Alright, well go ahead and open your Bibles to the book of Galatians. We finished chapter 1 last Lord's Day, and we will get into chapter 2 today. It's kind of funny, it seems like chapter 1 actually went by really quickly. You kind of grasp for other things to say, but we resolve to move on and get further into the text today and see what Paul has to say. We make a transition here. We've been exploring a theme of Paul, basically calling him the real deal, and that he is defending his apostleship. Really, chapter one and two center around that point, that truth, that important observation, is that Paul truly is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is endorsed by Jesus himself to proclaim the gospel. And of course, when it comes to that, when it comes to declaring yourself to have that kind of authority, to declaring yourself to be called by God Himself to preach His gospel, there are always going to be dissenters, there are always going to be those who call into question that claim. And so Paul deals with it as an apostle would. He answers those critics, he answers those doubts, declaring plainly that he is indeed an apostle. And so in the first chapter, we really have that theme covered, is that he defends himself. He defends his authority as an apostle. When we begin in chapter two, we see a slight shift, even though we understand that he is still defending his call to be an apostle. But in this sense, we see that applied, which is why we call this Paul displays his authority. So he not only defends it, but now he puts it on display. He gives visible, tangible evidence that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ, but this isn't something he's just made up, as many people are wanting to do today. And when Paul displays his authority, we aren't simply seeing him make a display in order to intimidate those who fight against him. We see a lot of that today, what we would call saber-rattling, in the area of whether it's politics or war, or even interactions at the office. We see a lot of saber-rattling wherever we go. People trying to put on display some kind of authority, some kind of show of power. If you work with other people, perhaps it's by way of public insult, where someone, perhaps you yourself have done it, you try to put someone down so that other people see it. so that they know that you have some kind of authority, usually an authority which you really don't have, but you want people to think that you have in order that you may maintain some kind of reputation or maintain some kind of control. In this day of modern warfare, we are no strangers to articles which describe a particular warplane flying over in a particular place where it does not belong. See, Russian bomber flying over the Alaskan territory. It doesn't belong there, but what's going on? It's saber rattling. It's a show of power. It's to demonstrate in some form or another that we're watching you or we've got you or we can come into this territory and we can get away with it and there's nothing you can really do about it. We see this in the area of politics, especially during perhaps long-winded speeches where cheap shots are taken against one's political opponent. And again, we have to sit and wonder, is there really any kind of power or authority being put on display here? And most of the time, it's just a front. Again, it's saber rattling. It's just a show of power that really doesn't exist. But when it comes to proclaiming the gospel, when it comes to defending the gospel, because that's the application from what we see in Paul. So when we see Paul displaying his authority, we aren't seeing mere saber rattling. We are seeing actual gospel apostolic authority on display. Paul isn't making this up. He is simply doing what he is called to do. And so as we come into our text this morning in verses 1 through 5, we will see three particular things, three particular ways in which Paul is displaying his authority. And really this theme will run its course through chapter 2. So let's follow along in our Bibles. Galatians chapter 2 in our text again, verses 1 through 5, we'll get as far as we can today. Starting at verse 1, then after an interval of 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up, and I submitted to them the gospel which I preached among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation for fear that I might be running or had run in vain. But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you." So there's Paul's initial description of his visit to Jerusalem. So we're going to take this in three parts. Again, we're going to see three ways in which Paul initially displays his authority as an apostle. Again, a lot of what we understand as the gospel preserved all the way up to today, 2,000 years later, rests on Paul being an honest witness toward what he is preaching. Because quite frankly, Paul's gospel is our gospel. If Paul is mistaken, then we are mistaken. If Paul is a false prophet, We too, preaching his gospel, are made false prophets. So it's important that we pay attention to his words and his actions regarding these particular interactions which take place in Jerusalem as he defends his gospel and his call to the ministry. So the first thing is simply this, using that as a platform, is that his first display of apostolic authority really is his committing to ministry. He is committed to ministry, and how is this proven? Well, he is just described over a decade of gospel work and involvement. We see here in verse 1, Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also. Now, if you read previously in chapter 1, he describes, again, an interval of three years. If you look back at chapter 1, verse 18, he's describing three years that have gone by that he initially went to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Peter, that is Cephas, and stayed with him 15 days. And then we read the rest of that narrative through verse 24, and then we see another interval of 14 years. So we know that at least 17 years have gone by. And so we have to ask ourselves, of course, well, has Paul's message evolved at all, or is he preaching the same gospel? Another important question we have to ask ourselves is, is the gospel that he is preaching Has it in any way deviated from the gospel that the other apostles are preaching? Has their gospel evolved at all? Or will we find, even after 17 years, consistency? Will we find basically the same message being preached, even though, as Paul says, that he was preaching among the Gentiles, right there in verse 2. So we see again, he after 17 years is still preaching the same gospel. So we find ourselves in roughly, according to James Montgomery Boyce, that this is probably 49 or 50 AD. And it marks a very important time in church history. If you