Let's turn now in our Bibles
to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2 and we'll
be looking tonight at verses 11 through 16. But when Peter was come to Antioch,
I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that shirt came from
James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew
and separated himself. fearing them which were of the
circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled
likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away
with their dissimulation. 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 the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compelst
thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews, 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, and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. I ended my message last time
with Paul saying that those in Jerusalem, that is, those who
seemed to be pillars in the church, Peter, James, and John, that
they perceived, this is what he said, if you look in verse
9, and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars,
perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave him
the right hand of fellowship. What was the grace? What was
the grace that was given unto Paul? These pillars in the church,
these other apostles perceived that this grace was given unto
Paul. What was it? It was to preach
the gospel among the Gentiles. This was a grace given unto him. Keep your place here, but if
you look in Ephesians chapter 3, just a moment, Three times in these verses we're
going to read here in Ephesians chapter 3, Paul speaks of grace
given. Now, when we think of grace,
the grace of God that bringeth salvation, usually when we think
about grace, we're thinking about it in the context of salvation. For by grace are you saved. But
you notice here Paul is using this term concerning the dispensation
that was given to him. And we see that here in chapter
3, beginning with verse 1. For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner
of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation
of the grace of God which is given me to you, how that by
revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore
in a few words. whereby, when you read, you may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other
ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that
the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers
of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Whereof, I was made a
minister according, now notice, to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Verse 8,
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this
grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ. So when Paul, in our text, here
in Galatians, speaks about these apostles in Jerusalem, perceiving
that he was given a grace, and that grace was to preach the
gospel to the Gentiles. In Romans chapter 11 and verse
3 he wrote, For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the
apostle of the Gentiles. I magnify my office. Paul was not ashamed of his office. He was not ashamed of the fact
that God had given him this grace, not to preach primarily to the
circumcision to the Jews as Peter was given, but that he was chosen
and given this dispensation. The word dispensation means administration. And he was given this administration
to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He magnified his office. He was
not ashamed of it. Neither should any other preacher.
No preacher, if he's called of God to preach the gospel, he
should not be ashamed of his office because, as the Apostle
says in 2 Corinthians 5, now then we are ambassadors of Christ. You know what an ambassador is?
He's a representative. Our president has ambassadors
all over the world, in every country, I suppose, almost every
country. And that ambassador is his personal
representative. And preachers are ambassadors
of Christ. And he says in that passage in
2 Corinthians 5, we beseech you, therefore, as ambassadors for
Christ, be you reconciled unto God. God sends preachers out,
men out, preaching the gospel. And we beseech men to be reconciled
unto God. Now tonight, I just wanted to
point that out. In the context here, this grace
was given to Paul. And it was the grace, and these
other apostles, they perceived he was given this grace. He was
called especially to minister to the Gentiles. Now tonight
as we look at these verses of Scripture, we're looking at Peter's
inconsistent conduct at Antioch. And that's the title of the message,
Peter's Inconsistent Conduct in Antioch. And I have four headings,
four points. First, Peter's conduct of separating
from eating with Gentile believers, verse 11. And 12, we read again,
But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face,
because he was to be blamed. For before certain came from
James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. Now, this church at Antioch.
This church was basically a Gentile church. Let me give us a brief
history of this church. The first time I believe this
word Antioch, this city Antioch is mentioned in the New Testament
is found in Acts chapter 6 when there were so many widows in
the church and there were some complaints. And so the apostles
said, choose out six men to take care of this ministry. And we believe those six men
were deacons. They were to wait on the tables
of those in the church who were in need. And one of those men
who was chosen was a man by the name of Nicholas, a proselyte
of Antioch. When we read that he was a proselyte
of Antioch, that tells us that he was a Gentile who was first
a proselyte to the Jewish religion, and then of course he had been
saved by the grace of God and was in the church. But he was
from Antioch. And then in Acts chapter 11,
when Stephen was stoned, that severe persecution against the
church commenced And the disciples went as far as Antioch, we are
told, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews. So first,
upon the persecution that was raised, and Saul of Tarsus, he
was part of a lot of that persecution, you know. But they went as far
as Antioch, but they were careful, these disciples, as they were
dispersed because of the persecution They were careful only to preach
the gospel to the Jews. They didn't speak, they didn't
preach to the Gentiles. Then we read that others came
to Antioch, and they began preaching to the Grecians. They didn't
preach only to the Jews, but they began preaching to the Gentiles. And then word got back to Jerusalem,
to the church there in Jerusalem of what was taking place in Antioch,
and they decided they needed to send someone down there to
check on this work, and they chose Barnabas. And the scripture
tells us that when Barnabas came and saw, he saw the grace of
God. That's an amazing statement,
isn't it? That God's grace may be seen.
