Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Standing Your Ground for Grace │ Msg 615

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Standing Your Ground for Grace │ Msg 615 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Tucked away in the New Testament is the little six-chapter
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Speaker 1: letter to the Galatians. Galatians is a letter of liberation
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Speaker 1: written to believers who had allowed themselves to fall back
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Speaker 1: under bondage after having believed. Today, this brings us to
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Speaker 1: an important question in the realm of the spiritual life.
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Speaker 1: It's a why question. Why is it that we believe
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Speaker 1: so strongly in liberty for our country and are unwilling
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Speaker 1: to relinquish it. But so many in the Christian ranks
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Speaker 1: do not believe as strongly for freedom in their faith,
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Speaker 1: and therefore yield to those who would wish to take
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Speaker 1: it away. Now, why? Why does that happen? That's the question,
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Speaker 1: the why question that Paul asked the ethnic group called Galatians,
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Speaker 1: who lived in North Central Asia Minor. Today that's the
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Speaker 1: country of Turkey. So to help us understand our why question,
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Speaker 1: I want to read for you from the first and
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Speaker 1: second chapters of Galatians, beginning with chapter 1, verse 6.
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Speaker 1: Galatians chapter 1, verse 6 reads, I am shocked that
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Speaker 1: you were turning away so soon from God, who called
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Speaker 1: you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. you
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Speaker 1: are following a different way that pretends to be the
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Speaker 1: good news, but is not the good news at all.
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Speaker 1: You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the
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Speaker 1: truth concerning Christ. Let God's curse fall on anyone, including
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Speaker 1: us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a
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Speaker 1: different kind of good news than the one we preach
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Speaker 1: to you. I say again what we have said before.
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Speaker 1: If anyone preaches any other good news than the one
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Speaker 1: you welcomed, let that person be cursed. Obviously, I'm not
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Speaker 1: trying to win the approval of people, but of God.
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Speaker 1: If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be
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Speaker 1: Christ's servant. Now, down to chapter 2, verse 1. Then
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Speaker 1: 14 years later, I went back to Jerusalem again, this
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Speaker 1: time with Barnabas, and Titus came along too. I went
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Speaker 1: there because God revealed to me that I should go.
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Speaker 1: While I was there, I met privately with those considered
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Speaker 1: to be leaders of the church and shared with them
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Speaker 1: the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I
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Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that we were in agreement for
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Speaker 1: fear that All my efforts had been wasted and I
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Speaker 1: was running the race for nothing. And they supported me
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Speaker 1: and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised,
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Speaker 1: though he was a Gentile. Even that question came up
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Speaker 1: only because of some so-called Christians there, false ones really,
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Speaker 1: who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy
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Speaker 1: on us and take away the freedom we have in
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Speaker 1: Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us
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Speaker 1: to follow their Jewish regulations. But we refused to give
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Speaker 1: in to them for a single moment. We wanted to
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Speaker 1: preserve the truth of the gospel message for you. Now,
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Speaker 1: verse 11. But when Peter came to Antioch, I had
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Speaker 1: to oppose him to his face, for what he did
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Speaker 1: was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with
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Speaker 1: the Gentile Christians who were not circumcised. But afterward, when
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Speaker 1: some friends of James came, Peter wouldn't eat with the
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Speaker 1: Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people
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Speaker 1: who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result,
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Speaker 1: other Jewish Christians followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was
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Speaker 1: led astray by their hypocrisy. When I saw that they
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Speaker 1: were not following the truth of the gospel message, I
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Speaker 1: said to Peter in front of all the others, Since you,
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Speaker 1: a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and
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Speaker 1: are living like a Gentile, Why are you now trying
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Speaker 1: to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? You and
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Speaker 1: I are Jews by birth, not sinners like the Gentiles. Yet,
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Speaker 1: we know that a person is made right with God
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Speaker 1: by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law.
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Speaker 1: And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we
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Speaker 1: might be made right with God by because of our
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Speaker 1: faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law.
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Speaker 1: For no one will ever be made right with God
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Speaker 1: by obeying the law. Join me now for a few
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Speaker 1: moments of prayer, please. There are so many things, our Father,
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Speaker 1: that draw us to you, Perhaps it is because you
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Speaker 1: first loved us that this whole relationship began. And when
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Speaker 1: we realized it, we were enveloped in your unconditional love
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Speaker 1: for which we will be eternally grateful. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: looking beyond all the foolish things that tied us up
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Speaker 1: and hung us up and All the struggles that we
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Speaker 1: dragged with us in life. And you went to the
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Speaker 1: core of our beings. Loving us. And we now are
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Speaker 1: learning to love you back. And to love one another.
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Speaker 1: We have discovered something of your joy as we have
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Speaker 1: come to know your word. Thank you for that. Thank
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Speaker 1: you for bringing to us a pleasure today. Thank you
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Speaker 1: for the joy of your company, for the way you
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Speaker 1: are with us when the sun goes down and the
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Speaker 1: day caves in on us. Thank you for being there
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Speaker 1: when we are lonely, when our hearts are hurting, when
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Speaker 1: we have failed. Thank you for forgiving us when we
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Speaker 1: have sinned. Thank you for returning the joy of our
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Speaker 1: salvation today. as we come to realize your grace and forgiveness.
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Speaker 1: But now, Father, we pause to thank you for your peace.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for giving it to us, just as you
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Speaker 1: gave it to the disciples as they were frightened beyond
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Speaker 1: measure upon hearing of your plans to die. May that
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Speaker 1: peace surround us. May it go beyond all we could
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Speaker 1: even ask or think. May it outreach our imagination as
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Speaker 1: you calm our spirits and give us an understanding again,
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Speaker 1: even today, of the truth concerning your grace. Because of
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Speaker 1: your love and your joy and now your peace, we give.
