WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.679 Well, good morning. You've been falsely informed that I am from Jackson, Mississippi. I'm from 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:15.519 Glasgow, Scotland, but I live and work and serve in Jackson, Mississippi, and this was 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:22.000 actually my home church when I was a student at what is now ETS at the Free Church College. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:28.440 Derek and Katrina Lamont were a great encouragement to me and my family, and we were immensely 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:34.719 blessed and helped by their ministry, an example to us. Corey Brock, of course, was an assistant 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:42.079 minister with me in Jackson, Sebastian and Ainsley Byrnegaard, Hunter and Carly Nicholson, 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:47.640 who are here among you and serve, who are interns in our congregation. I've worshipped 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:53.480 here even just this past summer with members of First Presbyn Church, and we have many 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:59.959 deep and wonderful connections to this congregation, and so it's a real treat for me to be with 00:00:59.959 --> 00:01:07.200 you today and to open God's Word. Do keep your Bibles open, please, at Galatians chapter 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:13.840 two and the passage we read together. Such an important episode for us to consider, this 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:19.319 little falling out, not so little falling out, actually, this real division that erupted 00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:27.239 between the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter in the church. In Antioch, as I was thinking 00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:34.919 about the passage, I remembered a moment when I was the free church minister in London. I 00:01:34.919 --> 00:01:42.959 was there 20 years ago, and the Lord opened an amazing door for us to plant a church amongst 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:49.000 the many thousands of young African language boers, young whites of Africans who were the 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:54.920 first generation to grow up in South Africa after the fall of apartheid, and they were 00:01:54.920 --> 00:02:01.799 in a real crisis of identity. They were glad that apartheid had been toppled, that racist 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:07.840 regime was over, but theirs was nevertheless still the language and the culture of an oppressor 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:13.840 minority, and they were really struggling, a real crisis of identity, and many of them, 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:18.080 these young people were fleeing South Africa, they were coming to London, they didn't really 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:26.360 know who they were or how to be, and the Lord opened an amazing door for us to begin to 00:02:26.360 --> 00:02:30.960 reach them, and we started to plant a church amongst them. We called a young pastor from 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:35.760 South Africa to be the assistant minister and help us plant that church, and as we were 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:42.640 planning his ordination service, I was approached by another minister in London who was from 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:49.039 South Africa, I'd never met this guy before, and he asked if he could come and participate 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:54.879 in the ordination service as an official representative of his South African denomination, 00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:01.359 and so I met with the man and I discovered that his denomination shared the same theological 00:03:01.359 --> 00:03:06.839 convictions that we did, and that was encouraging, and then he told me something that really 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:14.920 broke my heart, he said, but our denomination still upholds the view that people of colour 00:03:14.920 --> 00:03:21.319 are not welcome in our worship services, so if you are a black South African, you would 00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:26.120 not be allowed to be a member of their churches, and at that point I had to look him in the 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:32.480 eye and say, there's absolutely no way you can participate in the ordination service, 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:39.519 in fact we can't have any connection with you in any way at all, because you are prohibiting 00:03:39.519 --> 00:03:46.319 from the fellowship of God's people some of those for whom Christ shed His blood to 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:54.319 welcome into His family, and I was sort of transported back to that moment as I read 00:03:54.319 --> 00:04:01.959 here about the confrontation between Paul and the apostle Peter in the city of Antioch 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:13.960 because much like that South African minister, Peter had begun to impose extra restrictions 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:20.280 upon those whom Christ had freely welcomed into the church simply on the basis of their 00:04:20.280 --> 00:04:21.280 trust in Him. 00:04:21.280 --> 00:04:29.000 He had begun to impose additional rules that was dividing the fellowship of God's people, 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:37.639 extra biblical requirements that was shattering the unity and the harmony of the church. 