How is it seen? It's seen in the changed lives
of those who experience the saving grace of God. But Barnabas, seeing
the situation there in Antioch, he had both Jews and Gentiles
being saved and brought into this church. He knew of one man,
now the Bible doesn't say this, but, and this is me, he knew
of one man who was excellent for this situation. And so he
left Antioch and he went to Tarsus. and found Saul and brought him
to Antioch. And then we read there were five
preachers in the church at Antioch. Remember there was five men and
two of those men were Paul, Saul, and Barnabas. And that's when
God the Holy Spirit said, Separate me, Saul and Barnabas, for the
work whereunto I have called them. And we see there the work
of a missionary. Those two men went out on what
is called the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul,
and they were sent out first by the Spirit of God. God the
Holy Spirit sent them out, but it is also revealed there that
the church sent them out. In other words, the church provided
the means that they needed to go out preaching the gospel. Now Paul, in this passage of
Scripture, tells us of something that took place when Peter, the
Apostle Peter, and I've read where some of the Roman writers,
at first they tried to deny that this was the Apostle Peter. Because
some of the manuscripts have the word Cephas, and they say,
well, that wasn't Peter. You know, they're dead set on
trying to prove that Peter was the first pope, and the first
pope was infallible. Or all the popes are infallible.
Well, this just doesn't fit in good with that teaching, because
we see here this was the Apostle Peter. It wasn't Cephas, some
other Cephas, one of the seventy disciples, as they would like
to say. So, this was Peter, and he visited
this church. Now, when a man like Peter, an
apostle, would come, just imagine if he came here to our church,
if he visited us. Wouldn't you like to have him
to your home? Wouldn't you like to invite him
to come and break bread with you in your house? Well, surely
these believers did. And many of them, as I said,
they were Gentiles. Basically, this was a Gentile
church. And so Peter, he had no problem. He had no problem. His conscience
was not bothered to go and eat with these Gentile believers.
But then we are told that some Jewish believers from Jerusalem
came down. It says from James. Now James,
we believe, was the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. And
when these believers from Jerusalem came down, what did Peter do?
He had been eating, breaking bread, fellowshipping with his
Gentile believers. He withdrew himself. He withdrew. He separated himself from eating
with Gentile Christians. Now, the question, I think, naturally
comes to all of us. When did this happen? The time. I mean, what time did this happen?
What was the point in time when Peter did this? All of the writers
that I've checked, except a couple, all of the commentators and writers,
they all agree that this took place after that meeting in Jerusalem
that's recorded in Acts chapter 15. Now, we looked at that last
time. I think you're familiar with
it. But remember what Peter said at that meeting when the whole
church came together. He was the first one to speak.
And he reminded them that God had chosen him, that the Gentiles
by his mouth would hear the gospel, that he took the gospel to the
house of Cornelius. And then we know that Barnabas
spoke and Saul spoke. But this is part of what Peter
said at that meeting. He said, We believe, we, meaning
we Jews, we who are Jews by nationality, by religion, who have been saved,
we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved even as they." Now, the we is referring to the
circumcision, to the Jews. The they to the Gentiles. He
made that very clear. statement. We believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Then how could this have taken
place after that? How could this have taken place?
How could Peter come to Antioch after that meeting and do this? Eat with the Gentiles until those
believers from Jerusalem came. And then he withdrew himself.
Well, there's no real answer, but here is a suggested answer.
And you can check this on your own later. But if you look at
the conclusion of that meeting, they wrote a letter. They wrote
a letter and sent it by Paul and Barnabas, and remember Silas?
