Sunday, July 18, PM

All right, well, so glad that you guys are here tonight. It's a blessing to fellowship with you all.

It is my joy to once again encourage our attention towards the

Word of God in Galatians and thankful for Joe being here with us tonight to be able to preach. I know he's been preparing and doing so diligently, so I'm looking forward to the

Word of God. Joe. Hello again.

Glory be to God. Sinful man is at spiritual war against God, living in lawless rebellion, living not according to God's ways, but man's sin.

Instead of telling the truth, sinners lie. Instead of loving well, sinners lust and hate.

Instead of honoring, sinners covet and steal. Instead of worshiping God, sinners worship idols.

They are therefore deserving of God's just wrath. His punishment for God is so good that every sin and every sinner will be addressed.

You and I are sinners deserving of God's justice. On our own, we are not right with God and we never will be on our own.

Nothing we can do or accomplish will make us right with God. Yet God in grace, undeserved mercy, provides sinners a way to be saved, to be redeemed, to be made right with Him.

While we were still without strength, while we were still living against God and His ways,

God loved us by sending us His perfect beloved Son to deliver us, to pluck us out of the kingdom of darkness.

Being truly God, Jesus wrapped Himself in human flesh, becoming fully human, yet also remaining truly

God, and entered His own creation. Jesus came down to our level,

He lived a perfect life without sin, and He was crucified on a cross. It was on that cross that He takes the full wrath that is due sinners.

The rebel's punishment is addressed, it's applied to Jesus Christ. And on the third day after His physical death,

He physically rose from the grave and has now ascended at the right hand of God, interceding for His saints.

To Him who committed no sin, He bore our sin in His body.

He who knew no sin was made to be sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.

This is how we are justified, this is how we are made right with God, through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

For it is He who saves sinners. By His person and work we are forgiven and justified, we're made righteous before a holy

God, freely, by God's grace, through redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

To be justified before God is your greatest need as a sinner. For all of your life, this is your greatest need, and it's my greatest need.

Repent and believe, place your faith in Jesus alone to save. Believe who

He says He is, and what He has done for sinners. Believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. We are justified by faith alone in Christ alone.

And this doctrine is a part of the gospel, it's essential to the Christian faith, it's vitally important, and it's worth contending for.

Both from external threats outside of the church, as well as trials inside of the church.

And this is what the Apostle does in his letter to the Galatians. He knows what is at stake for the believers in these churches, getting the gospel right.

He knows that they are beginning to turn from the true gospel to a false one. One where sinners are justified by works and by faith.

The gospel is at stake, and Paul sets out to contend for the true message, to contend for the doctrine, by faith is one justified in Jesus Christ.

In his letter, Paul's already addressed that this gospel is won by God's grace, that there is only one gospel and no other, that it's not according to man, and it's not dependent on man.

And then he recounts one particular instance that involved the Apostle Peter, where this leader of the church compromised on the gospel.

At the church of Antioch, a new frontier for redemptive history, where Jew and Gentile met together to worship, where believers were called

Christians for the first time ever in history. It was at Antioch that Peter separated himself from Gentile believers.

Why did he do this? This happened because Peter was afraid of man. He was afraid of false teachers that had come into place at Antioch, who promoted a gospel of faith plus works.

And due to Peter's actions, other Jewish believers started to follow his bad example, start to lay aside the grace of God.

Even Barnabas, someone who had ministered with Paul, worked with him in preaching the gospel to the

Gentiles, preaching that one is justified by faith. Even Barnabas started to compromise.

So Paul, in wisdom and courage, does the Christian thing. He confronts

Peter and the Jews there and addresses their error, their sin. Our text tonight covers

Paul's speech, and we will see how he contends for the doctrine that the believer is justified by faith alone and that the believer continues in faith alone.

Our text tonight is Galatians 2, 14 through 21. Starting in Galatians 2, verse 14.

But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if you being a

Jew live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?

We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.

For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is

Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not. For if I build again those things which

I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then

Christ died in vain. This is God's word, would you pray with me?

Oh Heavenly Father, we thank you for tonight. We thank you for your word and how it is sufficient to complete us,

Lord. How it gives us all we need. We thank you for revealing your

Son to us by your word and by your Spirit. We thank you,

Lord, that you have come to us and explained how we are made right with you, how a sinner is made right before a holy

God, and it is through faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, may

I preach Christ tonight? May I preach your word? Please help me,

Lord, and please help all of us to live by your word, to live in grace, and to hold fast to Jesus Christ.

And it is in his name that we pray, amen. In verses 14 through 16, we see that Paul begins his speech to Peter by reaffirming the doctrine of justification by faith.

He does this because he realizes that Peter and those following his example are not being straightforward about the gospel.

As the King James put it, they walked not uprightly. Peter and company would live one way in front of certain people, faith alone, yes,

Jew and Gentile, there is no distinction in Jesus Christ. Yet they'd also live in a different way in front of other certain people.

Faith is needed, but also more, also works. Jew and Gentile, there is a distinction, and we will separate accordingly.

Paul states it accurately when he says earlier that they played the hypocrite. And Paul contends for the gospel that is being set aside.

