all full of coffee and Donuts and and maybe some fruit, right? Page 528 in the service of the king. Here we go. I am happy in the service of the king I am happy. Oh so happy I have peace and joy that nothing else can bring in the service of the king In the service of the King Every talent I will bring I have peace and joy and blessing In the service of the King I am happy in the service of the King I am happy, oh so happy Through the sunshine and the shadow I can see In the service of the King In the service of the King Every talent I will bring I know peace and joy and blessing in the of the king i am happy in the service of the king i am happy so happy to his guiding hand forever i will cling in the service of the king in the service of the king Talent I will bring I have peace and joy and blessing Service of the King. On the fourth. I am happy in the service of the King. I am happy, oh so happy. All that I possess to him I gladly bring. In the service of the King. In the service of the King Every talent I will please I have peace and joy and blessing In the service of the King So this is what it feels like. This is cool. Yeah, I feel very domineering now. This is great. There we go. I love it. You're dead. Just kidding. Oh man, that is great. Are you happy in the service of the king? Are you happy in the... I can't even think about it That's awesome, we're gonna open a word of prayer this morning after that we should have an altar call to Michael really Okay, oh No, all right, let's open a word of prayer by the Bradshaw would you open some prayers for me Amen, if you're a worker or pastor, if you remain standing and everybody else can go ahead and be seated, we're going to do a quick introduction. I know we did last night. We'll do it here again this morning and we'll start over here with the shul. Why don't you start with it? Amen. Yeah, go ahead. That's it. Hey. All right. Hey, Michael. Amen. All right. Tell you what, let's do one more song if you're able for that. And we'll go ahead and have, right after this song, Brother Shoal, why don't you go ahead and come up. And Brother Shoal will be preaching our first message this morning. And I have no idea what he's preaching on, so I have no involvement whatsoever. You want me to? So I can push you off. Let's stay at 529. 529. Well, work till Jesus comes. Page 529. O land of rest, for thee I sigh, when will the moment come, when I shall lay my armor high and dwell in peace at home? We'll work till Jesus comes, we'll work ♪ Till Jesus comes we'll work ♪ ♪ Till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home ♪ ♪ No tranquil joys on earth I know no peace ♪ ♪ O sheltering dome ♪ ♪ This world's a wilderness of woe ♪ is not my home. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home. I saw that once my Savior sighed, No more my steps shall roam, With Him all brave death's chilling Tied and reached my heavenly home. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home. Yeah. you Course up here, so I I'm looking forward to it. I'm as nervous as can be, but I am looking forward to it. Stand with me if you would. We're going to read a few verses and we're just going to get right into it. Galatians Chapter 2. I believe I said that Galatians Chapter 2 verse number 11. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to 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 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?" Let's pray. Lord, we thank You so much for the privilege to be able to be gathered together with each one of these preachers, Lord. And I know there's so many here that have so many different things going on. And Lord, I pray that each one of us would be able to just set aside things this morning and listen to you as you speak to our hearts. And Lord, I pray that you would use me. And Lord, I pray that you'd calm my nerves and help me, Lord, to be able to just proclaim the truth that we can find in your word. And we'll thank you for what you do. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you for standing for the reading of God's word. So I could start an argument. Of course, I'm looking out here and I don't think this would be much of an argument. Is Michael Jordan the goat or is LeBron? What? Anyway, heresy already. But we could have, you see kids today have these debates and these arguments about these things like this, and when they talk to me about it, I just dismiss them because they don't know what they're talking about. But those are the things, though, that sometimes they're fun to debate, and we talk about those things, and it's interesting, and we might all be able to agree on. But one thing that we can probably agree on, my pastor growing up was Brother Ross Spencer from Bethany Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas. And he said something, and we left there when I was in eighth grade, and I don't remember anything he ever preached, but he said this, because I was a kid, you understand. But I remember one thing that he said when he was preaching, and I consider it to be true, that manna is actually banana pudding. And anybody that agrees with that, I would just have to say is a heretic. So we wouldn't argue about things like that. Of course, we like to debate. I walked up to the breakfast table this morning and everybody was talking about debate. I got the end of that conversation. So I have no idea what I'm going to get into this morning because of what the conversation was about. But you know, there are things that we look at and we know to be just black and white. And I'm thankful for that. I like