Spies, Lies, and Alibis [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

And what really happens for those that are in Christ is that there is a subtle message that is whispered from hell that wants to add something to that, complicate it in order to make you worried about it, but also to rob you of its power. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Galatians as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina.

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Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news today? Man, I am gospel intoxicated.

I am good news saturated. And God is in it to build our faith today and to fill us afresh with the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. For the good news of the gospel is that there is nothing for you to add to the cross of Jesus Christ. He has paid it all. He has accomplished it all. Therefore you can be guaranteed not only of your inheritance in the saints, but guaranteed that this day there is no good thing from heaven that is being withheld from you because you have not added something to the cross.

It is finished. I fell this week. It was a scary moment.

Pastor Chris has been laughing at me. He called it an old man fall. And I'm glad my wife didn't see it because she tends to laugh when people fall also.

I went out to get the paper on Wednesday morning and it had been so much moisture and rain and the sidewalk had this place under the shade of a tree where it had gotten especially slimy and mildewy and with the watery surface. And I just was going out to get the paper. And it was like a cartoon. Both legs just went up like I was on ice. They went up and I fell back on the hip and on the right elbow. I fell hard.

I fell real hard onto the sidewalk. And I was concerned about the hip. I was concerned about the elbow. But as the moments passed what I was most concerned about was my finger, my forefinger on my left hand because I twisted this way to try to brace it. And it pushed that finger in towards the other fingers and it was kind of pointed towards the other fingers and it was hurting real bad. And so I went to the doctor to have him look at my finger. I was concerned that it was broken or worse. And so at first I was being observed by a diligent young doctor, a third year resident. He was looking and being very careful and observant of every detail like a good doctor should. And he had my hands out and he said let me just compare them.

And he was comparing each joint and the levels of swelling and then he paused and he said hmm. He said the left hand, the injured hand is discolored. It is more pale than the right hand. And I thought oh my. I thought I had just injured a finger but something has happened to where my left hand may soon be falling off altogether. And as I was pondering why the left hand might be more pale in contrast to the right it suddenly dawned on me. That's my golf glove hand dude. Doesn't see the daylight very often.

And he's like oh yeah. I said yeah I don't think that's a. It made me to think of another funny story. We had a lady in the church years ago, years ago that she developed a problem. I haven't asked her permission to tell the story so I'll call her Sally although she's the kind of person who wouldn't care.

But still I'll call her Sally. She began to have a problem of bluish hands. It was disturbing. Bluish hands that could convey a circulatory problem of some kind. She was concerned about it. She began to research online all of the ailments that could have blue hands as one of the symptoms there's some bad things out there that could be going on when you got the blue hand syndrome. And what was making matters worse was that the bluish coloration was showing up more in and after the times that she came to church which we being the spiritual people that we are we began to think you know this could be spiritual.

And you know we might need to rebuke something here. And so she was getting ministry and studying online. I can't remember if she sought medical help or not but I know it went on for a while. I remember the prayer requests coming in on the cards about the bluish hands. Well one day she was sitting at church.

The air condition was blowing especially hard where she sat in church. And as was her custom she had her hands down in between her legs kind of warming them in between her legs rubbing them. And then she looked down at the new pair of blue jeans that she had on and realized that she'd worn those same blue jeans to church a few times. And as she pulled them up she knew that her hands had not been bluish before.

And she pulled them up and there were her bluish hands and she realized that those blue jeans were fading onto her hands and that she wore them at church and that explained the whole mystery, problem solved. Point being some things are not nearly as complicated as they might seem. And the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of those things. Jesus came because Father God so loved the world. He never wanted us to be separated from Him.

He never wanted for us to be orphans. He always had intended for us to enjoy fellowship with Him on earth and forevermore and He sent Jesus to become the full payment for your sin and to live a righteous life so that when you accept Christ you become regarded not only as if you never sinned but even more. You become reckoned by God through Jesus as if you were righteous like Jesus. And the gospel is so simple and so pure there's nothing else to add to that. And what really happens for those that are in Christ is that there is a subtle message that is whispered from hell that wants to add something to that, complicate it in order to make you worried about it but also to rob you of its power. Interestingly Jeremiah once prophesied that there are people in his day that were saying peace, peace where there was no peace.