turn in your Bibles, you don't have to turn there now, but again mark it, Acts chapter 15, there is a very important event happening, and that is the Jerusalem Council of Acts chapter 15. So basically what he's describing here coincides with this very important council in church history, which establishes, among other things, that yes, God in Christ is saving Gentiles as well as Jews. Again, a lot we could talk about there, but we'll just establish the fact that these are one and the same events. Now again, in supporting his call to be an apostle, we see that Paul is now gathering disciples. He is training other men. Again, this in its own way supports his apostleship. He is training other men for the ministry. And again, since this is about 49 or 50 AD, Paul we know has already taken his first ministry or missionary journey, which happened in about 44 AD. So he's well into the ministry. He's committed. And again, that demonstrates that this is not some side hobby of the Apostle Paul. This is not something he does in his spare time. This is not something he's in and out of. This is something that he is committed his entire life to. And we will see that continue to the very end of his life at the edge of a Roman axe. He is nothing if not committed to the ministry. So he's partnered with two men, men which most of us are at least in some way familiar with. The first is a man named Barnabas. We first find him in the book of Acts, chapter 4, verse 36. His original name is Joses. He's a Levite from Cyprus. And the apostles ended up calling him Barnabas, which means son of encouragement or son of exhortation. Very interesting, typically people would give you a name or rename you, regardless of what your former name was, to somehow describe your personality or a personal habit or something you're well known for. In the case of Barnabas, he was known to serve others and to encourage others. You can read about him in Acts 4, Acts 9, and Acts 11. He's described as a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. Through his ministry, according to Acts 24, a great number of people were brought to the Lord. So here's a man who has quite a legacy, quite a reputation for being a godly man and for being committed to the ministry. And these are the people that Paul is working with. So he's got some good partners. When it comes to gospel ministry, just as a side note, It is always highly encouraged to have people stand beside you. That even though you are a voice in some way crying in the wilderness, you are preaching the foolishness of the cross, there is nothing like having one or two other faithful brothers or sisters standing beside you, confirming your witness. So again, Barnabas goes with Paul on his missionary journeys. And with his cousin, most of you are familiar with John Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark. Barnabas continues up with Paul up until actually the events following the Jerusalem Council, where he tells Paul, hey, we're going somewhere, let's bring John Mark with us. And if you know anything about John Mark, earlier in the ministry, he chickened out. And so Paul says, no, We're not taking John Mark. We know what he did last time, so we're going to leave him here. Barnabas doesn't like that. Apparently blood is thicker than water in this situation. And so Paul and Barnabas finally part company, but it seems as though later on there is some kind of reconciliation, especially between Paul and John Mark. So that's Barnabas, good man, faithful guy, and also, again, a Jew. Then we come to Titus, another early church leader, very trusted, faithful companion to Paul. I mean, the guys he's able to draw around him for ministry is pretty incredible. Again, Titus was a Gentile. We know this from Galatians chapter two, based on the fact that the Judaizers were trying to get him circumcised. Again, you think about the context of this, with Paul taking Titus to the Jerusalem council, this very situation that's described in Acts 15 and Galatians 2. Paul has really a tangible example of the fact that God in Christ is justifying Gentiles apart from works of the law. Again, establishing the fact that the old covenant has been made obsolete and the new covenant as established in Christ has come." So again, we see Titus as proof that the law is not necessary to save, that furthermore, that one does not have to become circumcised as prescribed by the law in order to be saved. We are born again by the Spirit, we are justified by grace through faith, And again, Titus is an example of that, and the fruit of his ministry definitely lends credibility to that. He goes to Corinth to serve the church there. You can read about that in 2 Corinthians. Years later, Titus and Paul go to the island of Crete. If you read Paul's epistle to Titus, we see again, Titus is charged by Paul to go and to appoint elders in every city, to basically straighten out what was left unfinished, appoint elders in every town. So you see, Titus is a trustworthy fellow to the point where Paul can just leave him on this island of Crete and say, hey, this is what you need to do, I can count on you to do this. And when it comes to appointing elders, that's a very serious task indeed, since the standards of being an elder are so high, and not everyone is called to be an elder. So, to be entrusted with that duty definitely demonstrates Titus' character as one that Paul trusted. He was even with Paul during his final Roman imprisonment, and even from Rome, Titus was sent by Paul to evangelize the area of Dalmatia, 2 Timothy 4.10. So here's a guy again who preaches the gospel faithfully. Paul calls him my fellow partner and fellow worker in 2 Corinthians 8.23. So that's what we know about him. That's a first-hand witness by the Apostle Paul, the kind of guy that he's surrounding himself with, and again, all that lends credence to his claim to be an apostle. How does he put his apostleship on display? By bringing two disciples, again, to Jerusalem, to the council, that he can vouch for and that can vouch for him. He is calling other men to the gospel, he is passing on his gospel message, training them up in that, and sending them out to preach. And again, these are faithful men that Paul has called next to him. So that's the first thing. They are committing to ministry. So let's go on to verse 2. Same theme in regards to this commitment. So here you go. It says, it was because of a revelation that I went up. Okay, so there's various thoughts on how to interpret this passage. Some think a revelation from God personally. But most, and this is where I stand, is that this revelation was, again, something that Paul realized was going on. And that, of course, is the uproar in Jerusalem between the Judaizers and the apostles, and really establishing what