Address—C. Hendricks
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Galatians one, Paul an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you, and peace from him which.
Grace be to you in peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father.
To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.
Which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we are an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Or do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men?
For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jewish religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it, and profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in mine own nation.
Being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father's.
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me.
That I might preach him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood neither when I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me. But I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him 15 days. But other of the apostles saw I none save James the Lord's brother.
Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not.
Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face under the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. But they had heard only that He which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed, and they glorified God in me.
We'll stop there.
We'll read more later in the early church.
The enemy sought to destroy the truth of Christianity by introducing the principle of law and applying it to the Gentiles.
In Acts 15.
Jews came down from Jerusalem. They weren't scented, the apostles.
But they were Judaizers and they said, except ye be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.
They were trying to put the Gentiles under law. The Jews had always regarded themselves above the Gentiles.
Because they knew God and the Gentiles did not. They had the law and the Gentiles did not. So they had a tremendous advantage over the Gentiles and they were proud of it, very proud indeed.
They didn't see that the principle of law only could condemn them.
And kill them and curse them and bring judgment upon them. And they didn't keep it themselves. The Lord said in John seven, He said to the Pharisees, did not Moses give you the law? And none of you keepeth the law.
Again, in Acts 7, the Holy Spirit said, speaking through Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost.
You have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it so. Here was 1500 years of trial by a part of the human race, and it was the Jewish part.
And they were given the law. The Gentiles were never given the law. The sea of man could by that principle produce a righteousness which would stand him in good stead before God.
Well, he didn't do that. He broke it, and he brought the curse of a broken law down upon himself, and now he's seeking to put the Gentiles in Christianity under law. And if he had succeeded, if the enemy had succeeded in this, it would have destroyed the true character of Christianity. Sad to say, we're at the end of 2000 years of gospel testimony in this world and many in Christendom today, even at this late stage and with an epistle such as.
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Galatians that we're going to be looking at as written, we're going to. We have to comment that there's much of Christendom that is still under law, under *******.
The law is condemnation. The law is death. Holds out blessing for the obedient.
But there are no obedient ones for all of sin and transgress the law who are under it.
It says the blessed Lord, the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace is the hardest, the hardest principle to get a hold of for us, for man, because that's not the way he operates normally. He operates on the principle of law.
When you contract with an employer to do a certain job, he gives you the job description, you read the job description, you say I will do that for so much money. And he agrees and you agree. And at the end of the month you've worked for what he gives you and he pays you your wages. That's the principle of law. You do work and you get wages for it.
Principle of law is to do something in order to gain God's favor. The principle of grace is entirely different, and that is God in the goodness of his own heart, when man had shown himself to be incorrigibly bad and unable to keep the holy and just and good law. But there's nothing wrong with the law of Moses. It's perfect as a measure for man to live by. But man being so imperfect and so sinful when he's presented with that law.
He breaks it. Remember when Israel heard the law, they said all that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey. But before Moses came down from the holy Mount, with Jehovah, with the law in his hands, they had broken. The Israelites had broken the first 3 commandments.
The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. They made a God, and they called it Jehovah. They made a false God. The second commandment says Thou shalt not make any image of anything in heaven and earth and bow down to it. And they had made an image. They had made a golden calf, and they danced around it. The third commandment says, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. And they had named, they had saved tomorrow as a feast to Jehovah. They had put the name of the true God to that idolat.
Feast to this.
Idol this false God. So they've made a false God, they've made an idol, and they had used the Lord's name in a profane way.
So they were guilty before the law had ever even come into their midst.
Man is incapable of keeping it. This epistle to the Galatians was written.
To show.
To teach that by that law principle no man should be justified before God.
The only way one can be justified before God is by faith.
And by grace, by grace. Grace and law are in opposition. We're in Galatians 1.
Grace and law are in opposition. Works and faith are in opposition. Grace and faith go together, works and law go together, and works in law bring a curse.
The principle of law is that man gains God's acceptance by doing something.
By keeping this law of Moses.
