Galatians chapter two and let's
read from verse 11. Galatians chapter two and verse
11. But when Peter was come to Antioch,
I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed. 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. And the other Jews dissembled
likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away
with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked
not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto
Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew livest after the
manner of Gentiles and not as do the Jews, why compelst thou
the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? Amen. May the Lord bless
to us this reading from his word. Our short passage or short reading
this evening, today, it's not evening for us all, but our short
reading today begins a section which I believe contains one
of the most comprehensive and beautiful statements of free
grace in the whole of scripture. And I'm really thinking about
the verses beyond those that we have read this evening and
we will come back to them on another occasion. But this short
passage, these four verses, begins this section and It is a section
that is delivered to the churches of Galatia by the Apostle Paul
in this little epistle. But it's been graciously preserved
for all time by God the Holy Spirit. that we all might be
blessed by the power and clarity of the apostle's words and his
explanation of the gospel. In this passage, Paul will clearly
state that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. Let me just repeat that again.
Paul will clearly state that a man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. That is
the very crux, that is the heart of the Gospel. That is the foundation
stone upon which all our understanding of God's dealings with men in
Christ is founded. The Apostle Paul continues, I
am crucified with Christ Again, another profound statement that
as he looks back on the work of the Saviour, Paul says, I
am so identified, I am so united with the Lord Jesus Christ, my
Saviour, that I consider myself crucified with him. and goes
on to say, the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. So these are verses that are
going to come after the four verses that we have read together
this evening. And all these statements hold
a wealth of gospel truth. so that if the Lord gives us
opportunity, we'll not neglect to consider them later in the
coming weeks. However, I don't want to take
this whole passage as one, and that's why I've only read these
first four verses from verse 11. I want us to work through
them and see the context in which the apostle goes on to speak
about the gospel in these fine statements that he makes. I do that because there is so
much truth contained here, so much that is useful to our understanding
of the gospel and the way that Christians live. that we would
be foolish to glide too quickly over these verses without giving
proper weight to the lessons that they contain. So for this
reason, we'll restrict our thoughts to the first four verses of this
section today in which Peter's actions are discussed and we
will come in subsequent weeks to consider some of the following
verses as is our pattern. Let me also make this point,
kind of extended introduction here really, but I think it's
worth saying. At the outset, let me say that
we have no pleasure in raking over old mistakes made by the
Lord's people. We all make mistakes. and we
should make no more of a brother or a sister's fault than is absolutely
necessary. Peter ought to have been more
aware than he seems to have been of his error and he ought to
have been more aware that his actions were being observed and
watched by people that were there present in Antioch. And he ought
to have been aware that the thing that he did here could have brought,
would have brought the gospel into disrepute. And I think it
is worth noting that the Holy Spirit has preserved this incident
in Holy Scripture, that we all might be humbled and that we
all might be reminded that none of us is without sin except the
Lord himself. I want us to notice as we begin
our little passage today that this event took place in Antioch
and not in Jerusalem. So Peter and Paul and Barnabas
are in Antioch. Antioch was some couple of hundred
miles north of Jerusalem. It was in Syria and it was a
major centre for Christian witness and evangelistic expansion. It was where the missionary journeys
of the Apostle Paul commenced. It was in Antioch that the first
Gentile church was formed and it was that Gentile church that
encouraged and enabled the apostles to go out and carry the missionary
endeavours all the way up into Southern Europe. It was in Antioch
that the name Christian was first applied to believers. And so
this city of Antioch is intimately connected with the early history
of the Christian gospel. It is said, indeed, that Antioch
in Paul's time was the third city of the Roman Empire, and
it has been suggested that it contained over 200,000 inhabitants. It was a big place, it was an
important place, and it was a center for Gentile believers. What happened in Antioch mattered
wherever the gospel was preached in the Roman Empire. And when
a great man like Peter came to town, many eyes were upon him. Now, you'll remember from what
we've been talking about in previous weeks in our studies here in
Galatians that Paul has been explaining to the Galatians in
this letter how united he and the other apostles were in their
gospel understanding and in their gospel preaching. Judaizers,
that is, men who professed faith in Christ but wanted to meld
the Christian faith together with Jewish practices. We're trying to suggest that
there was a difference between Peter's gospel and the gospel
that Paul preached. They were trying to do that in
order to impose on these Galatian churches, these Gentile believers,
a legal framework of obedience. And let us be clear about this.
