ZKW85S6L0Qk

2:12To take your money, to hold on to it, to be a good steward of that money, so that when you want it, it's there. In fact, many banks refer to themselves as a trust, a bank and trust. It's a place to deposit money and to trust that it's going to be there when you need it. In 1762, one of the most significant banks in history for that matter was founded. It was named Baring's Bank. It was a British merchant bank. It was one of England's oldest. Even Queen Elizabeth II had an account there at one time.

3:00Because of its wise investments, through the centuries, it became one of the largest banks and one of the most stable in the world, was considered to be the most stable. It was a bank that financed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 for the United States. It supported the United States during the War of 1812. It was smart enough not to invest in Germany after World War I. It knew. They seemed to make very wise judgments. In fact, you may remember Diana, Princess of Wales. Well, she was actually a Bering. Her great-grandmother was part of this banking family who married a man named Charles Robert Spencer, and that's how she became a Spencer.

3:57But a very significant bank. But in 1995, something happened. A young man by the age of 28, for some reason, whatever, who worked for the bank, was allowed to make all kinds of unauthorized trades. And what happened is he lost about $1.3 billion, which at the time amounted to twice. The available capital that the bank had. It lost it all very quickly. And so it collapsed. The bank was unable to make good on its promises. And that's basically what happens when a bank goes into bankruptcy or any financial institution when you cannot pay what you promised.

4:58Millions of people impacted. You see, many who trusted in that bank lost their fortunes. Now, let me ask you something, because we're not here to talk about banks, but we are to talk about something far more important than your money, and that's your eternal soul. To what have you entrusted your eternal soul? Is the institution, is the principle, is the thing that you have entrusted your soul to, is it going to be able to make good on what it's promised?

5:45It's one thing to entrust your money to a bank that fails. It's another thing to entrust your soul to something that the Bible guarantees will fail. And yet, that's what many of us do. We entrust our souls. And the well-being of our eternity to things that the Bible is very clear will fail. Works-based religion systems will fail, for sure. The Bible is very clear on that. All religions that are not built upon Jesus Christ, according to the gospel of grace that Paul preached in Galatia, Christ exalted, Christ crucified, Christ resurrected, they are doomed to send people to hell. They're not going to be able to make good on the promise of life.

6:50Only the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is the gospel of grace. Been looking at the threat to these churches. What was the threat to the churches of Galatia? Another gospel. Another gospel. Something other than the gospel of grace. And then more recently, we've been looking at two aspects of the gospel. First, the gospel's singularity. Paul has just gotten through speaking about that in verses 1, or chapter 1, verses 7 through 10. There's only one gospel, and therefore it is to be. Have priority over all other systematic thinking of man combined. The gospel. Singular gospel.

7:43Then last time, we looked at verses from chapter 1 through chapter 2, from verses 11 through 210, where Paul is laying out the origin of the gospel. He says, Look, he says, the gospel I proclaim to you isn't something that just came out of my brain, nor did it come out of any other human brain. It came out of the mind of God. It is not from the mind of man. It is not from the system of man. It originated from the mind of God, and therefore it is to have authority over every other school of thought. Not only is the gospel to have singularity in your life and over your soul, above all other schools of thought, it is also to speak authoritatively to your heart. You are to let the gospel speak.

8:38Really believe what it says? Let it have authority in your life. That's what Paul was telling the churches. He wanted those in the church to have, let the gospel have authority and priority. And you know what? That's exactly. What Satan opposes. That's what he opposed in Galatia. That's what he's opposing at Antioch. In our text, we'll be reading about. That's what he's opposing here today in the church, the church in the world, the church in America, the church in our denomination, our individual church, and your soul. This is the thing that Satan is going to oppose most.

