Jerusalem Council
Galatians 2:4-7 · JD McCulley · Feb 24, 2019
Galatians (2018-20), No. 12
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926191481382

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

I'm excited to be here this morning. I wasn't sure if Mike and Roger would ever entrust me with this opportunity. Being a ginger and all, some of you can relate up here in the front. We steal souls. That's what we do. Luke, William, Jenkins. And we get a freckle for every one we take. All right, joking aside, we're going to pick up in chapter two verse four this morning and continue building on what Roger taught us last week on the Jerusalem conference. But let's take a few minutes to review the details that have led up to this point. So what's the big deal so far in the book of Galatians?

The problem has been the accusation that Paul was not one of 12. Was he official or was he not? The Judaizers didn't believe that Paul had the apostolic authority because of the gospel message he spoke of. The first thing Paul must do is defend his authority, despite that he is not one of the 12. And how do you defend that kind of situation?

I mean, here you got Peter, James, John, Matthew, the 12 that were with Christ. They walked with Christ. They talked with Christ. They were personally trained by him, spent the Last Supper with him, saw the resurrected Christ and all this. And then you have Paul. He's had none of this. He shared none of that with them. But did he have the same authority as them? That was what was being questioned here.

So what's the big deal in the first part of Galatians? What is Paul really trying to establish here? Paul sets out on a defense. He starts with the proposition. He has to defend himself, and that's one of the points of this Jerusalem conference, is the defense of himself.

He asserts equal authority with the Twelve by showing that he received it by divine revelation and not from men. He then goes on to say in verse 1, It is not from men or through the agency of man, it is rather through the revelation of Christ or through Jesus Christ. And then in verses 11 and 12, he says again, not according to man, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ. And that's really the main summary of Galatians 1 and 2, is that this proposition that he received this revelation, this gospel from the Lord Jesus, and it's not involved in man whatsoever.

He goes on to support that proposition with a number of arguments. There's five. First of all, Paul says, I received it from the resurrected Christ. Now that's a requirement to be an apostle. You had to have seen the resurrected Christ. Second, I'm not the only one who preaches this gospel. Third, during my former manner of life in Judaism, I persecuted Christianity severely, and the only thing that could change my outlook was divine revelation. Fourth, It was God's pleasure to choose to reveal his son in me on the Damascus road. This is not my plan.

And then finally, the argument all to support the fact that this did not come from man, but through God. From that time forward, there was no time when the gospel was transmitted to Paul by men. And so we're summarizing what has happened in the first chapter.

And it was after Damascus that Paul went to Arabia. He came back to Damascus and preached. Three years after his conversion, he went to Jerusalem for 15 days, where he only saw Peter or Cephas and James. And he only went there to get to know Cephas better. He was shipped out immediately after and went into Syria and Cilicia. And it wasn't until 14 years after his conversion that he went up to Jerusalem again.

And that brings us to Galatians 2.1. So far, at least five arguments that Paul has laid out support the proposition that Paul did not get his gospel from men. He got it by divine revelation on the Damascus road. But he goes on in chapter two. And we see that he gives a new argument, and this is where we start, where Roger started with us last week. He gives a new argument that it is when he goes to Jerusalem the second time down from Antioch.

This gospel, and the gospel of the three pillars of the early church, that's Peter, James, and John, they're the same. This is the same information. Same gospel. They have the same, but different spheres of preaching. So same gospel, different spheres of preaching. It was a different gospel. If it had been a different gospel, it would have been a terrible mess. The church would have divided. You'd have ended up with two different gospels, two different churches.

And that's what we're dealing with here in chapter 2. So let's quickly cover the verses that Roger spoke on last week. In verse one, here we see Paul's strategy and his victory at the Jerusalem conference. He first brings a textbook case. That case is a Gentile convert. Titus was a Gentile and he was uncircumcised. And since Titus was unquestionably a genuine believer, but he was uncircumcised, he would be a valuable test case for this Jerusalem council. If one had to be circumcised to be saved, the religious teachers would be forced to deny Titus' salvation. Paul's independence is displayed in the fact that he did not just go to the call of the Jerusalem Apostles, he went because God directed him to do so.

