Alright, good morning. Let's
take our Bibles and turn to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2, and I want
to look at verses 11 through 16 with you. Paul here is addressing an issue
that occurred, a situation that came up in Antioch, and it occurred
during mealtime. It seems as though the brethren
often had a meal together and would sit together and fellowship
and enjoy. breaking bread with one another
and it appears, based on the language that Paul writes with,
that this occurred after Barnabas and Paul went to Jerusalem and
met with the other elders and leaders and apostles there at
the Church of Jerusalem to hash out, to work out, to come to
an understanding that what the Judaizers were doing in bringing
circumcision into the churches, the Gentile churches, was not
the gospel at all. I mean, Paul wasn't waiting to
find out what they said. He knew what the truth was, and
he went up there because this is how critical it is that we
understand that it's by the grace of our God that we are saved.
It's by his grace and mercy that we're saved by the blood of Christ. And so Peter, the Apostle Peter,
came to the church at Antioch after this meeting, and Peter
had been spending some time there, and then at some point, some
men from Jerusalem who came out of the church where James was
the pastor there, they came from Jerusalem and something changed. Peter, before these men came,
had set a precedent. that he would sit at any table
and fellowship and rejoice in Christ with any of the brethren
that were there at Antioch. But as soon as these men from
James came, these men of the circumcision, Peter's behavior
changed noticeably. So that now when he went by a
Gentile, rather than sitting with them or hugging them or
talking with them for a few minutes, he just gave a little nod and
hoped that no one from the circumcision noticed it. And he went and sat
at the table with those of the circumcision. And so Paul had
to address this error. This was creating a division.
This was creating a false understanding in the minds of the people. And
Paul addressed him because not only was it Peter that was doing
this, but even Barnabas. Even Barnabas was being led astray
with this division that was popping up there in Antioch. And Paul said, you're not walking
uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. You're not walking
according to the truth that God has revealed to you and us and
the churches of what he's done for his people. You're acting
like there's two different kinds of believers. You're acting like
there's a two-tiered system here and it's not right and you're
causing a division. You're seeding the minds of the
Gentiles thinking that there's something more that they must
do. to be included among the elite of God's children. There's
something more that they have to do. They're just not quite
there. They're just something's lacking
and they need a little something extra that they don't have yet.
And you that have it are all clicking together. You're all
coming together. And so Paul addressed this. They knew what the gospel was.
Peter knew what the gospel was. He preached the gospel. He taught
the gospel. He declared the gospel. And so
when he stopped eating with the Gentiles, he was being a hypocrite. He was being a hypocrite because
he was showing something else. And so this account here of what
we read of Peter, it reminds us that it doesn't matter who
we are, whether we are a faithful member of the church, whether
we're a pastor of the church, we see that we all can fall,
we all can go astray, we all can do errors and sin and hurt
people and cause division, because we see it even in the imminent
apostle Peter. We see him as imminent. God sees
him as all alike. There's none different. But we're
respecters of persons, and we see how someone as faithful as
Peter could be led astray and lead others astray like Barnabas.
And so, we do well to remember that the law does not make a
man righteous. The law doesn't make us righteous.
The law doesn't justify us, we know that. The law doesn't sanctify
us. Christ justifies, and Christ
sanctifies. Christ is all your righteousness. You rest right there in Him.