And what if he doesn't keep it? Well, it brings the curse upon himself. It slays him.
It condemns him. And so the law which was for life, if one was obedient, is found to be to us death and judgment.
While Paul writes to these Galatians.
Who were mostly Gentiles. There were some Jews there amongst them. These were churches in a province.
And he writes as an apostle, Paul, an apostle.
He says his apostleship was not of men as a source, neither was it by man as a means. But how did it come to him but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. So Paul's apostleship, and he establishes at the very outset, did not come from men.
It did not come through man, it came from the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father.
It was of divine origin.
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And then he says, And all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia.
Grace be to you every epistle that Paul writes. Almost every epistle, I think there's one that it doesn't use this word grace. It starts out with grace.
And it ends with grace. This is characteristic of Paul's ministry. It's characteristic of the New Testament writers.
Every O everyone of them, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and the message of the gospel is presenting him who brought this wonderful principle of grace. What is grace? Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Grace is God saying, I'm going to bless you because I want to myself. It flows from his own heart of love.
Grace is God blessing us, taking us into favor, shining upon us in favor, when we have deserved none of it.
We have a lovely expression in one of our hymns. The Father's face in radiant grace shines now in light on me.
And each one of us can say that Why so? Because we have done something to warrant it, to merit it, to deserve it. No, no, not at all. Because he's acting in grace. This present day is called the dispensation of the grace of God. God is dispensing his goods in this present day on the principle of grace. He's not requiring anything from man. He's saying when I've given you for 1500 years.
Are and none of you have kept it.
You've all broken it and it condemns you. Now I'm going to bless you because it is the desire of my heart to bless you.
And that's the principle of grace, undeserved favor, and it shines upon us. That ought to awaken in us a response, a response that the law could never produce because all the law could do, if we had kept it, would have been to bolster our pride. I got there because I did this and that. The other thing, no one who gets to heaven, no one who comes to God and comes into the presence of God will ever be able to.
Accredit that to himself in any ways. It's all grace.
And this is the most wonderful principle. Now, that's the way we ought to conduct ourselves towards our brethren, towards one another. We ought to conduct ourselves in grace because that's the way God has dealt with us. He's not dealing with us on the principle of law today. He's dealing with us on the principle of grace. And so we ought to deal accordingly and not on the principle of law, sad to say.
Sometimes we degenerate into our dealings with one another on the law principle, and that's sad when it is that way. Grace be to you, verse 3, and peace.
You see, if you're under law, you'll never have peace. You will never have settled peace with God.
Because it depends on you. It depends on your works. And if you do something wrong, if you make a slip, if you do something that is displeasing to him and you're on that ground, then you, you've lost everything, have you not? And a soul that is under law, you'll find people who are under law, they don't believe in eternal security.
How can they? Because they, they believe that they have to hold on, they have to maintain their salvation. They have to do this or that and not not fail. And when they fail, they've lost it.
One asked A.
Church of Christ minister.
You have eternal security, he said 90%.
90%, That means 10% is up to him.
If 1% was up to him, he'd be lost, wouldn't he? No, it's all God's grace. It's all God's grace. But there are so many that have the view, that very same view, that that person, that brother I trust, he's a brother. I don't know the Lord knows, but let's assume he's really the Lord's. But just I'll talk improperly taught.
He thinks that he has to make his contribution towards his justification and salvation. Or if he doesn't feel that he feels that after he's justified, after he's saved, then to keep saved, to keep righteous, he has to make his contribution.
Well.
What it sounds like I'm I'm preaching something that means you can do whatever you want after you're saved.
No, not that at all. What you do lose when you don't walk in obedience to the Word of God is you lose communion. You do not lose your salvation. When your child misbehaves in the family and gets spanked and sent to their room, to his room or her room. They don't lose their place in the family, but they lose fellowship, they lose communion, they lose that.
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That.
Fellowship that they have with their daddy, your money because they've been naughty. They don't lose their being a child in the family. And so it is in Christianity. It's all grace.
