GETTING IT RIGHT…AGAIN
Galatians 2:11-14
S: Maintaining the Truth of the Gospel
Th: “Grace-Full Living”
Pr: Get the gospel right.
?: What? What keeps us from getting it right?
KW: Obstructions
TS: We will find in our study of Galatians 2:11-14, three obstructions that keep us from getting the gospel right.
The _____ obstruction that keeps us from getting the gospel right is…
I. FEAR
II. HYPOCRISY
III. LEGALISM
RMBC 5/21/00 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL #232
There is a Russian parable that goes like this…
A hunter raised his rifle and took careful aim at a large bear. When about to pull the trigger, the bear spoke in a soft, soothing voice, “Isn’t it better to talk than shoot? What do you want? Let us negotiate the matter.” Lowering his rifle, the hunter replied, “I want a fur coat.” “Good,” said the bear, “that is a negotiable question. I only want a full stomach, so let us negotiate a compromise.” They sat down to negotiate, and after a time the bear walked away alone. The negotiations had been successful. The bear had a full stomach, and the hunter had his fur coat.
1. Have you ever found yourself compromising?
I am sure that if you had been the hunter, you would not have ultimately been satisfied with the results of that compromise.
It seems that compromises do not always give the satisfaction that they promise.
Now, I do not mean to talk down compromise.
For there are times when compromise is appropriate.
When the issues are on lesser matters, compromise is often the way to go.
But we also need to recognize that there are times that compromise is devastating.
You see…
2. Compromise often calls for a sacrifice of truth.
We need wisdom to discern when this is happening.
We are never to give up on truth.
When we come to today’s passage, this is exactly what is happening.
Paul is catching someone else compromising, and he refuses to let it continue.
But his refusal is all the more startling, because the confrontation is with another apostle, Peter himself.
Before we come to the confrontation, we must first understand that the great body of rabbinical tradition, under which Peter grew up and Paul had studied, was grounded in works righteousness.
The way of attaining merit before God was through a strict observance of a seemingly endless list of man-made regulations and ceremonies.
The best known of these groups that taught this was the Pharisees.
They proudly believed that because of their religious works, they were receivers of God’s special favor.
It was from this body of teaching that a group called the Judaizers arose.
They claimed to follow Christ, but they also taught that a Gentile had to be circumcised and follow the Mosaic law before he could be saved.
They taught that all believers, whether Jew or Gentile, had to continue observance of the law in order to maintain their relation to God.
Their teaching was in opposition to what Paul had taught the Galatians.
THE NARRATIVE:
We have observed in our previous studies that…
1. Paul has concern for the purity of the gospel (1:1-10).
Simply, he said, “Don’t mess with the message!”
The gospel is not to be compromised.
There is no truth to works righteousness.
We cannot receive right standing with God by working our way to God.
We receive right standing with God by trusting in His work on our behalf.
That is the free gift of God.
That is the essence of the gospel.
Paul then goes on to show that he…
2. Paul is not dependent on the other apostles (1:11-24).
These Judaizers, in their attempt to discredit the gospel message, tried to discredit Paul’s credentials.
They said that he was a cheap imitation of the other apostles.
They said that they spoke with the authority of Jerusalem and thus, James and Peter.
But Paul would have none of that.
He said, in effect, “Don’t mess with the messenger!”
Paul knew where His call came from.
It was the same as Peter’s and the rest of the apostles’.
His call came from Jesus.
Therefore, he was not dependent on them.
3. Paul, nevertheless, had been warmly accepted by the apostles (2:1-10)
In the passage that we studied last week, we found that the apostles were unified.
When the church in Jerusalem was confronted with the Gentile believer, Titus, and the Judaizers made the point that he ought to be circumcised, it was rejected.
They were all agreed.
This was an addition to the gospel.
And as a result, Paul was warmly accepted by the church as a friend and an apostle.
But there is one more event that is to take place before the Jerusalem Council that we find in Acts 15 concludes the matter.
At the council, the “Gentile” issue seems to be solved by the apostles.
But we are not there yet, as we see in our passage today.
For…
4. Paul believed that there was too much at stake to not live what you believe.
In this passage, we see Paul and Peter coming to a “head-on collision.”
Simply, Paul believes that Peter has made a denial of the gospel by what he is practicing.
Let’s read the text:
(11) When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. (12) Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. (13) The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. (14) When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
As we noted before, the issue in Jerusalem had been circumcision.
In Antioch, it took a different twist around the subject of the dietary laws.