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Speaker 1: full of gratitude. In Jesus' name, everyone said, Amen. The
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Speaker 1: eyes of the world were focused on London. It was
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Speaker 1: in the morning on Thursday when everything changed for them.
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Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but as I watched the television,
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Speaker 1: I had a big lump in my throat. as Prime
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Speaker 1: Minister Tony Blair addressed his country and spoke of many
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Speaker 1: of the same things that we had remembered from our 9-11.
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Speaker 1: They now have their 7-7. They now know the horrors
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Speaker 1: of a sinister plot carried out by sneaking terrorists. who
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Speaker 1: would do everything they could to bring them down. I
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Speaker 1: stood a little taller as a result of listening to
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Speaker 1: his resolute words, where Britain will not be intimidated. They
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Speaker 1: will fight if necessary to the very end, as they
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Speaker 1: have on a number of other occasions to survive. Like you,
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Speaker 1: I did a flashback. Like you, I was proud of
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Speaker 1: the way he stepped up. I was grateful for his
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Speaker 1: stand for liberty. I don't know many Americans who doubt
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Speaker 1: that it is ever in question whether we should fight
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Speaker 1: for freedom. It's worth the fight. Liberty is worth whatever
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Speaker 1: the cost, even our lives. Keep that uppermost in your
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Speaker 1: mind through the rest of this message. This message is
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Speaker 1: all about liberty. Now I have a question. If I
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Speaker 1: may shift from the world picture to the realm of
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Speaker 1: the spiritual life, I have a why question. Why is
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Speaker 1: it that we believe so strongly in liberty for our
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Speaker 1: country and are unwilling to relinquish it? But so many
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Speaker 1: in the Christian ranks do not believe as strongly for
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Speaker 1: freedom in their faith and therefore yield to those who
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Speaker 1: would wish to take it away. Why? Why is there
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Speaker 1: such courage and zeal to fight against political terrorists who
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Speaker 1: represent a savage extremism known as Islamic Jihad? But we
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Speaker 1: lack the courage and the zeal to fight in the
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Speaker 1: spiritual realm for those who represent their religion in the
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Speaker 1: form of traditionalistic legalism Why do we give that up,
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Speaker 1: that liberty? The flight is nothing new. I've carried with
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Speaker 1: me for now more than 40 years the words of
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Speaker 1: one of my professors from Dallas Seminary, S. Lewis Johnson,
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Speaker 1: who wrote an article back in 1963, outstanding article called
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Speaker 1: The Paralysis of Legalism. Listen to Dr. Johnson's words. One
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Speaker 1: of the most serious problems facing the Orthodox Christian church
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Speaker 1: today is the problem of legalism. One of the most
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Speaker 1: serious problems facing the church in Paul's day was the
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Speaker 1: problem of legalism. In every day, it is the same.
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Speaker 1: Legalism wrenches the joy of the Lord from the Christian believer.
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Speaker 1: And with the joy of the Lord goes his power
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Speaker 1: for vital worship and vibrant service. Nothing is left but cramped, somber, dull,
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Speaker 1: and listless profession. The truth is betrayed. And the glorious
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Speaker 1: name of the Lord becomes a synonym for a gloomy killjoy.
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Speaker 1: The Christian under law is a miserable parody of the
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Speaker 1: real thing. At the core of the problem of legalism
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Speaker 1: is pride. It's pride. A pride that refuses to admit
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Speaker 1: to spiritual bankruptcy. Somehow I must add to what Christ
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Speaker 1: has done. And if it isn't I, then it must
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Speaker 1: be Moses. What Christ began, Moses must finish. I must
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Speaker 1: have the law in order to verify that it is
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Speaker 1: truly salvation. And therefore I am forever in this dilemma.
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Speaker 1: Is it any wonder that the doctrines of grace stir
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Speaker 1: up so much animosity? I remember as a young man
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Speaker 1: growing up My mom would listen to Christian radio programs.
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Speaker 1: There weren't many. One voice was Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse
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Speaker 1: from the Philadelphia area. Dr. Barnhouse, a giant of the faith,
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Speaker 1: spoke often of free grace. I recall his words. It
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Speaker 1: was a tragic hour when the Reformation churches wrote the
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Speaker 1: Ten Commandments into their creeds and catechisms. and sought to
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Speaker 1: bring Gentile believers into bondage to Jewish law, which was
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Speaker 1: never intended either for the Gentile nations or for the church.
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Speaker 1: Barnhouse was right. We are not under law, but under grace.
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Speaker 1: Moses does not have authority over our lives in the
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Speaker 1: family of Christ. We do not eat kosher food to
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Speaker 1: please our God. It is not necessary to be circumcised
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Speaker 1: to please our God. We are not required to keep
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Speaker 1: a Sabbath to gain favor with God. We are free
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Speaker 1: from the demands of and requirements brought on by the law.
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Speaker 1: And that's a message that Not heard for some reason
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Speaker 1: in the church today. Maybe it's time for a definition
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Speaker 1: so you won't think I've gone wild with this. Let's
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Speaker 1: talk about liberty on one hand and let's define legalism
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Speaker 1: on the other. What do we mean when we talk
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Speaker 1: about having liberty and that it is worth fighting for?
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Speaker 1: Liberty is simply the quality or state of being free.
