Galatia was not a city.
It was a territory.
It encompassed an area that is now in
Turkey.
There were several churches founded by Paul in
Galatia.
And following Paul's evangelistic efforts through the area
and the founding of many churches, there were
men who came in and they began to
pervert the gospel that Paul had taught, the
gospel of grace.
And they began to preach another gospel which
is not a gospel.
Because the word gospel means good news.
And if you tell me that God will
forgive me all of my sins and account
me righteous if I will simply believe in
Jesus Christ, that's good news.
But if you tell me that I must
then follow certain rules and regulations and be
obedient to the law and keep the law
of God in order to be righteous, that's
not good news because no one's been able
to do that.
And so, Paul is writing to the Galatians
to correct this teaching that had followed his
ministry in their midst.
And to free them again from that bondage
of the law that men were seeking to
put them under.
We in the Gentile church today have so
much to be thankful for because of this
man, Paul the Apostle.
Had it not been for his strong, stubborn
stand on salvation through grace, Christianity could have
reverted to just another Jewish sect.
But Paul made his stand in front of
all of them and against all of them
really, insisting on this gospel of grace.
Salvation through faith and through the grace of
God.
And so, Galatians is a very strong treatise
against any form of legality.
Any attempt to become righteous by our works
or more righteous through our obedience to the
law.
And it is really setting forth in a
very powerful way, the gospel of grace and
justification by faith.
It was this epistle to the Galatians that
brought on the Protestant revolution, yes, reformation, which
was a revolution from the corrupted practices of
the church of that day.
Martin Luther was much like Paul the Apostle
in that he was one of those fellows
who went all out in his religious practices.
He was one of the most monkish of
all of the monks and had gone to
Rome and in order to appease God was
climbing the steps on his knees, one step
at a time, offering the prayers and all
at each step.
And as he was going up these steps,
the Spirit of God spoke to his heart
out of Paul's letter to the Galatians, Martin,
the just shall live by faith.
And that burned in his heart and thus
was born the Protestant reformation.
This glorious epistle that has set men free
and has brought men into a vital relationship
with God through faith.
This epistle that opens the door to all
men so that I may come freely unto
God because I come to God and I
learn to come to God through this epistle
on the basis of God's love and God's
grace, not on the basis of my merit,
my works, my efforts.
Now, these false teachers that came in, one
of the first things they always sought to
do was to discredit Paul.
This is a typical ploy of false teachers.
If you have been studying and learning under
a minister, a man of God, they'll come
in and their first thing is to try
to discredit the one that you have been
studying under or the one that you were
converted under.
Now, it seems that these false teachers never
really seek to evangelize, but they're always trying
to go into those who believe and change
their beliefs.
So Paul, first of all, reaffirms his apostleship
and he says, though, that it is not
of men, neither by man, but by Jesus
Christ and God the Father who raised him
from the dead.
It is interesting how that even today people
are asking the same questions that the Pharisees
asked John the Baptist while he was baptizing
down at the Jordan River.
They said, who gave you the authority to
do this?
From whence comes your authority?
When Jesus cleansed the temple, they asked him
the same question.
Who gave you the authority to do this?
People, it seems, are always looking for the
basis of your authority.
And many times today people come up, especially
the Mormons, and they'll say, who gave you
the authority to baptize?
Because they teach that they are the only
ones who have the right to give authority
to anyone to baptize.
They are the only true church because they
are the only church which still has twelve
apostles governing the church.
And their twelve apostles are the only ones
who can ordain or grant authority unto men
to exercise spiritual ministries.
And so their trip is always an authority
trip.
Who gave you the authority?
And so the question of reading of Paul,
well, who gave Paul the authority to be
an apostle?
Who laid hands on Paul?
And of course, we have also within the
church today what they call the apostolic succession
of the laying on of hands.
As far as authority goes in the high
church, they ordain the men for the ministry,
and the bishop lays his hand upon the
candidate as he ordains him.
And this bishop had hands laid on him
by another bishop who had hands laid on
him by another bishop who had hands laid
on him by another bishop who had hands
laid on him ad nauseam back to Peter.
So that you have the apostolic laying on
of hands.
So as the bishop lays his hand upon
my head and consecrates me to the ministry,
I in my mind perceive this hand as
it goes back to Peter.
You know, you see this sort of quick
frame kind of a thing all the way
back to Peter.
And Peter is laying his hand on me
and ordaining me for the ministry, the apostolic
succession of the laying on of hands.
And unless you have the bishop who had
a bishop, who had a bishop, who had
a bishop, then you're not really ordained.
Paul said, hey, I wasn't ordained by man.
I'm an apostle, but not of men, neither
by man.
I didn't look to man for my authority.
I wasn't called by man.
I wasn't ordained by man, but by Jesus
Christ and God the Father who raised him
from the dead.
So Paul's authority goes back one greater than
Peter, to Jesus Christ and to God the
Father.
Now, it is my feeling that the ordination
of man is totally worthless.
I'm not interested in being ordained by man.
I believe that there is only one who
can really ordain a man to the ministry,
and that is Jesus Christ.
