Amen, amen. Let us turn now to our reading for this morning, our text, Galatians chapter four. We'll read verses 21 to 31, especially since it has been a few weeks since we were in it, but we'll be now zooming in on verses 26 and 27 and a little bit 28, but especially 26 and 27. Galatians chapter four, page 1,238 in most of the pew Bibles. Again, reading 21 to 31, focusing especially on 26, 27 and 28. Let us hear people of God, the word of our God. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free one. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now, this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother, for it is written, Rejoice, O barren one, who does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, our children of promise, But just as at that time he was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also it is now. But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. So brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. So far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation, there has been a widespread attempted hijacking of a biblical image in our world today. As soon as I say what it is, I think you'll know if you haven't guessed already, that is the image of the rainbow, the beautiful rainbow symbolizing God's hand of preserving this creation. That image of the calm after the storm, this world never again to be destroyed by water. An image now hijacked used to celebrate a sin. Now there are at least two ways that we can recapture the image of the rainbow and do so rightly. The first and the main way is to directly associate the rainbow with what it is, to directly associate the rainbow with Genesis and the flood. That is the first and primary way. Another way it could be done is to use the rainbow in the related sense of an image of calm after the storm. And there's one way that this is sometimes done and can be done appropriately when we do this giving glory to God, and that is with the expression rainbow baby. Do you know what a rainbow baby is? A rainbow baby is a healthy baby born after a miscarriage. Have you ever heard that expression? It's a rainbow baby. After the storm, after the storm of a baby lost, it's the calm of a beautiful, healthy little boy or girl. And we even know, don't we, people of God, one of the babies born here is a rainbow baby. one of the last babies born here in our church. And that image of there is a storm, but now there is a calm after it, that's related to the biblical image. When we do that giving glory to God, it's one of the ways to appropriately recapture the picture of God's beautiful rainbow. And that term, rainbow baby, I don't think that term existed in the days of the apostle, but if it did, he could have used it to help express the idea going on in these two verses, 26 and 27. That is because there are promises here, not only promises proclaimed, but also promises fulfilled. not only promises of expectation, but also words of expectation realized. And so, people of God, we have a passage before us where the Apostle moves from Genesis and then into Isaiah by quoting from Isaiah 54 verse 1 in verse 27, and through there also into the realities of the New Testament church. And throughout it all, we see this, and we see this theme growing, developing. May our joy increase even more upon seeing the growth and the realization of the promises of God. And so first we'll look back at Baron Sarah, Baron Sarah rejoice, and then exiled Jerusalem, lonely Jerusalem rejoice. And then our third point, our place here now today, expanded Jerusalem, multiply, multiply your rejoicing. So first, Baron Sarah. It has been a few weeks, so let us remember what the contrast is here. We have an allegory rooted in historical truths contrasting Sarah with Hagar. Hagar tied to being a picture of the Mosaic Covenant as it exists apart from the obedience of Christ. And Sarah tied to the promises made to Abraham, to the covenant promises, purely of grace. And Sarah and Abraham together because the promise that Abraham would become a great nation is to be specifically fulfilled only through Sarah. And so we mentioned that a few weeks ago, but let us turn to the passage in Genesis that makes that most clear. That's Genesis chapter 17. Genesis chapter 17, this is now years after the promise has first been given, 13 years after Ishmael was born, and Abraham is still thinking that that's going to be the way it goes now, right? But on no uncertain terms, God brings the focus back to Sarah. It will be Sarah. And so her name is repeated multiple times as God speaks to Abraham in Genesis 17, verses 15 to 21 and God said to Abraham as far as for Sarah your wife you shall not call her name Sarah I but Sarah shall be her name emphasizing Abraham I change your name I'm going to change Sarah's name, too. It actually is going to mean the same thing. It's really just a different spelling of the same name. But I'm doing it to emphasize this, Abraham. It's not just you. It's you and Sarai, who is now to be called Sarah. Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations. Kings of people shall come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said to himself, Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, O that Ishmael might live before you! And God said, No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply greatly. He shall father 12 princes and I will make him into a great nation, but I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year. It is Sarah. It is Sarah. And so then, chapter 18 Sarah hears this and just as Abraham did when he first heard it Sarah also laughs she also laughs and she says in Genesis 18 12 after I am worn and my Lord my husband Abraham is old shall I have pleasure but despite the sins of Abraham and Sarah the work of God is not stopped God does cause Baron Sarah to give birth by Abraham. And then in Genesis 21, after Isaac is born, Sarah then says this, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me. And of course that's a different kind of laughing than in Genesis 18 isn't it? And so much we learn from these events, events that I trust are familiar to many. But again, we're anchoring ourselves back in, especially on the focus on Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, name changed from Sarai. And we learn so much from this. We learn the important place of women. It's not merely Abraham. It must be Abraham and his wife, Sarah. We learn of the powerful love of God, despite the disobedience of Sarah that Sarah and Abraham participated in, that Sarah instigated, the Hagar debacle being her idea, despite the out loud laughter of disbelief, out loud laughter both by Abraham and then the next chapter by Sarah. Despite the womb of Sarah, which really was barren, God will give both Abraham and Sarah true obedient faith. God will turn the laughter of disbelief into the laughter of joy. God will make the barren womb give birth. Okay, now we're anchored back in. We know the place of Sarah. I trust that was, again, familiar to many. But now you say, Okay, here's Sarah, we've got the reminder of Sarah, but I still don't see how we get from Sarah to a quotation from Isaiah about exiled Jerusalem to me. There are many passages in the Old Testament that speak of the promises to exiled Jerusalem. On the surface, to quote in Galatians 4.27 from Isaiah 54.1, does not look like the most obvious place to go. But if we dig into Isaiah, it's been said, I actually, I wrote this in my notes, it's almost like the Apostle Paul just had a sermon series on Isaiah 51 to 54, but before he left Galatia, and he's expecting them to get all these connections, and then the next day I read a teacher and she said, yeah, it's almost like the Apostle Paul just had a sermon on Isaiah 54, 1 in Galatia. The more we look at Isaiah, the more it does make sense. And here's this specifically for Sarah. If you would turn to Isaiah 51 to 54 with me, we're going to be looking at a few verses from here. We're going to reference it in all three of our points. Isaiah 51, verse 1 and 2. Isaiah 51, verse 1 and 2. Now, we sometimes talk about units within books, so we've said Galatians can roughly be broken into three parts, Galatians 1 and 2, Galatians 3 and 4, Galatians 5 and 6. Some have said that Isaiah 51 to 54 should be understood as a unit. In Isaiah 51 verse 2, it's the only time in all of the Old Testament, outside of the book of Genesis, that the name of Sarah is mentioned. You see, the Apostle did not just pick Isaiah 54 1 out of a hat. He's doing something intentional here. Sarah is right here in the context. Isaiah 51 verse 2, look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you for he was but one when I called him that I might bless him and multiply him. from Abraham and Sarah, these two people will be born a great nation. But actually look back at verse one. Who are the descendants in Isaiah of Abraham and Sarah? Look at Isaiah 51 verse one. Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord, Look at the rock from which you were hewn and the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham and Sarah. The Old Testament, the only place outside of Genesis that Sarah is mentioned, the prophet is connecting the righteous ones with Abraham and Sarah. Do you see now how that is an intentional move by the Apostle, not a random choice of promise, but he's looking to this section of Isaiah to make his argument, isn't he? The righteous are the descendants of Abraham and Sarah. Isaiah said it before Paul said it. This is now the connection. To tie together the promises made to Sarah and the promises made to exiled Jerusalem is not an obvious connection on the surface, but the more we look at Galatians 3 and 4, the more we look at all of Isaiah 51 to 54, the more it makes sense. And so we'll move now into our second point, to lonely Jerusalem rejoice. And so, in verse 27 of Galatians 4. Rejoice, O barren one. Where is this somewhat lengthy quote coming from? It's coming from Isaiah 54. And so let us read Isaiah 54 verse 1, the verse that's quoted, and then keep your hand there. We're going to read some more verses in a moment. Sing, O barren one who did not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud. for you who have not been in labor, for the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married, says the Lord." What are these images? What's going on here? This is this image of the city as a mother and then when the city is conquered all her citizens leave and her children are her citizens and now she's desolate, she's barren, she's abandoned. an image that we think of often today, but a common image in the Old Testament. Perhaps you remember from Lamentations, we were there some time ago, right? That's the voice of the city that speaks out, the lonely mother with lonely streets with no children. And that's the same image here in Isaiah 54.1. It is Isaiah who knows that there will be an exile, he's prophesied it, and he's saying, for this exile, when you are in exile, lonely Jerusalem, abandoned, you no longer have your children, you are like a barren one. You are one surrounded by death, and barrenness and death are connected again and again and again in the Old Testament. You are barren, but Your desolation will be turned to joy. Your desolation will be replaced by expansion. Rejoice, O barren one. Sing for joy, O barren one. And so to read on is to read of that expansion further explained. And so Isaiah 54 verses 2 through 7, enlarge the place of your tent and let the curtains of your habitation be stretched out. Do not hold back. Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, for you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations, and will people And will people the desolate cities fear not for you will not be ashamed. Do not be confounded for you will not be disgraced for you will forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood. You will remember no more for your maker is your husband for the Lord of hosts is his name and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer the God of the whole Earth. He is called for the Lord has called you like a white deserted and grieved in spirit like a wife of youth when she is cast off says your God. for a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In the ancient world, to be barren, you had no future. It was death. Your line was done. You didn't have a second job you could turn to as a woman. It is incredibly a shame-filled thing in the culture, even going beyond what should have been, certainly. To be a conquered city is to be hopeless. So much is tied up in the nation, in the national identity, right? When a city is conquered, I mean, that's it. You're done. You're enslaved. It's unheard of for a nation to come back. especially the same nation, right? I mean, Babylon was conquered and then it came back, but it was a different ruling dynasty. And so we sometimes call the second Babylonians the Chaldeans. They're in the same city, but it's really a different nation. To have the same nation be restored, this is unheard of. In the ancient world, the kingdom falls and that's it. It's done. You're hopeless. You have nothing. God says, no, you are going to be destroyed. There is going to be exile because you are in rebellion against me. But it is not the end of the story. Rejoice because you are going to be expanded past what old Jerusalem could ever have imagined, what old Jerusalem could ever have fit into its borders. You must expand. You must look to the end of the earth. There are two keys then to understanding how we can move into our third point. So we're still here in point two, but we're beginning to, you know, so once again, we can ask the question, okay, all right, I'm seeing this, but now I'm still, right, how, let's connect the dots. How do we get from here to New Testament church? I'm starting to see it, but I still, you know, give me more keys to help me see how we're getting there. The first key we've already glanced at, it's that in Isaiah already, Sarah and the promise to Sarah and Abraham is for the righteous ones, the righteous ones, Isaiah 51 and 2. That's the first key. But the second key that really pulls this all together is Jesus Christ himself. Absolutely, absolutely. What's the chapter that comes before Isaiah 54? Is it a chapter you're familiar with, people of God? Is it the great chapter of the suffering servant? Who's the suffering servant? Jesus Christ. Who's the one that was bruised for us, who healed our transgressions? The Apostle Paul did not just pick this verse about the restoration of Israel haphazardly. He picked Isaiah 54-1 intentionally. Again, Galatians 3 and 4 is a unit. Right? So we're looking at Isaiah 51 to 54. Who's at the center of this? Who is the one that we must look to and have faith in? Isaiah 53, verse 1. Who has believed what he has heard from us? You must believe. You must hear. You must look. You must see. Look to the suffering servant. That's the rest of Isaiah 53. How does the section of Galatians 3 and 4 begin? You just heard that call to hear and to believe in Isaiah 53 1 isn't it the same in Galatians 3 verse 2? Let me ask you now this did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith here with faith? Who do we look to and believe in Isaiah 53? The suffering servant. Who do we hear with faith and trust on in Galatians 3? Our Lord Jesus Christ who suffered on the cross and took the curse upon himself when he died on that tree for us. It is one and the same. It is that key which connects this Old Testament promise out of the past and into the present right here today. in the expanded Jerusalem on the opposite side of the world in Waupon, Wisconsin. That is it. It is Jesus Christ. He is the one. He is the only Savior, old and new. He is the one whom we must believe, whom we must have faith in. He is the key to connecting the dots and so we we say now now we are in our third point expanded Jerusalem multiply your rejoicing the Old Testament application is this rejoice the New Testament application is this rejoice even more you know this is a promise this is a promise now that is fulfilled. It is fulfilled. See that promises are given, promises are given to specifically exiled Jerusalem Actually, you see in this image, since it is an image, the apostle can kind of play with it a little bit, right? You notice that he mentions the name of Hagar, but he doesn't mention the name of Sarah. So he's making real connections. There is a connection between Sarah and exiled Jerusalem, but by not mentioning her name, he's kind of bringing the promise through, out of Genesis and into Isaiah, which even more clearly connects to us, right? This unfolding promise, the promise that exiled Jerusalem would expand, it's