Defending the Only gospel of God’s Grace

Transcript

GR 1614
9/25/11
Defending the Only Gospel of God’s Grace
Acts 15:6-11; Galatians 2:6-31
Gil Rugh

Turn to Acts, chapter 15 in your Bibles; Acts and the fifteenth chapter. As Luke unfolds the history of the early church we come to the middle of his history and the overall perspective of the book of Acts in Acts, chapter 15. It contains the record of what we generally refer to the Jerusalem Council or Conference. It is necessitated by a conflict that has arisen in the church.

Paul and Barnabas have taken the first missionary journey moving out from Antioch of Syria, north of Jerusalem traveling through Gentile parts of the world spreading the Gospel. They have returned to Antioch. A conflict has arisen in the church at Antioch because certain Jews have come from Judea. It is the region in which Jerusalem would be found. They are promoting the teaching that believing in Jesus Christ for salvation is not enough. You will note they are not saying it is not necessary. In fact they would say that it is necessary but it is not sufficient to bring salvation. You must believe in Jesus Christ and also be circumcised and observe the Mosaic Law.

So verse 1, chapter 15: And some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And then verse 5, some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed, stood up, saying, “it is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.” Now what has happened between verse 1 and verse 5 as you remember is that it was determined in the church at Antioch that Paul and Barnabas and certain other brethren from the church would go to Jerusalem down in Judea where the apostles and the leadership of the early church is really centered and resolve this conflict. Interestingly the Apostle Paul alone does not resolve it. He is present in Antioch. You would think that would be enough that Paul is there and says “this is the doctrine.” But you understand that in this early stage of the church Paul is recognized as a gifted apostle but the issue has come up. Is this different than the Gospel being preached down in Judea? This has to be resolved. The issue is do Gentiles have to convert to Judaism in addition to trusting Christ? Because that is what would take place with circumcision and observing the law. So they have come to Jerusalem and there is a meeting held with the apostles there, the leaders James, John, other leaders, elders in the church in Jerusalem and a debate takes place.

Verse 6 tells us the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. And after there had been much debate and Luke just summarizes this and tells us there is debate. He doesn’t go into the debate, doesn’t tell us how long it went on – did this take place over a period of days with each side presenting their arguments and reason? We are told. We are just told they came together to look into the matter after there had been much debate.

Peter stood up and addresses the group. Peter has stature in the church in Jerusalem, obviously. He was prominent among the disciples during Jesus’ early ministry. He played a unique roll in the establishing of the church and he was going to refer to that. He speaks with recognized authority. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “brethren you know that in the early days God made a choice among you.” You see the emphasis here on God’s sovereign action. God made a choice among you. He chose me for a special ministry. God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the Word of the Gospel and believe. So he is going back to Acts, chapter 10 and the events there when God revealed; remember the sheet lowered from heaven with the diverse animals in it and God said rise up and eat? That prepared him for the coming of representatives from the Gentile Cornelius in his home and Peter went there and presented the Gospel. God sovereignly chose me from among the apostles and believers to go and carry the Gospel to the Gentiles so that they would hear the Word of the Gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Spirit just as He also did us. God alone knows the heart as Jeremiah recorded. God says, “I the Lord search the heart.” So God knows the heart. Peter doesn’t claim to know their heart. But God testifies to the genuine conversion that has taken place. How? Giving them the Holy Spirit just as He also did to us. And the giving them, them Gentiles, the Holy Spirit just as He did to us, us Jews. So Gentiles received the Spirit and Jews received the Spirit. What happened on the Day of Pentecost? Again Peter is the lead figure. He preaches the Gospel there and Jews are converted. What precipitated that was the giving of the Holy Spirit to those who were already believers, the apostles and disciples. They manifested the presence of the Holy Spirit by speaking in other languages. What happened in Acts, chapter 10, you remember. After hearing the Gospel they believed and the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they speak in other languages.

Come back to Acts, chapter 10. Peter presents the Gospel down through verse 43. Verse 44, while Peter was still speaking these words, the words he just spoke, everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins. He’s presented the truth concerning Christ and then what their response must be, believe. While Peter was still speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon those who were listening to the message and all the circumcised Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also for they were hearing them speak with tongues, exalting God.