You're not lacking anything if you have Christ. You have everything,
brethren. You have everything. You rest
in the beloved arms of Christ. I say this a lot, but it bears
repeating, we walk by faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. And we're led by the Spirit of
God, and we're continually learning our dependence on Him, how much
we need Him, how gracious He is to us, undeserving sinners. He's continually teaching us
that, and He's showing us that. And so we're brought, we're made
to see our sin, we're made to see our unbelief, we're made
to see what sinners we are, and how glorious and gracious He
is, how wonderful He is. I've titled this message, According
to the Truth of the Gospel. It comes from verse 14, and we'll
get there together. So Paul completes his account
of what had happened in Jerusalem. And it was, they all came to
an understanding. And it was clarified that there's
nothing more that the Gentiles need to do in order to be accepted
of God. They don't need to be circumcised
after the manner of Moses. They don't need to live after
the manner of Moses the way the Jews were living. there's nothing
more that had to be done and so the truth is we see in Galatians
6 15 Paul said that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature a new creature
And that's the truth of the gospel, that we are made new creatures
by Christ alone, by Christ alone. We don't add anything to our
salvation. We don't add anything to another
or to Christ or to his church. We're all saved one way, by the
blood of Christ. We're all sinners in need of
his grace. Now, even though things were worked out in Jerusalem
and there seemed to be a clear understanding of what the truth
of the gospel is, that wasn't the end of the matter. And so
Paul, look there at Galatians 2.11, Paul says, when Peter was
come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was
to be blamed. And nowhere in the scriptures
is this ever contested. Nowhere in the scriptures does
anyone write a justification for what Peter was doing or try
to excuse what Peter did. What Peter did was wrong. It
was sin and it was wrong. And so Paul addressed it publicly. He addressed it publicly so that
the Jews who were of the concision and the Gentiles who were of
the uncircumcision, they all heard Paul withstand Peter, to
stand right up to him and address him on the sin that he was committing
here. Now, we don't know what Peter's
response to this was. It was a public rebuke about
his own behavior. But if you've ever been called
out in public loudly by someone pointing out your folly or your
sin or your foolishness or something that you're doing, you know the
heat that you feel rise up in you. Some people get angry because
they feel that what they're doing is justified and they're being
misunderstood. Some people feel shame because
they know that they're hypocrites and they know that what they're
doing is wrong. In any case, it's hard to take
a rebuke openly like that and to be addressed like that. It's
hard for any one of us to control our emotions and not become defensive
or angry or deflecting things. And we don't know exactly how
Peter Reacted in that moment, but I believe he knows the gospel
and he understood what Paul was saying either immediately Or
he quietly took it and thought about and realized you're right
I am doing what's wrong Paul and he and and he was converted
in turn, but it never says here what exactly happened, but but
Paul Knew that he he had to address it because the gospel was at
stake for you brethren For them then, and for you to this day,
the gospel was at stake. And so it was important. Had Paul just grumbled about
it and just talked to others at the Gentile table saying,
what Peter did is wrong, he shouldn't have done that. That just further
creates division. It doesn't help anything. It
just means that those who believed in justification by grace alone
for righteousness would have sectioned off and gone their
way. And those who believe that, that there's justification by
the works would have just hardened off and gone their way and no
one would have been helped. It wouldn't have helped the church
as a body, and so Paul addressed it. Now Paul gives us details
of the physical act that Peter did. In verse 12 he begins, For
before that certain came from James, Peter did eat with the
Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And so Peter here was giving
special preference. He was trying to show them some
special courtesy, some special significance in only sitting
with them. And they probably acknowledged
him, Peter, you're one of the Jews. You're one of God's chosen
people. come sit with us, come on, come
on brother, you're one of us and they encouraged him to come
and be with them and it was obvious enough to Paul and the other
Gentile brethren that Peter was purposely avoiding them. and
not sitting with them. And he was going out of his way
to make sure that the circumcision saw that he was only fellowshipping
with them and that they were special in his eyes. And so they took notice of the
changed behavior. They were aware and said, something's
not right. Peter doesn't do this. Peter
didn't just walk right by Joe over there just went right on
by him and didn't even hardly acknowledge him. Just pretended
he wasn't there at all and he just went and sat over there
with those other fellows. Now Peter, Peter was used of
