WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.339 So, if you have your Bibles open, perhaps you can turn back with me to that section that 00:00:07.339 --> 00:00:16.920 ! but especially chapter 2, verses 11 to 16. So, we're thinking about the reality that at the 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:21.980 ! the heart of the good news of the gospel is Paul brings it to the Galatians, that we are 00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:29.980 justified by faith in Christ Jesus and not our good works. In a sense, we're actually 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:39.320 asking the big question, how can I be declared right and acceptable by God? And I imagine, 00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:44.460 given that we're all in church this evening, we will at least to some degree have thought about 00:00:44.460 --> 00:00:51.659 that question. And it's a vital question for someone like John Calvin coming to this issue. He said, 00:00:51.659 --> 00:01:01.439 this is the hinge upon which true religion turns. This truth of how we are justified is a truth that 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:10.819 matters. To put it in its legal context, because it's a courtroom word, how can you and I hear God's 00:01:10.819 --> 00:01:21.839 verdict of justified as opposed to condemned on our lives? This is a question with eternal significance. 00:01:22.699 --> 00:01:30.399 And it's a question that Paul brings to Peter and then brings to the wider church and brings to us 00:01:30.399 --> 00:01:37.479 in the context of this letter. So, we've been thinking about the good news that we must never 00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:43.640 forget. We've thought this morning that this is good news that came from God. It's not man-made. And now 00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:52.200 we come to the heart of the matter. Chapter 2, verse 16. A person is not justified by the works of the law, 00:01:52.560 --> 00:02:01.659 but by faith in Jesus Christ. Which really introduces for us that sense that there are two basic answers that 00:02:01.659 --> 00:02:10.060 are given to the question, how can I be right with God? How can I receive a positive verdict 00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:18.259 on my life? One set of people, and this includes every religion other than Christianity, but many world views 00:02:18.259 --> 00:02:26.960 would say, well, I will justify myself. And we can do that without religion, my level of morality, 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:34.020 a particular performance, a particular form of goodness will affect my justification. God will 00:02:34.020 --> 00:02:40.860 accept me because I do this, that, and the next thing. We can also do it with our religion also. 00:02:43.300 --> 00:02:49.960 I think that God will accept me because of my spiritual disciplines, because I think enough, feel enough, 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:59.760 do enough. By this view, and this was the view of the false teachers, it is possible for us to earn 00:02:59.760 --> 00:03:06.680 salvation, to earn favor with God. And as we thought about this morning, this is what Paul opposes. 00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:12.680 Because the only answer that counts, the only answer that brings freedom and that brings life, 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:21.560 is to understand that we are justified only by faith in the Lord Jesus. The only performance we want to 00:03:21.560 --> 00:03:29.780 trust in, the only person we want to rely on for our acceptance is not ourselves and our merit, 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:37.680 our record, it's that of the Lord Jesus. And the good news that we find in the book of Galatians is that 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:46.719 while the default setting of the human heart is that tendency to aim to or to imagine we can justify 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:53.420 ourselves, Paul will say to us very clearly, well, that will never do, that will never work, but there 00:03:53.420 --> 00:04:01.740 is still good news from God in the gospel of grace that says Jesus is our justification. 00:04:01.740 --> 00:04:08.320 That we don't have to say, I feel I am good enough, we can know Jesus is good enough and I am in him. 00:04:09.040 --> 00:04:15.439 That faith brings us into life with God, right standing with God when we are in Christ. And 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:23.379 everybody must choose, you know, how we are going to operate, imagining that we just are justified. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:29.879 You know, who will we choose to trust in? Will it be ourselves day by day or will we day by day be 00:04:29.879 --> 00:04:38.620 trusting in the Lord Jesus for our justification? And Paul writes this letter to urge his initial 00:04:38.620 --> 00:04:46.019 readers, but to urge us also to place all of our hope in Jesus. Not some of our hope in Jesus and some 00:04:46.019 --> 00:04:53.579 of our hope in ourselves, but all of our hope in him. To rest on him alone for salvation, to turn away 00:04:53.579 --> 00:05:02.099 from the temptation to try and justify ourselves. To rescue us from the lie of legalism that says by a certain 00:05:02.099 --> 00:05:11.099 ability in law keeping, we can earn approval from our God. So we're going to look at two things. We're going 00:05:11.099 --> 00:05:19.019 to look at the truth that we find in verses 15 and 16, and then we're going to look at the threat as we think 00:05:19.019 --> 00:05:24.879 about what happens with Peter and the legalists. So let's think first of all about the truth that we 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:30.579 are justified by faith in Jesus and not good work. So if you were here this morning, you'll remember Paul 00:05:30.579 --> 00:05:38.180 is telling an extended piece of autobiography. And as we come to verse 11, we understand that here we 00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:47.339 come to a point of high drama. Because here we have two apostles on different sides of an argument. 00:05:47.339 --> 00:05:55.759 There is a clash, and we're going to come back to it. But to just remind us, when Peter came to Antioch, 00:05:55.879 --> 00:06:03.659 Paul opposed Peter to his face because Peter stood condemned. And so we get this extended treatment of 00:06:03.659 --> 00:06:10.659 what was going on and how that was to be resolved. But in the middle of it, we come to the great truth 00:06:10.659 --> 00:06:17.000 that we're going to think about first. This one-sentence summary of the gospel that Paul gives 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:24.920 to us that we are not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. And it's a 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:31.779 wonderful answer because it says to us there is only one way that a person is declared to be right 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:39.319 with God, regardless of who we are. And it's a really clear answer. And he wants us to hear it and not 00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:46.060 get him wrong. And so he says the same thing three times. Repetition for emphasis. Did you notice? 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:51.980 It's like he tries to think of every possible way. A person is not justified by the works of the law, 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:57.639 but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by 00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:03.639 faith and not by the works of the law. Because by the works of the law, no one will be justified. 00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:13.500 Only by faith in Christ Jesus, not by our work, our effort, our earning. That's how we're justified. 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:20.659 Interestingly as well, this word is a covenant word. And he's going to come to that and we'll get there. 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:29.579 So to think about it slightly different, how can we know blessing from God and not curse from a holy God? 00:07:29.579 --> 00:07:37.019 We're all in covenant relationship. And whether our faith is in Jesus or not depends whether 00:07:37.019 --> 00:07:45.060 we are experiencing blessing or not. And again, the way into a life of blessing from God is through 00:07:45.060 --> 00:07:52.319 faith in Jesus. It's not through our efforts to try and keep God's law, to try and be a good person, 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:59.199 or to go to church and read and pray. Again, Jesus, when he was teaching, 00:07:59.579 --> 00:08:04.620 the people in his day wanted to make that really clear to people who were relying on the law. 00:08:05.039 --> 00:08:11.579 He told the parable once of the two men who went to the temple to pray. There was the Pharisee and there 00:08:11.579 --> 00:08:16.839 was the tax collector. And the Pharisee stood up in front of everyone, wanted everyone's attention, 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:22.060 and his prayer was all about himself. It's as if he was saying to God, God, look at me. 00:08:22.599 --> 00:08:25.759 Look at my record. You should be so pleased to have me in your team. 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:35.139 But then there's the tax collector who wouldn't even look up to heaven and beat his breast saying, 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:40.799 God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Remember the shocking sting in the tail of that parable? 