Galatians chapter two. Galatians chapter two beginning
in verse six. But of these who seem to be somewhat,
And he's talking about John, James. They seemed to be somewhat,
they seemed to be of some importance. And indeed, they were. No one
would say they're not. He's not being dismissive of
them. But of those who seem to be somewhat,
whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me. God accepteth
no man's person. For they who seemed to be somewhat
in conference added nothing to me. Contrary-wise, 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
effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same
was mighty in me toward the Gentiles. And when James, Cephas, and John,
who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto
me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship,
that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
Only they would that we should remember the poor, the same which
also I was forward to do. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name of thy blessed son. And we ask in his name that we
would be enabled by faith to see something of his beauty and
his glory. and the glory of your grace,
the glory of your gospel. We pray that you would speak
to each heart here, that you deliver us from hearing the words,
thoughts, and opinions of a man, but that we might be enabled
to hear your gospel and the power of your spirit. Lord, forgive
us of our many sins and cleanse us and bless us for Christ's
sake. Those that are sick in our number, we pray for your
blessing upon them and your healing hand upon them according to your
will. Be with all your people wherever they meet together.
Accept our thanksgiving through thy son. In his name we pray,
amen. Look in verse 3 of Galatians chapter 2. We considered this last week.
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 privileged. 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. Now, I've entitled
this message Two Gospels? Question mark. Two Gospels? Now
evidently, verses three through five took place when the men
from Jerusalem came to Antioch from the church that was in Jerusalem
that James was the pastor of. And these two men, or not two,
but these false men came in and said, you need to be circumcised
after the manner of Moses. And the devil will always be
at work when the gospel is preached. And that's what's taking place
now. Verse six, but of those who seem
to be somewhat, now keep this, it was going on in mind, but
of those who seem to be somewhat of reputation, I guess, hold
your finger there and turn to Acts chapter 15, because this,
the whole book of Galatians, is centered around this event,
Acts chapter 15. And certain men, which came down
from Judea, taught the brethren. Now remember, they came from
the church of Jerusalem, where James was the pastor. This was
a gospel church. But they came down, and Paul
calls them in our text, false brethren. Could false brethren
be in a true church? Of course they can. Of course
they can. As a matter of fact, I'd say
in every local church, every local assembly, you'll have what
Paul called false brethren. 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. And evidently
Titus was in on this because they knew Titus was a Gentile.
And they were trying to get him to be circumcised, and this is
where Verse two, when therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small
dissension and disputation with him, there was a fight over this.
And Luke tells us it wasn't a small one. It was a large one. They
would not submit to this. They determined that Paul and
Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem
and to the apostles and elders about this question. These fellas
were saying, well, this is what James teaches, this is what Peter
teaches. And the church at Antioch said, let's go find out if that
is what they were, in fact, teaching. Now, you ought to put a mark
there in Acts chapter 15, because we're going to go back there
in a moment. But Paul says, when I got to Jerusalem, Let me say this first. If I was going to give a summary
of the meaning of the book of Galatians, and I think this summarizes
the entire book of Galatians because these men were coming
in and saying, you need to be circumcised. Something needs
to be added to the work of Christ. Here's the meaning of the book
of Galatians. Christ plus anything equals nothing. Christ plus nothing equals everything. Now let that sink in. Christ
plus anything, I don't care what it is, Christ plus anything equals
nothing. Christ plus nothing. That means all you have is Jesus
Christ, you have nothing else. Christ plus nothing where he's
all you got. You don't have anything else.
Christ plus nothing equals everything. That could very well be said
to be the summary of this entire book of Galatians. And we have
this book of Galatians from Acts chapter 15, this argument that
took place, this controversy that took place in the early
church. The Lord let this happen. It was evil. When these men came
down, what they were doing was evil. It was Satan at work. But
God overruled it all for good, as he always does for our good.