things that are black and white. I excelled in one subject in school, and it wasn't lunch. It was math. I got math. Why? Math is black and white. It's either right or it's wrong. It has to be this number at the end of the day. I enjoy black and white. And thankful we have a book, we have a Bible that we can look at and we can say, it is black and white. It is truth is truth, and we can stand on that, and we know that. So, the things that we look at that we would maybe argue about, we need to go to the Word of God to be able to find the truth of. But once we find the truth in the Word of God, there's no sense in arguing about it because the Word of God is more important than your opinion about everything else. But there are things that we find that they will maybe even cause a division things about the Word of God, things about doctrine, things about maybe even behavior, the behavior of a believer. In our text, Paul deals with all of these things, really, in a sense, and I think we'll see that. But I want to give you a little bit of context here and go back. In the first part of this chapter, Paul talks about a conflict that was there between Paul, Barnabas, and Silas, and when they would meet with Peter, James, and John. And when they met together, there was a conflict, if you will, about something that was very important. If you know the book of Galatians, which I know you do this morning, that was really The broad statement about it was that it was about the law, but the specific thing that just keeps on coming up was that of circumcision. And so circumcision is the thing that is looked at. Go back to Acts chapter 5. We'll come back to Galatians here in just a second. But it's interesting how plainly things are stated in the Bible to help us to understand some things. I said chapter 5, I meant chapter 15. Chapter 15 and verse number 1 of Acts says, Now every man in here would look at that and call that one thing. We would call it heresy, would we not? We know that today. But the reason that Paul wrote the book of Galatians was because of that right there. Because Paul would go and he would preach salvation by grace through faith, and the Judaizers would come in behind and they would say, well, you know what Paul said was pretty good, but there's also these other things. There's also this law that you've got to consider, and you've got to work that law in, circumcision, of course, being that thing that was there. Well, back in our text now, we find that there was a conflict in verse number 3 because of Titus. Titus was a Greek and didn't see the need to be circumcised. Understandably so, and he saw that. And so there was the conflict, and that's where you find all of this come from. And then in verse number 9, before that, they all come together, these six men, they come together they discuss this and they say, we've got to find what is true. And I love the attitude that they would say, it's not about your opinion, it's not about my opinion, we've got to get to what the truth is. And so they wanted to know the truth. And at the end of the day, verse number nine, and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me Barnabas, me and Barnabas, the right hand 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 I also was forward to do." So in this conflict, it is resolved. Now, Paul is setting a stage here is what he's doing. Everything is resolved. At the end of the day, these men were in agreement that that the gospel is for everyone. If you don't believe that, go back and read all of Acts chapter 15, and you'll see that they were all on the same page at the end of the day. And so they could walk away saying, you know, it's just that our ministries are a little bit unique. And I think that's important too, because their ministries were unique. You had the Jews and you had the Gentiles. Was the gospel the same to all of them? Yes. But when you're talking to a Jew, you've got a whole lot of things to unpack. When you're talking to the Gentiles, you've got a whole other set of things that you have to unpack. And to be honest with you, pastoring in Spokane, Missouri is different than pastoring in Cassville. There's things that you deal with in a different level. That doesn't mean that we don't agree, that we can agree on things and be able to move forward. But anyway, when you get into our text now, verse number 11, we find that there is a confrontation because of Peter, because of something that Peter did. It was a behavior, and we'll get into all of what it is. I mean, you know what it is as we read through it, but you're preachers, you know exactly what the conflict here was. But there's something important that I learned from this for me to be able to grasp this conflict, this confrontation that needs to take place, because Paul saw something that said, this isn't right. Now, I've heard this passage preached, and rightfully preached, that there is a hypocrisy that is here. But we'll see here in just a little bit, I believe, that it was a whole lot deeper than just hypocrisy. It was doctrinal that Paul was confronting, which was exhibited by the behavior of Peter. So first of all, in verse number 11, I want to talk about the correct confrontation. This is so easy. This isn't really deep, especially when you read the verse. How did he confront him? He went on social media. and he told everybody how dumb this guy was. He made sure that everybody was aware of it. No, the Bible says here it was to the face. The most obvious statement in all of this passage here that we're looking at, he confronted him to the face. He didn't