So he says grace to you and peace. That's the only way we can have settled peace is because we know that it depends entirely, altogether, absolutely upon Him and nothing upon us, our salvation. There's not one gift that we have from God that we deserve, that we have earned, that we are.
Aware that we have.
Earth. You know the common expression. You hear it all the time. You see it on billboards. You deserve a break today. You deserve this. You deserve that.
Well, if we got really what we deserved, you know where we'd be, don't you?
If we got what we deserved, we'd be in hell.
Because that's what we deserve. One sin was enough to shut Adam and Eve out of the earthly paradise.
How many sins have we committed?
Far more than that.
No, we don't get what we deserve. Undeserved favor. That's great.
Get that? Get that concept, that principle. Home to the very youngest here.
We like to be able to do something that.
Secures our salvation.
You go away on a trip.
And the grass isn't cut.
And then when your boy sees that he's he's home, he's old enough to be home and he cuts the lawn for you and you haven't asked him to do that. He does it when you get back, you.
You see that he's cut the lawn for you.
Johnny, now I'm sure you're my son because you cut the lawn for me.
No, but Johnny, I'm so thankful that you did that and I'm going to give you a reward for it, but it has nothing to do with his relationship with you as a son. I'm trying to give an illustration that the youngest can understand.
When we have a sense of grace in our souls, then we get that peace.
We know we are at peace with God, therefore being justified by faith. Romans 5 We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only so, but we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Not only are we saved by grace, not only are we justified by grace, we stand in grace.
We stand in the unmerited favor of God.
We stand in a position where when God looks down upon you, he's smiling.
He's not frowning.
He's not trying to look for some fault that he can pounce upon you and condemn you for, but he has placed you before himself in the position of Summers.
And he smiles upon you, because he sees you in Christ.
You know to get a hold of that.
Get a hold of that fills the soul with a sense of peace that no one can disrupt. No one can disrupt. If we're not and do something wrong, we know He's going to deal with us about it because He's a loving Father. And if you call on the Father who without respect of persons, judgeth according to the work of each past the time of your sojourning here in fear, we should be afraid to do what is displeasing to Him. He won't let us. He won't let us get away with it.
I remember 2 boys were fighting.
And the father came out of the house and he took one of the boys, and he brought him up on the porch and gave him a licking.
And the neighbor came by and he said.
I saw it all and it wasn't his fault. It was this other boy's fault. And he said, well, that may be true, but this boy is my son.
And He's the one that he dealt with because He was His Son. God loves us, the Father loves us, and He deals with us as a loving Father. Because aren't you glad He doesn't allow us to get away with sin?
Be sure your sin will find you out.
There's no joy in sin, there's no happiness in sin, there's no peace in sin. And those of us that have tried that know what I'm saying.
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There's no joy in any of that.
God has marked out in His Word the way of peace, and that's to walk in obedience to Him in the sense of grace in our souls.
We should serve him as though.
I remember once preaching on the street corner and I was preaching in great earnestness, and this brother said to me, you preach as though everything depended upon the way you're preaching. And I said, well, I know that nothing depends on the way I'm preaching. It's the word of God that saves. But I'm preaching that way because I want them to realize how important this is, realizing that no one is saved by the intensity of the preacher.
But only by the Word of God. But we ought to preach, and we ought to live with intensity and for the glory of the Lord.
Grace be to you in peace. From whom? From God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who gave himself for our sins.
That He might deliver us from this present evil world. According to the will of God and our Father, He died. That He might be delivered, That we might be delivered from this present evil world. All that it goes on with, all of its entertainment, all of its pleasures, all of its sins and evils, He died to deliver us from this present evil world.
They delivered people according to the will of God our Father.
God our Father does not want you to be in the pleasures of sin. There are some pleasures of sin, otherwise the flesh wouldn't go after these things.
But that's not the way of true happiness at all.
Deliver us from this present evil world, and one of the fundamental principles of this present evil world is the principle of law.
And this is what these legalists were trying to bring the Gentile believers under.
And he died to deliver us from it.
To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And now that's all. That's the beginning of this epistle. This epistle has a very stern character to it because the evil, the sin that was being dealt with and combated here by the faithful servant, the apostle Paul.
