Galatians chapter 2, we will
pick up in verse 11. I sat down yesterday and wrote
this out and then had Vicki to type it out and then accidentally
deleted it last night. I've got to still get used to
that pad, but I deleted all of it. So I'm sure glad I kept my
notes most time I throw them away. The Lesson this morning has to do
with preserving the truth of the gospel. Preserving the truth
of the gospel. Look in verse 5 of chapter 2,
To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the
truth of the gospel might continue with you. And then look in verse
14, But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according
to the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, and
this is where he challenges Peter. But this is what's at stake.
This is what's at stake here that Paul's dealing with. The
truth of the gospel, that it might continue with you. Now, what we have here in these
verses, Paul faces down Peter's actions. You know, Paul says,
I withstood him to the face. The meaning of that is, I faced
him down. I stood to his fate. I didn't
go behind his back. I didn't talk about what Peter
was doing behind his back and say, that shouldn't be done.
He said, I faced him down. And that's what he's talking
about here because Peter's actions moved several of the Jews along
with Barnabas to disassemble with the Gentiles. And listen,
actions do speak louder than words. Just ask your children. You can
tell your children to do stuff, but they watch you. They watch
you. Your actions speak louder than
words. And so this is why Paul does this. And Paul shows by
his rebuking Peter that the truth of the gospel is to be preserved
at all cost. It exceeds all friendships. This is an apostle. Peter, you
know, you and I know Peter was one of the, what we would call
one of the top, one of the head apostles. I mean, he was, he
was front and forward all the time. But the truth of the gospel
is to be preserved and it exceeds all friendships and all relationships.
And the very thing at stake here is just that, the truth of the
gospel. Now Paul says, as he said back
there in verse 5, that he did not give place of subjection
to the false brethren, not even for an hour, not even for a minute
really, not even for a minute. But now what about Paul's actions? You see, he didn't give place
of subjection for an hour to those false apostles. But now
here's an apostle. Here's an apostle. What about
Peter? What about his actions? How's Paul going to deal with
that? What will Paul do about it? Well, here's what Paul's
going to do about it. Because of his love for the gospel,
his love for the church, and his love for Peter. Paul does
this out of love to Peter also. This is not just Paul speaking
out in anger. This is Paul preserving the truth of the gospel, but
he's also rebuking this apostle out of love, because he's wrong. He's wrong, and he's done this
publicly, and he's caused some real harm here. It may look innocent,
but it's not. He's caused some real harm here.
So Paul is going to call Peter out on it. He's going to show
no respect of persons in this matter of the gospel, of keeping
it pure, keeping the truth. He's not going to show respect
of persons here. If we allow the truth of the
gospel to be compromised in any way, shape, or form, no matter
who it is, and let me tell you something, this proves right
here that a strong brethren, someone as strong in the faith,
can fall. That's a lesson for us. If Peter
can do it, then I need to be aware of myself because I can
do it. It can be done. It can be done. So we can't compromise
it no matter who stumbles. We can't compromise. So in verse
11, Paul withstood Peter to his face. In other words, he faced
him down. What Peter did, he did publicly,
therefore Paul dressed him down publicly. You know, if something
is done in secret, keep it in secret. But if it's done publicly,
then you have to address it publicly to correct it. Now here's the
problem in verse 12 through 13. Some prominent Jews, they came
down from the church in Jerusalem there where James was the pastor.
They were the pastor, but they still had some old grave clothes
on. I imagine James had his hands
full there in Jerusalem. They were brought up under the
law. They were still holding on to some of those old traditions,
and old traditions die hard. They die hard. And so these men
come down, and before these men came down from James, Peter sat
down with the Gentiles. He ate with the Gentiles. He
ate with those Gentile converts, and he ate freely. Whatever was
on the table, he sat there and ate with them and drank wine
with them and he conversed with them, fellowshiped with them.
That's what he did. He did not observe any of the
ceremonial laws of clean and unclean animals that eat and
not eat. Remember, he was straightened out on that by God earlier when
God had this sheet that come down from heaven. He saw it in
a trance and Peter said, No, Lord, I've never done that. And
he said, Don't you call unclean what I've cleaned. And Peter
got the message because he tells that story over in the book of
Acts. So he got the message. So he's sitting down and he's
eating with these men, these Gentile converts, and they are
conversing, they're talking about the gospel, they're rejoicing
around the Lord Jesus Christ. But when these, when these Judaize,
someone called them Judaizing Christians, when they came down
from Jerusalem, from the church there in Jerusalem, they came
down from there, Peter, separated himself from the Gentile converts
and wouldn't sit down and eat with them anymore while those
men were there. He got up and he observed, he wouldn't eat
certain things because of that ceremonial law of clean and unclean.
