Good morning, everyone. It is a beautiful day to be
together to worship Our God today and I'm privileged to have
the chance to lead our study through the book of Galatians.
And today we're covering chapter 2 about a month ago, we cover
chapter one. So I'm going to do a quick
refresher because I know for my own even studying I needed that
constant refresher as I go through.
So today we're going to do a quick refresher of chapter one
and try to get all the way through Galatians Chapter 2
today. I just want to say a word of
appreciation, Rishi ation for a congregation as a teacher, you
know, putting in the time to study it takes a lot of work for
anyone who studies. And and there's nothing more
motivating as a team as a person trying to lead a study then to
see that people are putting the stuff into their life and you
can tell by conversations we have with one another.
The way people act, the way we talk the way we pray, the way
people and our individual conversations, talk to one
another, you can tell people are putting the F into action and as
someone leading a study, there's nothing more motivating than
knowing. Okay, this is going to good use.
This is fruitful work and I can tell that.
So, thank you for your encouragement in the lives that
you live lead. And looking forward to hopefully
learning something together today in Chapter 2 of Galatians.
So, if you want to have this open in front of you, this is
where we're going to spend all of our time today.
And I'll remind you of, kind of our keynote verse that I put on
the board the first time and I think this summarizes the whole
point of the book of Galatians pretty well.
So remember Paul is writing this letter to a region called
galatia. It's a bunch of people in
galatia churches, in galatia and he tells them to stand fast or
hold on strong, therefore in the liberty or the freedom, which It
has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of
bondage, he's going to use this phraseology, this bondage and
this being tied back and a lot of times he's mentioning the Old
Testament, how they wanted to pull the people back to the Old
Testament and say, okay, yeah, we need to be Christians, but
you also need to be tied into the Old Law.
And the hard thing for these Jews was, they had spend their
whole lifetime, and they had spent so much history, being the
center of God's plan. The Jewish people had this Rich
history and they were not ready to let go of it.
And the way they thought their history was important.
And so they started trying to say, okay, yeah, you need to be
Christians, but you have to be kind of a compound Christian,
you have to be a Jew and a Christian.
So if you want to become a Christian, you have to first
become Manju, and that's the entryway into Christianity.
You have to be circumcised like under the law of Moses.
Under the Old Testament, to become a Christian And that's
this entanglement because it was just making things all tangled
up and you had to be pulled back to something that wasn't there.
Anymore wasn't binding them anymore and you want them to be
free ultimately and we're going to cover some Concepts that will
go into General law. But a lot of times he's talking
about the law of Moses, the Old Testament, okay?
So I'll remind us that one of the most helpful things when I
was studying this as to re go through my outline to remind
myself where we're going in chapter 1.
When he started off by defending his apostleship the whole point
of it writing this letter is because he had the authority
from God, that gospel came from Divine Authority and his
relationship to the apostles is the second section.
We get into now his relationship with the apostles is important
because he already showed us. He's he was independent from the
apostles. Okay, the other bigwigs the
other important Apostles. He's already showed himself.
Hey I had my gospel A from them. I didn't have to have these guys
approval but he's going to go on to affirm even though I didn't
need that. Even though I didn't need their
approval, he's gonna go through and show us how he did have
their approval and so let's get into it.
Clickers mean, crazy. Okay, verse 1 of chapter 2, he's
already told us about his trajectory and his faith up to
this point. Then he says, after 14 years.
So, he was converted, he spent three years in Arabia, not even
around any of the other apostles.
Then he came back to finally, to Jerusalem after 14 years, I went
up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus
with me. So he stresses this 14 years,
basically. What he's saying is, if I only I
went to Jerusalem the place where all the happening stuff
was going on where all the these great men were?
If I went twice in 14 years, do you really think I really needed
their Authority? Or I was getting my gospel from
them? It's like no, he's trying to
make a point after 14 years. I went back and he's gonna
outline the situation happened. When he did get back in amongst
them, Sometimes getting a bunch of religious people together can
create some problems. We're going to read about that.
In this chapter. So I went up again to Jerusalem
with Barnabas and also took Titus with me.
Okay. I want to make a stop and make a
point here, that kind of is built off of our last study, and
this whole chapter is about something Paul had to fight
against Paul was an apostle and he was immediately met with
adversity and that's why he's still defending himself, he's
trying to show them his legitimacy and I think I think
this is an important Point. Hell's forces had an assignment
again. It's Paul, they were trying to
help us forces were trying to work against the church and
there are many ways. The devil can do that.