If it was allowed to gain entrance into the Christian company, it would have destroyed the true character of Christianity.
So he starts out now, he launches now into what was burdening his heart so deeply. He says, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you, that was from God, the God of all grace, that called them to himself by grace, that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel more properly there it's unto a different gospel.
Which he goes on to say is not another.
Which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. These Judaizers, these legalists were the troublers.
And they were perverting the gospel of Christ. They were adding something to salvation, which is by faith, by grace through faith.
And that's it, period. But just adding something. Just get these Gentiles circumcised. Then they'll have something in the flesh that they can glory in the mark of circumcision, the mark that distinguishes them from all the rest of humanity.
Something that they have done to contribute to their salvation. What he didn't tell them.
It's just like the lie of Satan when he said to Eve you shall be as God knowing good and evil. He didn't go on to say, but you won't be able to choose the good and you'll only be able to choose the evil.
You didn't tell her that he said you'll be his God, knowing good and evil. And so she took the fruit and gave to her husband, and they ate and sin came into the world. And since then, everyone born into this world is born in sin shaping in iniquity.
I marvel that ye are so soon removed.
From him that calls you into the grace of Christ unto a different gospel, which is not another. But there be some that troubled you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
And then he goes on to say very stern words here. But though we.
Or an Angel from heaven.
Preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed.
Let him be assigned to hell forever. It's a strong, very strong thing. Let him be accursed. And then he puts it a different way. He says, as we said before, so say I now again, if anyone preach any other gospel unto you than that she have received.
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Let him be accursed. In verse 8 he says what we have preached. If anyone preaches a different gospel than what we preach, let him be accursed. And then he says in the next verse what you have received.
He says that same thing in First Corinthians 15. It says we preached unto you and then they received it. They received it. That's how they became Christians, by receiving the gospel of the grace of God.
The gospel of His grace.
But they had been removed from grace unto a different gospel, gospel of works, which is not another gospel at all. It's not a gospel at all. It's not good works, good news at all.
As we said before, so say I now again. Well, I read that verse, verse 10. For do I now persuade men?
Am I trying to please men or God?
Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be? The servant of Christ would have been an easy thing for the Apostle Paul, who was, by the way, in his preconverted days a thorough legalist. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he was a Jew, he was a law preacher, and he kept it, he says, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.
He kept all the ordinances of the law, probably as as well as any Jew had ever kept them, Very conscientious. He was Saul of Tarsus.
Then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.
And that changed him completely.
He is, He is the trophy, the highest trophy that I can think of in all of Christianity. That shows what grace can do with a man.
That man, Saul of Tarsus.
Totally committed to the principle of law, to works through his religious activities and so on. Now he's thoroughly, absolutely, completely delivered from that law principle.
And he realizes that to inject that into the Christian community, no matter how innocent it might seem, just circumcision. Just get these Gentile circumcised, that's all. What does that commit them to? He says later in this epistle. If you are circumcised, you are a debtor to do the whole law.
You cannot pick and choose. You cannot say, well, I like that first commandment and the third one and the 5th and the 7th and the 8th, 9th and the 10th, but I don't like the others. You can't do that. If you're under law, you're under the whole of it.
Totally.
And if you break one of them.
You're cursed.
You're condemned.
You're slain.
And lost.
On that principle.
So it's a very serious thing, is it not?
In the Council of Trent, Roman Catholic Council, I don't remember the date of it they took up. It was after the Reformation. They took up all the recovered crews of the Reformation.
One of them, and wonderful truths, was justification by faith, apart from works altogether.
Martin Luther was climbing stairs. He was a Roman Catholic monk and he had no intention of leaving the Catholic Church. He was actually forced out of it because he believed the Bible.
He was on his way, on his hands and knees, walking up these stairs, trying to gain favor with God.
By his works, his religious works, his inflicting his body with pain, and so on. They thought that the body was evil, and if they would just punish the body, they could they could earn their earned merits towards their heavenly acceptance with God.