God to testify of the truth of God. He saw and declared to them
in Jerusalem, saying that, God, I saw God. When I preached the
gospel to Cornelius and his family there and all those Gentiles
gathered under his roof, I saw the Holy Ghost come upon the
uncircumcised. I saw that God purified their
hearts by faith, just as he's done for us. He saved them. the same way he saved us Jews,
by the blood of Jesus Christ. And now the way he's acting though,
he's saying there's two different classes of believers and there's
some that are a little higher than others. There's some that
are preferred above others. And his distinction was over
circumcision and uncircumcision. And if we're honest, we have
at some point felt that way ourselves about others who profess to believe
on Christ. There's something special about
us. We have some special knowledge. We have some special closeness
to God that others don't have because we see things the way
things are, and they don't. And so we judge others in the
same way that they judge others, too. We're no better than they
are. We're no better than than what
we see here with Peter. It's only by the grace of our
God that we see what fools we are, how hypocritical we can
be and are in ourselves. And Paul's saying that's not
the truth of the gospel. There's not two classes of people. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
2. Go to Ephesians 2 and verse 11
is where we'll start. The point here that we're seeing
is we cease to walk uprightly according to the truth of the
gospel when we begin to compare ourselves to others, when we
compare us a sinner's hate to other sinners, and find in ourselves
something that recommends us to God, something that's better,
something that appears to be better in us as opposed to those
others, so that God is somehow pleased with us more than he
is with others. And Beder himself knew this was
not so. He even said in Acts 10, 34,
when he was speaking to Cornelius, he said that God is no, clearly
God's no respecter of persons. Not you that sit in the pews,
and it's no different than how he sees Peter the apostle, or
anyone else. He's no respecter of persons.
We look at one another, and we put people on different pedestals,
but God is no respecter of persons. We're all sinners, all filthy
sinners in need of His grace. All right, so look at Ephesians
2.11, and let's read these words, because they're beautiful. They're
beautiful words, comforting words to the sinner. Paul says, wherefore
remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who
are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God
in the world, but now. In Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes
were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is
our peace, not something we do. He is our peace, who hath made
both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain, or two, one new man, so making peace, and
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross. There's not one salvation for
one and another salvation for the other. It's by the one body
of the Lord Jesus Christ offered once for all unto God, and he
hath sanctified forever. Then that are his, those for
whom he came and shed his blood, Jew and Gentile. He slayed that enmity thereby
by his sacrifice and came and preached peace to you which were
far off and to them that were not, so that he sent Paul to
the uncircumcision and Peter to the circumcision, the circumcision. For through Christ, verse 18,
we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore,
ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God. And so Paul writes these
blessed words to the Ephesians, and they're comforting words.
They're words of peace. They're words of reconciliation. And that's where I encourage
you, brethren, stay right there. Stay right there in the love
of Christ. Don't try and parse through and
figure out what's wrong with other people. Love them. Be loving. Be kind. Be gracious. Be generous. Be patient, knowing that it's
the love of God that saved you and his patience and kindness
for you. and pray for them. You know,
sometimes when we think, well, I bet you they're thinking some
evil thought of me, you know, just loosely saying, you know,
sometimes we think evil of others that they're thinking evil of
us. And right by that, we condemn ourselves. We ourselves are thinking
evil of them. We don't know what other people
are thinking. And so shut it down. Don't dwell on it and don't
keep feeding it and festering it. Just pray. Say, Lord, help
me to love. Help me to love them. Help me
to be patient. Because love believes all things,
hopes all things. Love never fails. It never fails. Lord, help me. Because your love
for me never fails. Lord, help me to walk ever looking
to you. So we don't want to walk in arrogance
and pride because God's not impressed with our haughtiness. He's not
impressed with our hate for others. There's no place for it. It doesn't
add anything. It doesn't do anything. It's
not helpful or good. for anyone, not for them or for
you. And so consider what we are in
the flesh and the grace our God has shown to us in His Son. He
says in Isaiah 58 verse 7, that thou hide not thyself from thine
own flesh. Be gracious to others because
they're no different from you and you're no different from
them. We're all sinners saved, we that are saved, and those
that are yet without That's where we were when our God saved us