The devil is deceptive, he is conniving, he can work in
relationships and become like that, that that water that's
into it gets into a crack and freezes and thaws and expands
that crack and makes things worse and worse.
The devil was working in the church to try to split people
apart. And Paul had to fight against
this, and I think there's a lesson here.
Hell's forces have an assignment against your life.
If you are serving God, if you are in the thick of it, there's
going to be challenges by nature of the fact that hell's forces
don't want you to do that. And the reason is heaven has an
assignment for you if you have an assignment from Heaven, hell
is going to have an assignment against you.
So may we not be surprised. May we take this in stride like
Paul did Paul handle the situation.
He kept going, we can admire Paul for his work here.
Admits the the all these barriers effaced there's a he's
he must have been thinking there's a whole world to preach
the gospel. To why do I have to face so many
barriers? He'll is forces have an
assignment against his life and because and against our life,
but that's because heaven has an assignment for us, okay?
So, Paul has gone to down to Jerusalem and he's taking with
him Barnabas and Titus. Now, we learn that both of these
men were well respected among the leadership in Jerusalem.
So, we're coming into this with two good guys Barnabas and
Titus. We're going to talk more about
Barnabas later because he gets involved in some in some
problems. But tie, this is one of those.
Who really holds firm in this process and becomes a beloved
helper to Paul. Everything.
Second Corinthians, we're told that he was like a brother to
Paul, he was comforted by Titus. Paul was comforted by Titus.
Paul trusted him to take a collection of money.
So to take a collection of money and transported, that takes a
lot of trust Titus. It says, another place had the
heart of love for the lost like Paul did.
So Titus, in many ways is a wonderful character.
We just finished the letter to Titus.
So that's one of the people. People who went with him and
we're going to get back to Barnabas and a little bit verse
20. Paul says, and I went up by
Revelation, so I didn't go there because Peter and them said,
hey, Paul, get down here, we have some orders for, you know,
he says, I went up by Revelation.
I went up because God told me to buy direct order and
communicated to them that gospel, which I preach among the
Gentiles. So he went there and
communicated, he was corroborating, the gospel that
he is sharing with it. Gentiles remember the world at
that time has two groups of people you're there Jew or
Gentile if you're not a Jew, your agent.
So he was preaching to people who are not Jews, he says, but
he he went and talked to them privately to those were of
reputation. So he went to talk to the people
in Jerusalem. These these men of renown in
Jerusalem privately first to those who are reputation
reputation, lest by any means I might run or had run.
In vain, I believe what he's basically saying here, as he
comes into this Jerusalem situation.
Okay. There's a lot of religious
people in this area and he wanted to talk to the leaders.
First to make sure there wasn't going to be any issues to make
sure. Hey, here's what I'm preaching
and I need to know if there's going to be any problems with
that. I need to know if there's going
to be any issues with you disagree with my gospel, he
didn't want to be running in vain.
He says yet, not even tied us, who is with me?
Being a Greek or a gentile. He says, Titus was Gentile, he
wasn't circumcised. And he was not compelled to be
circumcised, so he comes into the situation and nobody
convinced Titus to go back to the Old Testament.
He's showing how those forces are already working, but Titus
was not compelled to be circumcised.
He says and this occurred. So he's going to say it's kind
of gets a little bit confusing, the sentence structure here, but
he's going to say, this whole situation occurred, this whole
problem with people trying to pull them back to circumcision,
trying to pull them back to the Old Law, this occurred because
of false Brethren secretly brought in who came in by
stealth to spy out, our Liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus
that they might bring us. Into bondage there is that
language. We talked about in the
introduction later on in Galatians, he's going to
emphasize, don't go back to that bondage.
Don't go back to the requirements of the Old Law and
and Stand Fast and Liberty. And there's people who came in
to take them away from that. He's building a contrast here
between Liberty and bondage. And the reason this is such
bondage, the reason, the Old Testament was considered bondage
to them. Is because the Old Testament
didn't have a savior yet. They were tying people to
something that had no rescuer. They were tying them to a
sinking ship. If you tie someone to a ship
that has a savior, that is gonna be saved, great, but they were
being tied to an old law that wouldn't have a savior, the new
law brought the Savior, and that's why it was freedom and
liberty because they could be saved in it.
And he says, to whom we did not yield submission even for an
hour. So these people who came in, we
didn't we didn't submit to them. We did not stand or accept this.