Verse 1. Verse 2, Paul knows that if legalism is added to the gospel, his whole ministry will be invalidated. The issue is very critical. According to verse four that we're going to look at here in a little bit, had Paul not won the day, we would not have the gospel in its purity that we have right now.

Verse three, this speaks volumes for the depth of Titus's Christianity. Even the legalists had to admit the validity of his salvation. He was accepted as a Christian and was not forced to submit to circumcision, but And that really leads us to the beginning of the verses that we'll focus on this morning, Galatians 2, 4.

We start with this word, but, which is really a sharp contrast. And we see this in the previous verse as well. This word introduces us to the character, the motive, the means, and the consequences of those who are promoting keeping the law of Moses and any other accumulated traditions that they had, because we like to add to it as well. the requirements needed to not only be saved, but to remain saved afterwards. This is the introduction to that.

In sharp contrast, Paul says, Paul's really dealing with something the church still deals with today, adding more requirements, chaining you to the pew, making sure that you've got a lot to do in order to keep or attain or whatever it is that has to do with the salvation, whether it's gaining it in the first place, having it or keeping it. What's the source?

It came from the false brethren. The word false brethren actually is one word in the Greek. It has in common the word false with a few other New Testament references. False apostles we see, false circumcision, false prophets and false teachers. And these all, all added up, are a collection of imitators. And we see them in the scripture. We might say, accept no imitations. The New Testament cautions us about these kinds of guys, and they're all over the place. False apostles and second Corinthians, like I said, false circumcision, false prophets, and false teachers. These guys are wolves in sheep's clothing. And they were a huge hassle.

I wouldn't maybe even go on to say a burden to Paul in some ways. In 2 Corinthians 11, he says in verse 25, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I've spent in the deep. I've been on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, and dangers among false brethren. So you think heading down there from Antioch to Jerusalem, what do you think was on his mind? I got to go face to face with these guys and I got to make my case. I've got to support this This fact that I am of the gospel that I have is from God, and I've got opponents that are very real, and I've got to face those.

He was in accompaniment with Barnabas and Titus, but it was because of the false brethren that he had to deal with that we get to this point where we say that the postmodern world is no different than the false brethren. The idea that you can make your own truth is something that we deal with every day. The false brethren, we're adding to Paul's gospel, the law. In the same way, we must be discerning. The postmodern world will have us believe that you can have your truth and I can have mine.

But the truth is, according to the scripture, there is no neutrality. You can't be sitting in a neutral zone waiting for the truth to be told. There is truth, and it is clear that God is that truth. He is righteous. We can't add or take away from what he has said, and Paul knew this.

But he had to face those who were secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out. Paul wasn't belittling the reputation of his fellow apostles, but he was unveiling the character of those legalists, the clandestines, the smugglers. The Greek word behind some of these words underlined above are rare, and it's even only here in Scripture that we see some of these words. These false brethren were running true to type. They didn't come in the front door and make themselves known. They snuck in the back door, and they aimed at smuggling in the law with the gospel. And that's what their intentions were.

So, we might ask, is this a conspiracy? Anybody have a conspiracy theory out there? Luke, William, Jenkins? Well, people get a little upset when you start talking about conspiracy. The theory, this one, that one. And you've got some pretty big conspiracy nuts out there. I've met them. Corny. Nick. Just kidding. I'm just going to call everybody out. Well, there are conspiracy nuts for sure, but as a Christian we ought to at least evaluate this. What's going on behind those that are smuggling and sneaking in the back door?

What do we know from Scripture? We know for a fact there are demonic forces. We know that Satan is the chief of the demonic forces. We know that he's the prince of the power of the air. We know that he is the god of this world. We know he's a liar, and we know he's trying to destroy the plan of God.

So, is Satan a conspirator? Yeah, he is. Absolutely. Biblically speaking, there is such a thing as a conspiracy. But the point is that it's ultimately not human in origin. It's satanic in origin. He's the prince of the power of the air and what is in the air but the thoughts and the ideas that float around. And that's Satan's chief objective, to infiltrate people's thinking.