He started observing those things when these men came down. And
here's why he did it there in verse 12. Fearing them. Fearing them. It says in verse
12, For before that 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. Peter had
a problem with this. He denied the Lord. He denied
the Lord out of fear. The one who denied the Lord out
of fear, listen, is doing it again. You know that when Peter, after
he denied the Lord and the Lord met with him and said, Peter,
do you love me? And basically Peter was restored. You know
Peter thought, I'll never do that again. He does. Out of fear, he separates from
those Gentile brethren because of the circumcision that came
down or the Judaizers. Solomon said this, "'The fear
of man bringeth a snare.'" The fear of man will cause you to
compromise the gospel. The fear of man will cause you
to shut up when you ought to speak up. I promise you, it'll
cause you to shut up when you ought to speak up. The fear of
man, that's why we don't witness at times when we could. because of the fear of man. That
doesn't mean you're sitting there trembling, scared of that person,
but you have a fear of their disapproval. You don't want to
disapprove. It's called peer pressure. Peer
pressure. Peter felt the peer pressure
here. And Peter's fear of their disapproval caused him to commit
a grievous sin. It caused him to be a hypocrite. That's what it did. It caused
Peter to be a hypocrite. That's what it did. He had here
a double standard going on. He was saying one thing and doing
another. That's a double standard. That's
confusion. That causes confusion, especially
to new converts. Turn over to Acts 15. I want
you to see how this is confusing. You think, how could he do this?
Well, we all could do it. Every one of us can do it. In Acts 15, look in verse 5. Now, I want you to know this
is Peter. He's the first one to stand up and defend the Gentile
church. But there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law
of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider
of this matter. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren,
you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did
unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith. 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 we believe, we Jews
believe, that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall
be saved, even as they." And then turns right around and does
this. Isn't that amazing? Stood there
and defended them against the circumcision. When the circumcision,
the Jews, the Judaizers, they came down, he separated from
the Gentiles. How confusing. It was confusing
to them, no doubt. And worst of all, he was not
walking according to the truth of the gospel, that salvation
is all of grace, all in Christ, we are justified. And for the
first time, Peter will use that word justification in this chapter. And this is what this is about,
how we are justified before God. It's either by grace or by works.
It's not a mixture of either one. It's one or the other. It's
just one or the other, and that's what's going on here. And Paul
says here, you're not walking according to the truth of the
gospel. You're sending a mixed message. Remember, a little leaven
leavens the whole lump. Just a little, and the whole
lump is leavened. Evil companions corrupt good
manners. Now here's Peter's conduct. It
spreads to others. See, here's the danger. especially
someone that holds a high position. You know, that someone, and I'm
going to give you this as an example, when I left 13th Street,
when I left 13th Street, one person said to me, they said,
I was waiting to see what you were going to do. I was one person. had some influence, said, I was
waiting to see what you were going to do. I didn't think about
anybody watching me. There's somebody always waiting
to see what you're going to do. And when Peter did this, other
Jews and Barnabas, Barnabas separated from the Gentile believers. They
wouldn't go over there and eat meat with them. Here's what was
happening. They started observing those
ceremonial laws of clean and unclean. I just read this in
Leviticus yesterday. All these laws of the clean and
the unclean, all these animals and different things they could
eat and could not eat, they went back to that. After preaching
salvation by grace, justification by grace, by faith through the
Lord Jesus Christ, and then turn around and go back to that? What's
that saying to these Gentiles? It's such a confusing message. I think what confusion must have
been in the minds of those Gentiles. Are we saved by grace or not?
I mean, what's going on here? Well, this is why Paul faces
him down. This is how important it is.
And this is why Paul is pointing this out to the Galatians. Remember,
he said, if an angel He said, if we or anyone else, even an
angel from heaven, if they preach any other gospel, let him be
accursed. Peter, by his actions, is preaching another gospel.
By his conduct, he's preaching another gospel. Remember Paul
said about the Thessalonians, you are our epistle known and
read of all men. Peter, you're preaching another
gospel by what you're doing. Now what Peter and the others
did was, here's another thing too, what they did was conceal
their true convictions out of fear. Their true convictions
of the gospel, how God saves sinners, they concealed it out
of fear of those men that came down from Jerusalem. Now Paul says this, when I saw
what they were doing, when I discerned what they were doing, and how
it was contrary to the truth of the gospel, there in verse
14, it's contrary to the truth of the gospel. This has got to
be preserved. I had to dress him down. This
is an apostle dressing down another apostle. You see, this situation is very
serious. Paul's letting the Galatians know that the gospel can't be
compromised. He's letting us know all these
years later, he's letting us know the gospel can't be compromised
and that the strongest of men seemingly can become weak at
times. They can become weak at times.