It's an important word because spoken to people who are not walking with God, people who do not know the Lord and yet false prophets would say oh it's fine there's no problem. And there is to a dying world that doesn't know Jesus a false message that says oh no worries peace, peace there's no problem sin's not an issue. And so in a real sense to those that don't know Christ the enemy's message is peace, peace where there is no peace. But to those who do know Christ the message seems to be whispered from hell in an opposite direction and that is unrest, unrest to those who have already been given peace through Christ Jesus.

For God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Him and in Him He has made peace between us and the Father. And the message that is whispered from hell over and over in a thousand different subtle ways is that you need to add something, do something to amend this gospel. Isn't this very similar to what the serpent did in the beginning?

He slithered into the garden and there in perfect paradise Adam and Eve in perfect fellowship with God with no blessing being withheld by God from Adam and Eve his son and his daughter whom he loved and who had perfect fellowship with him. And yet the voice of the enemy went essentially like this look there's a tree you can't eat of it looks pleasing to eat it looks like a blessing. It looks like to me that maybe God has said that bad thing would happen if you eat of it but what really would happen is you would become more like God.

You would be more blessed if you would just do this one additional thing. In other words what the voice of the enemy did was to slither into that paradise where the freedom and definition of the paradise was that Adam and Eve didn't have to do anything in order to enjoy God and therefore they had no shame whatsoever. They were utterly free but the voice of the enemy essentially said if you really want to be free then you need to eat of that fruit. There is something else you need to do if you're going to embrace full freedom and in that subtle deception they lost their freedom. In other words as soon as they believed they had to do something in order to be blessed more fully by God they lost the blessedness they knew.

That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you I love you I'll never forsake you when you feel cherished but what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said I'm not sure you're good enough for me if you don't measure up I don't think I'll love you anymore. Wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days? Wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent? Well just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace. The tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear.

What if I don't measure up when might I be rejected? When the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian church the Apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law. Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace. It's called Galatians and that's the gospel.

Discover the purity and power of the grace of God. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. When we come to Christ there is a transformation that is so magnificent we cannot even describe it and we won't fully fully understand it until we're completely glorified and with Him. But if we could see it and this is what faith sees this transformation is so complete that Paul says that we are new creatures in Christ. You are not just forgiven you are a new creature. You are born anew Jesus said.

Something so radical happens and what the enemy wants to do is then come in to your consciousness and allure you with this thought. You could be more blessed if in addition to your faith in Jesus Christ you would also do fill in the blank. This is what Paul was up against in the controversy amongst the Galatian churches. We are in our fourth week this morning of an in-depth study of the Epistle of Galatians. We're going to be unhurried and spend months here in Galatians in one of Paul's most passionate letters where urgently he is pleading with the Galatians let no one rob you of the freedom and power of the Gospels.

Galatians chapter 2 is where we are and I invite you to join me there. To set the context of this the background in place in chapter 1 Paul has essentially said I am not authorized because of a group of men or a council in Jerusalem the Gospel is the authority and the Gospel authorizes me. He takes the Gospel and he speaks of the Gospel not as a mere mental assent to Christian doctrines as important as doctrines may be but he says the Gospel is more like a living power of God unto our salvation and he says the Gospel that was given to me was given from the Lord and I didn't receive it from any man. And he is laying out some of his own autobiographical evidence for the Gospel at work by sharing in chapter 1 about his own conversion and how dramatically his life was changed. This autobiographical portion of Galatians continues in chapter 2 where now he is going to describe how 14 years after his ministry began and he had had this flourishing, flourishing ministry amongst the Gentiles. How he goes back to Jerusalem and he meets with the brothers there to share with them the purity of the Gospel that he is sharing and how it was that those brothers were in full agreement about the pure and simple Gospel of the Lord Jesus.

And what he is going to describe in our text today is that there were double agents, there were spies that had infiltrated the fellowship that were, he said, spying on their freedom in order to entrap them and to seek to enslave them. And what you will see here is Paul being very pointed because there is a lot at stake. There is a spiritual battle that is going on and today I want to expose that spiritual battle of the religious spirit and I want to invite you into the full infusion of the power and the simplicity of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. Galatians chapter 2 verse 1. Paul writes, Then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking Titus along with me. I went up because 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 may be preserved for you.