00:04:37.639 --> 00:04:42.839 And looking at this episode together is really important and helpful for us because it helps 00:04:42.839 --> 00:04:47.560 us understand just how easily that can happen. 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:51.560 After all, we're talking about the mighty apostle Peter, we're not talking about some 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:58.720 new Christian who's just got some wrong ideas and they just need to work through them. 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:03.280 This is the apostle Peter himself. 00:05:03.280 --> 00:05:05.560 And we're not talking about just any old church either. 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:14.120 Antioch, where this takes place, was sort of the missionary church planting powerhouse 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:17.040 of the New Testament age. 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:22.760 It was where Paul made his home base and where he was sent out on his missionary journeys 00:05:22.760 --> 00:05:25.800 all over the Roman Empire to plant new churches. 00:05:25.800 --> 00:05:32.879 The point really is if it can happen to Peter, even Peter, it could happen to us. 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:37.480 And if it could happen to a church like Antioch, it could happen here. 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:40.199 That's part of the message. 00:05:40.199 --> 00:05:45.639 Now, Paul is engaged in the second half of chapter one all the way through chapter two 00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:53.439 in some autobiography, partly because in Galatia, he's writing this letter to the Galatians, 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:57.120 in Galatia, there were some false teachers who had shown up in the church, they were 00:05:57.120 --> 00:05:59.600 legalistic. 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:05.879 And part of their strategy was to undermine Paul's authority and say, you know, Paul 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:12.399 is a cut rate, you know, bargain basement secondhand apostle. 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:14.120 He's not the real deal. 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:17.720 So don't trust him, listen to us. 00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:22.920 And so Paul has to, before he can get to his theology, he has to stop and tell something 00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:28.000 of his own story and demonstrate, no, I'm every bit as authoritative and valid as an 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:31.920 apostle as Peter and the other apostles in Jerusalem. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:33.480 That's what he's doing here. 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:39.000 And just before this passage, he's told us he himself went to Jerusalem and told the 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:41.960 other apostles about his message. 00:06:41.960 --> 00:06:45.520 And they said, we're with you 100%. 00:06:45.520 --> 00:06:50.920 And so it's really quite surprising here when Peter returns the favor and comes now up to 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:56.759 Antioch where Paul has made his base to visit the church there, that Peter does this sort 00:06:56.759 --> 00:06:59.439 of U-turn. 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:06.920 And instead of a free gospel that unifies Jews and Gentiles simply on the basis of trusting 00:07:06.920 --> 00:07:13.800 Jesus without any additional requirements, now all of a sudden Peter changes his mind 00:07:13.800 --> 00:07:18.000 and backs away from fellowship with non-Jewish people. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:24.600 He wants to reimpose ceremonial regulations from the Old Testament law. 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:27.839 It's really shocking. 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:29.240 So what is it that's going on? 00:07:29.240 --> 00:07:31.360 Well, here's how I want to look at the passage. 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:36.879 I want to think about three things because there's a sort of a spiritual disease that 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:40.920 Paul is telling us about in Peter's life. 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:49.800 So in verses 11 through 13, I want to look at the symptoms of that disease because I 00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:57.240 want us to be able to diagnose it in ourselves if it ever began to show up there. 00:07:57.240 --> 00:07:58.480 So the symptoms. 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:05.319 And then verse 14, behind the symptoms, I want us to see the diagnosis, the disease 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:09.480 itself, the root of all the problems. 00:08:09.480 --> 00:08:14.520 And then we'll look in verses 15 and 16 at God's treatment plan. 00:08:14.520 --> 00:08:18.640 If this disease ever showed up in your life or in this church, what should we do? 00:08:18.640 --> 00:08:24.600 Well, we need to get a hold of the teaching of verses 15 and 16. 