I believe that men at best can only
ratify.
Someone laying their hands on me isn't going
to qualify me for the ministry.
And unfortunately, in the history of the church,
hands have been laid upon scoundrels, and they've
been proclaimed by this action as ministers of
Jesus Christ.
But they were not and never have been.
They're charlatans, they're scoundrels, though they have the
papers to show that they're ordained to the
ministry.
It isn't what man says about me that
I'm concerned with.
It's what God says about me.
And so Paul, an apostle, not of men
nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and
God the Father who raised him from the
dead.
And all of the brethren which are with
me unto the churches of Galatia.
So, Paul is joining those companions of his
in his writing to the church.
Now, Paul quite often in the opening salutations
of his epistles has some personal words to
say, but he really doesn't have much to
say to the Galatians except the typical Pauline
greeting of grace be to you and peace
from God the Father and from our Lord
Jesus Christ.
The Greek word grace is a word that
in its base meaning is beauty, charm.
It has come to mean unmerited favor.
And that is its theological kind of a
definition.
But there is always a beauty attached with
grace.
And it was the typical Greek greeting, charis,
peace, the typical Jewish greeting, shalom, joined together
always by Paul in his epistles.
Grace be to you and 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.
The opening salutation of Paul.
Now in speaking of Jesus Christ, he declares
that he gave himself for our sins, that
he might deliver us from this present evil
world.
This world is governed by Satan.
Jesus called Satan the prince of this world.
And referring to him, said, the prince of
this world is coming and has nothing in
me.
When Satan tempted Christ by showing to him
the kingdoms of the world and the glory
of them and promised to give them to
Jesus if he had just bowed down to
Satan, Satan bragged, they are mine and I
can give them to whomever I will.
Jesus did not dispute that.
And because Satan is the God of this
world, because it is under his control, being
given to him by man, it is a
present evil world, but the purpose of Jesus
Christ is to deliver you, his children, from
this present evil world.
That is God's will to deliver you from
it.
Now that deliverance is really twofold.
When I believe in Jesus Christ, I am
delivered from the hold that the world has
on me.
One of these days, Jesus is going to
deliver me out of the world.
Right now he's delivering me in the world.
I have been delivered while I am here,
but one day he's going to take me
out of here and I will be delivered
then fully from the present evil world.
But now I am delivered while I am
still here.
It doesn't have a hold on me any
longer.
Now Paul immediately gets right into the issues.
I marvel, I'm shocked that you are so
soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel.
They were called into the grace of Christ.
They were taught salvation through faith.
That it is not something you can earn.
It is not something you deserve.
It is not something you can purchase.
It is something that you can only receive
as a free gift of God on the
basis, not of your works, not of your
efforts, not of your merit, but on the
basis of your simple trust in Jesus Christ,
the gospel of the grace of Christ.
Unto another gospel, which is not another, that
is, it isn't a gospel.
It isn't good news.
There are those that would trouble you and
would pervert the gospel of Christ.
There are still those today who are perverting
the good news of Jesus Christ.
By again placing man under certain legal obligations
or legal restraints, imposing upon man their rules,
their regulations, their standards for holiness.
That is not a gospel.
If you give me a list of rules
that I must abide by in order to
be spiritual, that is not a gospel.
I lived for years in a legalistic relationship
with God, trying to follow the rules, trying
to follow the regulations, signing the pledge.
Annually, we had a pledge signing.
As we committed ourselves to these rules, I
will not do this and that and the
other thing.
And I had a legal relationship with God
that I had all kinds of problems with,
because though I had signed the pledge, many
times I did not keep the pledge that
I had signed.
And so I felt doubly guilty.
Then I came into the knowledge of the
grace of God through Jesus Christ.
And rather than a legal relationship with God,
I developed a loving relationship with God.
And I've been happy ever since.
How I love this relationship, I have always
said, you then do anything you want, huh?
Well, yes, I do.
But I just don't want to do a
lot of things anymore, you see.
I really live a more strict life now
in this loving relationship with God than I
did with the legal relationship with God.
You see, there's something perverse about me and
about rules.
I don't like rules.
And if I walk by a sign that
says, don't touch, I'll touch it.
Don't walk on the grass, I'll step on
it.
I just don't like rules.
And there's something within me that sort of
rebels against rules.
I like this loving relationship I have with
God.
And I don't walk on the grass and
I don't touch.
Not because I can't, I don't want to.
If it doesn't please the Father, I don't
want to do it.
And so, this loving relationship is so far
superior to the legal relationship with God.
And so, this gospel that they were proclaiming
and that they were trying to put the
people into a legal relationship with God, Paul
said, is not really another gospel.
It's a perversion of the gospel.
And 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.
That's pretty strong language.
Let him be anathema.
If any man would preach another gospel, even
if an angel of heaven would come and
preach another gospel, even if Moroni would come
and say, you've got to wear a certain
kind of underwear in order to be righteous.
And you must go through the temple rites.
And you must continue to be a faithful
Mormon if you are to be saved.
You see, that's adding to the salvation through
the grace of God offered to us through
Jesus Christ.