00:08:41.439 --> 00:08:47.039 It was the tax collector who went home justified and not the religious Pharisee. 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:57.819 It's the prayer that says, God, have mercy on me, a sinner, that justifies us. Not God, look at my record. 00:08:59.899 --> 00:09:07.179 And Paul wants his listeners to understand that because this is clearly something that came as 00:09:07.179 --> 00:09:13.899 new news to the religious Jews of Jesus. They it shouldn't have, but it did. It seemed like they 00:09:13.899 --> 00:09:21.519 weren't used to the language of grace and faith, that certain schools of teaching were saying to them, 00:09:21.879 --> 00:09:28.299 you need to earn God's approval by your good works. And so they come to Galatia and they want to apply 00:09:28.299 --> 00:09:34.379 that message to these new Christians. Yes, trust in Jesus, but also become like us. 00:09:35.860 --> 00:09:42.159 Add the laws of Moses, add the right kind of diet, add the right holy days. And Paul urgently needs to 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:49.019 build the case for God's gospel. The good news that we are justified only through faith in Jesus, 00:09:49.339 --> 00:09:54.600 not by adding our works. And what he does, because remember it's a courtroom word, is he draws on a 00:09:54.600 --> 00:10:01.860 couple of witnesses. In chapter three, we see a couple of witnesses being called. And the first of those, 00:10:02.399 --> 00:10:08.939 which would have been a surprise to the Jews, is Abraham. We meet Abraham there in chapter six, 00:10:08.940 --> 00:10:16.440 chapter three, verse six. So also Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. 00:10:17.660 --> 00:10:21.720 If you've got time, you can read the rest of Galatians three and you discover that it's all about 00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:28.200 how Abraham is justified by faith, how he is declared in right relationship with God through 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:34.160 faith, how he claims the promises of God through faith and not by law keeping. In fact, it couldn't be 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:41.600 law keeping because the law didn't come for another 430 years. But the basic idea is that Abraham is the 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:50.039 father of faith, but not just for the Jews. See, a Jewish person would be perfectly happy with Abraham 00:10:50.039 --> 00:10:58.939 as the father of their faith. What Paul does is he reminds them that God spoke the gospel when he 00:10:58.940 --> 00:11:04.100 gave the promise to Abraham, gave the promise to Abraham, all nations will be blessed through you. 00:11:04.900 --> 00:11:10.700 Verse nine, so those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:18.340 Abraham is the father of our faith as Gentile Christians if we have faith in Jesus. 00:11:19.940 --> 00:11:27.300 The way into covenant blessing is through following Abraham, which involves living not by law, 00:11:27.299 --> 00:11:34.199 but living by faith. And we know where faith terminates. It terminates on the Lord Jesus. 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:38.679 So that's one witness that he calls, and that would have surprised them. The second witness, 00:11:39.579 --> 00:11:45.039 more an allusion, is Adam. Chapter three, verse 10, we didn't read it, but we'll read it now. 00:11:46.099 --> 00:11:53.199 Galatians three, verse 10, all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse as it is written. 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:57.840 And cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. 00:11:58.540 --> 00:12:05.340 Clearly, no one who relies on the law is justified before God because the righteous will live by faith. 00:12:05.700 --> 00:12:12.140 The law is not based on faith. On the contrary, it says the person who does these things will live 00:12:12.140 --> 00:12:21.700 by them. And so all this language of curse takes us back to Adam, takes us back to the garden, 00:12:21.700 --> 00:12:26.259 takes us back to that moment of rebellion and disobedience and the law being broken. 00:12:26.259 --> 00:12:32.940 And the reality is, Paul brings it, that since Adam, none of us can keep the law perfectly. 00:12:34.040 --> 00:12:38.540 That all of us are born with a sin nature that leads us into all kinds of sin. 00:12:38.980 --> 00:12:44.800 And so again, the way into covenant blessing, the way into a restored relationship, 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:55.240 is never going to be our good works. Because we cannot claim 100% obedience, 100% love, 100% of the time. 00:12:56.159 --> 00:13:01.339 Ever since Adam, that's been the reality. The good news of the gospel, though, 00:13:02.359 --> 00:13:08.500 is that there is a true and second Adam. And what does that Adam do? Verse 13 of Galatians 3, 00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:17.360 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:24.440 cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole or hung on a tree. He redeemed us in order that the blessing 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:33.799 given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the 00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:39.159 promise of the Spirit. So we hear it again and again and again. It's by faith. It's through Jesus. 