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:34.200 So the symptoms first of all, Paul has to confront Peter because previously he was quite 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:39.640 happy to have fellowship with Gentiles until some folks show up from the church in Jerusalem 00:08:39.640 --> 00:08:42.600 and then all of a sudden he backs away. 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:45.879 He says, Peter, I confronted him to his face because Peter stood condemned. 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:52.640 That is to say, he was entirely unequivocally and ambiguously straight up just plain wrong. 00:08:52.640 --> 00:08:58.080 This wasn't a difference of strategy or a difference of personality or, you know, Peter 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:00.520 did it his way and Paul did it his way. 00:09:00.520 --> 00:09:02.560 And these are two big egos clashing. 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:04.879 That's not what it was. 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:09.959 Something much more serious is happening and Paul felt compelled to confront him. 00:09:09.959 --> 00:09:13.000 So what's the problem exactly? 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:17.519 What are the symptoms of this spiritual disease in Peter's life? 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:21.079 Well, the first of them we've already begun to notice, haven't we? 00:09:21.079 --> 00:09:23.599 It's the symptom of division. 00:09:23.599 --> 00:09:27.039 You can see it in verse 12. 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:30.639 Paul, Cephas used to eat with the Gentiles. 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:35.919 The tense there is important that the Greek word really indicates that this was his habit, 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:37.399 his custom. 00:09:37.399 --> 00:09:43.080 Ordinarily, habitually, quite happily, he regularly sat down and had fellowship. 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:44.080 He ate meals. 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:45.679 He did life with. 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:50.600 He sat around the Lord's table beside non-Jewish people. 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:57.439 And then these fellows from James in Jerusalem show up in Antioch and were told that Peter 00:09:57.439 --> 00:09:59.919 drew back and separated himself. 00:09:59.919 --> 00:10:01.919 And again, the language there is important. 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:10.319 Really, the words mean that Peter began to back away until a full breach of fellowship, 00:10:10.319 --> 00:10:13.959 of separation, took place. 00:10:13.959 --> 00:10:18.120 A fundamental division between Jews and Gentiles. 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:24.839 A division actually that had been healed wonderfully in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:31.680 Jesus took away the middle wall of separation and made of the two one new man, canceling 00:10:31.680 --> 00:10:38.519 all the obligations and ceremonies of the Mosaic law that made the Jews so very distinct 00:10:38.519 --> 00:10:44.080 and joined Jews and Gentiles together as one body of Christ simply on the basis of trust 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:45.080 in Him. 00:10:45.080 --> 00:10:46.960 That's what Jesus has done. 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:55.160 And now that old division that had been healed erupts again in the life of the church in 00:10:55.160 --> 00:10:58.680 Antioch. 00:10:58.680 --> 00:11:03.560 And so something terrible is happening in Peter's life, but it doesn't stay with Peter. 00:11:03.560 --> 00:11:13.600 Did you notice in verse 13 that this spiritual infection of some false ideas that has penetrated 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:15.200 Peter's life spreads? 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:22.160 An infectious spiritual disease so that as Peter begins to back away, so do the other 00:11:22.160 --> 00:11:24.520 Jews in the church. 00:11:24.520 --> 00:11:26.160 And even Barnabas. 00:11:26.160 --> 00:11:28.640 Barnabas was Paul's right hand man. 00:11:28.640 --> 00:11:31.080 So it's really shocking. 00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:40.720 Even Barnabas is swept up in all of this and breaks fellowship and returns to this Mosaic 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:44.560 Old Testament division. 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:52.519 And what is it that's caused this awful breach of fellowship along racial lines so ugly 00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:53.839 in the church in Antioch? 00:11:53.839 --> 00:11:59.919 Look at verse 12 again, when certain men came from James, Cephas, the apostle Peter, was 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:01.919 eating and drinking with the Gentiles. 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:04.279 But when they came, he drew back and separated himself. 00:12:04.279 --> 00:12:06.279 Now how come? 00:12:06.279 --> 00:12:07.279 Why? 00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:11.919 Fearing the circumcision party. 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:21.679 So behind his separation from his Gentile brothers and sisters lies a second deeper symptom 00:12:21.679 --> 00:12:26.079 of spiritual disease in his life. 00:12:26.079 --> 00:12:31.159 He fears the circumcision party. 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:36.480 Fear of other people is what is driving him. 