Fighting for the Gospel

Please turn with me if you would to Galatians chapter 2 verses 1 through 14. Paul continues defending his apostolic authority in order to defend the accuracy and truthfulness of the gospel that he has preached to the Galatians. And so in these verses we see Paul interacting with the movers and shakers of the apostolic church. Galatians 2 we'll read and consider this morning verses 1 through 14.

Hear now the word of the Lord. 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 proclaimed 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 a false brother 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 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 I was eager to do. But 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 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?

Let's pray. Father what we know not teach us what we have not give us what we are not make us for the sake of your glory and in the name of your son Jesus Christ we pray amen. Well Paul is in the midst of defending his apostleship so that he can with apostolic authority correct a false gospel that is beginning to take root in the churches of Galatia. Last Sunday we saw how Paul asserted and gave evidence of the fact that his gospel was given to him by divine revelation directly from God.

It was not something he had just picked up in Jerusalem and adapted for his own use no it came directly from the head of the church Jesus Christ himself and so his opponent's accusation that he was distorting the pure gospel to simply gain a following was a false accusation. In our text this morning Paul continues his defense of the purity of the gospel which he has been preaching and he does so by pointing out the fact that the pillars of the church the leaders the men of influence in Jerusalem were in complete agreement with the gospel that Paul had been preaching. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that reading Paul's letters is a lot like listening into one side of a phone conversation you can you can hear one side of the conversation but you can only deduce the other side what the other person is saying on the other end of the line. When Bible scholars approach the biblical text this way they refer to it as mirror reading.

It's a process of deducing or inferring from what we do have what is being said at the other end of the conversation sort of like jeopardy we deduce the questions by reading what the answers are. Where in Paul's case we deduce what the accusations against Paul must have been by reading how Paul is defending himself against those accusations. So if Paul takes pains to explain that the gospel he preaches is in perfect alignment with the gospel that the apostles and influential leaders of the church are preaching we can assume that the opponents in Galatia were accusing Paul of taking the gospel that was preached in Jerusalem and distorting it to suit his own purposes. So we're going to discover how Paul counters that false accusation and encountering that accusation we learn from Paul that the gospel is so important that it is worth fighting for. In fact that's the message I like for us to contemplate this morning the gospel is of such importance it's such a foundational truth that it is always worth fighting for. There are certain issues in the Christian faith a certain maybe doctrinal ambiguities or ethical gray areas that are not worth splitting hairs over not worth causing a stir over but brothers and sisters the gospel is not one of them.

The gospel is always worth splitting hairs over and being precise with it is always worth going down with the ship over. So this is this is an essential task of the Christian because without the gospel of Jesus Christ there is no Christianity there is no salvation there is no good news of forgiveness and eternal life. How then do we fight for this gospel? Well Paul shows us how in the verses before us today. First we fight for the gospel by confirming gospel unity by confirming gospel unity. We see Paul going to great lengths to confirm that his gospel and Jerusalem's gospel are one and the same.

Look with me again at verses one and two. Then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation in other words God told him to go to Jerusalem 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. So after 14 years presumably from his previous trip to Jerusalem Paul took another trip to Jerusalem at this time he took his ministry partners along with him Barnabas and Titus. Paul's motive for going to Jerusalem was to meet with the influential leaders of the church.

This would have included according to verse 9 James, Peter, and John but probably others as well. Paul met with them to explain to them the gospel as he had been preaching it to the Gentile world. Now we already know that Paul had no doubt that his gospel was the gospel. He had already spent the better part of chapter one establishing the fact that what he preached was the Word of God because he received it directly from God. So Paul's motive in setting forth his gospel to these influential leaders in Jerusalem was not to confirm whether or not he was getting the gospel right.

He knew he was getting the gospel right. What he was unsure of was whether the influential church leaders in Jerusalem these men of influence were preaching a contradictory gospel from the one Paul was preaching. According to Paul's opponents in Galatia Paul's gospel was different from the one proclaimed in Jerusalem and if this was the case then great damage could be done to the church if elders and apostles in Jerusalem of all places were contradicting the true gospel preached by Paul.

