Well, if you would, please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter two. With the Lord's help, we'll be continuing our study through the book of Galatians this morning by looking at verses one through 10. Again, that's Galatians chapter two, verses one through 10. And as you'll remember, the churches that Paul has planted in Galatia are under attack. And they're under attack by a group of men called Judaizers. And the Judaizers professed faith in Christ, but they also claimed that in order to be truly saved, you had to be circumcised. Now, Paul has received a report that the churches he planted in Galatia have been infiltrated by these Judaizers, and so he picks up his pen and begins to draft this letter to the Galatians in defense of the one true gospel of Jesus Christ. And the first two chapters of Galatians center around Paul's defense of the divine nature of both the gospel he preached and his own apostleship. During our last time together, we saw Paul focus on his independence from the other apostles, making it clear that he was not called into the ministry by them, but that he was called by God, and making it clear that he did not receive the gospel message from the other apostles. He received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Well, in our text this morning, Paul's defense now turns to the unity that he shares with the other apostles. Although he was not called or taught by them, they are in lockstep when it comes to the gospel of Christ. Well, let us pray and ask for God's help, and we'll read our text. Father, we pray that you would pour your spirit out upon us now. Give us indeed eyes to see, open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things from your word this morning. We ask that you meet each one of us where we are. For those who are downcast, Lord, would you lift them up and have them look upon you and have revival in their own souls. For those who are presumptuous, Lord, would you rebuke their presumption. Lord, for those who are outside of Christ this morning, We pray that you would reveal to them the danger that they're in, the consequences of their sin, and make Jesus Christ so irresistibly beautiful to them that they're drawn to him in saving faith. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus, amen. Galatians 2, verses one through 10. Hear the word of God. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek, yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so that they might bring us into slavery. To them, we did not yield in submission, even for a moment, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles. And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, They gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised, only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Amen. The title of this sermon is The One Gospel Preserved. In our passage, Paul continues to defend his apostleship and his gospel, telling of this second trip to Jerusalem where the truth of the gospel was preserved for the Galatians because Paul and the other apostles stood firm in the face of severe opposition. I want us to see in our text the exclusivity of the one gospel of God and rejoice that it has been preserved for us, the one people of God, that we might be set free from bondage to the law and bondage to sin. And I also want us to see the importance of getting in line behind Paul and the other apostles, not yielding in submission for even a moment to those who would seek to bring us back into spiritual slavery. And I want us to see these things, brothers and sisters, that we, by God's grace, might preserve the gospel for others, just as it has been preserved for us. And to guide our examination of this passage, I've established three headings. Firstly, in verses one and two, we see the context of Paul's second trip to Jerusalem. Secondly, in verses three through five, we see a conflict that arose during Paul's meeting with the Jerusalem apostles. And third and finally, in verses six through 10, we see the unifying compact between Paul and the other apostles. Once again, context, conflict, and compact. Starting first with the context of Paul's second trip to Jerusalem. Look with me again, starting at verse one of chapter two. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. Well, Paul begins laying out the context for his second visit to Jerusalem with the timing, and that timing being he went up again after 14 years. And the question is, 14 years after what? And there are two possible answers to this question. Paul could be saying that he went up again to Jerusalem 14 years after his first visit, the visit that he makes reference to in verse 18 of chapter one. However, I do think that the more probable event that Paul is referring to is his conversion, which he recounts in chapter one, verse 15. So Paul is saying here that 14 years after his conversion, he went up again to Jerusalem for the second time. When we look at the book of Acts, Luke records four different trips that Paul makes to Jerusalem. And the second trip that Luke records is in Acts chapter 11, and it's referred to often as the famine relief visit. So what was going on here is the church at Antioch was given a prophecy that there would be a famine over the