Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. We'll continue
this study. We had a couple weeks off there,
so now we'll continue this study. I was surprised as I was numbering
this one today that we've already had 21 messages in this series
and we're only in chapter 2. I'll tell you what, this is gonna
be a long study, beloved. Oh my, it's great though, isn't
it? We've learned a lot and pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal
more and more to us that we might glorify our great God and King.
And so we'll continue our study this morning in the book of Galatians. We've seen Paul writing to the
Galatian church about the Judaizers who had crept in unawares And
he's bringing forth, in contrast to what the Judaizers are presenting,
which is, you must be circumcised and believe in Christ to be saved,
Paul brings forth the one true gospel and sets it before the
Galatians. We saw that in chapter one, didn't we? He did a masterful
job. And remember, the true author of the scriptures is God the
Holy Spirit. So he just placed that right in front of us, and
we just rejoice. We just rejoice and glorify God for the great
things that he's done for us. So let's read Galatians chapter
two. verses one to five. Paul again has preached to the
Galatians in chapter one that salvation is in Christ alone
with no works by us added to that perfect, complete salvation.
And we're going to see here that there's false brethren who have
crept in, crept in, came in privately to spy out our liberty. Then
14 years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and
took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation and
communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles.
But privately to them, which were of reputation, lest by any
means I should run or had run in vain." So he didn't gather
the whole Church of Jerusalem together, he just gathered the
leaders, the apostles, and he was speaking to them. Because
this was a matter that he didn't want to bring up. He didn't want
to give the Judaizers space to proclaim their lies and their
deceitfulness. He says, but neither Titus, who
was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
And that because of false brethren unawares bought in who came in
privately to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus,
that they might bring us into bondage. To whom we gave place
by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel
might continue with you. Last time we met, we considered
verse three, where we saw that the Judaizers had compelled Titus
to follow their false gospels and their legalism to have Titus
be circumcised, supposedly saying that in order to be saved he
must do that as well as have faith in Christ. And of course
we saw Paul's defense of the gospel marvelously in chapter
one. Now we see here that the Judaizers
are plainly called false brethren, in verse four. And the false
brethren, again, claim that you must believe on Christ and be
circumcised to be saved. And they peddled this false gospel
within the churches of Galatia. Remember, this is not just written
to one church. This is written to all the churches in Galatia.
We don't know how many, but there were several, obviously, because
it's plural. And that false gospel again,
like we saw in chapter one, is diametrically opposed to the
one true gospel of salvation in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ in him alone. There's no other way for a sinner
to be saved except in Christ, no other way. Not by anything
we do, we don't merit it, we don't deserve it, it's all by
grace. God has saved us according to his mercy and his grace and
on purpose, on purpose, which is marvelous, just marvelous.
And the elders of the Galatian church had sent Paul and Titus
and Barnabas to Jerusalem for this meeting to receive letters
from the apostles. And the apostles even agreed
with the elders of the Galatian church that what the Judaizers
were teaching was not right, not right. And Paul went up there
and preached the gospel to them. Now these false brethren, they
were sly, they were crafty. They were crafty and sly. They
didn't just announce their error. They crept in. As one commentator said, they
were led in by the back door by someone within the church.
And when they came in, they were quiet. Didn't say a whole lot,
then all of a sudden, you think Paul's preaching the gospel? Do you think what he's teaching
is the true gospel? We believe, I believe, and so
do these fellows over here, that you have to be circumcised to
be saved. But Paul has no authority. He wasn't with Christ. His little whispers. Not loud,
just little whispers. And they were artful speakers.
They talked with smooth words. Smooth words. And then they'd
come and pull somebody aside and say, do you think Paul, what
do you think of Paul's preaching? What do you think of his preaching?
You think he's preaching the gospel? Just sly, and see, right
away, that'll start casting doubt in a person's mind, right? Oh, they're sly. These false
teachers are sly. They're artful speakers. And all that time, they're trying
to undermine the one true gospel by spreading lies. And also by
trying to yoke the people that they're talking to under bondage.
That's what Paul even says. Look at verse four. And that
because a false brother and unawares bought in who came in privately
to spy out our liberty. That's our freedom, beloved.