the gospel really is, and who God is saving, and how He is saving them. And so within that commitment, we come to number two. Paul displaying his apostolic authority. And it is this. it also confirms unity. So there's committing to ministry, but also confirming unity. And this goes back to emphasize the point that when Paul goes to Jerusalem, one of the things that he wants to do is to confirm that he is preaching the same gospel. And again, not just the same gospel that the other apostles are preaching, but the same gospel after all this time, after 17 years since being called into the ministry. And we're talking about A.D. 50 or 49. So we're talking a couple decades after Christ's death and resurrection. And again, he can go and confirm that the gospel has remained unchanged, that he is preaching the same gospel as the apostles. And again, let me emphasize this, that Paul is not going to get straightened out in any sense. He is not going to have his doctrine corrected. He is not going to be schooled by the other apostles. Again, he is every bit the apostle, that they are. So let's look at this. It was because of a revelation that I went up and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. So again, the gospel that he preaches among the Gentiles is the exact same gospel that is being preached among the Jews. And so as he sees this in Acts 15, again, here's the scene. Here's the scene that's going on. Here's what's being discussed. So let's start at verse 15. Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And when Paul and Barnabas had a great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them could go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning the issue. Verse three, therefore being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles and were bringing great joy to all. the brethren." So here clearly is their gospel activity and they see again what's going on in Jerusalem as expressed in Acts chapter 15. So again we read, Paul being sent out for their missionary tour, Acts chapter 13. Now they were at Antioch in the church that was there, prophets and teachers. And of course, one of them was Barnabas. Reading on to verse two, while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit says, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent So all of that has been confirmed, okay? We know that he has been confirmed by witnesses, hands have been laid upon him, so now he's gotta go to Jerusalem and see if that holds up, okay? He's already been committed by a group of others to the gospel ministry, now he goes to Jerusalem. So he submits, he sets forth, he declares. Again, not like you put in an application to get a job somewhere. Again, this is not... trying to gain the approval of the apostles. Paul has the approval, keep this in mind, Paul has the approval of Jesus Christ, okay? That is approval enough. Although he still, and rightly so, desires unity, so he goes and he says, this is the gospel to the Gentiles that I have been preaching. So again, in that sense, When we talk about confirming unity, we today also desire to confirm the same kind of unity. This is immensely important. Unity in the church, especially as it regards the gospel, is one of the fundamental things of doing life together in the church today. So let's talk about a couple key tenets of Paul's gospel. Again, these are hills, friends, that we die on. We realize that we want to be united on as many things as possible, but quite simply, when it comes to particular doctrines, there are going to be little details where we don't agree. And I believe that we have liberty there. But what we cannot disagree upon, where unity is absolutely essential, are the key tenets of the gospel. And while there's more than the four I would like to mention, let's keep these in mind, because these are really the foundation of doing ministry. I mean, the gospel is the core of it all. So let's talk first of all about the foundation of the message. We'll call it the gospel of grace. Grace as opposed to law. Simply put again, the gospel that Paul preaches is a gospel which says salvation is a gift of God. We have rehearsed this many times, and we ought to, because that is something that is so easily forgotten. We can listen to 25, 30,000 sermons that continually emphasize the grace of God, but it's a gift. And yet somehow, stowed away within the flesh, is this notion, this lie from the pit of hell, that somehow, I may have something to do with this. And you laugh, but it's tragic though, because that's one of the first lies that we buy. As much as the gospel of grace and understanding grace is foundational to the Christian life and to the life of the church, this is one of the first tenets we throw away of Christian life, is that somehow this depends on me. Somehow I have to prove my worth to God by being obedient or doing this and that. I mean, I remember being in the hospital and visiting an elderly gentleman, you know, he was ill and was going through kidney failure. I think he had actually coded at one point, and he could very well have been on his deathbed. And this is a man who had a reputation of being a faithful believer, lifelong Christian, and I went and I talked to him, and he started kind of reminiscing and talking about his possible death. And he didn't end up dying, but one of the things that he said was, man, I hope I hope I've been good enough. Here's a man who could repeat the gospel to me, chapter and verse, letter by letter, and get it right, and yet what was he concerned about if I've done enough? And I quickly had to remind him that it didn't really have anything to do with what he was able to accomplish, with what he did. It was about what Christ did. It was about Christ's accomplishments. And that basically, if he had any responsibility whatsoever, it was to place his faith. It was to rest in the reality that Christ has already done everything. And even that faith is a faith that is created. That is not a faith we conjure up. So in a sense, I could tell this gentleman, it has nothing to do with what you are able to do. It's all about what Christ has accomplished. We're justified by faith. And of course, yeah, yeah, I know that. And yet it's so quickly we forget, especially when we think about standing before God. You know, what will we do? Will we cling to our works? Will we cling to our obedience? Or will we cling to Christ himself? will we cling to the fact that the gospel is a gospel of grace, it is a gift of God, not of works so that no man can boast. That's tenet number one. Tenet number two is what we could call the heart of the gospel, the heart of the message, is this, Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 2, Paul says it right there, we preach Christ and Him crucified. I have determined