whole world. And in response to this prophecy, they took up an offering from the saints at Antioch, and they sent Paul and Barnabas off to Jerusalem to deliver that offering to help the poor saints there survive during the upcoming famine. And I'm convinced that our text here in Galatians 2 is that famine relief visit recorded by Luke in Acts chapter 11. Now this may not seem significant, but actually it's quite significant. There's an event that happens in Acts chapter 15 that is going to directly impact how the church from that point forward will address the heresy of the Judaizers. And that event in Acts 15 is the Jerusalem Council. And so what we need to understand about Paul's second trip to Jerusalem, about this event that he's gonna tell us about, this meeting between the apostles and himself, where they're interrupted by the Judaizers and they're trying to force circumcision on Titus, This happens before the Jerusalem Council ever happens. And so Paul doesn't have the formal backing of that council. Okay, so what we need to see is that Paul is essentially a little, he's on an island, for lack of a better word. He's fighting the Judaizers here without a whole lot of help. And so as he's writing this letter to the Galatians, Paul really is on the leading edge. He is on the front line defending the truth of the gospel against those who were seeking to distort it by adding works of the law to the finished work of Christ, and again, he's doing so without the formal backing of the Jerusalem Council, which had yet to occur. So he's really setting an example for us. He's showing us what it looks like to stand firm on the truth of the gospel, even when you look around and you're saying, hey, there's not a whole lot of people standing here with me. But that's not an excuse. We still must stand firm. And Paul is an example of that for us. But of those who were standing with Paul, two of them were his traveling companions on this second trip to Jerusalem. That would be Barnabas and Titus. And the Galatians would have certainly been familiar with Barnabas. He was the converted Jew from Cyprus who was working side by side with the apostle Paul as he preached the gospel to the Galatians on that first missionary journey. And as you'll remember, Barnabas was also well-known by the apostles in Jerusalem. He was not only well-known, he was loved, he was trusted. Barnabas was actually given the name Barnabas there where he was called the son of encouragement because he was such a helpful brother, such an encouraging brother. And it's actually Barnabas who was the one who vouched for Paul on his first visit to Jerusalem 11 years prior to this. And this is when the disciples in Jerusalem didn't want to meet with Paul because they didn't trust him. They still thought he was Saul, the persecutor, and they were afraid of him. But Barnabas was able to testify to Paul's faithfulness and help him gain an audience with Peter and with James on that first trip. And traveling alongside Paul and Barnabas is young Titus. Titus, of course, is a protege of Paul, one whom Paul will refer to as his true child in the faith. Titus would become a very precious friend to the apostle as the years would go on, and Paul would eventually leave him on the island of Crete to help strengthen the churches there. But for us today, the most important thing that we need to recognize about Titus is that he was a Greek. This means that he was uncircumcised. He had never been subject, excuse me, to that central Jewish ceremony. Now, some speculate that Paul brought Titus along intentionally for the very reason that he was uncircumcised as a sort of test case to see whether the apostles would receive his gospel, to see whether they would receive it not only in theory, as they talked about doctrine one to another, but if they would receive it in practice as Titus, the uncircumcised Greek, entered into their fellowship and sat among them and was part of the conversation. But regardless of whether Paul did this intentionally or not, we know that that's exactly what ended up happening. The matter of Titus' uncircumcision, it really becomes the central focus for this second visit to Jerusalem. Well, Paul continues in verse two. Look with me there. I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. Please note that Paul wasn't summoned by the apostles to make a visit to Jerusalem as if he was inferior to them as the Judaizers were claiming. It wasn't as if Paul had been called into the principal's office by the other apostles. We need to remember that the Judaizers were insisting to the Galatians that Paul was less than the other apostles because he didn't sit under the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. And they were attacking Paul, not because they hated Paul necessarily, they really wanted to get to the message that Paul was preaching. And so they attacked his character, they attacked his authority. And it's quite likely, considering that, that the Judaizers had suggested to the Galatians that Paul's visits to Jerusalem were at the request of the apostles, that Paul was essentially at the beck and call of the other apostles. Again, all of this in an attempt to undermine his authority so that they could undermine his message. But Paul is