That whole system, that whole roaming system today is a merit system. They use the word grace. They haven't the foggiest notion of what grace means.
They think it's just doing some works in order to gain a bit of grace. It's like a brownie point and you get 1 and then you get another and you get another and you've done things.
And that's works. The principle of works.
Well, they looked over all these recovered truths of the Reformation. One was that the Bible is all sufficient as a rule of faith for the Christian. They don't believe that and they condemned it and they pronounced anathema a curse upon anyone that believes that the Bible is the all sufficient guide for the Christian.
They pronounced a curse upon anyone that believes that we're justified by faith apart from works.
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And that's the very gospel that Paul preached. Paul pronounces a curse upon those that believe their gospel, and they pronounce a curse upon all that believes Pauls gospel.
Which one do you believe?
You believe Paul's Gospel? Or do you believe the Gospel of Rome?
Which is no gospel at all.
The saddest thing is I have a book at home in my library. This is a little departure, but.
Comes to mind, and I'm gonna bring it. It's called Evangelicals and Catholics Together.
Written by some prominent evangelicals in our Christian world, and they are espousing the idea of fellowshipping with of getting these two groups together.
Evangelicals that believe Paul's gospel and Catholics that believe their gospel. They both pronounce a curse upon the other that believes what they believe. Isn't that something?
Paul pronounces the curse on the Catholic Gospel, and the Catholics pronounce a curse upon the evangelical gospel.
And yet they're going to get these two groups together under the umbrella umbrella of being Christians.
Umbrella of Life.
The doctrine is diametrically different. That's the reason the whole Epistle to the Galatians was written, to deliver souls. I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. It did not come from man. It did not originate from man, for I neither received it of men of man, neither was I taught it. He didn't go to Jerusalem. He didn't get taught this by the apostles of Jerusalem.
How did he get this gospel? By the revelation of Jesus Christ.
He got this gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ revealed this gospel to him and he calls it my gospel. Now the others who preach the gospel in the New Testament, they, they preach the same gospel alright, but not in the fullness that we have with the apostle Paul.
But it's not.
Anything like the Gospel of Rome, Of course they preach the gospel of the grace of God. Peter uses some very precious expressions. He says at the end of his second epistle. He says grow in grace.
And in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he says in the end of the first epistle.
The God of all grace, who hath called you to his eternal glory after you've suffered a while perfect strength and stablish settle you to whom the glory forever. This is the true grace of God, wherein ye stand this wonderful gospel, that you're saved by faith and not by works.
Verse 13 for ye have heard of my conversation my.
Conduct my manner of life in time past in the Jews religion, before he was saved. How that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it, and profited in the Jews religion about many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my Father's.
But when it pleased God.
Who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace?
To reveal his son in me.
That I might preach him among the heathen immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.
He didn't go to the apostles at Jerusalem then to get this confirmed. He didn't go to them at all. Where did he go? But I went into the Mass, into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days.
But other of the apostles saw a nun save James, the Lord's brother.
It's interesting if you read Acts 15.
Where these Judaizers came down from Jerusalem trying to put the Gentiles under law, they had a lot of discussion and there was a lot of disagreement. And we mustn't think if we have disagreement among ourselves sometimes over some issues, that that's always bad, because sometimes that's the way the truth comes out.
They had a lot of disagreement and then Peter.
He got up and he pronounced and he made these wonderful words. He said these wonderful words. He said. We believe we Jews believe that.
We shall be saved even as they the Gentiles. Now that's not the way that you would normally put it. He'd say they shall be saved even as we, but you always put himself forward as the standard. But Peter says it just the other way around. We believe that we Jews shall be saved even to say, how were the Gentiles saved? They never had the law. They were saved by pure sovereign grace.
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Pure sovereign grace. And he says we believe that we Jews are going to be saved the same way, and then that same principle.
The principle of grace. No other way.
And then James came forward, and he James the brother of the Lord, same one that Paul saw in verse 19.
When he went to Jerusalem. It's interesting that the two that gave the final judgment in Acts 15 are the two that Paul saw when he went to Jerusalem.