This is why Paul says in verse 2 that he wanted to make sure he was not running or had not run in vain. If his true gospel was being contradicted by people with clout in Jerusalem it could bring irreparable scandal to the church both in Jerusalem and in Galatia and so the gospel being the central doctrine that it is it was worth Paul's time and effort to travel to Jerusalem and confirm that the gospel preached both in Jerusalem and in these gentile regions to the north were one and the same. Paul continues in verses 6 through 10 explaining his motives in going to Jerusalem 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 by way of credibility to Paul. Paul was not looking for an endorsement from the church leaders in Jerusalem. In fact he keeps repeating that the leaders in Jerusalem only seemed to be influential but that he himself could have cared less about what the appearance of their influence was. Paul is not star struck by these men of renown but neither is he belittling these pillars of the church maybe he's correcting the inflated view that some Christians held of these men but he certainly wasn't insulting them or disrespecting them so don't read that into the text he cared that he and they share the same gospel it mattered to Paul that he and the leaders in Jerusalem were all preaching the same doctrine without contradicting each other without undermining each other's ministry had he learned that the gospel was being preached incorrectly in Jerusalem no doubt he would have confronted those influential leaders for preaching a false gospel and this tells us that authority in the church influence in the church is not inherent in any one person no matter how highly esteemed they may be authority in the church comes from a preacher or leader's compliance to the objectively true word of God you see the bible isn't true because Peter James and John or even Paul for that matter say that it's true no it's true because it's God's word and God is the one who bestows whatever authority or influence certain people have over his church but that authority is only valid insofar as a pastor an elder a deacon or even an apostle conforms his beliefs his behavior and his influence to holy scripture what Paul discovered in Jerusalem then was a beautiful unity of doctrine between what he had been preaching to the gentiles up north and what the elders and apostles had been preaching to the Jewish converts in Jerusalem that's what Paul highlights in verses seven through ten and so the influential leaders in Jerusalem gave verse nine the right hand of fellowship to Paul and his team the effect of this was not that it added anything to the legitimacy of Paul's ministry the effect was that it would shut up Paul's opponents those false teachers that were accusing Paul of contradicting the apostles in Jerusalem in fact there was perfect unity between the two a unity that served to confirm and solidify the true gospel of Jesus Christ and I'm so grateful for a denomination like ours that holds the gospel in high esteem such high esteem in fact that it makes unity around that gospel the fence the the defining border of that gives us our identity as a church when you come to join Grace Church we don't ask you what your political affiliation is we don't ask your ethnicity or your socioeconomic status your affiliation with us is not predicated on your family heritage or your education or your physical appearance what we ask is this do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God justly deserving his displeasure without hope save in his sovereign mercy do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the son of God and Savior of sinners and do you receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered in the gospel at the center of our identity as a church and at the center of any church that is legitimately called a church of Jesus Christ is the gospel and to the degree that we are unified around the gospel we are truly unified to the degree that our unity revolves around something other than Christ our unity is shallow and artificial and tenuous the common denominator that makes any group of sinners a part of the true church of God is this Jesus Jesus Christ and him crucified that good news of salvation through Christ is what makes us who we are it's what saves us from sin and death it's what makes us the church it's what gives us unity and so it is worth the effort required as Paul did to confirm with each other that we all are indeed placing our hope in the same gospel that unity is worth fighting for another way we fight for this precious good news of salvation through Christ is by secondly contesting gospel opposition when people oppose the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Christ that is not the time to lay down and accommodate their defiance or even their ignorance no it is time to stand up and defend the faith we may defer on a host of lesser doctrines but not this one not the gospel Paul models this for us in verses three through five and in fact he's he's going to be modeling this fight for the gospel purity for much of the remainder of his letter let's read verse three again Paul says that during his interaction with the influential leaders in Jerusalem even Titus who was with me was not forced to be circumcised though he was a Greek and so here we have the first mention of what was at the center of the false teaching that was infiltrating Galatia their central tenet in fact had to do with the practice of circumcision now circumcision was an old testament sacrament a sign and seal of a person's participation in God's covenant much like baptism is today this visible sign was a marker that a man and by extension his family belonged to God and was a beneficiary of all the covenantal blessings that God promised to those who who kept the covenant stipulations circumcision as a necessary point of obedience was a big deal in the old testament observing this right this ritual wasn't a matter of legalism no it was something God required of Israel and when they failed to comply there were dire consequences now we know from our new testament vantage point that circumcision of the body could not make sinners holy it could not justify someone who had broken God's moral law on the contrary circumcision was given as a visible but merely symbolic sign of man's need for salvation prior to the incarnation of Jesus Christ and prior to his atoning work on the