clear, I wasn't called by the apostles. I went up because of a revelation. And going up to Jerusalem with the offering collected for the coming famine, Paul takes advantage of this opportunity and he meets with the Jerusalem leaders to verify the apostolic unity of the gospel. The text says that he set before them the gospel he preached. And this word means to explain or to make clear. And Paul would do this. He would explain or make clear his gospel privately to those who seemed influential. In other words, the leaders of the Jerusalem church. And Paul desired to explain his gospel to these leaders in Jerusalem to make sure that he was not running or had not run in vain. Paul wanted to make sure that his 14-year gospel ministry was not being undermined by the Jerusalem church. He wanted to make sure that they weren't undercutting the work he was doing by yielding and submission to the pressure of the Judaizers. Paul wanted to verify that there was apostolic unity in their proclamation of the gospel. And we need to be clear at this point. Paul was not afraid that he had been preaching a false gospel. Remember for a moment how strongly he defends his gospel in chapter one. He calls down curses on anyone who would preach a different gospel. And remember how he anchors his certainty in the fact that Christ himself had revealed the gospel to him. So Paul isn't worried that he's wrong. He is worried, at least from a human perspective, that his labors in bringing the gospel to the Gentiles might be for nothing if the Jerusalem apostles are tolerating or even siding with the Judaizers. Accordingly, he's going to be intentional and proactive in establishing the boundary markers, the guardrails of what true Christianity is with the other apostles. Paul is essentially asking the Jerusalem apostles, are you preaching the same gospel message that I preach? Are you holding to the truth that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone? Are we on the same page here, brothers? Now imagine the damage that would be done to Paul's ministry and to the Gentiles who received his gospel with joy if word got out that the church in Jerusalem was preaching a gospel of faith in Christ plus circumcision. If they were preaching a gospel that demanded Gentiles become cultural Jews in order to be saved. Think for a moment, brothers and sisters, about our own association of churches. Would it not be damaging to our gospel ministry here at Berean Baptist Church if we got word that one of our sister churches had compromised on the gospel? What if people started showing up at our door claiming that our gospel wasn't complete, that it was a deficient gospel, that something needed to be added to it, and they were citing the authority of the sister church? That would be disturbing to us, wouldn't it? That might make some of us question whether we actually have the truth or not, and it would certainly hamper our efforts to get the gospel message out to our community, especially if those former allies were following on our footsteps, on our heels, and contradicting everything that we were saying. So this is Paul's mindset as he makes his second visit to Jerusalem. He's intent on verifying the apostolic unity of the gospel. And this is the context for Paul's second visit to Jerusalem. Next, we see the conflict that arose during Paul's private meeting with the other apostles. Look with me starting at verse 3. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery." Now, the grammar in these verses, particularly verse four, is a bit choppy, admittedly. Verse three is clear enough. Paul starts with the outcome of this conflict, telling us that Titus, despite being an uncircumcised Greek, he wasn't forced to be circumcised. But as we move to verse four, what Paul means becomes less clear as he says, yet because of false brothers secretly brought in. One commentator notes that, because Paul writes with considerable emotion, we must supply the main clause, telling us to what he refers. and other translations do step in here and supply that main clause for us. The New King James, for example, says this in verse four, and this occurred because, again, referring to the conflict which emerged because Titus was uncircumcised. I also appreciate the way that the Christian Standard Bible renders verse four. They say this, this matter arose Again, the matter being the conflict over Titus being uncircumcised. So if we read these verses with the main clause added, it would read something like this. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet the matter of circumcising Gentiles, of which Titus is one, arose because of false brothers secretly brought in. The scene is this, Paul, Barnabas, Titus, they're meeting privately with the leaders of the Jerusalem church, with Peter, James, and John. And they're meeting with the expressed purpose of verifying the apostolic unity of the gospel, of putting Paul's mind at ease by confirming that the church in Jerusalem is working with him in gospel ministry and not against him. And as Paul is explaining and making clear his gospel message to the Jerusalem apostles, a group of Judaizers, a group of false brothers, sneak in and disrupt the meeting. And all of a sudden, the focus moves from the doctrine of Paul's gospel to the practical outworking of that gospel in the life of Titus, the uncircumcised Greek convert. Paul's gospel, the message that sinners, Jew and Gentile alike, are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from any works of the law, the sufficiency of this gospel is going to be put to the test through this conflict that centers around uncircumcised Gentiles, specifically Titus. And looking back to verse four, we see that the conflict began when certain false brothers disrupted this apostolic meeting. And the word translated as false brothers is the Greek word, pseudo-delphois. Now you've all heard the prefix pseudo before, right? You've heard that used. For example, if someone is a pseudo-intellectual, what does that mean? Well, it means they're someone who thinks that they're smart. They think that they're intelligent, but they don't realize what everyone else does, that they're actually quite ignorant. They are a fake intellectual, in other words. And that's what Paul is saying here. The Judaizers are pseudo brothers. They are fake brothers. They are fake Christians. And the sense of the word is one who deliberately deceives in pretending to be a believer. We need to note here, false brothers do exist. There is a thing such as a false brother, a false sister. It's not pleasant to think about, but there are those who deliberately deceive others by pretending to be genuine believers. Evil people who want power and influence over others, oftentimes, we must admit, find Christians to be easy prey. And while we are certainly called to believe all things and to hope all things, we are not called, brothers and sisters, to be gullible or to be naive. When someone shows you by their actions who they are repeatedly, time after time, what should you do? You should believe them. Believe what they are showing you. The Judaizers had been enemies of the gospel from the very beginning, seeking to add the keeping of the ceremonial law to the finished work of Christ to create their own system of salvation. And they loved to leverage and to gain power over the Gentile converts. and draw them away from the sufficiency of Christ and into this damning system of merit that they had created. And Paul wasn't afraid to call them what they were. Paul wasn't sitting around wondering, well, someone's gonna call me mean. Someone online is gonna think that I'm being a big meanie here if I do this. He wasn't afraid of being thought of as an uncharitable person or as extreme. because the Judaizers were the ones who were the extreme party. Paul was a champion of liberty and freedom, and so he calls them what they are. He calls them fake Christians. So brothers and sisters, we need to learn to do the same. When a person or group repeatedly, time after time, shows us who they are, let us not be afraid to acknowledge it. Well, Paul describes these Judaizers as false brothers secretly brought in. In a more literal translation would be false brothers with false pretenses. So not only are they lying about who they are, they're lying about what their motives are. They're false brothers with false pretenses. And Paul continues, these false brothers with false pretenses slipped in to disrupt the apostles' meeting. Other translations say that they sneaked in. Note the subtlety of false brothers, of false teachers. They slip in, they sneak in. They don't come in waving a flag and announcing that they're false teachers. They come in under a cloak of orthodoxy using deception and dishonesty to capture the confidence of God's people. False teachers don't come into the church stating clearly, hello, I disagree with you on this, that, and the other. Now, some of them do, amazingly, but they're not being deceptive. They're being forthright about what they believe. But specifically here, there are false teachers who will come in and they will intentionally avoid discussing any of the things that they believe, or they'll just flat out lie about what they believe. but most of the time they hide their convictions while they earn the trust of God's people. Again, let us be discerning, understanding that false brothers with false pretenses love to sneak in, to slip into Christ's church and to disrupt our peace and unity. But this problem is not confined within the walls of the church building alone. And let me say this in particular to the fathers and to the husbands here, You are responsible for the podcasts listened to in your household. You are responsible for the books read in your household. You are responsible for the YouTube videos watched in your household. There is no shortage of so-called Christian authors, podcasters, and YouTubers. and it is your responsibility to ensure that the so-called Christian content that your wife and your children are consuming, it is your responsibility to ensure that it is indeed Christian. You must be discerning and selective about the content that is consumed in your household, understanding that false brothers with false pretenses love to sneak in, to slip into Christian homes. and to disrupt the peace and the unity. Well, Paul goes on and he makes clear the reason why these false brothers with false pretenses slipped into his meeting with the apostle. Look to the end of verse four. Paul says that they slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so that they might bring us into slavery. The Judaizers crashed this private meeting between Paul and the Jerusalem apostles, not to join them as co-belligerents in the gospel, not to encourage them, not to support them. The false brothers had a singular goal, and that was to destroy the freedom of the true brothers and to bring them into spiritual slavery. And Paul sets two ideas at odds with one another here in verse 4. There is the freedom produced only by the true gospel of grace, and there is the slavery produced by the false gospel of the Judaizers. And I want us to take a few moments and contrast these two different gospels. Firstly, the gospel of Christ that produces freedom. What is this gospel? What is the good news that produces freedom? Well, quite simply, the gospel of Christ is the good news that Jesus lived, died, and rose again for sinners who are enemies of God. And when sinners receive this good news, when they receive Christ himself by faith alone, they are set free. And to be set free implies that there was prior bondage. So what does the gospel of Christ set sinners free from? Well, firstly, sinners who receive Christ by faith are set free from the bondage to the law. Romans 7.4 says this, likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. The law is simply a reflection of God's perfect and holy character. Accordingly, we must confess with Paul that the law is holy, that the commandments of God are holy and righteous and good. But the law in and of itself, it doesn't give anyone the ability to obey it. The law sets the standard, but it doesn't supply the strength. It demands perfection, but it provides no power. So far from being a mechanism for removing our sins, the law is actually a means for seeing our sins, for showing us the blackness of our own hearts. But it's not a means for removing that stain of our sinfulness. J.I. Packer puts it this way, all the law can do is arouse, expose, and condemn the sin that permeates our moral makeup, and so make us aware of its reality, depth, and guilt. So the futility of treating the law as a covenant of works and seeing righteousness by it becomes plain, as does the misery of not knowing what else to do. This is the bondage to the law from which Christ sets us free. The gospel of Christ sets us free from bondage to the law as a sort of covenant of works that we must keep to earn salvation. but it also sets us free from bondage to sin. Romans 6, Paul says this, but thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. Each of us in this room, indeed every human being on earth, was born in a state of sin and misery. Because of the sin of our first parents, we are all born in that state, in a state of spiritual slavery. And as soon as we could begin thinking and acting for ourselves, we acted according to our nature. We were born sinners, so we sinned. Accordingly, we were slaves to sin. Listen to the words of Jesus from John chapter eight. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Sin was our master. We were in bondage to sin. But praise be to God that the gospel of Christ sets us free from bondage to sin. If you are in Christ, sin no longer has dominion over you. You are no longer a slave to sin. You have a new master now through the gospel. You have been made slaves to God. The gospel of Christ It frees us from bondage to the law. It frees us from bondage to sin and it makes us slaves to righteousness. It makes us slaves to God. And friends, although the gospel has freed us from the bondage to the law as a means of salvation, did you hear me? We don't go to the law as a way to be saved. The gospel frees us from that bondage, but the law remains our standard for living. Having been set free from bondage to both the law and to sin, God's commandments are to be, as we read constantly time and time again in Psalm 119, they are to be the guidebook for our lives. They are a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. This is the gospel Paul speaks of in verse four that produces freedom from slavery, to the law and to sin. We'll contrast that gospel of Paul with the false gospel of the Judaizers, which produces slavery. And the doctrine of the Judaizers is summed up quite well in Acts 15, verse 1. Let me read that to you. But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. This is a straightforward denial of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The Judaizers were adding works of the ceremonial law, circumcision being a symbol of that law, to the finished work of Christ, creating a sub-biblical formula for salvation. And in doing so, what they didn't realize is that they had made themselves debtors. They had made themselves slaves to the entire law. Listen to what Paul will say to the Galatians in chapter five. For freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. It's not just circumcision. If you accept circumcision, as being necessary for salvation, you are now a slave to the entire law. You are obligated to keep the whole law. And what is the result? You are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. And the Judaizers had indeed fallen away from grace because Christ was not enough for them. Now to be sure, Jesus was, he