00:13:39.419 --> 00:13:45.919 And here in particular, it's through Jesus the Redeemer. The one who came to set us free from the 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:53.859 curse of the law that has been broken by us. And how does he free us from that? By becoming a curse 00:13:53.859 --> 00:14:03.779 for us. By taking on himself all of our penalty. The laws that we have broken, he goes to the cross. 00:14:03.779 --> 00:14:10.939 And pays the price in full. He takes the curse. He experiences the anger, the forsakenness of God, 00:14:11.220 --> 00:14:20.799 so that by faith we can know blessing. The battle was Jesus's. The blessing becomes ours. 00:14:22.299 --> 00:14:30.100 And this becomes good news for us when we learn to mind the gap. You know, that familiar message you 00:14:30.100 --> 00:14:35.420 hear on a train journey, mind the gap between the platform and the train. And when we think about 00:14:35.420 --> 00:14:43.519 the gap between us and God, naturally I think all of us, we know there is a gap. We know that we're not 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:52.820 on the same level as God. But we have a tendency to think that the gap is perhaps not that wide. 00:14:52.820 --> 00:14:58.200 That often our perspective becomes faulty. 00:14:58.200 --> 00:15:06.680 And when that happens, we tend to have a lower view of God's holiness than is proper. 00:15:08.640 --> 00:15:15.379 We don't consider God in his glorious perfection. We don't reckon with his holy hatred of sin. 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:21.520 We don't consider the truth that he sees and knows everything about us. That while we look on the 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:30.840 surface, God looks at the heart. And also, we can so very easily tend towards a higher view of our own 00:15:30.840 --> 00:15:36.879 goodness than is right and proper. So instead of comparing ourselves with God's perfect standard, 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:40.240 we'll compare ourselves with other people and say, well, I'm basically doing okay. I'm not as 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:48.039 bad as that person over there. We can very quickly excuse and minimize our failures and our failings. 00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:51.799 It was circumstances or it's my temperament. 00:15:54.779 --> 00:15:58.360 We can persuade ourselves that we are better than we are. 00:16:00.959 --> 00:16:04.779 So that we can think, well, maybe it's just going to be a few New Year's resolutions. 00:16:05.899 --> 00:16:10.620 Maybe it'll just take a little bit more moral and religious effort. Maybe if I could just be a bit 00:16:10.620 --> 00:16:15.039 of a better neighbor, then God will accept me. Because really the gap's not that wide. 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:22.120 That's not what Paul says. That's not what the gospel says. That's not what God says. Not what 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:29.579 his word says. But the gospel does say to us, we need to mind the gap. To recognize that there is a 00:16:29.579 --> 00:16:35.559 gap between us and God, but it's not platform to train door. It's the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls. 00:16:36.539 --> 00:16:42.419 And as we understand the gap between a perfectly holy God and us as sinners, then we begin to see 00:16:42.419 --> 00:16:50.000 and to appreciate the gospel. That the only way to bridge the gap is faith in Jesus Christ, the one 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:56.599 and only perfect mediator. The one who kept the law perfectly for us. The one who paid the penalty for 00:16:56.599 --> 00:17:03.799 our breaking of the law. That united to him is the only way to be brought into blessing, into life with 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:09.839 God. He is the only way to receive a positive verdict and to be welcomed home to our God. 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:16.759 In the 19th century, there was a famous tightrope walker by the name of Charles Blondin. 