sit around talking to Titus and just talk about how much of a compromiser Peter was. He didn't sit around with Barnabas, the son of consolation, and say to him, you know what? You need to get riled up with me. Isn't that what we want many times? But I digress. He didn't lash out at Peter. And you'll see that here in just a minute. But here's the thing. He had this heart here, and the heart wasn't... Friendships matter in ministry, do they not? I'm reminded of that very frequently. My pastor reminds me of that frequently. Hold on to the friends that you have in ministry. But there's something that's more valuable, and it's truth. It's truth. And that's what we find here, that I believe that Paul and Peter, they had some sort of a relationship, a friendship here, but as Paul saw that there was a confrontation that needed to take place, truth superseded that friendship. He said that I've got to stand with what is true, and I've got to be able to confront what needs to be confronted, and when I do it, I need to do it the right way. I need to find Peter, I need to come to him, and I need to look him right in the eyeball and to say what needs to be said to him. So important for us to understand. And let me illustrate it like this to you, pastors. You hate it, and I know you do, when somebody says to you, well, people are saying... Right? But we do the same thing when we're the ones saying about so-and-so. There ought to be a confrontation to the face. To look somebody, as I said earlier, in the eyeball and to say it. But also, the correct confrontation is in meekness but with boldness. In meekness but with boldness. I'm going to build this thought here. Galatians chapter 6. Probably a verse we're all familiar with. Brethren, if a brother be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. restore in meekness. But let's back up just a little bit. The fault, and we've all probably preached on that fault there, the side slip, the lapse, or the deviation that is there. And I believe the true context of what he is dealing with is something that is behavioral, but I think when you look into it, and when you put it in the book of Galatians, it's easy to understand it as quite possibly something that is doctrinal. when you see somebody that is slipping, if you will, doctrinally, somebody that has a, something that is deviating, that is slipping away from what the truth is, to see that brother and say, hey, let's get you back where you need to be, but how? In the spirit of meekness. Meekness, to be able to handle things with meekness is difficult many times, and many times it's because you have a agenda, but instead of the agenda, we ought to look at the restoration and to getting the person back where they need to be. So consider this as a lapse and a deviation from doing the right thing that we would then apply the attitude of meekness to that. Back in our text, Peter asks the question, and he asks it point blank, and we'll look at it very quickly there in verse number 14. He says, 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 do the Jews? Why are you confusing things? But the way that he states this is very plain. What does he address in this? Does he attack the character of Peter? Does he call Peter names? See, again, I walked up on the conversation, so I don't know what the debating was talking about. And I know we need to be good about confronting people and talking to people. Debating, if you will, is a word that we could say. I'm not a good debater. Because when somebody says something mean to me, I start calling them names. That's just the classic. Uh-uh. That's me. Every once in a while, I know you are, but what am I? But I don't do that very often. Sorry. But you think about—I got myself distracted from that—but the debating and the arguments that would take place here, and to consider what Paul says to Peter, it's just attacking the issue. Now, is that attacking Peter? Well, Peter probably took it that way because he's human just like you and I are. But he attacked the issue. And I believe that there is a way to be able to say things in meekness but with boldness. To be able to stand on something that you know to be true and to be able to confront something or someone that needs to be. But again, he didn't have to attack him as a person. And this is a phrase that I use with our folks all the time. God did not call you to be a jerk for Jesus. I was talking with Brother Dameron before that there is a mentality in independent Baptist past that if somebody disagreed that you had to attack them, that you had to be harsh towards them, that you had to be as abrasive as you possibly could because that's what men of God do. Well, I understand the principle of attacking sin and attacking things that need to be attacked. I get that. But I also know that the Bible tells us this, that there are two commandments that we need to be holding fast to. One is love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind. Number two, love thy neighbor as thyself. Yeah. So we ought to be able to, in meekness with boldness, in love, be able to deal with it. Now, Paul loved truth, I believe, more than he loved Peter. And I think that's good. But I think he loved Peter. I think he did. And so when he confronted him, he had that right confrontation. But in that confrontation, he was holding Peter accountable. He said something before Peter did, and now his behavior contradicts what he said before. And so now as he looks at him and he talks to him, he says, I need to hold you accountable. Listen, preachers, we need that. So there is a pastor