was a good start. His perfect life credited to their account as sacrificial death to pay their sin debt to God. Yeah, that was nice and all, but I tell you what we really need to push us over the edge is circumcision. That'll do it. We need to keep a few feast days. We need to follow the dietary laws. And it goes on and on and on and on. This is slavery. And it totally undermines and devalues the perfect finished work of Christ for sinners. The false Christ plus gospel of the Judaizers is a message of perpetual spiritual slavery and bondage. Now friends, you need to understand that there was and there is nothing wrong with circumcision. That's not the issue here. Paul himself will say in Galatians chapter six, for neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Circumcision in the New Covenant is what we would call a thing indifferent. It is a non-essential issue and a matter of Christian liberty. In and of itself, it is neither good nor bad. But the issue at hand is that the Judaizers were saying circumcision was not optional, it was obligatory. They were saying that circumcision was not a matter of Christian liberty, but of Christian obedience. In this conflict in Jerusalem, the difference between orthodoxy and heresy was the difference between may and must. Paul, the Jerusalem apostles, they held that one may be circumcised if they so chose to be. The Judaizers held that one must be circumcised if they wanted to be saved. And friends, things are no different today. So often the difference between orthodoxy and heresy is the difference between may and must. Now circumcision for us today, it is not a controversial issue, is it? We're not tempted to see it as obligatory. But what are the ways that you're tempted to turn optional things into obligatory things? What are the ways that you are tempted to turn matters of Christian liberty into matters of Christian obedience? And the teaching that Pastor Jerry recently gave us on this topic of Christian liberty is so important because if you get this wrong, if you start adding certain things to the gospel based on your personal preferences or convictions and you make them universal requirements for all Christians, you are no different than the Judaizers. And Paul's warning to the Galatians who were beginning to drink in this teaching of the Judaizers is a warning that you need to hear. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. So may we be careful never to give up the true freedom that the gospel preserves for us for the slavery of a Christ-plus gospel. And let us thank God that the Apostle Paul was indeed given the grace and given the courage to stand firm against the false gospel of the Judaizers and against any teaching that would seek to add works to the finished work of Christ. Look back with me to Galatians 2, verse 5. Paul recounts, Paul did not yield in submission. He didn't give a single inch to the Judaizers' demands that Titus be circumcised. to circumcise Titus under the demands of the Judaizers would have been to destroy everything that Paul had been preaching for the last 14 years. It would have been to deny the gospel which was entrusted to him by the Lord Jesus Christ. It would have been to destroy the truth of the gospel rather than preserve it. And the text also implies that the other men stood firm with Paul. Now, it's no surprise to us that Barnabas and Titus would be behind Paul, but one might have questioned whether the Jerusalem apostles would be so firm. After all, they had to live with the Judaizers after Paul and Barnabas and Titus go back to Antioch. But they did. They planted their gospel flag in the ground right next to Paul and rejected the idea that works of the law contribute in any way to salvation. And by standing firm together against these false brothers who were acting with false pretenses, who had slipped in to spy out the freedom they had in Christ, that they might bring them back into spiritual slavery, Paul and the Jerusalem apostles, brothers and sisters, they preserved the truth of the gospel. Do not miss the magnitude of what Paul is saying to the Galatians. This conflict in Jerusalem with the Judaizers where Paul and the apostles stood firm, this is what preserved the truth of the gospel for the Galatians. If Paul had yielded to their demands and circumcised Titus, he would have effectively destroyed his gospel ministry. He would no longer have a gospel to preach that sets men and women free from bondage to the law, from bondage to sin. The truth of the gospel, that sinners are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, that truth would have been destroyed. If Paul had yielded even for a moment to the demands of the Judaizers, the truth of the gospel would have been lost. One 16th century reformer says this, what does it mean to lose the truth of the gospel? It means to lose what is preached by the gospel, the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins, justification in the sight of God, peace of conscience, salvation and eternal life. In short, it means to lose Christ himself. If Paul had yielded to their demands, there would have been no good news, no Christ for Paul to preach to the Galatians on his first missionary journey. Without Paul preserving the gospel here on his