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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.
The One Gospel Preserved
Series No Other Gospel
| Sermon ID | 721241629325859 |
| Duration | 56:04 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Galatians 2:1-10 |
| Language | English |
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