This tragedy of of tearing down the gospel.
We did not accept that we did not yield to that even for an
hour. Why?
So that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you now you
could read this and say well it wasn't that big of a deal that
these people stood up for the gospel because it would have
been Reserved anyway, right. Like if Paul didn't stand up,
the gospel still would have been preserved because God always has
a way of getting his word out. That's true.
That's, that is probably true. Even if Paul didn't stand up,
someone would have, but it doesn't take away.
The fact, that Paul, and his supporters here, preserve the
truth of the Gospel. So that we could have it today.
And the bottom line is if you don't do your job and God's
kingdom, it will get done. And maybe you'll get done
somewhere else. Maybe it's not going to flourish
here. If I don't do my job, God's
purposes are not going to stop. But that doesn't take away from
the fact that if you are involved, you have a role and
doing something extremely great beyond anything that you could
ever think to accomplish in your Earthly life beyond anything
else. Your work has long-term Eternal
consequences just like Paul's did.
Even though Paul was just a man. He helped preserved truth of the
Gospel by how he stood up in faith.
And preserving both the faith. And the people, the faith of the
people around him because it's going to say that Paul would
preserve the faith of the people around him because they would
eventually change from their error.
So he presumed help, preserve the faith, and their faith and
we can learn from the example for our own action, verse 6.
But from those who seem to be something whatever they were, it
makes no difference to me, God shows no personal, favoritism to
no man. For those who seem to be
something out of nothing to me. So he's really, he's really
tearing down these platforms and these pedestals that we put men
on and in this situation specifically we're going to
learn the people who seem to be something that was Peter.
James maybe John, some of those people who seem to be these
great people. He says, made no difference to
me. There's people He says they had
a nothing to me and I don't believe he's saying here that
they were useless, or weren't a spiritual strength for him.
I don't think that's what he's saying.
I believe what he's saying is in the context, he's talking about
how he's how his gospel was, was being taught truthfully on its
own. He didn't have to have anybody
else add to his gospel. Like, hey, Paul, your gospel is
weak in this area, Peter, and I have to say that to him, They
didn't have to add anything to his gospel, he didn't need that
from them. Verse 7, but on the contrary.
So not only did they not add to my gospel on the contrary when
they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised have been
committed to me. As the gospel for the
circumsized was to Peter for. He who worked effectively, who
for he who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the
circumcised also worked effectively and me toward the
Gentiles. And when James cephas and John,
who seemed to be pillars perceived, the grace that have
been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of
Fellowship that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the
circumcised. Okay, let's back out.
That's a a huge big sentence that has a lot information.
So he starts out by saying when they saw that, that I was
preaching, the gospel to the Gentiles, just as the gospel to
the Jews was committed to Peter. So Peters job was to go to the
Jews and Paul is primary job was to go to the Gentiles when they
saw that knowing that God is working in both of us.
That's what this paragraph here. That's in parentheses basically
says knowing that the God. Who supported Peters apostleship
also supported mine. Their response to that.
They gave me and Barnabas the right hand of Fellowship, they
saw that I was doing a good work basically and the right hand of
Fellowship, basically, keep doing what you're doing.
We're in agreement. We are on the same path.
We are we are supportive of your work Paul.
So again, this is further validating to the people who are
detractors of Paul, it's validating.
Hey, I didn't need the apostles but even they gave me their
validation. They gave me the right hand of
Fellowship. They said you're on the right
track. You keep doing what you're
doing. Yes, the affirmation the
agreement. Now I think it's interesting a
little side point. Why God chose Paul for one work
and Peter for another. And I think the beautiful part
is God, prepared them. For their work because their
work needed them and they needed their work.
God prepared. This work special for them
because the work needed their these men's effort, but they
also needed the work. And I look at Peter specifically
in this in this this thought process.
I look at Peter who went to the Jews.
Now, it's interesting when you can consider Peters character
Arc, Peter kind of went back and forth and it seems like he might
have had trouble with people's view of him.
For example, when Jesus was about to die, Peter said no, I'm
gonna stand up for you and nothing's gonna happen to you.
I'm gonna defend you. And and later he would give in
when a little girl came to him and said, you're one of the
Apostles and Peter, it was like the pressure of the crowd.
I don't know what it exactly was but Peter gave in to that crowd
pressure, especially from the Jews, it seems And we learned.
We're going to learn later in this situation.