They wrote a letter to the Gentiles and told them what they had concluded,
that they should keep themselves from fornication and from things
strangled from blood, and several things like that. But here is
what you see. They said nothing. They said
nothing in that letter about Jewish believers and their relationship
to the law. All they said was concerning
the Gentile believers. They wrote letters by them after
this manner. The apostles and elders and brethren
sent greeting unto the brethren. Now listen, which are of the
Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia? They wrote nothing.
They said nothing about the relationship of Jewish believers to the law
that was given by Moses. Well then, what caused Peter
to separate himself? Why did he do this? We're told,
aren't we? If you notice in verse 12, he
withdrew and separated himself fearing them which were of the
circumcision. It was out of fear. Fearing them
that were of the circumcision. Peter had been taught, remember
God taught him in that vision. not to call anything common or
unclean that he, that is God, had cleansed. But yet we see
that fear, fearing those who came from Jerusalem, he separated
himself. One of the Proverbs, Proverbs
chapter 29 and verse 8, very simple word, the fear of man
bringeth a snare. The fear of man bringeth a snare. And I think all of us here tonight,
if we would be honest, and I know we are, there have been times
when we too haven't spoken or have spoken because of the fear
of man. When we should have spoken out,
or we should have said something, but the fear of man bringeth
a snare. And we see that even in this
man who was an apostle of Jesus Christ. So that's the first heading. The second heading, Peter's conduct
and its influence. In verse 13, And the other Jews
dissembled likewise with him. insomuch that Barnabas also was
carried away with their dissimulation. Peter dissembled, and this influenced
others to follow. Now, the word dissimulation,
I looked it up in the dictionaries I like to do, and the definition
is to hide under a false appearance. To hide under a false appearance. Now when it says here, the other
Jews dissembled likewise with him, that doesn't mean the Jews
that came from Jerusalem. They wouldn't eat with the Gentiles.
When they came from Jerusalem, they were separated. But it was the Jews in the church,
the Jewish believers in the church at Antioch. When they saw Peter
do what he did, when he withdrew and would not eat with the Gentiles,
they followed him. They dissembled with him. And
the Scripture here, Paul says, even Barnabas, even Barnabas,
the one who had sought Paul out, the one that knew that Paul was
especially anointed and blessed of God to be a missionary, to
be a preacher to the Gentiles, even Barnabas was carried away,
was influenced by Peter's conduct. And this just reminds us, as
the Scripture says in Romans 14 and verse 7, for none lives
to himself. No man is an island. None lives
to himself, and no man dies to himself. Our conduct does influence others,
either for good or for bad. But no man, his conduct, her
conduct, does not have some influence upon other people. We see that
Peter certainly did. Now third, Peter's conduct was
in conflict with the truth of the gospel. If you notice what
Paul says in verse 14, But when I saw they walked not uprightly. Now, a person's walk, his conversation,
his conduct, Paul saw that this conduct, this separating himself
from eating with the Gentile believers, was not according
to the truth of the gospel. When he separated himself from
eating with the Gentiles, what he said, in effect, he didn't
say it with his mouth. Now, he would never have said
this probably with his mouth, but with his feet. When he moved
from one table to another table and would not eat with the Gentiles,
he did in effect say that that difference, that difference between
the Jew and the Gentile was still in force. That meant that that old covenant,
now this is why this is important. Peter's conduct said that the
old covenant that God had made with the nation of Israel was
still in effect. Because you remember, it was
that old covenant, the law that was given on Mount Sinai through
Moses, that brought in these rules, these laws concerning
what you could eat and what you could not eat. It was that covenant
that required this separation, because part of that covenant
had to do with your food, had to do with how your food was
prepared. There was many stipulations in
that covenant concern. And what was the purpose of that?
It was to keep that nation separate, to keep them separate until the
seed, the promised seed came. until Christ came, to whom the
promise was made, to keep that nation separate because the seed
that would bruise a woman's, the seed of the woman would bruise
the head of the serpent was to be Abraham's seed. So that law,
that covenant served its purpose to keep Israel separate from
the other nations. Before these Jews from Jerusalem
came, Peter lived, as Paul said, he lived after the manner of
the Gentiles. But once they came and he separated
himself, he turned back to those rules. And this way, he was compelling
these Gentile believers to live as the Jews lived. That is, to
live under the rules of that old covenant. And the reason
this is important, this matter is still going on today. This
subject of the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel
at Sinai, the law as it was given there, this is still something
that divides believers. What is the relationship of a
child of God to that old covenant? Now, the old covenant, with its
circumcision, its holy days, its dietary laws, It did keep
the Jews separate. But in contrast, for those who
are sons of God through faith in Christ, there's neither Jew
nor Gentile. This is what Paul says, there's
neither Jew nor Greek, for we are all one in Christ. There's no difference. If you turn to Ephesians chapter
2, look back into Ephesians with me. Paul deals with this matter
here, beginning in verse 11. Wherefore, remember that you,
being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called a circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you 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, you who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the
blood of Christ, for he is our peace, who hath made both one,
made both one, both Jew and Gentile, and hath broken down the metal
wall of partition between us." That metal wall was that law.