Our freedom, which we have in who? In Christ. I do not think
we totally understand the freedom we have in Christ. Now, I was
listening to an excellent message this week by David Pledger, and
I love what he said. He says, you know, when we say
we're not under the law, people right away accuse us of being
antinomians. And he says, but God's people love the law of
God. We just can't fulfill it. And we know Christ did it for
us. And when you look at the law, it's a good way to live
your life, isn't it? But we can't live it all. We
lie. We have evil thoughts in our
minds. And the only one who lived perfectly like that is Christ.
He's the sinless one. We break every one of those laws.
Everyone. See, when the Lord spiritualized
the law, we're all in trouble, right? But the law of God comes
from God. He's a holy God, a righteous
God, right? So we love the law of God. We just realize, I'm
doomed if Christ didn't fulfill it for me. But we're not against
the law, not at all. We're just free from it. We're
free. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. He's our Savior. He's our King. Oh, it's wonderful. Wonderful.
Let's read verse four again. We'll be reading this verse quite
a bit in this study today. Let's read it again. We'll see
that these men sought to bring the Galatian churches back under
bondage. And this is the bondage of the
Mosaic law. They're called Judaizers because
they believe that one had to be subject to the law of Moses
as well as have faith in Christ. Well, I like what James wrote.
He said, I'm going to paraphrase this.
Basically, he said, if you want to live under the law, you've
got to fulfill it all. See, these fellows didn't think
that way, did they? No. You know what this was all about?
Power. That's what it was all about. That's what it's always
about. It's always about power. It always is. My, let's read
this verse again. And not because of false brethren
unawares brought in who came in privately and inspired our
liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring
us into bondage. Now think of this, if they had
a gain to hold in those churches, they'd have messed them up, wouldn't
they? They'd have messed those folks up. They'd have yoked our
brethren under the Mosaic law. under bondage, and more so under
their control. Under their control. But God's
people won't be yoked under bondage. We just won't be. Long time ago,
Jean-Claude told me, Wayne, when you go to Alma, you be your own
man. I took that to heart, beloved. I'm here, your pastor, and I'm
to be my own man here. I'm here to serve you. You know
the pastor's the first servant of the church, right? Not the
first servant. But I'm supposed to serve the church just like
all of you are. We're all servants for Christ.
All of us. No matter what role we have in
the church, we're servants together. And don't forget too, they sought
to gain control and power over the church. Now, church isn't
a building. It's just somewhere we meet,
right? You, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and
me, and you, and you, we're the church, beloved. We're the called
out ones. We're the blood-bought saints
of God. That's what we are. The church
is called the ecclesia, which means the called out ones. Where
are we called out from? The world. Egypt's the picture of the world,
right? Well, we were in Egypt, weren't we? Now we're still in
Egypt, we're still in the world, but we're the called out ones
now. And who made us to differ? Only God. Oh, praise be his name. Only God's made us to differ.
Only he has made us to differ. So the church is not the building,
it's the people. It's the blood bought people
of God, the redeemed of the Lord, who he purchased with his eternal
blood. Christ died in our room and said,
we praise him. That's why we meet together,
to hear about Christ, right? To hear about our King and what
he's done for us. And we're also kept by the power
of God. So here they are trying to infiltrate
God's church, and God's gonna keep his church, isn't he? He's
gonna keep his people, isn't he? So that comforts us, doesn't
it? No matter what comes against
the church, God's people, not the building, God is gonna keep
us. He's gonna keep us from falling
too, isn't he? Right? He saved us. See, don't forget,
He's the author and the finisher of our salvation. I was talking
to Norm about this. I had the pleasure of, Norm came down to
meet me for a couple days and we were eating breakfast together
and he looked over at me and says, man, you know, God's the
author and the finisher of our salvation and everything in between.
You know, He chose us in eternity in Christ, right? He made this
world and time and space so that we might be redeemed, that the
Son of God might come into this world and redeem us. Then Christ
rose from the grave according to the power of God, right? For
our justification. Now we see that the right hand
of God and God's gonna keep us beloved all through this life
until that appointed time when he says, come home, my beloved. Come home, my beloved. and then
we'll spend eternity with him. My, how that'll warm a sinner's
heart, won't it? I say, sinner, that warms our
hearts, beloved. Oh, he's so good. He's so good. Let's read the verse again. And
not because of false brethren, unawares, bought in, who came
in private and inspired our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus,
that they might bring us into bondage. Note in verse 4, these
men are described as false brethren. They had the name, they called
themselves Christians, but they weren't born again. They weren't
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. They had no grace. They
said they were Christians, but they had no grace. No grace at
all. No salvation. They peddled a
works-based salvation. Why? To gain power and authority
over those that they could ensnare? It's all about bondage. It's all about, really, you boil
it down, it's all about power. That's what it's about, beloved. Look at that. And that, because
of false brethren. Now, in the meeting in Jerusalem,
there were three parties. There was Paul and Barnabas and
Titus. There were the apostles and there were the Judaizers.