that I'm friends with that we've agreed to hold each other accountable in certain specific areas. And I won't get into all of that, but there's a couple of areas that are kind of uncomfortable. But I'm thankful for that friendship. I'm thankful for that accountability, that this person, if I start to slip, will come and look me right in the eyeball and say, hey, there's a problem. I didn't ask permission to use this as an illustration, but I used to work for him, and he can't fire me now, but Brother Brudnick, years ago when I was on staff with him, I still remember this, and it really made an impact on me. I don't even know who this was. This is good. I don't know who this was, but I know that there was a pastor that it seemed was compromising doctrinally. And he took it upon himself to drive two or three hours away, I forget how far away it was, to go and to confront him to the face. To sit down with him and talk to him. Again, I want to point out, I don't know who that pastor was. I don't know what the doctrinal issue was. That was handled in such a good way that it made an impression on me. What did he do? He went and he confronted him to the face. I don't know what the end result of that even was, because I don't know who it was. But I saw that and I thought, that's something that I need to do. That's something that I need in my life. Somebody that's willing to confront, willing to come and look me right in the face and say, hey, you seem to be slipping. There seems to be an issue here that needs to be dealt with. Listen, you have an influence in the circle that you are in. Be thankful for that, but also use that. Let's hold each other accountable. Look at verse number 12, we see the conflicting behavior, which really is what this is all about, for before that certain came from James and did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. We find here that he had this conflicting behavior. Peter was eating a T-bone steak. He was sitting and enjoying it. Now, I know that might not be true, that might be doctrinally incorrect, but he was told, he was told, don't call what I've called clean, unclean. And this is all after that. And so he's sitting here with the Gentiles. Now, again, this is just my sanctified imagination. He's sitting there, and they're having a church fellowship afterwards, and he is enjoying all of these things that before he would not be able to enjoy. And he's enjoying the fellowship of all these Gentiles, which before he would not enjoy. And some guys walk in the back door, and I just kind of picture this. He sees them walk in the back door, and he kind of pushes himself away from the table there just a little bit, you know, and just And that's why we don't eat this kind of stuff. And he removes himself. But the way that I'm reading this too is that the removal wasn't just this one time at this one meal at this one place. It seemed to be something that Paul noticed. All of a sudden now, Peter's not around like he was before. Where's Peter at? Well, he understood that he withdrew himself because of the Jews that had come in. They were sent from James. Why they were sent, we don't really even know. But they were sent from James, and when they were there, his behavior was totally different. But it's interesting, the way that you read this and understand it, at the end of the verse it says, "...fearing them which were of the circumcision." Fearing them. Isn't that interesting? Was it? Was it that Peter was struggling with the acceptance of the Gentiles? I think we know that's not true. I think he's got that figured out. Proverbs 29, verse 25, first part of it says, The fear of man bringeth a snare. The fear of man bringeth a snare. Was he afraid that they were going to stone him for eating with the Gentiles? Probably not. I don't think that was really it. Was he afraid that they would excommunicate him? I really don't think that was it. No, they were Jewish Christians sent from James, from Jerusalem. His fear was about what they would think. That's a whole other message. But his fear was about what they would think. what their opinion of him was. Can we just call it what it is? It's a stinking pride. He was intimidated by them. Can you imagine that? Peter. Peter being intimidated. Now that's kind of interesting to me when I think about that. But this caused him to compromise. Can I say it again? The fear of man bringeth a snare. Caused him to compromise, and we'll see the seriousness of this compromise here in just a minute. But the snare of fear is shown a few times in Scripture. Other examples that we can look at. Let's think about Abraham. Abraham and his wife Sarah two times. What did he do? He passed off his wife as his sister Why did he do that? the fear of man the fear of man So as he did that two times His son picked up on that didn't he? And he did it once with Rebecca, passed Rebecca off as his wife. Why? The fear of man. Listen, the fear of man brings a snare. The fear of man causes us to compromise. I think about Peter, even. His fear of identifying with Christ after he was arrested. Now, I understand that this was something that was foretold by Jesus, and we could put all kinds of spiritual notes on that, but let's just stop and think about this from a human standpoint for just a second. Jesus has been arrested, and so now Peter stands up and denies. He denies three times that he has anything to do with this Jesus. Why? Fear. It was about fear. And his fear led him to a place of forsaking him, we could say a place of compromise. Paul, on the other hand, said that he would become all