We wouldn't have the epistle of Galatians without this event
that took place in Acts chapter 15, so that's something for us
to thank the Lord for. Now, but of verse six, this is
Paul speaking, when he came to Jerusalem, But of these who seem
to be important is what that means. They seem to be important. They seem to have influence in
the church. And he was talking about the apostles. He was talking
about Peter. He was talking about John. He was talking about James,
the Lord's brother, who's the pastor of the church. He said
they seem to be somewhat of some importance. Paul was not being disrespectful
or dismissive of these men. But he was saying if what they
said was contrary to the gospel God's taught me, they're wrong.
That's what he's saying. Remember this about men. They're
just men. They're just men. I've heard
people speak of great men of God. There's no such thing. There's
a great God who uses weak, sinful, helpless men, but there's no
such thing as a great man of God. Just weak men. Sinful men. depended upon the
grace of God. So remember, men are just men.
He was talking about Peter. He was talking about John. He
was talking about James, the brother of the Lord, pastoring
this church in Jerusalem. He said, if they appeared to
be something special, and he wasn't being dismissive or disrespectful,
but what he was saying is the gospel the Lord taught me. I
didn't learn it from man. I didn't learn it from them.
I didn't go to them to check out to see if what I was saying
was right. And so what he says about these men, but of those
who seem to be somewhat, that's how they appeared, whatsoever
they were, it maketh no matter to me. God accepts no man's person.
God's not a respecter of persons. God's not a respecter of Peter
or John or James, as far as that goes. He's, flesh is flesh. A man's a man. And he understood
that, even with regard to these apostles, he understood that.
God taught me the gospel, and if what they're saying is contrary
to what I'm saying, they're wrong. That's why I said they're just
men. You can't believe, don't ever believe something just because
a man says it. You got the Bible to see if what
he's saying is so. That is so important. And he speaks of these
men, he says they seem to be somewhat. It makes no matter
to me what they are. God accepts no man person. For those who seem to be somewhat,
in conference added nothing to me." Now what's he saying? He
said, I went to Jerusalem. He went there by revelation.
We saw that in the passage last week. I went up there by revelation.
I wasn't going up there because I needed to find out if my gospel
matched up with theirs. God revealed to me that I'm to
go there. And when I came to these men, to Peter and James
and John, they heard my message and they didn't add anything
to it. They said, this is exactly what we believe. This is exactly
what we preach. When he gave them the gospel
he preached, they didn't say, well, maybe you shouldn't say
that, or maybe you ought to add this. It was the precise same
gospel. Now go back to Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15. This is Paul talking to the elders
at this time. And he says, here's what the
issue was, verse five, but there rose up certain of the sect of
the Pharisees, which believed. Now there's a red flag in there.
Why didn't he just call them believers? They were the sect
of the Pharisees, which believed, kind of an addition. So we see
some wrong right there, don't we? But there rose up certain
of the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, saying that it
was needful, it was necessary to circumcise them and to command
them to keep the law of Moses. Now, I realize that some people
say, well, you're saying it's okay to break the law. I'm not
saying that at all. But I'm saying if my salvation
is dependent upon me doing something along with what Christ did, that's
works. That's works. That's all you
can call it. Can't call it anything else. And the apostles and elders came
together for to consider this matter. And when they had been
much disputing, there had been much disputing, Peter rose up.
and said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while
ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth
should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God which knoweth
the hearts, bear them witness, giving them, those Gentiles,
the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us. And he 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 the 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. Now this is the true Apostles'
Creed. I had a copy of the Apostles'
Creed that I was gonna read to you. I can't find this on my
notes, but Lynn was saying when she grew up, every service they
would read the Apostle's Creed. We believe in God the Father,
and I can't remember, I can't quote it. It's really lame if
you read it because you can read that and it doesn't demonstrate
that Jesus Christ is God. Or God the Holy Spirit is God. We believe in the Holy Spirit
and the holy Catholic church, the forgiveness, the communion
of saints, the forgiveness of sin, to life without end. And
I can't remember the first part of it, but it's, it wasn't even
written into the fifth century. So why they call it the apostles'
creed, I don't know, but here's the true apostles' creed. Verse 11, we believe that by
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they.
