We're in Galatians chapter two
and we'll read from verse one through to verse five. The Apostle
Paul is still writing this letter to the Galatians and he says,
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. But neither Titus, who was with
me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised, And that because
of false brethren, unawares, brought in, who came in privilege
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. Amen, may the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. I think that it is a good thing
for us to remember that the gospel is factual, it's defined, and
it is clearly revealed in the preaching of Jesus Christ and
the apostles. And while that all might sound
very obvious, let me say why I mention this. It is important
because the gospel has been revealed and is preached to be believed
and upheld by the church. The gospel is not a broad aggregation
or accumulation of helpful ideas. It is the objective truth of
Jesus Christ's accomplishments in life and death for the salvation
of his people. It's not an ancient tale, gathered
wisdom with many interpretations from which we can pick and choose
what suits us. The gospel is the revealed, discrete
truth. The Lord Jesus Christ preached
the gospel of the kingdom and he sent his disciples to do the
same. He says, this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations. If we are to lift up the Lord
Jesus Christ, then it is only by preaching his gospel that
we will be able to do it. In the previous chapter, the
Apostle Paul had distinguished between the true gospel and another
gospel, which he said was really no gospel at all. Now, do you
remember why it was no gospel? I'll tell you, it's not a quiz,
I'll tell you. It was no gospel because any message that tells people
what they have to do to be saved is not good news. It's a heavy burden. It's a crushing
yoke that weighs down on sinful men and women who in and of themselves
cannot live righteously, cannot act obediently, and cannot please
God any which way. For our message to be gospel,
it must declare what God has done, not what we must do. Not what is expected of us, but
what was expected of Christ. Not the standard by which we
are measured, but the firm assertion that Christ has satisfied all
God's demands. So now the apostle, here at the
beginning of chapter two, is beginning a section where he
explains, or rather restates, because he's already explained
all this to the Galatians while he was preaching amongst them.
But now, writing this letter to them, because he is aware
of the infiltration of false teachers amongst them, he restates
to the Galatians what the gospel is. Remember what I said right
at the very beginning, how that the gospel is factual, it is
defined, and it is clearly revealed. Now the apostle is restating
again to the Galatians what the gospel is. It is justification
by Christ without the works of the law. This is the message
Paul preached wherever he preached. This was the message he preached
to Jews and Gentiles, to Romans and Corinthians and Ephesians
and Thessalonians. He preached it to kings. He preached
it to slaves. He preached it to philosophers
and governors, to soldiers and prisoners, to craftsmen and women,
and to children. One, factual, defined, and clearly
revealed message as he had been given, as he had been taught
by Christ himself. Justification by Christ without
the works of the law. And if this message were still
the single central theme of preachers today, I am sure that the church
militant would not be in the confused condition that it is. Paul opens the chapter with a
little history by which his authority as an apostle of the gospel and
his pedigree as a preacher of the gospel is again established
and confirmed. Paul isn't boasting here in these
opening verses but recounting how his gospel was consistent
with the other apostles against the allegations of the false
teachers who were troubling the churches of Galatia. These false teachers were trying
to insert a wedge between Paul's message and the preaching of
the other apostles. He speaks about 14 years. That's probably 14 years after
his conversion, because he's just been talking about his conversion. But I thought it was a nice touch. We're often interested, are we
not, in how old a person is. Well, here Paul measures time,
not from when he was born, but from when he was born again.
And Paul tells us that he went up to Jerusalem by revelation,
that is, as he was directed by the Lord to do, and he was obedient
to this call. Now it may be that this was the
visit made with Barnabas in Acts chapter 15, when the matter of
circumcision was being discussed by the apostles, by the church
in Jerusalem. If it is, Luke doesn't mention
Titus' presence there, but here Paul tells us that Titus was
present and though a Gentile, he was not compelled to be circumcised. So why should the Galatians up
there in Asia Minor, up there in that northern Mediterranean
province of Rome, why should they think that they needed to
be circumcised because these false teachers were telling them
so? The question of circumcision was an issue for the young church,
it was a right in the Jewish faith, but it was more than the
symbolism of the cutting off of the flesh in males. It was rather indicative of subjection
to the whole Jewish religion, legal and ceremonial. And it
was used for proselytes to indicate that they were subject to all
of the Jewish religion and all of Moses' law. Those who wished it to be continued
in the Christian church so that Gentiles who were believing the
gospel should subject themselves to circumcision saw it as a way
of binding Christianity to Judaism, keeping it together as it were,
and ultimately, controlling it as well, because it would have
made it subject to the hierarchy in Jerusalem, not the apostolic
hierarchy, but the hierarchy of the Jews' faith. It was also
a way of subjecting believers to the controlling rule of the
law in their lives as a means and as a measure of righteousness
and justification before God. Ultimately, it was a denial of
the gospel. And Paul understood this. So
as well as resisting the idea of works righteousness, he also
opposed circumcision. Because that was the emblem or
the totem of the whole legal works righteousness system. And
later in this epistle, the apostle will summarise it like this.