It's putting the burden back on you.
So, I asked a young man one day
who came up to me, and I'm sure
that he had been in a Sunday school
class of mine years ago.
And he came up to me and said,
Chuck, I'm no longer a Christian, now I'm
a Mormon.
Now I'm sure that he wasn't schooled enough
in the Mormon techniques at that point that
he would say something like that.
Because now they seek to identify themselves as
Christians.
But he said, I'm a Mormon.
I said, oh, what a shame.
And he said, what do you mean?
I said, I mean just what you said.
I think it would be a shame if
a person ceased being a Christian and started
being a Mormon.
I said, but as a Mormon, tell me,
Jerry, what do you, what is the base
for your hope of eternal life?
And he said, my faith in Jesus Christ
and continued membership in the Mormon church.
I said, well, as far as I'm concerned,
you went one step too far.
If the basis of your hope for eternal
life is your faith in Jesus Christ, I
can shake hands with you and say, great,
Jerry, continue.
But the moment you add anything to that,
then it's another gospel.
And even if an angel of heaven has
declared another gospel that would add something more
than your faith in Jesus Christ as your
hope for eternal life, then it is not
a gospel.
So let them be accursed.
For do I now persuade men or God?
Do I seek to please men?
If I pleased men, I would not be
the servant of Christ.
Paul said, I'm not really seeking to win
the popularity contest among men.
I'm seeking to please God.
And I could give up this fight.
I could give in to the legalism.
But if I did, I would not be
a servant of God.
Thank God Paul stuck by his guns.
Boy, our church today would be something vastly
different.
If Paul had not stuck by his guns.
But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel
which was preached of me is not after
man.
Because I did not receive it from man,
neither was I taught it, but by the
revelation of Jesus Christ.
So this gospel of grace is a revelation
of Jesus Christ unto Paul.
Now, I am certain that God chose Paul
and ordained Paul, even as he said from
his mother's womb, that he should be the
carrier of this gospel of grace because he
was perfectly fitted by God for this task.
You see, if you do not follow something
to its end, then you always think, well,
my failure was not following it to its
end.
Had I followed it to the nth degree,
then I would have found the satisfaction.
And so I look at myself and I
say, the failure lies in me.
I didn't follow it completely enough.
It is an interesting observation that I have
made concerning those who are Buddhist.
When a person tells me, well, I'm a
Buddhist, I usually ask them, well, have you
achieved then the perfection and that complete peace
in Buddhism?
And they will always respond by saying, I
am working towards it.
Never have I found one who has claimed
to achieve it.
They're always working towards it.
It's always this carrot out here at the
end of the stick.
I'm still working.
I hope, you know, if I keep trying,
if I work a little harder, I might
achieve.
I might attain.
I might find the peace and satisfaction.
I'm working towards it.
Paul the Apostle had followed the law of
God circumspectly.
He had followed it down all the way.
He writes concerning himself that as far as
the righteousness which is of the law is
concerned, I was blameless.
And so Paul speaks of his zeal above
his own peers.
His zeal for the law, his zeal for
God according to the law and all was
above those around him.
And yet, Paul found himself zealously following the
law, still empty and frustrated.
And he did not find the fulfillment.
And that is why when he came to
the glorious knowledge of Jesus Christ, he was
so transformed because he had followed the law
all the way as far as you could
and didn't find the peace.
Now, Peter could not really be the emissary
of grace because Peter had not really followed
the law that circumspectly, you see.
And so Peter would think, well, if I'd
only followed the law, I might have achieved,
I might have attained, you know.
And so Paul was specially prepared of God
to receive this gospel of grace and it
came to Paul by direct revelation of Jesus
Christ.
He did not learn this in the church
in Jerusalem or from the Apostles or those
brethren there.
Taught to him by direct revelation of Jesus
Christ.
For you have heard of my conversation in
times past in the Jews' religion, how that
beyond measure I persecuted the church of God
and wasted it.
And I profited in the Jews' religion above
many of my equals in my own nation,
being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of
my fathers.
Hey, I was at the top of the
class.
I went all the way.
I went all out for the law and
for Judaism.
Above my equals, more exceedingly zealous.
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 Gentiles,
immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.
When Paul met Christ on the road to
Damascus, and there had that complete 180 degree
turn from persecuting Jesus to following Jesus.
Such a revolution, total revolution.
Paul did not then look up the Christian
brothers to learn all about it.
But he went out into the desert and
spent several years out in the deserts of
Saudi Arabia, just waiting upon God and receiving
the revelation directly from Jesus of the gospel
according to grace.
So this is not Paul's gospel.
This is the gospel of Jesus Christ delivered
to Paul, who in turn has delivered it
to us.
This is the truth of Christ.
The salvation that is offered now unto you
through your faith in Him.
I did not confer with flesh and blood.
I did not go up to Jerusalem to
them which were the apostles before me, but
I went into Arabia and then I returned
to Damascus.
I didn't even return to Jerusalem.
Then after three years, I went up to
Jerusalem.
So he didn't get back to Jerusalem until
about six and a half, seven years after
his conversion.
