 Galatians chapter 2, we're going to look at verses 1 through 21, we're looking at the Gospel of Grace. And so we'll begin here in chapter 2 at verse 1, and I'll read verses 1 and 2 and get into our study, the Gospel of Grace, Galatians chapter 2 verses 1 through 21, beginning with verses 1 and 2, Paul writes, then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and also took Titus with me. And I went up by revelation and communicated to them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles but privately to those who are of reputation lest by any means I might run or had run in vain. Now we're continuing our study here, we need to remind ourselves of the purpose of the book of Galatians. That will help us as we're looking at the verses before us this evening. Here the purpose of Galatians is to combat Jewish religious legalism that has begun to enter in to the church. The basic error is righteousness by works. The heart of every man, the heart of every man made religious system would be righteousness by my own efforts and the Judaizers had been causing the Galatians to trade in their freedom that they have in Jesus Christ to the grace of God for bondage to the law of Moses. And so in the case of Paul one of the ways that the false teachers were deceiving was as I was sharing with you recently they were discrediting the apostle. That's why he had given his testimony, that's why he had been sharing some things concerning how he had come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and he's continuing to share those things so that we might understand what the grace of God is. Now when he says in verse one after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas he'd already been establishing the fact that his time with the apostles had been limited. When we looked at chapter one and remember with me verses 18 and 19 he had said after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. So he'd already established the fact that his time with the apostles was limited. He'd only spent a few days with Peter and had spent time with James the brother of Jesus Christ. Now I didn't mention this last time I added it to my notes this time because I wanted to note something with you in verse 19 of chapter one when it speaks concerning James the Lord's brother. Let me share with you briefly something about that. In every chapter 13 in the Gospel of Matthew verses 55 and 56 we see that Matthew lists that Jesus Christ had physical brothers and sisters. In Matthew 13 verses 55 and 56 it says this, is this not the carpenter's son is not his mother called Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas and his sisters are they not all with us where then did this man get all these things. So the Bible makes it very clear that he had brothers and sisters he had four brothers and more than one sister and the brothers are even named James being one of them. In the Gospel of John in chapter 7 verses 3 through 5 John records his brothers said to him depart from here and go into Judea that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing for no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things show yourself to the world and then John says even his brothers did not believe in him. So the Bible makes it clear that Jesus Christ had brothers they are named for us and they are mentioned more than once. Now there are those who believe that Mary remained what has been called a perpetual virgin that she never bore any children of her own. They believe and teach that the brothers that are mentioned were only cousins or that Joseph had children from another marriage. The fact is the Bible doesn't teach that. This is a doctrine that has been invented by men. There's no biblical reason to believe that these are not the children of Joseph and Mary. But those who oppose the idea that Jesus had half brothers and half sisters do so not from a reading of the Bible but from a preconceived concept of the perpetual virginity of Mary which itself is unbiblical. Because in Matthew chapter 1 verse 25 it speaks of Joseph having no union with Mary until she gave birth to a son and he gave him the name Jesus. So Joseph had natural relations with his wife Mary. Mary bore several children to him. Four of those sons are mentioned for us in Matthew chapter 13 as well as one of those sons being mentioned for us here in the book of Galatians in chapter 1. And so this one who is referred to as James and he is called the Lord's brother. He's not referred to as the Lord's cousin and he's not spoken of as being one who is born to Joseph. Nowhere in Scripture is that ever indicated. What you have is a natural relationship a husband has with a wife who produced children and one of those children was just mentioned to us, one by the name of James here in chapter 1. And so what we're looking at is we're looking at Paul really speaking concerning his credentials and his ministry. So we'll get back to that. Notice in verse 1 after an interval of 14 years Paul returned to the city of Jerusalem. Now that would be after he had originally met Peter as well as James. And so by now Paul is pointing out that he's been a preacher of the gospel for some 17 years at that time. So the reason for his visit to Jerusalem was to defend the gospel that he had been preaching. Now Acts chapter 15 speaks concerning something called the first council of the church. And when the church got together they were dealing with issues related to legalism intruding into the gospel of grace. It says in Acts 15, 1 and 2 if you take notes certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren unless you're circumcised according to the custom of Moses you can't be saved. Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about that question. And so Paul was speaking concerning those things and this is something that was part of the first council as they were dealing related to whether or not you have Gentiles circumcised and under the ritual and ceremonial law. And so as that's going on Paul is dealing with that and that's one of the reasons why it speaks concerning him bringing Titus. Titus was a Gentile and Titus could be a great example of the grace of God as Paul brought Titus a Greek and was able to present him to the people as somebody who fully knew God through the relationship he had with Jesus Christ. Now he says in verse 2, I went up by revelation and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles but privately to those who are of reputation lest by any means I might run or had run in vain. And so Paul may have been reluctant to go. He doesn't want to get into arguments he doesn't want to get into disputes but by the spirit of God Paul was led to go and so he went up by revelation and he communicated when it speaks concerning communicating to them the gospel that word means to simply explain to set forth words for their consideration what he did is he said this is what what God has led me to do I've come to speak to you to share with you what God has given to me to preach in the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see whenever you preach the gospel you need to understand that it is God's word you're not giving something a human invention when I stand up and communicate the gospel I do not think that it's of natural origin Paul didn't either Paul thought that it wasn't it's of divine origin this is a message that comes from heaven and so when he went by revelation it's because the Holy Spirit led him to go and do that he may not have wanted to go but the Holy Spirit leads him and says you need to go and you need to communicate you need to disclose to them what you're teaching what the gospel really is but notice in verse 2 he did so privately to those he says who are a reputation when he says I did that privately to those who are a reputation he actually repeats that kind of thought four times you see it in verse 2 you'll see this again in a moment in verse 6 and also in verse 9 and and when he speaks of them being of reputation this may very well have simply been sarcasm towards those who are involved in in this legalism because they were telling Paul rather they were telling the Galatians that Paul was not a person of reputation and so this could be his response now approaching them privately limits the amount of people involved I was just sharing a moment ago with somebody that church business sometimes when there are issues that are related to doctrine and all many times it is wiser for the church to gather together and speak amongst themselves the church speaking amongst itself really and resolving disputes then to have those arguments put on the air for all to read because very often those who don't know Christ are looking for an excuse not to believe in him and those who don't believe in the word of God very often are looking for reasons to say that it's not of divine origin and then you have people arguing in front of those who don't know the Lord and it gives those who don't know the Lord the opportunity to point a finger at those who do and say you guys don't even know what you actually believe in and you can't even agree on certain things and so sometimes it's wiser if there's a dispute of any sort related to theology to not argue in front of the world but to do it privately so that those who are involved in the argument can have an opportunity to speak to be heard and to receive correction where it's necessary and so that's what Paul does Paul limits the amount of people involved in order that they can deal with it in order that they can resolve this now notice in verse 2 how he says less by any means I might run or had run in vain I'm concerned that this error may have crept into the leadership of the church and I'm concerned that they might have been corrupted by it so if the church has been turned then all of my efforts to preach the gospel would be futile now he goes on in verse 3 to say yet not even Titus who was with me being a Greek was compelled to be circumcised but this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour that the truth of the gospel might continue with you and so he speaks of Titus being a Greek Titus wasn't circumcised and his life in Christ is evidence that grace is sufficient notice verse 4 though how he says but this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in they were brought in in order to spy out liberty notice he calls them false brethren when he speaks of them as being false brethren that's another way of saying they were simply phony Christians they were sham and they came in secretly because they wanted to undermine the work of grace they had secretly and deceptively infiltrated with the purpose of disjoint many years ago I was told that when Billy Graham this was many years ago was giving his crusades as all of us are familiar with crusade evangelism he would give his invitation and there were cult members who were infiltrating the follow-up ministry so that when new believers would come in who had just freshly said I want to follow Christ the cult members who had gone through the training but never truly identified their their beliefs to those who were interviewing them and training them were beginning to draw people away to bring them into their false doctrines that does happen one of my friends a Calvary pastor many years ago had the same thing happen in his church where they began to try to infiltrate try to come into the follow-up ministry in order to when a young person would or a new believer would come in in order that they might deceive them and bring them into their unbelief system and that's what's taken place here there are false brethren who are secretly infiltrating the church and as they do so they're the kind who will have a conversation with you and as they're conversing they'll speak to you concerning what you were taught and then they'll say you know that's an interesting thing that he said but have you ever thought of it this way and then they bring in their doctrine and they undermine what is taking place by injecting their false beliefs Paul said that was taking place there in the churches of Galatia where the