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Speaker 1: Free from some things and free to some things. Let's
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Speaker 1: go both ways. Liberty frees us from arbitrary control. It
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Speaker 1: frees us from the restraint brought on by others who
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Speaker 1: would wish to put us under their thumb. Christ is
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Speaker 1: the head of the church and at that point we
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Speaker 1: run out of heads. The pastor is not the authoritarian
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Speaker 1: of a ministry. The elders are not authoritarian rulers of
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Speaker 1: a ministry. One head, Christ. One book, the Bible. The
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Speaker 1: believer lives as a priest before the Lord God to
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Speaker 1: represent his or her own needs, prayers, and sins. We
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Speaker 1: are all unworthy of God's favor, but in grace, he
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Speaker 1: has delivered us from darkness to light, not because we
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Speaker 1: have in some way earned it. Now, liberty also means
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Speaker 1: we are free to choose, to enjoy the privileges of
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Speaker 1: a new kind of covenant relationship with God. We are
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Speaker 1: free now to obey. Get this. Before the cross, we
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Speaker 1: couldn't obey our God. He had made us, but we
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Speaker 1: had no power. We were not enabled to please God.
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Speaker 1: We were lost. Having come to Christ, we do not
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Speaker 1: now work really hard to stay in his favor. We
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Speaker 1: do not labor intently and intensely to somehow keep him
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Speaker 1: from shaming us. We are in Christ. Nearer, still nearer,
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Speaker 1: nearer I cannot be, for in the person of his son,
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Speaker 1: wrote Lewis Perry Chafer, I am as near as he.
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Speaker 1: How valuable is that truth? I am therefore free to
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Speaker 1: serve and obey. I can now freely choose to obey,
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Speaker 1: which means I can choose to disobey. There are consequences,
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Speaker 1: but the freedom is mine nevertheless. Now, legalism. It's a
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Speaker 1: little more complicated. Legalism basically is an attitude. It is
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Speaker 1: a mentality. It is an obsessive conformity to a standard
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Speaker 1: of man-made responsibilities for the purpose of exalting oneself. It's
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Speaker 1: an obsessive conformity to a man-made list of rules and
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Speaker 1: regulations for the purpose of exalting self. It's law-like in nature.
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Speaker 1: Don't miss this. It is law-like in nature. It is
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Speaker 1: motivated by guilt and shame. It is accomplished by manipulation.
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Speaker 1: And it is enforced by authoritarianism. Someone must call the shots. Usually,
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Speaker 1: it is the leader of the group. Most cults feed
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Speaker 1: the legalistic message to their followers. If you keep doing
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Speaker 1: this and keep on doing that, you will one day
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Speaker 1: find favor with the ultimate God. If you stand on
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Speaker 1: a street corner and give out enough literature to if
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Speaker 1: you sacrifice enough of your own desires and wishes, you
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Speaker 1: will one day find that your good works now outweigh
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Speaker 1: your bad works and you may be allowed into his heaven.
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Speaker 1: The problem is you never know how good good enough
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Speaker 1: is or how bad bad enough is to get you
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Speaker 1: in or to keep you out. I've carried with me
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Speaker 1: for a long time another piece, this one by Eugene
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Speaker 1: Peterson from his book Traveling Light, just a paragraph. The
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Speaker 1: word Christian means different things to different people. To one person,
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Speaker 1: it means a stiff, upright, uptight, inflexible way of life,
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Speaker 1: colorless and unbending. To another, it means a risky, surprise-filled venture,
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Speaker 1: lived tiptoe at the edge of expectations. Either of these
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Speaker 1: pictures can be supported with evidence. There are numberless illustrations
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Speaker 1: of either position in congregations all over the world. But
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Speaker 1: if we restrict ourselves to biblical evidence, only the second
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Speaker 1: image can be supported. The image of the person living zestfully,
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Speaker 1: exploring every experience, pain and joy, enigma and insight, fulfillment
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Speaker 1: and frustration, As a dimension of human freedom. Searching through
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Speaker 1: each for sense and grace. If we get our information
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Speaker 1: from the biblical material, there is no doubt that the
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Speaker 1: Christian life is a dancing, leaping, daring life. And I'm
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Speaker 1: smiling when I read that because I'm trying to picture...
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Speaker 1: one congregation I've ever been a part of that is dancing, leaping,
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Speaker 1: and daring. Well, we're getting close. Free. Lived on tiptoe,
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Speaker 1: full of excitement and zest. Free from the tyranny of
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Speaker 1: someone else's opinion. Did you hear that? Freed from being
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Speaker 1: brought back behind bars. having finally been delivered from an
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Speaker 1: old life where we couldn't help but be entrapped and
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Speaker 1: in bondage. At the conference I just completed, a woman
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Speaker 1: was in attendance, and I watched her on occasion because
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Speaker 1: she seemed unusually moved over the talks and the singing
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Speaker 1: she really threw herself into. She really was zestfully involved
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Speaker 1: in it. Just before my final talk, she walked down
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Speaker 1: and said, I'd like to meet you. She said, we've
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Speaker 1: never met. And I said, no, I don't think we've
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Speaker 1: ever met. She says, this is my first time here
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Speaker 1: at this conference. But she said, for the last 17 years,
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Speaker 1: I've been in prison. And then she added, but now
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Speaker 1: I'm free. I put my arms around her and thanked
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Speaker 1: her for her courage to come and tell me that.
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Speaker 1: I didn't probe any details. She just said, it's wonderful
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Speaker 1: to be here. It's wonderful to be anywhere. And there's
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Speaker 1: one place I never want to be again. Behind bars.
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Speaker 1: For some reason, the Galatians wanted to be back behind bars.
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Speaker 1: Go figure. Paul had come with this glorious message of grace.
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Speaker 1: Nothing in your hand you bring simply to the cross
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Speaker 1: you cling. Jesus Christ paid it all. All to him
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Speaker 1: I owe. Sin left a crimson stain. He washed it
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Speaker 1: white as snow. You have been declared righteous by faith
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Speaker 1: in Jesus while you're still in a sinning state. You
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Speaker 1: took the gift. You took it. It became a part
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Speaker 1: of your life. You were placed into Christ. How wonderful.
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Speaker 1: It's free. Oh, it isn't cheap. It cost Jesus his life.