too. So we're all in need of His grace and mercy. All right,
so returning to our text, we see in the next verse, verse
13, Peter's hypocrisy affecting other faithful men. And the other
Jews dissembled likewise with Peter, insomuch that Barnabas
also was carried away with their dissimulation." So that first
word there, dissembled, and that phrase, dissembled likewise with
him, it means that other Jews began to behave and act hypocritically
toward the Gentiles just like Peter. And we see there that
a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. It just spreads. It just spreads like a canker
sore, like a cancer infecting the whole thing. Now this word
dissimulation at the very end of verse 13, that's the actual
word for hypocrisy. And what it's meant to convey
in our minds, to show us is that Peter was acting. Peter was being
a player. Peter was putting on a show the
way an actor plays their part on a stage. And so that he knew
the truth, but he was putting on a show for the circumcision
so as not to upset them, knowing that when they left and returned
back to Jerusalem, they would come on back and start sitting
with the Gentiles again at the table as though nothing had happened. They're just playing. They think
that this is the way to handle it. And Paul says, you're not
walking according to the truth of the gospel. And we've probably
all had this experience, whether we were the ones doing it to
another or having it done to us, when we were young and growing
up, for example. And as you're going, usually
through middle school, I think it happens, where suddenly your
best friend starts joining in with other kids and making fun
of you. And they're trying to fit in with that other group.
And whether you did it or they did it to you, you know how much
it hurt. It hurts. And there's people
that never got over that and still never reconciled with a
friend that did that back in middle school or something like
that. Because it hurts. It's hypocritical. And you're
left wondering, wow, what? was that all about? Why'd you
do that? And it really hurt. So Peter
knew the gospel. He knew that salvation is by
the grace of our God in Christ. He knew that Christ is our righteousness,
the law is not our righteousness. He preached the gospel, and he
lived the gospel most days. He lived according to the truth
of the gospel. He even defended Gentile believers. He pointed out in Acts 15.10,
there in Jerusalem, he said, now therefore, why tempt ye God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear? But his actions now
in Antioch were tempting the Gentiles to feel somehow inferior,
that there was something missing, that maybe they should go and
slip their neck under the yoke and start living according after
the manner of Moses so that they could fit in and sit at the special
table with the cool kids and be accepted in their little clique. And so that's not true. That's still tempting them to
do that which is foolish and to expose themselves to great
danger. Righteousness by the law is bondage
to the law. It's bondage. And cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them, Paul said in Galatians 3.10. Righteousness
by the Lord Jesus Christ is freedom from the law. We're not in bondage
to the law anymore. We're delivered in Christ from
the dominion of sin. We don't need the law to keep
us from being reigned by sin. That just puts us in bondage
to sin. We're delivered by the blood of Christ. Listen to Romans
6 verses 6 and 7. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead
is freed from sin. The law is not made for a righteous
man and you're made righteous in Christ. That doesn't say that
we have a license to sin and to do those things that we know
are wicked and evil. But we're not bound by the law. We're not looking to the law
for a rule of life. We have Christ. We have the spirit
of God that keeps our hearts. and convicts us when we need
to be convicted, and chastens us, and teaches us, and delivers
us from the ways of death. We have his spirit who does that.
And so we cannot mix grace and works for righteousness because
both cannot be true. Paul said in Romans 11 verse
6, if by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace
is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's
no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more works.
work. And so Peter, the way he was
trying to navigate the touchiness of it all and trying to handle
it was according to the flesh. He was handling it in a fleshly
way and thereby ceased to walk according to the truth of the
gospel. Let's see that in verse 14. Galatians 2.14 But when I
saw that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the
gospel, I said unto Peter, Before them all, If thou, being a Jew,
livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest
thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? Whatever Peter thought
he was doing, he was sending a contrary message to the Gentiles,
making them feel inferior, and that there was something that
they still had to do. Even though out of his mouth
he said one thing, by his actions he said another. And so they
thought, yeah, there's something else I gotta do, because I'm
not accepted. And if they don't accept me,
maybe God doesn't accept me either, on Christ's blood alone. And
so he tried to do something. He tried to play it cool. And
the reality is he should have trusted his Lord and Savior.