00:17:18.059 --> 00:17:22.919 He did lots of stunts, got a lot of publicity and probably his most famous was when he sent a rope 00:17:22.919 --> 00:17:30.480 across the Niagara Falls. He was an incredibly accomplished guy by all accounts. He could walk it. 00:17:31.619 --> 00:17:38.720 He could cook an omelette. Famously he cooked an omelette while walking across that tightrope. I'm not 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:44.120 sure how he did that. And he would push a wheelbarrow over it from time to time and he would ask for 00:17:44.120 --> 00:17:51.559 volunteers. Who's going to get in? Who's willing to get in the wheelbarrow? Who wants to be transported 00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:59.100 from Canada to America for free? And he was very skilled and everyone saw him and he never failed, but 00:17:59.099 --> 00:18:05.839 interesting, nobody ever got in. There was always, you would think, a huge risk of failure. 00:18:09.699 --> 00:18:20.259 The gospel, by contrast, offers us complete security. We have the certainty in Christ. We have 00:18:20.259 --> 00:18:28.079 one who takes us from spiritual death to spiritual life. We have one who brings us from darkness into 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:34.879 God's wonderful light. We have one who will bring us from earth to heaven into the new creation. 00:18:35.779 --> 00:18:40.779 And the message of the gospel is get into Christ and he will bring us to God. 00:18:41.660 --> 00:18:47.839 To place our faith in the cross of Christ and we will be saved. 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:55.419 It's this wonderful, liberating truth that we are justified by faith in what Jesus has done, 00:18:55.539 --> 00:19:03.539 not by our good works, that had such a dramatic impact on Martin Luther. This idea of being justified 00:19:03.539 --> 00:19:12.019 by faith is so central to the Reformation when it happened. Martin Luther, before experiencing, 00:19:12.259 --> 00:19:17.559 discovering this wonderful truth, was an incredibly committed monk. Somebody who was 00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:26.519 deeply troubled by a sense of sin felt himself under God's judgment and so his response 00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:35.639 was to live an incredibly disciplined life. So much fasting, it's so many hours spent in prayer, 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:41.960 it's so many hours spent in the confessional that he was kind of wearying the other monks and priests 00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:50.920 and a life dedicated to good works. But the result of all that was that he continued to remain miserable 00:19:50.920 --> 00:20:02.579 and he lacked peace. And he was fearful and even resentful of a God, the judge, who demands righteousness. 00:20:02.579 --> 00:20:10.939 Because he knew having tried his best, he couldn't match up to God's perfect righteousness. But one day, 00:20:11.539 --> 00:20:18.740 as he was reading in Romans chapter 1, he discovered the joy of justification by faith. 00:20:20.339 --> 00:20:26.799 And the light went on and he understood that this righteousness wasn't something that had to be earned, 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:34.139 it was a gift of God through faith in Jesus, the righteous one. And Martin Luther's testimony, 00:20:34.299 --> 00:20:35.879 having discovered that, was this. He said, 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:42.200 Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise through open gates. 00:20:43.659 --> 00:20:50.799 Gone was the fear, gone was the resentment, gone was the insecurity, gone was the spiritual depression, 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:59.440 gone was the desperate attempts to earn God's favor, and instead the joy of living as a child of God. 00:21:01.119 --> 00:21:10.799 I wonder today, maybe there's somebody here and you're aware of guilt. Maybe you feel a lack of peace 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:18.980 in your own heart and soul. Maybe you recognize that instinct of trying to prove yourself to God. 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:31.919 The answer to that is the gospel. As one hymn writer said, it's to lay our deadly doing down, 00:21:32.460 --> 00:21:44.099 down at Jesus' feet. Rest in Him, in Him alone, gloriously complete. That's the truth. But now we need 00:21:44.099 --> 00:21:52.579 to see the threat. Why does Paul introduce this great truth? And we need to see the threat of legalism 00:21:52.579 --> 00:21:59.399 and hypocrisy. But we're going to shift for just a moment to a galaxy far, far away. Apologies, 00:21:59.599 --> 00:22:04.119 it was Christmas time and I couldn't think of any better analogies. But thinking about the story, 00:22:04.119 --> 00:22:15.639 if you know it, of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, their story sees a shift from master and apprentice, 00:22:16.439 --> 00:22:27.619 friendship, you know, together on the same side, to a movement to become enemies. Anakin turns to the 00:22:27.619 --> 00:22:40.779 dark side and galactic conflict. These two Jedis, once friends, separated on other sides of a great 00:22:40.779 --> 00:22:53.019 conflict. In chapter 2 of Galatians, verse 11 to 13, we recognize that this is a huge moment in the church. 