Grab your Bibles tonight. Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. As we continue our study and the liberty that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, tonight we are going to be finishing out this second chapter of this powerful little book of the Bible. Galatians chapter 2. And when you've found your place there, I invite you to stand together out of respect for the reading of the Word of God. And we are finishing up Paul's testimony tonight as Paul talks about all that the grace of God did in his life and in his ministry. We're going to finish out this section of testimony beginning tonight in verse 11. Paul said, But when Peter was come to Antioch, I was stood into the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? For we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified, But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead. in vain. Tonight a message from Galatians 2 entitled, Freedom Worth Fighting For. Father, I pray that as we again tonight consider the freedom, the liberty that we have in the Lord Jesus. Lord, I pray that you would open our hearts to your word. That you would focus our minds to hear and to receive that which the Holy Spirit desires to speak to us. Help us tonight, I pray, to hear from you. And to be more like your son, we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. So I will tell you, if it seems like I'm going fast tonight, I have incentive. On my way in today or tonight, somebody hooked me up with a big box of Lucky Charms. If you weren't here Sunday morning, you missed it. You don't know why. You'll have to go back and listen. But I'm ready for dinner, amen? Anybody else have cereal for dinner? Oh, come on, you bunch of liars. Anybody else have cereal for dinner? Amen and amen. Amen. I didn't mean to call you liars. That was probably not Christ-like of me. Back to the Bible. All right. Galatians chapter 2. So let me give you a little bit of insight here on where we're at. You can kind of divide the book of Galatians up into three sections. Chapters 1 and 2 are Paul's testimony of faith and grace. And so we have seen throughout the first two chapters how Paul has testified that he was saved by grace, sanctified by grace. sent by grace, that he by grace was able to shine for God's glory. We looked at markers of a grace-filled ministry, and tonight we're going to talk about the liberty that the gospel of grace provides us. And so chapters 1 and 2 are the testimony of Paul with the gospel of grace. When we get into chapters 3 and 4, Paul is going to begin to deal a little bit more with the theology of the gospel of grace. And then in chapters 5 and 6, we get the therefore. Having seen the testimony, understanding the theology, how we then therefore are to take these truths and to see them lived out in our lives. So, we're coming to the end of this first section. of Paul's testimony. But remember, the whole book deals with our freedom, our liberty in Christ. If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Amen. Our freedom and our liberty are rooted in the gospel of grace. Church, we cannot ever afford to get over the gospel of grace. You realize you will never grow beyond the gospel. You will never come so mature in your Christian faith that you have grown beyond the gospel. You will never, ever, ever do anything that can add to the gospel. The moment we add anything to the gospel, we lose the liberty that the gospel provides. Grace plus anything brings bondage, not blessing. The moment we add something to the gospel of grace, we are placing ourselves back in bondage. In our chapter tonight, it is interesting, we have an eyebrow-raising confrontation that took place at the church at Antioch. You know, sometimes it is necessary to confront the things that threaten what is precious. Freedom, church, is worth fighting for. You know, the good news about all of this is that Jesus already won the war. On the cross, when Jesus said, it is finished, friend, it was finished, Jesus won the war. But you and I have the great privilege to safeguard the freedom that his blood has bought for us. So consider the scenario. If you are in Christ, Satan cannot have your soul. But he's going to come after your joy. And he's going to come after your peace. He's going to come after your liberty in Christ. If you are in Christ, Satan can't have your soul, but he also wants to so compromise and corrupt the truth that he can get your neighbor's soul instead. Church, the gospel of grace is worth fighting for. So as we look tonight at this confrontation between a couple of spiritual heavyweights, Peter and Paul, I want us to see tonight some truths about the freedom we have in Christ that is worth fighting for. Look at verses 11 through 14. Paul continues his testimony. He says, But when Peter was come to Antioch, I was stood into the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimilation. When I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as the Jews do? I want you to consider, number one tonight, the gospel and our ultimate