Just hear his urgency. We didn't yield to that. Not one moment because the Gospel is too important and we're preserving this Gospel to proclaim it to you, he's saying to the Galatians. Verse 6, 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 with the Gospel to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also 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 that I was eager to do.

Let me see if I can summarize what happened. Paul got a revelation. That's what we're told in verse 2, an apocalypsis. This was not Paul feeling threatened or worried or fearful and therefore compelled. God told him to go. We don't know how he received this word, whether it was just the leading of the Holy Spirit or whether there was some discernment amongst the brothers. The ways that we hear from God vary, but it was a revelation. God told Paul, go and meet with these brothers.

It was God's timing. It shows also how important this was at this moment in the history of the church of Jesus Christ. So Paul goes and he takes with him Titus and Barnabas and while he is there, he meets privately with some that are called the pillars of the church. He meets with Peter and he meets with James and John and they come to this agreement that Titus, though he is a Gentile, he's a Greek.

He doesn't need to be circumcised in order to be acceptable to God. They come to the agreement that Paul has primarily, though he preaches first to the Jew and then to the Gentile, that Paul is ultimately going to have a very powerful mission, especially amongst the Gentiles, and that Peter has a very powerful mission, especially amongst the Jewish brothers, and that they're proclaiming the same gospel. What happens at this pivotal meeting is that there is this incredible agreement about the purity and the simplicity of the gospel, such that today the whole idea of whether someone needs to be circumcised in order to be a Christian is not an issue for us. The reason that it's not is because it was essentially settled right here in this meeting that is described by Paul, but what he says is that while he was there, he explained to them and exposed that there were spies that had infiltrated their ranks, so to speak, that were trying to undermine the gospel. In chapter one, what we saw is that Paul said that essentially he had been accused of not being a true apostle, that one of the ways that the people seeking to undermine the gospel were trying to undermine Paul was essentially saying, since you were not with Jesus while he was here in the flesh as his apostle then, that you're not a true apostle, and that was leading Paul to explain that what had authorized him was the gospel itself, and so Paul was never fearful of any of these that were trying these various tactics to undermine his place because he was saying is that it's not really about my authority or any group that sanctioned me.

It's really about the gospel, and there only is one gospel, and it's pure, and it's simple, and it must be kept undefiled. Well, what had happened is that evidently there were these that are called false brothers that were pretending to be with them, but they were really against them. There are three words that are used by Paul here to describe this in verse four. They slipped in to spy out our freedom to bring us in to slavery. The false brothers secretly brought in, slipped in, and to spy. Three different words that all relate to military espionage. They are being described as double agents that are in our midst. They are being described truly as spies, and what Paul is saying is that it is so important that we recognize that they are spies. Allen Wright and today's teaching continues on our next edition, but here in the studio, Allen is back in a moment with additional insight on what we've heard today for your life and a final word. Our teaching, spies, lies, and alibis in our series on Galatians.

Stay with us. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Allen Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Allen Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastorallen.org. Imagine for 99 days in a row, someone tells you, I love you, I'll never forsake you. Wouldn't you feel cherished? But what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said, I'm not sure you're good enough for me. If you don't measure up, I don't think I'll love you anymore.

Wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days? Wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent? Well, just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace. The tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear. What if I don't measure up?

When might I be rejected? When the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian church, the apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law. Allen Wright's 12-message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace. It's called Galatians, and that's the gospel.

Discover the purity and power of the grace of God. When you make your gift to Allen Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.

Or come to our website, PastorAllen.org. Allen, I have heard so many preachers who will draw attention to good, clever alliteration, and then there are sermon titles like this one, Spies, Lies, and Alibis. Good job. Thank you, Daniel.

Every now and then there's a cute one. That's right. But it's very serious for Paul. He really is referring to these are spies and the lies that they are bringing that is contaminating the gospel. The issue here in the Galatian church is over this matter of the Jewish ritual of circumcision, and we're going to be learning a lot more about why has that become so important, and why not just let it go, Paul? I mean, why worry about it so much? Well, it's because the gospel is at stake, and the good news, Daniel, it's not good if part of it is up to you and what rituals you keep. That's true. Once you infect the gospel with a little bit of law, you have tainted the whole thing. That's what Paul is after. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.