Galatians 2:11-16

And we want to say good afternoon, welcome. Good to be back. Book of Galatians, powerful stuff. Before we pray, what did you think is the overarching theme of the Book of Galatians?

It's about grace and defending the gospel of grace from those who would Judaize it or culturize it, to use your word.

Today it would be culturalized.

Yeah, adding anything to the gospel and losing it.

Yeah, probably the big difference between the Judaizers and the culturalizers is the Judaizers were intending to have true faith but believing that works like circumcision validated the fact that you had true faith.

Culturalizers today, they're just trying to fill it up, the baby with the bath and the water. Last week, Jeff took us through a great study on Paul's message, his report back, and the encouragement that he got from Peter to continue on what we did.

In fact, it even says, as he goes down there, that even Titus, being a Greek, was not forced to be circumcised and how the truth of it was there. Sandy, in my opening, I'm gonna ask you to get Galatians 1 .10 and read that for us.

The Gospel of Grace and the Danger of Culturalizing It

This book is so rich with the reality that God's grace is the all-sufficiency. Do you have 1 .10?

For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God, or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

Hypocrisy, that's the theme, I think, that we need to look at today. Am I trying to please men or am I trying to please God? If I call myself a believer, saved by grace through faith, why am I going back into works?

And Paul's got a pretty strong indictment to give out, and then teaching, as we get into this section, religious hypocrisy. Could you open us with a prayer, please?

Yes.

Father, guard us from religious hypocrisy. Lord, let us be pure and genuine in the way that we stand for your gospel, and we pray for John today as he opens a word to us. Lord, as the gospel is preached through the hearing of your word, we pray that we would be changed by it.

We pray that you would speak to us. We are listening, in Jesus' name, amen.

Give me a definition of hypocrisy.

Saying one thing and doing another?

Absolutely.

Say again?

Acting, acting. In all venues, I think, this isn't just something that conservatives would say, but pretty much all venues, all walks of life, it's a pejorative. It's basically making a proclamation of, it's you're denigrating the person when you're calling them a hypocrite.

You're attacking their actions when you say they're filled with hypocrisy. I decided to do a little bit of research on it. I have a dictionary from 1992, Webster's Dictionary. So this is pre-Woke. Woke really hadn't come to be that powerful back in 1990.

The feigning to be what one is not with extreme insincerity. Basically pretending to be what you're really not. Some of the synonyms for it are cheat, deceiver, imposter. Now, if I go online today and I go to the online Google Dictionary today, behavior that contradicts what one claims to be.

Behavior that contradicts what one claims to be. I'm claiming to be all of this. I'm claiming to believe this, but my behavior just basically contradicts it. False assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.

The false assumption, assuming the appearance based on virtue or religion, which really does not describe who you are or what you believe. These are the thoughts of hypocrisy. In the Greek, hupakrisis, I believe.

I don't know if that's exactly how to pronounce it. It was used frequently by Jesus, Matthew 23, when he's talking about the Pharisees. You hypocrites, you whitewashed tombs. You're beautiful on the outside, but you're dead bones on the inside.

Now, this hupakrisis actually shows up in James 5 .12, but you're not gonna find the word hypocrisy there. It talks about that you're under condemnation. And it's basically what you're doing is the actions of what you're doing are being condemned.

So the same thought of hupakrisis shows up there. In the Hebrew and the Old Testament, it basically is profane and godless. Hypocrisy, hupakrisis. There's two individuals, grew up in the same house, religious by identity, a member of a religious group by identity, but not a born-again house.

And one of the individuals became associated with some people and the gospel message was proclaimed. And that person was able to extricate himself from this empty religion and to become a believer. Unfortunately, the other brother was overwhelmed by the hypocrisy of that religious practice and the people that were in it.

And that hypocrisy forced him into an atheist position. Hypocrisy has its dangers. It's not a victimless crime. It has, when hypocrisy sets in, those who are becoming inundated with the hypocrisy of actions, words, whatever, there is a high risk of negative impact.

We're actually gonna see that in this passage today. One of the things that we're gonna see in this passage today is Paul is gonna be addressing the hypocrisy of one of the pillars of Christianity, Peter.

And if Peter is vulnerable to this kind of thing, what makes us think that we're not? In fact, this passage is going to change midstream from addressing Peter to addressing we. And we'll see that as we go into it.

Jeff, if you would give us the section, I think it's 11 to 16, please.

Okay.

Paul Confronts Peter at Antioch

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led away by their hypocrisy. And when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, so that we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by the works of the law, no one will be justified.