9:28And that is the priority of the gospel of grace and the authority of the gospel of grace in your life. My question to you: are you letting the gospel, truly letting the gospel have priority and authority? Because that's what changes everything. And that's what Satan opposes. And it's specifically aimed at one doctrine, the doctrine of faith, faith alone. And that's what this book is written to defend. That's why Paul wrote this book. So let's just walk through it. I want you to see, first of all, this serious matter, and then we'll come to the gospel of grace. It'll be a little bit longer introduction, so long that I'm going to have an outline for the introduction. And then we'll come to Paul's main point in this text. First of all, there's a serious matter in everything. Antioch. You can see this in our text, a very serious matter. And it's, you can see in verse 11, it's something that Paul opposed. Look at verse 11. But when Cephas, that's Peter, another name for Peter, but when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. So you see, the seriousness of this matter is that Paul had to address it publicly in front of everybody. He didn't take Peter off into this secret place and say, hey, we got this doctrinal difference here. We got some things. Let me just... That would have been what you would expect had it been not all that important or maybe even serious, but maybe not super serious. The very fact that he addressed this publicly is very significant that Peter, that Paul is going to rebuke Peter and address him publicly. You remember what just happened? Look back at verse 9 when Paul and Barnabas had gone up to the council of Jerusalem and they had talked about this issue of addressing the issue of the Judaizers who were saying, look, a person can't be saved unless they obey the Mosaic code. You remember all that? And they go up to Jerusalem to sort this out. And as they sort it out, it's clear that Peter, in the presence of all, look at what it says in verse 9, recognized.

12:01The grace that had been given to me, James, Cephas, and John, who reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Now, think about what Peter has just done. Paul has just been up in Jerusalem, and Peter publicly gives him the right hand to fellowship. And now Peter comes up to Antioch, goes down to see what's going on in the church, and Paul rebukes Peter to his face. Yeah, this is a serious matter because this violates a cultural norm. You wouldn't do that unless something very serious was in view. It's a serious.

12:46And don't think that this was easy for Paul to do. Peter was somewhat of a celebrity. And I can assure you, if there is any other way around making such a public spectacle to deal with this, Paul would have done so. So a serious matter in Antioch. It was something that Paul opposed. It was something that Peter was doing. Look at verse 12. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. Fearing the party of the circumcision. It was something that Peter. Got caught up in.

13:32And that says a lot about the power of this threat. And you can see it here in verse 12, three actions, three verbs describe what Peter was doing. First of all, notice before the arrival of certain men that came from James, now they may not have been ambassadors of James. They may have given them the appearance they were from James. Won't get into that detail, but it was men who probably certainly was, they were connected with the Jerusalem church and certainly came speaking as if they were there from James. But before they came, it was Peter's norm to eat with the Gentiles, to eat as Gentiles and to eat with Gentiles, to fellowship with, table fellowship. But then notice three actions. After these men come from Jerusalem, notice in verse 12, he began to withdraw. Withdrawing. It's a verb. He began withdrawing himself. It's the idea of shrinking. He began shrinking. His fellowship with the Gentiles began to shrink. He began shying away from them.

14:54Perhaps first his attendants started going down. Then his enthusiasm when he was with them went down. So his presence. Second action. He began to hold himself aloof. He began to hold himself aloof. That is, separating, distancing. So he began withdrawing, but then the separating speaks of more of a distinct, I'm not, more deliberate. It's the same word that's used to separate the sheep and the goats, good and evil. And so here is Peter now excluding himself as if he were to be contaminated. So he began to withdraw. He began to hold himself aloof. Why?

15:48Why? This is the third verb. He was fearing the party of the circumcision. He was afraid. He was fearing. Why this change of behavior? He was afraid of these folks from James. Incredible. I have to stop and think: what could make post-Pentecostal Peter afraid? That's a good question. You remember in Acts chapter 2, what did he do about those who he had previously denied that he even knew Jesus? And how does he address them? 2.36, therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. That's a bold man.

16:42A couple chapters later, he's there before the high priest, before Annas and Caiaphas, and the rulers. There's Peter. And they say, you guys need to be quiet and stop preaching. Peter and John answered him in Acts 4:19. Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge. For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard. That's a bold man before the high priest who condemned Christ. And now he's afraid. He's afraid.

