From Law to Gospel [Part 1]

Pastor, author and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Have you ever had something happen that's supposed to be the most wonderful, joyful things that nourishes you and enthralls you and thrills your soul?

But there's so many add ons and strings attached and unexpected encumbrances and obligations or other things that come that you can't enjoy it, even though it's something that's wonderful. 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 Life of Peter, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. Listen to today's message. Go deeper as we send you this special offer available today. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org.

Or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. You ready for some good news? It's for freedom that you've been set free. The gospel of Jesus Christ is free. His love is pure and undefiled and undiluted. There's no little bit of requirement, little bit of law for you to fulfill in order to be accepted by God. He's come in the person of Jesus Christ, and whoever accepts Christ has become not only forgiven, but the righteousness of Jesus, full and free and clear, and it's just that powerful. We are still in this wonderful journey in the life of Peter, and today we venture out of the gospel stories and even the stories in Acts to get a story about Peter that actually comes secondhand from Paul. And this is in Galatians chapter 2. Some years ago we preached on Galatians, and what you see in this epistle is Paul at his most passionate and even just outright angry at those outside forces that have been coming in to try to contaminate the purity of the gospel of grace. And so here in Galatians 2, we learn a story that's very important in the life of Peter.

So we're going to learn about Peter through Paul in Galatians chapter 2, and it's verse 11. But when Cephas, that's the other name for Peter in Aramaic, Cephas, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. 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 that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, that's Peter, 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 Jews? 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 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. But if in our endeavor, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of 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. Christ 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. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. I do not nullify the grace of God.

You can hear him saying essentially, And Peter, don't you nullify the grace of God. That's what this story is about. I had the weirdest dream the other night. You know, this is kind of a personal thing when you share these dreams, because then, you know, hundreds of people are going to be reading things into it. And just, you know, don't read anything into it.

But this is what happened. I had this dream. It was one of those very, very vivid dreams.

I don't have very many that are so vivid. But it was so vivid, this dream, that really turned out to be a nightmare. It shouldn't have been a nightmare, because it began with a wonderful gift. Somebody had given my wife and I a $150 gift card to go to this sumptuous, nice restaurant. And we were just excited to go to this restaurant that, well, it's a place I can barely describe. It was a place that was very extravagant, a place that, you know, you only see in your dreams. And so it started out, and we were all excited to go.

But then something happened. My wife went out and bought a new dress just to go out to dinner in. And so I had to start asking her how much the dress cost. And so I started worrying about this special dinner already.

And she said, well, it was on sale, and don't you worry about that. And I said, well, okay, well, it is beautiful. And we went to the dinner, and when we got there, and I looked at the menu, and it was incredible, the stuff on this menu. But I realized, a little sinking feeling came into my pit of my stomach, because I realized that the $150 gift card was not going to come anywhere near covering the dinner at this wonderful restaurant. And so we were sitting there, my wife looking beautiful, and the menu looking very expensive.

And so I said, okay, all right, it's going to cost more, but how many opportunities do you get like this? And so we're just going to go ahead and enjoy it. And so we set out to order our food, and I was kind of giving Ann the look like she was like, I'm thinking about getting the such and such, and I'm kind of giving her the not that, and a little look. And then they came, and they seated just right almost next to us in a table that was within full earshot of everything that we would talk about, another couple. They were a couple older than us, prim, proper, in fact, just snooty.

They just looked like they were better than us. And so it looked like they ate there every week. And they were seated there. And even that bothered me, because I wanted a private, nice meal with my wife.

And now I'm going to be having to watch everything I say. As far as I know, they're church members. I mean, I don't know. And so didn't that bother you just a little bit sometimes? It's like you can go to IHOP and get your own personal big booth and go to the most expensive restaurant, and they'll go and squeeze you in right next to somebody else. Anyway, I was a little bit bothered by that. We ordered our food.

This is all in the dream. We ordered our food, and it came in. It was delicious, but I'm not enjoying it that much because it's so expensive. But then at least I was so pleased, at least they brought something free. They brought some little bowls of sherbet, and I thought, this is wonderful.

They brought two to me, two to Ann. I thought, well, at least we're getting some free dessert or something here. And in the dream, and I dropped one of the bowls, and it fell out on the floor. Whereupon the snooty lady next to me lifted up her nose, and she said, that was my sorbet that was to cleanse my palate, and now you've spilled it. And I realized it wasn't a free dessert. It was the palate-cleansing sorbet.

And I had somehow gotten the ladies next to me and dropped it. And so all this goes on, and then the server comes around and says, would you like some dessert, and gave us the dessert menu. And at the same time, the snooty couple next to us, they had the dessert menus, and she ordered something in fluent French.

And I looked at this, and all I could read was the prices. And I said, we are stuffed. We are absolutely stuffed.