We're in a conflict with demonic forces, powerful forces. Don't be deceived. The bullets are flying around. There's a war waging for the mind of men. And even though you might not see them or hear them, you can't be blind to the fact that it's very real. And one of the attacks is to destroy Christian liberty.

And Paul knew that. And knowing that, he says, my prophetic analysis tells me what was really going on in those streets was a covert op to destroy the liberty we have in Christ Jesus in order to bring us into bondage. That's the plan here. That's what Paul's dealing with in the Jerusalem Council.

But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus. The phrase, or the liberty here, is the Christian's freedom from the Mosaic law, which would have surrendered in principle if the Gentiles at Antioch had been compelled to be circumcised. The phrase, which we have in Christ, gives us the casual ground or basis of the Christian's liberty from the Mosaic Law. This is a verse about our salvation.

So, what I'd like to do is review the three different aspects of salvation, just to bring this in full view. There are three different phases to salvation. You want to keep this in mind as you're thinking about what's at stake here for Paul. The first thing to know is that all men are born under the penalty of sin. We are in Adam and we sinned in Adam and therefore the human race is under the penalty of sin. What's the penalty of sin? Eternal condemnation, eternal separation from God. Now at the moment of faith alone, your position, faith alone in Christ, your position changes from being in Adam under the penalty of sin to being in Christ and freed from the penalty of sin.

At that moment, you are justified. You are declared righteous in God's court of law. And that's the first phase of, or phase one of your position is being in Christ. So we have justification. The second phase has to do with your experience here. And we talk about being sanctified, free from the power of sin. Because you are now justified, sin no longer has power or dominion over you. You now have the means of living a life that pleases God by means of the Spirit of God. This is a grace operation, completely and totally grace-based. You are no longer a slave of your sin nature. You are set free from the power of sin as you utilize faith in the Lord and walk by the Spirit.

So we have sanctification, second phase. The third phase, we have glorification. And that means that you're going to get a resurrection body. And the day you receive your resurrection body, you're set free from the presence of sin altogether. So at phase one, by the grace of God, through faith in Christ Jesus, we are justified, set free from the penalty of sin, which is eternal condemnation. Phase two, we are by the grace of God, Through faith in the Word of God sanctified, set free from the power of sin in our lives so that sin doesn't dominate. The Spirit of God has the opportunity to now dominate as you choose to walk in Him and let Him do the living. Phase three, we are by the grace of God through faith in God glorified, set free from the presence of sin altogether. That's the resurrection body.

From beginning to end, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Now, the point that Paul is making here is that Titus may be justified, may be set free from the penalty of sin, but if he hasn't been circumcised, that is keeping the law, he can't be sanctified and therefore fully saved. These deceptions say that you are justified In phase one by grace through faith now to be sanctifies in phase two. Let's get busy keeping the law and let's start with circumcision The law was a yoke of slavery It didn't free a single soul from the penalty of sin or the power of sin here in sanctification we see It doesn't have the freedom to do that it never did and it never will not in the history of the world only God's grace through faith and can justify and sanctify. Only God's grace can set us free.

And this freedom was being challenged on the streets of Jerusalem. Paul calls this bondage. So back in verse four, we see that the false brethren secretly brought in, sneaked in backdoor to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. The word bondage means to reduce to abject slavery. The future tense tells us that it was not merely an intention on the part of the Judaizers, but it was an attempt which they had thought of and had assured hopes of success in their mind. It's clear in this verse that gospel plus law equals bondage. If you don't get anything else out of today, don't forget this equation.

Let it sink in. We all likely have friends, family, all dealing with a situation like this, a part of this equation. Maybe they know the gospel, but they've got to throw the law in a little bit. That's what Paul was dealing with. This is new. It goes all the way back to the Jerusalem Council. Maybe you've been here, or are here, and it's a place of bondage. More importantly, it's not the place that God intended for us to be, for believers. And Paul had the courage to say this to the Judaizers that day. So let's look at verse 5.