If God requires his people to observe certain rules and regulations
in order to obtain his blessing and enjoy his pleasure, then
it becomes us all to know what those rules and regulations are. and to be obedient to them. If
what these Judaizers were saying was true, then we all, both the
Galatians and the Jewish believers and all other believers ever
since, we ought to be following in the footsteps of these Judaizers. Indeed, it had been a question
from the beginning of the Christian faith amongst the Gentiles as
to whether observation of Jewish ceremonial and religious practices
was incumbent on non-Jews. Antioch, because it was the centre
of this Gentile Christianity, it had been so concerned about
getting this question right, getting this question answered,
that they sent a delegation comprising Paul, and Barnabas and Titus,
we've been reading about that visit in previous verses in our
studies here in Galatians, but they'd sent a delegation to Jerusalem
to a council of the apostles and the church there where this
question of circumcision for Gentile believers was addressed. Now, circumcision was symbolical
of the duty to be obedient to the whole Jewish law. If the Gentiles needed to be
circumcised, when they came into the church, then it was implicit
that they would have to be obedient to the whole Jewish law. And
that was the heart of the question. That visit that Paul and Barnabas
and Titus made, we spoke about it last week, is the gathering
that is recounted in Acts 15. So two matters, two occasions
impinge on this subject as far as Peter is concerned. So here
we are in Antioch and Paul is having to contend face-to-face
with Peter, withstand him because he was in error, and in order
to understand the context of this confrontation, I want us
to draw attention to two occasions that impinge on this subject
as far as Peter is concerned. The first one is this. Peter
had been taught by the Holy Spirit in a vision, we learn about this
in Acts chapter 10, that he was to regard no food as unclean
that God had called clean. Now you might remember this,
Peter had gone to Joppa, he was there, he was resting in the
afternoon and he had this vision of a blanket descending and he
was told in the vision to go and eat it. Peter protested,
he said, no I don't eat this kind of food. and he was told
several times and then he woke up and he considered what this
lesson was. What had the Lord been showing
him here? And from this Peter learned that there was nothing
of itself to be regarded as common or unclean and therefore unfit
for use. And Peter understood from this
that it extended beyond meat and it extended beyond things. It extended to people as well. No man, no Gentile, not Cornelius
in Caesarea, who was just about to call Peter to come and preach
to him, nor his family, nor any other man or woman was to be
considered common or unclean. and nor was any man's company
to be avoided because he was not a Jew. Such distinctions
were to be laid aside in the Christian church. Peter understood
this, and in the context of God's free grace, he understood it.
Just as Jewish believers, Gentile believers had been given repentance
and faith unto eternal life freely by God. So that was the first
occasion that is important in the context of this confrontation
between Peter and Paul. The second one is this and it's
the council meeting from Acts 15 that we've been talking about.
At that occasion, the council at Jerusalem was asked the question
about circumcision. And Peter spoke at that council. He stood up and spoke at the
council and he said in Acts chapter 15 verse 8, listen to his words
here. God which knoweth the hearts,
bear them, that is the Gentiles, 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 disciples which
neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? but we believe
that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved even as they. That was the principle. There
was no difference between men in the sight of God, for who
they were or what they had been. Christ is saviour to all men
who have faith in him. God himself, says Peter, put
no difference between us and them. So these are the two things. One, Peter had been taught because
of this incident with Cornelius that he was to minister to the
Gentiles and the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit. And that God
himself had put no difference as Peter testified to the Jerusalem
council. But the trouble was, that while
Peter knew this truth, while he professed and practiced what
he preached under normal circumstances, for example, here he was in Antioch
where he had been happily eating and fellowshipping with the Gentiles
without any hesitation, his attitude changed when a group of Judaizers
came from James. or they came from Jerusalem.