Then in chapter 11 when Peter gave this report to the apostles and leadership in the church at Jerusalem because this is the first time they understood it was God’s intention that the Gospel be carried to the Gentiles. Peter recounts what happens down in verse 17: “If God therefore gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” Peter is explaining what has happened at Cornelius’ house. “Then when they heard this, they quieted down, and glorified God, saying, well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.” You know what has not happened here? These Gentiles have not been circumcised. They have not made a change to submit themselves to the Law of Moses. You can see how there would be confusion because up to now primarily the focus of the Gospel and conversion has been on Jews. They were already circumcised. They already were in adherence to the Law of Moses. Now they believe in Christ. So what the Judaizers, those promoting circumcision and the law in Acts, chapter 15 do, is say that now the Gentiles have to have that. They’ve got a partial salvation. It is true that the Jews, for the saving work that God was doing, had in addition to their circumcision and keeping the law now place their faith in Jesus as the Messiah of Israel and the Savior. So the already had circumcision and keeping the law and now belief in Christ. For the Gentiles, they believe in Christ but they have to have the other half, get circumcised and commit to the Law of Moses. Peter’s statement here is crucial because he is a Jewish believer. He by his presence has been a leading figure among the disciples and the apostles. He has been the key personage in the Book of Acts through the first 12 chapters. He is the one used of God in a particular way to present the Gospel on the Day of Pentecost in the establishing of the church with thousands of Jews believing. He is the key figure in presenting the Gospel to the Gentiles and seeing their salvation.

Go back in Acts 15. God gave them the Spirit just as He did to us also. Verse 9: “And He made no distinction between us and them.” Keep in mind, us and them; us Jews and them, referring to the Gentiles. He made no distinction. Just as the Jews who believed in Acts 2 received the Holy Spirit so the Gentiles who believed in Acts 10 received the Holy Spirit. So circumcision is not a requirement. True, the Jews in Acts 2 were circumcised and they received the Spirit. But the Gentiles in Acts 10 who had never been circumcised also received the Spirit. So circumcision cannot be a requirement. He made no distinction between us and them. Note: cleansing their hearts by faith. So when you hear and believe the Gospel something supernatural takes place. There is no human explanation in that sense. It is a supernatural action. It is the unleashing of the power of God as Paul said in Romans. “I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for salvation.”

How do you explain that; that you are cleansed within from all the defilement and guilt and condemnation that comes to you as a sinner? You are washed as Isaiah said, whiter than snow. It is remarkable, the simplicity of it; the clarity of it. Hear the Gospel, believe the Gospel and be cleansed in your hearts. How? By faith and circumcision? No. God made no distinction between us and them. God didn’t distinguish between circumcised Jews and uncircumcised Gentiles. He cleansed their hearts Jews and Gentiles alike by faith. The point being what is required for salvation? Faith, that is the requirement for salvation. That is Peter’s point. This is still not understood by people today, the simplicity of it. We want to bring something in. Well, you must now add baptism; you must now add partaking of the sacraments, you must now add, no, you can add nothing. That is the whole argument. The Spirit has been received. Baptism occurs in the house of Cornelius but, it is after they have received the Spirit. That is an indication that in receiving the Spirit their hearts have been cleansed by faith. So, there is nothing else required to bring salvation to completion. That does not mean there are not things now that we obey God in doing but our salvation is complete, our hearts have been cleansed, we are saved. God’s work of salvation has been accomplished. He made distinction between us and them; cleansing their hearts by faith.

Now Peter is not done and he becomes very direct here, very blunt. Now therefore why do you put God to the test? This is a serious issue here. Those with the Jewish background would understand this clearly. We won’t go back to Deuteronomy 1:16, Exodus 17:2; Psalm 78:18. Israel understood the seriousness of challenging God and His authority. You don’t put God to the test. That is what you are doing here. You are challenging God. God has made clear what His purpose and plan is. So, why do you put God to the test? How were they putting Him to the test? By placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear. You want to put these Gentiles under the law. That is a yoke like you put on the oxen. I mean we weren’t able to carry it. We couldn’t do it. We Jews could not be saved by the law. All the law did was condemn us. So why would you want to put this yoke, the burden of the law, on Gentiles when we Jews couldn’t bear that yoke? That has nothing to do with salvation. That is pretty direct. I mean to challenge these promoting the necessity of the law and tell them they are putting God to the test by requiring circumcision and keeping of the law. In challenging His authority you are standing against God.

