52. Bible Study Series Part 2 - Galatians Chapter 2

I do not mean to be mean, I do mean to be mad. You obey your pastor. If you ain't got the King James, you ain't got, hey, you don't have a King James, you don't have a Bible. I still believe if you have gold a day and hell before I get my talents on a woman, I'm a preacher. The young preachers that do love God get pulled off in the cavern is, and I'll fight it, I'll fight it. I'll fight you in the parking lot over there, I'll get personal with you. When you got dressed today, you dressed deity. This is the For Freedom Podcast. A podcast that is part of the RFP network that seeks to bring freedom in Christ from the spiritual abuse of legalism in the independent fundamental Baptist movement. Now here are your hosts, John Hollifield and James Sabrett. And so fundamentalism is designed to unpack the idea of authority from Scripture. The problem with that is that that's not the defining principle in Scripture. It is a part of the Scripture, but the defining principle in Scripture is love. And now I'm not saying that all men who sit under that teaching will become abusive, but what I'm saying is the ones who are abusive will be drawn to that sort of teaching. I don't want to give people just a list of things they can start doing differently until they have a heart out of which they're going to be doing those things differently. Bitterness is different from hurt. I would say that hurt or even abuse does not have to result in bitterness. Welcome back to the For Freedom Podcast. It is exciting to be back with you. I am your host, James Sabrett. And with me is John Hollifield. It is a blessing to be back in the studio together. And we are going to continue our series through Galatians Chapter 2. Before we get started, John, how was your week in North Carolina as you were able to preach with me and be here for all of the festivities of homecoming and a renewal time? What was your biggest takeaway so far? Sorry, I'm just... Food's great. Yeah. The food's been good. And I know you're probably wanting something more spiritual than that. But the food's been some good barbecue. Love North Carolina food. And hospitality's been amazing. And so I've just really enjoyed it. And it's been a time of renewal for me. But yeah, we've had a blast so far. We've had some good laughs. Me and John hanging out. And he's staying at my house. Or stayed at my house. And... I do not do trampolines very well. We went to the trampoline park the first night. And we just bought the kids. And then they wanted John to get out there with them. So his inner kid came out in him. Foam pits are incredibly deceiving. They are. I hate it. You sink to the bottom. And you can't get out. There's nothing to grab onto. You just... The more you work, the harder you get stuck. It is literally a miracle that I'm able to sit in this chair right now. Because I thought that I would die in that foam pit. I'd never be able to get out. And I'd be like, go get me some food and just throw it to me in here. I mean, it was just ridiculous. I mean... Never getting in a foam pit again. Yeah, that's right. So heed our advice. Heed our message. And do that. It's been great having John here, though. These last couple of days, we've been able to record a little bit in person. I mean, we were in Hickory. We were in Hickory. Where in the world is David Velasquez? I thought anytime someone came to Hickory, he was just supposed to be there. Yeah, pop up. Boom. Yeah. We're in Hickory. There. He's supposed to just show up magically. We're supposed to hang out when we come to Hickory. And so he was a loser and decided not to come down and hang out with us. So we may forgive you. David, you're not a loser. We'll still pray for you, though. We love you and Sam. Possibly. We're still waiting on being able to hang out. Yeah. Probably not, though. You don't want to hang out with us. Yeah, because you just called him a loser. It's because he doesn't want to hang out with us. He does want to hang out with us. Why wasn't he in Hickory? Probably not, you. Probably so. So. Oh, well, it's been great. And, John, we're a couple of weeks away removed from the RFP meetup. We've still been talking about it. It's been a great time. We've been getting messages and communication with people, which has been a blessing. And we're a month or so away. What's your takeaway even now to this point from the meetup? We need to schedule another one. Yes. I've already been thinking about trying to put one together in Tennessee, but it's just like my schedule is so crazy right now. I'm like, well, I can't do it in September. Can't do it at the beginning of October. Do I really? I just probably need a week in October. But then by the time that's over with, and then November you've got holidays, and December you've got holidays. And it's like, oh, when am I going to be able to do it? But definitely want to. I mean, it's just like. We've got to get back together. And maybe a North Carolina meetup may be a cool thing to do as well. But we're looking forward to the camp meetings coming up. I'm excited to get some more information about that and to hear what the guys have to say about it. We talked a little bit about it at the meetup. And so hopefully we'll get some camp meetings going around the country and we'll be able to get together and hang out with the family again. Hey, I've watched, I've caught up on Nathan Cravat's RFP Extra episodes on the recapping that debate. He did it with a guy named Stephen Boyce. Now, I know probably some of you know who that is. I did not know who Stephen Boyce was. I was like, how have I never heard of this person before? But he was excellent. And they're long, but I highly recommend them because they take the time to really break down. And it's very like, because what a lot of the things that they're saying in there is stuff that like, it took me hours and hours and hours and books and different things to get to and they're able to cover it. Yeah. In that time. And so a lot of good information in there, a lot of good information, some good laughs here and there, but a lot of good information. So I highly recommend make the time to start working your way through those because if you haven't