He contends for the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Yet now he does not fight against external outside forces.

He does not fight against unbelievers. He contends for this doctrine against internal sin at the church.

He contends against the apostle Peter and other believers. Paul certainly uses wisdom in this instance with Peter.

He was stood him to his face before them all. Knowing the severity of their compromise on the gospel,

Paul tackles the issue in front of all those involved. Speaking with Peter first because Peter was the leader who led poorly.

It was with Peter that this whole thing started. And we see that Paul begins addressing

Peter, if you, and then later shifts to, we who are

Jews by nature, we ourselves. And finally, referring to himself, for if I build again.

Paul uses wisdom by first addressing Peter, and then shifting his focus to include all the

Jews around them. And even uses himself humbly as a personal example of trying to go back to the law for justification.

One can visually see Paul come up to Peter and then physically start to move around to the

Jews and open up his speech to everyone there. And Paul does not speak to these men out of personal revenge or of personal pride.

But he speaks with a sincere concern for the gospel. A sincere concern for the doctrine of justification by faith.

A sincere concern for the church. He does the loving thing here with wisdom and courage.

Confronting Peter and the Jews. And this is the first point we can draw from this passage.

That the doctrine of justification by faith alone is worth contending for.

Both against outside threats as well as internal sins of the church.

Peter was a qualified, experienced, true apostle of the church.

But due to his fear of man, he led others, other believers, down a path of legalism.

And I don't think it's right to say that Peter became an enemy of the gospel or an enemy of Jesus Christ.

He and the Jews aren't grouped into that camp who outright reject the gospel and substitute it for another.

But their sin had certainly led them astray to compromise on the gospel.

To lay aside grace and indicate by their actions that the Gentiles needed to do more.

Needed to do more to be fully right in the sight of God. Like Peter, the church today faces the temptation to compromise on the gospel.

To compromise on the doctrine that you are justified by faith. It has throughout the ages and it still presently does.

Yet we have the example here in scripture. Under the writing of the apostle Paul. Under inspiration of the

Holy Spirit. The Christian thing to do in this situation. When internal sins cause the church to compromise, believers should contend for the truth.

Now many today would say, that's not the Christian thing to do. Believers inside the church should not squabble over doctrine.

They shouldn't fight. It doesn't give a good example to the world. That's not the loving thing to do.

Family doesn't squabble against each other. But we're united in love as some say.

But we know that the truth that Paul contended for is the truth of the gospel.

It's the truth of how one is made right with God. How one is saved.

The doctrine of faith alone is worth contending for. This is God's truth.

And it's the right and Christian thing to do. To contend for this.

To contend for how one is made right before God. It's not that Paul came to these men and said,

Why aren't you eating the meat that was offered up to idols? He's not contending over a matter of personal conviction.

He's contending over essential doctrine. Doctrine that matters. Let's not take up man's truth, man's way of being made right with God.

Let's rest in Christ, having faith in him alone, and contend for how one is made right before God.

Let's point others continually, our brothers and sisters, as well as unbelievers, to the solid rock.

And to show them continually, to show each other continually, that we're made right with God through Jesus Christ by faith.

Not by works. And that's what Paul covers in the rest of 14 through 16.

That one is justified by faith and not by works. He begins by asking Peter, Why do you compel

Gentiles to live like Jews? You live in the manner of Gentiles. You personally recognize that in Jesus Christ, the separation between Jew and Gentile is taken away.

Yet, you persuade Gentiles that they need to be circumcised, that they need to do work to be right with God.

We are Jews by nature, by birth. And we know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.

Even we have believed this. Here, Paul makes the point, Even Jews are justified by faith alone.

If any nation or people could have been justified by the works of the law, it was the

Jews. It was them who were given the oracles of God. It was them who were given the law.

But even the Jews are justified by faith alone, in Christ alone, and not by works.

Not by works. And next, Paul makes this extremely universal statement,

For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Absolutely no flesh shall ever be justified, be made right in the sight of God, by the works of the law.

Christianity is not a legalistic religion. It's not works -based, as false religions are.

A sinner is not made right, not justified by doing works, by having a family, by going to church, by being an active member of society, by even doing the very works of the law of God.

No flesh shall be justified by the works of the law. And why is that?

Why can't a sinner make himself right before God, in his own efforts, in his own strength? Because sinners are spiritually dead, and have no strength, no ability to live rightly.

No one, on their own, will ever live a perfect, a holy, a righteous life before God.

No one will ever, in their own strength, justify themselves by the works of the law, or by any other work.

But we are like an unclean thing, and all of our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.

There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

It's through Jesus Christ alone that one is saved. By his person and by his work, our salvation is secured.

By faith alone in him, we are justified. For he took upon himself our sin, and gives us his righteousness, a righteousness that is not ours.

Christ does not come to the sinner and bolster, boost what is there in the sinner. No righteousness is there.

Christ gives us his righteousness. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Through Jesus Christ and through faith in him alone, the sinner is no longer at war with God.

We have peace with God, and we have access to this grace. If someone were to ask you, are you right with God?