And they're the two that the Lord appeared to in resurrection. If you look in one Corinthians 15, he appeared to Peter, first Cephas, and then he appeared to James. James the Lords brother who didn't believe in him when he was here on earth.
Neither did his brethren believe in Him, John 7. But after the resurrection they came to faith. They came to faith, and they were to be used mightily in the early church.
James gives the final pronouncement, and he says that they're not to be placed under law, but that they should abstain from fornication and from meats offered to idols and from blood and from things strangled, which if they do well, they will. If they keep, they will do well.
But when the pronouncement was made and the letter was sent up to Antioch to tell them of the decision, it was worded this way. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost.
And to us to lay upon you no greater burden, that you abstained from fornication and things strangled, and from blood, and from things offered to idols.
It seemed good to the Holy Ghost. So after their much discussion and murmurings and arguing and all that they had, the Spirit of God brought them to see things his way. And that was the decision that was arrived at. That's true godly. That's a true godly decision when it's the Holy Spirit in the, in the midst of the, in the among the Saints that leads to a decision that is of himself.
So it was decided that the Gentiles were not to be placed under law. And when they heard that read up in Antioch, they rejoiced.
They rejoiced.
Verse 20 Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not.
Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea, which were in Christ.
But they had heard only that He which persecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith which once He destroyed.
And they glorified God.
Then 14 years after I went up again to Jerusalem. Now this 14 years after he was converted, is Acts 15.
And he's talking about his going up to Jerusalem now to settle, to engage with them at Jerusalem.
They could have decided that, you know, Paul was an apostle, A Barnabas was an apostle. They could have decided it at Antioch.
But they didn't.
How did they know? How did they know to go to Jerusalem to decide it there?
What God told them. Notice what it says.
Where's 2? I went up by revelation.
And communicated unto them that it was revealed to Paul, you go to Jerusalem, this problem is going to be settled in Jerusalem.
If it was settled at Antioch, what would have happened? You'd have a Jewish church.
Of one opinion and a Gentile Church of another opinion, and the unity would have been lost.
So he went up by revelation, and what did he do there? It says He communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles.
But privately to them which were of reputation those that were in reputation there at Jerusalem.
Lest by any means I should run, or had run in vain. He didn't want this to become a discussion publicly where the enemy could get a hold of of.
Confusing the the multitude and they would not arrive at a right decision. So he he he conferred with them privately and and gave them the gospel that he had learned from the Lord Jesus Christ in glory.
And he communicated that, and that's the gospel I preached to the Gentiles.
Now it took the Jews a long time to realize that the same principle applies to them as applied to the Gentiles.
And they were still under law for quite a while even after that. They just applied it to the Gentiles and not to themselves.
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God, finally.
They were clinging to the old Jewish thing that Jerusalem was the divine center. They were finally delivered from that when God sent the Roman armies down under Titus and the Jews were.
Scattered from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was leveled by the Romans.
And from that point on, the church had no earthly center.
And it doesn't to this day.
Accepted Rome, and that's the false church that has an earthly center.
But our centers in heaven.
Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory. The head of the Church is there not on earth.
Or he sent the Spirit of God down here to run things in his absence, and he's the one that should have absolute authority in our comings together and in our lives and publicly and privately in every way.
The Spirit of God.
So he communicated unto them the gospel which he preached.
Among the Gentiles, but he did it privately to them, which were of reputation. But by any means I should run, or have run in vain. But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. He would not submit to this idea of circumcising a Gentile.
Now Timothy was circumcised. He had a Jewish mother and a Gentile father.
And because he had a Jewish mother, he should have been circumcised according to the law. And Paul allowed that no problem there because he was a Jew.
Because his mother was a Jew.
That's what determined it with the Jews.
But Titus was a gentile, and so he was not circumcised.
And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into *******. They wanted to put the Gentiles under the ******* of law.
Did Paul you submit to that? He says, to whom we gave place by subjection? No, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
So he opposed it very strongly.