We believe that us Jews will be saved the same way the Gentiles
are saved. Not that they'll be saved the
way we're saved. We're saved the way they are
saved, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's the
Apostles' Creed. And that is spoken in the original. so that you could fairly say,
it could be translated all three of these ways, by grace we've
been saved, by grace we're being saved, by grace we will be saved. The grace of God. That's the
true Apostle's Creed. And let me remind you, the grace
of God doesn't, It means what the Bible means by it, not by
what men mean by it. The grace of God, the sovereign,
saving grace of God, the omnipotent grace of God, the immutable grace
of God, the independent grace of God, the all-powerful grace
of God, means what the Bible means by grace. We believe that
by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even
as they. Paul says, let's read verse six
again, but of these who seem to be somewhat of whatsoever
they were, it maketh no matter to me. God accepts no man's person.
They who seem to be somewhat in conference added nothing to
me. They didn't add anything to the gospel I preached, but
contrary wise on 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 effectually in Peter did the
apostleship of the circumcision. The same was mighty in me toward
the Gentiles. Was there a difference between
the gospel of the circumcision and the gospel of the uncircumcision?
Why is he making that distinction? Was there a difference? Was a
different message to be preached to the Jews as was the Gentiles? Did you modify the message a
little bit or kind of adapt it so the Jews could hear better
or adapt it for the Gentiles so they could hear better? Are
there two gospels kind of a different shade? No. No. One message for everybody. It doesn't adapt itself to the
culture. adapt itself to the times. You see, the preaching
of the gospel is a declaration of who God is, of who men are,
of how God saves by Jesus Christ. It's not adapted to anything. Somebody comes as the ambassador
of Christ preaching the gospel. Now that is the gospel of his
grace and it's not, now Peter was sent to the Jews and Paul
was sent to the Gentiles and the scripture says the Lord used
them both mightily and I love this. Peter didn't have anything
that the Jews would respect. He didn't have a proper education,
he was an uneducated fisherman. He didn't have anything going
for him that the Jews would say, oh, this is what we want. Paul
had everything that Jews would have desired. He was brought
up at the feet of Gamaliel. He was a born and bred Jew, circumcised
the eighth day. I mean, he had everything that
they would respect. God sent Paul to the Gentiles, who would
scoff at everything that the Jews looked up to. This is the
one God sent to the Gentiles, this man who had all this Jewish
pedigree. Who's the apostle to the Jews? Peter, an ignorant
fisherman with no background, no education that they would
be impressed with. You know, I love the way the
Lord works, don't you? He does things the opposite of the way
we would do things. And this is the way he worked
with Paul and with Peter. Now, notice verse 7, but contrary-wise,
when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed
unto me, I'm the one that went to the Gentiles. That's the gospel
of the circumcision was unto Peter. It's the same gospel.
For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of
the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles."
Now, I love the way this is stated in the scriptures. He that worked
effectually in me. Paul recognizes that it was the
Lord doing the work, not him. He understood that. He that wrought
effectually in me. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
3 for just a moment. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Verse four, for while one saith
I'm of Paul and another I'm of Apollos, I heard the gospel through Paul.
I heard the gospel through Apollos. Are you not carnal? Is that not
utterly fleshly? Is that not the way a lost man
thinks? Who then is Paul? Who is Apollos? but ministers by whom you believed
even as the Lord gave to every man. I planted, I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase."
Now, what he's saying is, is that he who worked effectually
in me? It's him that did it, not me. If you would see a, footer dug to put foundation. It looked
really dug perfectly, right. Would you say, well, that shovel
did a good job of digging? No, that shovel's just an instrument. Nothing more than that. It's
just an instrument. It was the man who used the shovel who dug
the footer properly. Not the shovel. We wouldn't say,
look at this glorious shovel. Look what it did. No, the man
did it. The shovel was just an instrument.