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:43.639 And what a powerful motivator, almost always in a damaging direction, the fear of other 00:12:43.639 --> 00:12:46.000 people's opinion can be in our lives. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.759 Haven't you found that to be true? 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:55.159 It's almost never productive of something healthy in our hearts and lives, living in 00:12:55.159 --> 00:12:58.360 the fear of other people's opinions. 00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:04.920 There was a book in the second century called The Book of Jubilees that gave instructions 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:11.639 to Jewish people, and it said this, separate yourself from the Gentiles and do not eat 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:18.599 with them and do not perform deeds like theirs and do not become associates of theirs because 00:13:18.599 --> 00:13:25.399 their deeds are defiled, all of their ways are contaminated and despicable and abominable. 00:13:25.399 --> 00:13:29.759 That's how the Jews thought about the Gentiles. 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:38.319 And these folks from Jerusalem still seem to have bought into those ideas. 00:13:38.319 --> 00:13:42.399 They were saying, sure, we want you to follow Jesus. 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:47.919 You need to follow Jesus, but if you really want to be accepted with God, that's not enough. 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:53.600 You need to follow Jesus and you need all these ceremonies. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:57.360 You need to follow the dietary rules of the Mosaic law. 00:13:57.360 --> 00:13:59.600 You need to be circumcised. 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:01.000 You need to keep the law. 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:05.519 You need to perform religious ritual. 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:12.240 And then on the basis of all of that in combination, then God will accept you. 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:13.360 He'll count you righteous. 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:20.560 He'll justify you on the basis of your religious qualification. 00:14:20.560 --> 00:14:26.600 That was what these people from Jerusalem believed, and Peter is completely intimidated 00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:29.279 by them. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:39.320 Maybe he was afraid he would appear less strict, less faithful, less committed. 00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:46.240 Maybe he worried that he's going to lose face or lose influence or lose position as a leader 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:48.920 in the church in Jerusalem. 00:14:48.920 --> 00:14:54.360 Whatever's going on in Peter's mind, there was a division in the church and it was caused 00:14:54.360 --> 00:15:01.159 by Peter's fear of their opinions about him. 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:06.399 And then did you notice how Paul sums up all the symptoms of spiritual disease that have 00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:12.600 begun now to spread like an infection from Peter's heart into the hearts of so many in 00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:13.600 the church? 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:19.480 Twice over, Paul calls them hypocrites in verse 13. 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:22.480 Do you see that? 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:27.879 You might well know the word that's translated hypocrite comes from a Greek word that was 00:15:27.879 --> 00:15:32.240 used originally in the theater. 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:34.639 Actors would wear a mask. 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:39.920 You were a hypocrite, if you wore a mask as you adopted a persona. 00:15:39.920 --> 00:15:50.920 And Paul is frustrated and grieving and roused to confront Peter because he knows that Peter 00:15:50.919 --> 00:15:53.240 knows better. 00:15:53.240 --> 00:15:57.000 This isn't who Peter really is. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:15:59.599 Actually you may remember something of Peter's backstory. 00:15:59.599 --> 00:16:05.000 In Acts chapter 10, Peter had a vision. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:12.120 He was still a devout, observant, law-keeping Jew, even though he was a follower of the Lord 00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:13.120 Jesus. 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:18.599 And in Acts chapter 10, he has a vision where the Lord showed him unclean animals. 00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:24.639 The animals that the law of Moses said Jewish people aren't allowed to eat, not kosher. 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:28.680 So a vision and he's told, rise and eat, Peter. 00:16:28.680 --> 00:16:32.960 And Peter says, I've never eaten anything that's unclean. 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:38.920 To which the Lord responds, what God has made clean, do not call unclean. 00:16:38.920 --> 00:16:46.040 And at that moment, Peter realized that Jewish people and Gentile people are now one, that 00:16:46.039 --> 00:16:51.000 there are no longer any unclean people among the Gentiles. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:57.000 The moment they believe in Jesus, we are one in Christ. 