no longer a promise waiting for fulfillment. It's a promise that is fulfilled. People of God, do you see that? Do you see how we can rejoice even more? The promise is answered. We are here. We are part of the expanded Jerusalem. We do not need to make a pilgrimage to give sacrifices in the temple. We worship God and we give our sacrifice of praise wherever we worship in spirit and truth, we give it right here this morning. Worship Him in spirit and truth. Praise Him, glorify Him. Know that the promises are already answered. At what moment, people of God, At what single moment did that transition happen? When did the promises go from being promises given to being promises fulfilled? It's from death to life. Barrenness, so closely associated with death, is replaced by life and the Jerusalem which now is expanded and expanding at the moment Jesus Christ rose from the dead. When he conquered the grave, barrenness and death is turned into resurrection and life. The church is now begun. And the church is now continuing 2,000 years later. And so Colossians 1 would speak of this. In summary, in Colossians 1.18, and he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. If we do not have faith, if we do not believe, if we do not turn to the suffering servant, if we are like the unrepentant exiles, if we are like the false teachers who would turn their eyes away from Christ in whom all things are fulfilled, then we have barrenness, then we have death. But in Jesus Christ, we share in his very resurrection from the dead, and these promises are already fulfilled. They are already being fulfilled, even in our presence here now today. Surely, people of God, rejoice even more. Rejoice even more. We are part of now the heavenly expanded Jerusalem. As the Apostle says in Philippians, we are citizens of heaven. As the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12, but you have come to Mount Zion into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. That's where we worship. That's where we assemble to paraphrase what follows. This is wonderful truth to hear. We can illustrate what it is like to hear this truth as a member of the New Testament Expanded Jerusalem by thinking of two different seven-year-old girls. The picture of the first seven-year-old girl is a girl who has grown up and is not loved in her home. And so now she's reaching a point where she's old enough to understand certain things. And her parents would say something like, you know, we really never wanted to have you. We never wanted you to be part of this home. You were just an accident and we're sorry that you're here. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Sad reality is sometimes that picture is a reality. Can you imagine how crushing that is? That is one picture. The neglected child, either through outright words or through neglect that takes the form of being absorbed in drugs or technology or some combination of both. A child that is told, I don't want you. Now contrast that. Contrast that. With a seven year old girl, who's now old enough to understand some deeper thoughts. And she is told this, Mommy and Daddy prayed for you. You had an older brother or sister that Mommy and Daddy lost. But after that storm, after that storm, you were our rainbow baby. We pray for you. We waited for you. We love you. We love you. That's the New Testament church people of God. You are not just waiting for promises fulfilled. Jesus Christ tells you, you are my promise granted in my son, Jesus Christ. Be part of expanded Jerusalem as one who looks to him, who looks to that central moment, who knows, who knows that he died for my sins and he rose from the grave and I am part of his expanded kingdom, his promises fulfilled. What an incredible difference. A seven-year-old crushed or a seven-year-old lifted in soaring hope. One last thing to say then, because the text says, rejoice, O barren one. Now, Again, we've moved out of that. The church is no longer barren. But it is true that in circumstances of great pain, such as a barren woman who can't give birth, such as a conquered and desolate city with exiles and slavery being spread over the course of the earth, such personal or national types of pain, right? Those relate to pain that individuals within the expanded Jerusalem have now, doesn't it? So you say, I am part of the New Testament Church and I rejoice in this, but at a personal level, I have barrenness, I have desolation. Well, people of God, Remember that this promise was made before it was fulfilled. And know that you can rejoice as a member of this expanded community, even if you still have personal barrenness, personal storms. This is who you are. That, that word of we love you, you are our rainbow baby. That's, that's what Christ says to his church. That's what God says to his New Testament people. And you are a part of that body. Rejoice, people of God. Rejoice, be glad to hear that. Be glad in looking in faith to Jesus Christ to hear who he calls you. Rejoice even more. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, for a time, your people were in exile. But Lord, it did not remain so. you sent your son, and you reversed the fortunes of your entire people to now be your expanded and expanding kingdom. Lord, you save the righteous ones who look to you by faith. We are part of the fulfillment of the promises you gave so long ago, all centered upon what your son has done. Lord God, may we rejoice in these great truths. This we pray in the name of that suffering servant who is our risen King, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.