There were the Judaizers. Paul and the apostles believed
in the complete, finished work of Christ on Calvary's cross
for the sins of his people, that he redeemed us by his precious
blood and that the work is finished. The Judaizers, again, sought
to yoke our brothers and sisters under the Mosaic law, and said,
you must be circumcised in order to be saved. I ran into a guy
this week, and he kept telling me you have to be baptized to
be saved. Well, it's not a good thing to say to me. We proceeded
to have about a 45-minute conversation. This fella knew scripture. See,
this is the sly ones. This fella knew scripture, and
he was weaponized in scripture, and every time he brought a scripture
to me, I had an answer for him from scripture. See, when you
read somebody like that, always answer them with scripture. He
said, well, you had to be baptized to be saved. I said, what about
the thief on the cross? He's like, well, I said, he couldn't
pray no prayer, he couldn't walk no aisle, couldn't do any works.
He said, well, faith without works is dead. I said, well,
that fella couldn't do nothing. And the Lord said, today thou
shalt be with me in paradise, because it's all about grace.
Salvation is nothing we do. Nothing. And that's simply called
baptismal regeneration. He believed that you receive
the Holy Spirit when you're baptized. I said, no. You receive the Holy Spirit by
the operation of God, the circumcision of the heart. It's an operation
of God. It's nothing we do. I said, you
saying we're saved by baptism is something you do. And we can
never be saved by anything we do. Well, it wasn't very long
after that the conversation was over. But I'll tell you what. Beware of these folks. Beware
of them. They're crafty. Some of them
even know a lot of scripture. But they twist it. They twist
it for their to support their own doctrine. And these false
brethren, again, believe that one must believe on Christ and
be circumcised to be saved. And remember this, Paul is writing
this letter by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. He's
the author of these words. The Holy Spirit's declaring that's
a false gospel. See, we always have to remember
that, that these men were just men who were moved by God to
pen these words, but the true author of this book is God the
Holy Spirit. That's who the true author of this book is. And then there were the Jerusalem
apostles who were urged by the false brethren to insist that
Paul and Barnabas require Titus to be circumcised,
and all the other Gentile converts. Let's read verse four again.
And not because a false brother and unawares bought in who came
in privately inspired our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus,
that they might bring us into bondage. I'm gonna try to break
this verse down. Hopefully we have enough time to break this
verse down here. Now we see in verse four that these Judaizers
sneaked in. See the words there? Unawares
bought in, in the Greek, These words are one word. They're only
one word. It means to smuggle in. To smuggle
in. I thought about the Troy horse. Remember the horse in Troy? Just
bought in on a wares, right? But there's danger inside, wasn't
there? Oh my. They were bought in secretly
and allowed to join the fellowship of the church. And in the Greek,
word is from a word which means to bring alongside or secretly
or stealthily bring in. It comes from that word. So you can see what Paul's saying
here. These folks were sly. They were
sly. And also, this was also part
of the definition I found fascinating. The word is used when one speaks
of the introduction of foreign enemies into a city by a faction
within the walls. allowed to come in, unaware,
sneaking in, professing to be believers in Christ, not mentioning
anything of their false doctrine at first, and assimilating amongst
the brethren. But they would be exposed, wouldn't
they? They would be exposed. They'd been exposed by their
words. They'd been exposed by their
words. They taught that the Galatian Christians must be circumcised. They snuck in the back way, and
they did not reveal their false doctrines until the time that
they felt they were ready. Kind of like an enemy soldier
infiltrating a camp, and yet be uniformed the same
way as all the other soldiers. Can't tell them apart. until
it's revealed who he is. But they were exposed by their
words and what they taught. And the Galatian Christians soon
found out about their false doctrines. Some of them were even leaning
towards that. That's why Paul pens this letter. Who hath bewitched
you? He writes to them. Who has you
under a spell? believing this false doctrine,
having received the truth, now listening to the words of these
false brethren who had crept in unawares. Let's read our passage
again. It says, and not because of false
brethren unawares, but in who came in privately to spy out
our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might
bring us into bondage. See the words there, who came
in privately? That's, again, one word in the
Greek. One word in the Greek. It means to come alongside. So
they didn't just sit back. They came alongside. Hey, we're
with you. We're with you. We're one of
you. Sly. Sly. And this intrusion had already
happened, we see in the text. It's already happened, right,
in the Galatian churches. It happened in the past, but
this word used in the Greek for who came in privately, Weiss
comments it's a gradual infiltration in the church. Slowly. It may take years to come to
pass. Slowly. Just a gradual infiltration. And they snuck in. They gradually
infiltrated the church. They professed to be saved, but
they weren't born again. They believed the false gospel,
yet they didn't proclaim it until the time they thought that the
church was ready to hear it. They knew nothing of salvation
through the precious blood of Christ alone. They knew nothing
of a complete, perfect, finished work of Christ. They professed
to believe it, yet they didn't. In their hearts, they didn't.