That's why our faith and hope is in Christ, not in any man. Not in any man. Now here's the argument, he says
here in verse 14, But when I saw that they walked not uprightly,
according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before
them all, because he did this publicly, now he's going to have
to deal with it publicly, If thou being a Jew, Livest after
the manner of Gentiles. If you can live after the manner
of Gentiles, you don't observe any ceremonial laws, you can
sit down and you eat with them. It didn't matter. You may sit
down and have a ham sandwich with them. You're living after
the manner of the Gentiles. And not as do the Jews. Then
why do you compel, by your example, why do you compel the Gentiles
to live like you, a Jew? Why do you compel them to come
under the law? When you with them, you know,
before these men came down, he said, you were living among them
freely. You were living just like they live. But when these
men came down, now you're compelling them by your example to observe
these laws, these ceremonial laws. He said, Paul said, there's
something wrong here. Peter, there's something wrong
here. You're compelling them to observe
the ceremonial laws of eating and drinking? He said, here's what you're doing. You're frustrating the grace
of God. You're frustrating the grace of God. Because at the
end of this, he said, I do not frustrate the grace of God. Spurgeon said this, and this
is something that has stuck with me. The limping of the leader
is the lameness of the people. That's a powerful statement.
Peter, you're limping. And you're limping in a situation
that's devastating to the souls of men. We are justified by faith
without the deeds of the law. And Peter, you know that. You
know that. That's why he says there in verse
15 and 16, He said, we who are Jews by nature, that is, we were
born Jews and not sinners of the Gentiles, not heathens, we
weren't born heathens, we were born under the law, we were born
Jews. And knowing this, Peter, you
know this, and he's pointing out things Peter knows, that
a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter who that man
is, Jew or Gentiles. We are justified by Christ alone,
faith in Christ alone, by his blood alone, by his grace alone.
Even we have believed, we Jews have believed in Jesus Christ
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ or by faith
in Christ. We believe in him for that purpose
and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Don't bring those Gentiles under
this ceremonial law, and don't you ever observe that ceremonial
law again for the purpose of acceptance. Don't do that. That's
what he's saying, don't do that. He goes on here and says, though
we are Jews by birth and not heathens, we know that we are
not justified by the law that was given by Moses, but we are
justified by faith in Jesus Christ. Peter, you know that. And you
other men know that. James preached the gospel to
those men that came down. He preached the gospel to them.
They knew the truth. And he says here in verse 17
and 18, But if, while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we still remain in our sins, we still remain guilty,
is therefore Christ the minister of sin? No, Christ is a minister
of grace, truth, righteousness, salvation. We are justified in
Christ. We're not guilty in Christ. That's
what he's saying. We don't need to go add the law
to it to finish it off. We are justified in Christ without
any obedience in any way, shape, or form to the moral law or the
ceremonial law. We're justified in Jesus Christ
and in Christ alone. But if I build again, Paul said,
if I build again the things which I destroyed, if I restore the
law, the ceremonial laws, which I don't need to observe anymore,
and I restore it again, then I make myself a transgressor.
I make myself a transgressor. Because I can tell you this,
if you go back under the law, you're a transgressor, because
you can't keep it. You can't keep the law. If you
go back under the law, you're a transgressor. If you try to
rebuild that which you tore down, which is done away with, he said,
you're a transgressor. And now Paul's going to get to
the heart of his message here to Peter here. Look in verse 19. For I through the law, and I
believe he's talking here about the spirituality of the law.
The Holy Spirit takes it and condemns us, reveals what we
are. He reveals our wicked nature,
our sinfulness, our rebellion against God. And if I through
the law am dead to the law. You see, the law is like a schoolmaster,
it runs us to Christ. The law has this convicting power,
has this condemnation power of our sins. We're sinful. The soul that's sentenced shall
surely die. And I tell you what, if you want a real appreciation, if you want to, I thought about
this yesterday, I was going through Leviticus. But if you want a
real appreciation of what Christ has saved us from, he saved us
from the curse of the law. Cursed is every man that continues
not in the things written therein. Go read the book of Leviticus.
Take time and go read all those laws. I mean, it's one after
another, after another, after another. All those, you've got
the moral law and all those ceremonial laws and you've got all the laws
of uncleanness. I mean, it's just one law after
another. And you know, Jesus Christ saved us from all that.
Boy, when I was reading Leviticus yesterday, I seriously, I sat
back and I thought, thank you, Lord. This is what you've saved
me from. If you touch something that was
unclean, you were unclean for so many days, and you had to
go to the priest, and you had to be cleansed, and then you
got the one of leprosy, and the clothes had to be burned. I mean,
it's just, it's extensive, very extensive. And that young man
who said, all these have I kept from my youth up, you don't even
know them all. And as I was reading that, I
thought, I wouldn't have a clue how many of these there are here. I mean, you think you're going
to remember all that? That's what Christ has saved
us from. Peter, don't go back under that because if you're
going to have salvation by the law, you've got to keep every
bit of it. I mean every bit. You better read it day after
day after day. You better commit it to memory. And there's a lot
there. There's a whole lot there. But
he says, I threw the law, the law slayed me, I was convicted
of my sin by the Holy Spirit from the condemning power of
the law, but now listen, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
through the salvation that I have in Him, I am dead now through
the law. I have nothing to do with it.