second visit to Jerusalem, the Galatians would have never known true forgiveness of sins and freedom in Christ. And it's been rightly said, heavy doors turn on small hinges. This conflict in Jerusalem, when we consider it in the context of Paul's entire Christian life, this is a relatively small conflict. It would have been so easy for Paul to yield here, to compromise here for the sake of personal comfort or expediency. It would have been so easy for Paul to convince himself that I'll take a loss here, but I'll live to fight another day. Yet he knew that was not an option. If he gave an inch here, the truth of the gospel would be lost. It would be lost for the Galatians, and brothers and sisters, it would be lost for you and me. So let us thank God that Paul and the Jerusalem apostles did not yield in submission to the Judaizers even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel for every generation afterward would be preserved. and let us commit to preserving the truth of the gospel for our children, for our children's children, and for every future generation. Well, so we've seen the conflict over circumcision and how Paul and the other apostles stood firm, not yielding in submission even for a moment to the Judaizers so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved. Well, under our final heading, let us see the unifying compact between Paul and the other apostles. Look to verse six, where we see that there has always been apostolic unity regarding the content and the message of the gospel. Verse six, and from those who seemed to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me, God shows no partiality. Those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. Paul addresses the other apostles as those who seemed influential. Other translations say those recognized as important, those who were of high reputation. Remember that the Judaizers in Galatia were claiming that Paul was not a real apostle like the 12, that he was not influential, like they were. So in addressing them in this way, Paul is not trying to undermine their authority or influence as apostles of Christ, but rather, this is a subtle way of reminding the Galatians of his Christ-given authority. as an apostle. Paul does something similar down in verse 9. He refers to James, Peter, and John as men who seemed to be pillars. This is not an insult to those men, but rather a rebuke to the Galatians who had begun to believe the lies about Paul being an inferior apostle. Well, Paul gets to the heart of the matter next when he says that these men of reputation, these pillars of the church, they added nothing to me. They added nothing to his gospel. They heard him out and they agreed with him. When all the cards were laid out on the table, it was clear that the gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles was the same gospel that the other apostles were preaching in Jerusalem. So Paul's purpose statement in verse two was verified. He had not been running in vain. While he was preaching to the Gentiles these past 14 years, the other apostles had been preaching the same gospel in Jerusalem. But what's more here is the apostles go on and they actually acknowledge Paul's commission as a fellow apostle. Look to verse seven. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles. And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, that is the grace of apostleship, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me. The Jerusalem leader saw that Paul had been commissioned by Christ as an apostle to the uncircumcised Gentiles, just as Peter was commissioned as an apostle to the circumcised Jews. And we should note here that not only is there one gospel, There's only one God of the gospel. Consider what Paul says, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles. There's one God enabling the ministers of God to preach the one gospel. And this one gospel of the one God It is for the one people of God, both Jew and Gentile. The dividing wall of hostility that once separated Jew and Gentile has been broken down by Christ's fulfillment of the law, and the two groups have been made one in Christ. Now consider, if Paul and the other apostles had given in to the Judaizers, they would have compromised the truth of the gospel in the case of Titus and his circumcision, certainly, but they also would have been participating in the work of rebuilding this dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile. They would have been guilty of trying to tear into the one new man that Christ had created. and as a result of agreeing with Paul's gospel, as a result of seeing the grace of apostleship given to him to minister to the Gentiles, the Jerusalem apostles extend to Barnabas and Paul the right hand of fellowship. The word fellowship here means close mutual association and participation. So not only did they have fellowship with the same God, not only did they have fellowship in the same gospel, they had fellowship in the same mission, the mission of preaching the one gospel of the one God to their respective audiences as commissioned by Christ. One commentator says this about the right hand of fellowship extended to Paul and Barnabas. Quote, this might be the most significant handshake in the history of the