in the book of Galatians chapter
2. I'm going to begin in verse 11. And this portion of scripture
is really the thought of this section goes all the way to the
end of the chapter obviously, but I'm going to divide it up
because I want to next week come back and do a begin with verse
15 and 16 and 17 go on on the issue of justification. But today
we're just going to cover a few verses beginning in verse 11
concerning an episode in the life of the Apostle Paul and
the Apostle Peter when they were at Antioch and where Paul was
duty bound, truth bound to withstand Peter to the face over an issue
that cannot be ignored. And that's the name of the title
of the message, an issue that cannot be ignored. Now, you know,
whenever there's controversy, even among brethren, Most of
us do not like controversy, and we'll do just about everything
we can to just sweep it under the rug, deny it, ignore it,
let it go. And there are some things, especially
in matters of personality, matters of personal preference, in matters
of prejudice, that we can do that in the case of what we want. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm not talking about anything that divides brothers, because
we can't ignore that. But when it comes to gospel issues,
when it comes to the truth of the gospel as it is in Christ
Jesus, when it comes to, for example, the doctrine of his
person, who is Jesus Christ? That's an issue we can't ignore.
When controversy arises over that, when anyone comes along
claiming to be a Christian or claiming to believe the gospel
who denies either the person of Christ as God or as man, God-man,
that's who he is. He's God in human flesh, Emmanuel,
God with us. Well, we can't let that go. And
that was an issue in John's day, the Apostle John. He wrote about
that in 1 John, because when he talked about testing the spirits.
And another way of saying that would be judge the preachers.
Listen to them and test their message with the word. That was
an issue with him. And then secondly, when it comes
to the issue of the finished, completed, redemptive work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, in this sense, and you can kind of summarize
it in this question, what did Jesus Christ actually accomplish
on the cross when He died? Because that's the issue now.
Because people who claim to be Christian, they have different
ideas and different views about that. But there's only one view
in the Scripture. And that is that Jesus Christ,
by His death on the cross, finished all the conditions and the requirements
and the stipulations that God had set down in the covenant
to secure and demand the salvation of His people. all for whom he
died, his righteousness established. That's what it's all about. And
so whenever that question comes in, whenever that truth comes
into question, it's an issue that can't be ignored. And that's
what this is all about. We come here to verse 11 and
the scene changes from Jerusalem to Antioch. He says in verse
11, when Peter was come to Antioch, now Antioch was a major city
in the country of Syria, where Syria is today. And Antioch was
the place where probably outside of Jerusalem, the ministry of
the Gentiles had begun. You remember there were Gentiles
at Pentecost. Every man heard the gospel in his own tongue.
Remember that? So there were Gentiles there.
So you can't say that Antioch was the first place where Gentiles
were preached to, but it was the first place that outside
of Jerusalem in the New Covenant that the gospel went and a church
was established there by the Apostle Paul. And so here is
a mixture of Jews and Gentiles at this place called Antioch,
this church at Antioch. And Paul was used of God to plant
that church. Some say Paul was a pastor there
for a while, or a co-pastor with Barnabas. There's another man
here named Barnabas, and you read about him in the book of
Acts. And then there were probably some other men that were there
that were leaders in the church. But When you look at these verses,
you're going to see two major figures in the New Testament,
Paul and Peter. The Apostle Paul and the Apostle
Peter. Now, God uses men to accomplish
his work here on this earth. And sometimes he'll use one man
more than another. And of course we'd often say,
well certainly he used Paul in a great way. The Apostle Paul
was used of God to write over half the New Testament. Paul
was the human instrument. Peter wrote two books of the
New Testament, 1 and 2 Peter. But whenever God uses men greatly
in that way, People, we people, have a natural tendency sometimes,
and we have to fight this tendency, to elevate the man above the
truth. And that's what you have here.
Peter went into error and people followed him. Peter was wrong.