But we did not yelled in subjection to them for even an hour. Paul may have included Peter and John and James in this intense resistance to the legalists, but even momentary compliance would not be a small thing. Paul is letting his readers know that he and those He was with, never gave in, not even for a moment. They didn't consider, contemplate, even for a moment.

Salvation was by grace alone, through faith alone, and the law played no part in it. The reason was so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. Had the gospel been subject to additional law, we would have had a Jewish church and a Gentile church. then there wouldn't be the unity of the Spirit. Satan would have caused division, but Paul, Barnabas, and Titus stayed strong that day and didn't budge one inch on the truth of the gospel, and that kept unity of the Jew and the Gentile in one church. Can you imagine that? That had taken place. Paul hadn't stood up.

We see it in the different versions of Christianity today. That's a hard combination of words to say, Christianity today. We see it, but we know that biblically speaking, the truth was by faith in Christ, in Christ alone, and it was due to the very grace that the Lord allowed us to even have that salvation. We move on to this big question. Is this really a big deal?

Well, we say we're saved entirely by grace and by grace alone. And once saved, we are dead to sin and alive to God, also entirely by grace in Romans 6. Grace cannot be improved upon. I think that's one of the things that we get caught up in. A lot of Christianity gets caught up in is, yeah, grace is awesome.

We sing about it. We'll even name our church after it, but we can improve upon it. And that's what the Judaizers were doing. We can improve upon it, but not even one speck of law. And in fact, we are as dead to the law as we are dead to sin. It took place when Christ died for us. God's grace is complete in and of itself. It requires nothing else. It's finished. Done. Completed. Nothing to add. It's not your efforts. It's what Christ has done on our behalf. It's finished. It's done. Paid for. Completed.

In verse 6, we see twice the mention of those who were of high reputation. Why? Paul continues to assert his independence for the sole reason that his gospel was from God. His gospel didn't need a rubber stamp. from reputable sources. His source was God.

Paul identified those who were of reputation in verse 9, which included James, the brother of our Lord, who was not officially an apostle, but an elder of the church of Jerusalem, the first local church. And we see in Galatians 119, he mentions James, the Lord's brother there. And Paul also met with the apostles Peter, Cephas, and John.

So we have these reputable sources, but Paul is still asserting his independence. Paul goes on to say, what they were makes no difference to me. Is Paul being rude here? I don't think so. It seems that the Judaizers or the legalists who came to the churches of Galatia were trying to boost the authority and reliability of the leaders in Jerusalem. So they wanted to boost the reliability of James and the others in an attempt to degrade Paul's authority and reliability. The legalists wanted the believers to be impressed with the leaders in Jerusalem and unimpressed by Paul. Paul wasn't buying it.

Christ taught and authorized him directly. This is because God shows no partiality. God doesn't sweep things under the rug. You can't buy his favor. Our efforts, our sacrifices, our deeds, our status, our color, our race have nothing to do with the favor of a perfectly righteous God. You know that in some other belief systems you can do certain things and and literally enter into the favor of God. Talk about the sacrifices that some will make, sacrificing their own life just to get favor with God. They can go through their entire life in Islam, and if they perform the final act of jihad, they can literally sweep right underneath the requirements and instant passage into the favor of God into heaven.

That's not what you have here. God shows literally no partiality. The God of the Bible is righteous. He is holy. The fact that God chose no partiality and that human merit is nothing before God is further explained by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1. He says, consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. And Peter agreed with this.

In Acts 10.34, opening his mouth, Peter said, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality. So Paul simply was who he was by the grace of God. God chose him and equipped him with the gospel, and we see that in the next part of this verse.

He says, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me. Paul's not being arrogant and stating his independence here. He's simply stating the honest truth. I didn't get my gospel from these recognized authorities. Those of reputation didn't correct a single nuance of Paul's gospel. He's not their apostle. He got his gospel from the Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road.