already, because if you're interested in the King James issue, check them out. They're really good. They're on the RFP YouTube page. So check that out. Cool. Yeah. All right. We're going to jump back into our Bible study series. Part two. We'll be going, we started last week looking at Galatians chapter one, and this week we're going to dive into Galatians chapter two. I hope you've enjoyed this series so far. Please reach out to us. Was it last week? It was last week. Yeah. We don't know when we're going to release these yet. So was it last week? Could it be like three weeks away? Could it be? I mean. I'm going to say it was last week, John. You're going to say it's last week. Yeah. The last time we aired the episode of the Bible study series. There you go. That's more accurate. We went through number one of the first chapter of Galatians. John's got me all tongue tied over here. And so we are going to jump into the Galatians chapter two. So, John, go ahead and give us the opening statement here for Galatians chapter two. All right. So we covered chapter one. We did sort of an intro into the book, and we talked about the purpose of why Paul was writing this. He had, on his missionary journey, had started several churches in this area. And then after he left, this group of people called the Judaizers came in, and they began to teach a different gospel, as Paul says, another gospel, a different gospel. And what essentially that they taught, the main part that they taught was that your standing with God was not just dependent upon Christ's work on the cross, but also your circumcision and adherence to Old Testament laws. And so they were compelling these guys, you know, hey, you want to say you're in Christ, but you also need to get circumcised. And so Paul found out about this, and he writes this letter to these churches, and he's very upset that they have already abandoned grace that he taught them. And another aspect that is part of getting in a little bit in chapter two, too, is that they were attacking his apostleship. So they were tearing down what Paul taught them because they said that Paul wasn't an apostle like the other guys. He wasn't like Peter. He wasn't like John and the other apostles. And Paul had to say, you know, listen, here's proof of my apostleship. And he talks about his conversion. He talks about his education. He talks about how God, Christ trained him, and then how the apostles then confirmed him. And all that's sort of laid out in chapter one, and he also sets a line of demarcation with the idea that if you're not preaching the gospel of grace, you're not preaching the gospel of Christ, you should be damned to hell. Yeah. It's a pretty hard one. Yeah, the Greek term is anathema or anathema, however you want to pronounce it. But, you know, that's what he uses, and that's what it means. And so it was pretty harsh. And so then with that, he wrapped up sort of there, and he's continuing on. As you see the transition to chapter one to chapter two, it's really just not really a break at all. It's like going straight back into the other story. But, you know, one of the guys that I'd love to listen to is a guy named Chuck Swindoll, who's really the end of his ministry. He's in his 80s and out of Texas. He's pastored a church there in Texas for a long time and wrote a fantastic book called The Grace Awakening that I always recommend. And he was being interviewed by a guy named Howard Hendricks, who was also a teacher there at Dallas Theological Seminary for many years and has a great book on teaching with a purpose. And Howard Hendricks was interviewing Chuck Swindoll, and Chuck Swindoll said this quote. This was at least ten years ago. He said, The problem with legalists is that not enough people have confronted them and told them to get lost. That's great. That's awesome. That is amazing. Those are strong words, but I don't mess with legalism anymore. I'm 72 years old. What have I got to lose? Seriously. I used to kowtow to legalists, but they are dangerous and they are grace killers. They will drive off every new Christian you bring to church. They are enemies of the faith. Other than that, I don't have an opinion. That's awesome. Isn't that an amazing quote? Yeah. And I guess the older you get, the more blunt you can get. But if you know anything about Chuck Swindoll, it's amazing that he said that because Swindoll's probably the most kind and gracious guy. Loving. I mean, it's really uncharacteristic of him saying something that strong. Yeah. But I think it's accurate. Oh, very much accurate. You know, we, when we give platforms to people who oppress others, when we give platforms to, you know, we've seen in the news media over the last several weeks of the Kingsbury and some other things that Eric Skorosinski has been covering over on the Preacher Boys podcast and they platform these guys all over the country and they are allowed to do what he said, kill grace. They're allowed to oppress others. They're allowed to go through their ministry, cover up things and use legalism as a way of a tool, as a way of torturing other people because they're just in the wrong as everybody else. I think the reason why Chuck Swindoll had such a strong opinion on this and why me and you have such a strong viewpoint on combating this is because Paul did. Yeah. Paul did. And that's what we see in chapter two. We see Paul standing up and not just fighting the Judaizers, but we also see Paul getting in Peter's face over it. Yeah. Really amazing stuff. So let's sort of start off and do what we did last time. Yeah. And last time we talked about like if you want to have your Bible open or take notes on this episode, this totally makes sense for this episode. We're going to start off, let's read chapter number two. And so I'll read the first 10 verses. I'll read the last 11. Yep. Okay. So chapter two, verse 10. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of revelation of a revelation and set before them, though privately before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so that they might bring us into slavery. To them we did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted to the gospel to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to be the circumcised also worked through me for mine to the Gentiles. And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. Strong words here. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, If you, the Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like a Jew? We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through the faith of Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Jesus Christ in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners in Christ than a servant to sin, certainly not. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. I am no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Again, strong, strong words. So in this chapter we have, first of all, we have two sort of, Paul gives us two stories. He continues telling about his journey, and he gives us two stories, and then he goes into a little bit of teaching towards the end of the chapter, and that breaks us into chapter three for where he starts laying out a lot of doctrine. Okay? So let's look at these two stories. He starts off with, first of all, the setting in verse number one. What was the setting? After 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. So we said this in the last time with this might be one of the interpretive challenges. Is this story he's about to tell you talking about the Jerusalem council, or maybe some other incident that he came up there with? And James, my opinion is, I believe this is talking about the Jerusalem council from Acts 15. I think that's what this is talking about. And so I think in order to really clarify that and dig into that, I think that it's important to go over to Acts 15. Philip said concerning verse one of Galatians 2, the word then can be rendered next. Paul was assuring the Galatians that he is not suppressing or concealing any of his visits to Jerusalem in this summary of his activities, which probably leads us to believe that this is talking about the council. So what happened in the Jerusalem council, if you look at Acts 15, is in verse one it says, That was already happening in the Jerusalem church. And so they had to have a huge meeting to come together and meet with it. And so that's what happens. So in Acts 15, you have Paul coming, Paul and Barnabas, and they brought, and he tells us later, they brought Titus. So what he's telling in Galatians 2, same three guys are there in Acts 15. And I'm not going to read the whole chapter, but what happens is they meet, and Paul actually tells us in Galatians 2, if this is what's talking about it. He says that they met privately with the guys first, so they had sort of a secret meeting, and then they went out and bunged all of the brethren and had the meeting. Well, if you get to verse 28 of Acts 15, you have what the conclusion of the matter was. What did they establish in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem Council? It says in verse 28 of Acts 15, For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements. So the problem was addressed in verse 1 of Acts 15, that they were saying that you must be circumcised. And so they established that that's not the case. Why? Because we're not trying to get gross today, but Paul brought Titus, who was a Greek, who had not been circumcised, and they said, hey, he's been saved. He's honoring God with his life. And just so you know, my man hasn't been circumcised. And so they're like, okay, so I guess that's not something that God is requiring. And this is the requirements that they actually did come up with. There were four things. Verse 29, You abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols. That was number one. You abstain from blood. That makes sense. Yeah. Remember what Matt Dudley said in that message? He said God's restrictions make sense. Yeah. Yeah. You abstain from things that have been strangled and from sexual immorality. And so those were the four things that they said we ask that you do. And they said, If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell. That was the conclusion of the Jerusalem Council from Acts 15. So that's what we believe is happening in Galatians chapter 2 in this first story. So verse 2, James, tells us a little bit about the reason. Yeah. The reason they're doing all this was because they were concerned about the future church. They were concerned that this set of ideologies were going to continue on for the rest of the church. And if someone didn't stand up for it, we would still be harping on the old paths that was done so long ago. And we've got to keep going. And so as Wiersbe says, He was concerned that the future of the gospel among the Gentiles, because this was his specific ministry from Christ. If the pillars side of the Judaizers or tried to compromise, then Paul's ministry would be in jeopardy. So he's saying, listen, my calling was to the Gentiles. Your calling was to the Jews. Why are we putting stipulations on if they can even talk to each other? Right. And he says that in verse 2. He says, I was trying to establish that what I'm preaching to the Gentiles, the gospel I'm preaching, to make sure that I wasn't doing this, he says, running in vain or had run in vain. He's like, is this pointless? Yeah. Am I doing this wrong? He said, we need to cover this. Because the reason Paul's saying all this is this. I'm not telling them they should be circumcised. Let's put it in vernacular that we understand today, James. Okay. Paul's not going around telling them that they have to get saved and then they've got to cut their hair. Or they've got to slap a suit on or put a skirt on that's down to their ankles. Or Paul's not going around telling them. Cutting their face. Cutting their face. Shaving. Y'all. Come on, son. Okay. Or saying that you can never get a tattoo again. Yeah. And Paul's not doing that. He's saying, I'm not telling you that after you get saved, you still need to get circumcised. And it's sort of like, okay, I wanted to make sure that I'm preaching a complete gospel. That was an issue. And so then he says, he talks about bringing the token, is what I called it. He brought Titus to prove his point. Even Titus in verse 3, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. What is he telling now? Now remember whose audience is with this. He's