Judaizers who are caught up with trying to bring believers Gentiles into Jewish law they were coming in secretly in order that they might influence so they could turn us away from the gospel of grace and bring people into the bondage of the law and say they were secretly and they were deceptively infiltrating in order to bring people into legalism when the Apostle Peter is writing in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1 he says there were also false prophets among the people even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction it normally is secret it's normally not an upfront attack it's normally done in in conversation it's normally done through leaving literature we have had people who have come on to our parking lot here in this church who have actually gone on the parking lot and they have left their brochures on the windshields and we have our our security outside who have collected all of those things before you go out to your cars and we have a circular file that we usually file them in called a trash can we have gone out after church services in this in this hall and in everyone that we've had and we have found little you know tracks that are filled with error that people who have come into church here sat in a bible study will leave it on the pew hoping that one of you will pick it up and read it and be persuaded to pursue them they'll put the phone number down tell you where you know you can meet with them and all of that so we've had that happen more than once here in the history of this church they do that you may not believe that but it's true they do that they will come in i have had people after bible study want to argue with me about their doctrine i had one guy who came in to argue with me after a bible study and he tried to lead me to the lord he was certain that i was unsaved and i told raw look at man i've known jesus for a long time why are you doing that but that actually happens and and it happens quite often and and so that began very early in the church where where people would come in and they would bring their little slant a little twist and they would take you away from the grace of god and that's what paul is speaking about but notice how he speaks in verse five he says to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour that the truth will continue we didn't submit in the least to these false teachers we wanted the truth to continue being presented now in verse five or rather verse six but from those who seem to be something whatever they were it makes no difference to me god shows no god shows personal favoritism to no man for those who seem to be something had it nothing to me but on the contrary when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me as the gospel for the circumcised was to peter for he who worked effectively in peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the gentiles and james and cephas and john who seemed to be pillars perceived the grace that had been given to me they gave me and barnabas the right hand of fellowship that we should go to the gentiles and they to the circumcised now again his favorite description of the false brethren those who seem to be something it may be that he's addressing their mentality of superiority it's one of the things that you'll see listen one of the things that is very important in a genuine christian life is humility it's humility it's one of the chief graces if you will it's one of those wonderful virtues the the most humble individual of course whoever lived on the face of the earth was jesus christ who described himself as being meek and lowly jesus christ the god of the universe would describe himself as being meek i am lowly humility is is one of the virtues that demonstrates that you actually have a relationship with god it was through pride that satan was kicked out of heaven it was because he was proudful because he wanted to be like the most high and it's a chief sin pride is a chief sin that's why god said he gives grace to the humble but he opposes the proud because pride is that which god satan kicked out of heaven and it's that which turns people off but when you have a heart of humility when when you know who you are and one of the ways the easiest way to get to know who you are is just to get to know who jesus is if you spend time in the word and you begin to look at jesus do this this this is easy read 1 Corinthians 13 just read it and and read the description of what love is that's all you need to do and when it says love is patient love is kind when you begin to do that all you need to do this will help you see is is put the name jesus there jesus is patient jesus is kind and go through the descriptions found especially in verses four through eight about what love is and you'll see that jesus christ perfectly fits in the description he is patient he is kind he is all those things and then all you need to do is put your name there david is patient nah david is kind sometimes you know i mean that's all you really need to it's not that hard it's not that hard the bible is described as a mirror by james it's a mirror he says a man who looks into that mirror into the law of god it's like a man and doesn't see himself and it's like a man who looks in the mirror and turns away and promptly forgets what manner of man he is it's kind of like in the morning when you're about to go out whether it's to work or school or whatever it is i don't know if you do this many do i do this you spend some time doing whatever it is trying to get yourself in some kind of condition that you don't scare the neighbors and and and and you look at yourself in the mirror right and then you turn around and you start to walk away do you ever return and look one last time do you ever do that you know or when you arrive at your location do you ever pull down the rear view mirror and just make sure that you're okay i that happens all the time i see people do that all the time ladies seem to do that when they're driving it's just an amazing thing why do you do that it's because you