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:04.559 And we ought not to stand on these mosaic Old Testament distinctions any longer. 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:07.599 So in other words, Peter knew better. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:11.279 It's the epitome of hypocrisy, what's happening here in Antioch. 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:16.680 You see how powerful the fear of the opinion of other people can really be. 00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:19.240 Peter had a vision from Jesus. 00:17:19.240 --> 00:17:26.480 He heard the word of Christ telling him about the way things are now. 00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:32.440 And even that was overwhelmed by the fear of men. 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:36.839 So there's division rooted in the fear of the opinion of others leading to terrible, 00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:37.839 terrible hypocrisy. 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:44.439 Those are the symptoms, now we're ready to hear Paul's diagnosis. 00:17:44.439 --> 00:17:52.919 Here's the spiritual disease that is the cause of all of this dreadful disorder. 00:17:52.919 --> 00:18:02.720 Verse 14, but when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:08.519 I said to Cephas before them all, if you being a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:12.600 how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? 00:18:12.600 --> 00:18:20.160 I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel. 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:23.559 Paul might have taken a different approach. 00:18:23.559 --> 00:18:29.519 He could very appropriately and legitimately have gone symptom by symptom and confronted 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:36.079 Peter on each of them and said, now look here, Peter, racial division is wicked and sinful. 00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:38.319 And here's why he could have done that. 00:18:38.319 --> 00:18:39.639 That would be right. 00:18:39.639 --> 00:18:50.039 He could have said to Peter, feeding the opinion of other people is so destructive. 00:18:50.039 --> 00:18:51.240 It's dangerous, Peter. 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:56.039 And here's why he could have called Peter out for his hypocrisy. 00:18:56.039 --> 00:19:01.680 All of that would have been just and right and perhaps even helpful, but do you see what 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:03.240 Paul does instead? 00:19:03.240 --> 00:19:05.319 He doesn't just go for the symptoms. 00:19:05.319 --> 00:19:06.879 He tackles the root. 00:19:06.879 --> 00:19:07.879 He tackles the disease. 00:19:07.879 --> 00:19:11.599 There's so much wisdom here, isn't there? 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:18.039 Back of all the symptoms that are poisoning Peter's life, what is really going on? 00:19:18.039 --> 00:19:20.599 Well, Peter, here's what's going on in your life. 00:19:20.599 --> 00:19:25.599 The gospel, the truth of the gospel is no longer. 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:29.439 In this moment, it's no longer the governing principle. 00:19:29.439 --> 00:19:32.039 It's not in the driving seats. 00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:37.319 It's not the operating system for your life anymore. 00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:40.799 It's the fear of men. 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:48.119 You're not walking in line with the truth of the gospel. 00:19:48.119 --> 00:19:52.879 That's why Paul is willing to confront him because this isn't just about a different 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:55.640 approach or different strategies. 00:19:55.640 --> 00:20:00.840 This is a gospel problem. 00:20:00.840 --> 00:20:06.280 The word, actually there's two words in Greek translated by six words in English. 00:20:06.280 --> 00:20:11.600 Their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel. 00:20:11.600 --> 00:20:17.000 That little word not in step with means straight walking. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:21.920 Paul wasn't walking straight in line with the truth. 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:25.640 He wasn't walking along the gospel line. 00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:31.560 One scholar says, the metaphor is of a confused wanderer, someone who veers from the path 00:20:31.560 --> 00:20:36.880 such as a staggering drunk who cannot walk a straight line. 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:38.400 That's what's happening in Peter's life. 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:45.080 The point is the gospel, the good news about Jesus who he is and what he's done is a straight 00:20:45.080 --> 00:20:51.759 path and Peter's become so intoxicated with the pursuit of the good opinion of other people. 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:57.720 That drunk with their praises, he has staggered from a life lived along the gospel line with 00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:01.799 disastrous consequences. 00:21:01.799 --> 00:21:07.240 And there's a sad irony in all of this that I want to make sure you don't miss. 00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:14.079 I wonder if you saw how even though once this circumcision party, these legalistic thinkers 00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:22.279 from Jerusalem have arrived in Antioch and intimidated Peter, even though Peter now tries 00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:29.240 to make strict obedience to the law his big thing. 