I want to begin reading in verse
1 and read down through verse 9, Galatians chapter 2, beginning
in verse 1. Then fourteen 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 I did it 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 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. But of these who seemed to be
somewhat, whatsoever they were, maketh no matter to me. God accepteth
no man's person. For they were who seemed to be
somewhat in conference, added nothing to me. But contrarywise,
when they saw that the gospel of the circumcision was committed
unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter. For he that wrought effectually
in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was
mighty in me towards the Gentiles. And when James and Peter and
John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was
given unto me, They gave to me and Barnabas, their right hand,
a fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and they
unto the circumcision. In verse 10, only they would
that we should remember the poor, the thing which also I was forward
or eager to do. Now I want you to turn over to
Acts 15 and mark that. I want you to turn there in Acts
chapter 15 and mark that where you can be turning back to it.
I'm going to refer to that once or twice because this going up
of the apostle to Jerusalem, we have the record of that in
Acts chapter 15. So I want to refer back to that.
Paul said he went up to Jerusalem. Well, Acts chapter 15 tells us
of that meeting that they had there. Now, these verses here
are important to us. We've been studying all through
chapter 1 of the apostle's authority as an apostle. His writings are
inspired. The Lord called him to be an
apostle and inspired him, inspired him to write his word. It's often
been said that the book of Romans is Paul's writing to establish
the gospel, and the book of Galatians is Paul writing to recover the
gospel that had been lost, and that's so important. That's so
important. And when we talk about the gospel,
writing to establish the gospel and writing to recover the gospel,
who has the authority to tell us what the gospel is anyway?
That's a good question, ain't it? A lot of people ask that
in our day. You know, whose word is the Bible
anyway? Who has the authority to tell
me what the gospel is? Who has the authority to tell
me what to believe and what to think and how to live and so
on? Who has the authority to tell
us what the gospel is? Well, it's easily answered. Whose
gospel is it? It's God's gospel. It's the gospel
of Christ. Paul said, I came to you preaching
the gospel of Christ. So since it's His gospel, He
has the authority to tell us what that gospel is. And that's
what this first chapter here is about. Jesus Christ calling
this man and revealing to him what the gospel really is. And
Paul preached it. And he not only preached it,
he wrote it down. We have it through the book of
Romans, the clear gospel. We have it here in Galatians
and Colossians and the other epistles of Paul. It's as though
Paul set his pen to writing, and he wrote what the Lord told
him to write. And he wrote it down, and he
looked at it, and he read it, and he said, now there it is.
There's the Gospel, Paul. You're not to mess with it yourself.
You're not to try to revise it. You're not to change it. Nobody
else has the authority to change it. Not even an angel from heaven.
You don't do anything with it, but preach it and believe it.
Now there's how settled this Word is. You and I aren't to
change it. We're not to revise it. It's
God's Word. We're to believe it, simply believe
it, and propagate it to others. Some have asked the question,
and I know why we ask this question, did Paul understand everything
that he wrote? Did he understand everything
that he wrote? And the only reason we ask that question is because
we know Paul did not write what he had studied himself. He didn't go to the Old Testament
and say, well, I've studied this all out, and I understand what
this is saying, so I'm going to write my opinion about it.
We ask the question, did Paul understand everything he wrote,
because he received divine revelation. What he got didn't come out of
his heart. It comes from heaven. Did he understand everything
that he wrote down? I don't know. Maybe he did. Peter
said he's a wise man. He's a wise man. But the thing
is, he did not write his own opinions. He wrote as the Lord
revealed it to him. I neither received it of man,
he said, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we call it the epistles of
Paul. But Paul's not the author. He's
the publisher. He's not the author. You have
authors and you have publishers. You have the giver of the Word
and you have the publisher of the Word, and who's the giver
of the Word? The Lord gave the Word. And grace
was the company of those who published it. The only reason
we call it the Epistles of Paul or the Psalms of David It's because
they published it. But it's God's Word. That's just
so important now. It's God's Word. I tell you,
if the religion in our day had remembered this, they wouldn't
have thrown this Bible away. Every step they've made, they'd
go check and say, is this what we should do? Everything they
believed, they'd go say, is this what we should believe? But I
tell you what's happened, brothers and sisters, in our churches,
in our generation, They don't believe this is God's Word. They
believe this is Paul's opinion. And it may well contradict Christ
and the prophets of old. But this is God's Word. Now therefore,
he said, don't you add to it. Don't you add to it. And don't
you take anything away from it. You just believe and obey it.