loyalty. You know, Peter's hypocrisy here is striking. Peter, when he came to Antioch, it was one big happy family. Jews and Gentiles were one, and they were together in the church, and they worshipped together, and they ate at the same table, and there was harmony and unity there at the church of Antioch. But the Bible says eventually a group came, and you can almost picture them. I mean, they had their ties up tight, and they only wore white shirts, and they had their dark suits on, and they marched right in. And this was the group from James. These were the prominent Jewish people from Jerusalem. And you can almost picture it. When they walked in, and Peter's there eating. Maybe he's got a piece of bacon in his hand. And he's eating, and the door opens, and Peter goes, uh-oh, and drops the bacon. Well, before you know it, Peter, you know, I don't really know if I'm going to eat with the Gentile Christians anymore. And Peter's over here eating with only the Jewish people. Now, Peter was a leader in the church. So what happened when Peter decided, eh, you know, some people, I just, some people don't quite make the cut, I'm gonna eat over here. What happened when Peter started doing that? Well, the other people around Peter, the other Jewish people around Peter said, hmm, you know what, we're gonna hang with Peter, see you guys later. Paul says here, in so much that even Barnabas, Barnabas the encourager, Barnabas who loved everybody, Barnabas, man, what a great man of faith, even Barnabas was like, yeah, I don't know, guys, I'm gonna sit over here. Peter's hypocrisy here is striking. And Paul is clear what drew out Peter's hypocrisy, his abrupt about-face at the presence of this group from Jerusalem stemmed from his fear of man. Well, what does Proverbs say? Proverbs 29, 25 reminds us that the fear of man brings a snare. Peter put down his bacon. And Peter compromised back to the submission to the law. And when he did so, he corrupted others around him and confused the whole situation. Now let me give a little side note here. We talked about this last week. How God is no respecter of persons. How the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Can I put it this way? There is no such thing as the cool kids table in the Christian cafeteria. Take you back to your middle school days. There is no such thing as the cool kids table in the Christian cafeteria. There is no spiritual hierarchy in God's sight. Yes, God does delegate authority to men. And yes, God does build in accountability, yes. But no one man is better than the other in the eyes of God. knowing Christ, all are equally welcome. Amen? Whether their past was Gentile or Jew, male or female, bond or free, rich or poor, all are equally welcome, all are equally loved, all are gifted, all equally matter to God. And I'm going to tell you right there, there is such liberty in knowing that. That in the eyes of God, He loves us equally. There's no such thing as the cool kids table in the Christian cafeteria. By the way, a moment a Christian group wants to add something to grace, run. Run. Because, friend, here's the thing. Standards are good. Standards are wonderful. We ought to have standards. But my standard doesn't make you holy. God's grace does. Just a side note. So we have Peter's hypocrisy. Man, Peter. Peter who preached at Pentecost. Peter who was a pillar in the church. Peter. Peter. Peter messed up. And by the way, we're all capable of that, amen? So what happened was Paul confronted Peter's hypocrisy. For I want you to know it is not a light thing to confront a brother, much less one who is a leader in the church. Here Paul was confronting the Simon Peter. He withstood him to the face. But sometimes confrontation is necessary, not for my sake, not for my benefit, but for the sake of the gospel. The gospel freedom is worth fighting for. Now, think about this. It is true that unity among brethren is a beautiful thing, is it not? I am grateful for the spirit of unity that is prevalent in this place. Psalm 133.1 reminds us of that truth, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Unity among the brethren is a beautiful thing, but unity is not the goal in and of itself. Rather, unity ought to be a by-product of an ultimate loyalty. You see, my ultimate loyalty is not to a human movement. My ultimate loyalty is not to a human leader. Because man-made movements and men leaders, they mess up. They make mistakes. They fall flat on their face. Not a one of us outside of the Lord Jesus Christ has ever walked this earth successfully. We all make mistakes. You know, a lot of Christians get tripped up because we put a lot of faith in the movement. We put a lot of faith in the man. And then when the man falls or the movement falls apart, we don't know what to do with our faith. The problem is our faith didn't belong in the movement. Our faith didn't belong in the man. Our faith, our loyalty is first and foremost to the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter made mistakes. Your pastor makes mistakes. Paul made mistakes. The only