17:24This fearfulness indicates something about the force of their presence, of this legalistic strong man that came down from Jerusalem. They were strong in their stance. They had to be very convincing in their articulation of their position. They had to have this ability to denounce those who disagreed with him. They had to have a very. Strong ability in compelling others to adhere to their teaching. Strong men. It's like what had happened is that these men from James with them came the greatest threat to the gospel that had occurred at this moment.

18:26It's as if those forces had entered into that narrow pass. You remember we talked about the Battle of Thermopylae, that narrow pass. It's like these forces had entered into that narrow pass, that thermopoly of Christianity, that salvation by faith alone, and they were attempting to take control of the whole apostolic narrative. And you know what they wanted to do? They wanted to control access to God. That's the way of false religion, by the way, to control the access to God, to control the access to blessing. This is what a religion made by man does.

19:17Well, you can see it's a serious matter. It's something Paul had to pose publicly. It's something Peter was doing. And in verse 13, it's very clear it's something hypocritical. Look at verse 13. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. Hypocrisy, pretense, the charade. It's a word for play acting, mask. All of a sudden, these men came down, and Peter had to put on a mask.

19:53It's an outward show. It's like that idea of kissing up to the boss. You know, how everything's kind of quiet. Kind of work is kind of in a low point, and then the boss comes in, and then everybody starts looking like they're working hard, right? That kind of idea. I remember my dad told me a story about a time when he was working on a skyscraper. He was tying steel. And so it was at that time when they were tying steel. There was a guy on his team that liked to take an afternoon nap. And the boss would leave, and he would like to take an afternoon nap. And the way he did it is he got in a big culvert, a big metal pipe, and he had the crane lift it way up high, and he would get in the crane, and that's where he would take his nap. And then at a certain time, the man would lower the crane, and he would get out and go back to work. That was clockwork. Well, on one particular day, he got into his little tube. They elevated it up. And then, for some reason, the boss came back on sight. And there he is up there. And he realized that when they started lowering it, he realized, okay, something he looks now, sees the boss. All of a sudden, what do you do? I mean, you're busted. He pulls out his hammer and just starts banging like he's working on that metal pipe.

21:31Well, that's kind of the idea here. You have this idea of trying to impress kissing up to the boss or something. It's a play acting. It's trying to impress the popular kids by ditching the less popular. Have you ever been there? Like all of a sudden, you want to be associated with the popular people, so you ditch your real friends because you want to put on a good show for the more popular. Even Barnabas, who had pastored these people, when these people from Jerusalem came up, started distancing themselves. It's horrible. Imagine how you would feel. I mean, are there two kinds of people in the church?

22:28Are there the elite and the elite? The rabble? Are there two classes? Two castes? Multiple castes? Listen, if Jew and Gentile, if there's no distinction between them, guess what? There's no distinction between Gentile and Gentile. But you can see how dangerous this is to the fellowship of the church. If all of a sudden we've got classes within Christianity, it's something, well, it's not Christian. And that's what Paul was going to address. Hypocrisy in the heart is a horrible thing. It's a horrible thing.

23:10It's very subtle, but its damage is very great. It divides people. And then it superficially joins others. That's what hypocrisy does. It's important to note at this point that the attacks against justification by faith came by way of hypocrisy. Peter himself was contradicting the message that deep down he really affirmed. Do you remember what he said in Acts chapter 15, speaking of this very issue about Jew and Gentile and the issue of faith? He says this in verse 7: Brethren, that. Council, where they're debating this issue. Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us. And He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their heart by faith.

24:27You see, what Paul, what's going on in Galatia is this very thing. And what Paul addressed in Antioch is what was happening in the Galatian churches. And it was taking hold, just like it did in Antioch. So this confrontation is not a rivalry between great leaders in the church. It's a matter of gospel truth. It's a very serious matter. You know, one of the greatest threats to the fellowship of the church is people professing one thing and living another. It's the greatest thing, it's the greatest, one of the greatest threats to the testimony of the church. People professing one thing and living another.