How he's going to give in to the peer pressure of the Jews around
him, and he's going to go back. So it's interesting that God
sends Peter to the Jews. It's almost like he wants him to
deal with that. He wants him to deal with the
insecurity of going to his Jewish.
Nationality people and saying, No this is right and I'm going
to stand up for it, even though I want to pull back, maybe and
go with the crowd, he had to deal with his own feelings in
his own weaknesses and I believe the work was important for
Peters growth because we're going to later.
Learn that he would change. And he would become an elder in
the church through all of his mistakes.
But his work, his responsibilities pushed in
there, and I want to encourage you to take on more
responsibility in your own life and serving God because there
are places your faith will never go in till you take on that
responsibility. There Are Places.
You can't push yourself until you step out of with the rules.
You currently have or outside of the confined roles that you
currently have of what you're willing to do for the Lord.
And take on more for his cause, Peter was a great example of
that. He was often failing but often
growing when we read about in the Bible it's interesting here
and I'm not sure if this was the intent of the author but I want
to focus on this phrase for just a second, it said and when James
cephas, which is Peter and John Who seemed to be pillars.
Now, this phrase has an interesting connection because
of the temple that stood at this time.
Okay, the Jewish temple was this, elaborate ornate wonderful
structure from the Old Testament and it had two pillars in front
of it. There are named Boaz and I
believe it's yanking or jaqen, however, it's pronounced and
these pillars We're massive, they're beautiful, they're made
of bronze or brass or something like that and they were they
were some some people said 30 feet.
I don't know exactly how tall they were.
Some of the measurements were a little bit fuzzy but these were
massive pillars. Temple was big.
These pillars were at least 30 feet high and diameter.
They were about six feet across. So this is a massive pillar
standing in front of this beautiful ornate structure.
But if you look at the top of these, there's no building it
sitting on it. That's called a non load-bearing
pillar in front of the temple. There were these two beautiful
pillars. That weren't holding anything
up. They were decorative And I'm not
sure if this is the the in the thought that Paul had in writing
this maybe he was comparing these men Peter and James two
pillars that were looked beautiful, but we're really
holding nothing up. But the point is true.
Nonetheless he's going to dig into them for their weakness in
their failures. I think it's interesting that he
uses this terminology, they seemed to be pillars.
Okay, so you have these men who gave, we already read this, who
gave Paul and Barnabas the right hand of Fellowship, keep doing
what you're doing verse 10. They desired only that, we
should remember the poor. The very thing which I was also
eager to do. Now, I believe this is
specifically referring to the poor who are in Jerusalem.
The poor Christians in Jerusalem.
We later learn that. And we're in Romans 15 verse 25.
It says this Paul is saying but now I'm going to To go to
Jerusalem to minister to the Saints for it.
Please those for Macedonia and aquella to make a certain
contribution to the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.
So I believe when he's saying here that they all wanted to
make sure they were taking care of the poor.
I believe that was referring to the poor Christians in the city
of Jerusalem specifically. Now, it doesn't mean that we
don't have responsibilities to the poor in general.
We are to be good too many people.
Regardless of where they stand in religious circles, we would
be good to the poor. But I believe this is
specifically talking about the poor Christians in Jerusalem
verse 11. Now, when Peter had come to
Antioch, I withstood him to his face.
So we're about to get into, we're transitioning now from
Paul defending, his apostleship to a point where he is talking
about arising conflict, there is a rising conflict building with
Peter and Paul. Paul and Antioch, he withstood
him to his face. That's very controversial
language because he was to be blamed.
Okay, why? Why was why was Peter to be
blamed? It says for before certain men
came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles so he was used
to talk and have a good, you know, fraternizing with the
Gentiles. He was all doing his thing.
He had received the message with cornmeal.
Alias that he was to accept the Gentiles.
Now he was doing that, he was eating with the Gentiles but
when they came when those people who are trying to pull people
back to the Old Testament, came he withdrew and separated
himself Peter felt that pressure.
And he didn't, he wouldn't even the Gentiles because he was
fearing those who were of the circumcision.
Peter was the one who took a knife and slashed off the the
servant of the high priest Mal kiss.
This is the guy who's afraid of the Jews, the people of the
circumcision. Why?
Now, I want to set this scene, I just pulled this random picture
of a potluck. They have these things in
Jerusalem called their love feasts where they would all get
together and have a meal together.
And so I just wanted to put a context maybe for for the
gravity of what's about to happen.
You have a lot of people getting together eating together and
Paul's going to come into this situation and he's going to kind
of blow things up. It says, and the rest of the
Jews, also played the hypocrite hypocrite with him.