And that's what Paul is saying. We're just instruments. But the
Lord wrought effectually. Now I think of the Every aspect of salvation is
the Lord working effectually, all powerfully. What power was
demonstrated in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ when
God became man? The infinite God, God manifest
in the flesh, what power was involved in the Lord Jesus Christ
actually putting away sin and making it not to be. What power,
only the effectual working of God could make me to be righteous
and holy and perfect before God. Only God could do that. Only
God can give a new heart. Just every aspect of the gospel
is the mighty power of God. And that's what he's talking
about. He that wrought effectually. Look in verse eight, for he that
wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision,
the same was mighty. And it's actually the same verb,
working, working effectually in me toward the Gentiles. This
is God's work. Verse nine. And when James, these are the
men that seem to be somewhat. that he said whatsoever they
were, it doesn't matter to me. God doesn't respect any man's
person. And like I said, he wasn't being dismissive or disrespectful,
but he was understanding that men are men. Don't ever forget
that. Men are men. The best man is
a man at best, a sinful, frail man. And when James, Cephas,
and John, who seemed to be pillars, that's how they appeared. Man,
these guys are the real deal. They seemed to be pillars, and
that's how they were viewed. Well, here's what they did. They
perceived the grace that was given to me. Now, they perceived
it was given, They perceived the grace that was given to me. They perceived it. Now, one of
the things I was thinking about when I thought, do you know it
takes grace to perceive grace? If you don't have grace, you
don't see it. But if you're given grace, you
perceive grace. Got no grace, you don't perceive
it. It's meaningless to you. But if you got grace, you perceive
grace and you love grace and you understand grace. They perceive the grace that
was given to me from the message I was preaching, the message
of God's grace. When they perceive the grace
that was given to me, they gave to me in Barnabas the right hands
of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen and they
unto the circumcision. Now, what is the right hand of
fellowship? It's fellows in the same ship. We have the same gospel. We're saved the same way. The
circumcision, the uncircumcision, they're saved the same way. The
gospel of God's grace. And God sent Peter to the circumcision. He sent Paul and Barnabas to
the Gentiles. And they would go all over the
known world preaching the gospel. And they were at complete agreement. Isn't that beautiful? Complete agreement. Now, Paul
went there not knowing if they would be at agreement. But he
knew the gospel he preached was the gospel of God. And he found
out that there was complete agreement and they extended to him and
Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Fellows in the same ship working
toward the same goal, the preaching of the gospel of God's grace. Verse 10, only they would that
we should remember the poor. The same which I also was forward
to do. Now, while you're preaching the
gospel, remember the poor. Now, somebody
might think, is that referring to the poor in spirit? Well,
that's included. No doubt about it. That's who we're preaching
to. The gospel's preached to the
poor. That's what the Lord said. The gospel's preached to the
poor. But I have no doubt that he's referring also to the poor
in purse. people who are in need. Don't be indifferent about that
in any respect. I don't care what kind of neediness
it is. If in my preaching of the gospel,
it makes me indifferent toward the needs of others, I haven't
really understood the gospel properly. I might think I do,
but I don't. He said, I'll remember the poor, You know, the Lord, remember
when Judas went out and the disciples thought he, maybe the Lord told
him to go give something to the poor. Evidently, that's something
the Lord did a lot. Judas held the bag, and when
the Lord said, what you're doing, do quickly, they thought he was
going out to give something to the poor, because that's something
that was just part of what they did all the time. So he says,
when you go out, be sure that you remember the poor. Yes, the
poor in spirit. I'm so thankful that the first
beatitude is blessed are the poor in spirit. Who are poor
people? People that don't have anything.
If you don't have anything, it's easy to have Christ. That's all
you have. that remember those people, but remember the poor
in purse as well. And Paul said the same, which
I was also forward, zealous to do. May the Lord enable me and
you to be zealous about this, not indifferent about it, but
zealous. Okay. Well, here's the apostle