00:22:53.019 --> 00:23:03.059 Here are two apostles that have shifted. Remember back in verse 9, when they're in Jerusalem, 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:10.539 Peter and Paul shake hands, the right hand of fellowship, the grace of God is recognized. 00:23:12.099 --> 00:23:19.960 But in verse 11, Paul is opposing Peter to his face, saying he stands condemned. 00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:29.000 And what we need to do if we put ourselves in the story is we need to recognize how significant this is. 00:23:30.140 --> 00:23:37.880 Will the church of the Lord Jesus be torn apart by this conflict? Will there be a church for Jewish 00:23:37.880 --> 00:23:44.600 people and a church for Gentile people? Will the gospel be a power strong enough to bridge that great 00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:52.119 social, cultural, religious divide or not? Will the true message of the gospel survive? Because if this 00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:58.980 church is pulled apart, then some parts of the church are believing that it's not Jesus alone that 00:23:58.980 --> 00:24:07.759 justifies. We need to add certain things, namely the law of Moses. So this moment matters. 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:14.859 So what's the problem? Let's look at the problem. In verse 12, it becomes obvious that there are some 00:24:14.859 --> 00:24:22.579 legalists who've arrived. Before certain men came from James, this is what was going on. Peter was quite 00:24:22.579 --> 00:24:30.819 happily eating with the Gentiles. To eat with someone was a sign of fellowship and hospitality. Clearly, 00:24:30.819 --> 00:24:38.039 Peter believes that these are brothers and sisters in Christ, full members of God's kingdom. 00:24:39.539 --> 00:24:46.779 But when those legalists arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles 00:24:46.779 --> 00:24:53.000 because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 00:24:53.000 --> 00:25:03.339 And the impact of that, as this leader of the church separates himself, stops eating, stops sharing fellowship, 00:25:03.500 --> 00:25:09.799 saying, I'll stay on this side of the room and the Gentile Christians can stay over there, what happens is 00:25:09.799 --> 00:25:16.680 that others are being led astray as well. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy so that by their hypocrisy, 00:25:16.680 --> 00:25:24.299 even Barnabas, even Barnabas, the son of encouragement, he also is led astray. 00:25:25.740 --> 00:25:33.920 And so the issue that Paul faces head on is the issue of Peter's hypocrisy. Now remember the word 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:40.940 hypocrisy is a word that's drawn from the theater. It has that idea of putting on a mask to play a part. 00:25:40.940 --> 00:25:49.279 And Paul uses that language to emphasize that Peter is masking his belief in the gospel 00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:56.799 to play a different part. He knows that these Gentile Christians really are his brothers and 00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:03.960 sisters. They really are justified by faith in Jesus, but his belief and his behavior don't line up 00:26:03.960 --> 00:26:07.600 because now out of fear he's refusing to have fellowship. 00:26:10.940 --> 00:26:21.400 His gospel belief, we can read Galatians 3, 28, is this, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, 00:26:21.480 --> 00:26:26.059 neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. 00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:33.700 Peter believes that, but in his hypocrisy, his behavior is saying, your faith in Jesus by itself, 00:26:33.700 --> 00:26:40.180 that's not enough. You got to add some moral performance. You got to add some of the Mosaic 00:26:40.180 --> 00:26:53.480 law in order to really be part of our team. And it's jarring. As Paul says, it's not in line 00:26:53.480 --> 00:27:02.720 with the truth of the gospel. He's guilty of hypocrisy. He's playing a part that he knows is not true. 00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:12.440 Picture an actor at a theater. And the audience is full. They've come to watch Sleeping Beauty. 00:27:13.360 --> 00:27:19.660 And one of the key figures comes onto stage and starts reading from Romeo and Juliet. 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:25.519 Playing a part, but they've got the wrong script. 