But of these who seem to be somewhat.
Parenthesis. Whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me. God accepteth no man's person. End of parenthesis. They, who seemed to be somewhat in conference, added nothing to me.
It couldn't add anything to Paul's gospel. It went beyond theirs.
It was the gospel of the grace of God, which is God becoming a man.
And God dispensing all his dealings now in grace. And then it was the gospel of the glory. Man going up into the presence of God, a man in the very glory.
Paul's Gospel.
Wonderful, precious gospel that he preached.
Verse 7. But contrary wise, when they saw that the gospel of the Uncircumcision was committed unto me.
As the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter, Paul was to go to the Gentiles, Peter was to go to the Jews.
For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.
And when James, Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars.
Perceive the grace that was given unto me. They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
Only they would that we should remember the poor, the same which I also was forward to do.
Now that was good.
That's what was arrived at in Acts 15.
Paul and Barnabas were to go to the Gentiles, Peter to the Jews, but they still hadn't gotten clear that the Jews are no longer under law either.
And that took a while. And that's why the Epistle to the Hebrews was written.
To tell them to go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach, to leave that system of legalism.
The whole teaching of Hebrews is that Christianity is better, better, better, better, better than Judaism.
And they had to come to that.
But God bore with the Jews.
For a long time.
Now. Now we hear of a failure.
Verse 11.
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Well, Peter had just pronounced that wonderful pronouncement in Acts 15 where he said that we Jew shall be saved even as you Gentiles.
Adult is what he does here.
But when Peter was come to Antioch, I was stood into the face because he was to be blamed.
Here you have one apostle publicly rebuking another apostle.
For what he had done for before that certain came from James. That was the Lord's half brother. We read of him earlier.
Before he came from and he came from James, he Peter did eat with the Gentiles.
But when they were come, he had freedom to eat with the Gentiles. He knew that they were saved by grace and that they were brethren.
Now these legalists, these Jews, come from James at Jerusalem, and Peter withdraws himself and doesn't meet with the Gentiles anymore.
When they were come from James, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. The fear of man bringeth a snare.
I've seen a brothers meeting going on very well.
And.
We were of one mind in the Lord.
And a brother comes in late.
He was a legalist.
And the whole character of the brothers didn't change.
Fear of man bringeth a snare.
He had his legalistic ideas and he tried to impose those upon the Saints and it.
Spoiled the whole meeting.
That's what happened when these came from James. These Jews came from James. Peter was happily eating with the Gentiles until they came, and when they came, he didn't want them to see him eating with the Gentiles. You don't want to get into trouble. We have the idea that because someone was an apostle that he could do anything he wanted without fault or without criticism. Not at all.
They were the first ones that got criticized.
So he he was afraid. The fear of man bringeth A snare. And So what did he do? He withdrew himself.
Fearing them which were of the circumcision, and the other Jews, the assembling, the assembled likewise with him.
This is astounding. The last sentence, the last part of verse 13, says in so much that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
Even he fell in line with the legalists would meet with the Gentiles.
You say, is that an important thing? Yes, it is. He denied the gospel.
He denied the gospel. He made a difference by his refusing to eat with the Gentiles after the Jews came between the Jew and the Gentile.
And the whole teaching of Galatians, the whole teaching of the gospel, Romans 2 is that that you and the Gentile are one. There's no difference. There's no difference in Christianity.
And they were trying to re erect that wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. We Jews are better than you Gentiles.
We can't eat with you, Gentiles.
That's not Christianity, that's Judaism.
Paul says Now we who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law.
But by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Even we we Jews have believed in Jesus Christ, that we Jews might be justified by the faith of Christ.
And not by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Peter was reestablishing the law by refusing to eat with those Gentiles, saying that they were a higher class Christian than the Gentiles were. After all, the Jews were circumcised, the Gentiles were not. That made a difference, didn't it? Paul says in this epistle, chapter 3.
No chapter 5.
Verse 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything.
Nor uncircumcision. What does count but faith?
Which worketh by love. That's what comes faith. Faith in Christ. That's what makes a Christian. Not by law, not by circumcision, not by works.
