Take your Bibles and turn to
Galatians chapter 2. I want to look at verses 4 and
5 with you. Here Paul is speaking about false
brethren, false brethren, and that's important to be aware
of that there are false brethren because false brethren preach
a false gospel, a false gospel. It's deceitful and it ruins men's
souls, keeps them shut up in darkness and not hearing the
truth of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now there's a difference
between a brother who's weak and doesn't understand certain
things. There's a difference between
one who's weak and one who is false. One who is false. And the one who's weak were to
be patient with and teach them and be kind and understanding
of the knowledge of the grace of our God, which has taught
us. We're coming from that understanding
that we don't know all things. In fact, we were born in ignorance
and darkness and we had to be born again, given life from the
dead and taught of God. Well, so it is with all men. They're all born in darkness
and in ignorance. And so we're patient with weak
brethren and those who don't have necessarily the same understanding
we have in some things. But there's also false brethren,
and they're not to be put up with and given place or giving
them a place from which they can speak to others in the congregation. And so we'll look at that difference
today to help us better understand the difference between weak brethren
and false brethren. I've titled the message, False
or Weak? False or Weak? So Paul had just
noted in verse 3, he said, neither Titus, who was with me, being
a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And so we look at
this verse and we understand that, all right, they were there
in the presence of the apostles who ministered to the circumcision,
the Jews, in Jerusalem. And those apostles and elders
of that church, they didn't try to compel Titus to be circumcised. They said, you're right Paul,
the Gentiles are not to become Jews according to the flesh.
They don't need to become Jews according to the flesh. God has
saved them. He's testified of his salvation
of them by giving them the spirit and they too hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ just as we do, just as we do. We're not, they don't
have to be circumcised or brought under the law of Moses. Titus,
hearing what was said among from Paul and the brethren, And to
some degree, the false brethren, the false teachers, he wasn't
compelled. He wasn't moved. He didn't feel
that there was anything lacking in him. But that Christ is all. He was very confident in Christ. And the same thing with Paul.
Paul would not hear of it. There was no way that he was
going to circumcise Titus. And so, that verse 3, Galatians
2 verse 3, which seems like a simple little verse that we often just
blow right on through reading it, just breeze right on by,
it's actually a stunning and powerful verse that declares
our sufficiency in Christ and that we're not to be yoked with
the law of Moses. that we don't look to Moses to
know how to live, we look to Christ. We look to Christ, and
Christ speaks to us, and Christ leads his sheep, and he keeps
our hearts, and he teaches us all things. This truth is declared
in Galatians chapter 6, 15, especially concerning circumcision, but
it's a truth. in all things that man in his
flesh might look to. Galatians 6.15 says that in Christ
Jesus Neither circumcision availeth anything, it doesn't add anything
to us, nor uncircumcision. Nothing's added, nothing's taken
away. Whether you're circumcised or
not circumcised, it's not a gracious thing. It's not something where
God imparts grace to his people. What does make the difference?
What is important here? A new creature, which we don't
create. but our God and Savior creates,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that creation of Christ, the new man in you. And that's our joy and our rejoicing,
is that he gives us everything necessary. Christ is all, brethren,
he's all. Now, when you consider that,
that Paul had just said, neither Titus, who was with me, being
a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised, Look at verse 4
now. It says, And that, and that,
for that reason, the reason for our resistance not to circumcise
Titus was because of false brethren, unawares, brought in, who came
in privily to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus,
that they might bring us into bondage. He's saying there were
some men there who were false brethren, and they were pushing
and arguing, saying, Titus, the Gentiles, all of them, need to
be circumcised. They need to be brought under
the law of Moses. They need to become Jews according
to the flesh. And so they were pushing circumcision. And what they were doing, in
essence, is they were preaching circumcision. They were putting
circumcision on an equal footing, an equal ground with the Lord
Jesus Christ. They were making circumcision
necessary for our justification. They were making it necessary
for our sanctification. This is what preaching circumcision
sounds like. We take it right from Acts 15,
1. Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot
be saved. That's preaching circumcision. And insert anything in there
that is not Christ, and that's preaching that thing. And you're
putting it on equal footing with Christ. And that, brethren, is
bondage. That's bringing us into bondage. Now, you might ask, well, is
there for the practice of circumcision? Because there are countries that
do perform circumcision on their sons. To this day, they do that. Is the practice itself to be
avoided? Are we not to do that? No, that's
not what it's saying. It might be wrong, but it's not
necessarily wrong, just because you circumcise your child. So the health industry and Many
times they said it's for health reasons that you would circumcise
a boy's foreskin. And so circumcision is not necessarily
inherently evil. There's nothing wrong with doing
it. It comes down to the motive. Why are you doing it? How do
you perceive this circumcision? Is it to obtain grace with God? Is it to give your son some special
blessing, some head start with the grace of God? Or are you
doing it because, well, I was circumcised and my kids is going
to look like me, or for health reasons, or I don't know, I just
did it. The doctor said you want to do it, and I did it. What's
the motive? Well, we actually see Paul circumcised
Timothy. Turn over to Acts 16. Let's look
at that. We know that the practice in
and of itself is not inherently evil because Paul circumcised
Timothy. Paul, a believer, circumcised
Timothy, a believer. All right, Acts 16, verse 1 through
3. Then came Paul to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple
was there named Timotheus, or Timothy, the son of a certain
woman which was a Jewess, and believed, but his father was
a Greek. which was well reported of by
the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Timothy had a good
reputation of being a child of God, a believer, a follower of
Christ. Him would Paul have to go forth
with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which
were in those quarters for they all knew, they knew all that
his father was a Greek. So here, Paul willingly circumcised
Timothy, and Timothy willingly submitted to being circumcised. Why? Why? Well, it shows us that
circumcision is not a difference maker. It doesn't make a difference.
It's a matter of indifference. Paul was not bringing Timothy
into bondage to the law. He wasn't bringing Timothy under
the curses of the law because of circumcising him. Now, do
you know why it wasn't? a matter of constraint. Do you
know why it wasn't an issue? Because he wasn't doing it under
constraint. No one was telling him, Timothy
needs to be circumcised. No one was saying to him, Timothy
needs to be circumcised. No one said, except Timothy be
circumcised, after the manner of Moses, he cannot be saved. So why did they do it? It wasn't
necessary for salvation. Why did he do it? Paul did it
to just remove the stumbling block, remove the issue off the
table so that he and Timothy could go into any city and into
any synagogue. They could go to Jerusalem. and
go into the temple, even. And Timothy could enter all the
places and no one could stop Paul while he's in the midst
of preaching the gospel and say, wait a minute, you have this
Gentile here who's uncircumcised here. What are you saying, Paul? Why is that so? And then Paul
would be put on of having to stop preaching the gospel and
now deal with this ignorant, foolish question of why it doesn't
matter. It's not necessary for Timothy
to be circumcised. He didn't want to get sidetracked
on worthless, foolish, vein-jangling arguments. He even said to Timothy
later on, 2 Timothy 2.23, he said, foolish and unlearned questions
avoid, knowing that they do gender strife. And he didn't want someone
to stop him and get off on this tangent of whether circumcision
is necessary or not because it's a hotbed issue. And it's not
even important. And Paul said, I want to preach
Christ. Let's stay on Christ. Let's remove that right off the
table so it's not even an issue. So it doesn't even come up. Someone
says, is that man circumcised? Yes, he is. Now, let me keep
going here on Christ. Let me keep preaching Christ.
And so that's what he was doing there. And so the gospel wasn't
under attack when he took Timothy and circumcised him. It was just
to move that foolish question off the table so it wouldn't
be a hindrance later on. So what do we learn from this? Well, we see that there are some
things that we have liberty to do. There's a lot of things that
we are freed and have liberty in, liberty of conscience and
liberty in rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, for the
sake of a weaker brother, will not seek to exercise our liberty. We don't want certain liberties
to become an issue and a stumbling block. Paul would also say to
Timothy in 2 Timothy 2.10, he said, therefore, I endure all
things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain salvation,
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. That's what Paul was interested.