cross it was a law from God and to not be circumcised was to break God's law but it was a temporary law that only served a purpose until the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh you know we have certain rules in our home that only apply to our children until they reach a certain age you probably do too the privilege of watching certain movies for example or of not going to bed until a certain time are temporary rules that fit the occasion fit the age or the maturity of the child and if a child disobeys those temporary rules they are genuinely disobeying and there are real consequences for breaking even the temporary rules but once the child reaches the privileged age of maturity to not have to be under those temporary rules anymore it's not disobedience for them to do what at one time would have been disobedience if my 18 year old insists on going to bed at 8 pm every night because that's the rule that was laid down for him when he was four he's misunderstanding the rule and the nature of parenting and the reality of maturation and a whole host of other things the false teachers that were wreaking havoc in Galatia were doing this very thing they were taking a law that at one time was a legitimately binding law of God and through a misunderstanding and misapplication of the law and of the nature of God and of the progression of redemptive history and ultimately of the efficacy of the atoning work of Jesus Christ they were imposing an early bedtime on 18 year olds they were demanding that sinners Jew or Gentile who recognized their need for a savior and who wanted their sins to be covered by the shed blood of Christ had to not only receive and rest upon Christ for their salvation but also to be physically circumcised or else their faith in Christ would be null and void Paul in proclaiming the gospel to the Galatians had not required circumcision he had only required faith in Christ and so these false teachers were accusing Paul of preaching an unorthodox gospel and one that contradicted those higher-ups in Jerusalem so now we begin to see the method to Paul's madness he marched himself right up to Jerusalem right up to the proverbial horse's mouth with an uncircumcised Gentile convert in tow named Titus if the men of renown in Jerusalem had agreed with the false teachers in Galatia they would have certainly required Titus to be circumcised but what happens verse three even Titus who was with me was not forced to be circumcised though he was a Greek the false teachers were making up false reports in order to spread their false gospel and so Paul takes care of business he exposes their lie and says verse five to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you he contested this false gospel because the gospel is worth fighting for now I wonder if a worrisome thought has occurred to you if we read the larger account of Paul's missionary work in the book of Acts there arises what appears to be an inconsistency a contradiction in Paul's conviction regarding circumcision he's just made a huge statement by traveling to Jerusalem with Titus and highlighting the fact that Titus was not required to be circumcised and this account seems to correspond to the events recorded in Acts chapter 15 but if you read the very next chapter in Acts chapter 16 it says right on the heels of this Titus incident that Paul came also to Derby into Lystra a disciple was there named Timothy the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer but his father was a Greek he was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places for they all knew that his father was a Greek and we think to ourselves what are you doing Paul how can you compromise like that well I'm going to try to explain why I don't think Paul is compromising however I want to point out first that even if he were compromising it doesn't nullify the gospel all people apostles included are sinners who fall short of the glory of God in fact we're going to see in just a moment how an apostle how Peter did compromise what he knew to be the gospel truth so our measuring stick of truth is not the failures of men even men who we look up to like apostles our measuring truth sick of truth is God's word a word that is infallibly recorded by fallible men but back to Paul why does he refuse to circumcise Titus but then turns around and has Timothy circumcised let me go back for a moment to my analogy of our temporary household rules if my 18 year old wants to go to bed at 8 he may just because it's not a rule anymore doesn't mean he's forbidden to do it circumcision was at one time a must but with the coming of Christ it is no longer a religious must it's a may not for religious purposes not as a supposed act of extra obedience to God but for cultural reasons or hygienic reasons or or something non-moral like that and so in the context of false teachers who were demanding that Gentiles be circumcised as a means of salvation Paul says absolutely not I won't have Titus the Gentile circumcised because to do so would obscure the gospel but in the case of Timothy the Jewish young man Paul says we're going to evangelize Jews culturally the Jews expect circumcision they're not claiming that circumcision makes you a Christian in fact they don't even recognize Christ as the Messiah so out of deference cultural deference to these unbelieving Jews Timothy lets accommodate their expectation so as not to put an unnecessary obstacle in front of the gospel to circumcise Titus would have been a denial of the pure gospel that Paul was fighting to defend to not circumcise Timothy would have caused an unnecessary offense to the Jews but it would have not sent a wrong message about Christ and the gospel well this brings us to the last few verses of our text today we've seen Paul affirming the primacy of the gospel by going out of his way to establish and confirm unity among believers around the gospel we've seen Paul contest opposition to the gospel by not accommodating or submitting to the demands of false teachers claiming to be heralding the true gospel next we see Paul confronting gospel compromise even from within the true church in this case coming from an actual apostle the Apostle Peter himself verse 11 but when Cephas that's another name for Peter came to Antioch I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned so what had Peter done that warranted condemnation from Paul Peter had separated himself publicly from