That gospel. Galatians chapter 2, verses 1
to 10. 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 preached among the Gentiles,
but privately to them, which were of reputation, lest by any
means I should run or had run in vain. But neither Titus, who
was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised,
and that because a false brethren bought in, who came in privately,
despite our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they
might bring us into bondage. To whom we give place by subjection,
no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue
with you. But of these who seem to be somewhat,
whatsoever they were, make it no matter to me. God accepted
no man's person. For they who seem to be somewhat
in conference, added nothing to me. But counterwise, when
they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed
unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter,
for he that wrought effectively in Peter to the apostleship of
the circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles.
And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars,
perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me
and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go
unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. Only they would
that we should remember the poor, same which I also was forward
to do. So we see here in verse one that
Paul and Barnabas and Titus made a trip. Last week we looked at
that and called it back to Jerusalem. They're going back to Jerusalem.
Now the apostles didn't send for Paul, not at all. Paul, I
think, probably had had enough of the Judaizers. and was going
to go up to Jerusalem and get this thing straightened out.
Because the Judaizers were constantly pestering the churches in Galatia
and bringing insecurity among believers by saying, you must
be circumcised as well as believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be
saved. Well, we know from studying the gospel, and mostly though,
more so from the Holy Spirit revealing it to us. Right? Because without Him revealing
it to us, we wouldn't even know this truth. That salvation in
Christ includes absolutely nothing by man. Nothing we do. No man or woman is saved by anything
we do along with Christ's finished work. The reason we call it the
finished work of Christ is because it's finished. There's nothing
to be added to it at all. Nothing at all. And he felt led by the Holy Spirit
of God to go and talk privately to those who were the apostles.
I'm going to straighten it out, right with the ones who were
with Christ. Men of great esteem and reputation.
And the issue of this epistle is we're gonna study this epistle,
we're gonna see that the issue of this epistle is that salvation
is by grace alone plus nothing. That we are justified in Christ.
We're made holy before God in Christ. So it's a rebuttal. It's Paul writing to the Galatians,
and remember, this is by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. So
the true author is not Paul, right? Even though he's writing
to his dear brethren, the true author is the Holy Spirit of
God. Always remember that when we're studying scripture, no
matter where we are. Always remember that the true author is the Holy
Spirit of God. These men are holy men who God,
the Holy Spirit, inspired to write these words down. They
were moved by the Holy Ghost to pen these words. And so the
theme of the epistle is salvation is holy by grace. It's all grace.
It's all grace. It does not require the keeping
of the ceremonial law in any way. In any way. And if salvation were by anything
but grace, then what'd Paul say? He said, my ministry's in vain.
It's in vain, then. Because Paul preached all grace.
He preached like Jonah proclaimed, salvation's of the Lord. That's
what he preached. So if there's anything to do
with the ceremonial law, then his preaching's in vain. And
Paul was a preacher ordained by God, as all God's preachers
are, ordained by God and sent by God to the places where they
preach. And we only have one message.
We have that gospel, which actually in the Greek, where it says that
gospel in our translation, in the Greek literal Bible, it is
the gospel. There's a singularity to it.
Even here there is, that gospel. There's no other gospel that's
a true gospel except what Paul's preaching. And he was sent to
preach, and what a great honor it is for God's preachers to
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Salvation in and through Christ
alone. But we preachers cannot reveal
the gospel to you. No. Just as someone couldn't
reveal it to us. The Holy Spirit must reveal it.
So the preaching of the word, you and I are encouraged by the
preaching of the gospel because of what the Holy Spirit's doing
in us. And we rejoice, don't we? We love to hear about our
Savior. We come to church, we don't come
to church to hear how to be a better Christian, because we all know
that we're the chief of sinners. How are you a better Christian
if you're the chief of sinners? Norm Wells says, I was a better
Christian when I was in religion than I am now in grace. I know
what he means. I know exactly what he means.