What can I do to make it easier for these people that I'm preaching
to, that the Lord brings me to, to hear the gospel? I don't want
to get off on tangents and sidetrack. I want to declare Christ because
Christ is salvation. He's life and light for the people. He's the one who saves his people. I want to declare him. And so
we see them, we have liberty. Now understand, liberty is not
license. Liberty is not the same thing
as license. We don't have license to just go out fulfilling the
lusts of our flesh. We have liberty meaning that
we are free from sin, not free to sin, not free to do those
things that we know are darkness and we know are harmful and evil. and hurt people and hurt ourselves
and bring shame on the name that we profess to believe. But that
liberty is that we are free from sin's dominion and its reign
over us. We're free from the damnation
of sin and the condemnation which is coming upon the inhabitants
of the earth that have not the blood covering of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're free. We're not in that
body of sin and that body of death. We are not standing in
Adam any longer. Though we are in these bodies
of flesh, yet we stand complete and whole, righteous before God
and the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the one in whom we stand. And so knowing this, knowing
that we have liberty and how the Lord has led us and taught
us and shown us so many glorious things concerning Him and formed
His love in our heart by giving us a new heavenly birth by the
Spirit of God whereby we hear Christ and we love Christ and
we're compelled by Christ and we rejoice in Christ. so that
he teaches us and keeps our hearts. But there are brethren who don't
necessarily understand all things. We don't even understand all
things. We even are blind to many things and are still learning
and being taught by the Lord and being retaught by the Lord
as we have need of it. But brethren who are weak are
not necessarily pushing you and telling you how to live and what's
important or not important. Sometimes they're just ignorant
of these things and we need to be patient with them and pray
for them and speak speak with the words that we've been given
being taught by grace and be gracious with others. So we want
to be patient with them and we don't want to say or do things
that will push them and cause them to stumble and they might
just be ignorant of these things. Paul said to Timothy, Again,
in 2 Timothy 2, verse 24, he said, the servant of the Lord
must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach patience. And as he went on in there, he's
saying those that oppose themselves, those that are just putting a
stumbling block in their own way, and they're not hearing
the truth, be patient, be patient, because the Lord was patient
with us, and he taught us, and it was in the day of his power
when we heard it. when we heard the voice of the
Son of God and believed and were brought out of the darkness that
we were in. Now using an example of eating meat which had been
sacrificed to idols in the temple, Paul will turn over to 1 Corinthians
chapter eight. 1 Corinthians chapter eight, we
see that that we have an understanding,
and we speak with others with an understanding and a patience,
trusting the Lord to do his work. And so, Paul speaks of the knowledge
that we have, knowing that there is but one God, there's not other
lesser gods, and also that there's one God, and we're not adding,
we're not trusting in the idols to whom these meats were sacrificed
to. So back in that day, I mean,
we just go typically to the supermarket. or a farm and just get a cow.
Nobody took that cow aside and blessed it and burned incense
to an idol and put that meat before the idol and said, you
know, this is what we give to you, and then take it and sell
it. That's what they would do. They would offer it, they would
present it before the idol, and then they would take it down
to the market, it having been blessed by the idol, and they
would sell it. And maybe the proceeds, some
of the proceeds might even go to that false temple. But Paul
says there, to us, there is, but in verse six, 1 Corinthians
8, verse six. But to us there is but one God,
the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. Howbeit, there
is not in every man that knowledge. For some with conscience of the
idol unto this hour eat, eat it as a thing offered unto an
idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. but me commendeth
us not to God. For neither if we eat are we
the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse. All right,
he's saying this isn't a matter of grace being imparted to us,
whether we eat or don't eat, it's not adding anything or taking
anything away from us. But take heed, lest by any means
this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that
are weak. And so there are times when,
for love's sake and to be patient, we'll tolerate others who are
weak in certain areas and weak in their understanding. And it's
just better not to show the liberty that we feel and that we have
on these matters, just to avoid it, so that there's not a distraction
or stumbling on their part. Now, that being said, Paul does
say there are false brethren, and he describes the false brethren
in verse four. That because of false brethren,
and he makes it, there's a distinction, therefore, between weak and false
brethren. And he says these false brethren,
unawares, were brought in, who came in privily, or secretly,
to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that
they might bring us into bondage. And so there's four things that
are given to us here that help us to know whether or not these
are to be tolerated and put up with for some amount of time,
or should we just flat out reject them and give them no place?