And eventually, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,
right? Eventually it came out. Now, why did they come into the
churches? We see our answer in the text.
To spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus. Why
do worksmongers creep into the church today? To spy out our
liberty that we have in Christ Jesus. See the words to spy out? Again, those three English words
is one Greek word. Greek language is incredible.
They use one word for when we use three. And to spy out means
to inspect, to view closely, in order to spy out and plot
against. Crafty, aren't they? Crafty,
sly. Weiss brings forth again, this
is where that inside the camp comes from. Weiss brings forth
that the word also means to spy out with a hostile intent. and
likens the Judaizers to spies who are bent on discovering enemy
weak points so they can exploit them, finding who they can exploit. Well, this brother, when I asked
him about Paul, he was kind of, well, you know, targeted. This one over here who says,
well, I'm fine with Paul's preaching. They're going to leave him alone. My oh my, eh? See, if they got
an ear, they'd go right at it. They'd go right at it. My oh
my. And Paul is writing, Paul is
writing to warn them, to warn the Galatians about these false
brethren. We see the word liberty used
also in our text. Look at this, to spite our liberty,
which we have in Christ Jesus. Liberty here literally means
freedom. It's inspired our freedom. They want to yoke people under
bondage again. They want to yoke the church
under rules and regulations so that there's no freedom within
the body. Paul's writing that these false
brethren sought to take away the believer's freedom. I had somebody ask me this vacation,
I won't tell you what it was about, but somebody said, Wayne,
you're a pastor and you do that? And I looked at them and said,
I'm free in Christ, I'm free! Hallelujah, I'm free in Christ.
They didn't quite know what to say after that. I said, don't
you yoke me under your religious bondage, because that's yours,
that's not mine. It's not mine. My oh my. No, it wasn't that loud, but
I got excited, didn't I? I got excited, though. Vicki
was right there with me. She settled me down there, didn't
she? She settled me down there. Oh, my. My, oh, my. But we have freedom, beloved.
We have freedom. We have liberty that we don't
even realize in Christ. Again, not to go out and sin,
because that's antinomianism. We don't want to do that. No,
the love of Christ. That's why when I try to explain
people, they say, Norm brought this up. People all the time
say, well, if I believe like you, I could do whatever I want.
And I said, well, not my brethren and me. Norm says, I've not met
any of my brethren that feel that way. No, because the love of Christ
now constrains us, beloved. We're constrained by the love
of Christ. Oh, we see our freedom and our
liberty in Christ is in Christ. Look what it says.
Despite our liberty, which we have in Christ, that's where
our liberty is. Outside of Christ, we have no
liberty, no freedom. Beloved, now we still have the
presence of our sins, but you know what we're free from? The
penalty of our sins. I've heard some say, well, we're free from
the power. Well, yeah, kind of, right? Because sin still bothers
us a lot, doesn't it? But we lean on the Lord more
and more now. But there is no penalty for our
sin. It's been taken care of at Calvary's cross, beloved.
We're free from that. My. But one outside of Christ
is bound to the law. And the scripture says that soul
that sinneth, it must die. It must die. And again, God's
justice will be satisfied either in the sinner or in the Savior.
Either in the sinner or in the substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It will be satisfied. So true believers have freedom.
Turn, if you would, over to Galatians, chapter 5, where you see this.
Look at this in Galatians, chapter 5. This is wonderful. We are
told to stand fast in the liberty. Now, this is not the same Greek word for bondage here.