He had gone from Jerusalem to Damascus to
imprison the Christians, those that called upon God.
He was met by Christ on the road,
so that when he got to Damascus, he
was a changed man.
He ministered to the Christians that were there,
but realized that he needed to know more
and went out into the deserts of Arabia
and waited upon Jesus, where he received the
glorious revelation for three and a half years,
returned then to Damascus, stayed there and now
taught them for three years.
And then finally came to Jerusalem to see
Peter and stayed with him for 15 days.
But of the other apostles, he didn't see
any of them except James, the brother of
the Lord.
This is the James who authored the epistle
of James.
This is the James who became one of
the leaders in the early church.
This is not James, the brother of John,
the fisherman.
He was beheaded before Paul got there.
This is James, the brother of Jesus Christ,
mentioned in Mark's gospel.
And Paul here identifies him.
Now the things which I write unto you.
Behold, before God I lie not.
Afterwards, I came to the regions of Syria
and Cilicia.
So Paul went from Damascus seven years after
his conversion and then went on back to
Tarshish, where he was born.
And he went back to making tents.
I was unknown by faith under the churches
of Judea, which were in Christ.
But they only heard that the one who
had persecuted us in times past is now
preaching the faith and they glorify God in
me.
So Paul did not really have any close
contact with the church in Jerusalem.
In fact, the church in Jerusalem was a
little fearful of Paul.
They didn't know but what he was a
KGB agent.
And thus they were really reluctant to receive
Paul into fellowship.
So Paul is emphasizing the fact that his
gospel is not something that was passed on
to him by the apostles or by any
man.
It was something that came to him through
the direct revelation of Jesus Christ.
Then, fourteen years later, I went up again
to Jerusalem with Barnabas and I took Titus
with me also.
So Paul no doubt had been ministering in
Syria and Cilicia, the area around Tarshish, his
home city, his hometown.
And there had been Gentiles that he had
brought to the faith of Jesus Christ, Titus
being one of them.
Now, Barnabas, one of the brethren in the
church there in Jerusalem, decided to go to
Tarshish because there was a work of God
being accomplished in Antioch.
And there were a lot of Gentiles being
saved and having heard of Paul, he decided
to go get Paul to help in the
church in Antioch.
And so he went to Tarshish, searched out
Paul, and invited Paul to come back and
to become a minister there at Antioch.
And he brought Paul to Jerusalem in order
to sort of mend things with the apostles,
to show them the truth of Paul's faith.
And he said, I went up by revelation
and communicated unto them that gospel which I
was preaching among the Gentiles.
But I communicated it to them privately, those
that were reputation, lest by any means I
should run or had run in vain.
In other words, he didn't really proclaim it
openly to the church in Jerusalem because the
church in Jerusalem was made up of a
lot of former Pharisees and a lot of
Jews who were still following the traditions of
the law and who were still very observant
in many aspects to the law.
Jews who believed still that you could not
be a Christian if you were a Gentile.
Jews that still held to the fact that
the only way you could be saved was
by believing in Jesus Christ and then keeping
the law of Moses.
And being circumcised.
That was the basic mindset of the church
in Jerusalem.
And so Paul communicated in private to the
apostles the gospel that he had been preaching,
this gospel of grace.
But Titus, who was with me being a
Greek, was not compelled to be circumcised.
They tried to encourage it and all, but
Paul withstood it.
For their teaching was, hey, you've got to
be circumcised in order to be saved.
And so Titus was not compelled, as Paul
withstood them, that because of false brethren, unawares,
who were brought in, who came in privately
to spy out our liberty, which we have
in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us
into bondage.
To whom we gave place by subjection, no,
not for a minute, that the truth of
the gospel might continue with you.
So Paul was standing up for you Gentiles.
Paul was standing up for the gospel that
has been proclaimed to you.
That you don't have to become a Jew.
That you don't have to keep the law
of Moses.
All you have to do is believe in
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
Put your trust in Him and God will
do His work in your life and transform
you by the power of the Spirit.
And what you can't do for yourself, God
will do for you.
That salvation is God's gift through your faith
in Jesus.
And so Paul had this conflict, but he
would not give in.
He would not surrender to the pressures of
the apostles there in Jerusalem.
Not for a moment.
But of these who seemed to be somewhat.
I like this.
Paul's a tough cookie.
It's interesting to me how that so quickly
we can lose sight of the teaching of
Jesus.
Jesus said, if any man would be chief
among you, let him become the servant of
all.
And Jesus taught His disciples that the true
ministry was one of servanthood.
He took the towel.
He washed their feet, taking the place of
a servant among them.
And He said, now do you see what
I've done?
Go and do likewise.
Happy are you.
If you do these things, that is, if
you'll take the place of a servant.
If I, being your Lord, have served you,
then you ought to serve one another.
But always in the church, it seems that
we develop some kind of a hierarchy.
We develop this little circle of leadership.
Where we begin to stand in awe of
men.
Oh, you know, look.
And it is so easy to become a
prey to this.
And think, oh, I am something, you know.
I am somebody.