25:17Religious pretense. It's an awful thing. A mask. Are you wearing a mask? It's a sad situation when a minister of grace. Fails to embody the gospel of grace. And that's what's happening in our text. That's maybe what's happening in this room in many of us, or some of us. You see, it's very sad to see a believing father or a believing mother fail to embody the gospel of grace that they say they believe. And it's too common, isn't it? And by the way, children can sniff that out. They can tell you, you say one thing, but boy, you're really living something very differently.

26:05It's a threat to the pretense, it's a threat to the testimony, it's a threat to the fellowship. And that goes from beyond just the home. It's sad to see any believer failing to embody the gospel of grace that we profess or they say they profess, whether that's in the workplace, whether that's in the dorm room, whether that's in the classroom. Listen, if you have a double standard, you know what? You go through life confused about what's right. If you have a double standard that one day this is right and in this context I do something differently, guess what? You're confused. You don't know what's right. That's what Paul is saying. If in one setting something is right and in another setting that same thing must give way to something else, you're confused, just like Peter was.

27:01You see, hypocrisy takes us out of the circle of truth. Hypocrisy takes us out of the circle of those who are of the truth. Very dangerous. Let your profession believe the gospel of grace, then live the gospel of grace. Listen to the gospel of grace. Let that have priority over your life. Listen to the gospel of grace and let it have authority over your life. Let it shape who you are. The serious matter is not only something Paul opposed, it's seen in something Peter was doing. It's something hypocritical, but it's very clear in verse 14 that it's something that involved the truth of the gospel. Look at verse 14: the truth of the gospel. But when I saw they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews?

28:10He says, You're not straightforward. He says, Paul says, I saw when they were not straightforward. The word for straightforward is two words: ortho, straight, pus, pois, foot, straight, foot. We get the idea. You're not walking straight. You're not acting rightly with regard to the truth of the gospel. You see that there? The truth of the gospel, verse 14. That's what's at stake. And so, what Paul does is he unmasks Peter's hypocrisy with the truth about the way Peter really lived.

28:54Remember when the guy, the boss, came on the job site? Where's so-and-so? Well, he's up there. He's up in the big. What's he doing up there? Well, let you talk to him about that. What happens here is that Paul says in the presence of Maul, look at this. He says to Cephas, Look, Peter, you're a Jew, and I know you live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews. Why then now are you compelling the Gentiles to live like Jews? In other words, he just unmasks the hypocrisy. Peter, you've been up here living like Gentiles, and now all of a sudden, you want to look like something else.

29:49And he goes on, You are a Jew, born and bred a Jew, observing the rituals and regulations, but you are living like the Gentiles because you have. Met Christ, and you have been taught by him, and you are no longer living according to the ceremonial or ritualistic ways of the Jews. Peter, that's your present. And yet, at this very moment, this is the way you live like Gentiles, and yet now you're compelling, you're forcing, you're pressuring these Gentiles to live as Jews.

30:34This was the hypocrisy. And there's two levels of this hypocrisy: there is the social hypocrisy Paul, or Peter, is displaying and the others, the social hypocrisy, pretending to be distance when really they had embraced the very life that they now were demonstrating they're distancing themselves from. But there's another hypocrisy that goes deeper, and that is the doctrinal. And that's what there's a doctrinal hypocrisy involved. Faith alone be faith plus works. And that's where Paul is going to spend his effort. He's really going to get down. He doesn't want to just embarrass Peter. That's not what this is about. He's wanting to address the doctrine that's being behind all of this.

31:30Which the Judaizers are exposing. And so Paul is going to defend the gospel with the gospel. And listen, that's what the gospel does. It defends. The gospel defends the gospel. Why? Because of its priority and because of its authority. The gospel can handle itself. We don't need to prove the gospel by any other means than proclaiming the gospel. And so Paul first unmasks Peter's social hypocrisy, and then he's going to go on to unmask the doctrinal hypocrisy of a faith-plus-works system of religion. And that's where I want to spend the remaining time tonight, this morning, is just looking at this good news of the gospel of grace about how you and I come into a right relationship with God so that we're going to let the gospel define who we are. So we will let it have priority and authority.