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Speaker 1: He paid the complete penalty for your sins. Take him.
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Speaker 1: Believe in him. And the Galatians took him and believed
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Speaker 1: in him for a while.
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Speaker 1: You've been circumcised? Are you eating kosher food?
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Speaker 1: Are you fulfilling the requirements of the law? Well, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait.
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Speaker 1: And so they believed it. Rather than fighting it and
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Speaker 1: resisting it, they said, oh, okay. So Paul wrote a letter.
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Speaker 1: And he didn't say, okay. Look at verse 6, chapter 1.
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Speaker 1: I am amazed, says the apostle. He first addresses doctrinal
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Speaker 1: heresy against those who would disturb and distort religion. And
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Speaker 1: then he addresses ecclesiastical harassment, those who would come in
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Speaker 1: and spy out liberty and steal it away. And finally,
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Speaker 1: he addresses this whole issue of personal hypocrisy, represented by Peter,
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Speaker 1: who played both roles against the middle. First doctrinal, verse 6,
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Speaker 1: I am amazed that y'all, plural, southern part of Galatia,
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Speaker 1: I'm amazed that y'all are so quickly deserting him who
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Speaker 1: called you by the grace of Christ for a heteros gospel.
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Speaker 1: See the word different? Greek term is H-E-T-E-R-O-S. We have
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Speaker 1: the phrase heterodoxy, not orthodoxy. Heterosexual, not homosexual. It means
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Speaker 1: another of a different kind. this term originally translated here, different.
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Speaker 1: I'm amazed that you have quickly deserted the Savior who
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Speaker 1: gave you his life with no strings attached and you've
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Speaker 1: got yourself back under bondage believing this heteros gospel. Verse 7,
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Speaker 1: which is not really Another of the same kind. That's
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Speaker 1: not heteros. That's alos. That's another word. An opposite word.
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Speaker 1: It's not really any different. Only that there are some
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Speaker 1: who disturb you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
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Speaker 1: See the word disturbed? It means to trouble. See the
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Speaker 1: word distort? Some render it pervert. It's a perversion of
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Speaker 1: the message. I'm amazed that you guys got back into
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Speaker 1: the cell from which you were delivered, and you're living
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Speaker 1: your life under the thumb of a handful of legalists
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Speaker 1: who were telling you what to do and not to do,
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Speaker 1: what to start and what to stop, and what to
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Speaker 1: give up and what to take on. Stop it! Then
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Speaker 1: it gets really tough. Talk about a fight. Look at
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Speaker 1: verse 8. Even if we... or an angelic creature, an
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Speaker 1: angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary
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Speaker 1: to what we have preached to you, a grace gospel,
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Speaker 1: he is to be anathema, anathema, doomed, condemned, accursed. Man,
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Speaker 1: those are strong words. Oh, that's a verbal fight. He's
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Speaker 1: not going to give up his liberty easily. Paul's message
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Speaker 1: is a message of liberty for the Gentiles and for
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Speaker 1: the Jews. But especially was he focusing on the Gentiles.
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Speaker 1: And he's addressing people who have been recaptured. And now
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Speaker 1: he sounds like a granddad. Verse 9. He repeats himself.
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Speaker 1: As we have said before, so I say again, if
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Speaker 1: any man preaches to you a gospel contrary to what
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Speaker 1: you have received, he is to be anathema. I do
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Speaker 1: that sometimes. Kids will say, oh, we know, Dad. You've
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Speaker 1: already said that. And I'll say it again. Just to
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Speaker 1: make sure they understand what I said again. And I
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Speaker 1: want to, why? I want to drive it home. I
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Speaker 1: want to make it clear. I want to be really,
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Speaker 1: really firm. That's what Paul's doing. Look at what he
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Speaker 1: says in verse 10. For am I now seeking the
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Speaker 1: favor of men or of God? Great question. Legalists are
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Speaker 1: all about seeking the favor of other people. Legalists expect
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Speaker 1: you to please them. It's all about the flesh. It's pride.
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Speaker 1: So they hold you under their thumb. Am I seeking
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Speaker 1: the favor of men or of God? He goes on.
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Speaker 1: If I were still seeking the favor of men, I
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Speaker 1: would not be a bondservant of Christ. He's the head.
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Speaker 1: So he supplant. he replaces all other heads. How marvelous
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Speaker 1: it is to serve Christ as his son, as his daughter,
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Speaker 1: and to have a relationship with him where I'm accepted
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Speaker 1: in the beloved, where I'm freed from shame, where even
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Speaker 1: when I fail and I come to him with my failures,
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Speaker 1: He forgives me. He doesn't shame me. He doesn't tell
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Speaker 1: me to stand in the corner for the next year
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Speaker 1: until I straighten up my life. He forgives me. There's
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Speaker 1: no condemnation to them who are now in Christ Jesus. Now,
30:19
Speaker 1: having made that clear, that it's not according to a
30:22
Speaker 1: gospel of works, Paul goes back into a little bit
30:26
Speaker 1: of history in chapter 2. He goes back 14 years ago.
30:30
Speaker 1: Let me help you briefly with that. 14 years earlier,
30:39
Speaker 1: the Apostle Paul had been given a direct revelation that
30:43
Speaker 1: his realm of ministry, his focus was the Gentiles. Now
30:47
Speaker 1: listen carefully to this. This is important. Peter's message was
30:51
Speaker 1: essentially for the Jews. Peter, being a Jew... would minister
30:55
Speaker 1: to the Jews and would lead them to a knowledge
30:57
Speaker 1: of faith in Christ. How great that was. Paul realized
31:00
Speaker 1: through a divine revelation his focus was to turn to
31:03
Speaker 1: the Gentiles. Now, that doesn't sound all that incredible today,
31:08
Speaker 1: but in that day, it was virtually unheard of. The
31:12
Speaker 1: Gentiles were dogs. They weren't a part of the house
31:15
Speaker 1: of Israel. Who are they to get the message of Christ? Well,
31:18
Speaker 1: Paul said, no, they're people. They need to know. And
31:23
Speaker 1: his message turned to the Gentiles. And he came to
31:26
Speaker 1: the Gentiles with the message of grace. You don't have
31:30
Speaker 1: to become a Jew. Moses doesn't finish what Christ began.