saying, I went to a meeting with the big guys. And he goes on and says this later in the chapter, who they are made no difference to me. Because God shows no partiality. But he's telling them, because they told Paul, he's not an apostle. He's not like the big guys of Jerusalem. Paul said, I was at the meeting. Yeah. I took Titus. And he's not circumcised. And the big guys were okay with it. Yeah. That's what he's saying in verse 3. And so then you get to, or Swindoll said, one of the urgent challenges that incited Paul to write Galatians was that the Judaizers in Galatia were compelling the Galatians to be circumcised. So then you get to verse 4, the enemy. Yeah. And I love, even in verse 4, they use this term in the version that we read. It says, yet because false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom. To spy out our freedom. Because. That's an amazing way of saying it. It is. Because God said he's given us freedom. Well, they're coming in to check and see what we're doing to see, you know what, maybe they shouldn't be doing that. And all of a sudden, we see that legalists have to make lists. And they have to make these extra things that you have to abide by their list of standards. Well, it gives us a little bit of a, you know, like, I like Law and Order. I like. Dun, dun, dun. Yeah. Dun, dun. I like shows like that because, you know, they bring in these FBI profilers. Mm-hmm. And they profile, like, you know, the criminals, like this is, like they're trying to find a serial killer or something like that. And they say, this is the type of person you're looking for. And you know what Paul's doing? He's telling us sort of what a legalist looks like. And he's saying they will spy out. This is the framework. They will sneak in, spy out your freedom, so they can then enforce their list upon you. Yeah. Because what is the main thing that fuels a legalist, John? Their pride. Their pride. It's a simple thing. We are prideful. You listened to the greatest opening of all time just a little bit ago. It's not prideful at all. But when you listen to that, you listen to some of those guys and how prideful. Hey, you ain't got a King James. You ain't got the Bible. All of a sudden. Yeah, that's not the Bible. Yeah. And all of a sudden, they begin to go step by step, and they begin to build themselves up. But what drives grace? See, the antithesis of legalism, the opposite of legalism, is grace. If legalism is driven by pride, what drives grace? Well, why did Paul do this to begin with? Because he loved the church. Yeah, love. He said, I love you guys. And you're allowing these, what did he call them? Damnedable heresies. People who should be damned. You're allowing them to come in. And I came and I told you in love. And you rejected me to accept them because now they're giving you standards again. They're giving you regulations that you're used to from the Old Testament. And because you're used to it, you accept their gospel and you reject mine. Yeah. When who does mine come from? Mine came from God. But yet, you're accepting man's way instead of God's way. Yeah. And so he says, we need to embrace this. We need to embrace this. Stop giving the list mandates and start giving the love mandates. Well, okay. So in this world that we're in right now, this recovering fundamentalist atmosphere, there's a lot of curiosity, I think, with a lot of people. There's a lot of those who used to be, I say used to be in the… That was in air quotes for the podcast listeners. Of course. Who used to be maybe voices in the IFP movement or a legalist movement. And, you know, there's like, well, there's a lot of questions where people will say, is this person a good… Has he left? Has this person… Is this person good? Is this person… And I like what Swindoll says here. He says, one of the ways that you know someone has embraced grace and left legalism is that they stop giving people lists to live by. You take the list, you tear it up, and you say the things… For instance, if we can just be real honest here, there are still things that James and I will not partake in. Yeah. We have things that personally, we're not going to go there. But you know what we don't do? We don't think any less of anybody if they want to partake. And I'm not saying I would, but if I were to do those things, I wouldn't flaunt it either. Well, yeah. Because I don't want to flaunt my liberty in front of someone who doesn't know that… Or doesn't have security in that liberty. And I'm not going to go into any detail. But I feel like we've seen that exhibited as well. All of a sudden, someone thinks they can do something and they begin to, in that same way, pride. So, oh, I can do this and I'm going to do it now. You know, whatever it may be. And you can fill in the blank with whatever you want to. But there is a fine line there from flaunting your liberty and then somebody trying to… There's a fine line between, I think Sproul put it this way, living under the tyranny of the weaker brother. I think that there's wisdom there that you can't sit there and live how you want to live. We should not have stigmas on certain things just because where's one sect that thinks it's wicked and there's nothing in the Bible that says about it. But at the same time, there are certain things that can be very touchy issues with people. And we have seen exhibited that concern where they say, hey, we like to partake in this, but we're not going to do it out in front of everybody and make an announcement that this is what we're doing. Yeah. And that's wisdom as well. And so, you know, that aspect of that verse where Paul was saying they like to come and spy out our freedom. It's just, it's like, wow. And it should also put us on guard, especially for those of you that are in embracing freedom, you know, and getting to that point that beware. Be on guard because you will have those that will sneak in, say they're all cool with you. Let me say this. There are churches out there that will sit there and try to say, we are not like this legalistic church. Look at us. We are okay with this. And as soon as you link up with them, it's not long before you find out they're okay with this, but you can't do this, this, and this, and this. This is their