Verse 11, Peter summarizes it. But we believe that we (referring to we Jews) it is the contrast going on, that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they also are, they, the Gentiles. You know what? We Jews are saved the same way. Our salvation is not because we were circumcised. Our salvation is not because we attempted to keep the law. Our salvation is because of the grace of God. We are saved the same way these Gentiles are. Circumcision, the law, played a place in Judaism but it never brought salvation to anyone. We just went through the book of Romans and saw that this was demonstrated clearly. The death of Christ necessitated that. You see what has happened here. The way the devil works in infiltrating false doctrine into the church is he makes a point of agreement. Here you have Jews who are saying that Jesus is the Messiah and you must believe in Him to be saved. You say well in this day when the church is in its early years and there has been so much opposition and persecution how refreshing it is to have Jews and some of the sect of the Pharisees according to verse 5 saying that is necessary to recognize Jesus as the Messiah of Israel and believe in Him, but there is a hook here. You must also keep the law and be circumcised. You have destroyed the Gospel. We have to be careful. We think well if we find a point of agreement let’s focus on that. Peter said no, let’s talk about the grace of God. Keep clarity here.

I want to go back over to Galatians, chapter 2 with you because in a later letter Paul refers back to this Council at Jerusalem and gives us a greater appreciation of what goes on here. We looked into the first part of this chapter in our last study in the first part of Acts 15. Galatians 2 opens up with Paul going up to Jerusalem after he had been a believer for fourteen years and he took Titus and it was by revelation he went up so we are not given the details. Some say well this can’t be what’s in Acts 15 because Acts 15 said they agreed in the church to send Paul and Barnabas and others. Well, just because Luke doesn’t record how they came to that agreement, Paul says it was by direct revelation of God this is how this is to be resolved. He took Titus with him, Titus being a Gentile and Paul said Titus was not circumcised. We will deal with the circumcision of Timothy coming up in not too long in our study of Acts here in the next chapter. Titus was not required. Paul was drawing a line here. But in verse 4 he tells us it was because of the false brethren who secretly brought in this error. They sneaked in to spy out our liberty. They are agents of the devil to try to sew false doctrine and teaching among the believers.

Paul says in verse 5 we did not yield in subjection to them even for an hour. You will note here, you ought to have that underlined, so that the truth of the Gospel would remain with you. Paul is at stake here. If you compromised this you would not have the Gospel. Oh, they’d still be talking about Jesus as the Messiah and you must believe in Him but what they add to it, remember that is how Galatians started out – if an angel from heaven preaches that if anything needs to be added to faith in Christ alone, he is cursed. So, the issue is here not Paul; the issue is the truth of the Gospel.

Paul goes on in Galatians 2 talking about this conference that Luke summarizes. We are not with it but see what has been taking place. But from those who were of high reputation, what they were makes no difference to me, God shows no partiality. Well those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me. Now you read this and think, now that’s not very nice because those of reputation down in verse 9 are identified as James and Cephas and John. But he is not saying that out of lack of respect because he does respect them as other apostles. That will come out. The point is Paul had received his understanding of the Gospel in direct revelation from God. We talked about that in Galatians 1. There so no room for compromise here and what he is saying is when they come to an agreement on this it is because it is clear. The Gospel that has been given to Paul by God is the same as the Gospel that has been given to Peter by God. So they think I didn’t come to Jerusalem and really come thinking, wow, I am going to be seeing Peter and Cephas and John and they are men who have led in the church; James being the half brother of the Lord; Peter and John, having been with Christ in His earthly ministry. These are the super apostles. I want to emphasize just humility and deference to them. There is no yielding on the Gospel. Paul had received it from God. He didn’t come here with the idea maybe there will be a compromise. Maybe there will be something that I will have to learn from them on the Gospel. By revelation they came. It was God’s intention that this leadership in the church recognize that there is only one Gospel that He has revealed. He revealed that Gospel to Peter, James and John. He has revealed it to Paul. They are not here to work out the Gospel. They are here to make clear that the Gospel is the Gospel that God has revealed.

