Abraham tried to fulfill the will of God by his own flesh and created an Ishmael. He thought he was doing a 'good work" to help the purposes of God.
God had to wait until Abraham and Sarah couldn't do anything in their own self-effort in order to produce the son of the promise and rely on God's life and power to bring about His purposes.
God doesn't recognize the things we do in the flesh. When God spoke to Abraham He said "Take your son, your only son ...".
God doesn't recognize the things of the flesh - even good things. He only sees that which has originated from Him.
Here is a quote about the flesh and "doing good deeds" within themselves from Major Ian Thomas that drives the D.I.Y self-righteousness/holiness mindset and those that think good works keep us saved crazy.
To the humble mind we would think - "Yes - Lord without You we can do nothing. You are our life." - but unfortunately some will fight against this because it exposes the flesh to be what it really is.
It's all about the "origin" of these good works and of course none of them keep us saved. That's religious nonsense and just creates a religion.
Quote:
You may have harnessed the energy of the flesh in an otherwise quite genuine desire to honor the Lord Jesus in your life. The flesh, which has its origin in Satan, will go along with you; to survive, it is quite prepared to engage in every form of Christian activity, even though this may seem to honor Christ.
The flesh will sing in the choir, teach Sunday school, preside at a deacons’ meeting, preach from the pulpit, organize an evangelistic crusade, go to Bible college, volunteer for the mission field, and a thousand other things, all of which may in themselves be otherwise legitimate, if only it can keep its neck out of the noose.
The flesh will threaten, shout, strut, domineer, sulk, plot, creep, beg, plead, or sob, whatever the situation may demand in the interests of its own survival. By any and all means it will seek to cause every Christian to live by his own strength instead of by the power and grace of the Lord Jesus, and to conclude that doing so is actually a good thing!
The characteristic of the spiritually immature is that they are unable to discern between good and evil (Hebrews 5:13-14), and the baby Christian, like the foolish Galatians, “having begun in the Spirit” still tries to be “made perfect by the flesh” (Galatians 3:3).
We must be particularly patient with those whose lack of understanding allows a genuine love for the Lord Jesus to be satisfied with, and sometimes to be quite enthusiastic about, Christian activities involving means and methods which are heavily contaminated by the flesh. These are more deserving of instruction than rebuke, for they are still in their spiritual babyhood.
The flesh will seek to produce the most plausible arguments in justification of its own illegitimate activities, even though these activities are only what the Bible calls “dead works” (Hebrews 6:1; 9:14) and not the “good works” which are truly the work of God.
“Good works” are those that have their origin in Jesus Christ, as Christ’s activity is released through your body because you present it to Him as a living sacrifice. You do this only by faith that expresses total dependence, as opposed to Adamic independence."
Major Ian Thomas: The Way Of The Flesh; from The Indwelling Life of Christ