things to all men. Then you might by all means save some. Now, does that mean that Paul was a compromiser because he became all of those things? No, he met the people where they were. He didn't look down on anybody. He understood this. God is no respecter of persons. And he grasped that and he understood the truth of that. But let's move on. Verse number 13, and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him. What a heartbreaking statement. I would guess that this was, I believe that Paul was, if I can say it this way, riled up already by seeing the actions of Peter. But when he saw what he states at the first part of verse number 13, that had to have been just a cut to him. Because here's some people that say they believe like he does, but yet now, because of the influence of Peter upon them, they withdrew themselves. They acted the same way. Peter caused others to dissemble with him. That word dissemble, you know this, it has to do with the hypocrisy of all of this. They saw his hypocrisy as something that was spiritual. Now, let that sink in for just a second. They saw his actions, which was hypocrisy, as something spiritual. You know, Peter withdrew himself. I mean, he's obviously, you know, more spiritual than Paul because he doesn't have anything to do with those Gentiles. And he willingly did that while Paul or Peter is so spiritual. We're just going to go ahead and follow Peter because he's got it all together. Man, I want to sit there for a while. We as independent Baptists, many times we have our sacred cows, or whatever it is that we call them, and we stand on those things, and many times those things are traditions of men, they're not doctrine. And when we stand on those things, people follow us. And I know this for a fact, because this is what I grew up in. I grew up in a mentality that you believe this way, you think this way, you do this way, you act this way, and all of these expectations that are put upon you, I always call it the list. You've got all of these things that are put upon you, and you follow these things if you are a good independent Baptist, or some of them would say if you're saved. And so I held on to those things for a long time in my life, and I got frustrated with holding on to all of those things. But I saw all of the men that I'd grew up around and seen what they were doing in their lives, and I used them as the example of spirituality because of this list. And there was one thing that I missed in all of that list, and that was a relationship with a Savior. I mean, a real relationship with Him. But we can, as independent Baptists, be standing on those things, those sacred cows that we stand on, and not realize that we are influencing somebody in a very negative way, because something that maybe even you and I know is maybe a preference or something like that, that we are standing on, that we are going to stand by, that while we are doing that, somebody looks and says, man, they are spiritual. I'm going to be just like them, because that's what spiritual people do. That's why they dissembled with him. You know, I believe on Sunday mornings, when I stand up to preach, I'm wearing a white shirt. Amen? Oh, hold on now. I didn't hear a whole lot of amens out there. What's wrong with you? I've shared this and used this as an illustration in my church, but that is not doctrine. That is not doctrine. Don't look at me saying, well, he's obviously spiritually wears a white shirt on Sunday mornings. No, if I was spiritual, I'd be wearing a white shirt right now, standing in front of preachers. But you get the idea. You get the idea. We got to be careful because of the influence that we have. We look at things and stress them, and people think that they're equal to spirituality when they're not. This verse is a heartbreaking verse, and I'm just thinking about Paul writing this where he says, and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. It hurts to see those Jews. But the man that he traveled to Antioch with. And would continue to travel with well at the end of this chapter, he wouldn't. But they were companions. Dissembled with them. Step back. That had to hurt. That had to hurt. Paul. Every one of us, I'm sure in here, has that person that somebody has influenced. And because of that, they have withdrawn. And it hurts. I mean, it's deep. So I just imagine Paul as he's writing this thinking, even Barnabas. Think about that. Barnabas, the son of consolation. Who was Barnabas to Paul? Now, get this. When it came time to be introduced to everybody, everybody looked at Paul and said, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh. He's a liar. He's coming in here to kill us all. We know his history. We know his past. Barnabas says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, he's with us. More importantly, he's with God. He's preaching the truth. God has saved him. God has gloriously changed his life. That was Barnabas. And now that St. Barnabas is saying, this is kind of uncomfortable. I don't know that I want to be a part of this. In so much that even Barnabas was affected by that. The cost of compromise. The cost of compromise. Think about it. Peter's fear made Barnabas compromise. Again, a whole other message to be preached. We have to understand the power of our influence. There were two or three incidents in the last month, and I won't go into detail and bore you with it, but two or three incidences that happened within our church, and I was helping hurting people and talking to people. And as I would leave or we would walk away, they would say something to