Back up to 2 Corinthians just before Galatians. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 5. Because he is warning about those who preach other gospels. He is defending his apostleship to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians. It is a different setting but Paul makes the same kind of point. Verse 5 “I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most imminent apostles.” You could translate it literally, the super apostles. Down in chapter 12, verse 11 of 2 Corinthians. “I have become foolish. You yourselves compelled me, actually I should have been commended by you for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, super apostles, even though I am nobody.” Paul’s firm standing is because of the truth that was revealed to him, not because I am somebody important in and of myself. But because of the truth entrusted to me, I come behind no one. It is the truth, the Gospel. That means there is not a level among the apostles here because God’s revelation to Paul is God’s revelation to Paul. That stands below nothing or no one. You have the truth of the Gospel.

Come back to Galatians 2 again. God shows no partiality. God doesn’t favor Peter. Because the point Paul is making here is there is no yielding on the Gospel. It doesn’t matter. If Peter, James and John had held a different position Paul would have had to correct them. That will come out a little bit in Galatians 2. But at this conference, Paul comes on equal standing and equal footing. In verse 7, he makes this point. “On the contrary, seeing that I have been entrusted with the Gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised.” Peter preached the Gospel to Gentiles but the prime focus of Peter’s ministry was to the Jews. Paul preaches the Gospel to the Jews but his prime focus of his ministry is to the Gentiles. The leadership in the church at Jerusalem recognizes there is only one Gospel but there are two spheres of ministry. Peter is to focus on Jews and Paul focuses on Gentiles. But there is only one Gospel, the Gospel of God’s grace. I have been entrusted with the Gospel carrying it to Gentiles; Peter had been entrusted with the Gospel to carry it to Jews. “For he who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles and recognizing the grace that had been given to me.” That grace given to Paul refers to his gift as an apostle. “Recognizing the grace that had been given to me” fits with what was said in verse 7. “I had been entrusted with the Gospel.” Later in Paul’s letter to Timothy he will write about that trust. You see how Paul sees it. This has been a treasure placed in our care he writes to the Corinthians in his second letter and say that we have this treasure in 2 Corinthians 4 of the Gospel in earthen vessels. To Paul this is so important, so eminently valuable he will give his life for it. What a travesty that it is held so lightly by the church today. Well, we are willing to make adjustments; we want to make compromise; we want to – what do you mean? This is something that was entrusted to Paul he says. Recognizing verse 9, the grace that had been given to me, John and Cephas and John and remember this James. James, the apostle who was one of the original twelve was executed by Herod Agrippa in Acts 12. This is James the half brother of the Lord who will pen the epistle of James and is a prominent figure in the church at Jerusalem, Cephas, the other name for Peter and John. These were reputed to be pillars. These were recognized in the church at Jerusalem and I take it more broadly, that these are the three key leaders that God has established in the early church. They were pillars. “They gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship so that we might go the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised, to the Jews.” You see, there is recognition of a division of responsibility, but there will be the same Gospel preached in both realms. That is what is crucial. It doesn’t mean that now Peter, James and John have to leave Jerusalem and go out to the Gentile parts of the world. God’s intention for them is to continue a ministry to the Jews. His intention for Paul and Barnabas is to go to the Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas are going to split before the chapter is over. But, it is not over the Gospel. So the Gospel is the key issue here, it is what the Jerusalem Conference is about. It is establishing the clarity, there is only one Gospel. It is the Gospel of God’s grace. It proclaims salvation by faith alone. There can be no compromise, no change on that point. When they gave them the right hand of fellowship, of course that is indicating their agreement and support of one another, they only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was also eager to do.