I came out of that stuff too. My oh my. So it's the ministry
of the Holy Spirit to take the things of Christ and to teach
us the things of Christ, reveal them to His chosen blood-bought
children, all those who Christ has redeemed by His precious,
precious blood. And God's already sent the Spirit
of His Son into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Oh, we
cry that to our King. And it pleases God to manifest
his life-given power to his elect who come under the preaching
of the gospel. That's why we rejoice when the
gospel goes out into the whole world. We don't know what God's
doing with it, but we know God's promises, that word won't return
unto him void, will it? He's gonna use it to accomplish
his will and purpose. Well, praise be to God. So we
can rejoice, beloved. We can rejoice. We have this
treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may
be of God and not of us. We have been stripped of any
thought that salvation could be accomplished by anything we
do. And when them grave clothes start falling off us, because
they do, we still got grave clothes on below them. We still got grave
clothes. When they fall off, it's so liberating
and so freeing. Oh my, I'm free in Christ. I'm still learning what that
is about. I don't think I'm ever gonna come to a full attainment
of what that's about. I don't think we ever will, but
the little bit we know, oh, praise God. All our sins are forgiven,
beloved. The wrath of God is gone that
was against us. One day we're going to hear,
well done, thy good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of
my rest." My! Me? Such an undeserved and unmerited
sinner? Yep. By the grace of God. And
you too, if you're a believer, too. Isn't that wonderful? Because
it pleased God to do so. Oh, my. Let's just marvel at
that. In Acts, chapter 15, verses 1
and 2, these words Give us the reason for Paul's visit to Jerusalem.
It says, and certain men which came down from Judea taught the
brethren and said, except you be circumcised after the manner
of Moses, you cannot be saved. That's another gospel. That's
another gospel. You see what they did? They said,
except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot
be saved. So something the man does, you
gotta do this thing that a man does. in order to be saved. Well, praise God that our king
finished it all. There's nothing left for us to
do. And if there was something we'd have to do, we'd mess it
up. We'd mess it up, beloved. So it says, when therefore Paul
and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispution with them, so they
went toe to toe with him, They determined that Barnabas and
certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles
and elders about this question. Well, let's go take it, let's
go take it up to the apostles. And that account is referring
to that what took place at church in Antioch is some self-righteous
Jews who profess to be believers were insisting that no one could
be saved unless they were circumcised. Well, you know it still happens
today, right? There's a group, a church group
out there that says, you must be baptized to be saved. And
you know what? There's one fellow in that group
who writes all kinds of books. He writes all kinds of books.
I can't even remember what his name is. He writes all kinds
of books, though, and professing believers, read these books and
say, oh, that's such a wonderful book. A man preaches another
gospel. We ought to do our homework,
aren't we? Why would I want to read anything someone writes
who's preaching another gospel? Seventh-day Adventists, you must
go to church on Sunday. Or Saturday, I'm sorry, Saturday.
That's another gospel, beloved. Roman Catholics. If you're not
in this church, you're not saved. That's another gospel. My poor
mom was terrified to leave the Catholic Church. I kept telling
her, get out of that, mama. Get out of that. She was terrified. She believed salvation was in
the church. There's no salvation in the church. Salvation's only
in Christ and Him alone. Only in Christ and Him alone. And Paul and Barnabas, they knew
these men were wrong. They knew it. They knew these
men were wrong. They got into a strong debate. I just read
to you there in Acts chapter 15, verses one and two. They
got into a strong debate with them. So, they were sent by God
to Jerusalem to bring this matter before the rest of the apostles
and the elders, who were faithful preachers of God's sovereign
grace and salvation in and through Christ alone. Now truth is confirmed by two
or three witnesses, right? Or by one of two witnesses. And
this may be the reason why Paul and Titus went up with Paul.
Barnabas, boy I am all over the board today. I've got to slow
down because I'm talking too fast and I get too excited here.
This is why I think maybe Barnabas and Titus went up with Paul because
here's two witnesses going up with him. So he's not just going up by
himself, he's going up with two witnesses who have heard his
preaching and who preach the same gospel that he does. So we already know that Paul,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, again, in chapter one,
had wrote that this gospel that these Judaizers preached was
a perversion of the one true gospel. And he says, let them
be a curse, which is, that's anathema. That's just, my, no
hope for them, folks. My goodness. And Barnabas was
a well-known minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the other
apostles in Jerusalem had heard of him. Titus was a Gentile believer
who had been given the gift of preaching. He had not been circumcised,
but he was a true witness of the saving grace of God in his
life. He was born again by the Holy Spirit of God. He had given
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, just like we are.
The same faith we have was given to Titus. Isn't that amazing?
Think of that, too. The same faith we have was given
to Paul and Peter. Isn't that amazing? They're just
men like us. They're gifted men. They've been
gifted by the Holy Spirit to preach and they had the amazing
privilege and honor of seeing Christ face to face. Oh my goodness. But the testimonies of these
three men would not only establish the truth in respect to Christ
putting an end to the Old Testament covenant of works under the Mosaic
economy, but also their faith in Christ could not be denied
by the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem. Let's look at verses
two here in Galatians chapter two. This is where we'll be.