Now if you doubt how prominent these two men were in the New
Testament, understand that the book of Acts, the first part
of Acts is about the ministry of Peter. The last part of Acts
is about the ministry of Paul. Peter was mainly a minister,
an evangelist to the Jewish people. Now he preached to Gentiles,
we see that in the book of Acts. See it here. But he was mainly
a minister to the Jews, preaching the gospel to the Jews, the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace to the Jews. Paul was mainly
a minister to the Gentiles. Now he preached to Jews also,
obviously, but mainly that was his ministry. So with all that
in mind, look at what he says here. He says in verse 11, this
is Paul defending his own apostleship now, and showing that no man
is above the truth. And that's a hard lesson. No
man is above the truth. I don't care who they are, what
their reputation, how long they've been in the ministry. No man
is above the truth. To put a man above the truth
is the same as putting a man above God. And so he says in
verse 11, When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to
the face. That means I stood against him.
Now Paul and Peter had already been in fellowship. He talked
about that back in the first part of chapter 2, how he went
to Jerusalem. And when Peter and James and
John saw him, they talked and they found they were in fellowship
around the same gospel. So one thing we know, there's
no doubt that Peter and Paul believed the same gospel. They
weren't two different denominations. There weren't a hodgepodge of
religion like we have today that's confused. They believe that God
saves sinners by His sovereign grace, that God justifies the
ungodly through the blood and the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, period. Nothing added. And God the Holy
Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to record this controversy Because
what happens here is we're going to see that the very heart of
the gospel, the very ground of salvation was brought into question
by something that Peter did. Not by what he said, but what
he did. And again, now whenever controversies like this arise
between God's people over the issues of the gospel, how are
you going to settle matters? Well, you have to settle them
by the Word of God. That's the only way. It can't be settled
based on the experience of those involved. Peter had been in the
ministry longer than Paul. Peter walked with Jesus Christ
in his earthly ministry, those three and a half years. Paul
didn't do that. Paul met him afterward. Paul
himself said, I was one born out of due time. He came along
later. But here's the point. Doesn't
matter. Peter was wrong. Now that doesn't
mean that we're right on everything, but it means we're right on this
or we're not at all in the will of God, the revealed will of
God. And I've stated that as believers. You think about it.
Here's Paul. Now he says, I withstood Peter
to the face. Why? Because Peter was to be
blamed, he said in verse 11. Peter was wrong. And I've stated,
you know, we as believers, we ought to desire to be kind to
everybody, to be loving, even respectful. Peter ought to have
some respect from men now. God's no respecter of persons
when it comes to salvation and justification. But Peter was
a man who was called of God, gifted with the office of apostle,
and he deserved the respect that comes with that. but not at the
expense of the gospel truth. That's one of the biggest problems
throughout the history of the church. Men respecting men at
the expense of the gospel. And that's the problem. And it
would have been easier for Paul to say, well, I know Peter's
wrong, but he's Peter. He's the big fisherman, you know,
that's what people call him. And he needs to save face here,
and I don't want to embarrass him, and I don't want to remove
any notion of his clout. No. You see, if Peter saved face
in this issue, you know what the equivalent is? Self-righteousness,
pride. Paul could have said, well, I'll
just promote his self-righteousness. No. Paul could have said, well,
let's just let it go and ignore it. But he knew the issue here
was the glory of God in Christ. And like I said, this teaches
us there's some issues we can't just sweep under the rug because
we don't want to offend people. Now, what happened here? He says
in verse 12, for before that certain came from James, that
certain men came from James. Now, James was a leader in the
church at Jerusalem. And he said they came from James.
Peter ate with Gentiles. Now the tense of the verb shows
us there that he's not just talking about one time in Antioch that
Peter just happened to be there and he was hungry, he's sitting
down with some Gentiles and they ate. What the tense of the verb
suggests here is that was Peter's custom now. Peter learned a lesson
back in Acts chapter 10, you can read about it. Remember when
God in that vision was going to send him to the Gentile Cornelius,
and he gave him that dream where he let down the blanket with
the food that was there, and all that food was food that was
forbidden by the old covenant? And Peter said, not me, Lord,
I haven't eaten anything unclean. And God said, don't you call
unclean what I've cleansed. And what he was showing there
is that now the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile
is broken down. The old covenant's over. We're
all one in Christ. We're all equal. Listen, if we're
in Christ, we're equally saved by the grace of God. There's
not one person here who's saved who deserved it any more than
I do or anybody else in this congregation. None of us deserve
salvation. You haven't earned it. None of
us have earned it. It's a free gift from God. Righteousness
is totally by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not by me, in me,
or by you, or in you. And so we have nothing to boast
in above one another. There's nothing about us. And
Peter had to learn that lesson. He learned that, listen, all
those distinctions of race and human natural tendencies and
even the distinction between foods is gone. It's removed. We're all one in Christ. And
so Peter learned that lesson. He went to Cornelius and he preached
the gospel and he stayed there in Cornelius' home. And from
then on it was his custom to sit down and eat with the Gentiles.