He should have done that which was right and left it to the
spirit to convict them in the heart. If there was something
for them to hear and see. The best thing would have just
been to live according to the truth of the gospel there and
allow the Spirit to teach them. He should have left it with the
Lord to deal with the Judaizers and the circumcisers. And so
Paul continues his response to Peter in verses 15 and 16. He
says, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, the Lord's
faith, his faithful work, his sacrifice. and not by the works
of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified. Now, all God's children want
to be found faithful to their Lord. You that believe Him, you
want to be found faithful. You want to honor the Lord. That's true of all His children. We don't want to walk in a manner
that displeases Him. We want to do that which we understand
to be right and pleasing to the Lord. Now, let's see this in
1 John. Turn to 1 John 3, verse 3. I want you to see this verse.
A couple of verses with me. So the Apostle John words it
this way in 1 John 3 verse 3. He says, and every man that hath
this hope in him. And he's speaking about the hope
that we have as believers, the hope that we have obtained of
our Savior, of our Lord, eternal life, and that when He returns,
we shall be made like unto Him, for we shall see Him as He is. That's our hope. It's all in
his hands. Everything's taken care of by
him. So, every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself even as he, as Christ, is pure. Now, when we hear that verse,
when we read that verse, the natural mind drifts towards,
well, what actions do I need to do to purify myself? What does that mean that I'm
doing? Is it some religious act that I do to purify myself? Well,
how is the heart purified? Because it's to be purified according
to the truth of the gospel. So how is the heart purified?
Turn over to Acts 15. Acts 15. And we see what the
Apostle John is saying. Every man who hath this hope
purifieth himself, even as Christ is pure. Acts 15 verse 9, and
this is Peter speaking, this is Peter declaring this truth.
And God put no difference between us Jews and them Gentiles, purifying
their hearts by faith. That's how we're purified, by
the faith which our God has given to us, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. We believe in Jesus Christ, that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the
works of the law. That's, brethren, how you are
purified. That's how your hearts are purified.
That's how your minds are purified. Believing on Christ. Keep looking
to Christ. Just stay right there upon your
Lord and Savior. And we believe Christ by the
faith which our God has given to us freely in grace. Peter also said it this way in
2 Peter 1 verses 1 and 3. In verse 1 he said we've obtained
like precious faith. As all God's saints, we've obtained,
it's been given to us, we came into possession of that like,
precious faith, even as the other saints of God. According, verse
3, as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain
unto life and godliness, and faith pertains unto life and
godliness, that's been given to you who believe Christ. All things that pertain unto
life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called
us to glory and virtue in His Son. He's called us. He didn't
leave us in darkness. He called us and gave us faith
and purified our hearts by faith and that's where we stay. That's
how our hearts are purified. You get to doing and you're going
to get ugly real fast. You're going to see the corruption
of this flesh real fast and how you treat others. You just keep
looking to Christ and trust Him and believe Him. And so, brethren,
I close with this verse from Habakkuk 2.4, for the just shall
live by his faith. Brethren, I pray the Lord bless
that word to your hearts. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace and mercy. And we thank you, Lord, for your
patience, your love, your faithfulness, your joy, your peace, your truth,
your gospel, your son, the blood of your son. Lord, we thank you
that you've provided everything for us and that we're not saved
according to the works of the law for how easily we fall, how
quickly we're deceived and duped and do foolish things and say
foolish things and think foolish things. Lord, thank you for your
mercy. Thank you for your grace. Thank
you for your patience. Help us, Lord, to keep looking
to our Lord, because we know in Him we shall walk uprightly,
because it's all of your grace, it's all of your Spirit, it's
all of your mercy and power and wonder, Lord. Help us to be faithful
to our Lord, that, Lord, we would live and walk by the faith which
you've given us. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Okay, brethren.