Paul writes, and I went up by revelation, and communicated
unto them that gospel which I preached among the Gentiles, but privately
to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should not
run or had run in vain. We see here in this first portion
here of the scripture that Paul goes up to Jerusalem by revelation
because this serious matter needs to be addressed. These Judaizers
had crept in and they were causing trouble in the Galatian churches.
And remember, the Galatian church wasn't just one, there was many.
There was many. They'd written to the churches
in Galatia. And this matter had to be addressed. And the truth of the one true
gospel needed to be confirmed. Needed to be confirmed. for the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul had a revelation that
he should go. And what that means is the Holy Spirit
gave him a strong impulse from within that this was God's will. Now, I'll tell you what. You talk to some people in religion. I've noticed this. They use this
phrase and they say, well, God told me to do it. Remember when we were kids, there
was that Batman show? Remember when they had that red
phone that glowed when the commissioner was calling? I wonder if these
people have one of them red phones to God. Because they're always
saying, well, God told me to do this. One lady we know, she
claims that God told her to go move and buy another house over
to up here. And I said, I had to talk to
a fellow waitress of her just to tell her that that's not how
God communicates. He doesn't communicate to us
in an audible voice. I said, that wasn't God that
was talking to her. That was something, but that wasn't God.
Let me tell you that. My oh my, and many folks in religion
I hear use this language. It's usually charismatic folks,
they use that, and often many times they use that. They say,
well, God told me to do this, or God told me to do that. We should ask them, well, how
does that work? How does that work? Does God
talk to you in an audible voice? Now, if they're led and there's
an impression on them, I can go. Because people say, well,
how did you know to come to Alma? I said, well, the Lord just led
me here. The Holy Spirit led me here. I just knew it was right. The first time I came, I knew
it was right. I felt an instant connection with all of you right
away. I just knew it was right. We just had to wait a little
while, didn't we? Right? That's all. In God's timing. So, I often wonder if these folks
got that hotline, that bat phone. I said to Vicki, what if you
get the wrong number? Right? Oh my. Oh my. Oh. You know how God speaks to
his people? He speaks to us through his word.
He speaks to us through his word, beloved. And in the Old Testament,
he spoke literally to some of the Bible characters, right?
Adam. But do you know who that was that spoke to him? It was
Christ, yeah. When the captain of the Lord's
host appeared to Joshua, you know who that was. That was Christ. When the sojourner appeared to
Abraham, that was Christ, beloved. That was Christ. Turn with me
to the book of Hebrews. And here, we're going to see
here from a New Testament perspective, right, of how God now speaks
to his people. Do you know that everything God
has to say to us is in this book? Who's this book all about? It's
a hymn book, isn't it? It's all about Christ. This whole
book, from beginning to end, is all about Christ. It's all
about him. Look at this in Hebrews. Look
at this. Hebrews, starting in verse one. Look at this. Here's
what the scriptures declare. God, who at sundry times, in
Hebrews 1.1, sorry, Hebrews 1.1. God, who at sundry times in diverse
manners speak in times past unto the fathers by the prophets.
hath in these last days spoken to us by who? By his Son. By his Son. He speaks to us through
his word, beloved, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds, who is the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person, upholding all things.
Look at this. Oh, look at this. By upholding
all things by the word of his power. Remember, we saw that
he has all power on Wednesday night. He's got all power, right?
Look at this. when he had by himself, by himself,
beloved, he did it all by himself, purged our sins. They're gone! Hallelujah, they're gone, beloved.
Look at that. Purge the saints. What did he
do after that? Sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. But note, so
if we get folks saying, you know, God spoke to us, God did this,
God did that, you know, told me to do this. It gets ridiculous
after a while, some of the things you hear, it really is. Some
of them are so outrightly false that you can just, but there's,
see Satan's subtle too. He's subtle. He's subtle. Look at this. Verse two, hath
in these last days spoken unto us by his son. He speaks to us
through Christ. He speaks to us through his word.