Now in the Old Covenant it was never forbidden for a Jew to
sit down and have supper with a Gentile. It was forbidden for
a Jew to sit down and have supper and eat what the Gentile eats.
All right. The not eating with Gentiles
was a tradition that rose up after that. And what the reasoning
is, you know, human reasoning. Well, if I can't eat what the
Gentile eats, I just won't sit down with him at all because
I don't want to offend him. And that's where that came from.
But anytime a Jew saw another Jew sitting down and eating with
Gentiles, that was heresy to them. And that would be an indication
that that person was cursed. and not a true child of God.
So Peter, it was his custom to sit down and eat with the Gentiles.
But when he was doing that, it says in verse 12, that certain
came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles, but when they were
come, these certain people that came from James, he withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Now, those who are of the circumcision are false believers. That's a
term that's used for false believers. Paul said, we are the circumcision
in Philippians chapter 3. Those who were of the circumcision
were Jews who claimed to be Christian, but they wanted to lay the Old
Covenant right, or the Jewish right of circumcision on the
Gentiles in order to be saved, in order to be righteous. So
he's talking about false believers there. And when Peter saw them
coming, he just, I don't know, you know, a lot of people try
to climb into Peter's mind here and figure him out. I don't know,
I don't think we can do that, but I know he was wrong. And
I know that probably it was just human nature. He, out of fear
of them, he just got up and he changed tables. And what happens here, Paul is
showing that when Peter, when Peter did that, he was making
a statement. And what he was saying is that
there's something to what these false Christians are preaching.
There's some merit to it. There's some value to it. And
by his action, he made that statement that there was some merit to
what these false preachers were saying, and Peter knew better.
But what did he do? He shrank back rather than to
offend these false preachers. And apparently they were men
of reputation. Now there are those who do such things like
that because they don't believe the gospel. We read about them
in John chapter 12. It said, they believed but they
would not confess Christ before men because they had respect
unto men rather than God. But Peter knew better. And when
he says he was to be blamed, that phrase sort of, it indicates
that Peter was acting a hypocrite. And I'll show you that in just
a moment. But then there are those who, like Peter, who do
believe the gospel, but who, in moments of weakness, allow
the flesh to get the better of them. We have this treasure in
earthen vessels. Now, how do we know the difference?
Well, Peter didn't believe a false gospel. He didn't deny the truth
in his doctrine, but his conduct was inconsistent with his conviction. what he knew to be true. He didn't
act here out of conviction. Go back and read Acts chapter
10 and see what his conviction was. And then another companion
scripture, and I'm going to turn there in just a moment, that
you need to read along with this is Acts chapter 15. That's the
Jerusalem Council. And that'll show you what Peter
really believed in his heart, in his mind, affections, and
will. But out of fear, of these men and what they would say out
of their reputation, he bowed to them and he was to be blamed. Now, if you read some translations,
back up there in verse 11, it said he was to be blamed. Some
translations translate that he stood condemned and not condemned
under the justice of God. There's no condemnation to them
who are in Christ. Scripture teaches us that. We're
not even charged with our sins in Christ. We're charged with
his righteousness. But simply at fault, what that
means when it says he's to be blamed or even condemned, it
simply means in that context that Peter was at fault here.
Peter was guilty, not in the sense that he was condemned by
God, but he was culpable. He was blameworthy. He's wrong.
And there's a difference in the fact that we can all be blamed
for our sins, because we are culpable. I'm a sinner. You're
a sinner. But in Christ, we cannot be judged
and condemned for our sins, because we're in Him. He took our sins
on the cross. He was blamed in a legal way
for our debt. But Peter was to be blamed here.
And as I said, that's also an expression that shows that Peter
knew better, but he allowed his fear of men to get the better
of him. Now it says there in verse 13, or verse 12, that certain
came from James. Well, what does that say about
James? Now, James was the leader, one of the leaders in the church
of Jerusalem. Well, James did not send these fellas. Well,
how do you know? Well, look over at Acts chapter
15 with me. Now you read the whole chapter
of Acts 15. That's the Jerusalem council.