And you begin then to insulate yourself from
people.
And you soon lose contact with people.
And you soon lose contact with reality.
There is one servant of God that I
highly admire.
I think he's been used of God perhaps
in a greater measure than almost any man
living today.
And when I met him, I was totally
taken back by the simple, beautiful attitude of
this man.
And that's Billy Graham.
He is the most unassuming person.
All God has used him.
You know, and people say, oh, Billy Graham,
you know.
And I was that way.
I was, oh, Billy Graham, you know.
And Billy Graham, you know.
And I was just, you know, just so
in awe of him.
And then he started talking with me.
And I became just totally wiped out with
the beautiful openness and touchability of this man.
One of our fellows, who is a flight
attendant for Western Airlines, had Billy on his
plane the other day.
And so he said to him, when you're
through with your duties, why don't you come
back and sit and talk?
And so he sat down and was talking
with Billy for about an hour on the
plane.
And Billy says, well, give me your phone
number.
Next time I'm out in California, I'll give
you a call.
Maybe we can get together.
With a flight attendant on Western Airlines.
But that's the kind of a man he
is.
It's beautiful.
No wonder God has used that man so
mightily.
No wonder God has been able to continue
to use him through the years.
Because he has caught what it is to
be a servant of God.
And not really placed himself in this position
of grandiose superiority over others.
Now, here was this little group in Jerusalem.
They had set themselves up.
And they're establishing themselves.
And Paul says of them, But of those
who seem to be somewhat, whatever they were,
it makes no matter to me.
For God doesn't accept any man's persons.
Years ago, when I was disenchanted with the
particular denomination in which I was serving, I
started looking around to other denominations.
I was hoping to find the perfect denomination.
I was going to corrupt it by joining
it.
And so, I went before the bishops and
before the presbyters and before the leaders of
other denominations because the thing that I didn't
like in the denominationalism was the establishment of
this spiritual hierarchy which created a political back
scratching kind of a mode.
You know, getting up the line and getting
in the positions of power.
And then, you know, there you sit in
your chair, your pompous attitude and the whole
thing.
And I didn't see that in true Christianity.
And I was looking for more of a
fellowship where, hey, you know, we all put
our pants on one leg at a time.
You know, no different from each other really.
And so, I went before many of these
august bodies of leaders.
You know, adjust their glasses and they sit
there in their chairs and they, you know,
scowl at you and give you the whole…
You know, they try to intimidate you.
And that's the whole game.
Intimidation.
They tried to intimidate Paul.
Intimidate him into having Titus circumcised and, you
know, and having Paul back down.
But of these who seem to be somewhat
whatsoever they are, it doesn't matter to me.
For God accepts no man's person.
God doesn't stand in awe of these men.
God is not intimidated by them.
But the nations are as dust in the
balances in His eyes, how much less man.
Now, that's an interesting little scripture.
The nations are as dust in the balances.
Many times a merchant, of course, the balances
were, you know, you buy your goods, you
buy them by the weights.
And so, they had the shekel weights that
they would place on the balances.
They had the balance scales.
But a merchant would try to show you
how honest he really was.
So, he would blow the dust off of
the scales before he would put your merchandise
on it in order that you're not buying
his dust.
And it was a symbolic action to just
show you, hey, I'm the most honest guy
around, you know.
And so, this dust in the balances is
a picturesque thing.
People could see the merchant blowing the dust
off the balance before he put your merchandise
on it so you'd know that you were
getting a fair deal.
The nations are like dust in the balances.
God can blow them away.
How much less is man.
And so, God doesn't accept a man's person.
God isn't intimidated by man.
For they who seem to be somewhat in
conference, you know, those who were taking the
authority and speaking the words of power and
all, they added nothing to me.
I wasn't moved by them.
But contrary-wise, when they saw that the
gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me
and the gospel of the circumcision was committed
unto Peter, 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, or Peter
and John, who seemed to be the pillars,
oh, Paul, I love you, man, who seemed
to be the pillars, perceived the grace that
was given unto me, they gave to me,
I'm Barnabas, the right hands of fellowship that
we should go to the Gentiles and they
to the circumcision.
And this is great.
This is a real problem that existed in
the early church, and this is how it
was resolved.
Recognizing that we each have our ministries, but
they are different.
God has called you to the circumcision, great,
go for it, Peter.
God has called me to the Gentiles, great,
I'll go for it.
We're dealing with different kinds of people who
need a different emphasis and message.
I do see the validity of denominations, or
at least the variety of churches.
I do see the validity of the liturgical
churches, who are ministering to people who can
relate to God best in a liturgical setting.
I can see the purpose of emotional churches,
the Pentecostal churches, for people who have to
relate to God in a emotional, hyped sense.
And I really rejoice that God is so
gracious in reaching man at his different levels.
And so God has reached me at my
level.
God has reached you at your level.
And he seeks to reach every man at
whatever level that man is.
If a man's made up on an emotional
base and a high-pitched thing, God meets
him on that level because God loves him.
If a man is made up a very
sedate, you know, solemn kind of a way,
God meets that man at his level.