to know nothing among you but Christ and Him crucified. Substitutionary atonement, the heart of the gospel, which if you are familiar with some of the ongoings, In some of the doctrinal shifts of Christianity, this is perhaps chief among them as an attempt to do away with substitutionary atonement. Many people are writing it off as cosmic child abuse. How mean of God to punish His Son on a cross for us. How dare He? Never mind the fact that Scripture describes this again and again and again as being the very heart of the message of the gospel. It just seems mean. And so people will do with that what they will. But this key tenet, one we cannot do without, is Christ and Him crucified, that Christ died for sinners. Another is this, and most of these are obvious, but these are the things we uphold. Thirdly, what we could call the substance of the message. So we have the foundation, the heart, and now the substance is this, it is justification by faith, not work. So grace, not law, faith, not works. And again, genuine faith we understand will produce good works, but good works are not somehow meritorious by which we hold them up to God and say, see my works, I deserve to go. No. We are justified by faith, not works. Even if you scroll down to Galatians 2, verse 16, it says this, Even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, since by works of the law no flesh will be justified." It's like how many different ways can Paul say it in one verse about how one is declared righteous by God? He says it, I think, three different ways. Just to be clear, this is the gospel that I preach. We are not declared righteous on account of anything we have done. We are declared righteous through faith. Again, he goes on to prove that by using Abraham as an example, that even Abraham was not justified by works. He was justified through faith. And you realize that if Paul lets go on this, You think about it in the context of confirming unity. If the apostles themselves, either if they do not agree with Paul on this, or if they don't stand with him on this, they may give lip service, but if they don't stand with him on this, then his ministry is going to experience opposition in a way that we can only imagine. The fact that the Apostles stand with him will again lend immense support to his ministry to the Gentiles, especially considering the legalistic stance that the Judaizers held. Paul would never be able to get away from that. Fourthly, and here's the hard one, especially in a postmodern age, we have these three, substitutionary atonement, grace, and faith. Fourthly, and we have to remember this because this is sort of all-encompassing, is the gospel's exclusiveness. When we are preaching Christ and Him crucified, when we are preaching grace not law, when we are preaching faith not works, we are also declaring that this is the only way, this is the way it is. There is no other way to God. Outside of grace, outside of faith, outside of Christ and Him crucified, there is only condemnation. And I think that we often fail to point out that very important truth. We can say, yes, all these things are wonderful, but really, God is a God of mercy. He's a God of grace. He's a nice God. He doesn't condemn people. He doesn't send people to eternal hell. So even if they didn't believe this, you know, they'd probably be okay. Again, that is a hill we die on together. Hopefully it's a hill we live on together, is that this is the only way. This is God's appointed way. Jesus is God's appointed way to gain access to Him. And so this is the gospel which Paul submits. And I would point out that even though we can't go to all the texts, just to plant this bug in your ear, is that Paul's gospel matches the apostle's gospel perfectly and without any variation. You read John, you read Peter, you read Jude, you will find the same thing. You will find grace, you will find faith, you will find a crucified and risen Savior, and you will also discover that there is no way to God outside of these prescriptions. And so Paul's gospel matches them perfectly, and it says this. Back to the text. Verse two, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation for fear that I might be running or had run in vain. So he did so sort of secretly. There's sort of an undercover meeting going on here. And it says to those who were of reputation. So most likely those who were of reputation were the apostles, the other apostles, you know, Peter, James, John, these brothers in the faith. and he submits his gospel to them. So these were people who, of course, were men of reputation. They were known throughout Jerusalem, they were known throughout places where the gospel was preached. Even at this point, Paul is not what you would call a man of reputation, at least he didn't consider himself as a man of reputation, yet he goes to them because he says he didn't want to have run in vain. So here he is for 17 years doing gospel ministry and he says, look, if I can't get these guys to stand with me and affirm the sameness of our gospel, this is all a big waste of time. And so he wants to ensure that it's not a waste of time, that he has been running, that he has been striving, that he has been contending for the faith in a worthwhile way. Again, when we read vain, vanity, we think of things that are worthless, that bring no eternal fruit, that bring nothing lasting, things that just die and fade away. And so he wants to confirm that he hasn't run in vain. He wants to see that the apostles in Jerusalem agree with him, that we are saved by grace through faith, that circumcision is not necessary, and that they stand with him on that. Could you imagine if there was division in the first century church to that degree? I mean, you're talking about a broken foundation. The foundation has to be one piece. If the foundation is undermined in any way, then surely the worldwide ministry of the gospel would be undermined as well. That's how we are able to stand here 2,000 years removed and be preaching the exact same message that the apostles were preaching. And we really see again the providential hand of God in such preservation. that he has orchestrated it to where the gospel message was kept intact, so that even 17 years later, hey, you still preaching that? Yep. How about you? Yep. We're good. We're preaching the same thing. There is no division. The foundation is whole. And again, it prevails upon us, the church today, to also keep that foundation whole, to maintain unity in the things that matter the most, these things concerning the gospel that we've just reviewed, and that we never deviate from those things. Otherwise, we are a divided church. And so Paul's worries, of course, are alleviated based on the report of the Jerusalem council, they come to agreement, they are of one