And as we read the Bible, we read it with joy because it's
not Paul's. It's not Paul's. It's not Peter's. It's not James. It's the Lord's
Word. And we read it with trembling
because if it condemns you, you're condemned. Ain't no friend that
you've got can justify you. Ain't no angels in heaven can
justify you. If the Word of God condemns you,
you're condemned. And there's no way of escaping
it from your conscience. You're condemned. But I tell
you, we read it with great joy because if this book justifies
you, nobody can condemn you. Not even the devils in hell.
We read with joy and with trembling. And I tell you, I'd rather have
the Word of God than any feeling I ever had in my life. Just give
me the Word. Fillings come and fillings go,
and fillings are deceiving. Our warrant, our reason for believing
is the Word of God. Aught else is worth believing. And though my heart should condemn
me for want of some sweet token, God is greater than my heart,
and His Word cannot be broken. I tell you, I'd rather look in
this book and let it prove my salvation and just rest right
there. Just have all the feelings in
the world, wouldn't you? God is the truth. God is the
truth. And Paul wrote to us the truth
that he received at the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's what he's laboring here to prove in this first chapter
that you and I have just finished. He's laboring to prove that he
didn't receive from those apostles up there at Jerusalem, what he
wrote. He was independent of them, not
contrary to them, but he was independent of those apostles
there at Jerusalem. Now, Galatians chapter 2 and
verse 1. Fourteen years after, he said,
I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus
with me also. First of all, why did the apostle
go up to Jerusalem? Why did he go up to Jerusalem?
Well, turn over now to Acts chapter 15. Look over here in Acts chapter
15. Paul had been on his first missionary
journey, and he had came back, he and Barnabas, to this church
here at Antioch. They sent him out, and he came
back to there. And in chapter 14 of Acts, and look in verse
27, They sailed to Antioch in verse
26, and that's where the church had recommended them and sent
them out to do missionary work. In verse 27, And when they were
come, and had gathered the church together there at Antioch, they
rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened
the door of faith to the Gentiles. Paul had gone in the Gentile
world in the first missionary journey. And he preached faith. He didn't preach the ceremonial
law, Moses must be obeyed. He preached Christ had fulfilled
that law. And he went preaching all that
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are justified. And God opened
the door of faith, that is, He gave faith to these Gentiles
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were forgiven of
their sins, they were justified, and received the Holy Spirit.
And that's why Paul comes back to this church and says, here
I am, I'm preaching the gospel everywhere, and I see the work
of God in this gospel. That he's given people faith
to believe. He's opening the door of faith. Well, in chapter 15 now, look
here what happened. And certain men, which came down
from Judea, they're probably in Jerusalem from these apostles
supposedly, and they taught their brethren there at Antioch and
said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you
cannot be saved. Well, Paul said, I preach faith.
I preach men are justified by believing in Christ. And here
these false teachers come in and say, no, that's not right.
You must be circumcised too or you can't be saved. Well, look
in verse 2. And when therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension and disputation with them, They determined that
Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to
Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. That's why they went up, see?
Fourteen years after Paul had gone up there the first time,
which makes it what, now eighteen years since the Lord had converted
him? He said, I'm going up to Jerusalem. Paul, why are you
going back up to Jerusalem? He says, these fellows that come
down from Jerusalem are telling us that faith in Christ is not
sufficient to justify a sinner in the sight of God. They say
you have to be circumcised. So he said, we're going up. We're
going up. And ain't it strange? Well, it's
not strange. That's why he took Titus with
him. Titus, you see, was a Gentile. And Titus was a man who was uncircumcised. And Paul said, I'm going to straighten
this out once for all. I'm going to take this Gentile
with me. And he's going to be uncircumcised, and I'm going
to set him right down in the midst of those apostles, and
we're going to straighten this out once and for all. That's
what he said. Now that's why he went out. That's
why he went out. In Galatians, do you hold Acts
chapter 15 and look back over here in Galatians? Verse 2. Chapter
2 and verse 2. Notice something else about Paul's
going up. He went up to straighten this thing out about, is a man
justified by faith in Christ without circumcision and keeping
the ceremonial law of Moses or not? He said, let's go up to
Jerusalem to these apostles up there and get this straight.