list. Yeah. So be on guard for those that are spying out your freedom so then they can put you back in bondage. Yeah. John, what's the next one? Verse 5 and 6. We're starting to. Yeah. We're going to four verses in and we've taken 27 minutes. Oh my goodness. Yeah. We've got to put it in high gear here. All right. So the flight, which is. The flight? To them who did not. The flight? Yeah. The flight? The fight. Sorry, the fight. Are you jumping wings or something? Yeah. Did you jump on the build or something? I misread it. Let's go. To them we did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you and from those who seem to be influential. What they are makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me. So Paul's talking about this. He's saying he was not depreciating those godly men. He respected them or he would not have sought a private audience with them, according to MacArthur. Nor would he have sought a public confirmation so that people would know he was not running in vain. He rather was defending himself against the depreciation of the Judaizers once again, who accused him of not comparing with the Jerusalem apostles of being a false, self-appointed, and inferior apostle. So this brings us to the result of the Jerusalem council. And he talks about that. Yeah. In the result, Paul ultimately gives his mission. He says that he and Barnabas have a three-fold mission or endorsement that he wants to do. The apostolic leader saw Paul's distinctive contribution to the work of their ministry. Paul was going to be able to minister to people that they could not reach. That's a great way of putting it. He was going to be able to reach the Greek or the Gentile because they could not because they were Jews and they were automatically ousted. And Peter was commissioned to the Jews. Yeah. And Paul, in the same way, said, I can't minister to who you're going to minister to. Man, that's so good. Yeah, because him being to the Jews, the ultimate turncoat. Yeah. Right? Because he was the guy in the temple that was leading the charge and now he's not. And to them, he's like the ultimate betrayer. But Peter may be able to reach them. God was going to use him. But God was going to use Paul for the Gentiles. I love how you put that, James, because it's like he was going to reach people that they knew they could never reach. And this should encourage us in our communities because you are placed in an area that you can reach the people that someone else can't. I'm placed in this rural area of Hidden Night, North Carolina, because I can reach some people in this area because I'm from the area, not from Hidden Night, but from a similar region of this area. And I were able to minister and help out. If I was in, I would not fit in in a city church and a big, up in an elevation worship style church. I wouldn't fit in there. I'm just not wired like that. We would not. Me and you, either of us would ever do good in like a New York City. No, because we're not wired like that. But a Jim Cimbala, who's in New York, man, God wired him to be that way. And he's able to reach people. And we should be grateful for that because God has given us different gifts, talents, and abilities. And so the first is that they had distinct opportunities in ministry. They put Paul's ministry on par with Peter's. That's a big point as far as the context of what's going on in church. All of a sudden, because they were ousted and they were looked down upon, Paul begins to bring this narrative that says, Listen, I met with Peter. I was there in the council. I was there at the meeting. And he recognized me. I was able to speak to the council. He saw me as one of the brothers. He saw me as one of the equals. And so he now brings his ministry up to par. And then they recognized the grace given to Paul and encouraged him to press on. So that was his ministry. That was his plan. That was his mission. And that's why he gives this here to us because he's reiterating again to the Gentile people, Listen, you are, I'm sorry, to the Galatian people, you're following along with something completely different than what we have been challenged to do. So this brings us to sort of the second part, second main part of this. So we looked at the, we said there's two stories and then he gets into teaching a little bit in chapter two. So the first story was the sort of the Jerusalem council. Now we get into this very fascinating account of where Paul gets in Peter's face and points out Peter exhibiting hypocrisy. The confrontation. The confrontation. And so the first in verse 11, you have the who of the confrontation. It says, but when Cephas, that's Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. Wow. And this is a strong word. This word that he says, he opposed him. He opposed him. It means, MacArthur said, carries the meaning of hindering or forbidding and was usually applied to a defensive measures. He says that he stood condemned. He was to be blamed. That means Peter was guilty. Paul stood against Peter. So what was the big issue? What was this big issue that Paul got into Peter's face that Peter was guilty of? Well, the what of the confrontation, we have that explained to us in verses 12 through 14. Yeah, 12 through 14. Let's look at them real quick again. Let me scroll down to it. I'm on my Bible. This is actually a Bible. It can be a Bible as well for those who saw the mean. Sorry. For a certain man who came from James was eating with the Gentiles. But while he was eating with the Gentiles, they came and drew back and separated themselves, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by his hypocrisy. But when I saw their conduct not in step with the truth of the gospel, because everything goes back to the gospel, remember? This was not in step with the gospel. I saw their conduct was not in step with the gospel and the truth of the gospel. I said to Cephas, I said to Peter before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like a Jew? Okay, so here's what happened. Paul was there in Antioch. He's doing the work that they commissioned him to do. There were Gentiles part of his church. Imagine you have a church setting. You have a bunch of former bikers or drug dealers that were saved there, and they