00:21:29.240 --> 00:21:35.879 Did you notice how as he focuses on the outward ceremonies of the law, he actually fails to 00:21:35.879 --> 00:21:43.599 keep the heart and the spirit of the law of God itself? 00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:47.599 In some pretty dramatic ways, did you notice that in the passage? 00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:52.799 So he might well have managed to uphold the mosaic dietary restrictions that would mean 00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:56.879 he couldn't have fellowship with Gentiles. 00:21:56.879 --> 00:22:05.639 But all that manages to do in the end is shatter the unity of the church so that he fails spectacularly 00:22:05.639 --> 00:22:11.959 in the basic obligation to love his neighbor as himself. 00:22:11.960 --> 00:22:23.000 For sure, he recommitted himself to the ceremonies of Jewish law, but he did it, Paul says, because 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:24.960 he was captured by the fear of men. 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:29.039 He wasn't motivated by the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom. 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:32.680 You remember how Jesus sums up the whole of God's law. 00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:34.360 You remember what he said? 00:22:34.360 --> 00:22:39.200 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:42.000 and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:45.600 Here's Peter saying, I'm going to be all about the law. 00:22:45.600 --> 00:22:49.360 As he throws himself at trying to keep the law, what happens? 00:22:49.360 --> 00:22:57.360 He's focused on law instead of gospel and instead of obeying the law, he ends up distorting 00:22:57.360 --> 00:23:00.720 the law in this most basic of ways. 00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:04.840 He neither loves his neighbor nor does he really love the Lord. 00:23:04.840 --> 00:23:07.279 He's driven by the fear of men. 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:11.559 Now he looks down on upon other people and thinks them less than himself. 00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:20.160 It's one of the reasons, by the way, why legalists are always so frustrated. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:25.359 They're always mad and unhappy, sour folks, have you noticed that about them? 00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:28.039 They're always sucking lemons, these legalists. 00:23:28.039 --> 00:23:34.440 Why are they so frustrated, so unhappy, so miserable? 00:23:34.440 --> 00:23:38.480 Because they've made law keeping their central focus, that's what they're all about, not 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:39.480 the gospel. 00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:46.160 And the result is that no matter how hard they try to keep the law, the very thing they 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:49.880 try to obey, they only ever end up distorting. 00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:52.400 So it slips like sand through their fingers. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:54.799 So what happens to Peter right here? 00:23:54.799 --> 00:23:57.559 What a futile way to live, it's miserable. 00:23:57.559 --> 00:23:59.640 Well, what's the solution? 00:23:59.640 --> 00:24:03.120 Is there a better way? 00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:09.199 Luke verses 15 and 16, we've seen the symptoms, and then we diagnose the disease. 00:24:09.199 --> 00:24:12.639 Peter is not living according to the truth of the gospel. 00:24:12.639 --> 00:24:15.319 Now here's the remedy. 00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:20.119 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentiles sinners, yet we know that a person is not 00:24:20.119 --> 00:24:24.759 justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. 00:24:24.759 --> 00:24:29.119 So we have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not 00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:35.599 by works of the law because by works of the law no one will be justified. 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:41.479 It's virtually a summary of the whole argument of the book of Galatians, and I love it. 00:24:41.479 --> 00:24:46.679 It's really Paul's report of what he said to Peter when he confronted him, and you get 00:24:46.679 --> 00:24:54.479 the sense that he's got one thing to say and he's really frustrated, so he says it three 00:24:54.479 --> 00:24:55.479 times over. 00:24:55.480 --> 00:25:00.559 Have you ever been in an argument and you're making your point and you say it all these 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:02.640 different ways backwards and forwards? 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:09.000 Paul says it the same thing forwards and then backwards and then forwards again. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:13.160 You see that in verses 15 and 16, a person is not justified by works of the law but through 00:25:13.160 --> 00:25:14.360 faith in Jesus Christ. 00:25:14.360 --> 00:25:18.640 So we have believed in Jesus Christ in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:22.400 by works of the law because by works of the law no one will be justified. 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:25.720 He goes one way and then backs up and then goes the other way just to make sure we really 00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:27.880 get it. 00:25:27.880 --> 00:25:29.480 What's the point? 