And verse 2, notice another reason he went up. And I went up by
revelation. God warned him to go up. God
revealed unto him the necessity at this time to go up by revelation. God revealed something to him.
I don't know how he did it. This was common in this day.
You find it all through the book of Acts. You remember how Jesus
Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus? He's seen the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord appeared to Ananias
in a vision and said, Ananias, you go talk to Paul. He's over
there on the street called Strait. You read through the book of
Acts, and this often happened. The Lord appeared, or the angel
of the Lord appeared, or they revealed something in a vision
or in a dream. I don't know how the Lord appeared
to the apostle Paul, but He revealed it to him. Paul, you need to
go up. You take heed that you go up
to Jerusalem. This thing needs to be straightened
out. Now, could the Lord do this to us today? why He could. He could appear to you in a vision,
Clarence, or in a dream. If it was needed, He could do
that. But I tell you, if He ever does, you better make sure it's
not contrary to His Word. I'd rather have the Word, wouldn't
you? And I think sometimes if the Lord appeared to me in a
vision, I'd be afraid to tell anybody about it until it come
to pass. And then you know what I'd do about it? I'd just brag
like everything. You wouldn't be fit to be around
me. I'd brag about it. I'd rather have His Word. But
He revealed these things to these men. Appeared to them in a vision.
He often did that. And something else I want you
to notice here also. When the Apostle Paul went up,
he went up with a blessing of the church there at Antioch that
sent him out. Now look back over again. Look
back over again at chapter 15 in Acts and look in verse 3.
when he said, we've gone up to Jerusalem, we're going up to
Jerusalem to settle this question, about this question, if a man
is justified by faith or is he under the bondage of the ceremonial
law. And in verse 3, look at this, "...and being brought on
their way by the church." See that? Being brought on their
way by the church. I tell you again, I've said this,
but I'm a local church man. The more I read the Scripture
of Brother Larry, the more I become a local church man. You and I
must not leave the local church to do anything. I've known people
that left the local church. And if the local church leaves
the gospel, then leave the local church. But if the local church
has not left the Word of God, then stay with her. Stay with
her. I've known people to leave the
local church and go off and get their own camp. They go off and
get a media of some kind, a radio broadcaster, a newspaper or something
and start publishing what they believe about things. Brothers
and sisters, don't leave the local church. God won't bless
it. God won't bless it. Stay with
her and pray with her and uphold her during her burdens. Pray
that the glory of Christ be revealed among her. I tell you, I've often
thought if I ever felt led to go on some missionary trip or
something, that I was going to leave the pastorate and go on
a missionary trip to some place, you know the first thing I'd
do. I'd begin to consult the local churches. You men here,
and you ladies here, I'd come and talk to you about it. I'd
go to the other local churches that I got confidence in, and
I'd say, what do you think about me doing this? Will you pray
for me? Will you support me spiritually
in this move? I just don't want to be out here
on my own outside the local church. This is where the Lord Jesus
Christ meets His people in our midst. And I want to be here,
don't you? And when I go out here and do
something, I want your blessings on it. I want to do it in the
name of this local church. And that's what Paul did. This
church sent him and Barnabas out, and they come back, and
they got together there at Antioch, and they said, Barnabas, you
and Paul need to go up there to Jerusalem and check this out.
And the church sent them up there, supported their going up there.
I tell you, when I leave to go off and preach somewhere, I want
you folks to know where I'm at. I want you to know where I'm
at. I want you to know what I'm doing, and I want you to pray
for me. Hold me up in prayer. I'm part of you. I'm part of
you. We're members of the same body.
And look here in verse 2 also, what the Apostle Paul and Barnabas
did when they got up there. He said here in verse 2, I went
up by revelation and communicated unto them the gospel which I
preached among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were
of reputation." And what he did, he got Peter together with James
and John and the other apostles and the elders. Now look back
over here again at Acts 15. This is why I want you to mark
this. Look at Acts 15. And look in
verse 4. And when they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received of the church and of the apostles and elders,
and they declared all things that God had done with them.