human race. In this handshake, the church united under one apostolic ministry. James, the moderator of the Jerusalem church, with Peter and John representing the 12, extended the right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas. this handshake expressed that there was one message and one ministry. Well, finally, we see in verse 10 that they asked Paul to remember the poor, the very thing he was eager to do. And I think this perhaps was more of an encouragement to continue to remember the poor, considering that Paul was there primarily on a mercy mission to bring famine relief to those poor saints in Jerusalem. But whatever the case, Paul, of course, is eager to do this. After all, true faith manifests itself in works of love. And Paul is going to go on later in this letter to encourage the Galatians with these words. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. So Paul was certainly eager to follow his own advice as he would leave Jerusalem. And so we've seen the context of Paul's second trip to Jerusalem, the conflict that arose with the Judaizers, and the compact of unity that was established between the apostles. And my prayer is that God would use this text to impress upon our hearts the exclusivity of the one gospel of God, and that he would cause us to rejoice brothers and sisters, that it has been preserved for us, that we are now part of the one people of God. We have been set free from bondage to the law, from bondage to sin. And again, I want us to see the absolute importance of getting in line behind Paul and behind the apostles, not yielding in submission even for a moment to those who would seek to bring us back into spiritual slavery. that by God's grace, we might preserve the gospel for others, just as it has been preserved for us. We'll have two quick applications from our text this morning. Firstly, to my fellow Christians, part of growing in grace is realizing what things are worth fighting for and what things are not. If everything is a primary issue, then nothing is a primary issue. There are real and legitimate compromises that we can, and in some cases, must make if we are to serve Christ and to serve our fellow man. Again, I would refer you to the recent sermons Pastor Jerry preached regarding Christian liberty for more insight into the details of how we are to deal with secondary issues related to matters of personal conscience or preference. But for every Christian here, whether your conscience is weak or strong, there are certain hills that you must be prepared to die on. And the truth of the gospel is one of those hills. If you are ever put in a position to compromise the exclusivity or the sufficiency of the gospel message, like Paul, you must not yield in submission even for a moment. You must not entertain any idea any teaching that would seek to add works to faith in Christ as a means for salvation. To do so would be to be brought back into spiritual slavery. You must not tolerate the idea that forgiveness of sins can in any way be attributed to the work of a fallen sinner. Saints, it is impossible. So know the gospel, believe the gospel, love the gospel, and preserve the gospel. Do not yield in submission even for a moment to anyone who would seek to bring you into spiritual slavery. Second, to anyone here who has yet to turn from their sins and turn to Christ by faith. This may sound extreme, but children, This, listen up, this is for you as well. It's not just for the adults. Anyone who is outside of Christ. You are, right now, a prisoner. You are enslaved to sin. You are in bondage to sin. Sin is your master. Only Christ can set you free from slavery to sin. Only Christ can shield you from the eternal consequences of your sin. The gospel of Christ is the good news that Jesus lived a perfect life, an immaculate life, the type of life that God commands you to live, but that you can't. This Jesus offered himself for sinners, dying a substitutionary death on the cross, perfectly satisfying God's anger and judgment against sin. And conquering sin and death, Jesus rose victorious after three days in the grave, never to die again. And as you've heard this morning, God, by his grace, has preserved this very gospel throughout the ages. And in his providence, he has brought you here this morning to hear once again the gospel of grace. I beg you, do not harden your hearts this morning. receive Christ by faith and be set free from bondage to the law, from bondage to sin and be made a slave of the one true and living God. Let us pray. Father, bless your word to us now, we pray. Thank you for not only sending your son to live, die and rise again for sinners. Thank you not only for giving this message to your apostles, Thank you, Lord, for preserving this message throughout the ages, for codifying it for us in your word, for gifting men to preach this word of freedom to us, and most of all, for giving us your Holy Spirit, for regenerating us and causing us to exercise faith in Christ that we might be saved, that we might be set free from bondage to the law, bondage to sin. Again, we pray, would you meet each one of us where we are this morning? Encourage the downcast, rebuke the presumptuous, save the lost. For your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.