32:43The gospel. The gospel is going to do two things here, two points. First, the gospel articulates how a person is justified. It's not the Judaizers, it's not a system of man, it's the gospel that comes from God. That is able to articulate how we are justified. And so look at verse 15. Paul continues to address Peter, and his logic is very straightforward. First of all, notice in verse 15, we are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles. First thing Paul does is he acknowledges the common ground he shares with Peter and the others, the other believing Jews. He says, We, we are Jews by nature.

33:38We, Peter, it's like he's saying, Peter, we more than anyone else know what it means to live under a system of rituals and regulations prescribed by law. We understand that we are Jews by nature. We are not sinners from among the Gentiles. And what is he saying there? We are not sinners. He's not talking about immoral behavior here. That's not what he's emphasizing. He's emphasizing irreligious behavior. The word can be used, and in this context, it can be used of sinful behavior, but it's more the context here. He's using it more in the sense of being irreligious, or maybe in a legal sense. They are outside of the law. The Gentiles. Do not have the law, like the Jews had the law that prescribed how God is pleased. But the Gentiles, they were these irreligious, they didn't have all the rituals and the regulations that showed them how God is to be pleased. They were outside of all of that. And so they are irreligious. And Peter, what Paul is saying is that, look, we are not at all like the Gentiles in this regard. We have the law. We know what it's like to be under the law. They don't. They never have.

35:09And then look what he says in verse 16. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. So first, Paul acknowledges the common ground he shares with Peter. Then he goes on to articulate the very truth of the gospel that's at stake here. He's articulating the truth of the gospel that's at stake. Look at verse 16 again. Nevertheless, knowing, knowing, he's saying, we know something. And it's a perfect tense. In other words, he's like, Peter, you and I perfectly know this truth beyond a shadow of a doubt.

35:52You and I both know this. What's he talking about? Peter, what is this thing that we both know? Look back. We know. That a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. That's what he says. Peter, we both know this. We absolutely, we understand this. Man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus. Circle that. Highlight it. Underline that statement. This is the thesis of the book. This statement that Paul makes here is why he wrote the whole book. Everything up to this point is to introduce this concept. We know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. Everything up to this point has introduced this sentence. Everything afterward is going to reinforce it. That's the heart of the gospel. Justification by faith alone. And that is what Paul is going to go on and defend the rest of this book. But this is that thesis statement.

37:08Justified. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified. What does it mean to be justified? Justified. To be justified is to be regarded as righteous in God's sight, to be found flawless before the knowledge of the Holy Ghost. It's a present verb, by the way. We know that a man isn't being regarded as right in God's sight by the works he does, but through faith in Jesus. Can you imagine being found flawless? This was the question that Job 25, 4 was asking. How can a man be just with God?

37:57How can you and I meet God's approval? Well, justification is about declaring a person righteous. The question becomes: what is the basis of our acceptance before God? Is it our works or is it faith? Faith. That's what he says. The text says, and we're talking about faith is more than just intellectual assent. It's more than a census. It's fiduchia, trust. Faith is about soul trust in God, in the person of Jesus Christ. It's like, notice it's in Jesus Christ. That's the right object. Faith, soul trust in Jesus Christ. That's the right object. The God-man, the one Paul proclaimed, crucified, resurrected, exalted.

39:00That's like what Peter is, or what Paul is saying to Peter. It's like he's saying, Peter, even if we could toss aside all of the extras forced upon us by Jewish tradition, even if we can get all that extra stuff and we're left with just the law itself, we perfectly know that a person isn't made right by obedience to the regulations of the law. You see, even under the Mosaic codes, there had to be something in the heart before a person would even want to obey it.

39:39Faith. Faith. Look back at verse 16. Paul goes back to acknowledge the common faith that he and Peter and the other apostles have. Look at verse 16. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. What's he saying there? He's like, Peter, look, you and I are trusting in faith alone. We know this. We know that you're not going to be made righteous by the law. You and I both know this. In fact, you and I both at this very moment are believing in Jesus Christ.