But there rose up certainly the scent of the Pharisees, which
believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and
command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and
elders came together for to consider of this matter." See who he got
together? The apostles and the elders. These men who were of reputation.
And brothers and sisters, you know why He did that? If pastors
cannot agree one with another on the gospel, then how in the
world is the congregation going to agree? I count it a thing
that bothers me a lot if I've got a dear pastor that I disagree
with. And you know one of the things
that I do? I try to get with him and talk about it. Because
when he comes here to preach for me or I go preach for him,
I don't want a division. The pastors need to be talking,
the elders need to be talking and be in agreement one with
another. So Paul said the first thing we must do is get these
apostles, these men of reputation together and get this straight
with them. No sense going to the church
members. You're headed for trouble there, aren't you? And the second thing that he
did after he did that, he said, I communicated unto them the
gospel which I preach. I sat down and I told them the
gospel that I preached. I communicated it to them. He
didn't get up and take a text like I did this evening and preach.
He sat down and told them the gospel that he preached. He told
them in doctrine. Can you imagine how he did this?
Here the apostle Paul was sitting among these other apostles. Probably, what would it have
been, eleven up there? Eleven left. I guess James was
killed. But he sat down right there in
the midst of them, the elders and the apostles. And he went
back in the Old Testament. And he proved in the Old Testament,
here's the Christ that I've reached. Here's the gospel that I preached."
And he took these pictures and types and prophecies, and he
preached, or he communicated to them the gospel, the doctrine
of the gospel, proving the gospel that he preached was indeed the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And I imagine as he sat there
and preached to these apostles, Peter, James, and John, I just
almost bet they said, man, I've never heard some of these scriptures
brought out. That's why Peter said, God gave
this man wisdom. God gave him wisdom. And I just
about bet you he showed them some things they'd never seen
before. But he did more than just set forth a gospel in his
doctrine. I just about imagine he set forth
to them that he believed and preached the gospel must be experienced. It's just not a book of theology.
The gospel is not a belief system. It's about a person that we come
to know. And the Apostle Paul went around
preaching to these Gentile places. And sometimes he would go into
the synagogue, and some of them would get mad. They'd get mad
at him. Boy, but others would be broken. It would just break
their hearts. And the Word of God, as Paul
preached it, would come to their hearts in power and in the Holy
Ghost and much assured. I mean, they experienced it.
Paul told those Thessalonians, he said, when I come to you and
preach the Word to you, he said, I knew that God was doing something
in your hearts. Because he said, the Word comes
from me with power and much assurance. And he said, I saw you broken
and I saw you changed right before my eyes. Experience. We've experienced it, haven't
we? We believe the precious truths of it, but I think we've experienced
something of the power of it too in our hearts. And I bet
you Paul not only told him the doctrine of the gospel and the
experience of it, but he told him of the fruit that he had
seen of the gospel that he preached. The fruits of it. I like the way he said that there,
the verse I read to you in Acts chapter 15. He said Paul went
up and declared unto them the conversion of the Gentiles. Did
you notice that as I read to you? He'd come down through Pharnacia
and through Samaria and was preaching to those churches and he'd come
down to Jerusalem declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. And that's what he told these
apostles here in Jerusalem. He said, I saw the fruits of
the gospel that I preach. It converts people. He said,
I have seen idolaters, men bowing down on their knees and worshiping
idols, and I preach the gospel of Christ to them, and they've
turned from those idols to serve the living and true God. Paul
said, I've seen it. I know what the gospel will do
to men. He said, I've seen adulterers and fornicators and drunks and
those who abuse themselves with mankind. Men who had sunk low
in immorality. And Paul said, I preached the
gospel to them. And it's went to them and saved
them. It's converted them. It's made new creatures out of
them. Oh, brothers and sisters, I know what it is to be lost.
And I know what it is to make a profession and still be lost.
I know what it is to be baptized in water and not know the Lord.