That's when Paul came to Jerusalem And they held a council concerning
this very issue. In other words, what is it that,
and here's the issue now, what is it that makes a sinner righteous
before God? Is it anything done by us, or
in us, or through us? Is it a combination of what Christ
does for us and what we do too? Or is it Jesus Christ and Him
crucified alone? Is it His righteousness imputed
alone? Or is it something else, like
circumcision? And you remember that whole council
was over that issue. It says here in verse 5 of Acts
15, it says, But there rose certain of the sect of the Pharisees
which believed. Now they had a claim of believing,
saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command
them to keep the law of Moses. In other words, what Christ did
on the cross wasn't enough. His blood is not enough to wash
away our sins. His righteousness and punitive
is not enough to justify us. You've got to be circumcised
too, and you've got to keep the law of Moses. Now that's what
this Council is all about in Acts 15. That's what the issue
here in Galatians is. That's what the issue is today.
You know that. You have all kinds of churches
all over this world who call themselves Christian. And here's
the basic issue. What is it? What does it take
for God to justify a sinner? What does it take for a sinner
to be cleansed from all his sins? What does it take to make a sinner
righteous before God? And you'll have all kinds of
answers. Now, the greatest heresy of our day, as we've said before,
is what we call the universal redemption of Christ, which is
not biblical. In other words, they've reduced
the death of Christ to making salvation possible if you'll
do your part. Well, that's the same thing these
fellows are saying. Now, you may not say it's circumcision,
but you may say it's accepting Jesus, or believing, or confessing,
or feeling sorry for your sin, or even baptism. But it's the
same thing. It denies the grace of God. It
denies the Gospel. It denies the righteousness of
Christ. But my point here is, look over at verse 24 of Acts
15. Now what happened in this council
is Paul spoke, Peter spoke, and James spoke. And here's James,
after James spoke, Or he's speaking here in verse 24. This is James
these now that you understand now these these Judaizers in
Antioch They came down they said James sent us Well, look at what
James says in verse 24 for as much as we have heard that certain
which went out from us have troubled you with words subverting your
souls saying you must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave
no such commandment and James is saying, absolutely not. I
did not send them. I did not tell them to go to
Antioch and do this or anywhere else. And James had already stated
his position. His position was the same as
Paul's. His position was the same as
Peter, that God justifies sinners by his grace alone, through Christ
alone, based on his righteousness alone, period. Nothing added,
nothing at all. So, look back at Galatians 2. Well, verse 13, he says, And
the other Jews dissembled likewise, or in the same way, with him,
with Peter. When Peter did this, it says the other Jews, indicating
that these were men and women who claimed to be believers,
they dissembled with him. In so much that Barnabas also
was carried away with their dissimulation. Now this dissembling and dissimulation,
you know what it is? It's hypocrisy. And that's another
reason we know that Peter was not doing, acting out of his
conviction. Because in order to do what he
did, he had to play the hypocrite. In order to give credence by
his actions to the false gospel of these Judaizers, Peter had
to be a hypocrite. What's a hypocrite? A hypocrite
is one who believes one thing and acts another way. Well, Peter
believed grace, but he acted another way. Peter believed in
the Lord Jesus Christ, but he acted in another way. You see
what he's saying? They dissimulate, it's hypocrisy. Well, They dissembled,
and it means they played the hypocrite. Their actions didn't
meet their words, and it proves Peter truly believed the Gospel. Well, look on. And Paul saw that
the brethren were divided over this now. You see, this is the
classic case of what I was talking about. Peter had a lot of influence.
And here's a case where men like Barnabas even, who was an evangelist,
who was a companion of Paul too. Later on, how they held the man,
Peter, above the truth, because they dissimulated with him. They
went with him. Well, you know, there must be
something to this if Peter did it. You know, that's how people
reason. I've heard it. I heard it up
13th Street. Well, if that guy, if he says
this, there must be something to it. You know, because man,
he's been in the ministry for a hundred years or whatever.