So that we shouldn't put down the liturgical
churches, nor should we put down the Pentecostal
churches.
But we should recognize that God is using
each to meet men at both ends of
the spectrum, and also those who are in
between in the spectrum, because God loves all
men and God is no respecter of man's
persons.
He'll meet each of us at our level.
The only problem comes is when we say
we have the only level or we have
the best level.
You know, ours is superior to theirs.
God loves us more because we relate to
God in a better way.
No, it's the best way for me to
relate to God.
But there is, for some people, they could
not relate to God as I relate to
God.
And it's interesting, there are some that say,
hey, you're too emotional, and there are others
that say you're not emotional enough.
So somewhere I figure I'm relating to God
in the middle of the road.
Because if they hit you from both sides,
you know, you got to be in the
middle.
Hit you from just one side, you're on
the end then, you know.
But when they get you from both sides,
you're in the middle.
So Paul agreed to disagree.
God's called you, Peter, John, James, God's called
you guys to the Jews, great.
God has called me to the Gentiles.
You can develop your legal relationships with God,
we will develop our loving relationships with God
through grace.
Now, Paul puts in his little barb here.
Only they would that we would remember the
poor.
In other words, they ask us for help.
Now, we're going to minister to the Jews,
but we're needing help.
So don't forget the poor, which Paul said,
we've always been forward in doing that is
in helping the poor.
Paul, you remember many times took up offerings
from the churches to give to the church
in Jerusalem to help them in their poverty.
So it's sort of interesting.
But when Peter was come to Antioch, that
is the place where Paul, that was Paul's
really home church in a sense.
That's where Paul, the base from which Paul
went, the base to which Paul returned.
That was his home church.
When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood
him to the face because he was at
fault.
For before certain of the brothers came from
James, he was eating with the Gentiles.
But when they came down, he withdrew and
separated himself, fearing those which were of the
circumcision.
And the other Jews dissemble likewise with him
in so much that even Barnabas was carried
away with their dissimulation.
But when I saw that they walked not
uprightly according to the truth of the gospel,
I said to Peter in front of them
all, if you being a Jew were living
after the manner of the Gentiles and not
as do the Jews, why are you compelling
the Gentiles to live as the Jews?
So Peter showed a vacillation here.
And of course, Peter was sort of famous
for vacillation.
He had come down to Antioch and he
was eating with the Gentiles.
Now the churches in those days had what
they called the agape feast.
It was sort of what we would call
today a potluck.
And usually once a week, they'd all get
together for this agape feast.
Everyone bringing a dish and then just sharing
it all together and eating together.
And then they would finish it with communion
service.
And it was called the love feast, the
agape feast in the early church.
And it served a great purpose because many
times the poor people, this was the only
decent meal they got all week.
Many of the Christians were slaves, undernourished.
And this was the only decent meal they
had.
So everybody's sharing all of their food, all
sitting together and eating together.
And so Peter came down and he just
sat with them and ate with them.
But that's a no-no to a good
Jew.
For in eating together, you were becoming one
with them.
And thus they were becoming one with the
Gentiles.
And from a Judaistic standpoint, from an Orthodox
standpoint, that was bad.
But Peter, seeing the love of Christ, realizing,
hey, they're just brothers in the Lord, he
just sat down with Gentiles and ate.
Now, you remember earlier when Peter had his
revelation on the housetop of Simon there in
Joppa.
And this sheet was let down and all
kinds of unclean animals on it.
The Lord said, Peter, rise, come and eat.
He said, oh, not me, Lord, I've never
eaten anything unclean.
Jesus said, don't call that unclean, which I
have cleansed.
It happened three times.
And then the Lord said, behold, at the
gate there are some men who have come.
Go with them.
Don't ask any questions.
And so Peter went down to the gate
and here were three men from Caesarea.
And they said, our master Cornelius, a Roman
centurion, had a vision.
And in the vision, the angel told him
to send us down here and to find
you and to bring you back up that
you might explain to us the way of
God in truth.
And so Peter went with them and he
came to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea.
Cornelius opened the door and said, oh, praise
the Lord, Peter, come on in.
And Peter said, oh, you know, it's not
lawful for me to enter your house, the
house of a Gentile.
But he said, God told me don't call
that unclean, which he's cleansed.
So I'll come on in, you know.
He said, now, what do you want to
know?
And so Cornelius said, well, I was praying
the other day in the afternoon about three
o'clock and this angel stood here and
told me to just call you and that
you would tell us what we needed to
know.
So it's the balls in your court.
What do we need to know?
And so Peter started sharing with these Gentiles
and a group had gathered there at Cornelius's
house, a group of his friends.
They'd come to hear what Peter had to
say.
And as Peter was talking to them, the
Holy Spirit fell upon them and Peter was
shocked.
Now, these people are Gentiles.
They're receiving gifts of the Holy Spirit.
What's going on here?
And he says, now, notice, fellas, I didn't
do anything.
You know, when we get back to Jerusalem,
you witness for me, I didn't do it.
You know, and he didn't want to take
the responsibility.