Starting on verse 11, I opposed him, I being Paul, him Peter. I opposed him because he stood condemned and he's making an immediate proclamation of the condition of what Paul is now experiencing. What motivated Paul to oppose Peter?

So that could be partially true. We're gonna see that there's an underlying problem. What were you gonna say?

I was gonna say, I think that back then, Jews weren't supposed to sit with Gentiles. So when Jews came, Peter cowered and said, oh, I'm not sitting with these people. And went to go sit with the Jews because he was fearing the circumcision party, which is the Jews.

So out of fear of the Jews, he left the Gentiles to sit with the Jews, at least that's how I read it.

And you're absolutely right. Yeah, John. He was aligning himself with men he knew were in hell. And you guys all have got, if you put all this together, Peter is reacting to cultural pressure. Initially, he would be willing to sit down and share a meal with these non-Jews until the Jews showed up.

And then it's like, I can't do this. And he basically said, the cultural pressure is more important to me than anything else. And it's that reaction of Peter's that Paul perceives and says, you already stand condemned.

Why did Paul think it necessary to address Peter in this way?

Because it was leading.

True, absolutely true. He's got influence. So here's the thing in what you're saying there. Truth cannot be sacrificed on the altar of culture. And what he's doing by sacrificing truth on the altar of culture, he's leading people astray.

They're, what is this, is it okay? And basically Paul is approaching and opposing Peter and he's, the proclamation is, are you for truth or you are not for truth? You can't be for truth and you can't be sacrificing at the altar of culture.

You can't do both. It's one or it's the other. And that ties in with your message on there's one gospel and any other gospel is not a gospel. But his actions, so how did Paul handle this question? Read verse 11 for me again.

When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

So how does Paul address this issue?

He opposes him to his face.

Face to face. And that is an important teaching. We could probably spend time on it, but if there is an issue going on, talking behind somebody's back, sending text messages, can you believe what John said in class?

He went to him face to face. First of all, that takes a whole lot of courage. It takes a whole lot of awareness that I'm standing to truth. It also takes love. It isn't Christian love to let somebody go in error, but you don't do it behind their back.

You don't create a sweat. He goes to him face to face and actually talks to him about it. Give me 12 again, please.

For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision part.

But when the Jews came, you drew back because of the consequences that might happen. And there is a weakness of character that's there for Peter, but again, there's an important thing. What was the substance?

Why was Peter being hypocritical?

Fear.

Yes.

What was he afraid of?

Being recognized as...

Has Peter ever had this?

Yeah.

Why do you want to be accepted?

You're right, right now he's in the in crowd and he could not be, but how about this little tiny slave girl? After already denying Christ twice, this little girl says, aren't you part of them? He says, no, absolutely not.

He doubled down. And then the crow, cock crowed three times.

Through that all,.

Then Jesus, as he is resurrected, he says, go tell my disciples and Peter. But Peter has this weakness in him. And I think that the reality that Peter has this weakness, Satan knows. Peter has this weakness.

And I think as we experience Christian life and we stand true or we stumble and everything else, Satan is always looking for what's the way I can get at it? What's the way I get it? This is one of Peter's weaknesses and he's going to call him.

How did this hypocrisy change Peter's ministry?

Got to the point that he had to speak truth. I think Paul really laid it on him very heavily that what he was doing was wrong. And it opened up Peter's eyes. It was not just the Jewish people that he was to talk to, but there were the Gentiles involved in this also.

God spoke to Paul very direct about that and confronted Peter because he wasn't doing the right thing. Peter was for himself.

When you're spreading the word out, whether you're evangelizing, we were talking about Antoinette and she's an apologist. God gives her the ability to say words that need to be said in truth and the courage to say.

Whatever it is that you're doing, are you doing it because you see a lost world or are you cowering back? Are you not doing it? Are you conforming because of your perceiving the power of the establishment?

Because you don't want to be on the outs. You want to be on the in crowd. So Peter is being called out specifically for the hypocrisy of what he had done. He says, you know what, you had time where you were enjoying fellowship with us, you were eating with the Gentiles, but when the Jews came, it was time for you to get out of Dodge.

And that's a hypocrisy, yeah.

Yeah, I was, you know, I'm looking for one, being astounded is extremely.

Sure, the power of this particular section here is I don't see any evidence that Peter preached or proclaimed a different gospel.

But his actions.

But his actions didn't validate what his words said, yeah.

Some of the things I saw that were fascinating is that Peter, it was James, Cephas, and John, and Peter, I believe there were three disciples there, and they gave Paul the right-hand fellowship.

Oh, the Gentiles.