31:35
Speaker 1: You don't have to be circumcised. You don't have to
31:37
Speaker 1: eat their food. You don't have to keep their special
31:41
Speaker 1: holy days. You're freed. Take Christ and him alone and
31:47
Speaker 1: he will deliver you from your life of lostness and disobedience. Now,
31:54
Speaker 1: 14 years have passed, and Paul has an opportunity to
31:57
Speaker 1: check this out with people he respects. The authorities who
32:02
Speaker 1: lived in Jerusalem, James, and some of that ilk. So
32:06
Speaker 1: he tells us in chapter 2 about coming to Jerusalem
32:09
Speaker 1: to talk about that. Look at how he writes it.
32:11
Speaker 1: After an interval of 14 years, I went up again
32:13
Speaker 1: to Jerusalem with Barnabas, who's a Jew, taking Titus also
32:19
Speaker 1: along with us, who's a Gentile. Barnabas is a circumcised Jew.
32:25
Speaker 1: Titus is an uncircumcised Gentile. Both are born again. Paul
32:30
Speaker 1: has both with him as examples of the church. The
32:36
Speaker 1: spectrum is now including even uncircumcised Gentiles. But he wanted
32:41
Speaker 1: to check it out. Verse 2. It was because of
32:44
Speaker 1: a revelation that I went up and I submitted to
32:47
Speaker 1: them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. But
32:52
Speaker 1: I did so in private to those who were of reputation.
32:56
Speaker 1: Got it? They're the hotshots. They're the genuine authorities of
33:01
Speaker 1: the existing local church, people who were more experienced, more
33:05
Speaker 1: seasoned than even Paul. He said for fear that I
33:08
Speaker 1: might be running or had run in vain. Maybe I'm
33:11
Speaker 1: going off the deep end on this. Maybe I'm too far.
33:15
Speaker 1: Maybe I need to bring it back into balance. And
33:16
Speaker 1: I wanted their counsel. Not even Titus, here is now
33:21
Speaker 1: our Gentile friend, standing there, born again, but fully Gentile,
33:26
Speaker 1: who was with me. Though he was a Greek, he
33:28
Speaker 1: was compelled, though he was a Greek, was compelled to
33:33
Speaker 1: be circumcised. Let me read that again. Not even Titus,
33:36
Speaker 1: who was with me, though he was a Greek, was
33:39
Speaker 1: compelled to be circumcised. There it is. I left out
33:41
Speaker 1: the not. A little small mistake, but we need to
33:44
Speaker 1: put it in there. Okay. So now stands Titus. An
33:49
Speaker 1: uncircumcised believer, here stands Barnabas and Paul, Jewish believers. The
33:57
Speaker 1: reason I deal with this so much is it was
33:58
Speaker 1: a big thing. It was a part of life in
34:03
Speaker 1: those days. But now that Paul's message begins to blossom
34:07
Speaker 1: and bloom, he's got a whole raft, thousands of Gentile
34:11
Speaker 1: believers who are coming to faith, but they're not even
34:14
Speaker 1: a little bit Jewish. Well, You can imagine how the
34:19
Speaker 1: legalists felt about that. We don't want that to happen.
34:23
Speaker 1: Verse four. It was because of the false brethren secretly
34:29
Speaker 1: brought in. That's why I call them terrorists. Legalists don't
34:32
Speaker 1: announce their coming. They don't announce their presence. They sneak.
34:37
Speaker 1: They spy. And they sneaked in. Why? To spy out
34:43
Speaker 1: our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus. What was
34:46
Speaker 1: the purpose? To bring us into bondage. Get us back
34:49
Speaker 1: in the cell. Lock the door. Keep us in there.
34:53
Speaker 1: Behave in ourselves. Turning us into rigid. Uptight. Somber. Listless.
35:00
Speaker 1: No tiptoe standing. No dancing. For sure. We are now
35:05
Speaker 1: in bondage. Look at verse 5. This is called fighting
35:12
Speaker 1: for your liberty. We did not yield in subjection for
35:20
Speaker 1: even an hour. The message renders that we did not
35:25
Speaker 1: give them the time of day. Sounds harsh. It's the
35:29
Speaker 1: only language legalists understand. They're not weak brothers. They're strong.
35:37
Speaker 1: They're professionally weak brothers. We could call them that. Professional
35:42
Speaker 1: weak brothers. They want to come across as weak. You
35:45
Speaker 1: easily offend me. They're not weak at all. They're very strong,
35:48
Speaker 1: strong will, determined. They got an agenda. They're in charge.
35:55
Speaker 1: He said, we didn't put up with it for even
35:58
Speaker 1: an hour. Now look at the response of those in authority.
36:01
Speaker 1: From those who were of higher reputation, what they were
36:04
Speaker 1: makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Well,
36:07
Speaker 1: Those who were, aren't you glad he added that, put
36:09
Speaker 1: it in parenthesis. Well, those who were of reputation contributed
36:13
Speaker 1: nothing to me, meaning they didn't add or take away
36:15
Speaker 1: from my gospel or the gospel I've been preaching. They
36:18
Speaker 1: didn't alter it. However, the contrary, seeing that I had
36:23
Speaker 1: been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as
36:26
Speaker 1: Peter had been to the circumcised. For he who effectually
36:30
Speaker 1: worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually
36:33
Speaker 1: worked for me also to the Gentiles. And recognizing the
36:36
Speaker 1: grace that had been given to me. Look at this approval.