accord. So again, this running or had run in vain is no longer a worry of Paul. And then we read on verse three, and this is where we come to the third point. So we have committing to the ministry, confirming unity, and thirdly, confronting opposition. So this is something where the church tends to get a little skittish. We can remain very passive when it comes to encountering those who would preach another gospel. Because again, this is the background. Again, Paul is defending the purity of the gospel against those who are perverting it by trying to sucker people back into bondage to the Old Testament law. But he says this, "...but not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." So even Titus, again, we know is a man of conviction, a Greek, a Gentile, even they couldn't intimidate him to the point where he would be circumcised. So he's not circumcised according to Old Testament prescriptions, and yet we find he is seen, he is viewed, he is accepted as a brother in Christ, as a member of the church, as a true believer, as someone who is saved. Now we see the explanation for this if you want to mark it for a later time, Galatians 3, verses 6-9. And we use the example of Abraham here because, of course, Abraham was a Gentile when he was justified. He was still uncircumcised, just like Titus. Galatians 3, 6-9. Even so, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed in you. So then, those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer, not those who are of a Jewish bloodline, not those who keep the law, but those who are of faith, those who rest their hope entirely on the finished work of Jesus Christ. So again, we see Titus, a godly man, upholding his integrity, not being intimidated, and so Paul feels it fit to report that he was not even compelled to be circumcised. And we see elsewhere in Paul's ministry that Timothy, who was incidentally half-Jewish, was circumcised. and read a little commentary here by John Gill, he says this, this is the reason why the elders did not insist upon the circumcision of Titus, why he did not submit to it, and why the apostle would not admit of it. Had it been left as a thing indifferent, or had it been moved for in order to satisfy some weak minds, which is the case of Timothy, it might have been complied with, But these men insisted upon it as necessary to salvation." So there's the thing. Titus would not do this, because if he did, what is he saying? Yep, I have to do this in order to be saved. I have to do this in order to make my salvation whole. Faith is insufficient. Grace is insufficient. So he could just basically go back on all that he has been preaching and completely compromise the gospel. So in this case, it would be compromise, as in the case of Timothy, it was not compromise. So in that case, Titus remains a solid expression that God's grace is reaching to the Gentiles. But in addition to this, it expresses clearly that believers in Jesus are free from the constraints, free from all the ceremonies and rituals under the old covenant. So verse four. But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in who had sneaked in in order to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us to bondage. So here Paul identifies false brethren. Again, you see this, he says false. That's the key word here. These are pretenders. These are posers. They are pretending to be brethren. They're pretending to be Christians saved by grace through faith, but they really are not. We just talked a lot about wolves in sheep's clothing in Matthew chapter 7, and here clearly we understand that those who are legalists, those who are pushing good works, circumcision, law keeping as a basis for salvation, these are lost. If you're here today and you believe that, you are lost. And you're going to find this in any congregation. There's always going to be those folks sitting in the chairs or the pews or what have you that believe that they still have to do something. in order to be justified. They're still relying on their works, whatever thoughts they have, whatever feelings they maintain. And yet all that remains is a pile of filthy rags to burn with you in hell. And it's a tragedy, but that's what's gonna happen. And so the call is to repent of self-righteousness and turn to the only one whose righteousness really actually matters. That is the righteousness of Christ. And so here is Paul's concern. We know that this gospel is false. From Galatians chapter 1, we don't have to remember that far back to know that Paul heaps anathemas on them. Let them be accursed. Let them be devoted to destruction. So here are these three specific things about these false brethren which Paul spells out. They were brought in secretly, they wanted to spy out their liberty in Christ, and then they wanted to bring them into bondage. There's such duplicity here. To come in under the guise, wearing the mask of a true brother in Christ, and really trying to subvert the work of the gospel. See, there should be nothing secret about being a part of the assembly. In some sense, we live our lives out in the open in front of one another. We share, we confess our sins to one another, we share our struggles, we share our sorrows, so that we can encourage one another, so that we can bind the wounded, so that we can edify each other. We don't live life in secret. We don't come into the church and live out some clandestine operation so that no one really knows who we are or what we're going through. But here we have this. We have these posers here who have come in, they have smuggled themselves in. Just like Peter says in 2 Peter 2.1, false teachers who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. So this isn't some innocent mistake that is occurring here. These things are done deliberately. They are not harmless. They are harmful. Then they destroy. So Paul brings them to light here. They are false brethren secretly brought in. They are smuggled. Think of the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 13. 