Paul, as we know from his later writings will be involved in a collection, 2 Corinthians 8 & 9 talk about that collection. He referred to it in our study in Romans 15. He was going to take the collection he had made among Gentiles to the impoverished Jewish believers in Jerusalem. He says this is the right thing to do because the Gentiles had been the beneficiary of God’s blessings that have come through the Jews and the Jewish Messiah. Paul was ready to do that.

Foundationally, do you see the importance of the Gospel here? There is no adjustment here. I’ve used this as an example and I use it again because it is such a clear error, you know, Evangelicals and Catholics together because the cultural issues of our day are of such importance. We don’t agree on the Gospel and salvation by faith alone but we can join together. Can you imagine Paul saying that about the Judaizers? We live in such a depraved setting and circumstances and the Gentile world is permeated by paganism. We must link arms with Jews who will acknowledge that Jesus is the Savior to bring a change to us. What would we have today? Nothing, so, we must be careful with the Gospel.

There is an example of this’ after the Jerusalem Conference and we are not done with the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15. We are done with it for our study tonight but we will return there and it will be drawn together. James will speak and so on. But, after Paul and Barnabas return back to Antioch after the conference, some time later, verse 11 of Galatians 2 Paul continues the account. “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.” What a contrast.

Verse 9. “Peter, James and John gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. That happened in Jerusalem when Peter came to Antioch I opposed him to the face.” This means to stand against an attack. The word, oppose, to be under attack, you stand against that attack. This is what he sees that Peter does. It is an attack on the Gospel. I thought we resolved this. Some things that are resolved does not mean that we go and live consistently with what we have agreed to; what we have acknowledged to be the truth because sometimes you feel the pressure of family and friends or those who you think will not be happy if you do something. So Peter does that, “I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.” Not because I am so narrow, so hard to get along with because he stood condemned. He did the wrong thing and it does not matter if he is going to the pillars of the church at Jerusalem. It does not matter if he graciously acknowledged the grace of God that had been bestowed on me. It does not matter if he gave me the right hand of fellowship. I can appreciate it; he supported me in the necessary battle against the Judaizers. Family and friends do not supersede the truth. When he came to Antioch, I stood against him because he stood condemned. What did he do? Prior to the coming of certain men from James he used to eat with the Gentiles. James was a leader in the church at Jerusalem. They are in a Jewish environment. Now remember, we will get into this as we move along in the Jerusalem Conference; Jews are free to eat and not eat what they please. For a Jew who wanted to continue to not eat pork, he was at liberty not to eat pork. He didn’t have to begin to eat pork but it is not a requirement. Well you know, the Jews have their practices and our traditions can be on. People practice certain things. When Peter came to Antioch he ate with the Gentiles, fellowshipped with them because Peter understands the Gospel. But then there are Jews who came from Jerusalem from James and there is a Jewish environment and many Jewish practices would have continued even among the believers. Peter thinks well they probably won’t think very well of me if they see me sitting here having ham sandwiches.

So, prior to the coming of James he used to eat with the Gentiles; “but when they came he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.” This influence is still there. The Judaizers, if you will, have been defeated at the conference but they haven’t gone ahead. That is why Paul is writing a letter to the Galatians churches. Their influence continues on.

One thing about the devil, he doesn’t go away. We think oh, we have won the battle, yes, we thought that. Now we go on. We go on but the battle is not over. The devil does not say well I guess that I guess I will go elsewhere. He continues to work and pretty soon you think oh you know, I just get tired of fighting that battle. I just get tired of that. I just don’t want to deal with that anymore. So what are you going to do? Say error is okay? You think Paul wanted to have to have an issue with Peter? I mean, how many friends does Paul have in the world? I mean, Peter, at least, gave him the right hand of fellowship. Peter acknowledged he is an apostle. That is more than the Corinthians are doing. Later on when Paul has to write his second letter, now I have to fight against one of my friends, one of those who agree with me. So, he wants to stand aloof from the Gentiles though maybe Peter is a little weak and he gives in on points. He’s done that earlier in his life. I am not going to make an issue of it. Peter doesn’t live here in Antioch. He will go back to Jerusalem and I can tell you people, you know Peter was just inconsistent and weak’ no, no, no. Paul says you can’t yield on this. You see what happens, error spreads? You know how hard it is to maintain the truth? You know how hard it is to maintain the purity of the truth. But error comes in and it just takes off. You don’t have to do anything but not oppose it and it will get a following rather quickly. The rest of the Jews joined him in the hypocrisy with the result that “even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.”