36:41
Speaker 1: James and Peter. There's a word for Cephas or Peter.
36:45
Speaker 1: Cephas and John who were reputed to be pillars gave
36:49
Speaker 1: me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. You thought
36:52
Speaker 1: the Baptists came up with that term. They didn't. That's
36:55
Speaker 1: right here in the Bible. They gave me the right
36:57
Speaker 1: hand of fellowship. And they said, good for you, Paul.
37:01
Speaker 1: Get at it. Or that's kind of a swindle paraphrase. But,
37:04
Speaker 1: you know, go right on. Do it. So that we
37:07
Speaker 1: might go to the Gentiles. And they continue to go
37:10
Speaker 1: to the circumcised. They only ask us to remember the poor,
37:14
Speaker 1: the very thing I also was eager to do. So
37:18
Speaker 1: we've got that group taken care of. We've got those
37:21
Speaker 1: that sneak in and spy out. The basic problem, however,
37:25
Speaker 1: is when we buy into it and become hypocrites. That's
37:29
Speaker 1: what he nails Peter for in the verses that follow. Watch.
37:36
Speaker 1: Before I get there, I have to tell you a story.
37:38
Speaker 1: This is important. Because some of you think I'm making
37:42
Speaker 1: a big deal out of this, and really there aren't
37:44
Speaker 1: that many people held under the thumb of others. There
37:46
Speaker 1: really are. There really are. Some of you have come
37:50
Speaker 1: out of a background like that, so you know firsthand.
37:54
Speaker 1: Years ago, I was a good friend. Well, I'm still
37:56
Speaker 1: a good friend, but years ago, he was the president
37:58
Speaker 1: of a school where I spoke, and I brought a
38:00
Speaker 1: series on grace to the student body, which he appreciated.
38:04
Speaker 1: And we talked about it at lunch one day, and
38:06
Speaker 1: he said, let me tell you a story you're not
38:07
Speaker 1: going to believe. I got missionary friends who have now
38:10
Speaker 1: left the field, the mission field, disillusioned, and now they're home,
38:15
Speaker 1: and he's working a secular job. I said, really? Why?
38:18
Speaker 1: He said, well, peanut butter. I said, okay. you got me.
38:25
Speaker 1: He said, really, it was about that. When they went
38:27
Speaker 1: to the mission field, I'm not going to tell you
38:28
Speaker 1: their names or their mission or agency or where they were,
38:31
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. They went to a place where you could
38:34
Speaker 1: not get peanut butter. And those people who had been
38:38
Speaker 1: there before them had now determined that you were more
38:41
Speaker 1: spiritual if you did not eat peanut butter. You gave
38:45
Speaker 1: it up out of love for Christ or some such nonsense.
38:48
Speaker 1: And so They show up and they love peanut butter.
38:51
Speaker 1: So they got their buddies back in the States sending
38:53
Speaker 1: them jars of peanut butter, which they put on the table,
38:58
Speaker 1: put on their eggs and toast and bacon and all that.
39:02
Speaker 1: And they're eating peanut butter until they get word from
39:05
Speaker 1: the hot shots that you're not supposed to be eating
39:07
Speaker 1: peanut butter. Why? We love peanut butter. Well, you need
39:10
Speaker 1: to understand that that's frowned on here. Oh, really? Why? Why?
39:16
Speaker 1: Nobody knows why. It's just, well, it just is. And
39:19
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be eating peanut butter. Well, they kept eating
39:21
Speaker 1: peanut butter. And the pressure mounted to the point where
39:25
Speaker 1: these folks no longer had fellowship with them because they
39:28
Speaker 1: had given up peanut butter. for christ and these people
39:34
Speaker 1: were still eating it so they wind up coming home
39:37
Speaker 1: disillusioned tragically another statistic you know why you thought that
39:44
Speaker 1: was funny because i didn't use beer or wine Suddenly
39:54
Speaker 1: it isn't funny, is it? There are some places where
39:59
Speaker 1: the drinking of a bottle of beer is the most
40:01
Speaker 1: acceptable thing in the world. There are other places where
40:02
Speaker 1: it's not. Some places where wine is acceptable and other
40:06
Speaker 1: places where it may not be. But what you do
40:08
Speaker 1: in private is nobody's business. Good. There's one guy that agrees.
40:14
Speaker 1: There's a guy that's one of my peanut butter loving
40:17
Speaker 1: friends back there. I got a friend who was told
40:23
Speaker 1: by his parents, you know, the pastor didn't want us
40:27
Speaker 1: to go to movies. They went to a church where
40:28
Speaker 1: we weren't supposed to go to movies. But the dad
40:31
Speaker 1: of the family, who happened to be a deacon in
40:32
Speaker 1: the church, decided that we're going to still go see movies,
40:37
Speaker 1: but we're not going to tell anybody. So they go
40:40
Speaker 1: all the way across Los Angeles to attend a movie
40:43
Speaker 1: so that the pastor and other legalists back at the
40:47
Speaker 1: church wouldn't know what they're doing. But the tragedy was
40:49
Speaker 1: all the way back, they pumped into their boy in
40:51
Speaker 1: the back seat. Whatever you do, don't tell the pastor.
40:54
Speaker 1: Whatever you do, don't tell our friends because your daddy's
40:57
Speaker 1: a deacon and they don't believe we ought to be
40:59
Speaker 1: doing this. So the kid grows up in this ambivalence.
41:04
Speaker 1: Is it right? Is it wrong? I won't know unless
41:08
Speaker 1: the pastor tells me. And the pastor told him without
41:14
Speaker 1: any biblical evidence. It just happened to be on his list.