I don't look to it for justification. I don't look to it for acceptance.
I don't look to the law for anything. I'm dead to it now, and the law
is dead to me, as far as my acceptance with God goes. Here, listen. I am dead to the law that I might
live unto God. You can't live unto God if you're
going to be under the law, because it keeps condemning you. But
you know how you can live unto God? in Jesus Christ, in His
righteousness through His blood, you can live unto God. You can
get up in the morning and worship God. You can get up and go about
your business during the day and you don't have to worry and
be concerned, did I do this? Did I do that? How many steps
did I take today? This is a Sabbath day. They say, what can I do
today? And what can I not do today? That's not living unto
God. Living unto God is being able
to worship Him in spirit and truth. It's being able to freely
come here, not because you've got some commandments that you've
got to obey, but because you love the Lord. Because you love
Him. That's why you're here. You love
the Lord. And Paul says here in verse 20,
I am crucified with Christ. That is, that old man, That old
man. That old man's crucified with
Christ. I'm crucified with Christ. When
he was put to death, I was put to death. Is that real to you? How real is that to you? You
know, we don't feel it, do we? That's why feelings are dangerous.
Because they come and go. They change with the weather.
If it's hot outside, you come in and complain about it being
hot. If it's cold outside, you come in and complain about it
being cold. But the Word of God doesn't change.
And the Word of God is not based on feelings, it's based on the
truth of God. He cannot lie. He cannot lie. So when Jesus Christ was crucified,
I was crucified in Him. I was put to death in Him. I
was put to death in Him. My old man was crucified with
Him. But nevertheless, though I was crucified with Him on the
cross, I live." Paul said, I'm alive for the first time. I have
spiritual life. I have real life. If you don't
have spiritual life, you don't have life. You've got the life
of this flesh and that's all you have. And throughout your
life, that's all you will be concerned with is this flesh. What can I eat, drink, and wear?
It'll all be about me, me, me. Like a bunch of mini-me's. That's
what it'll be. Paul said, I live. I'm not dead. I live a new life. And that new life I live is Christ
in me. Christ liveth, we sing a song
like that don't we? Christ liveth in me. I bet I'll
start singing, you guys will leave. He liveth in me. That's astounding
to me. The older I get, the more astounding
that really is to me. That Jesus Christ liveth in me. He's the reason when I get up
in the morning, I think of him because he lives in me. He impresses
upon my mind himself. There's not a day, I believe
I can say this about every believer here, there's not a day, somewhere
in that day, you don't think about the Lord. Somewhere in
that day, you think of the Lord. There was a time that Jesus Christ
never crossed my mind. It was like walking in darkness.
Because I was. I was in darkness. Never crossed
my mind. I tell you, if Jesus Christ is
crossing your mind every day, something's going on. Something's
going on. He liveth in me. Christ liveth. You know what that word liveth
means? Continually. He continually is living through
me. He is continually living in me. It's not a visit. Jesus Christ
doesn't visit me. He's living in me. That's just
amazing. Listen here. I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in
this flesh, It's old flesh. I still have this flesh, old
wretched man that I am. But the life that I live in this
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. I don't live
upon a theory. I don't live upon false hope. I
live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ day by day. Will you sing
a song like that? Well, two, don't we? Day by day.
Boy, they're just rolling the day. Day by day. That's how we live, day by day. And then Paul throws this in,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me. Now why would I add anything
to that? Peter, Peter, why would you do this? You know we're justified
by faith in Christ alone. You know apart from Him there
is no salvation, there is no justification. Peter, and he's
telling the Galatians church this, I do not frustrate, I do
not frustrate the grace of God. I do not frustrate. I do not
set it aside as something of little importance. I don't do that. It's either
all of grace, Peter, or it's not. It's not. You see how important this is?
It's either all Christ or it's not. One writer said it's either
Judaism or Christianity. It's one or the other. It can't
be both. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, if my righteousness
before God comes by my law keeping, then Christ is dead in vain.
His death was vain. It was useless. It was useless. See how important this is, what
Peter's doing? It's serious business. Even an apostle, even an apostle can fall. Even an apostle can
fall. Even an apostle can get turned
around, twisted up sometimes. All because of this one thing,
fear of man. He had a fear of man and he separated
from those brethren. And in doing so, by his actions,
he was preaching another gospel. Faith and conduct always, always
go together.