Right, and Paul said, oh, okay, I'm with that. And I almost see Paul like saying, look, man, you know, I have to, Paul, he had to go right to his face and say, look, man, you know, you were withdrawing?

Like, what are you doing? I came, I'm a Pharisee. Peter was a fisherman. He was a Pharisee. This guy knew, like, the whole concept of religious adherence and he was, so when he saw them doing that, he came to him and basically, like, you know, was saying, you know, what are you doing, man?

Like, you know, call him out for his hypocrisy, but I don't, I think, too, that he uses this story to drive home the liberty and grace that he wants us to receive from the gospel, not so much to say, you know what?

You're doing it wrong, and you're doing it wrong, and you're doing it, no, that when we see things, that we embody the gospel in ourselves so that we can freely share with one another and provide grace to one another to grow versus, you know, just admonishment, because that's what the law does.

If we go back to the law, then, you know, it's about do's and don'ts and just these kind of, like, you can teach me these presuppositions and say, I'm gonna do this now, but why? Because I'm safe or to just kind of hold on to something that I have that I don't want to lose, and in some ways, it's so precious to us that we don't want to lose it anyway, so where else?

So you go back to the classic story, how does a bank teller learn to identify a counterfeit by feeling true bills to the point where they are immediately aware of a deviation, and so giving truth and giving the true gospel, the story of grace and everything else so that you're equipped to walk by it, absolutely.

In this section, you cannot get away from the fact that there is a exhortation against an action, and there is times where believers need in love to speak in an exhortation, yeah,.

And the differences between Jeter and the Lord was both physically, to go to the fish.

God has created each one of us according to his sovereign will. Each of us has strength gifts. Each of us are still with the flesh, but this is still God's sovereign will. For Paul, there is a calling to go into the world and to preach and understanding that he is called to the Gentiles, Peter is called to the Jews.

That does not get Peter off the accountability to live his life in a way that validates his message of salvation by grace and grace alone. What he's bringing out here, he's saying, you have done something, Peter, and what you did, specifically, you were eating with the Gentiles until the Jews came, and then you cowered away, fearing the circumcision party, is what it says.

And then verse 13 says, this is not an impactless problem that you have. He says, and the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by the hypocrisy. There is, actions have impact, and in this particular case, not letting your life demonstrate what you say is true.

Been a lot of discussion in the last period of time about Alistair Beck and how he apparently, and I say this very carefully because I only know things second or thirdhand, so I don't know anything firsthand.

From what I've been told, he counseled this woman to go ahead and attend a grandson's transsexual wedding. I think that's, I think that's right. I think that's the account, and so now the debate continues, and one of the things that falls into there is, well, where's your life been with this person all along?

Are you standing in truth? Are you willing to speak truth into this person's life all along? Or is all of a sudden there's a wedding, and now it's time for me to make a decision? Paul is making a point to Peter that you proclaim truth.

In fact, we went down to you, and we were with you, and you said, yes, go and preach to the Jews. Just donate meat offered to idols and give money to the poor, and he was happy, and they went there. But now Peter comes up to be with Paul, and he has this opportunity to enjoy the fellowship with these Gentile believers until the Jews see them.

And what he's telling them is, dude, you're hurting the Jewish believers. What you're doing is, it says, the rest of the Jews acted hypo, huh?

Hurting. Gentile believers.

The rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him. He's hurting the Jewish believers.

Oh, yeah, because they're falling in with him.

They're falling in behind him because they're thinking, well, maybe, yeah, Stan.

During this time that Peter's been, with this going on, this doesn't seem like.

I don't know that we can parse that out.

What do you think, Jeff?

I don't think there's a time marker on there. I don't know.

It is clearly a pattern, it's a behavior that he sees. Is a behavior a single event or a pattern of behavior?

You can't say pattern because it doesn't say that. It is an event that, yeah.

He's also hurting his testimony.

And that's part of this message here, is that you can maybe believe, you know what, I sinned before the Lord. I'm gonna confess it. I'm gonna repent and everything else. But there are ramifications that could hurt the weaker brother.

It's like throwing a feather. You break a pillow and that's what he did.

Do you guys have pillow fights? No, nevermind, don't answer that.

And you know, you look at Peter from the Old Testament. That's the only thing he knew at that point, was the Old Testament. Except that these were his people, the Jewish people. And that's how Peter grew up, knowing that.

Okay, this was God's Jewish people.

So Peter's had some examples, some experiences with God. I'm thinking of the, what was it, the blanket with?

Yeah, the sheep.

The sheep and goat. So he knows that God is establishing a new order of things. He was there on the Sermon on the Mount. He heard him speak. It's not just the outward action, it's the heart. There are a lot of things Peter should have been aware with, but he does have a weakness.