24 through 25, Jesus presented another parable to them saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away. See, many times what happens when false teachers, plural, come in, because there's usually more than one, is they stick around for a long time and much of the time they are not found out until the very end. I mean, many of you, if you try to lay sod in your yard, there's something legendary about trying to plant grass in Colorado. But those of you who have attempted, perhaps you succeeded, but you'll notice that very quickly, no sooner have you planted your sod, and you even put some... ortho product on it to keep the weeds from growing you'll notice that the weeds still pop up and they're and they're viney and their and their roots are deep and stubborn you try to rip them up and of course the roots break off and then you you leave two days and you come back there's a brand new weed there I mean this is this is awful and yet this is a picture of what will often happen with the church We may spread our sound doctrine everywhere to keep unsound doctrine and false gospels at bay, and yet somehow they will always try to pop up. And we understand that even from Scripture's point of view, that the presence of false teachers and false gospels are in fact a test of loyalty for the church. Will we abide in the true word of the gospel? Will we abide in it? Will we not deviate from it? Even in the presence of a false gospel, which may seem much more captivating, even much more interesting, maybe much more rewarding in this life, much more appealing to the flesh. And it is a test of the saints to endure through that and to not deviate. So these are spies. These are the weeds. These are the tears. Again, there's more of a mere curiosity at work here. There is definitely evil intent. All the while, acting as a friend and ally, there is so much duplicity. There is so much warfare going on here. The spying out of liberty. Why do people spy? The purpose of spying is to uncover information in order to find weak points upon your enemy in order that you may take his power or subdue him or even destroy him. But really what's going on is this goal of ultimately undermining their mission, undermining the purpose of something. And so here they are gathering intel. to find some weak point in the gospel. As a side note, it's interesting to try to find a weakness in something that is so simple, a weakness in a message that is so plain, that is so unmistakable of this gift of God, this grace of God received by faith. And there will always be complaints. There will always be those who raise an uproar, who raise protest over grace. I mean, one of the first questions that will come across, or even first accusations, what about breaking God's law? This grace of yours, this faith of yours is causing ungodliness. It's giving you license. Well, one part of answering this is in Galatians itself, 3.13. Galatians 3.13 is right there. The curse that breaking God's law brought has already been born. It's already been covered by Christ. So the penalty of such has already been taken out of the way. And yet when we talk about breaking God's law, we would say quite the contrary. It is grace, it is faith, it is trusting in Christ's promises, it is life lived in the Spirit which empowers me, which enables me to live an obedient life, which enables me to live righteously. I don't look to the law for any kind of power. I look to the Spirit for power, and in that I demonstrate that I am truly free. I'm not going to go and do whatever I want. Galatians 5 says, those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. I mean, the freedom we have in Christ is immense when you think about it. We have so much freedom. And this is what is being spied out. This is what perplexes the legalist. How can a person live like this? And yet we're free from it. Many of the ways in which we're free, one of course, we have just talked about, is we are free from legalism. We are free from this bondage of life which says, I have to obey this much and then I can have access to God. I can be justified. We're free from the curse of the law. Think about, too, we're free from all of those other ceremonial prescriptions. We're free from having to do sacrifices because Christ is our sacrifice. All these things which the Old Testament demanded. And if you really were honest with yourself when you look at the Old Testament, you would think, there's no way I can abide by this. There's no way I can follow this. That's the point of the law, to point out how short you fall of divine perfection. We can't do it. Think about it too, we're also free from sin. Not only from its penalty, but its power, and eventually we'll be free from its very presence. So powerful is our salvation in Christ. Think of this too, we also have freedom from the power of Satan. We were in his clutches. Ephesians chapter 2 describes being in bondage to the prince of the power of the air, and now we're free from it. We're free from that guy. We enjoy this freedom because it is Christ Himself that gives it to us, and the freedom that He gives us overpowers any other bondage that we experienced in our spiritual state of deadness. And you think about it, a lot of people attack freedom mostly because they simply do not understand what it means to be born again. When people start talking about, oh, you're going to give yourself license to sin when you talk about all this grace stuff, that you don't have to do anything. They don't understand what it means to be regenerated. They don't understand what it means to be united with Christ and be a new creation. They usually completely discount it. That if I am a new creation, I have a new heart, I have a new mind, I have new desires. I have knew everything in Christ. Which means that I don't even want to do the same things that I used to do. Because I'm a different person. And it's clear that those who are stuck on the law are blinded to the power of the gospel. They are blinded to the life-giving freedom that is bestowed on us by grace. That's why Jesus says in John 8, 36, So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. As if to say, you guys don't really know what freedom is like until and unless I have freed you. Great quote by John Gill, he sums this all up in terms of talking about liberty. By which is meant not a liberty to sin, which is no Christian liberty. It is contrary to Christ, to the spirit of Christ, to the principle of grace in believers, and to the doctrines of the gospel. But a liberty from sin, not the being of it, but the dominion and damning power of it. That branch of Christian liberty the apostle here chiefly designs is a freedom from the law, both the moral law as in the hands of Moses and as a covenant of works, though not from obedience to it as in the hands of Christ and as a rule of walk and conversation, but from obeying it in order to obtain life, righteousness, and salvation by it. So just to sum up what Gil is saying here, he's not saying that the Christian has no relationship to the law whatsoever. We still can look at the law and see it as a guide for life. We can look at the Ten Commandments, see it as a moral guide for life. But he's saying that we are free from it in the sense of having to obey it in order to be saved, because that salvation has already been procured for us. So reading on, "...and from the curse and condemnation of it, and chiefly the ceremonial law, circumcision," which is what Paul's going through, "...and all the other rituals of it, and the free use of all things indifferent, provided