At first, there was no problem, for…
5. Peter came to Antioch and ate with the Christian Gentiles.
It was great!
Peter was enjoying the freedom of the gospel.
Not only was he not requiring that Gentile believers become Jews (and get circumcised and keep the ceremonial laws), but he realized that, even as a Jew, he was free to become, as it were, a Gentile.
When Peter ate with Gentile believers in Antioch, he was in sync with the gospel.
He was standing fast in freedom, honoring the all-sufficiency of Christ by faith and walking in love.
And the text tells us that he was doing it continually.
He ate whatever was set before him.
After all, Peter knew from his previous encounter with the Lord in Acts 10 that all food was clean and all believers were equal.
But…
6. Certain men from James came to Antioch with a different message.
The question here is whether they really came from James or was it a reference point.
Now if this happened before Acts 15, as I think it does, it may be that James is not yet fully persuaded on the message of the gospel.
In Acts 15, though, it seems he is.
Or it may be that since Peter is in Antioch, the men use James’ name because he is the dominant leader in Jerusalem at that point in time.
Whatever the reason for using James’ name, one thing is for sure—the Judaizers are attempting to throw their weight around.
Then something peculiar happens.
Peter begins to withdraw from his associations with the Gentile believers.
It doesn’t happen right away.
The text tells us that it is gradual.
It is like he drifts away.
He stopped accepting their invitations.
He found excuses to not participate in their activities.
And it is clear that…
7. Peter became afraid of the Judaizers, causing him to draw back and separate himself from the Gentile Christians.
Ironically, this is the old Peter…weak, fearful, and vacillating.
This is not like the Peter we find boldly preaching the sermon at Pentecost.
The text tells us that he was afraid, but it does not tell us what he was afraid about.
We are left only to speculate.
Perhaps Peter felt could not give a good enough rationale for his freedom and that he will look foolish.
Perhaps he fears falling into disfavor among the conservatives in Jerusalem and losing his prestigious standing as the leader.
Perhaps he fears losing popularity.
Whatever the motivation, it is clear that these Judaizers’ doctrines were heretical and their tactics were deceitful, and Peter was afraid.
But that is not the end, for…
8. When Peter drew back, so did other Jews, including Barnabas.
Chaos sets in.
You see, Peter had a large circle of influence.
So when Peter went one direction, a lot of people went with him.
The most alarming, obviously, was Barnabas.
At one point in time, it was Barnabas who had stood alone.
Of all the disciples, he was the one that was willing to set aside Paul’s history of persecution and give him a new chance to prove himself as a convert.
God used Barnabas to give the church the greatest missionary and theologian it has ever had.
And yet Barnabas turned his back, even if it was for just this moment in time, on his missionary partner.
But do not be dismayed by this.
For it is an encouraging thing that at the beginning of Paul’s Christian life when no one would take a risk on his behalf, Barnabas came forward and saved him for the cause of Christ; but many years later, when Barnabas was falling away from the truth, Paul came forward and saved him for the cause?
And he does it this way…
9. Paul confronts Peter on his inconsistency.
Paul was intensely aware that he was Christ’s ambassador, and no one else’s.
He was also aware that Peter’s actions would do serious damage to the church.
His behavior was out of sync with the gospel and inconsistent with Peter’s own life commitments.
What Peter was doing was not walking straight with the truth of the gospel.
Instead of staying true to truth, he began adding to it by giving in to the Judaizers.
But Paul was not going to give in.
For you don’t attain the benefits of the gospel by doing a little moral clean-up job on your life.
You attain forgiveness and joy and peace and power through daily reliance upon Jesus Christ who loved you and gave Himself for you.
And here is the warning for us.
You cannot think that just because you had success in the past, or you had it right in the past, you are always going to be right in the future.
Peter proves that here.
Past experiences and past usefulness are no guarantees of future obedience.
You can still mess up!
You see, even the “chief of sinners” was able to take to task the “chief of the apostles” and prove him wrong (which we will study next week).
TRANSITION:
As believers,
1. We are not to get caught compromising the truth that we believe changed us.
Paul knew that when the truth goes, the gospel goes.
When the gospel goes, the souls of men perish.
This was Paul’s strength.
He never forgot that truth issues are ultimately people issues.
Followers of Jesus can never afford to cater to the crowd when it comes to proclaiming and living out the gospel.
For, you see, we need to…
2. GET THE GOSPEL RIGHT.
The gospel is the good news that the privilege of getting right with God was purchased fully when Christ died for our sins and rose again.
As a result, the only way to enjoy this privilege is to live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.