We couldn't eat anything. And so we handed back our dessert menus. And our bill was $330. And so we used the gift card, and it paid the balance, and I said, well, that was fine. And we laughed, and as we were walking away, I'm just telling you what happened in the dream, we bumped into some people that were old acquaintances that I didn't recognize. And I couldn't remember, where did I know them from? Was it from church, from a former church?

Was it from some old soccer team? And I've had to sit there and have one of those phony conversations where I really know that we know you, and I can't even remember how, and that was uncomfortable. And then as we were walking away from that, and see, you're analyzing me now already.

This is not about me being cheap. But anyway, this is just, I'm going to make a point in a second. And so we were walking away, and all of a sudden, it's just, you ever get a thought that says, oh, man, I did something really wrong.

And it just went in my mind like that. And I turned to my wife, I said, honey, I think I just completely made a mistake when I was signing the bill. And I did some wrong arithmetic, and I left way too big of a tip. And she said, oh, please, don't worry about that. I said, no, no, I left $120 tip, that's way too much. And I said, I've got to go back, I've got to tell them to change that. She said, please, just don't worry about it.

And I just move on. And I said, no, going back, I found the manager, and I said, I'm sorry, I accidentally left $120 tip. He said, well, that seems about appropriate. He said, wasn't your bill $1,300? I said, no, it wasn't $1,300.

He said, yes, it was. He said, you had all that food, and then you had that $300 bottle of wine. I said, we didn't even have any wine, much less $300 bottle.

And I whipped out the receipt, and I showed it to him. I said, no, it was only $330. And I said, even if I give a 20% tip, that should be only 66. And I left 120. It was a mistake. I said, change it to 66.

And he hemmed and hauled, and finally, he changed it to 66. And I walked out, and then I woke up in a cold sweat. And I was like, oh, man, oh, it was only a nightmare. It was only a nightmare. I didn't actually go to the finest restaurant I've ever been to and enjoy a wonderful evening with my wife in a beautiful dress.

No, that didn't actually happen. It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare.

It was a nightmare. Have you ever had something happen that's supposed to be one of those wonderful, joyful things that nourishes you and enthralls you and thrills your soul, but there's so many add-ons and strings attached and unexpected encumbrances and obligations or other things that come that you can't enjoy it even though it's something that's wonderful? It's like I'm supposed to have been at this lavish, wonderful feast and just enjoy it and revel in it.

And the whole time, I don't enjoy it at all because when I'm not having to pay something that I didn't expect, I'm worried about having to pay something that I didn't expect. This is what's happened to the gospel for so many Christians, is that the message of the gospel is one of glorious freedom and power and peace. It is of joy in the Holy Spirit. It is of salvation unto eternal life. It is glorious. It is free, and it is from Christ, and it is not by your own doing.

And yet what religion does, what the spirit of legalism wants to do is come in and say, oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, it's a wonderful gift. Yes, it's wonderful. It'll nourish you.

It's good. But then start bringing in all these other things. And this is what Paul was so concerned about amongst the Galatian Christians, is that in the province of Galatia where these Christians had started out filled with the Holy Spirit and living a life of grace, the people had come and infiltrated, and they were telling those Christians, but in addition to accepting Christ, you really also need to have your children circumcised, you be circumcised, because this was the Old Testament sign of the covenant. And Paul got really upset about this because he was saying, no, you can't start adding something to the gospel and say it's Jesus plus something else. Well, in order to explain his case to the Galatian Christians, Paul brings up this story about something that happened with Peter, our beloved Peter. This one who was like shifting sand and called a rock by Jesus. This one who sank in the sea, who fell asleep while Jesus sweat blood, and who denied Jesus three times, but then became the preacher at Pentecost when thousands of people came to faith, and then was used of the Holy Spirit for the healing of the sick and the raising of the dead, this Peter. This Peter who had become such a mighty man of God, so full of the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

And yet Paul says, I had to confront Peter. And what happened was that Peter had been associating, because of the freedom of the gospel, he had been associating and eating with non-Jewish people, Gentiles. Anybody that was not Jewish is called Gentile. And according to the priestly customs and laws, the Jewish people were not supposed to eat with Gentiles.

Gentiles were unclean, and you sit there and eat with them, and you're associating with that which is not holy, and you're not supposed to do that. But in Christ, what we learn is that there is no Jew or Greek, there's no Jew or Gentile anymore. Something altogether new has happened, and we're engrafted together in Christ, and we're one.

And we're all saved by the same grace. There's not a different means of coming into the kingdom except for the saving grace of Jesus. And so Gentiles come in through the saving grace of Jesus.

And this is the same way that Peter has come into the abundant life, and that is through the saving grace of Jesus. And so it is that he is associating and eating with them until some people come that are sent by James. Now we don't know that James, the brother of the Lord, had instructed these people to say this, but these people came, Jewish Christians, and they began pressuring Peter to not associate and eat with the Gentiles anymore.