It's the Holy Spirit taking the scriptures and applying them
to our hearts and filling us with joy. We don't hear an audible
voice, do we? But we know when we're being
led by the Holy Spirit of God. And we pray, God, now this is,
if you're uncertain that it's God leading you to do something,
you know what you say? Pray what I pray every time before
I get in this pulpit. God, don't lead me anywhere where
you don't go before me. Don't let me go anywhere. You
can apply this to our whole lives. Don't let me go anywhere where
you don't go before me. Because I don't want to be out
of his... Do you want to be out of his will? No. We don't want to
be, do we? No, no, no, no, no. Oh my. So look here again, it says,
he went up by revelation and communicated. Now the word communicated
there, these three men, they got up to Jerusalem and they
communicated unto the apostles the gospel. You know what that
means? They declared it. They declared to them the gospel.
What a better way of showing them that they preached the one
true gospel than declaring to them the gospel. Oh, could you
imagine Peter and them? Amen! He preaches the same gospel
we do! Oh, that would be so exciting. We gospel preachers, we get excited
when we hear about someone preaching the gospel. It's exciting. Preachers ain't in competition
with one another, not at all. We shouldn't be. We shouldn't
be. We preach the gospel to whoever
God puts in our hearing. And we rejoice. We rejoice. My. It's wonderful. Oh, it's wonderful. We're going
to have a couple of men in three months. I'm looking forward to
it. Three months, we're going to have two men come up to us,
come here, and they're going to declare the gospel to us.
I'll be sitting in a pew right there. I'm going to be just soaking
it up like you all. It'll be wonderful, won't it? That's my
time to tank up too, eh? So I love it. I can't wait to
hear these men come up and just proclaim three messages each
to us. I wish it was six, but I don't
want to wear them out. But, oh my, it's wonderful. And Paul didn't ask them if what
he preached was the truth. He just declared it to them.
He didn't say, Well, did I preach the gospel? He knew he preached
the gospel. So the scriptures say here, he
went up and declared it to them. They didn't sit down and, well,
what's your doctrine? And what confession do you conform
to? And what's this and what's that? No, he just declared the gospel
to them. Salvation's in Christ alone,
plus nothing. Christ obtained eternal salvation
for us. Oh, I bet you our dear brothers,
the apostles, I bet you they were rejoicing. I bet you they
were rejoicing. In chapter one we learn that
man had not taught Paul this gospel. Man had not taught Paul
this gospel. No, he was personally taught
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And what happened? God's power
had accompanied Him being taught by the Holy
Spirit of God. And you know what? It's God's power that accompanies
the preacher. If one's sent by God, it's not
in my own strength, and it's not in Donny's own strength,
it's not in Norm's own strength. It's only by the power of God.
If you hear my words, they're useless. Right? I can't save anyone. But God
takes our words, and as Donnie says, I like this, somewhere
between you and I, sister, he takes those words and blesses
your heart. Isn't that amazing? God does that. God does that. Oh my, what a privilege. What a privilege for we who preach
the gospel. Because we know that no man taught
us this gospel. We may have heard it preached
by a man, but just like every other believer. See, like I said,
there's no little preacher mound at the foot of the cross. You
know, remember there's a pitcher's mound, a little wee hump there?
I love what dear brother Scott Richardson said, Travis, who
you sat under, the ground at the foot of the cross is level.
We are all on the same ground, beloved, every one of us. Every once. Oh, it's amazing. So man had not taught him this.
He'd been preaching this for 17 years now. He'd been preaching
this gospel before he went up to Jerusalem. 17 years. And the Holy Spirit had made
it effectual, hadn't he? All these churches had been established.
But who were the ones in those churches? God's chosen people. They had heard the gospel, and
by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, they were granted faith
to believe. They were born again in the Holy Spirit of God, and
then given faith to believe. So when Paul met with these church
leaders, I love this, he just declared to them the gospel.
He just declared it. This is what I preach! He wasn't
ashamed. He said before in Romans, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God
unto salvation for the Jew first and also to the Gentile. He just
let it fly, didn't he? It's awesome. I love it. I absolutely
love it. And listen to this verse in the
Greek literal Bible. I decided to pull this out of
the Greek literal Bible and read it to us. It says, now I went
up according to a revelation, a revelation, so God sent him
there, and set before them the gospel. See, in the literal Greek,
it's called the gospel. Because you know why? There's
only one. Just like Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes unto the Father
but by him. There's only one way. And so he's declaring here
that there's only one gospel. Now man is totally taken and
added man's works and all that, that's not the gospel. That's
not the gospel. He says, and set before them
the gospel, so he declared, that I proclaim among the Gentiles,
but apart individually to those esteemed, lest hardly I might
be running or have run in vain. What is the one true gospel?
Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 15. What is the one true gospel? Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. Look at this. We'll read verses
1 to 11. Look at this. Paul, again, writes
these words to the Corinthian church. Moreover, brethren, I
declare unto you the gospel, again, singular, the gospel,
which I preached unto you, and which also you have received,
and wherein you stand. There were some things going
on in the Corinthian church, and Paul's writing to them to
correct these things. And Paul always writes in love
to the brethren. If you get a chance on your own
time, read 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And be amazed, because what does
Paul do before he does any correction? You know what he does? You read
1 Corinthians chapter 1, and notice how many times Paul mentions
the word Christ. Before he does any correction,
what does he do? Like Norm Wells says, he takes the musical tuning
fork, and he goes, ting. So he sets before them Christ.
That whole first chapter, he just sets before them Christ.
Because that's what is most needed. And then he goes to correct them.
But he corrects them in love. But first of all, before anything,
he sets the king before them. He sets the king. Because why?
We need to keep our eyes on Christ. So before he corrects them, he
sets their eyes on Christ. And I'll tell you what, people
with their eyes set on Christ, we'll receive correction then
from God, won't we? Yeah, we will. We will. When we're in
our flesh, we're like... Right? Because that's how we
are. I know it. That's how we are. We could dig
our heels in. But look at this. And then he
says, "...by which also ye are saved." Look at that. "...if
ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, That which
I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scripture. So there he lays out the gospel. Our Lord Jesus
Christ died upon the cross, and we are his people, so that we
would be forgiven. It's an absolute, perfect, complete,
finished work. Well, what mercy. What mercy
is displayed. God sent his own son to die for
us. Sent his own son to die for us.
Oh my. Let us wonder at this and marvel
at this truth. Then he says here in verse 4,
and he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures, and was seen of Cephas and of the Twelve.
Our magnificent Savior rose from the grave. He rose from the grave
for our justification. Wonder of wonders, Christ has
redeemed us from all our sins by the shedding of his blood,
and then he rose again the third day. After that, he was seen
of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After
that, he was seen of James and of all the apostles. And last
of all, he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time.
For I am the least of the apostles. that I am not meant to be called
an apostle because I persecuted the church of God, but by the
grace of God, look at this, I am what I am, and His grace which
was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly
than all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was within
me. Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and
so we believed. By the power of God, they believe.
So he preached on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Now let's go back to verse two. I've just got quickly a few things
to say about this here. It says, and I went up by revelation
and communicated or declared unto them the gospel, 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.
Note here that Paul tells the Galatian brethren that he meant
privately with the apostles. He meant privately with the apostles,
those who are of reputation. lest by any means I should have
run or had run in vain. He didn't go call the church
together. He didn't call the whole church
together. Paul didn't give an opportunity for a big debate. He went right to the apostles.
He had a private conversation with God's preachers. Those reputable
men who were pillars in the church were grounded and established
in the truth. An open discussion with false
brethren would have allowed the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ
to sow discord among the brethren. Paul's like, I ain't having any
of that. I ain't having any of that. And why? Because that could
have caused a setback in Paul's ministry, right? Not only amongst
the churches that had been established under his preaching, but also
in the ministry that was set before him. false teachers, false brethren
had insinuated that Paul's doctrine was different from that of the
apostles in Jerusalem. But they themselves were the
ones who had perverted the gospel by saying that a man must be
circumcised to be saved, trying to overthrow the faith of those
who had believed the gospel. They tried to render his past
labors in vain, and they sought to prevent his future usefulness.
But beloved, God's will will not be stopped by any man. No
man. Therefore, we should not bring
an accusation against one of God's preachers or against any
of God's children without one or two witnesses to confirm the
charge or charges. And the accusation is to be brought
to the individual privately. privately. That's how we do it.
That's the Matthew principle, right? You have a problem with
your brethren, you bring it to them privately first. If that
doesn't work, you go get another member of the church and you
go together with them. And if that doesn't work, then you bring
it to the church. See, there's a whole system. There's a whole
system set forth by God. And usually, I'll tell you what,
usually when you bring in problem to another believer,
a true believer, it'll get settled privately. It'll get settled
privately. And those who disregard God's
divine order in these matters are almost always those who are
false accusers of the brethren. That's what they are. That's
what they are. May God be glorified by the preaching
of his word.