So the even Barnabas was Has carried away with their
hypocrisy. This is the problem of when we
don't stand up for what's right. And when we give into peer
pressure's and Temptation, it wasn't just that Peter was
unfaithful. It says the rest of the Jews
followed his suit and played the hypocrite.
The word hypocrite. Was someone who wore a mask?
They were fake. Peter was being fake and the
rest of the Jews also became fake.
So that even Barnabas was carried away with their
hypocrisy, Peter knew better and Acts chapter 11 verse 17.
We read it. We just talked about that
situation where he was sent to the house of Cornelius and he
had received this message from God.
You know what, except the Gentiles arise kill and eat.
It's not about the unclean animals of the Old Testament
anymore. He was told to move on.
And from there, he said to the other people, he said, if
therefore, God gave them the same gift as he gave us the
Gentiles. When we believed on the Lord,
Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand Stand gone.
And when those people heard these things they became silent
and they glorified God saying. Thank God has also granted to
the Gentiles repentance to life. He had already had the message
he knew, better Peter knew better than to pull away and be
Hypocrites against the people who are Gentiles Peter knew
better. And I think the saddest part of
all, this is even Barnabas was carried away.
Barnabas we read about is an encourager.
Barnabas was someone who would stand up for somebody when no
one else would? Specifically with Paul.
So this had to really hit home for Paul that Barnabas did this
in Acts chapter 9 verse 26. It says and when Saul who was,
it was Paul same person had come to Jerusalem.
So Paul's just been converted. He was previously, killing
Christians, having Christians killed.
So when he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples when
he was converted, he tried to Come in with the rest of them
but they were all afraid of him. And did not believe that he was
a disciple. Can you imagine that what I felt
to be the enemy and to try once you're converted to join?
The enemy cabin, say I was wrong.
I'm ready to support the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And everyone just to be afraid of you.
What if everyone in this room looked at you sideways?
We don't want anything to do with you.
We don't really believe you're a true Christian, how that would
hurt. But you know what with all those
other people Barnabas Took him and brought him to the apostles.
Barnabas took, this guy that everyone else rejected and
encouraged him and said, hey, we got you your.
All right, let's go, let's do some work.
Barnabas stood up for him when everyone else was against him
and how much it must have hurt Paul and hurt the people around
him, that even Barnabas was influenced by this peer
pressure. So that he wouldn't eat with the
Jews that he would withdraw from them and be afraid of people who
were Jewish, who were trying to pull them back to the Old Law.
Even Barnabas was carried away. But when I saw that they were
not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel, I said to
Peter before them all. So before everyone who was there
eating before everyone who is seeing this Paul stood up in
front of everyone and said, if you being a Jew live in the
manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews.
Why do you compel the Gentiles to live as Jews?
He says, you're not even living like a gentile.
You eat bacon for breakfast. You're not following the Old
Law. Why do you?
If you don't live in the manner of the Jews, compel other people
to live as Jews. He's calling me out for being a
hypocrite in front of everybody, and this has to be a people
Pleasers worst nightmare to be called out in front of everyone.
May we be authentic and honest in our faith.
Maybe we stand for, what's, right?
And don't do it just because of certain people who are around
all the time because we will be exposed one way or another lies,
get exposed. This is Paul's or Peters worst
nightmare. Now, I used to think that it
kind of stopped there and then he went on to Justice Paul was
writing about the situation, he's like right back to my
original thought but no, Paul is still going off.
This is still part of his speech in front of everyone.
We who are Jews by nature and not Sinners of the Gentiles.
So the world outside of the Jewish faith was considered to
be generally sinful. They did not follow God, he says
knowing that a man is not justified by The Works of the
law. But by faith, in Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified
by faith in Christ and not by The Works of the law for by The
Works of the law. No flesh shall be justified.
What's he saying? He's saying that, we know better
than anybody. We can't do this perfectly.
We tried to live our lives. Perfect in front of the Old
Testament law and Paul really thought he was But it said that
we know that a man is not justified by The Works of the
law. There is nothing they could do
Under the Old Law to save them self.
They were only to be saved by faith in Christ Jesus.
We know that as Jews. Even we have believed in Christ
Jesus, that we might be justified and by faith in Christ
and not by The Works of the law. This is all tied in with the Old
Testament law. I believe we're going to talk
more about General on a second but he's saying Well, you can't
do it. You can't be justified.