00:25:29.480 --> 00:25:35.800 Peter, you can't get right with God by doing stuff. 00:25:35.800 --> 00:25:37.360 That's the point. 00:25:37.360 --> 00:25:44.560 A person is not justified by works of the law. 00:25:44.560 --> 00:25:49.440 That's what this circumcision party that showed up in Antioch thought, isn't it? 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:53.920 They believed all the ceremonies of the law of Moses still applied. 00:25:53.920 --> 00:26:01.120 They didn't understand that of course because of the cross of Jesus Christ, they are now 00:26:01.120 --> 00:26:05.320 all obsolete. 00:26:05.320 --> 00:26:08.240 Jesus blood on the cross means you don't need sacrifices anymore. 00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:11.960 There's no partition or division between Jew and Gentile. 00:26:11.960 --> 00:26:12.960 We're now one. 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:15.039 There's no need for circumcision. 00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:16.039 There's no priesthood. 00:26:16.039 --> 00:26:18.680 There's no temple because of the cross. 00:26:18.680 --> 00:26:26.039 So by affirming that you do need these things, they're undermining and distorting the gospel. 00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:31.920 And then as they base their confidence that God will accept them on their religious performance, 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:34.440 they're distorting the law as well, aren't they? 00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:38.400 They've missed the fact that Paul points to Peter here. 00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:40.759 You can't get right with God that way. 00:26:40.759 --> 00:26:41.759 It's impossible. 00:26:41.759 --> 00:26:46.240 I wonder if you really get that. 00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:49.440 Do you get that? 00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:52.160 Do better, try harder is not going to work. 00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:54.960 It's not going to work. 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:58.400 You can give money, you can pray, you can read your Bible diligently. 00:26:58.400 --> 00:27:02.359 You can be here every day, every time the doors are open. 00:27:02.359 --> 00:27:03.359 Do those things. 00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:07.759 Those are healthy, beautiful things. 00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:09.120 Part of Christian faithfulness. 00:27:09.120 --> 00:27:12.359 Do them, but don't trust them. 00:27:12.359 --> 00:27:18.119 Don't trust them that because you do them, God will accept you. 00:27:18.119 --> 00:27:24.079 By the works of the law, no one will be justified. 00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:28.119 You can't keep the law perfectly. 00:27:28.119 --> 00:27:35.759 You can't do enough, be good enough, perform enough ever to merit God's loving. 00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:39.359 You can't do it. 00:27:39.359 --> 00:27:48.599 But Paul is saying, Peter, when you simply trust Jesus, when you rest not on how much 00:27:48.599 --> 00:28:00.199 you've done, but on what He has done perfectly for you, an obedient life is sacrificial death. 00:28:00.199 --> 00:28:08.279 That's when God accepts you for free as a gift. 00:28:08.279 --> 00:28:12.559 What Paul wants Peter to remember in the Galatians as he writes to them here to realize and for 00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:24.680 you and me to grasp is how that one simple, beautiful, glorious truth changes everything. 00:28:24.680 --> 00:28:27.920 Changes everything. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:38.200 When you understand that you're accepted freely in the sight of God for nothing in you, for 00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:49.279 nothing you've done, and for no reason you can supply, you're accepted freely only because 00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:55.640 Jesus obeyed and bled and died for you. 00:28:55.640 --> 00:29:06.040 When you see that you are completely accepted in Christ, all your sin not withstanding, 00:29:06.040 --> 00:29:15.600 and certainly not because you cleaned up your act first and qualified for God's love. 00:29:15.600 --> 00:29:21.240 But when you realize He accepts you freely and loves you freely anyway, when that really 00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:31.839 begins to percolate down into your heart, it sets you free from the need ever to seek 00:29:31.839 --> 00:29:37.720 acceptance in the opinion of other people because you're accepted already in the judgment 00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:44.079 of the only person whose opinion ever really matters. 00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:51.359 And not because you earned it, which means of course if it was a free gift that you didn't 00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:55.720 earn, you can't lose it. 00:29:55.720 --> 00:30:01.199 And so once you have received His acceptance, you're secure in it. 00:30:01.199 --> 00:30:07.480 He accepts you for free on the basis of what Jesus has done for you. 00:30:07.480 --> 00:30:15.079 And that actually cuts the chains that hold you enslaved to seeking the approval of others. 00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:17.680 That's what Peter has missed. 