Not by a legalistic separation that Peter went to practice here because it was the fear of man.
It was the fear of these Jews that came from Jerusalem and from James.
So Paul rebukes him publicly.
Verse 17 he says, but if, while we seek to be justified by Christ.
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We ourselves also are found sinners, and that's exactly what will happen if we put ourselves under law. The law will find us out to be sinners, transgressors, and it will condemn us.
He says, is therefore then Christ the minister of sin?
Is that what he is the head of?
System of things that brings us in as sinners.
No, no, He's delivered us from the law.
It says that in chapter 313 it says Christ hath delivered us, He has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.
For it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree the whole teaching of this epistle?
Is to deliver the soul from this thing, he says in verse 18. If I build again.
The things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
To build up the principle of law after it's been destroyed is to be a transgressor for I through the law and debt to the law. That's all the law can do is slay us. It can kill us. It can't give us life because we don't obey it.
If I'm dead, then I'm dead to the law.
It no longer has any power over me. It only has power over a man as long as he lives. If he's dead, it has no power over him at all.
And then he gives what gives real deliverance.
He says I'm dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Verse 20 I'm crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh.
I live by the faith of the Son of God, the faith of the Son of God. We have that expression over and over again in Scripture, the faith of Christ, the faith of God. That expression means.
The faith which has God as its object. The faith which has Christ as its object. The faith which has the Son of God as its object.
When it says the faith of God, God doesn't have faith.
He's the 1:00 we put our faith in.
But the faith of God is the object of our faith, or Christ is the object of our faith Here it's the Son of God. I live by the faith, the faith which has as its object the Son of God. That's the meaning.
Who loved me?
And gave himself for me. The law never gave us an object. The law never gave man anything that he could put faith in. It was don't do this and do this, and so on it. There was no object presented to the man.
Who was under law?
But under grace we have an object, and that is Christ, the Son of God.
Now the last verse, he says, I do not frustrate, I do not set aside the grace of God.
For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Did you know that the all the reformers thought that Christ kept the law for us, and that keeping of the law for us during His life is the righteousness in which we stand before God? Some of you in this room might think that that's wrong.
This verse tells us very clearly that's wrong.
Christ did keep the law perfectly, but he didn't keep it for us.
He died for us. He paid the penalty of a broken law.
When you die, if the righteousness in which we stand before God is his righteous law keeping imputed to us.
Then Paul says.
If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
If he could have kept it for us.
Then why did he have to die?
That she kept him in during his life? No, that's a false principle and they didn't understand that clearly.
You see, we often think that the only truths that were recovered in the last century were church truths. Go home. Prophetic truth was made very clear and plain gospel truth was clarified. They were not clear on the righteousness of God. They talk about the righteousness of Christ all the time. Being put to us. That means His righteous keeping of the laws put to our account.
Scripture does not so speak.
What is the righteousness in which we stand before God? Christ risen from the dead. Christ is our righteousness. He himself is our righteousness. We are in Him.
God sees us righteous in Him.
We sometimes sing righteous alone in Thee, Jesus our Lord.
He is our righteousness, First Corinthians 130 says.
From God he is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
He is our wisdom, He is our righteousness, He is our sanctification or our holiness. He is our redemption. That according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, not in Himself, because you did something that got you there or that contributed to your salvation, even if it was only 10% as this one man thought.
00:55:22
10% was due to him.
No, it's all great, isn't it? It's all grace. I was supposed to get to the through the 3rd 3 chapters tonight, but I only made 2.
So we'll have to wait.
For another time to get farther.
Let's sing 138. I think it is in closing.
Yes.
Thought the voice of mercy sounded sweet as music to the ear. Grace abounds where sin abounded. This the word that soothed our fear. Grace, the sweetest sound we know. Grace to sinners here below.
Grace we sing God's grace through Jesus. Grace the spring of peace to man. Grace that from each sorrow frees us. Grace too high for thought to scan. Grace the theme of God's own love. Grace the theme all things above.