me along the lines, and you've heard this before, I'm sure, it meant so much just that you were here. Or something like, we are so thankful that God puts you in our lives for right now. And I'm not tooting my horn, I'm getting to a point here. And this happened probably the third time, maybe the second time. And I'm driving home. And I'm driving home and tears fill my eyes because I thought my influence is a whole lot greater than I realize. I mean, I'm just me. You know, I look at, I look at y'all out here, especially preachers that I've known for a long time. You're not just you. I mean, Brother Russ has such an influence on my life. You know, he's not just you. That's Brother Russ. You know what I mean? When I look at me, it's just, it's just me. And I'm sure that probably most of you feel that way. If you don't, you're prideful and arrogant. But it's just, I'm just me. and I start realizing the influence that God has allowed me to have on people's lives. I started to weep, but then I sobered up really quick and I thought, I have an influence on these people's lives. All of a sudden, this weight that I was already carrying became ten times heavier. Overwhelming. Listen, man, we've got to understand the influence that we have. It's far greater than what you probably think that it is. And when you have an ounce of compromise, you need to consider the cost. Consider the cost, even so much that Barnabas assembled with them. Consider the cost. Kind of a side point, but really the same thing to really consider about this. And this is something that I've contemplated many times. When you went to the church that you're at, men, they asked you a lot of questions. They grilled you. Because doctrine matters. And as they grilled you, they wanted to see if you lined up with the church. The church you're at, understand? Not a universal church. I just want to clarify. They wanted to make sure when I came to Faith Baptist Church, they asked me a lot of questions and then they put me in front of the people and they asked me a lot of questions and there were doctrinal questions and they wanted to make sure, are you lining up with Faith Baptist Church? So I came here to Faith Baptist Church standing on the things that Faith Baptist Church stands on. If at some point in time I decide I'm not going to stand on those things, just for instance, if I just all of a sudden have a revelation and become a Calvinist, or if I decide the Reformed Baptists are right. You know what the right thing is to do? The right thing to do is for me to resign as pastor of Faith Baptist Church and get out. Go somewhere that I'm going to be in agreement with. Now, I believe we ought to stand on truth, and there's some things that I've preached that people in our church have said, but it's scriptural, and I've been able to back it up with scripture and be able to lead, and that's part of growth, and you understand. But when a church stands on something like that, when a church stands on a King James Bible, and all of a sudden you decide the NIV is the Bible, My in-laws' church years back, the pastor got up one Sunday and said, you know, I've been doing my study, and I'm going to start preaching from the New King James. That's just what I'm going to do. And my in-laws stayed there at that church. Several years later, another pastor came in shortly after him and said, you know, I understand where y'all have been, but we're going to change, and I'm going to start preaching from the NIV. and it just gradually changed and changed and changed. And I look back on that and I thought, that's not what that church used to stand on. That church used to be known for something different, but a man came in and used his influence to change them. You have an influence. Consider the cost of compromise when you consider the influence that you have. This wasn't about a petty difference. Some of you walked in here today and said, oh, he has screens. Oh, no. He has chairs. Hold on, it gets worse. He used to have pews, and now he has chairs. There's so many petty things, you know? there's just a lot of petty things that we will separate over. But let's just look at what we're looking at here and be done. Today we call what Peter did hypocrisy, okay? But because of culture, because of timing, because of everything else, this was actually a doctrinal error. This was a doctrinal issue, and it's based partly on his influence, Peter's influence, but it's also based primarily upon the culture that is going on, or that they are living in, in that time. Look at verse number 14 again. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I'm sorry. When I see that, I say, okay, there's a doctrinal issue. I mean, that statement right there tells me that, that okay, there is a doctrinal issue. Now again, we would call it hypocrisy today, but in that day, when the gospel, as they knew it, the mystery is revealed to them, and they start to know what the truth of the gospel is, and that you have in their culture these people that are coming and corrupting it left and right, and they're adding the law to it, and they're adding circumcision to it, and they're trying to do all of these things with it. Ultimately, his hypocrisy there is actually a compromise doctrinally because he is teaching a lot by the actions that he is doing. He is teaching something that is contrary to what he had said before, and as he is teaching what is contrary, everybody looks at him and is willing to follow him even in a place of a doctrinal error. You can look just back one page in my Bible in chapter 1 here. What is it that is