had remembered. They didn’t write on the basis of hearsay. They wrote as the Holy Spirit funneled those thoughts through their hearts mind, soul. And they were moved – that’s the inspiration of the Scripture.

Otherwise, how in the world could  Enoch speak of our present Age of Grace, Moses write about creation, which took place 5,000 to 2,500 years before? How in the world could Moses write about his own death, which was out in front of him? But he did. That’s the inspiration of the Scriptures. See? And the same way with all of the writings of Scripture. How could these men name King Cyrus 150 years before he was ever born? By inspiration. How could Daniel lay out so perfectly the coming Gentile empires, one after the other, long before they happened? By inspiration. And so it is throughout this whole Book, that which is still future, it is just as reliable as that which is past. So the Holy Spirit moved holy men to write the things that God wanted written and, of course, as Paul puts it in II Timothy:
 

II Timothy 3:16
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:"
All right, now then guess we can go on into chapter 4, and verse 20. Now you know in the original there were no chapter breaks. But, horror of horrors, what has happened to the truth of the inspired scriptures? Oh, it’s been attacked and underwritten and undermined, by what kind of people? False teachers. Now back to Galatians:

Galatians 4:20
"I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; (or raise my voice and get your attention so that you hear what I'm saying) for I stand in doubt of you." Why? Because they were falling for this stuff. Now verse 21.

Galatians 4:21-22
"Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, (you who desire to want to do something in addition to this Gospel) do ye not hear the law?  For it is written (in the Old Testament) that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman."
Now of course most of us know what he's talking about, but there may be some out there that have never heard this before so for their benefit we're going to go over it again, and that takes us back to the Book of Genesis chapter 16. Now this is written within a couple of chapters of the Abrahamic Covenant, but years have been rolling by chronologically, and so Abram, as we still know him here, has already been waiting 36 years for the promises in Genesis 12 to be fulfilled. And that is that he would have a son, and out of that son would come a special breed and race or nation of people.



Now as we read this don't get too impatient with the old fellow, because we know most of us would have felt the same way, that God had forgotten that He had given him this promise. 36 years is a long time in any period of time in human history, and no child. Sarai has no signs whatsoever of ever being able to have a child. So finally she's the one that gives up first in chapter 16. Just as the woman given to Adam did in the garden which caused his and our demise so here she almost causes another. But God's plan prevails and we get a split in the road which will be repeated again and again.  Now as we read, Sarai and Abram's names will not be changed to Sarah and Abraham until some time later.