He gives us four things that we'll look at here. So by these
false brethren, he calls them false brethren, we see they had
a name that they were Christ's. But it was not true. It was not true. They were pretending
to be brothers in Christ. And that's what false brothers
do. They don't look on a person's
hope. brother in Christ hopes in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's all his hope. He's all his
salvation. He may word things sometimes
in a poor way, in a poorly worded way. He may on one hand glory
in Christ and then say something that you're like, well that doesn't
seem to, it sounds like There's some ignorance there. It sounds
like you're talking about something that you've done. And we have
to be careful there because we glory in Christ, not in the works
of our flesh. But just because they don't know
these things, be patient. Teach them. Be patient and pray
for them that the Lord would open their eyes and show them
that all of our salvation Belongeth unto unto our Lord we know that
but sometimes we don't see here the things coming out of our
mouth and how they betray that hope but False brethren don't
look to a person's hope and confidence in Christ they look to Do your
works and your practices mirror mine? Do you do what I do because
I think these things are important Unless you do them, you're not
a brother. You don't know the Lord. You
don't know him. And what they're saying is, except
ye do this, that, and the other thing, you cannot be saved. They're looking at our practices
and our works. They're inspecting the things
that we do to determine whether or not we're children of God.
They don't, you can hope in Christ, but if you don't, if you're not
just like them in all your practices, They cut you off. They cut you
off. And doctrine is very important. But the Lord teaches us that
doctrine. And we can be patient with one
who doesn't know the truth. But it's another thing when they're
telling you and they're making their practices and their works
that key and important thing on the same level as Christ. Second, he says, they were unawares
or secretly brought in who came in privily. They were sent by
the evil one. They were sent in appearing to
be sheep, but inwardly are ravening wolves who are coming in to devour,
to scatter and devour the sheep. Now our Lord speaks of these
false brethren. Turn over to Matthew 7. Matthew
7. Let's look at verses 15-18. Our Lord says, Beware of false
prophets. These are false brethren, false
prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly
they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. And He asks this question, Do
men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? What false
brethren and false prophets seek to do is they're trying to bring
forth fruit, fruits of righteousness from that which can never produce
righteousness. they're trying to bring forth,
he describes it as, well, they're trying to bring forth fruit from
the flesh. And that's why Christ says, do
you bring forth grapes from thorns and figs from thistles? Do you
get fruit from that which can never produce fruit? No, you
do not. If you're just looking on the
outward form of the work, you might say, well, that seems like
a good work. How do I discern between their
fruit? He's saying you look at where
they're getting their fruit from. Verse 17, even so, every good
tree, that new man born of the Spirit of Christ, born of Christ,
bringeth forth good fruit. But a corrupt tree, this flesh,
this corrupt seed of Adam, Bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit. That which is born from above,
that which is born of Christ in you, cannot sin. The Apostle John said, cannot
send Christ in you, the hope of glory. Neither can a corrupt
tree, this flesh, bring forth good fruit. It's in bondage. It's in bondage to the law. It's
fleshly works. And so they say, except ye be
circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. They're trying to produce fruit
in and of this flesh. And those are false brethren,
looking to this flesh to bring forth that which is pleasing
and acceptable to God. Now third, it says that they
were sent to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus. They're trying to bring free-born
brethren under the bondage of the law. And they're turning
anyone who will give them an ear, anyone who will listen,
they're turning them away from Christ to trust things that they're
doing in the flesh to feel comfort and acceptance with their God. And that's what people do. That's
why people stir themselves up, because they're not trusting
Christ, they're worried. they're worried and so they think
if well if I could just become more consistent in these things
then maybe I'll feel better and I'll quiet my conscience down
and so Sinner, the question that you should have is, what must
I do to be saved? And my response to you is, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And that's
what Paul said in Romans 10, 13. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's the promise
of our God. The problem is that people oftentimes
introduce other things and they start saying, but now you need
to repent and you need to humble yourself. and you need to start
correcting your behaviors. You need some reformation in
your life. You need to be good and do better. You've got some
things that you've got to do in order to be saved. So that
they're saying, except ye repent and become more consistent in
your religion, you cannot be saved. Is that, do we put that
before Christ? And do we put that with Christ?