said from chapter 1? In verse number 6, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ." Pervert the gospel of Christ. When I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, does that sound familiar? I mean, don't those two things really relate together? So we find now that there is a corrupted doctrine that's taken place. Again, the whole purpose of the book of Galatians is really to deal with all of this. Here's the sad part about all of this. Peter didn't believe necessarily any different. You go and you read chapter 15 of Acts, and you find he's standing strong, and he says there's no difference between the Jew and the Gentile. The gospel has come to all of them, and that all men could be saved. And he is in that place, but yet when he acted the way that he acted, everybody thought, okay, that's not true. Uh-oh. We may have found an error. We need to be sure that we are in line with what the truth is. And so now there is that doctrinal error that was there. He didn't walk uprightly according to the Gospel. The perception, though I believe unintended, was then that Gentiles were different. Let's look at what Peter says in Acts 15, just a portion. Verse 8. Chapter 15, verse number 8, And God, which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us, and 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. That sounds pretty plain, doesn't it? That's what Peter said before. Now he's saying something different. Now he's saying something different. Now he may not be saying it out loud, but he's saying something different. And there is a big problem there. All of this is, of course, because God gave him a vision in Acts chapter 10. And Peter was clear on the truth, but now it's different. Paul, decided this is worth confronting. Now, what could have happened? Well, Peter could have looked at him and said, you know what, Paul, you're nuts. Peter could have called Paul names, a hypocrite, an ogre, a jerk. He could have called him a lot of things. But when you understand everything that happened, And I bet there was a time in Peter's life though, I don't think he wrote about this. He may have, and you may be able to correct me on this. But I think there was probably a time in Peter's life where he stepped back and said, you know, I'm so thankful for Paul. I'm so thankful that Paul confronted me because I was pulling people away from truth. I was pulling people away from the true gospel by what I was doing. You see, the doctrine was important, and I believe that Peter understood that and appreciated it. And I believe that Peter loved the truth of the Gospel. I really do believe that. I think you do too. But Paul loved the truth of the Gospel more than anybody, more than any person. And if it meant Peter would never talk to him again, he would unfriend him on Facebook, Regardless of what it meant, he said, I have to stand on truth. I'm going to confront it the right way. But I've got to stand on truth. If it costs me all my friends, that's OK. Because truth is more important. because there are people following and there are people watching that I don't even realize the influence that I have on them. So I've got to stand on what's right. In this day and age, and I'll close with this, I get calls from missionaries, and I was sharing this with a couple of men last night. When I get a call from a missionary, I say, I want your doctrinal statement. I don't say, send me your packet, you have a video I can watch, tell me about your work. You know why I'm doing that now? Because I found many times that I would waste my time looking at those other things and get to the doctrinal statement and find out that there are missionaries that are going out that are Calvinist, which doesn't even... anyway. that are Calvinistic, that are Reformed Baptist, that are not local church, universal church, and all of these things. Give me that doctrinal statement, because that matters. And I want to look through that, and I want to understand where you are. It breaks my heart to see that. And there was a time that I went through five or six missionaries in a row, and I was just frustrated. I'm like, are there any good missionaries out there that are still standing on truth? Well, praise God, there are. And I'm thankful that we just finished our missions conference and had two missionaries we didn't know in, and praise the Lord for their stand on what is truth. There are ones that are out there, and I'm thankful for that. But you know, we're in a place of serious compromise right now. We know that the time is drawing near. We were talking about that last night. The Lord is coming back soon. And the devil is fighting dirty. And he's getting men, quite possibly even someone that is in this place right now, to compromise so that the devil can say, got another one. And who's going to go with him? Who is going to dissemble likewise with them. Truth is important. It's even more important than friendship. So let's stand on truth. With your heads bowed. Lord, I thank you for truth and that it is black and white and we can know it. And I pray that you'd help each one of us to be able to stand there and recognize the influence that we have and the potential danger of that influence, and help us just to stand on truth. And Lord, we need to learn to hold each other accountable in a right way, to love on each other, to encourage each other to work, in some cases to restore each other. I pray that you would help us. We're going to take about a 10-minute break, so you can be dismissed. We'll come back, and when you hear the song started, come on back in.