40:17And we know that that's the basis on which we're made right. It's like he's again saying something like this. Peter, we know what it means to live by. The law, and yet even we know that we must be justified by faith. So, how can you expect sinners, those who are irreligious, those who are outside of the law, how do you expect them to be justified by the works of the law? If even we have the law and we're not justified by the law, how do we expect those who don't even have the law to be justified by it?

40:58Paul was simply reminding Peter of truths he already knew. Peter said in verse 15 of Acts chapter 15:11, We believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are also. See, the point is that, regardless of one's background, whether you were born under a Mosaic system or completely outside of it, the only way to be right with God is faith in Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't matter what system of man you grew up under.

41:36And there's plenty of religions. It doesn't matter what your background is. The only way you're going to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ. You see, the gospel articulates how a person is justified. But in the last sentence there, the gospel also announces the bankruptcy of all other religions. Religions. Look at verse 16, last phrase. Since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. No amount of sincerity, no amount of law-keeping obedience to any system, whether that be Mosaic, Christian, Muslim, or anything else, or one that you just sucked out of your thumb, nothing, no amount of sincerity to any system through obedience will make a person righteous.

42:42Listen, no amount of works, hard efforts, will make you right before God. You know why? Because even the best of human works cannot change the nature of your heart. A pig will still be a pig. A cat will still be a cat. That's a commercial for next Sunday night. Come back. Think about an x-ray machine. You got a broken bone, you go into an x-ray machine, and it shows your broken bone. Can you say to the x-ray machine, please fix my broken bone? No, it doesn't. X-ray can only show The broken bone. It can't fix it. You ever heard that mirror, mirror on the wall? Who's the fairest of them all? What can a mirror do? Can it make one pretty? No.

43:48It can only show you. Mirror, mirror on the wall. Can you say, make me the prettiest girl of them all, or man of them all? Whatever? That's not how the poem goes, is it? No, the mirror has no ability to make one beautiful, it only shows what's there. Likewise, the law can only reveal what's there, just like an x-ray machine can reveal what's there, just like a mirror can reveal what's there. Only the law, that's the power, it can't make us righteousness, it can only show us our unrighteousness, but it can also point us to the one who is perfectly righteous, and that the law does. Mirror, show me the fairest of them all. His name is Jesus Christ. And unless you have faith in Him, you have no part with God whatsoever, no matter how diligent you work, no matter how sincere you are, unless you have a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith. You are outside of God forever.

45:06The law can only reveal sin, not cleanse you from sin. That comes from faith in Jesus Christ. But that's the good news. A right relationship with God is made and maintained through faith in Jesus. Let this truth shape you. Come to him. I appreciate what John MacArthur said regarding this verse. He said, no amount of law-keeping can make a person righteous, because the root of sinfulness is the fallenness of human heart, not in actions. Man's basic problem is in what he is, not in what he does. Sinful acts are but the outward expression of a depraved nature that contains sinful thoughts.

46:05But the good news, a right standing with God is free. It is a free and gracious gift, which we celebrate this time of year. It's a free and gracious gift that declares you and me to be right with him, forgiving. Hardening, restoring. He accepts us on the basis of trust in Jesus Christ alone. That's a promise you can bank on. That's the place where you make the deposit of your soul. All other institutions are going to fail and not be able to deliver the promise.

47:03That's why you're called today to entrust your eternal soul to a bank that will not fail, Jesus Christ. And he will accept you. Come to him today. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth of your word. Father, how you so want us to be characterized by the truth that we find in the gospel of your grace. Father, we're not just looking for a way out of hell. We are looking for a right relationship with you that will endure.

47:55Father, and that only comes by faith in you. Father, please make us. Clean. Help us to trust in that which will not disappoint, your finished work upon the cross and the ongoing faithfulness of Jesus Christ to be all that you called him to be: King, Lord, priest, sovereign. To him we bow. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.