And so he had the Jewish witnesses go
back to Jerusalem and explain how that he
wasn't really responsible.
It's something that God did because he didn't
want to get in trouble, went into the
house of the Gentiles to begin with.
Well, Peter, the Lord was beginning to break
down some of these barriers.
He came to Antioch, saw the beautiful fellowship,
the love feast, joined in.
But then certain brothers came down from Jerusalem,
friends of James, and Peter knew that if
they saw him eating with the Gentiles, he'd
get reported on.
Peter was eating with Gentiles.
Oh, no, you know, what's happening now?
And so Peter pulled away and the next
love feast, he sat along with a little
group of Jews, division in the body and
the other Jews who had been eating that
the church had been sort of unified, just
one in Christ and experienced that glorious oneness.
But now this division, Peter is a part
of it.
And because it was Peter, other Jews seeing
Peter dissembled, they also dissembled.
And even Barnabas, who had been with Paul
preaching to the Gentiles, he even got swayed
by this and he also changed tables.
And that is when Paul stepped in and
he rebuked Peter to the face in front
of all of them.
Said, that's not right.
You came down and you began to live
as a Gentile being a Jew.
And now you're trying to compel the Gentiles
to live like Jews.
And he rebuked him to the face.
Now he goes on to say, we who
are Jews by nature and not sinners of
the Gentiles.
Now, that is, we don't eat pork.
We don't eat rabbit.
We don't, you know, eat those foods that
the law said were wrong or were sinful
to eat.
And we are not the 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 have believed in Jesus Christ, that
we might be justified by the faith of
Christ and not by the works of the
law or by the works of the law
shall no flesh be justified.
So Paul said, even we who have kept
the law can only be justified through faith.
By the works of the law, no one
can be justified.
Your obedience to the law of God would
not save you.
Let us say that you could keep the
law of God, written and traditional, oral.
It would not save you.
This is one of the problems of the
Jewish people today.
This is exactly what they are trusting in
for their salvation, their own imperfect works of
the law.
Yom Kippur is no longer a day of
sacrifice for sins.
It is a day of reflection for the
Jew as he reflects upon his good works,
seeking to be justified by his works before
God.
But Paul said, by the works of the
law shall no flesh be justified.
Justification comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves are also found to
be sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of
sin?
Oh, God forbid.
For if I build again the things which
I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
So, Paul is talking here about his new
found faith and revelation that his justification
being accepted by God was based upon his
faith in Jesus Christ.
And so, he despaired of the works of
the law, seeking now that righteousness which is
of faith through Christ, no longer following the
traditions of the law, eating, if he so
desired, a ham sandwich.
And he goes on to say, if I
try to build again a relationship through the
law, that which I destroyed when I came
to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, then I
would become a transgressor.
For through the law, for I through the
law am dead to the law that I
might live unto God.
In other words, the law condemned me to
death.
And that's all the law has done for
anybody.
It condemns them to death because no one
has kept the law.
And the Bible says, if you keep the
whole law and yet you violate in one
point, you're guilty of all.
Again, the Bible says, cursed is the man
who continueth not in the whole law to
do all of the things that are written
therein.
So, if you're trying to be justified by
the law and you've missed in one point
at one time, any time in your life,
you're under the curse of the law, which
is death.
So, Paul said, the law killed me and
I'm dead to the law.
But I am alive unto God.
For I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, but yet it is not
I.
I'm living now a new life.
My old life was predicated upon the works
of the law.
My old life was self-centered.
My old life was filled with strife, envy,
jealousy, factious spirit, no
longer I.
What a glorious day when our life is
no longer I, no longer centered around self,
but now a new center and that is
Jesus Christ for my life.
No longer I upon the throne, but now
Jesus Christ enthroned in my heart.
No longer seeking to please me, now seeking
to please Jesus Christ.
The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave Himself for me.
And so, I'm not the old man that
I was.
That man died.
He was crucified with Christ.
I have a new life, a new center
for life.
The old self-centered Chuck died, crucified with
Christ.
And now, the God-centered Chuck lives.
Lives by the faith of Jesus Christ who
loved me and gave Himself for me that
I might have this new Christ-centered life.
That I might have this new relationship with
God.
That I might have spiritual life.
Paul said, I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness could come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
You remember when Jesus was in the Garden
of Gethsemane the night before the crucifixion.
Jesus knelt and prayed, Father, if it is
possible, let this cup pass from me.
What's He talking about?
If what is possible?
If the redemption of man, if salvation for
man is possible by any other means, by
any other agency, by any other action, let
this cup pass from me.
If it's possible that man could be redeemed
by the law, then Jesus would not have
died.
God would have established the requirements and maybe
one or two might have gotten in somewhere
along the line if they had died soon
enough.
The cross of Jesus Christ declares to all
men for all time that there is only
one way by which man can be redeemed
and hope to see the Kingdom of God.
For had God been able to accomplish man's
salvation through any other series of works, through
the establishing of certain rules and requirements and
regulations and all, had God been able to
redeem man by any other way, I am
certain He would have answered the prayer of
Jesus.
Father, if it is possible, let this cup
pass from me.