What difference does that make? I tell you what, if the Lord
lets me be in the ministry a hundred years, I still am not going to
outlive the scripture. It's been around a lot longer
than me or anybody else. Well, all of this truth is more
important than maintaining peace. Because in the true church, our
peace must be based on the truth of the gospel. Well, look at
verse 14. It says, but when I saw that they walked not uprightly
according to the truth of the gospel. Now that's why it's an
issue that cannot be ignored. They walked not uprightly. Their
walk was inconsistent with the gospel they believed. He said,
I said unto Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew, live
us after the manner of the Gentiles. Here you've seen that God saves
sinners by His grace, Jew or Gentile. Based on the same ground,
not on circumcision, not on a connection with Abraham. I've told you before
how the Jews had three things they boasted of that they would
claim, this proves I'm a child of God. Number one was their
physical connection with Abraham. We be Abraham's seed. Number
two was their circumcision. The males were circumcised, but
that represented the whole family, see. And number three, we keep
the law of Moses. Well, physical connection with
Abraham means nothing as to a sinner's justification before God. It's,
am I in Christ? Am I washed in his blood? Am
I clothed in his righteousness? Physical circumcision has nothing
to do with a sinner's relationship with God. It's circumcision of
the heart. We are the circumcision. the
new birth? Do we look to Christ? How do
you determine the new birth? Am I looking to Jesus Christ
and Him crucified alone for all my salvation, all my forgiveness,
all my righteousness, all my eternal life and glory? Or am
I looking somewhere else? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and what? Finisher of our faith. And then
keeping the Law of Moses? Well, none of them kept the Law
of Moses. If you bring it back today, none of us would keep
the law of Moses. That law was given to expose
our sin, their sin, and their need of salvation by grace. Well,
Peter had learned better. And he said, now you know better,
Peter. You're a Jew, but you live after
the manner of the Gentiles. You eat with Gentiles. You see
that doesn't have anything to do with your righteousness before
God now. And he says, and not as do the
Jews. You're not a legalist. You're not claiming salvation
or any part of it based on anything that you are, do, or think. It's
all in Christ. Now, why do you compel And that's
the best word for it. Some translations say force.
And you really can't force people, but now you can put the guilt
on people. But why do you compel thou the
Gentiles to live as the Jews? If you've already know better
and you've already seen that that's useless, like Paul had
seen it as dung, then why are you trying to get the Gentiles
to live like that? It doesn't make any sense. Well,
we see here that this is a gospel issue, one that involves some
aspect of the person and finished work of Christ. How does God
save sinners? How is a sinner made righteous
before God? But Peter acted out of fear.
Proverbs 29, 25 says, the fear of man bringeth a snare, but
whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Now, again,
let me just conclude with, and I'm gonna capitalize on this
as we go further, but I wanna spend the whole message next
week on these last few verses on the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ. There's no doubt that Peter and
Paul, these two apostles, they believe the same gospel. And
we know that, like I said, go back and read it in the book
of Acts. We know they were in fellowship by the grace of God
in Christ and in the truth. But as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians
4, 7, we have this treasure now. We've been so blessed, but we
have it in earthen vessels. We're just weak, sinful men. One sinner speaking to other
sinners. And as I can't remember what
old preacher said, it's like one beggar telling other beggars
where you can find food. I got a message. And no man,
not even apostles, above the word of God. In examination by
that word, the scripture says, try the spirits, test the spirits.
And though we preach a sovereign, perfect savior, we're not sovereign. And we're not perfect in ourselves,
we're perfect in Christ. We're righteous in him, but not
in ourselves. And whenever this issue comes
into question, About the person and work of Christ. How man can
be just with God. The heart of the gospel. What
did Jesus Christ actually accomplish in his death on the cross? It's
an issue that can't be ignored now. You just can't do it. Not in believing the gospel.
It cannot be ignored without compromising everything we believe
and stand for here at Eager Avenue Grace Church. And this is an
issue and argument as old as Cain and Abel, you know that.
It's been the argument and the issue all the way down through
the history of the church. It actually marks the whole history
of the nation Israel under the Old Covenant. You know, when
the Apostle Paul was summarizing Israel's religion under, when
he was summarizing Israel's perverted religion under the Old Covenant,
remember what he said? They sought righteousness, how?
By works of the law and not by faith in Jesus Christ. And that's
the issue and that's what it is here. So we'll pick up on
that next week. All right.