probably look different than what the normal country churchgoer goes. It looks like. The quintessential church boy. Yeah, the quintessential church boy. So here's what happens is Peter decides he wants to come visit Paul and see his work. While he's there, Peter is loving it. Peter is enjoying what he's seeing, and he's getting to know some of these new converts, and Peter's just like eating it up. And then here comes a dude from Jerusalem, and it says that he was from a messenger from James. Now, if you study your church history, what you'll find is that the actual elder or maybe if we would use the terminology lead pastor of the church in Jerusalem ended up being James. So this guy comes from James, and he sees this Pharisee coming in. He's a brother in Christ, but immediately judging and sees Peter sitting down and eating with them and thinks, How dare you? How dare you? And Peter immediately feels that judgment on him. And what does Peter do? Gets up and leaves. Gets up and leaves, and he goes to the table. And it was so, and Paul says in these verses, he said it was so heavy that even Barnabas did the same thing. He led someone else astray. He led somebody else to. So now you have Barnabas sort of like, well, I don't want Peter to think less than me. So he goes over there. So Barnabas, Peter, and this guy from the Jerusalem church with James is all like hanging out. We're better Christians. And Paul loses his stuff, man. Paul's like, uh-uh. Ain't happening in my church, y'all. This is not going to go down. And so he gets in Peter's face, and he says at the end of verse 14, he says, If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like the Jew? And he's like, what are you doing, Peter? Who are you to say that they have to act like these guys over here in Jerusalem? Let them be who God created them to be. And he said, you messed up, man. Messed up. Situational ethics is ungodly ethics. We must not and cannot have ethics based on situations, and they change based on situations. Our ethics must be continued, must be consistent through everything that we do. We must not be hypocrites, which is what Paul was saying to Peter. He's saying, you hypocrite. Yeah, verse 13, he says, The rest of the Jews acted hypocritically. This is the word hypocrisus, which we get our word hypocrisy. Swindoll says, The Greek term means play acting, pretending to wear a disguise. Peter and Barnabas believed one thing but did another. And so when Paul confronted him, I like what MacArthur said here. He said, Right doctrine without right behavior produces hypocrisy. Yeah, that's true. And that falsehood is not to be ignored. Regardless of the consequences that opposition may bring to it. Yeah. So then we look at the, we saw the why of the confrontation. We got there to Paul's reaction. And here from verse 15 to the end of the chapter is where we sort of get Paul going into sort of teaching a little bit. And then that leads to chapter 3 in the doctrinal aspect. So let's begin looking at verse 15. Okay. We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. All right. So he starts off and he says, We are Jews from birth and not Gentiles. And this sort of racial segregation that you've got going on here is not supposed to be when you're in Christ. He says in verse 16, Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified. Can we scream that? Yeah. No one will be justified by your works. Yeah. You can look the greatest you can. You can dress. You can never drink. Never smoke. You can never do all that stuff. Hey, you can be the best citizen, the best believer. You can do everything perfectly. And you'll never be justified by it. Ever. Platt sort of goes along with what MacArthur said earlier. He says we need to have right belief with right behavior. How do you bring these two together? Faith. Faith. That's what he says in verse 16. Faith. He says it is through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith. Not works of faith. And it's not merely just intellectual, as MacArthur says. Yes. It is something that is truly believed that there is man's sin, that there is man's wrongdoing, and there is this personal relationship with Jesus Christ, understanding and trusting in his death, burial, and resurrection, and that he rose from the dead so that you could live forever and have forgiveness of sins. Not this overbearing sin that you have to carry by yourself. But the Bible says that my yoke is easy, my burden is light, because he wants us to take on his burden, not our burden. He takes that from us and gives us a new burden, a new burden of souls to be told about Jesus Christ. And so we must submit to him as Lord. Wiersbe says that justification is the act of God, whereby he declares the believing sinner righteous in Jesus Christ. Justification is an act and not a process. Yep. Sanctification is the process. But justification. If we want to get into theological weeds, there's two aspects of sanctification. There's positional sanctification and progressional sanctification. All right. So positional sanctification is that when you were saved, you were set apart by God. You were sanctified. Progressive sanctification is the idea that, yes, you were set apart. You now have a new position in Christ. But that process of your setting apart is a continual growing throughout your Christian life until you become glorified in eternity. Yeah. Okay. So this is where we get to the last part of chapter 2. And that is the last from verses 17 through 21. And we see Paul's defense being mounted here. So let's take this. We got some time. We'll take this verse by verse going through it. Verse 17. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? What an interesting question. That is a great question. Paul's sitting there talking about the difference between how we come to Christ not by works, not by law, but by faith in Christ. And he says, listen, you're so concerned about entertaining sinners and being around sinners and mingling with sinners. And he says, we were sinners, but we weren't justified by what we could do. It's all about Christ, God's grace, and faith in Christ. And he says, so, if our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, does that, if that's true, if we are going to be justified by works, does that make Christ then a servant of sin? The term I would use, absolutely not. No. He uses, certainly not. I think in the King James, maybe it comes across as God forbid. God forbid, yeah. May it never be. Yeah. It's like the strongest way he could say is, heck to the no. That was Dr. Holyfield's vernacular there. Yeah, that's my paraphrase. Heck to the no. It ain't happening. Christ is not a servant of sin. New version coming out soon, the Dr. John Holyfield edition. For if I, okay, so this is. So that is, that's Paul's opposition. Opponents thought that people would disregard works. And since Christ is the one who supplies the grace, that leads to lawlessness. He would actually be enabling a sinful lifestyle. We still see that problem and argument today. If we don't call it out, they'll continue to live in sin. Yeah, and pastors and guys out there in fundamentalism are scared to death to say that you have freedom in Christ because they're scared that you're going to go out and you're going to get drunk. Yeah. Or you're going to go get a tattoo, God forbid. And that's why they preach on these things that are not in the Bible because they have their list of what they think is wicked and they feel like if they don't, you will do it. Yeah. That's exactly right. He's saying, listen, if you're in Christ, he's not a servant of sin. So he's not going to make you a servant of sin. Stop adding to God's word. Yeah. Look at verse 18. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. He's saying, listen, why would I rebuild what I've already destroyed in my own body? Why would I, if I was killing Christians, why would I go back to doing that? God delivered me from that. I'm living a life of freedom. I'm living a life of grace. I'm living a life of faith. I'm living a life that is for God's glory forever and ever as chapter one ended. So now we must live forward, not look backward and try to rebuild the things that were broken down, that were torn down, that God tore down. Yeah. MacArthur says, if anyone, this is what he's saying, if anyone, including myself, tries to rebuild a system of legalism after he has once destroyed it by believing and preaching the gospel of God's powerful grace and man's sinful helplessness, he proves himself, not Christ, to be a transgressor. Yeah. Himself. You can't lay that at Christ's feet. And so then we get to verse 19, which says, For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. What does that mean? Simply put, the law will never and cannot ever sanctify you. And the law cannot save you. Yes. The law does not make you more holy. Now, my theological system, James, I don't believe that we just completely get rid of the law completely. So we shouldn't unhitch the Old Testament? No, no unhitching the Old Testament. I don't believe that. Okay, okay. I believe that the law has purpose. It does. The moral law of God has significance. It does. But it does not save us or sanctify us. And so that is where we get to this famous verse that probably everybody can quote from the King James. Mm-hmm. And that you see stitched on pillows and you see plaques and everything. So we've come through this whole context of where we're at. Now let's look at this famous verse. Yeah. Because context. Is. Context. Context. Context is. Oh, I forgot. King. King. Good grief, James. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. It's been a long day. It's been a long day. Context is king. Context is king. All right. Jesus is king, actually. Well, come on. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That should be our life. That should be our testimony. It is not my life that I'm living, but it's Christ's life through me that I'm living. I'm trying to do my entire best through the word of God to live holy and sanctified for his honor and for his glory because he is the one who died for me. There's so much in this verse. There's so much. I mean, talking about everyday living. Yeah. You live in faith. Faith needs to be an everyday part of your walk with God. And we're not talking about like faith and unicorns. We're not talking about this, you know. As Greg Boone says. I believe it. No, this is what faith is. And I love Tony Evans helped me get to this idea. But faith is putting to action your belief in what God has said. Yeah. What does that mean? Simply this. It means you take what God has instructed you for your life in this and you believe it and you walk in it. Yeah. Because you are believing that. That's what faith is. Faith isn't this idea of, well, I'm just going to do what I want today and trust God. Amen, bro. That's not faith. That's not biblical faith. Faith is living according to what God has told us to live. Yeah. It is saying, God, I believe you. So I'm going to do what you said. Yeah. It is. Another aspect of that verse is just some good theological truth about the nature of God. He says in verse 20, he says, I live by faith in the Son of God. So there we have a deity of Christ, a Christological statement there, who loved me and gave himself for me. A statement of atonement and a statement of Christ's love. Mm-hmm. Man, God loves you. Think about this. Think about this. This whole message that Paul is getting across here in dealing and confronting this idea of legalism, he comes back to the idea of the love of Christ. Yeah. He's saying, listen, guys, all this extra stuff, you're enslaving yourself. We're free in Christ. You know why? Because he loves us. And if there's anything that gets confused or botched up, I think, in a lot of legalistic communities is the area of love. Yeah. I think people feel like they have to earn love. And what Paul is saying in Galatians 2.20 is he was crucified because he loved you first. Yeah. He loved you first, and he gave himself for you. You cannot earn it. Well, think of it like this, John. You brought something to my mind. Because I've said in chapel services, I've said in preaching times, I've been to camp meetings, in several camp meetings, that have said, they'll start off a message, and I'm going to start out sort of how Paul started out. But I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you to the grace of God. You're turning from the old paths. You're turning