What is Justified me? And he means basically, to be to
me made, right? It to be made Guiltless to me
made innocent in a sense. So here is the world reality.
The biblical reality is that everyone has sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God Romans 3:23.
We are all confined, understand, we have all sinned.
So, how are we going to be saved?
How are we going to be justified to where our sins aren't counted
against us and Eternity? It's not by the Old Testament
law, it's by faith in Christ. We are going to be saved because
of faith in Christ. Not because of an old law that
we follow perfectly and are saving is not going to come
through our own works, either. We're going to talk about that
in just a second for by The Works of the law.
No flesh shall be justified. This is true, both in Old
Testament context and in any law context for example.
If I were to go out driving down the street, I'm not going to
drive, you know, 35 exactly on the speed limit, a cop's not
going to pull me over and say congratulations, here's 50
bucks. You follow the speed limit,
that's not how the law works. Most law only punishes people
who have done wrong, it's such a boundary and keeps you in the
boundary. so law in general, Doesn't save you.
You don't get something from law.
Your only shown your weakness through law.
You're only shown where you messed up the cup only pulls you
over if you're doing something wrong.
But specifically to the Old Law. The old laws purpose was not to
justify people. The scripture says that by the
Old Law, all are confined under sin, the Old Law shows us that
we're all stuck in sin. It's like the walls close in
around us and we have nowhere to go under sin.
The law can find us all in that place where we had nowhere to
run. Its purpose was not to justify
us. Its purpose was not to free us
and people really give the Old Law, bad rep, the Old Law was
not evil. It just was not built to save
you. It was built to be a tutor.
It was built where told to lead us to Christ to show us that we
need Christ. The Old Law was the problem.
It was staying with the Old Law Without A Savior without the new
law to fill its place. Now, it is also generally true
that law does not save us and we are not saved by our works, but
that's the beauty of the law of Liberty.
We read about Christ's law and the Bible and the Plan of
Salvation and life. We live as a law of freedom
word. The Bible says, we're going to
be slaves to something. You're going to be slaves to God
or slaves to evil. So it's not that we don't have a
law. It's just that Christ's law.
When we follow it, fills with freedom.
It is embedded with freedom. Now, do our work, save us.
No, but true saving Faith justification by faith.
It's not because we worked our we earned it.
But part of Saving faith is full submission.
Full action. Full Readiness to follow God's
plan. Because it is the law of
Liberty. Now, Clinton friends, if you've
heard his lesson is actually, on our podcast, did a good outline
explaining this from a legal context, he talked about how
there's different ways in a court system where you can be
justified or basically let go and determined to be free.
The first one he mentioned was insufficient evidence.
Okay. Maybe a court says you can go
free because there's not enough evidence to convict you.
We already learned from Romans 3:23.
We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We learned that the the eye of God is going to and fro on the
earth seeing everything God is omniscient.
He sees all he's omnipresent. So God sees us.
There is no chance there is not a bit of chance.
The God not see something that we've done.
So there will be sufficient evidence to convict us maybe
privilege of race position or family, you know, in times in
history, in certain places by certain privilege, you could get
off, because of, who you knew who you were.
Maybe your family was. Not in this Kingdom.
Our God is a just God. He doesn't let the innocent go
or he doesn't let the guilty go and he doesn't condemn the
innocent based on any kind of privilege, maybe gift or
bribery, maybe you could give something to a judge and say
judge, I got a family, fortune, give you a lot of money to get
me out of this situation. Our God is a just got.
The Bible says that he doesn't need anything from us.
What are we going to give to God?
That he does not already have he created it all.
There's no gift or bribery we can give God, we cannot claim
fourthly. Lee superiority.
And anyway, we can't say, I'm more religious than other
people. I'm superior to other people.
I am doctrinally Superior to other people in, so I should be
saved. I should be Guiltless and we
cannot claim that I'm morally Superior to other people.
Why? Because we've already sinned,
and once you send, you are guilty of all the Bible says, So
I can't claim to be let free or forgiven because I'm superior to
anyone else in any way. That's just not how it works
with God. And for us, I think that's
important as a church. And as the Church of Christ We
are not saved because of our own Works.
We're not saved. Ultimately, because we do
communion The Way, We believe the Bible says, We're saved by
faith in Jesus Christ, and part of that is submission to what we
believe, but we are not going to stand for God and, and put our
good works out there as reasons why we should be saved finally,
you might be able to say ignorance, I didn't know,
because the Bible says, everyone has a natural law of the heart.