Or is that, is that truth or is that a lie? Another thing
that they do is they say, well, tell me about your experience. Tell me about your experiences. What has the Lord shown you?
What kind of sorrows have you been brought into? Are you mourning?
Are you fearful? Are you terrified? Are you afraid? Are you crying? What experiences
have you had in order that I can tell you that you're a child
of God or not? Because except you experience
crying and mourning and doubting and terrifying worries and doubts,
except you do those things, you cannot be saved. Is that the
truth or is that a lie? Am I putting in other things? alongside Christ in order for
you to be a child of God? What they're really saying is,
first you do your best, and then Christ will do the rest. It sounds
so good. Oh yeah, you do your best, you
try your hardest, and Christ will make up the rest of the
difference. But that's not true. We don't add anything to this. Christ saves us by grace in spite
of ourselves. He saves us in spite of ourselves.
So false brethren put value on your fleshly works. And we do
it even to ourselves. We really do. We get worried,
we start looking at things, and it's very easy to turn back to
the flesh and start searching through the past to see what
kind of comforts and satisfactions we can find for ourselves. So
to be sure. All of God's children, the Lord
does bear fruit in us. The Lord does bear fruit. I'm
not speaking that we just go off fulfilling the lusts of the
flesh. But our Lord teaches us and he
shall bear fruits of righteousness in his people which he's ordained
to bring forth from us. Faith and hope and love and kindness
and patience with our brethren and serving the Lord and worshiping
him. Paul said in Colossians 2 verses 9-11, he confirms that
in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Everything that our God requires
of the sinner, it is fully, freely provided for us in Christ. He says, And ye that believe
are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ. You who call upon Christ, who
hope in him, trust him, rest in him, believe him. Stay right
there in the Lord Jesus Christ. Fourth, he says that they might
bring us into bondage. And so the false brethren we
see, they turn us away from Christ in order to bring us into bondage
to the law. And they disguise that as personal
righteousness. And that sounds very appealing.
that there's something I gotta do, there's something I gotta
add to this. But the truth is, is that Christ bears fruits in
us. He teaches us and leads us. He
chastens us and humbles us and makes us to know his will and
to glory in him. And so the way that we deal with
false brethren is the way Paul dealt with them in verse five,
Galatians 2.5. He said, to whom we gave place
by subjection, no, not for an hour. We did not submit to their
lies. We didn't say, well, we'll think
about that, or maybe you have a point there. No, they said,
no, that's not the gospel. That's not salvation. Salvation
is by the blood of Jesus Christ and him alone. He's all our hope. We preach Christ, not circumcision. Well, you're not going to be
accepted by the people, and so be it. And so be it, then I stand
with Christ and you can take your fleshly gospel, which is
no gospel at all, and you go preach that, but you'll meet
God and you'll see that it's Christ. Christ is all, we glory
in Christ. And so thankfully the apostles
didn't agree with that. They stood firm because he says
of what's at stake, that the truth of the gospel might continue
with you. And so that's the differences
that we see between weak brethren and false brethren. One is seeking to compel you
and bind your flesh and bind your liberty and turn you away
from Christ. And the other, you're patient,
you're teaching them the truth, you're declaring the truth, they're
listening, they're hearing it, and we trust that the Lord will
teach his people just as he taught us. I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts. Amen. All right, let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace and mercy. Lord, we see that there's a discerning
there, which you teach us. Help us to be wise not to get
caught up in in questions and topics that just cause strife
and division and separate brethren. And Lord, help us to glory in
Christ, to preach Him, knowing, Lord, that You lead Your people
and that You bear fruits of righteousness in them. We don't focus on those
things in trying to produce a certain behavior or trying to affect
things by something we do in the flesh as they were trying
to do with circumcision. Lord, we trust that it's all
of You. It's all of Your grace. And Lord,
keep us right there, glorying in Christ. Reveal Your Son in
us by Your Holy Spirit, teaching us and keeping us. Bless your
people, help those who are sick or struggling or fearful or worried
about many things. Lord, give us rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ and bless us to glory in Him alone. It's in Christ's
name we pray and give thanks, amen. All right. I think they yeah exactly yeah
yeah that's fine I think it'll be good if you get that big thing We'll come back on in a moment.
I always want you to talk and walk and crawl and Yeah.