And I know what it is to be converted by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And the devil today is telling so many people, just because
they've made a profession of faith, they're alright. But I
tell you, a man is not alright until he's believed the gospel
and it's converted him. It's made a new creature out
of him. Paul didn't say, we had 10,000 professions of faith last
year. No, he didn't say that. He said,
the gospel I preach converts men. It turns them from darkness
to light. And if we have a gospel that
don't do that, Then we've got a bad gospel. We've got a bad
gospel. He'll take a drunk and sober
him up. He'll take a mean husband and make a loving husband out
of him. He'll take a wife that don't love her husband and fill
her heart with love for her husband. He'll take children who have
been disobedient and make them obey and love their parents.
It converts us. Oh, this is a wonderful gospel.
And we long to see it, don't we? We long to see it. That's
our purpose here in preaching to lost people. Not just to get
them on the profession of faith, but to witness as Paul did, declaring
their conversion. Their conversion. Oh, he says,
I communicated unto them the gospel which I preached to the
Gentiles. And look down here right quick
in verse 9. I tell you, he convinced them.
And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars,
perceived the grace that was given unto me. In chapter 2,
verse 9. They perceived it. They said,
boy, God has opened this man's heart. He's given him the real
gospel. We've seen this ourselves, they
said. As we preach the gospel, we've seen this. Paul communicated unto them.
Now why did Paul choose to get these elders together and communicate
the gospel to them privately like this? And that's what he
tells us. He said, I did this privately. I got these men of
reputation together and told them privately about the gospel
that I preached. Well, he did that. Look in verse
2 again, chapter 2 and verse 2. He did that because he was
a smart man. He said, if I don't get these
men together privately and get this straightened out between
us and them, If I try to go up there and gather the church together
up there and get this stirred up in the whole church, why,
he said, emotions and feelings are going to go wild and it's
going to be all out of control. And he said, there's no way I
can handle that. He said, I did this lest by any means I should
run or had run in vain. If I teach anything, brothers
and sisters, I preach anything here to you. Feel free to come
to me and ask me. I've been asked before. Somebody
call me or come to my house and say, Bruce, you preach this and
I don't quite understand this. Would you explain this to me
a little further? That's fine when people does that. Get along
in private. Because if it gets out in the
congregation, man, emotions start getting stirred up and misunderstanding. And then we can't get it under
control hardly. You're more than welcome, dear
souls, and I'm sure that you feel that way. If you've got
any questions, come to me. Come to me. And you know you
may prove me wrong. You may help me and prove me
wrong. But if you do so, prove me in private, not out in public. Okay, look in verse 3 through
verse 5. Well, look at the boldness of
Paul here. He says here in verse 3, But neither Titus, who was
with me, being a Greek, a Gentile, was compelled to be circumcised. Now, this is really strange here. Paul taking Titus with him. As
I said a minute ago, he had a purpose on doing this. Because he was
going to take this Gentile, uncircumcised man, and set him right there
in front of Peter, and James, and John, and all these other
apostles. And he says, fellows, I brought a friend of mine with
me. He's my son after the faith. He's converted under my preaching.
And he's a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not been circumcised,
and he doesn't practice the ceremonial law. Now, I want to ask you a
question. Here's what he said. I want to ask you a question,
Peter, and you, James, and you, John. Is this man just before
God? Is by him believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ enough for you, or are you going to compel him
to be circumcised? And you know what these apostles
said? He's a just man. He don't have any sin. He's forgiven
all his sins. Peter had already preached that
to Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. And Paul, down deep in his
heart, knew that the gospel he was preaching wasn't contrary
to the gospel Peter and the apostles were preaching. But the problem
was, these false teachers, you see, they're the ones that needed
to know, and they weren't going to shut their mouths until they
heard it from Peter and James and John. So Paul brought this
man with him and said, I want your opinion on this. Here's
a Gentile uncircumcised. Is he saved or not? Is he saved
or not? And they said here, Paul said
here in verse 3, they did not compel him to be circumcised.
No, we ain't going to insist on him being circumcised. He's
a just man. He's a just man. And in verse
4, here's why Paul did this, and that because a false brethren
that accidentally come in, I think that's what that word suddenly
came in, who came in privately to spy out our liberty, which
we have in Christ, that they might bring us into bondage."