Nevertheless, not what I will, Thy will be
done.
And the fact that Jesus went ahead and
suffered at the hands of man and was
crucified by man is the declaration of God
to all of us that there is not
a possibility for salvation through works, through the
works of the law, through the efforts of
man.
And as Paul said, I am not frustrating
the grace of God because if righteousness could
come by the law, then Christ died in
vain.
His death was not necessary.
But righteousness cannot come to you by the
law.
Righteousness cannot come to you by keeping rules
and regulations.
I cannot give to you a standard for
righteousness and say, now, if you do this
and do this and do this and do
this, you will be righteous.
Unfortunately, many churches have endeavored to do this.
They have their standards of holiness.
And they tell the women what kind of
apparel is righteous and what kind is unrighteous.
They tell what kind of jewelry you can
wear and what kind you can't wear.
They tell you how you can fix your
hair, the righteous way and the unrighteous way.
Interesting they don't say too much about men
who dress extremely flashy as a general rule
within their groupings.
But they really have a lot to say
to the women.
Of course, the men cannot wear gold.
And they are trying and they really believe
that they are being more righteous.
They look upon me and they say, oh,
look at that.
You see that?
He has a gold watch on.
Oh, and a gold ring.
Oh, my shameful.
That man's, you know, how can he be
a minister?
How can he claim to proclaim the gospel
of Jesus Christ?
Where's a gold ring?
Terrible.
And they stand in judgment of me because
I wear a gold ring.
Now, if I take this ring off and
I suddenly become righteous because I've taken my
ring off and my watch off.
Now I'm standing up here.
I'm very righteous.
You ladies can become righteous by just washing
your face.
I mean, you know, according to their standards.
If you wear makeup, that's unrighteous.
No makeup, that's righteous.
And so they set out these standards.
And thus, I say, hey, hey, I don't
wear my gold ring anymore.
I don't wear my gold watch.
And I had the dentist pull out my
gold teeth.
And I'm very righteous now.
No, no,
that doesn't make me any more righteous, nor
does the wearing of it make me any
less righteous.
Righteousness is not a thing of wearing gold
or not wearing gold, of eating meat or
not eating meat, of eating ham or not
eating ham.
Righteousness is something that God has imputed to
my account through grace because of my faith
in Jesus Christ.
And God looks at me and he sees
me in Christ and he sees me in
the righteousness of Christ.
And because he sees me only in Christ
and that is my standing before God, it
is, I stand before God in Christ Jesus.
So he really looks not at me, but
he looks at Christ Jesus and he says,
home, that Chuck is a righteous man.
I say, thanks, Jesus.
I appreciate that.
I love your grace.
Oh Lord, for it is through the grace
of God that I have been accounted righteous
before God.
Now, had I been able to be accounted
righteous, and I was trying, believe me.
And I was very self-righteous.
I was very self-righteous because I had
never been to a show in all of
my life.
I had never been to a, well, I
did go to one dance and that was
terrible.
I lived in guilt for years after that
thing.
Oh, what a terrible, the problem was I
enjoyed it and that was, oh, that was
terrible.
I was really guilty, but I never smoked.
I had never taken a drink.
And so I felt very, very righteous except
for that one dance.
No, I've still never smoked.
I've still never drunk, but that doesn't make
me righteous.
And I don't look upon that.
I don't, I'm not really smug and self
-righteous over that in where I was, well,
I've never smoked.
So what?
That's not what makes me righteous.
God accounts me righteous because I believe in
Jesus Christ.
And that is the basis of my standing
before God.
That's what Paul came to.
He had tried the righteous acts.
He had tried the righteousness by the law.
He had followed it as far as anybody
could follow it.
But when he came to the glorious knowledge
of Jesus Christ, he gladly turned to the
new righteousness which is of Christ through faith.
And so, he now defends the Gentile believers
in the face of all of the pressure
from that leadership in Jerusalem and tells them,
stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ has
set you free.
Don't let men entangle you again in the
bondage of a legal relationship with God.
Just enjoy your loving relationship with Him.
God loves me.
That's what counts.
God has forgiven my sins because of my
faith in Jesus Christ.
That's what counts.
God accounts me righteous tonight because of my
faith in Jesus Christ.
Not because of what I do or don't
do, but because of my faith in Jesus
Christ, God has accounted me righteous.
The righteousness whereby I stand before God is
complete.
I can't add anything to it.
And my endeavor to add anything to it
only takes away from it because it then
has me looking back at myself instead of
looking at Jesus.
And anytime I look at myself, I get
in trouble.
When I keep my eyes on Jesus, I
do all right.
Keep your eyes on Him.
Enjoy the grace of God and that righteous
standing that God has given to you through
faith.
Father, we thank you tonight for this glorious
gospel that we have received, the gospel of
the grace of Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Father, for revealing this to Paul
and for Paul's steadfast faithfulness in passing it
on to us that we, Lord of the
Gentiles, might have this loving relationship with you,
having been forgiven all of our sins, having
been accounted righteous through our faith in Jesus.
Bless us now.
Help us now.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.