association with Gentiles when certain people were looking he was living by a double standard not out of loving deference towards others or from a motive of meeting people where they're at but out of fear of the circumcision party Paul says in verse 12 Peter of all people knew better he was the apostle to whom the Lord gave a vision of all sorts of unclean animals coming down out of heaven and you remember the vision in this in this dream Peter was commanded to eat of these unclean animals of course the purpose of the vision was to reveal a mystery that had long been hidden the mystery that God's covenant with his people was to include both Jews and Gentiles I don't think we can fully appreciate how massive this paradigm shift was at the time the group of people whom God had required the Jews to stay clear of to keep away from to remain separate from we're now being welcomed into the fold the preservation of Jewish blood down through the centuries had finally attained its purpose the Messiah had come and so it was time for God to reveal that all along his intention was to save people from every tongue and nation and tribe salvation was not just for Israel it was for the ends of the earth and Peter was the first to know he was the first post Calvary evangelist to carry the gospel to the gent to a Gentile he was he was not ignorant of this glorious mystery and yet when the stuffy heretical circumcision party showed up Peter feared them more than he loved the inclusive beauty and power of the gospel and like he did at Christ's arrest and trial he let his fear rather than his faith determine his actions Paul was not having it it didn't matter that Peter had seniority it didn't matter that Peter had clout what Peter was doing was obscuring the gospel for the sake of making a good impression the false teachers in Galatia were preaching a false gospel because they did not believe the true gospel their sin was the sin of heresy and so Paul condemned them in their teaching Peter on the other hand believed the true gospel but he was failing to live according to that gospel that he knew his sin then was not the sin of heresy but hypocrisy and so Paul opposed Peter to his face and once again it may feel like there is a discrepancy an inconsistency between Paul's behavior here and his comments in 1st Corinthians 9 where he said to the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win Jews to those outside the law I became as one outside the law that I might win those outside the law I become all things to all people that by all means I might save some so again is Paul holding to a double standard well no what he's saying in 1st Corinthians is that he is willing to do anything even accommodate people unlike himself if it will clarify the gospel that's not what Peter was doing in Galatians 2 Peter was obscuring the gospel for the sake of his own reputation and there's a huge difference now we don't hear the end of the story here in Galatians 2 but from other passages of Scripture we come to see that Peter evidently received this rebuke from Paul and repented of his hypocrisy just like he did of the hypocrisy he committed when he betrayed Christ three times both of these apostles these pillars of the faith mention each other in their subsequent letters to the church and they always show great respect for one another so we assume that whatever contention may have been brewing in Galatians 2 it was resolved and unity between these brothers was restored in the end both of these men Peter included died for the gospel they believed it they rested in Christ in Christ saved them but isn't it interesting and encouraging that even though Peter stumbles here and let's be honest he stumbles badly nevertheless the gospel the good news of the saving work of Christ is so effectual that it even covers the gospel denying moments of an apostle and beloved if it covers the gospel denying moments of an apostle it will cover the gospel denying moments of any child of God you and me included see the message of our text today isn't simply go be like Paul defend the gospel at all costs it is that at least that and we should be quick to defend the gospel and be faithful in that task but the message of this text is also about the incredibly gracious reach of the gospel that even when we behave like Peter and truth be told church we behave like Peter a lot more than we behave like Paul but even then the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to cover our sin if salvation is all of grace it must always be all of grace even when we're playing the hypocrite we're not justified by ineffectual symbols like circumcision or dietary laws any more than we are justified by our New Testament obedience or by our evangelistic witness now true faith in Christ will result in obedience it will result in a bold witness and Paul is going to address those things before he gets to the end of his letter but church those things don't cause our salvation any more than circumcision does Paul wasn't saved because of his bold witness any more than Peter was unsaved by his failure to be a bold witness why because justification is not about our obedience or disobedience justification is about Christ's obedience and so the application for us this morning is straightforward fight for the gospel fight for the gospel by pursuing unity in that gospel within the church fight for the gospel by contending for it against the enemies of the cross fight for the gospel by reproving believers who temporarily forget the gospel and return to their old paths but also fight for the gospel when you stumble and fall and are frustrated by your own persistent susceptibility to do what you know you shouldn't do and to not do those things that you know you ought to do fight for the gospel even in those moments not by gloating in your successes or by wallowing in your failures but by resting always resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ that is a gospel worth fighting for there's a gospel worth dying for it is a gospel worth living for let's pray Lord wretched wretched man that I am who will deliver us from this body of death thanks be to you Oh God through Jesus Christ your son and our Lord that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus help us to believe that scandalously rich grace that's ours in him by your spirit we are set free from the law of sin and death and all we can say is thanks be to God in Jesus name Amen