the glory of God and the peace of weak believers are secured." Beautiful end statement there, because he understands that even believers can be immature. But again, all of this, Paul says in this confronting of the Judaizers, he says this, they did all these things in order to bring us into bondage. Why do you spy out liberty? This is craziness. If you saw someone was truly free, you would want to know the basis of that freedom, right? No, they spy out that liberty in order to bring them back into slavery. What is going on here is truly heinous. We have to come to grips with this. This is something that is very sinister that is going on then and also continues now when we try to draw people back into some form of legalistic righteousness that is not based on the righteousness of Christ. This is slavery in its uttermost. And that's what they're trying to do, to bring them into bondage, back to some kind of subjection to the law. Again, this began with trying to convince them that Titus needed to be circumcised. But again, I believe this points to a bigger issue, and we have to ask ourselves, what is true bondage? See, we see true bondage occurs whenever someone tries to add things, especially rituals, to faith as a basis of salvation. That is true bondage. That's why Paul will go on to say, Galatians 5.1, I love how you can cross-reference a book with itself. Galatians 5.1, it was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. See what the Galatian churches are going through? All the way in chapter five, he's still talking about this. You guys need to understand the freedom from the law that you have in Christ. They're trying to bring you back into the yoke of slavery. How we can understand this, and basically using Reformed parlance, is that what the Judaizers are trying to do is bring them back to the covenant of works. Under Christ, we are under what we call the New Covenant, as instituted by the blood of Christ. It is something that Christ has has gained for us, He has brought us into solely by His works and not our own. So when we go back to the covenant of works, we are going back essentially to being in Adam. This is what we know. In the grand scheme of things, we are going to be in Adam or we are going to be in Jesus. That's what we call covenant theology in its very basic form. And they are trying, these Judaizers are trying to bring these Christians back under Adam. And being under Adam simply means this, to flesh this out a little bit, we have to go back to Genesis chapter two. When God created man, he gave Adam a simple command. You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For when you eat of it, you will surely die. You will die the death. You will die, die, really die. So again, what is implied in this? Is that when God sets Adam in the garden, he basically says, and this is more of a, it's a different sense than what we understand typical covenant of works, which says, again, if you do this, do this and live, okay? And with Adam, it's do this and die. But we understand it's the same thing, that as long as Adam is obedient to God, he will live. As long as he's obedient to God's commands, he will live. So life becomes the reward for obedience and death the penalty for disobedience. So this is what we would call the covenant of works. The thing that Jesus did though is that he obeyed. He obeyed in full. He obeyed perfectly, and that's why we are justified by faith. It is resting in His righteousness because He's the only person who has ever obeyed God perfectly. So when we trust in Him, God imputes His righteousness to us. We stand clothed in Christ's righteousness, God looks upon us, and He sees not our tainted righteousness, not our sin, but He sees the righteousness of His Son. The problem with the covenant of works is it's conditional. Do this and live. And you realize that every one of us in here has failed, has failed miserably to keep that, to uphold that. We failed to meet its conditions. The beauty of the new covenant is that Christ meets all the conditions. The language of the old covenant, the covenant of works, is do this and live. In the new covenant, it's live and do this. See, we have life. And if we have life, we have power. And we can live by faith in what Christ has done. We can live by faith in Christ himself. So do you realize this is what makes what the Judaizers are doing so evil? They are trying to put the hooks in believers and draw them back under a covenant of death. A covenant in which everyone fails, and because of that failure, everyone dies. They are so mistaken, they are so misled and perverse in trying to draw people back under Adam. That's exactly what's going on here, again, in the big scheme of things. And that's why you think about in Acts 15, that discussion happens. This yoke is too great for anyone to bear. No one can handle this. No one can put themselves under this and survive. And yet this is what is happening. And yet it says they stood fast. Look at verse 5, I love this, confronting opposition. You think of the pressure involved here, especially when it is prolonged and sustained. Verse 5, with you, so no matter what the opposition, their spirit could not be broken, their convictions could not be undermined. Think about this, when you are proclaiming Christ, we've talked about this before, don't just stand there and let people beat up on you. Fire back with truth. That's why we said we didn't just stand there and let them lord it over us, we did not yield in subjection to them. for even an hour, so it tells us they didn't put up with this for very long. They upheld the gospel. How much damage can be done if one yields only for a little while, especially in a public forum? Oprah Winfrey, I tell ya. She is like my one-stop shop for everything that is, nevermind. Carl Lentz, again, a very well-known postmodern preacher, Carl Lentz and Oprah Winfrey. having an interview. Oprah asks Lentz this, do you believe that only Christians can be in a relationship with God? His reply, no. There's your first problem. No, I believe that when Jesus said that I am the way, the truth, and the life, the way I read that, Jesus said that he is the road marker, he is the map, so I think that God loves people so much that whether they accept or reject him, he's still gracious, and he's still moving, and he's still giving you massive red blinking lights for chances to take a right turn when maybe you'd take a left. But I believe God loves people And that's what his whole gospel is based on. It's love. Now, I could probably have a 10-part sermon series just on that quote, but we're gonna keep going. Our thing is to say, hey, if you allow God, if you bow your knee, admit your need of God, and if you do that, and Lord, ellipses, There's a moment where my repentance matters, and it's right now. I am handing over the keys. If you do that, I think the premise of Christianity is looking in the mirror going, all right, I'm not going to make it. I can't do enough. God, I need you. And in that moment, I believe there's a rescue of salvation that you can't counterfeit in any way. Just... There's so much wrong with that, and I'm not sitting up here just to criticize people or take cheap shots, but guys, these are people, this guy Carl Lentz is someone who's in a public forum, he has a loud voice, and what is he doing? He is un-gospeling the gospel. He's using part truth, part error, and again, what happens when you preach half a gospel? You get half a Christian, which is no Christian at all. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. But if you somehow imply... That if you reject Him, and you're still going to be okay because God's a loving God, you have just collapsed the gospel message. This is yielding. This is what we call yielding today. When he says, I believe there's a rescue of salvation that you can't counterfeit in any way, you're telling me. You can't counterfeit it. But what he is presenting here is another gospel. Just like what we saw several years ago with Joel Osteen talking to Larry King. It's not my job, Larry, to condemn people. I mean, you see it. It's like, yes, but it is your job to proclaim condemnation if a person is rejecting Christ. You don't have to condemn them. You're not the ultimate judge, but you are going to point them to the reality that there is an ultimate judge who will condemn you if you reject Christ. Oh, it's not my job. Yes, it is your job to point out those things. See, just yielding for a few seconds and look what that did. But really this points to a greater issue that people that yield, this is years in the making, whether it's Carl Lentz or Joel Osteen, they're people that have been yielding it up for a long time. And this is just devastating to the cause of Christ because this perverts the gospel, not privately, but publicly in front of millions. People are yielding all over the place because they look at things like this, they hear things like this, and they think, how fanciful, how nice. I can compromise now. I can preach the gospel and not seem so narrow. I can preach the gospel and not seem so mean and heartless and unloving. When the gospel is God's heart for saving people, And yet those are his terms. It's trust in me or perish, repent or die. And so we see what's at stake within the life of Paul. Imagine if he had yielded then. Talk about the fragmentation of what would have happened in the church. And yet he stood his ground with Titus. He did not yield to them for an hour. But what's the purpose here? So that the truth of the gospel would remain in you. I love it. There's no self-interest here. There's nothing that he would personally gain by this. He says, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. So again, that truth would never be undermined, never be compromised, so that you could be confident that what you had, what you had received, was untainted, was unperverted, it remained. The truth of the gospel, again, as put against the lie of Judaism, which is keep the law and you'll be saved. You can't keep the law, guys. He wants the truth that the gospel is a gospel of grace, it is a gift of God, it is by faith in Christ, all of these things. He doesn't want that to be compromised. He wants that to be preserved. I think if he, in defending this, it would really encourage and invigorate the Galatians to know that Paul, when this was at stake, was no man-pleaser. He was a true apostle. There's nothing passive about this either. When we go into the forum of public opinion and we see how they view the gospel as foolishness, sometimes we think, I'm just going to listen, I'm going to dialogue, I'm going to be passive, I'm going to be understanding and listening. Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. I mean, think about where is the compromise here? There is very little niceness going on here. Destroying speculations. Man, people can speculate all day, but not the preacher of the gospel. We destroy speculations. We cut those things down. In verse 4, Paul says, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We can be kind, brothers and sisters, but we don't have to be nice. We destroy speculations so that we may save the soul through the preaching of the gospel. I love how Jeremiah 20 through 29 puts it. Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord? and like a hammer which shatters a rock? Does your proclamation of Christ and Him crucified resemble that? Do you do that with power? Do you treat the word like it is fire, that it reveals, that it purifies? Is the gospel like a hammer which breaks apart the lie of human righteousness and wisdom? And yet that's what we bring. We're not called to be a bunch of passive weaklings when it comes to the gospel. Yes, we are called to be humble and meek, but we proclaim a gospel that is like fire and like a hammer which shatters rock. That's what it is. Again, Paul, the apostle and example, committing to the ministry, confirming unity, confronting opposition. is an example to us in upholding the gospel in a day of so much compromise where you barely have to look to the left or right to see some kind of perversion, some kind of deviation. So in all of this, yes, we can unite on these truths of the gospel and hopefully for once treat the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ like the power that it truly is, the power to save, the power to bring the dead to life, the power to justify the ungodly. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for our time in your Word. Encourage your people with it, with your Scripture, with your Word. It is so precious to us. Help us, Lord, to have the same convictions that Paul did, that we would not even yield for an hour when faced with temptations to compromise, when faced with unbelief, that we would be humble in our proclamation of the cross, Lord, but also to be bold. We are called to be bold. We are called to be unafraid and unashamed. Knowing, Lord, that you are our light and our salvation, who should we fear? What can man do to us? Lord, help us to be strong in you and in the power of your might. Help us, Lord, to remain steadfast in our upholding of grace, that we would not compromise through self-righteousness, works, or through human power or effort, Lord, but we would continue to be faithful as you enable us to rely solely on what Christ has done. Lord, we thank you for your people. I pray again, Lord, for a blessing on them. May your word be like fire. May it burn away the parasite of the flesh. May it encourage our hearts today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.