Did you hear about anything that you needed to do to receive God’s favor in those statements?
You did not.
The point is is that you must give up on doing anything and receive what has already been done for you.
For Peter, he needed to come to that truth once again.
He had to get the gospel right…again.
And there is a lesson for us in that.
If we are caught doing it wrong, we need to get back on track.
Because of his humility, Peter’s standing as an apostle was not permanently damaged even though he had been guilty of serious error.
He was able to get the gospel right again.
So, in the meantime, let us learn what we must avoid that keeps us from getting it right.
3. We find in our study (our application) three obstructions that keep us from getting the gospel right.
APPLICATION:
ILL #501
Scrawled in a nervous hand across a blackboard at Southern Methodist University during final weeks was this message: “We have nothing to fear, but F itself.”
Well, we are not to allow fear to be an obstruction…
1. FEAR: We are not to be afraid of the consequences of applying the truth (II Timothy 1:7).
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
If you come this morning tense and depressed with fear or with a vague feeling of anxiety that something is going to go wrong, your primary need is to see the gospel again.
For…listen to this…”If God is for you, who can be against you?”
God calls us to a fearless obedience of His will as we live in the Spirit.
What we need is courage.
We need courage to live according to our faith and its implications rather than according to our emotions, fleeting passions, and fear of others.
ILL Notebook: Consistent (drawings)
Bruce Barnett was at the hospital visiting his father before his heart bypass surgery, and the doctor came in to explain the operation. He drew a picture of the heart, clearly illustrating the arteries affected by the procedure. Later that day, while his mother was visiting with Dad, the doctor came in again. As he explained the operation for her, he reached for paper to draw the heart again. Suddenly, he stopped and asked for the picture he’d done earlier. Smiling, he explained: "People tend to get upset when I don’t draw it exactly the same way each time.”
Right on!
We like consistency.
And it is an obstruction when it comes to getting the gospel right.
For the second obstruction is hypocrisy…
2. HYPOCRISY: We are to speak and live consistently.
We are, in effect, hypocrites if we do not speak and live consistently.
It is interesting to note that hypocrisy is rooted in fear and insecurity.
But we need to recognize that insecurity is inconsistent with the gospel.
For when you feel insecure or frightened and are tempted to put up a front and avoid taking a stand for what you believe is right, the battle you are fighting is a battle to believe the gospel.
Obviously, we need to be consistent.
And it is not necessarily a matter of conformity and uniformity.
A lot of people can be believing the wrong thing.
The conformity and uniformity is measured by listening to God’s Word and to the Spirit of God.
ILL Notebook: Law (birds)
A caller to a national travel agency was inquiring about quarantine regulations for transporting birds into Canada from the United States. As the agent gave him the information, he thanked her and then said, “May I ask a question? What do they do about the birds that fly over the border?”
Sometimes I think we are like the birds.
People can always have a lot of rules for us to follow, but the truth is, we are designed to fly.
This leads us to the third obstruction…
3. LEGALISM: We are to be characterized by freedom.
Actions speak louder than words.
When Peter cut off table fellowship with Gentile brothers and sisters because they didn’t keep dietary laws and then took Barnabas and the other Jews, the Gentile believers could not escape the impression that they were not fully Christians unless they became Jews.
That was compulsion.
That was legalism, requiring that a person do some works of law to be accepted by God and by the church.
And we need to hear that this is out of sync with the gospel.
By the way, I do want to make note that this is not license either.
We do not have the freedom to do anything we want regardless of the circumstances.
We are instead free to live by the Spirit.
These are matters that we will be discussing as move on in this study.
Finally…
4. We need to believe and live the gospel, so that we do not invalidate grace.
As believers, we need to be conscious of the implication of our actions.
If we are not careful, we can deny in practice that which we believe to be true.
We can say that we believe in grace and then live like we live in law.
This is not something that just happened then over issues like circumcision and dietary laws.
We do the same thing over issues of baptism, music, personal habits, entertainment, and a whole host of things.
But we must remember, it is the gospel we must get right.
And if we have failed, we are to get it right again.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Don’t be afraid…when you feel pressure to compromise your belief and the message of the gospel, remember this, if God is for you, who can be against you;
Don’t be hypocritical…keep the message that you are communicating pure by doing the very things that you say that you believe, and it can be done by courageously living the way of the Spirit; and finally,
Don’t be legalistic…don’t fall into the trap of making rules of what Christians do and don’t do, for when we do that we wander away from freedom and back into the bondage from which we were saved.
Now…May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