away from the things that God gave you, and now you're running from God. And that's sort of where they end. That's how Paul started out. Yeah. I'm astonished that you would do this. But how many times in those same messages does it end with, the life I now live is for the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me? I've never been to a camp meeting where the message started with a reformation but ended with an adoration of love. But that's what Paul did. That's what Paul did. He started out hard. He started out, you know, a little, little, hairl fire and brim stall. I mean, our King James brothers would love it. They would be like, yeah, man. But they forget this. They forget the love that's at the end that admonishes them. Hey, listen, get back to what the good stuff is. Get back to the gospel. Get back to God's greatness that he died and gave himself for you because he loved you. Yeah. And then verse 21, John. Final verse, verse 21 in the chapter. Paul says, He says, If that's the case, why did he die? Why did you? You know what you're doing? Listen to me. If there's any IFB pastor that is out there listening to this, when you try to make a list for people to live by and tell them this is what they're supposed to do to become a better person or a better Christian, you are saying, in effect, the cross doesn't matter. Yeah. Stop it. So true. Because this is what Paul's saying. I do not nullify the grace of God. Yeah. I'm not making the grace of God of any effect. Because when I do that, that's what I do. And we've got to stop. We've got to jump back into a robust understanding of God's grace. Sorry, I got a little hot. Hey, come on. Let's go. All right. So what's the application here? What can we learn? And there's two things that we look at that I think we can learn from. The first is we can learn from Paul and Barnabas that in your zeal for truth, don't forget prudence. Prudence is like wisdom. Yeah. Don't forget wisdom. Don't forget how to. And Proverbs gives us all the wisdom that we need and then some more on top of that. And so we need to not forget about the wisdom that God has given us. I hope we pray for it every day. I know I do. As a pastor, I pray for wisdom. I pray for wisdom in my family. I pray for wisdom in my friends. I pray for wisdom in our congregation that I would lead the right way. And, you know, because you're going to be doing ministry with messy people. Yeah, that was an idea taken from like the first part of the chapter where they were going to the Jerusalem Council. They knew they had to make their case for the gospel to other guys who had strong opinions that were leaders. And they did it wisely. They did it respectfully. And they did it with bringing Titus in and giving Titus' testimony. So they exhibited prudence. They exhibited wisdom. Now, if there's a lesson we can learn from. Yeah, go ahead. What's the lesson? Yeah, lesson. From Peter, John, and James. Peter. I don't know why I put John. Because you like to be first. You don't want to put me before you. But John's not in that story. Peter, James, and John. Okay, I think I got the names wrong there. But if we can learn a lesson from the other story, it's this. In your passion for right doctrine, don't neglect right living. In your passion for right doctrine. Guys, one of the things that we can get excited about when we sort of leave what we left and feeling like we're really drinking out of a fire hose now. We're really growing theology and listening to it. We're out of the echo chamber. We're listening to all these things. We cannot just take in the head knowledge and neglect applicational theology. The everyday living aspect of what we're taking in. We have to make sure that our lives are glorifying Christ in the way we do. That is an aspect of the Bible. It's not just some kind of legalistic thing. Now, we have to be careful and be on guard that we are not adding to God's Word in how we should live. But in those areas that the Bible is clear on how we should live, we need to be abiding by those as well. Yeah. We'll close with this statement from Chuck Swindoll. And we've quoted him a lot this episode, but I think it's fitting. It says, At the RFP meetup, one of the family asked a question to the guys and said, Do you still feel guilty in some things that you do or you've received freedom from? Your new liberty. Yeah, your new liberty. And I love their answer. It was, I've had my faith. I've understood what my boundaries are. Yeah. It's basically what they said. Jenny C's answer was this. Nope. Yeah. But it's because they weren't going to put their regulations, their conscience on your conscience. Now, you ask them a biblical question. Is it right or wrong to do X, Y, Z? They'll give you a biblical answer because they got the Bible to back up what that standard is. Yeah. But if you just say, do you feel guilty because you're doing something that you have liberty to do? Well, no, I've got liberty to do it. Yep. So, yeah. Guys, this is the For Freedom podcast. And we base that off of a verse in this book that we're covering, Galatians 5.1. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. We're going to get to that. We're going to have a time when we finally get to chapter 5. Yeah. Do not, therefore, do not be yoked up again and, or be enslaved again in a yoke of bondage. All right? So, listen, Christ did not die in vain. He died and he set us free. Let's stop trying to go back into slavery. Amen. And I think that's where we're going to stop today. So, thank you guys, everybody. If you like this, share it. And on your social media platform, check out our YouTube. I don't know how this is going to look on video. I forget that there's a camera there and I'm not even paying attention to it whatsoever. So, maybe it'll be okay. And then, you know, check it out, share it, and then maybe give us a like and review on your favorite podcast platform. But until next time, to God. Not the pastor. Be the glory. Thanks for listening to the For Freedom podcast. To find more content like this, please visit RFPNetwork.org. To find more podcasts like this one, resources, and meetups to encourage you on your journey. Thank you. Thank you.

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