41:19
Speaker 1: Don't want you folks going to the movies. It could
41:22
Speaker 1: be dancing. It could be working out in leotards. It
41:26
Speaker 1: could be playing cards. It could be not wearing socks.
41:34
Speaker 1: It's never ending. The problem is this kid grows up
41:40
Speaker 1: perfecting hypocrisy. So he's living one thing in public and
41:45
Speaker 1: he's doing something else in private acting like he's not
41:49
Speaker 1: doing it. That's what Peter did. Verse 11. When Cephas
41:59
Speaker 1: came to Antioch. Now, Antioch is Gentile country. That's Paul's country.
42:04
Speaker 1: Peter's over there in Antioch hobnobbing with the church. He's
42:07
Speaker 1: got Gentiles. He's got Jews rubbing around all over each other.
42:12
Speaker 1: And he came to Antioch. He says, I opposed him
42:15
Speaker 1: to his face. That's called fighting for liberty. Watch closely. Why?
42:20
Speaker 1: Because he stood condemned. Peter was wrong. What did he do? Well,
42:25
Speaker 1: prior to the coming of certain men from James, that's
42:29
Speaker 1: the Jews, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But
42:33
Speaker 1: when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof,
42:37
Speaker 1: fearing the party of the circumcision. So here he is. Well,
42:42
Speaker 1: Ralph Kuyper does it best. Peter, I smell ham on
42:45
Speaker 1: your breath. These are Paul's words. You forgot your certs.
42:58
Speaker 1: There was a time when you wouldn't eat ham as
43:00
Speaker 1: part of your hope of salvation. Then, after you trusted Christ,
43:04
Speaker 1: it didn't matter if you ate ham. But now, when
43:09
Speaker 1: the no-ham eaters have come from Jerusalem, you've gone back
43:13
Speaker 1: to your kosher ways. But the smell of ham still
43:17
Speaker 1: lingers on your breath. You are most inconsistent. You are
43:22
Speaker 1: compelling Gentile believers to observe Jewish law, which can never
43:27
Speaker 1: justify anyone. Peter, by returning to the law, you undercut
43:33
Speaker 1: strength for godly living. You are a hypocrite. He says it.
43:44
Speaker 1: Verse 13. The rest of the Jews joined him in
43:48
Speaker 1: the hypocrisy. With the result that even. You believe it? Barnabas.
43:55
Speaker 1: Was carried away by their hypocrisy. Legalism spreads like a cancer.
43:59
Speaker 1: Man if I get all these people to like me.
44:02
Speaker 1: Gosh just think. If I stopped doing it like everybody else.
44:06
Speaker 1: They'd like me too. Even Barnabas. He knew better than that.
44:13
Speaker 1: When I saw. Look at 14. This is Paul at
44:16
Speaker 1: his best. When I saw they were not straightforward. About
44:19
Speaker 1: the truth of the gospel. I said to Cephas in
44:21
Speaker 1: the presence of them all, if you being a Jew
44:24
Speaker 1: live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how
44:26
Speaker 1: is it you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews?
44:30
Speaker 1: That's hypocrisy. This is where the rubber meets the road.
44:40
Speaker 1: This is soul-searching time. If liberty is worth fighting for,
44:51
Speaker 1: then liberty is worth emulating. Don't answer out loud how
44:59
Speaker 1: many of you really do enjoy Christ. Just, you really do.
45:05
Speaker 1: You're not living under the tyranny of somebody else's opinion.
45:09
Speaker 1: You're not worried about what somebody else may think or say,
45:11
Speaker 1: especially when you are in your own home. Nobody else's business.
45:18
Speaker 1: Maybe it's my moment to say, stay out of people's
45:21
Speaker 1: Private lives. None of your business. None of mine either.
45:31
Speaker 1: I was sitting at this camp I mentioned earlier and
45:35
Speaker 1: I just got in a stack of pancakes. So glad
45:38
Speaker 1: that Ken Cooper wasn't around. I just poured the syrup
45:41
Speaker 1: on it. Some lady walked up and said, Chuck, you
45:46
Speaker 1: eating pancakes? Don't you realize they're fattening? I said, no.
45:50
Speaker 1: Who died and left you in charge of my diet?
45:52
Speaker 1: Are you the roving authority on diet? And she had
45:57
Speaker 1: a plate full of scrambled eggs. I said, sit down.
46:01
Speaker 1: So she sat down and I said, do you realize
46:03
Speaker 1: that you're eating scrambled eggs is full of cholesterol and
46:07
Speaker 1: you're going to die sooner than I do? She said,
46:09
Speaker 1: who died and left you in charge? So we're now
46:11
Speaker 1: on the same level. And we had a laugh about
46:14
Speaker 1: it because I had referred to some of this earlier.
46:16
Speaker 1: I said, isn't it amazing how we do that? Isn't
46:19
Speaker 1: that amazing how we check each other out? I was
46:23
Speaker 1: years ago in another place, another time, I went to
46:26
Speaker 1: a hospital to call on a woman who was dying.
46:28
Speaker 1: Her husband had just visited with her and he had
46:30
Speaker 1: just walked out of the hospital. True story. Just walked
46:32
Speaker 1: out of the hospital, taking the elevator down, was walking
46:35
Speaker 1: out front. As I was walking up front, I saw
46:37
Speaker 1: him light up a cigarette. And I walked up to
46:40
Speaker 1: him and he didn't want me to know he was smoking.
46:44
Speaker 1: God bless him. And so he put the cigarette down
46:50
Speaker 1: Under his sleeve. True story. So I decided I'd converse
46:59
Speaker 1: with him for a while. Hey, how you doing? Oh,
47:07
Speaker 1: it's a tough time. He starts to look like a chimney.