“That carried away;” that is a colorful word here. Picture here, he just got caught up in it. Now all the Jews are agreeing because even though we agree you are saved by grace, by faith alone, I think it is more pleasing and you will be more pure before Him, more acceptable to Him if you do observe these things. Besides, we Jews are of a special class. All of a sudden you have that danger of what?; splitting the church to have a Jewish church and a Gentile church. There is nothing wrong with a ministry to the Jews. There is nothing wrong with a church that will be primarily comprised of Jews as it would have been in Jerusalem. Nothing wrong with a church that will be primarily composed of Gentiles as it would have been in Gentile regions, like Antioch, Galatia, Rome and so on. But, when you divide and create different classes in the church because of that kind of division, Paul sees that Gospel at stake here because the Gentiles will think well if we are really acceptable to God, really being what God wants us to be, we should too be observing the Law of Moses and these food restrictions. Wait a minute. Now remember, there is liberty but the misuse of your liberty here that can cause a min-understanding of the Gospel; that is not acceptable. “Even Barnabas was carried away be their hypocrisy.” Hypocrisy; I mean even Barnabas knows better. Peter knows better. These believing Jews know better. It is hypocrisy; pretending something, acting like something is so for the acceptance and to be viewed better like people. You know, like sometimes at work you don’t want to let people know you are a believer and go to Indian Hills Community Church because they might think you are strange. You are strange, let them know.

So, that is what is going on here. It is hypocrisy. The Jews joined in with Peter and his hypocrisy. Barnabas was carried away by the hypocrisy. You see how important it is? Peter comes and muddies the waters and pretty soon other believing Jews are jumping in that muddy water creating more confusion, more muddiness in the water. Now Barnabas is in the water. Woe. Things are getting out of hand here. Pretty soon Paul will be trying to promote a Gospel and a clarity that has been lost. So he stands against Peter, you led the way here and I said to Cephas, “When I saw they were not straight forward about the truth of the Gospel. I said to Cephas, I took him aside privately, no, this is a public action. I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “if you being a Jew live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?” What about this hypocrisy, Peter? You are comfortable as a Jew living like the Gentiles. People knew that before these Jews came from Jerusalem Peter was eating with the Gentiles. Eating what the Gentiles ate. But now they have to remove themselves because, you know, the Jews… It is hard to get over things you have in your past. Some of you come out of backgrounds of Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism, various kinds of backgrounds and you come and you get into the Word, you know you are saved by grace but somehow it takes awhile to get over that, right? You are sitting there and some of you are saying, “you know, I just didn’t feel that we worshiped because we didn’t say the Lord’s Prayer.” But then what? We did that so often and being brought up that if you haven’t said the Lord’s Prayer publicly together, you haven’t worshipped. Or other practices. It gets engrained. That is where Roman Catholicism does such a good job of building in their beliefs so that people leave the Roman Catholic Church but then they are welcomes back. Why? Don’t you miss partaking of the mass, don’t you miss being involved in the sacraments, don’t you miss … and you say, “you know, I do miss that.”

These Jews are colored by their background, but they have to leave that. It doesn’t mean that I can’t practice certain things. I don’t have to eat ham sandwiches but I can’t be inconsistent in doing certain things, giving a wrong idea about the Gospel. “So I told Cephas in the presence of all.” There are times when it has to be public. It can’t be secret. The error here has spread. It is not something that Peter has done in private but he has to be corrected in private because this has to be stopped right now. It has to be revealed. Peter has been a hypocrite on this. Not to elevate Paul above Barnabas but to preserve the Gospel, to nip it in the bud with Peter. And he goes on to say, “we are Jews by nature, not sinners from among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus we even, (referring to we Jews), have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law since by works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