that law that kept the Jew and the Gentile separate. Christ
hath broken down that middle wall of partition between us,
having abolished in his flesh the enmity the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one
new man, so making peace." This new man, is this the church? This new man, is this the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ? He made of twain, that is Jew
and Gentile, one new man. And if you go on in this chapter,
let me point this out to us. Once the middle wall of partition
was broken down and twain were made one, we see now there's
one body. Notice that in verse 16. That
he might reconcile both unto God in one body. Both Jew and
Gentile in one body. There's not a body. Christ has
one body. He's the head of his body. He has one body. He doesn't have
a body that's comprised of Jews and another body that's comprised
of Gentiles. He has one body. And then if
you notice in verse 19, the first part of that, Now therefore you
are no more strangers and foreigners. There's one nation. There's one
nation. There's not two nations made
up of Jews and Gentiles each. No, there's one nation, a holy
nation, the apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 2. And
then also in verse 19, but fellow citizens with the
saints of the household of God. The household means the family
of God, doesn't it? He only has one family. He doesn't
have two families. You see what Paul is emphasizing
by showing that we're one body, that we're one nation, that we're
one family. And then he comes down to verse
21, and he shows that we're one building, that temple, the temple
of God. There's not two temples, one
temple for the Jew and another temple for the Gentiles. We're
one temple. And all of this, if you follow
Paul's reasoning here, or follow his argument through these verses,
you see that each one of these relationships shows that we're
bound closer, closer, closer together. When he talks about
a nation, we're all members of the nation of the United States
of America. We're all citizens, so we're
related in that way. But then we have our families,
don't we? And that makes our relationship even closer. But
then when he speaks about this building, we're all members of
this building. Christ is the cornerstone. He's the foundation stone upon
which the church is built. And we're all cemented, joined
together in this one building. Now, the thing to say about this
is, if that old covenant, think with me, if that old covenant,
and this is what Peter's conduct was saying, that old covenant
is still in force. There's a difference between
the Jew and the Gentile. Now, if that old covenant is
in force, what does that mean? That means that the new covenant
has not been sealed. That's what it means, and that's
what Peter was saying by his conduct. That new covenant that
the Lord Jesus Christ sealed with his blood when he said,
this is my blood of the new covenant, the New Testament. Now, here's
the last point I want to make. Peter's conduct brought forth
this concise statement of justification by faith. Now, I hope God is
willing to begin with this verse next week, verse 16. But let
me just make these few comments on what Paul says that we know. I like to know things, don't
you? I don't like to be in doubt. I like to know. And Paul says,
knowing. Here's some things that we know.
And he begins with a negative. We know that we're not justified
by the works of the law. We know that, don't we? There's
no doubt. There's no question in my mind.
In another text, Paul tells us, for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Now the law may show me that
I fail, it may show me that I've sinned, and it may show me what
God requires, but it does not give me any strength. It does
not give me the ability to obey God perfectly as the law commands. That's the reason Paul in Romans
said that the law is weak through the flesh. The law is strong. The problem is on our part. It's
weak. We're weak. We can't obey God
in our thoughts and our words and our minds perfectly as God
requires. So there's a negative, but here's
something positive that we know. We know that we're justified
by the faith of Jesus Christ. We know that. That it was by
his faithfulness in keeping God's law perfectly, that law that
we cannot keep. The Lord Jesus Christ, he faithfully
obeyed God's law perfectly. And as Paul said in Romans 3,
being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
this word to all of us here tonight. And Lord willing, next week we'll
take up here again. Let's sing a couple of verses
of a hymn, David.