Everyone knows has God in their hearts, and no one is Guiltless
because we all have a responsibility that it comes
from something God put within us.
Us. We cannot claim ignorance and
finally, we get to this issue of innocence and this is what we've
been talking a lot about with the juice.
Maybe they felt that they were innocent because they have been
justified by the law, they kept the law perfectly, but we've
already learned that you cannot be freed because you kept the
law perfectly. Verse 17 but if while we seek to
be justified by Christ, so Paul is still going on.
This is part of his continued speech in front of everyone but
if while we seek to be justified by Christ we ourselves are also
found Sinners is Christ therefore a minister of sin so
it is as Christ's true work and Christ effect in our lives is
that his fault. If we are still Sinners,
certainly not for. If I Build again, those things
which I destroyed. I make myself a transgressor.
If I build up against in it wasn't Christ, working me, that
built that sin up, it was my own transgression going back to it,
he said Verse 19 for I through the law died, to the law that I
might live to God. I threw the law.
So the law showed him, his weakness and showed his showed
him. His inability to be saved on his
own Works through that. He died to the law that law.
He died to it because he was shown that he couldn't be
perfected by it. He couldn't be made justified by
it. So he died to it, why not?
So we could just be left stranded, he died to it, so he
could be living to God so that he might go to.
The saving presence in the saving work of God and the
Christ Liberty that I might live to God.
How do you do this for? I have been crucified with
Christ. It is no longer I who live, but
Christ lives in me, I have been crucified with Christ.
He's talking about his his own will, his own desires, his own
life, what his control was? He said that's been killed and I
saw the picture that help me get this in my Head.
It's a submission. We let ourselves be crucified
saying I'm not going to live this life for me anymore.
I'm sacrificing what I want because I want Christ to live in
me instead, so that I might live to God.
That's how we are living with God because we are crucifying
ourselves allowing that to happen to live to have Christ
live within me. You know what the pressure is
off. The pressure for me to figure
out my own life and make all these decisions and figure out
eternity and decide where my family is going to end up in
eternity and provide for my child.
All that pressure is off because Christ is the one living in me,
Christ is the one giving me my direction and my hope and my
purpose. And my life.
My hope is in still. My direction is acquired and my
plan is set because Christ lives in me.
And the life which I now live. I still have to live a life
here. I can't just skip straight from
work, from here to the spiritual life, the life.
I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me.
Paul saying this in front of everybody, can you imagine the
silence in the room? Can you imagine the shock?
When all this talk about law and stuff, was brought back to where
that may needs to be The Son of God who loved me, the Son of God
who gave himself for me, Paul puts me there twice because we
need to put ourselves there twice.
You were saved you were but you were justified by Christ and we
need to have faith in him and that's where our Focus needs to
be and the one who loved me and gave himself for me.
So I Crucify My Flesh and give it back to Christ.
I do not set aside the grace of God.
Paul says For if righteousness, comes through the law.
Then Christ died in vain. He says, I'm not going to just
take God's grace, all that goodness, the things that I
didn't deserve to get with it. I am rewarded with he said, I'm
not gonna take all that the liberty and just set it aside.
He says, because if I do that and say, okay, thank you for
this nice gift box of Christ, and I'm going to set it here.
I'm going to be a Jew. If I do that.
Then Christ died in vain, if I say, thank you for that gift,
but I'm going to live my Jewish life and be justified by my
works of the law. Then there was no point in
Christ died. Christ died for no reason.
I can't imagine Peter in this situation.
I wonder if he heard the rooster crow a fourth time.
I wonder if all of this being brought back to the Son of God
who died for him. I wonder if that what that
brought to his mind the pain that you felt again when he
realized I've rejected him again just in a different way.
This brings us to the end of the chapter.
So I just want to close with a couple points.
I think it's I think it's awesome.
That the Bible includes everything.
We just read. If you were trying to start an
organization, that is going to change the world, you would try
to keep the roots very pure. That's where most religions try
to do. They try to justify their
founding fathers and they're the people who set the religions
say, well, this person is great. They're Flawless, they're nice
and everything was good. The Bible doesn't do that
because that's not reality. The Bible says, three of these
key members, they all messed up. The people who were with James,
it says, the people who were with James, cause this problem.
So James is at fault somehow, it seems here, the Peter, that one
of the primary gospel preachers at the time he denied Christ,
Bib. The biblical Integrity is
fascinating to me, because it shows us a real reality shows us
real religion, where it allows us to track people's full circle
Peter, he denied Christ. And then on the day of
Pentecost, he was the one. He was the one to deliver the
message to the Lost. How about that?