What would be your response? Would it be, I've helped people, a lot of people.

I'm studying to be a leader. I've successfully raised a family. I've served at my local church for years.

I'm loyal to my spouse. I've given to the poor. I've made a difference in society, such a difference that will impact the world for generations to come.

Or would it be, I believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing I have ever done or ever will do will gain me a right standing before God.

My righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus, the perfect beloved son.

He is enough for me, and I have faith in him alone. Paul continues in verses 17 through 21.

He moves forward in his speech to Peter and the other Jews, and he covers that believers haven't been justified by faith, continue in faith.

And he first does this by explaining that there is no going back to rely on law for justification.

But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is

Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not. I appreciate the words of John MacArthur on this verse.

Explaining it, he writes, if the Judaizers' doctrine was correct, if it's faith plus works, then

Paul, Peter, Barnabas, and the other Jews, they fall back into the category of sinners because they had been eating and fellowshipping with Gentiles, who according to the

Judaizers were unclean. If the Judaizers were right, then

Christ was wrong and had been teaching people to sin because he taught that food could not contaminate a person.

He also declared that all who belong to him are one with him and therefore each other.

Paul further explains that if he were to go back on what he was preaching, justification by faith alone, if he were to insert following the law is also needed, then he would be rebuilding what he previously tore down, thereby making himself a transgressor not against the law but against Jesus Christ.

So we see that Paul strongly convicts Peter in these two verses, verses 17 and 18.

For by Peter's hypocrisy, the erring apostle was making Christ out to be a minister of sin and building again that which he had previously torn down in his ministry.

That following the law is needed for justification. And in this conviction,

Paul reaffirms there's no going back. There's no going back to law for justification. In verses 19 and 20, we see that the law leads us to have faith in Jesus Christ.

It's a reflection of God's character, of his holiness, and indeed the apostle Paul writes that through the law he has died to law.

That he might live to God. He also writes, I have been crucified with Christ.

What does Paul mean here? Romans 7 helps us understand with a illustration.

In Romans 7 it says, Or do you not know, brethren, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives.

For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives.

But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then, if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress.

But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.

Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ.

That you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work at our members to bear fruit to death.

But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the

Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, believers are no longer under law, but under grace.

Our old man has been crucified with Christ. Behold, there is a new creation, one brought to life by the

Spirit, raised to live to God. Paul says, It is no longer I who live, no longer that old man who is spiritually dead, who was hopeless under the penalty of the law, but now

Christ lives in Paul. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Jesus lives in a reborn believer.

Powered and sustained by the Spirit, this new life of Paul's is one of faith in Jesus Christ, who loved him and gave himself for Paul.

And we know that this is true for us as well. We are powered and we're sustained by the

Spirit who has given us life, who has opened our eyes to see what Christ has done, to comprehend what the

Word says, to comprehend the Gospel and respond to it in faith. We are no longer that old man.

We are a new creation. And we know that this relationship we have with Jesus Christ is a personal one.

For Christ loved, as Paul says, me. Christ gave himself for me.

Christ knows his sheep personally by name. And we know Christ. And in verse 21,

Paul does not lay aside the grace of God. He does not put it down and take up works or the law as his assurance of justification.

For he writes, if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.

If one can be made right through law, then Christ indeed died in vain.

And that's incredible to think about for a moment, to kind of ponder on. For if there is some way, somehow, that one can be made right by following the entire law, then

Christ did not need to die. His sacrifice on the cross is worthless in this scenario.

For there already is a way to be saved, to be made right with God, apart from Christ, through law.

Peter, in not being straightforward about the gospel, promoted not just that Christ was a minister of sin, but that his sacrifice was worthless.

There is no going back to law for justification.

Being the reflection of God's character and holiness, the law leads us to know that we cannot save ourselves.

It leads us to have faith in Jesus Christ. We do not set aside the grace of God, found in the sacrifice and sufficiency of Christ.

Believers continue in faith alone, in Christ alone. We do not begin with faith and then pick up, continue in the law or the works of law to sustain our salvation.

It is not that Christ has started salvation for us and that now we take it from here. Christ was the one who said, it is finished.

He has obtained salvation for us fully. He is the one who saves us and keeps us.

And like Paul, we continue in faith, living to God this new life found in Jesus Christ.

We live this new life by His grace, day by day, moment by moment.

We continue in the gospel. If someone were to ask you, are you right with God?

What would be your answer? What would be your answer the next day? The day after that?

Next week? Next month? Next year? Next decade?

May it ever be, Christ is enough for me and I have faith in Him alone. It's nothing

I do. We continue in repentance and faith.

We continue to rely not on works, but on Jesus Christ through all of our days.

Having been justified by faith alone, we continue in faith alone, in Christ alone.

Would you pray with me? Father, we, again, thank

You for Your Word. We thank You for Your marvelous grace found in Jesus Christ. We thank

You for Your Spirit who opens our eyes, Lord, gives us ears to hear. We thank You for the people who are a part of our legacy of faith who

You have used to preach the gospel to us. We thank

You, Lord, that the gospel is not dependent on us, but it's dependent on Jesus Christ.