one who didn't make a mistake is Jesus. But you realize when our ultimate loyalty is to Jesus Christ and to the gospel of Jesus Christ, when our ultimate loyalty is to Jesus, when we are all committed to Jesus, you know what happens? We find unity with each other. You see, it's a byproduct. Think about it this way. Basketball season starts this week. Going to be coaching the junior high boys team again. Excited. It's going to be a good year. I think I have like 16 kids on the team. Now that's crazy. I don't think I got a bench long enough to sit all of them. I don't even know if I have uniforms for them. We're just going to get them green t-shirts, right, for the ones at the end. But here's the thing about any good team. How do you take different players with different skills and different positions and different thought processes? How do you take all these people doing all of these different things and how do you get them to work in unison? Well, the ball team has unity when they are all committed to the same thing. And the ball team needs to be committed to their coach and their coach's voice. Now, there's tremendous freedom in that truth. You think about the boys out there playing basketball. There's going to be a lot of people yelling at them. There's going to be well-meaning fans out there. Hey, hey, why aren't you doing this? And sometimes it's because I told them not to. There's going to be parents out there going, give my kid the ball. Just give my kid the ball and get out of his way. There's going to be opposing fans. Ah, get that bum off the court. No, they don't say things like that. It's supposed to be a Christian environment. David and I know, right? There's going to be opposing fans. You know, sometimes players get snippy with each other. And they get each other's voice in their head. There's a lot of voices out there. But what happens when the unity breaks down, they got to be reminded that there really is just one voice they ought to be following. And what freedom? What freedom? You know what? I hear noise there, and I hear noise there, and I hear noise there. But you know what? I know the one voice that ought to have my attention. And Christian, there is such liberty and there is such freedom in the reality. There is so much noise on this earth. But there is one voice that all of us ought to be tuned into. And that is the voice of the Lord Jesus. That is walking in the truth of the Gospel. You know what? Sometimes that means when one of us gets out of line like Paul did Peter, we have to be reminded to walk again according to the truth of the gospel. I love how Paul said that. He didn't say Paul's doctrine or Peter's doctrine. He said, when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. And by the way, if we really are all committed to Jesus, do you know Peter didn't get mad, take his football and go home? You know we have evidence through Peter's epistles and others that they were able to work these things out and Peter got back on track. Because why? When we're all committed to the Lord Jesus, even sometimes when we have to work through things, we are able to work through things. Because it's not for my benefit or your benefit, it's for His glory. There's tremendous freedom in that. that my ultimate loyalty belongs to Jesus. My ultimate loyalty belongs to the truth of the gospel, not to men, but to the God-man, King Jesus. And when we embrace that, guess what? It's hard, it's hard, it's hard to falter to the fear of men when we embrace the Lord as our ultimate standard. the gospel, and our ultimate loyalty. But I also want you to see another aspect of this freedom that Paul draws out. Look at 15 through 19. Paul said, We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid! For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. So what freedom do we have here? We have, number one, the gospel and our ultimate loyalty. Number two, we have the gospel and our undying life. So Peter said, we who are Jews by nature are not sinners of the Gentiles. Let's break that down. The Jews consider themselves more moral than the Gentile world. They considered themselves better people. Well, a couple of reasons. They didn't worship idols. They didn't have all of the heathen drunkenness and revelry. They didn't have the blatant and outward immorality. Their culture was not consumed in bloodlust like the Romans. And so the Jews, when they looked around, it was basically, you remember that parable of the Pharisee? when he stood and prayed thus with himself, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like that guy. And so the Jews, they were not sinners like the Gentiles. But here's the thing, moral sinners go to hell just like immoral sinners do. No matter how good of a sinner you think you are, moral sinners go to hell just like the immoral ones do. Paul said, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by faith. In other words, even the best must come to Christ for salvation. John 14, 6, Jesus made that very clear. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. The reality that the Jews had to come to is that only the gospel of grace offered life. What does sin bring, church? James 1.15, lust when it's conceived brings forth sin, and sin when it's finished brings forth death. So a life of sin brings forth Death. Sin brings forth death. But you know, it's not just the sin that brings forth death. Do you know what else brings death? The law does. The law of Moses brought death. Why? Because I can't keep it. I fall short of the standard, and the wages of sin is death. You read the law of Moses, and it's like the death penalty for everything. Help me out, alright? See if you can guess. If you commit murder, the penalty is? If you kidnap, the penalty is? If you sacrifice your child to the fires of Molech, the penalty is? If you break the Sabbath, the penalty is? If you disobey your parents, the penalty is? If you got caught cursing your parents, the penalty is? If you have an animal that you knew was unruly, and your animal injures or kills somebody else, and you knew that animal was prone to unruliness, the penalty for the animal is? And the penalty for you is? Yes, for you it's death as well. If you come to the tabernacle incorrectly, the penalty is? If you preach a false message, the penalty is? Aaron's sons offered strange fire to the Lord and the penalty was? Korah, Nathan, and Abihu stood up against Moses and the penalty was? Sexual immorality of all forms and manners. The penalty is? Romans 7, beginning in verse 9, the Bible says this, For I was alive without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death. Why? Because I can't keep it. So sin, what does it bring? The sin brings the law brought. You know, doing life my own way, do you know what that brings? Proverbs 16 and verse 25 tells us there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of... Do you know what religion brings? Matthew 7, beginning in verse 21, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works, religion, religion, religion, and then I will profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. So sin brings, help me, sin brings, the law brought, my own way brings, religion brings, the broad way, the way everybody's going, hey, everybody's doing it, Matthew 7, 13. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many there be which go in thereat. So help me, sin brings what? Sin brings, the law brings, my own way brings, Religion brings death. Going with the flow brings death. It all brings death. Only, only, only the gospel offers life. And so Paul points out here that those who are working to earn favor with God, either before or after salvation, have missed the point. The gospel life is not earned, it is received. It's kind of like receiving a full scholarship for school and then going about struggling to pay the tuition. What in the world are you doing? Jesus paid it all! All to Him we owe. The gospel life is not earned, it is received. Friends, the law and effort shows us not what we are capable of, but rather what we are not capable of. It points me to the fact of how badly I need grace. You see, the gospel doesn't just bring God's grace to you in salvation, but the gospel is God's grace in you for sanctification. Grace is never a license to sin. It is always the freedom to live right. And there is such freedom in the undying life that the gospel of grace provides. We don't go back to our effort. We don't go back to those former things. Those former things that could never please God. We don't go back and build that prison again. We walk in Gospel life. The Gospel in our ultimate loyalty. The Gospel in our undying life. Let's look at verses 20 and 21 as we finish this section. Paul's testimony concludes. He says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. The gospel in our ultimate loyalty, the gospel in our undying life, finally the gospel in our unrivaled liberty, You know the gospel of grace provides us with a new identity. The Bible says the old man is dead. The old man is crucified with Christ. I'm not who I used to be. In Christ, I have a brand new identity. What does the Bible call us? 1 Corinthians 1 in verse 2 is one of the many places we see this. Under the church of God, which is in Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Friend, for those of us who call upon the name of the Lord, in Christ we are called saints. But very often, I struggle not to slip back into that sinner identity. But I'm a saint. It's kind of like, I always think it's weird, when we go into the Gospels and we see the miracles of Christ, and Christ will heal the blind man. Who wants to be the blind man tonight? You laugh, you get it, alright? And Christ heals the blind man. These are no longer necessary, my friend. Be healed! Now, how ridiculous would it be if on the way out, we all shook his hand and said, oh, Mr. Blind Man, it's so good to see you. Because he's not a blind man anymore. Or, there you go, I know I don't have those powers, all right. Or, I need a lame man. Greg. Greg, you can be the lame man, all right? So what if Greg was the lame man and they brought