Okay, happily-ever-after, nope. He needs to then be adjusted and
have to go to the house of Cornelius and learn about the
Gentiles saving. Okay.
Now he's good, right? Nope.
We just read about a situation where Peter really messed up in
front of everybody. This is honest, this is real
life. But we later learned that Peter
must be blameless. The Bible says that to be an
elder in the church to be a pastor, you have to be
blameless. It wasn't that he was perfect,
obviously, clearly, but he had gotten his wrongs right to be an
elder. He had right his wrongs, isn't
that awesome? Praise God.
That we are given examples of how to take things full circle
to not. Look at our passing a man messed
up. See you guys, I lost my chance.
We're shown what some of the primary leaders really messing
up? That is both encouraging to us
and it's confidence-building. They weren't serving a fake
religion and a fake God. The development, the
developmental issues, because of this whole conflict in
Jerusalem, you'd think that would have been massive, right?
Like we're trying to start a church and now there's all this
mess but God takes something beautiful and make something
great out of it. Again, to remind us Health
forces have an assignment against your life because heaven
has an assignment for you, Paul stood up in front of all this
from all in front of all these people.
And the Bible says, people accused him or made fun of it,
basically for being a week speaker.
Maybe Peter was a Brawny, man. He was a fisherman.
You got to pull Nets around all day.
It wasn't just like casting reel.
He stood up in front of may, be a tough guy and tough crowd.
But Paul stood up and said something.
And back to this idea that God brought all this full circle, we
can trust that God. Used this awkward encounter and
Antioch for everyone's good. It was good for Paul because
Paul stayed true and proclaim the gospel.
What a great opportunity, what a great confidence Builder, what a
great Sometimes, your faith is made known to yourself by what
you stand up for. It was good for Peter because
Peter was corrected. And as a result became even more
convinced in the truth than before, it was good for
Barnabas. Because barmes, came to the
correct belief on this matter. He would be changed later.
It was good. For The Men Who Came From James
has started the whole mess because a line was drawn at the
true gospel and they had to decide sometimes people need to
see that there's a line. You don't cross that it was good
for the Jewish Believers in Antioch.
They have the truth sped out clearly for them maybe these
Jewish Believers remember they're they're just having a
hard time believing the fact that these Gentiles can just
walk in when we been here Garden Gate this whole time but they
were shown the truth of the Gospel.
It was good for the Gentile Believers in Antioch so it's
good for the Jews but was also good for the Gentiles because
their faith and Liberty in Christ was strengthened if you
were a gentile and you saw somebody stand up against all
this, Mickey think. Okay, I'm on the right path.
I felt a little bit rejected before I felt a little bit like
this is pointless before, but I'm strengthened knowing that I
do have faith and I do have Liberty in Christ Jesus.
And finally, it was good for us because as we learned before the
true still lives today, God took something that was really,
really not good for an early church and good came from it, in
many ways. That's our lesson for today.
In Galatians, Chapter 2. We're going to get further into
this justification by faith going forward.
So if you want to learn more about, why is it we've justified
by faith and why can't we? Be justified by works.
Chapter 3 is coming. Thank you for your kind
attention this morning. If you've heard all this and
you're like, you know what, I want to be a part of this
wonderful plan. The Bible says that to believe
something you have to hear it first.
So maybe maybe if you've heard the gospel, this morning, that
Jesus Christ died for us, that nothing we could do to save
ourselves. That's the Son of God dies for
us. Maybe you believe that this
morning, you ready to change your life to repent and confess
that Jesus Christ is Is the son of God.
Unto salvation. You can start that process and
you can be added to a church like our new brother Kenny was
last week. Beautiful.
Wonderful thing to see. You can do that today.
It doesn't take some massive corporate meeting and all these
things. It takes some water.
There's water covering massive percentage of the earth.
We happen to have some our convenience here.
You can be baptized for the remission of your sins and added
to that church. You could submit to be in that
crucifixion with Christ through baptism through his death.
We are joined with him in baptism and you can rise to walk
in newness of life. If you need to get something off
your chest, if you need to make something right with the
Brethren here or maybe you just need the prayers of the church.
We're happy as a family of gods, take care of that this morning
to support one another. In any way we can serve you
while we stand in seeing this, on an invitation, We thank you
for listening to our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ
at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you
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