In Galatians 6, verse 15, he says, Paul is telling us it's
not what we do in the flesh that brings us to God. but what God does in us. The new birth, the new creation
is God's work in us and it is evidenced and revealed by and
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, our salvation
is holy in Christ and holy from Christ. Neither you nor I nor
any of the Church of Jesus Christ can add to or take from the perfect
righteousness obtained for us by the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross. We cannot increase or augment
the holiness gained by the work of atonement and fulfilled and
completed and finished by the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Paul's purpose in going to Jerusalem,
where he spoke privately and intimately with the apostles,
was to expose the false narrative of those who denied the gospel
of grace and the ministry of the apostle. Paul was not unsure,
he was not personally unsure about having run in vain in his
ministry. Verse two, he had divine authority
from Christ. He had a special calling to the
ministry. He had 14 years of successful
preaching and church planting to convince his own mind. It
wasn't that he thought, I better check this out in case I've run
in vain. The dialogue with the apostles
was to show others such as the Galatians here in this letter
that they all, Paul and the apostles, were in agreement and that Paul's
gospel differed nothing from the message preached by the other
apostles and that's still true. I've heard it said when trying
to speak about the doctrines of grace. Oh well, that's Pauline
theology. That's not the same gospel as
Peter preached, or that's not the same gospel as John preached,
or certainly that's not the same gospel as James preached. as
if we can carve up the different ministries of the apostles and
find them saying something different. No, Paul is telling us here that
the apostles maintained unity in the gospel. They had all received
it from Christ and they preached what Christ had taught them. Let us note this also in these
last couple of verses here before us today. Paul particularly refers
to the presence of error in the church at Jerusalem. He says
that there were false brethren who privately crept in and spoke
against Paul and sought to undermine his ministry and thereby the
gospel. And no doubt, these were of the
same sort, if not the very same individuals who were now troubling
the Galatians, because they were using similar accusations. And
by this, we learn that Satan is able and does infiltrate Christian
churches with false teachers who appear in many ways to be
brethren, but who do not preach true gospel, but try rather to
spoil the work of those who do. The Apostle's response to these
people was to withstand them and not subject himself or the
Gospel to them for an hour, or we would say for a moment or
for a minute. And this he does. He tells the
Galatians he did it for their sake because he knew if these
false preachers were given any respect, they'd cause great trouble
in all the churches as they now were doing amongst the Galatians. Let me conclude with this little
thought, little summary really. Paul's gospel from the beginning
to the end was justification by Christ without the works or
apart from the works of the law. righteousness freely imputed
by sovereign grace of God, and Christ's sacrificial and substitutionary
work as the sole ground of a sinner's acceptance with God. This message
has been attacked from the very beginning of the Apostolic Church. It has been attacked from the
start by the devil and false teachers and false brethren. Their lies have been opposed
by true preachers like Paul and they must not be tolerated amongst
us today either. Brothers and sisters, let us
personally enjoy the gospel liberty that comes from free grace. May God grant us wisdom to lay
aside the yoke of bondage by trusting Christ alone for all
our peace with God. And I know that sometimes things
we do or things we don't do get between us and our view of Christ. But let us not lose sight of
the fact that our standing before God never changes because of
what we are and who we are in Christ. May we grow daily in
grace and knowledge of the truth while resting ever in the completed
work of Jesus Christ. And let us collectively, as a
fellowship of the Lord's people, stand for the truth by maintaining
a gospel witness through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, the gospel that Paul faithfully preached. Amen.