We are what we are by the grace of God. God shows no partiality. All right, verse seven. But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. So when Paul refers to the gospel to this uncircumcised, he does not mean this gospel differs as to content.

That was awesome. Am I in the wrong verse? I thought the Holy Spirit was speaking to me all of a sudden. I was like, this is a special day. Could have been saved. There are demonic forces, don't be... Shakespeare called it comic relief. Comic relief.

So in verse 7, we see that Paul refers to the gospel, to the uncircumcised. He does not mean this gospel differs as to content, but rather that it differs as to the recipients. So the content's the same, recipients are different. It means Paul preached the gospel, especially to the Gentiles. The same message was preached to both Jew and Gentile, but it was delivered by different men.

So what we have here is a recognition of the fact that Peter and Paul, they're on par with one another. It's not the content that's being discussed here. They're both apostles, and Peter is the apostle to the Jews, while Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles. Peter and Paul have equal authority. They both heal the lame. They both raise people from the dead. They both do the same miracles. We see that in the book of Acts.

That's intentional. It is to show that they have equal authority, despite the fact that their focus is different, despite the fact that Peter's focus is on the Jews and Paul's focus is on the Gentiles. So there's unity and there's diversity. And that's what you'd expect from a triune God, unity and diversity. Both Jew and Gentiles are justified by grace through faith. And both Jews and Gentiles are sanctified by grace through faith and not by keeping the Mosaic law. Not by keeping the Ten Commandments or any other ones that you might want to pick to keep. All right.

So to conclude, what we have learned, we've learned that a meeting was held and it was recognized that Paul was an apostle on par with Peter. Paul didn't have anything contributed to his gospel by others. They both preached the same gospel. They both had the same authority. But in the meeting, they divided their spheres of ministry. Paul to the Gentiles and Peter to the Jews. After this was decided and they hit the streets of Jerusalem, it was immediately tested when the Judaizers tried to compel Titus to be circumcised. They didn't budge on the gospel because when you budge, when you compromise, this gives Satan a foothold. But Paul and the others weren't compromisers. They stood for the truth.

Now, by application, let's say we are followers of Jesus. Do we believe what Jesus said about the gospel through Peter and Paul? Jesus said, if we believe in him, then we have been justified, set free from the penalty of sin. Is it OK to add to that? Is it OK just to sprinkle a little law in for good measure? Paul says, no, if you do that, you're putting yourself in bondage and you're rejecting Christ.

Paul says in Galatians 2.21, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. That's looking forward. That's a big statement. It's a big statement. Understand that the law does not help you grow spiritually. That's not its purpose. It's not its function, it's not its capacity. The law shows you you are a sinner, but it can't sanctify you. To be sanctified, you have to resort to grace. We're not under law, but grace. We have to live by the principles of grace in order to grow spiritually. What's grace?

You guys could probably quote it at this point. The unlimited, unmerited favor of God based on what? Thank you, Russ. The totally adequate work of Christ, and that's what Paul is defending here. It's adequate. Everything that Christ has done is adequate. We don't need to add anything to it.

For a Christian to grow, we have got to learn what it means to walk by the Spirit and the freedom of grace and not be tempted to add to the gospel, which results in bondage. Remember, gospel plus law equals what? bondage every single time It looks different, but the results are the same Paul carries this message clearly throughout Galatians Looking forward in Galatians 5 1 we read it was for freedom Christ to set us free stand firm therefore and Do not submit again to yoke of slavery Let's pray Father, we thank you so much for the truth here in Galatians 2. We thank you for the courage of Paul and Barnabas and Titus to stand firm and not be subject to a yoke of slavery by communicating and standing firm in the fact that your gospel is complete and totally by grace and needs nothing added to it by law. Lord, I pray that we would not be tempted to do that in our own minds, that we would have the same kind of courage that Paul did in standing up for the truth of the gospel and its purity. Even when faced with the bullets flying and the war waging for the minds of those around us and for ourselves, Lord, the world is not going to let up. But we thank you that you are a righteous and holy God and that your truth stands firm no matter what the case. We just thank you for that. In your name we pray. Amen.