Now, Peter should have been the one whose actions, the external actions and everything else would validate. He would be encouraging his Jewish followers to understand the greater calling. You brought it up.

It's all the way back in Exodus, Genesis 12. Through you, all nations will be blessed. But what he ends up doing, the lesson that he gives, is that he subliminally, or perhaps just by his actions, you know what, there's a time for the faith and there's a time for the flesh.

Because he did that. There's a time for the faith and then there's a time for the flesh. I'm afraid of the concern of what my Jewish fellow people are gonna say, and that cannot be so. So the influence that he's had is he's actually joined others to join in with the hypocrisy, even Barnabas.

Justification by Faith, Not Works of the Law

Give me 14.

Yeah.

So, and then they were followers of the way. So, you know, Paul said he left all this teaching behind. But I don't see the Old Testament as being not faith.

Amen to that.

I think that the sword, it's like a scalpel. Going into the Old Testament, you need like a sharp blade to separate and dig deep into those truths. The real truth is there. I mean, the gospel really is in the Old Testament.

Greater than, and the New Testament is more doctrinal because it lays out procedures for behavior and things that we can do. I just thought, I was really amazed at reading this, that just like getting stumped down just like verses,.

Just words, just like to his face.

Yeah.

I mean, you experienced that.

Give me verse. 14.

14, but when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?

It's a tough sentence to parse through. What he's saying is, all right, dude, you call yourself a Jew, but you live like a, what does it mean to live like a Gentile? I'm not talking about Gentile believer.

What does it mean to live like a Gentile?

I'm sorry?

Apart from God.

Yes, it definitely means apart from God. How did Gentiles experience religion?

Many gods.

Many gods. Sacrifices, appeasing God, appeasing, finding ways to earn your right in front of God, earning your way, Gentiles, earning your way. And you and a Jew who should know better, what does the Lord want?

He wants your heart, Deuteronomy 6 .5. He wants your heart. But you, a Jew, who should have had this relationship, Yahweh, this special, you, Peter, are trying to earn your way because you're trying to follow the ceremonial situations that the Jewish establishment wants, yeah.

And we can certainly relate to that.

So let's even take that further deep. You've been to churches, I'm sure, where, man, if you're not speaking in tongues, you just ain't complete. Or you go into a church that says, you believe in free will, free destination, dude, the man doesn't have, you get into these arguments over minutia.

And so now you either are conforming to the argument or you are making your heart lined up with the gospel message of Christ. Peter was actually doing, earning my right, religion, is what he was doing, by what he did there.

The actions, truths, Peter denied accepting God solely on the basis of Jesus' atoning sacrifice. He denied solo Christo.

Jim?

You almost see the macro and the micro aspects of salvation working out. And it goes to your cultural point, too. The macro is the Jewish religion, this was the religion, and here it is, this circumcision taking place and going to the Gentiles, as we do individually.

I mean, within ourselves, it's almost like a war between a Gentile and a Jew or a Gentile and the law, right? But he, it just, the macro, and then it comes to the cultural thing, because I always said this stuff, and we talked about the woke last week, you were having me on the woke stuff, and then I always said, who are the apostates?

The people who left McLean? The ones who got up and left were the ones who stayed and said they were wrong and they were right. You know, we deal with this culture in our life, not just our church today.

All this stuff we're dealing with, I see that the embodiment of the gospel is central here, because Paul was saying, hey man, you're a Jew, you're like, we know where we came from, what are you doing?

And what should have been central to how Peter perceived when he's at that dinner is sola Christo, and he lost that. So that when it became time to be confronted with the decision, do I continue to eat with the Gentiles, who by the way have bowed the knee, or do I accept the cultural pressure of the Jews and stop associating with them?

That's a worse solution to meeting the cultural demands. And anytime you compromise to the cultural demands, you lose sola Christo. I mean, if we go all the way back into Deuteronomy 6, verses four to six, we love the Lord with all your heart.

Then when Jesus was challenged, what's the first greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul. Second like it, love your neighbor as yourself. Jeremiah 17 .10 is going to teach us that God tests the heart.

He's not got a checklist of the actions. He's testing your heart. So much so that in Isaiah, he says, "'Even when you pray, I won't listen.'". Not because prayer is a bad thing, but because the way that you're praying is empty and meaningless.

First Samuel 16 .7 reminds us, point blank, God sees the heart. The opportunity to stand true, God surrendered on the altar of hypocrisy. In Matthew 23, Jesus goes after the Pharisees and calls them hypocrites because you do this, hypocrites because you demand that they do that.