It's not the same Greek word for bondage in our text, but
note this. Paul's talking about similar
things here. Galatians, chapter 5, verses 1 to 6. Stand fast. You see, this is to us. This
is the Holy Spirit writing this to us, right? Stand fast. That means just to stand. Firm. The Romans used to, and the Vikings
and all them, had shield walls. Stand fast. Lock your shields
together. Stand fast, beloved. I often think of that. Be ready. Sword of the Spirit, shield of
faith, helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness. Feet shod with
the gospel of peace, the belt of truth, it's all Christ, right?
Stand in Christ, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free. And be not again entangled with
the yoke of bondage. Don't be entangled again with
the yoke of slavery. Bondage. to man's rules and regulations. Behold, I say unto you, that
if you be circumcised, now he's going to get to it. Look what
he says here about, because remember the Judaizers wanted the Gentile
churches to be circumcised. Look at this. Behold, I, Paul,
say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
That's the Holy Spirit telling us that. That's who's really telling us
that. that if you do any works to gain merit and favor with
God for salvation, it don't profit you nothing. My. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. You want to follow the law? You
got to do it all. We're doomed. We're doomed. Christ has become of no effect
to you, Whosoever of you is justified by the law, ye are fallen from
grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Now again, look back at our text. Look what he says here. And be
not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Verse 5, 1.
I'm sorry. Chapter 5, verse 1. And be not
entangled with the yoke of bondage. And then now let's go back to
our verse. I'm sorry, I got all tongue-tied there. Now let's
read our verse again, and we see that false teachers seek
to put believers under bondage. And that because of false brethren,
unawares bought in, who came and privately spied our liberty,
which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into
bondage. Now the Greek word for bondage
here means to enslave. They seek to enslave you in me.
by saying there's something we have to do or keep doing in order
to be saved. And it means to utterly enslave,
to reduce to absolute slavery. That's what that Greek word means.
So no wonder Paul's warning the Galatians. He said, you're free
in Christ. Do not be utterly enslaved by these false teachers
and their false ways. And it's used in the future tense,
which tells us that it was not merely an intention on the part
of Judaizers, but an attempt that they had sure hope of success. They were thinking, we got him. Well, I'll tell you what, whenever
somebody thinks we got him, God's got other plans, don't he? He
protects his people. He protects his church. Look
at this, and that because of false brethrens, again, unawares,
bought in, who came in privately to spy on our liberty, which
we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. These false brethren were men
who claimed to be followers of Christ. Again, they wore the
names of Christians. They claimed to be followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they were nothing but religious
hypocrites. That's all they were. That's all they were. And they're
popping up all over. They're popping up in Antioch,
they're popping up in Jerusalem. Remember when we studied the
book of Colossians? They popped up in Colossians.
These false teachers are popping up all over the place within
the church. Well, Satan sows his terrors, doesn't he, amongst
the wheat. Oh, my. My, oh, my. And they were amongst even the
church in Jerusalem we see here. These religious hypocrites were
trying to pervert the gospel of Christ by their polluted,
sinful works. Now, how can we spot these false
brethren? How can we be on guard against
them? By one Christ-honoring truth. Any doctrine that introduces
any work that man must perform, whether it's in their minds or
whether it's by deed, to merit salvation is a false doctrine
and robs God of all the glory. And God, our King, will not share
his glory with anyone, will he? Christ came to this earth to
save us, to glorify God. And what do we do now that we're
the redeemed? We glorify God, don't we? We glorify the one
who saved us and gave his life for us. My. Some teach that you must be baptized
to be saved. That's a false gospel. That's
the work of man's hands. Some teach that sinners are saved
by belonging to a certain church or a certain religious organization.
That's a false gospel. Some teach that you are to walk
in front of the church and exercise your so-called free will and
pray a certain prayer to assure that you're a sinner saved. That's what's called decisional
regeneration. There's no Holy Spirit there.
There's no Holy Spirit working there. It's like when I was preaching
that funeral, I said, God can save you without you moving a
muscle, because it's a heart work. You don't have to walk
no aisle and pray no prayer. God will save you. I'll tell
you what, when God saves you, you'll be praying, right? I never talked to the Lord unless
I was in trouble before the Lord saved me. Now I love to talk
to him. My. My, so other people say do
this and do that, that's just the false gospels, beloved. Titus
wrote, Paul wrote this to Titus, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he has saved us. not he saved us by the washing
of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost the word the
washing of the word and the Holy Spirit regenerating us beloved
that's how we're saved that's how we're saved my nothing we
do nothing we do in God great in the merciful praise