Now, here's what these fellows were all the time trying to do. All the time trying to bring
people under bondage. Put them under some laws. It's
not enough to follow Christ. You've got to have all these
ceremonies. It's not enough to believe in Christ and love Him.
and do what you do out of a motive of love, you've got to be circumcised. They just want to bring people
under bondage. Anything they can do to afflict
your conscience. And boy, look how bold Paul was
in verse 5. Notice how dogmatic he was. To
whom we gave place by subjection, we did not submit to them, he
said, not for one hour. Now, Paul, if it was something
indifferent, if it bothered you for a believer to drink a glass
of wine, Paul said, then I don't drink wine around you. I ain't
offending you if it bothers you. If he was around some Jews, he
wouldn't sit down and eat pork. He didn't want to offend those
fellows. But boy, when it comes to justification, When it comes
to the way a man is accepted before God, he would not budge
an inch. He said, it's either faith in
Christ alone, or you're lost. If you even be circumcised, he
said, Christ shall profit you nothing. He was dogmatic when
it come to the gospel. And brothers and sisters, God
give us the wisdom to know the difference. God help us to know
the difference. There's times when you and I
can back down. It's not worth making an issue
out of it. But there are other times when we must not budge
an inch. We must stand firm. Don't give
an inch to people. And why does Paul do that? Look
in verse 5 again. We gave place by subjection,
no, not for an hour, for this reason, that the truth of the
gospel may continue with you. I tell you, I'm concerned about
myself, but I'm concerned about you too. And you're concerned
about yourself, but you're concerned about everybody else too. And when we preach the gospel,
we may lose some friends. Not everybody likes the gospel.
And when you faithfully preach it and faithfully witness to
it, some people may get mad at you and say, I don't want anything
else to do with you. And we just have to stand firm
and let them go. But you know something? If we
compromise and lose the gospel, we'll lose a lot more than a
few friends. Because if we lose the gospel, we've got no other
means of seeing anybody saved. The most important thing that
you and I can be concerned about is maintaining this gospel of
Jesus Christ. I'm concerned about the economy,
and you are too. I'm concerned about politics,
and you are too. I'm concerned about maintaining
good health and a health system and an education system, but
you know what I'm really concerned about? It's maintaining the gospel. Brothers and sisters, I'm telling
you, if we lose that, we're gone. The church is gone. If we lose
this gospel of Christ's grace, if we lose this gospel of faith,
then we're nothing. We've lost everything. Church,
why do you want to gather? Why would you want to come here
and congregate together? If we lose the gospel. You'll
not see anybody saved. You'll not see anybody helped.
You'll not see anybody going to heaven if we lose the gospel.
Paul said, I took a strong stand, a dogmatic stand. I'm not being
budged from this Gospel because if I do, we'll lose the Gospel. It's so important, it's critical
that we hold this Gospel for your sakes and for our children's
sakes. What if you lose the Gospel in
this pulpit? What about your children? What about your children? What about your child? If I come
here and leave the gospel of Christ and begin to preach on
other things, our heresy, and we lose the gospel. That's it
for us. That's it for our children here.
It's important, ain't it? It's important. Oh, brothers
and sisters, the devil, he's fighting the gospel. Two things
the devil's always fighting against. That's the home and the gospel. And I tell you, in our days,
it seems like he just about defeated both of them, doesn't he? Paul said, I'm not budging, that
the truth of the gospel might continue with you. And then he
goes on in verse 6. Look here what he says. Boy,
he really gets bold here in verse 6. But of these who seem to be
somewhat, now remember who they were, these men who seem to be
somewhat. That was these men of reputation.
That was they seemed to be pill-less, he said there in verse 9 and
verse 10. James and John and Peter and these elders. But look
what he says about them. But of these who seem to be somewhat,
whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me, God accepteth
no man's person. Ain't that strange? He wasn't
being disrespectful to Peter and James and John and these
elders, but he was showing that God has exalted His Word over
everybody. You ever read that verse that
said God has exalted His Word above His own name? And how much
more over the names of men. Any man who leaves the Word of
God and walks contrary to it, he won't find any favor in God's
eyes. I don't care who he is. God respects no man's person.
I don't care if he's Peter. You remember the time the Lord
Jesus told Peter and the apostles, He said, I'm going to be betrayed.