00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:35.379 Peter is doing that. And Paul opposes him and condemns him for doing that. Because the script 00:27:35.379 --> 00:27:42.200 the Christian life should follow is the script of the gospel. And the gospel says, we're justified 00:27:42.200 --> 00:27:49.920 by faith in Jesus, full stop. But when he acts a different part and says, it's Jesus plus, 00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:57.160 then Paul opposes him for the sake of the gospel to get him back on the path of the gospel. 00:27:58.600 --> 00:28:04.560 Because Paul understands this moment could be deadly to the good news of God's grace. 00:28:07.840 --> 00:28:15.700 As he said in chapter 5, verse 4, you who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated 00:28:15.700 --> 00:28:22.720 from Christ. You've fallen away from grace. This becomes a salvation issue if they believe this 00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:33.120 lie. If we add self to the story of how we are put right with God, we will destroy the message of God's 00:28:33.120 --> 00:28:43.440 grace. If we add my performance to that of Jesus, if I think I need to be good enough to earn God's favor, 00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:52.940 to earn my place at God's table, we're going to find ourselves strapped into just a horrible roller 00:28:52.940 --> 00:29:02.299 coaster of pride and despair, up and down forever, denying what would give us peace and security. 00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:08.019 If we have a good day when we feel that we've ticked the religious boxes, and maybe we'll feel secure and 00:29:08.019 --> 00:29:13.259 we'll have a sense of pride. But then when the bad days come, and they do, then we're back to guilt 00:29:13.259 --> 00:29:23.279 and despair. We're like Luther, the miserable monk. And so we always need to beware of a Jesus plus 00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:31.599 mindset when it comes to how am I put right with God? How do I come to enjoy the blessing of life with God? 00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:43.539 And so the confrontation between Paul and Peter stands as a warning for the church in all times, 00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:50.480 in all places. It's a warning for those who are considering Christianity, and also a warning for 00:29:50.480 --> 00:29:55.799 us as we present Christianity, that we never give the impression that somebody needs to clean up their 00:29:55.799 --> 00:30:04.899 act first. If we find ourselves hearing a presentation of the gospel of Christ, and we say, 00:30:05.019 --> 00:30:09.680 I don't think I'm good enough yet, then it's a sign that we haven't understood God's grace. 00:30:11.740 --> 00:30:18.220 The Bible is really clear that you and I, we can't, we just can't clean up our act enough to match God's 00:30:18.220 --> 00:30:26.019 standards. We will never be good enough. And we praise God that Christianity was never intended to 00:30:26.019 --> 00:30:32.579 act that way. It's not tick the right boxes, perform enough religious acts in order to earn it. 00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:40.620 Rather, we're invited to believe by faith Jesus is good enough, and I trust in Him and in Him alone. 00:30:40.619 --> 00:30:50.539 But it's also a warning for us as Christians, because we can so easily drift back into that kind of mindset. 00:30:54.419 --> 00:31:01.399 What makes us feel good about ourselves? What makes us think that our performance is earning 00:31:01.399 --> 00:31:09.719 God's favor? If Peter could be tempted to hypocrisy, if Barnabas could be tempted to hypocrisy, 00:31:09.720 --> 00:31:14.140 if the rest of the Jews in that moment could be tempted, then so can we. 00:31:15.720 --> 00:31:23.400 And in those areas where we are tempted towards pride, whether that's our hard work, our good 00:31:23.400 --> 00:31:30.360 theology, our spiritual disciplines, those will become our points of weakness. And so we need to 00:31:30.360 --> 00:31:38.319 guard our hearts, and we need to guard our hearts with the truth of the gospel. And so Paul takes us 00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:44.859 to the heart of that good news that we must never forget. And that's why I wanted to start the year 00:31:44.859 --> 00:31:48.779 here in the book of Galatians, because I think it's always so important for us to return to the heart of 00:31:48.779 --> 00:31:56.819 the gospel, and to stick there, and to never leave. And to help, just as we close, to suggest three 00:31:56.819 --> 00:32:03.159 practices or three things here that I hope we might be able to make use of, make use of at least one of 00:32:03.160 --> 00:32:09.320 them wherever we are in our journey of faith. And the first is a picture to display. 