And maybe, we have to just kind of guess at this, but maybe it's because they were putting an argument something like this. Peter, you're supposed to be preaching the gospel to Jewish people, that's your main call. And if you're going to reach Jews that don't know Christ, if they see that you are eating with Gentiles, they're going to question your Jewishness. They're going to question whether you are Jewish at all. And you would be better off to let them know, no, you're still Jewish so that you can have an entree to reach them. It could be something like that, you know?

Try to convince them along that line. And for whatever reason, or some other argument, there were pressure from these people towards Peter. And so Peter slowly, the language kind of conveys this, he didn't just cut it off, he just slowly moved away from eating with the Gentiles. And when Paul came in Antioch and he realized what was happening, that Peter used to eat with the Gentiles, and now he's not, Paul confronted him.

And he confronted him face to face, publicly. Which meant Paul was extremely passionate about this. It meant that Paul thought this was so, so important that he had to risk losing face or causing Peter to lose face.

Because it's a culture that's about losing or saving face. And so he risked a lot to confront Peter about this and said to him, Peter, what you're doing is hypocritical. You're play-acting. And he was so upset about this because what he was doing was Peter was demonstrating in his life a dilution, a compromise, a poisoning of the power and simplicity of the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was so important to him. Now sometimes when you read a story like this, or even in reading at first glimpse the book of Galatians, you might go, why is this so important?

But this is where you should really pay attention. The things that might seem like little things, just a matter of who you're eating with, a matter of whether you're circumcised or not. These things that seem like little things become so big to Paul.

But it's because Paul was so in tune with the nature of the gospel and so sensitive to the Holy Spirit. John Wesley said that one of the great Christian virtues is to know the difference between the little things and the big things. And to not make a little thing into a big thing and not make a big thing into a little thing. Have you ever noticed that this is one of the most subtle and yet powerful temptations common to humanity?

Is that we oftentimes will start making such a big deal out of something that's really not that big of a deal, but something that is a big deal, it's as if we completely rationalize it and we miss it. It's some years ago, and I didn't look up the reference to give you the specifics. Some of you will remember this, that years ago there were some whales that were trapped in the icy waters off Alaska. And so the United States was trying to set them free.

And actually there was a joining together, even though there was not that much goodwill between Russia and the United States at the time. They actually joined together and brought in huge machinery, some giant kind of corkscrew that could break up the ice to help set the whales free. I don't remember how many millions of dollars were spent to try to set these whales free. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for the freedom of whales. But I got really tickled when I saw an editorial cartoon in the midst of that, and it showed a homeless person who was begging for bread and the homeless person was dressed up in a whale costume. You could see all this attention given to save a couple of whales. And in the midst of it, so little attention given to feeding the poor in our midst. We are so prone towards this.

I promise I'm not going to go on a rant, but I just want to put a parenthesis here and say I feel like going on a rant about a lot of things. I'm not going to, but help me Jesus, not do it. Josh McDowell has been in Christian ministry forever. He's always been a defender of the faith and he's worked with Campus Crusade for decades. His most recent thing is he is doing some conferences to help Christian leaders especially understand what has happened with the explosion of pornography that's everywhere. And as part of this, he had hired the Barna group, big research group, to do a study on views towards pornography. And it was quite shocking and revealing as you might imagine. Not only the use of explicit materials in amongst our young people, but the attitude was the thing that got me.

Alan Wright and today's teaching from the life of Peter is From Law to Gospel. Stay with us. Alan is back here in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word. Ever feel like the pressure is always on?

Do you find it hard to say no, worried that you'll disappoint someone? The Bible tells us only one thing about Adam and Eve's relationship in paradise. They were naked and felt no shame. But as soon as sin entered the world, they became anxious, plagued with a gnawing question. What must I do to be accepted?

There is only one solution. The grace of God that lifts our shame. In a new six-week video masterclass, Pastor Alan exposes the dynamics of shame and shows the path to freedom. Whether as an individual or in a small group, the video series is sure to bring healing and hope. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you the digital masterclass videos and study guides as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. In a world so quick to say shame on you, it's time to let God's grace take the shame off you. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries.

Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month. Call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Alan, I feel like we've gotten to know Peter pretty well now. So did we see him start off as this rugged, kind of rough fisherman, and then eventually drift into a law-based living, kind of meander back and forth? Well, what happened with Peter is something that could just happen to so many believers. At first, he lived by all this self-confidence and all his vows to God and so forth, and then he really gets the gospel, and he is the preacher of Pentecost. He's filled with the Holy Spirit. When he comes under pressure to sort of go back to some of his Jewish practices, and most notably to stop eating with the Gentiles, this is something that Paul gets really upset about because there's so, so much at stake. And what we're going to learn about, Daniel, is this is the same question for us, is that if we start putting little seeds of the legalistic living into our gospel-based life, we put a little bit of law into grace, how much it contaminates it. There is so very much at stake, and we're going to learn, therefore, about what the notion of holiness really is all about and why this is such a big deal to Paul and why it needs to be such a big, big deal to us. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.