him into church, they carried him in, or maybe they dragged him in, I don't know. But either way, he didn't come in under his own power. I gotta get to Greg. How can I get to Greg? No, you can't move, you're a lame man. Move, tall man. All right. And when Jesus healed the lame man, you remember that story? I love it. They took up the roof, they let him down in, and Jesus healed the lame man, said, take up your bed and walk. Now, how silly would it have been on the way out for everybody to shake his hand and say, well, hi, brother lame man. It's good to see you today. I'm so glad you came. Wasn't that great, brother lame man? But we still, in the Bible, we call them the blind man and the lame man and the leper. But the thing is, after they met Jesus, they weren't those things anymore. That's who they were. That's not who they are. Friend, I want you to know, when you met Jesus, things changed. A sinner is who you were. A saint is who you are. And we have, in Christ Jesus, a new reality. And some of us tonight need to embrace the new you. What did Paul say, 2 Corinthians 5, 17? If any man be in Christ, he is a what? New creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. There is a freedom in our new identity. I am a new man in Jesus. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, not I, but Christ liveth in me. We have the freedom here, the liberty of our new identity. Praise God, we also have the liberty, the freedom of a new power. Paul said, in the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. You see, here's what we miss, I think, a lot of times. The truth of the gospel. The grace of the gospel. Living by faith in the grace of Christ. It does not just fit me for heaven one day. Well, I know I'm going to heaven, but I've got to kind of muddle through the nasty now and now. No. You missed the point. Grace doesn't just fit us for heaven. Grace fits us for here. so that we can walk in the power of God today. Christ in me is stronger than sin in me. And when I surrender to His grace, I receive the power to live in His victory. You see, what we've got to understand is Christianity without Jesus, it's not difficult. Christianity without Jesus is impossible. Jesus said in John 15, verse 5, He said, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. Christianity is not difficult without Christ. It is impossible. We come to the place where we fully surrender to His grace in us, that it might fully shine through us. The Gospel and our unrivaled liberty. A new identity and a new power. I want to live in the freedom and power of God's grace. not frustrating God's grace. Paul concludes the chapter in verse 21. He says, if self-righteousness is possible, if there is some way that I can get on the treadmill and I can wear the right things and say the right things and do the right things and be the right thing, if there is somehow that I can get on that religious treadmill, I can get on that religious ladder, if there is some way that my effort can please God, then Jesus died in vain. It wasn't necessary. Friend, my effort can't please Him. It's never my effort. My effort to self-righteousness is not pleasing to God. It's insulting to God. Pleasing God is found in surrendering to His grace. Not I, but Christ liveth in me. Surrendering to His grace and allowing His grace to make the most out of me. Don't frustrate the grace of God. Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. All that I am and all that I will ever be is only because of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for me. There is such freedom in God's grace. that the law cannot provide, that the religious treadmill cannot provide. If you are waiting for your efforts to make you feel like you are measuring up to God's standard, you will always be frustrated because your effort will never measure up to God's standard. But when I live in the grace of God, and it's not I but Christ in me, there is such glorious freedom in that reality. Because He will do in me what I could never do. He will do through me what would never be possible for me alone. There is a freedom and a liberty that is found in Jesus Christ's church that is worth fighting for. I'm not going to sacrifice it to be loyal to some man-made movement or some human leader. I'm not going to sacrifice it by trying to rebuild mechanisms where my effort can please God. I'm not going to frustrate the grace of God. No, no, no. I'm going to live in the freedom of the gospel of grace. My ultimate loyalty belongs to Him. My undying life comes from Him. And my unrivaled liberty is found when it is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Some of us, and this is the hard thing, because some of us have been trying for so hard, for so long, and in our souls, we have always felt like we would never measure up And friend, the message of grace is simply that God will do in you. Boy, if you just surrender to His grace, that God will do in you what you could never do yourself. It's not about striving, it is about surrendering. Surrendering to the gospel of grace.