00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:19.720 It sets you free. 00:30:19.720 --> 00:30:27.440 Now you can begin to walk straight in line with the truth of the gospel at last. 00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:32.559 The thing Peter forgot, the thing that Paul is reminding him of here, the thing I need 00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:39.399 to remember every day, I dare say you need to remember it too, is that law keeping, a 00:30:39.399 --> 00:30:46.279 life of moral obedience, does not impress God. 00:30:46.279 --> 00:30:50.359 It doesn't make Him accept you. 00:30:50.359 --> 00:31:03.079 But it does come, it arises up in the heart of a Christian gladly when you realize how 00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:09.519 freely you've been accepted and beloved anyway. 00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:16.839 You can never use your moral behavior, your religious performances leverage to make God 00:31:16.839 --> 00:31:19.399 accept you or pardon you. 00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:25.480 You have to realize He accepts you already for free in Christ. 00:31:25.480 --> 00:31:32.360 But when that sinks in and becomes the operating system in your life, the amazing thing is 00:31:32.360 --> 00:31:41.759 you then actually begin to keep God's law the way it was meant to be kept, not superficially 00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:45.420 on the surface, but from your heart. 00:31:45.420 --> 00:31:52.759 Because you've discovered that He loves you first, you begin to love Him, not perfectly 00:31:52.759 --> 00:31:57.880 to be sure, but more and more with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and 00:31:57.880 --> 00:32:04.039 you begin to love your neighbor as yourself. 00:32:04.039 --> 00:32:09.000 So what kind of life are you living today? 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:16.200 I wonder if you're here to log a few hours in God's good books. 00:32:16.200 --> 00:32:19.920 Remember would you by the works of the law no one will be justified. 00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:23.680 You can't do it. 00:32:23.680 --> 00:32:36.240 Or are you here because despite all your sin, all your ineptitude, your moral failure, even 00:32:36.240 --> 00:32:42.480 though you don't deserve any of it, you've discovered that God loves you and has forgiven 00:32:42.480 --> 00:32:50.279 you and embraced you as His child for free in the gospel of His Son. 00:32:50.279 --> 00:32:55.319 He's given Jesus to the cross for you. 00:32:55.319 --> 00:32:59.559 He's kept the law that you could never perfectly keep and endured the penalty for all your 00:32:59.559 --> 00:33:10.879 law-breaking, so that now because of such love, you find yourself loving Him and loving all 00:33:10.879 --> 00:33:13.899 who love Him too. 00:33:13.899 --> 00:33:17.440 Not to earn His favor, but to say thank you. 00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:21.399 We love Him because He first loved us. 00:33:21.399 --> 00:33:22.839 So the symptoms, do you see them? 00:33:22.839 --> 00:33:25.279 Division, seeking the approval of others, hypocrisy. 00:33:25.279 --> 00:33:30.839 Be there was living for the acceptance of His peers instead of living from His acceptance 00:33:30.839 --> 00:33:33.839 in Jesus Christ. 00:33:33.839 --> 00:33:34.839 And that's the disease. 00:33:34.839 --> 00:33:39.799 He was no longer walking in step with the truth of the gospel. 00:33:39.799 --> 00:33:41.480 The gospel had stopped reaching His heart. 00:33:41.480 --> 00:33:45.160 Has it stopped reaching your heart? 00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:50.720 Is the gospel the operating system in your life? 00:33:50.720 --> 00:33:54.799 Well there's a remedy. 00:33:54.799 --> 00:34:00.000 All reminds, Simea reminds us, we've believed in Jesus Christ in order to be justified by 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:05.680 faith in Christ and not by works of the law. 00:34:05.680 --> 00:34:15.880 You must come to see that you are accepted completely, wholly, and forever in Jesus Christ 00:34:15.880 --> 00:34:16.880 alone. 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:23.679 Only that will set you free from the enslaving power of people pleasing. 00:34:23.679 --> 00:34:28.919 May God help us then to get a hold of such wonderful good news. 00:34:28.919 --> 00:34:32.559 Let me pray. 00:34:32.559 --> 00:34:42.440 Father thank You so much for the Lord Jesus Christ, for His obedience, for His death, that 00:34:42.440 --> 00:34:47.359 on the basis of what He has done, not what our hands have done, but on the basis of what 00:34:47.359 --> 00:34:53.519 He has done, You look at wretched sinners like me. 00:34:53.519 --> 00:35:02.199 You accept us and love us and rejoice over us. 00:35:02.199 --> 00:35:07.360 Help us, oh God, to see that because we're accepted in Christ Jesus, we don't need the 00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:10.320 approval of others. 00:35:10.320 --> 00:35:18.159 We have the loving embrace of the only one whose opinion ever really counts. 00:35:18.159 --> 00:35:24.639 Let us free, we pray, from the enslaving bondage of people pleasing. 00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:31.119 And as we begin to grasp the wonder of Your free love in Christ, melt our hearts to love 00:35:31.119 --> 00:35:36.679 You in return, more and more with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength, and to love 00:35:36.679 --> 00:35:40.279 our neighbors as ourselves. 00:35:40.279 --> 00:35:44.000 For we ask it all that Jesus might have the glory. 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:51.000 Amen.