They didn't necessarily come with James' blessing, but that's
an open question. They certainly came from Jerusalem,
where James was. And we're told by Paul, fearing
them, Peter withdrew from the Gentile believers with whom he
had been fellowshipping and no longer ate with them. Now by that action, by doing
so, he implied there was a difference between Jew and Gentile. Not only that, that the Jews,
the circumcised, were in some way superior to the Gentiles
because of their legal Jewish practices. That was the implication
of what he was doing. Peter knew the truth. But for
fear of little men, he acted in a way that was inconsistent
with his testimony. Worse than that, he implied there
was more to righteousness and more to justification before
God than the free grace that he preached. There was more to
Christian living than faith in Jesus Christ. And more than that, not only
Peter acted inappropriately, but he led others with him. Even Barnabas, who'd long ministered
with Paul, separated also with Peter when these Judaizers came
from Jerusalem and saw that Peter and others were fellowshipping
with the Gentiles at Antioch. It was an act that sent all the
wrong messages concerning the Gospel of Grace. An act that overthrew what had
previously been established at the Jerusalem Council and the
accepted position of the Apostles. and Paul saw how serious this
was. He saw this and he realised the
implications of Peter's action. He publicly confronted Peter
on his conduct and he publicly pointed out the mistake that
Peter had made. Now let us be clear on this matter.
Paul and Peter had no disagreement concerning the truth and the
nature of the gospel, nor indeed of Christian liberty. But Peter's
conduct on this occasion contradicted what he professed, and it had
dangerous implications for the churches. We see this from the
intrusion of these Judaizers into the churches in Galatia. I'm sure that the Apostle Paul
would not have mentioned this subject had not the Galatian
churches been affected by these Judaizers spreading their errors
throughout the Gentile world. There was dangerous implications
to this question. These Judaizers were coming with
their Christ plus works, Christ plus the law, Christ plus Moses,
Christ plus good work doctrines. And realising how serious this
was, Paul publicly withstood Peter to his face so that the
truth might be established and right doctrine and practice prevail. Okay, I'm coming to the end of
what I've got to say today, but let me just mention two things
to close our study. First one is this, Peter was
a great man, but great men and the greatest of men are sinful
and fallible. Only in Christ can we look for
perfection. The Holy Spirit caused this passage
to be recorded. The Holy Spirit caused the frailties
of his saints to be recorded to teach the church her own weakness
and that all of us are potentially, like Peter, frail and ready to
make errors and to sin. All our righteousness, all our
acceptance with God must be seen and recognised in Christ alone. And that is what the apostle
is about to teach us in the following verses. The second point that
I want to mention and then I'm done is this. Paul challenged
Peter because he saw that they walked not uprightly according
to the truth of the gospel. they walked not uprightly according
to the truth of the gospel." My, what a vast range of conduct
is present in our world today that might rightly be said, it
is not according to the truth of the gospel. There's truth
in this gospel that we preach. It is the truth of sins forgiven,
the truth of righteousness imputed, and of a new creation, and of
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And as long as we remain in this
flesh, we will always be tempted to elevate the flesh by attributing
to it powers that it does not possess. There is nothing in this flesh
that pleases God. There is no good thing dwells
in this flesh. Our acceptance, our standing,
all our righteousness is in Jesus Christ alone. And this is what
Paul is about to explain to the Galatians in the coming verses. We shall return to this In the
coming weeks, God willing, when we'll have opportunity as well
to emphasise Paul's words, namely, we are justified by the faith
of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works
of the law shall no flesh be justified. Amen.