And I'm going up to Jerusalem to die. Remember what Peter told
him? Why, Lord, you ain't going to do that. Be it far from you
to do that. Pity yourself. You remember what
Christ said to him? Did he say, Oh, Peter, I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have said that. You're one of my apostles. I
apologize. No, that's not what he said at
all. He said, Peter, you're a devil. Get behind me. He didn't spare
him at all, did he? And He won't spare us or anybody
else over His Word. And sometimes God makes the example
out of men like this. He takes the cheapest, the highest,
and puts them down just to teach you and I, hey, I'm the one that's
in authority. And my Word is what I've given.
And I won't have it compromised by any man. The angels in heaven,
look at them. They sinned and they fell even
though they were so high. The first king of Israel, Saul
of Tarsus? Why did God put him down? You
won't pay any attention to my word, he said. You won't obey
my word. Judas? Apostle? What did he do? God
put him out of his apostleship, and he went and hanged himself.
And what does he prove to us by this? He proves that God is
no respective person. And those who don't honor his
word, I don't care if he's the Pope. What do you think God thinks
when he looks upon the Pope? Do you think he's impressed? Pole or preacher or whoever he
is that leaves the Word of God will not find any favor with
God. Those who have evidence of finding favor in His sight
are those who tremble at His Word and preach nothing but it. That's the man whom God favors.
You take these mega-churches and these pastors of them, thinking
that God's blessing them when they've left His Word. There's a big mega church somewhere
out west, I think about 30,000 members or something, someone
was telling me the other day. And he said he had preached all
these years and never used sin one time. He said, I've preached
all these years and never said sin one time. And he's bragging
about that. And they asked some fellow out
west about it. And they asked the Presbyterian preacher out
west, what kind of church is that? He said, there's no doubt
in my mind, they're a bunch of heretics. He said, how can you
say that? He said, they've left God's Word.
They've left God's Word. And when we leave God's Word,
He won't show us any favor. What about that big mega church
God said, let them go to hell? I won't show them any favor.
And basically that's what He said. Paul said, whosoever they
were, well, Paul, that's these apostles. It don't make any difference
to me, he said. I don't care who Peter is. I
don't care who John is. I don't care who I am. I don't
care who the angels in heaven are. God accepteth no man's person. That's a good lesson this generation
needs to learn, isn't it? Cast the Word of God behind your
back and He'll cast you back there. In verse 7, and I'll quit. I've
got to quit. But contrarywise, when they saw that the gospel
of the uncircumcision, that is the gospel I preached to the
uncircumcised, I preached it to the Gentiles, was committed
unto me as the gospel of the circumcision or the gospel Peter
preached to the Jews, was to Peter. God committed the same
gospel to me that he did to Peter. For he that wrought effectually
in Peter..." Now remember what that word means. Power to gain
the end desired. Oh, I wish God worked that way
with me. Don't you wish God worked that way with me? Worked effectually
in me? That I could come up here and
take a text and so preach that your hearts would be touched.
Lost men would be broken. Christ would be revealed. God
works effectually in man. And brothers and sisters, this
is what I keep trying to tell people that want to know about
witnessing. Bruce, do you have any trouble
witnessing? I have all kinds of trouble witnessing. But you
know one of the things to remember? God can take a weak vessel just
like you and just like me, and He can work effectually in you
to reach the hearts of man. It's not of you, it's of Him.
Peter was a great apostle. That wasn't what made Congress
under his ministry. What made it was this, God wrought
affectionately in him. He wrought affectionately in
him. And verse 9, when James and Cephas and John, who seemed
to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me,
they gave to me and Bartimaeus the right hands of fellowship.
that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. And you know, brothers and sisters,
that should have settled it, shouldn't it? It should have
settled. If we compare this with Peter's
conclusion over there in Acts 15 where he said that we believe
by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved without
circumcision, without obeying the ceremonial law. That should
have settled. But we're still having the same battle there.
Same battle. And we're willing to fight it.
God help us. And don't forget verse 10. Only they would that
we should remember the poor Remember the poor, the same which I was
eager to do. Brethren, remember the poor.
Remember the poor. Have a heart to poor people.
Not everybody's being taken care of today by the welfare. If you run into a poor man, a
poor woman, help them. Be mindful of them. Remember
them. Help them. Help them while we've got opportunity. But not
only the poor physically and maturely, But look for these
people who are poor spiritually. Be mindful of it. God help us. God bless you.