00:32:12.220 --> 00:32:17.580 We were talking about this this afternoon, having just moved house. I don't know where people stand 00:32:17.580 --> 00:32:24.840 in what are the things that you most like to avoid when you move house. For me, putting up pictures is 00:32:24.839 --> 00:32:32.959 definitely at the top. Tried with some failures to start that process. But here is a picture that I 00:32:32.959 --> 00:32:42.299 want to hang before us that I hope will be helpful. Very simple. There are two lines, and they are 00:32:42.299 --> 00:32:52.359 growing wider apart. Because I think those two lines that grow wider apart can help us to think about what 00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:58.939 Christian maturity looks like. I imagine for many of us, we have that experience that the more that we 00:32:58.939 --> 00:33:08.000 go on in the Christian life, the more we become aware of God's holiness and of our own sin. So many of 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:14.219 the saints of church history, so many of the lives of God's people in the Bible, you get that sense, 00:33:14.319 --> 00:33:18.559 don't you? That that's what they recognize, that the more they go on in the Christian life, the more 00:33:18.559 --> 00:33:30.139 they see the gap between the holiness of God and our own sinful hearts. But as we are aware of that gap, and even of 00:33:30.139 --> 00:33:38.259 a growing gap, we thought about what does the gospel add? The gospel adds the vital ingredient of the cross of 00:33:38.259 --> 00:33:46.059 Christ, which stands for us as the great bridge between us and our God. But here's the thing that I want us to think 00:33:46.059 --> 00:33:54.379 about, that as we go on in the Christian life, we don't leave the gospel message of the cross behind. 00:33:54.679 --> 00:34:03.000 Rather, we need for the cross to become bigger in our experience. As we go on, and as we understand how 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:10.119 holy God is, and how sinful we are, we need to always be experiencing how great the gospel is, that Jesus is 00:34:10.119 --> 00:34:17.779 the perfect mediator who bridges the gap, who does and can bring us home to God. So we need to settle our 00:34:17.779 --> 00:34:25.319 hearts and minds on the gospel, because that's the hope for us when we fail. Because actually, the more 00:34:25.319 --> 00:34:32.480 mature we are when we sin, it could be so easy for us to feel crushed if the gospel wasn't large in our 00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:39.900 lived experience. This is our confidence when our faith is tested. This is our security when we face 00:34:39.900 --> 00:34:47.480 suffering and death, that it's because I'm united to Jesus that I am justified. We need to believe it, and we 00:34:47.480 --> 00:35:00.500 need to live it. So there's a picture to display before our mind's eye. There is also a prayer to offer. 00:35:00.500 --> 00:35:08.579 And again, this is so simple and foundational. Let me encourage you to think about making the Lord's 00:35:08.579 --> 00:35:17.360 prayer a daily portable prayer. A prayer for every day and on the go. Why? Because in just a few short 00:35:17.360 --> 00:35:23.440 sentences that many of us have probably already memorized, it reminds us of God's glory and His holiness, 00:35:23.440 --> 00:35:34.179 and it leads us every day to pray, forgive us our sins. This week I came across a short essay from C.S. 00:35:34.240 --> 00:35:40.220 Lewis entitled, Forgiveness. And in that, he essentially is saying we find it really easy 00:35:40.220 --> 00:35:51.000 to make excuses for our own sin. You know, I couldn't help it. I'm not really to blame. My circumstances 00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:59.719 were hard. And we find it really easy to justify ourselves. But when we do that, we don't really 00:35:59.719 --> 00:36:07.239 come to God looking for forgiveness. We're looking for Him to take our excuse and say, well, that's okay, 00:36:07.300 --> 00:36:15.400 you couldn't help it. But you know what the gospel does for us? It gives us the freedom to be honest, 00:36:15.400 --> 00:36:24.280 to look steadily and honestly at our sin in its horror, its ugliness, and its shame, 00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:32.519 and to own it, and to confess it, knowing there is forgiveness because Jesus paid the price. 00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:40.400 Jesus has redeemed us from the curse. There's a prayer that we can offer. And then there is this 00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:52.019 wonderful promise to claim. Let me encourage us to think about memorizing this little bit of scripture, 00:36:52.700 --> 00:37:01.539 even just verse 16, to preach it to ourselves every day, that we would know that a person is not 00:37:01.539 --> 00:37:11.119 justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. That we would remind ourselves every 00:37:11.119 --> 00:37:20.019 day, Jesus has done everything for my salvation, that we would claim it by faith, and then in that 00:37:20.019 --> 00:37:26.139 strength, we would then seek to live for His praise and glory. Let's pray together.