47:10
Speaker 1: He's coming out. I said, hey, Frank. It's not his name,
47:15
Speaker 1: but I just said, hey, Frank, come on. Come on, man.
47:18
Speaker 1: If I was going through what you're going through, Who
47:20
Speaker 1: knows what I'd be doing today, man? Hey, you don't
47:24
Speaker 1: have to worry about that with me. Here, you want
47:26
Speaker 1: to smoke, he said? So I, none of your business
47:30
Speaker 1: what I said in return. Isn't that amazing? After all
47:36
Speaker 1: the years he'd been in our ministry and he still
47:38
Speaker 1: was afraid that I'd find out he smoked. As if
47:41
Speaker 1: I'm somehow in authority over his private life. Come on. No,
47:52
Speaker 1: go there. If I don't go there, I don't see
47:57
Speaker 1: any reason why you feel the need to go there.
48:02
Speaker 1: I learned rearing four busy growing up children that little
48:07
Speaker 1: by little I release them to their lives. Doesn't mean
48:12
Speaker 1: I'll stop loving them. Couldn't love them more. They're responsible
48:16
Speaker 1: on their own. That's how you grow up. You don't
48:20
Speaker 1: grow up as long as you keep coming to me
48:21
Speaker 1: for my list. Furthermore, my list is wrong for you.
48:25
Speaker 1: It's not what you ought to be doing, unless it's
48:27
Speaker 1: in the book. If it's in the book, we all
48:29
Speaker 1: ought to be doing it. But that's not the list
48:32
Speaker 1: that gives us trouble. It's those little petty things. So,
48:37
Speaker 1: four strong defenses. Click them right off. Number one, keep
48:42
Speaker 1: standing firm in your freedom. Don't give it up so easily.
48:47
Speaker 1: If it's worth the fight to keep terrorists away, It's
48:49
Speaker 1: worth the fight to keep legalists away. Stand up for
48:52
Speaker 1: your freedom. Stand up for it. Paul spoke directly to Peter.
48:59
Speaker 1: You're not going to get away with that. Stand up.
49:04
Speaker 1: Stand firm for your freedom. Second, stop trying to please everybody.
49:09
Speaker 1: Just finish that. Just stop it. Just quit trying to
49:14
Speaker 1: please them. You know why? You can't. There's too many
49:19
Speaker 1: of them. quit worrying about what the neighbors think quit
49:24
Speaker 1: worrying about what somebody else in your bible study will
49:27
Speaker 1: say do you have your quiet time this week um
49:31
Speaker 1: a couple times oh boy you got work to do
49:37
Speaker 1: i want to say did you lust this week Don't
49:41
Speaker 1: tell me you didn't. Stop trying to please everybody. Third,
49:50
Speaker 1: start identifying legalism. Teach your kids to spot it. Stay
49:57
Speaker 1: away from it. Explain to your children the damage it does.
50:02
Speaker 1: It turns you into a hypocrite. Start identifying it for
50:08
Speaker 1: what it is. Quit saying, well, it's the way it is.
50:11
Speaker 1: You know, we've always done this. They've just been like
50:14
Speaker 1: that all along. I don't go there. Fourth, continue embracing
50:20
Speaker 1: biblical truth. You'll never go wrong. You say, well, some
50:26
Speaker 1: of it's gray. Duh. Then you got to decide. Keep
50:31
Speaker 1: on embracing biblical truth. It'll show you that you're spiritually bankrupt.
50:37
Speaker 1: Jesus died for you. He paid the complete penalty. The
50:41
Speaker 1: only way you're going to get in is through Christ.
50:44
Speaker 1: No amount of works, no amount of money, no amount
50:46
Speaker 1: of sacrifice, no amount of martyrdom is going to get
50:50
Speaker 1: you any closer. Either in or you're out. If you're in,
50:54
Speaker 1: it's because you took a gift. Any other message is heresy.
50:59
Speaker 1: It's heresy. It's heresy. Let's bow together. Maybe you've never
51:11
Speaker 1: trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus paid it all. He
51:17
Speaker 1: paid everything that needed to be paid for your sins.
51:20
Speaker 1: How wonderful it is that he invites you to come
51:22
Speaker 1: in just like you are. You don't have to go
51:24
Speaker 1: get a shower. You don't have to clean up. You
51:27
Speaker 1: don't have to stop sinning. You don't have to start
51:29
Speaker 1: going to church. You don't have to promise to keep
51:32
Speaker 1: this or stop doing that. Come just like you are.
51:35
Speaker 1: This church is full of people like that, including the preacher.
51:41
Speaker 1: Just like you are. We can help you get there.
51:45
Speaker 1: Connect with us. We got a prayer room here today
51:47
Speaker 1: and we've got a phone through the week. Connect with us.
51:51
Speaker 1: Let us help you. You don't even have to walk
51:55
Speaker 1: down an aisle. Can if you want to. I'm down
51:59
Speaker 1: front at the end of every service. Your call. You're
52:05
Speaker 1: free to choose. It's your move. Thank you, Father, for
52:14
Speaker 1: helping us with the paralysis of legalism. Thank you for
52:18
Speaker 1: helping us get past the ugly comments of other people.
52:24
Speaker 1: Thank you for the joy of an interdependent relationship with
52:28
Speaker 1: Christ and one another where we're with each other as friends,
52:32
Speaker 1: fellow sinners, not with each other to check each other out.
52:39
Speaker 1: Protect us, Father, in this day when terrorists would have
52:42
Speaker 1: their way Not only politically, but spiritually. And may we
52:47
Speaker 1: become people of the truth of God. Humbly trusting your word.
52:54
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, we all pray. Everybody sit. Amen. The
53:03
Speaker 1: preceding message, Standing Your Ground for Grace, was copyrighted in
53:08
Speaker 1: 2005 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2013 by
53:10
Speaker 1: Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.