And it's all just so empty and meaningless. Give me 15, please.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.

That's it. Did you notice a subtle change there from talking to Peter directly to addressing we? So you gotta ask yourself, who is we? Is we just Peter and Paul? Is we whatever? And I firmly believe because the paragraph is here, even though it's not in the original Greek, there seems to be an expansion of this discussion.

This is a letter written by Peter, I'm sorry, written by Paul to the church at Galatia, to believers, and he talks about them, and he admonishes the church in general to remember its faith. And then he even speaks of them and he's seeking the approval of man or of God, and he talks about another gospel.

This is clearly a message that is greater than just Peter and Paul. This is we. I think this is a challenge that says there is a universal risk of hypocrisy, and each one of us are under this perhaps we.

Paul in this warning says we, and I believe it's those Jews who are saved by faith. We ourselves, Jews by birth, not Gentile believers, and he's shifting to them now to get this letter. I'm not just writing about Paul.

I'm giving you all a teaching that you all need to go to. And it goes on then in the rest of this section, verse 16.

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

This is our protection against hypocrisy. Just have this ingrained in your mind, have this always at the forefront. It's not by works of the law, not by works of the law, not by works of the law. I'm justified by faith.

Have this ingrained in your mind when the culture comes up to you and you are afraid. You're concerned about not being part of the in crowd, and so you cower away from, or you accept a little bit of what they're doing.

Have this ingrained in your mind that it's by faith. I can't act a certain way and gain God's salvation. It's at the cross. It's at the cross. We are in a battle. We are in a spiritual battle. And works or flesh cannot win the battle.

I know from personal experience on the basketball court, when a coach gets really, really nasty at me, and I've told this story a few weeks ago, he was very vocal in arguing the call, that's fine, and then he challenged my integrity, and I wasn't ready for that.

And so I fought back. No, this is, I am saved by grace, and my actions should always be driven by. So the question is, why would a believer revert to the hypocrisy of works?

Fear.

Go ahead with that one.

And the outside forces coming in.

Okay.

So there's a circumstance, and you're afraid of that circumstance, so you're gonna take control and protect yourself from that circumstance. That's what fear gives you.

Yeah.

Yeah, that would be pleasing.

So what you're saying there is. I'm now in a situation where there are others around, and I can improve on God's working in my life by changing who I'm gonna appear to be. I'm superior to God in this situation.

And because I can do it better than God can do it through me, I'll be accepted.

You are living in a human reality.

Yes, we are.

All this stuff.

Sola Christos. These denials of how I should be walking in accordance with God's word, empowered by his Holy Spirit, filled with his grace,. I'm gonna do it better because I'm afraid. I'm gonna do it better because I'm gonna have more fun.

I'm gonna do it better because I could be rejected. You are basically denying Sola.

Yeah.

You wanna help God.

I wanna help God.

Well, we're supposed to do good things. We're a good person and we wanna help people, but that we have to realize we're not stacking them up. It's our ticket to heaven.

So there are two approaches to good work. One is doing good works because this is what God wants me to do. Another is doing good works as defined by the culture.

Right.

And that's the hypocrisy side of it.

Right. Yeah.

First Corinthians 7. He says, was a man already circumcised when he was old?

Amen to that. I'm gonna give you five verses, which I think are a great foundation to build on, to remain on as life is going to be there, to have these foundations that who you are and you remain in.

For 2 Corinthians 5, 17, it's gonna say you're a new creation. Old things are passed away. All things are become new. What you were is no longer gonna drive you. You're a new creation.

It's 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 5, 17.

It's on the back side.

It's on the back side. Ephesians 2 .20 is gonna say that we are now built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and get this Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. And the cornerstone is what's put in place that defines the location of the building, the orientation of the building, and everything in that building is measured off the cornerstone.

Our cornerstone is Jesus. Romans 8 .10 is gonna tell us that Christ, in Christ, our spirit is alive. The spirit is alive in us. We have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Then in Romans 6 .3 and 4, it's gonna talk about we're baptized in Christ.

We walk in newness of life. Not in here, 1 Corinthians 10 .13. When temptation comes, he provides the way of escape. Romans 5, it says we're justified by faith. We have peace in Christ and we have hope and glory.

Doing things to compromise and to be hypocritical, to be accepted because it might be fun. We are justified by faith. We have peace in Christ and we have hope and glory. I'm gonna close with Matthew 5 .13 and speak on that briefly.

Would you give me that, Jeff? Matthew 5 .13.

Right off the notes here?

It's not written down.

I wanna get it right.

You wanna get it right.

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.