Verse 20, that verse that many of us have memorized, we have to keep the context in mind as well. “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” I do not nullify the grace of God. If righteousness comes through the law then Christ died needlessly. I mean, Paul is on fire about this issue. In chapter 3 he goes back to the Galatians, “you foolish Galatians, who bewitched you?” Who pulled the wool over your eyes? How did you get the Spirit? The church gets confused. I was reading some material on evangelicalism and some people in evangelicalism are promoting false doctrine. There is a book written and much in the book is opposing some false theology coming into the church. The man starts out in the beginning, I have it highlighted and underlined in red, ‘we don’t want to have confrontation with these that I recognized are fellow believers and love the Lord and are serving Him.’ Now wait a minute. This is false doctrine. This is error that attacks the very character of God. What do you mean; we don’t want to have confrontation here? He says sometimes there is too much heat. Tell that to Paul. I mean, he setting the place on fire in his attack on this. This idea that we want to function in love. Was Paul being loving in dealing with Peter? Of course. You don’t demonstrate love by sacrificing the truth. It is in the context of being faithful to the truth that we demonstrate our love; our love for the lost, our love for our fellow believers. That is the key issue at the Jerusalem Conference. We ought to understand, the battle is not over. Decisions made, there is agreement but the battle is not over. We want to remain faithful.

That is part of what I get in Paul. Here he is, after being back in Antioch, after having Peter come up for a visit. The battle is not over. The danger is that there will be a setback here. If Paul had not corrected it; nipped it early, anything that came out of the Jerusalem Conference would have been lost. If Peter had been freed just to go back to Jerusalem what would they have been left with? Now there would have been total confusion over the Gospel.

I trust that you know, we study the history of the early church and appreciate what we have in our hands, the Word of God because people took it seriously. That is the sad thing about trivializing the church. Not denying portions of the Word, just not standing for the truth of the Word, the whole council of God and allowing error to go on under the blanket of love; being understanding. I am not talking about being unkind; not being arrogant with the truth but the truth is what we are about. The truth is the truth, is the truth, is the truth. So anything in conflict with the truth is error. Well, that is arrogant. No, it is not arrogant. This is the truth God gave. Does that mean I have perfect understanding of every verse? No. My goal is to understand it, your goal is to understand it, that ought to be every believer. We cannot cavalierly decide that we will just allow that to go by. You allow error to come in any area and it spreads. It is like certain diseases. They start out, they get it in just a little place; it’s not major, I don’t have to deal with it. It doesn’t go away. It spreads and the further it spreads the harder it is to deal with.

That is why Paul warned Timothy, “There will come a time when the church will not be willing to put up sound teaching because they want to have their ears tickled.” How did they get to that point? Start opening it up and I find well, that’s okay, no great harm came and pretty soon I don’t want to hear the truth. They won’t put up with sound teaching. “But you, preach the Word.” That is what we are about.

So in this early history of the church we find there are issues that have to be revolved, doctrinal matters that have to be addressed and then faithfully carried out. It is not enough to settle it at the council of Jerusalem; Peter, you have to put it into practice where you go. Paul, you have to put it into practice, Barnabas, you have to put it into practice. Gil, you have to put it into practice. The church here has to put it into practice. Believers, wherever they are, “so that until Jesus Christ comes, what? The pure Word of God, the unadulterated Word of God carries the message of salvation to the lost and provides nourishment for the believer.

Let’s pray. We thank You Lord for the unfolding of the history of the early church. Thank You for the account of Luke in the book of Acts and Lord we gain a greater appreciation of the importance of these issues even as we come to Paul’s account in the book of Galatians. Difficult, even godly people were in danger of stumbling if they are not careful. All of us, Lord, we would want to be careful to examine ourselves, to consider carefully our beliefs and our conduct. It is easy to be influenced, to feel the pressure to want to avoid the difficulties. Thank You for Your grace that brought us salvation and thank You for the presence of Your Spirit in our lives. Thank You for entrusting us with the treasure of Your Word. Thank You for blessing that Word in our lives and through us in the lives of others. We pray You will use us this week to be testimonies for Jesus Christ, the Gospel that brings Your power of salvation to those who hear and believe. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.