forget what you looked like even five minutes later now james says that we can look into the word of god and forget what it reveals to us within a short time so one of the best things you can do is stay in the word when you stay in the word of god and you see jesus revealed to you when you start seeing who he is listen it's not that hard when you start doing that you start seeing yourself for who you are humility is simply seeing yourself in the light of jesus christ that's all it really is it's just taking time to see him and when you see him and the way he acts and the way he was and the way he is now when you see him picking up the children and loving him when you see him gently being a loving kind friend to men like john i learned so many lessons and i've told you this before but you know i was raised in a you know in in a in the way men are raised i don't know another way to say that my dad came out of the depression era his dad didn't show him any physical affection my dad was not a physically affectionate man as i grew up like probably everybody's dad in here i'd suppose it just wasn't my dad my if my dad wanted to tell me he loved me my dad would grab me by the head and and rub my head that was that was it that was affection i mean i'd be walking by and you'd say david and i turn around come here and i'd walk up to him and he'd grab my head and rub it and that was like he's saying i love you my dad didn't say i love you till i was 17 i hadn't even heard my dad ever say that you know that was not my dad when i was four years old i would kiss my dad good night when i turned four my dad said to me men don't kiss men shake hands so there was no physical affection from the time i was four and so as i grew up the way i was is i figured you know what men don't cry men don't show emotion the only emotion you really can show that's legitimate maybe anger if you've been drinking for a while you've got an excuse and so you can tell your girlfriend i love you man i really love you you know if you're nice and drunk you can say i love you but at the same time but if you ever go out on me i'll kill you i mean you've got that weirdness going on so you really don't know how to communicate you don't know how to say i love you so guys we don't know how to do that men are not like women women will cry over anything with other women even strangers women will go into bathrooms and with their best friend in the next place next to her they'll talk hey in a bathroom men you go in a bathroom you don't talk to other men in the bathroom you don't even look at them it's like you're the only guy in the bathroom you wash your hands and you get out that's it you never talk even to your best friends you never talk you just don't men don't do that women are different so women cry over things that they're happy about men don't even cry when they do cry they need an excuse and that's just the way i was that's that's how i was till i read the bible jesus cried over his friend Lazarus who died jesus cried over a city that rejected him and i read these things jesus picked up babies and held them jesus had a friend named john and john would put his head on jesus's chest and lay there next and i thought are you kidding me what man lays like that on another man are you kidding me what's that all about i mean i couldn't even hold hands in prayer with other men i couldn't do it when we first got saved they said you got to pray and we would we would sit down on the in the front room and then we'd sit in a prayer circle and and you'd hold hands now if it was a girl that was cool it was a guy i'd squeeze his hand for 20 minutes man he's not gonna get a weird thought about this guy here i'm not gonna hold you we'd even wrestle for who's going to be having the dominant anybody know what i'm talking about i know you do i know you do you know in sports you know you hit a guy in the rear end when he goes by only in sports you don't do it any other time you don't do that so how do you change well one you need to want to you need to want to be more like him that's one way right you have to have the want to but two you need to have the model i had a friend named george george used to hug me and and it was kind of like weird because he's brother you know he'd hold me and and at first i i like i don't know what to do i just but something inside of me said he loves you and and and and that's okay there's nothing wrong with this guy grabbing you as long as it's within let's go within a second or two it's cool but i'll hold on too long we're gonna have problems but he was a mentor so one i i wanted to love and two i wanted to learn how to do it properly so god gives you people in your life who help you to learn to do the right thing by their example but three and most especially i simply spent time reading the bible and i looked at jesus and i saw that he was filled with mercy and i saw that he was filled with humility i saw that he was filled with grace i saw that he was filled with goodness i saw that he was kind i saw that he was loving i saw that he was compassionate i saw that he was merciful i saw that he didn't like self-righteousness but he was attracted to humility i i i i i actually saw how he treated women that society didn't treat well like a woman at samaria or a woman who was a sinner in the city and i started seeing how how the lord jesus christ and it all comes from the bible and so god's grace transforms people's lives and god's word and his truth helps us to see who he really is and and when the false teachers would enter in and would bring in their false doctrine it was undermining the gospel of grace it was it was it was causing the people to to to become rigid and and legalistic and and to lose the joy and and and all the the goodness of of being a sinner who's been saved by grace and and so so what happened is instead of them having this evidence of humility they had an air of superiority and they walked around like we were people who know we know more than you and that that arrogance that is so unattractive to god well they seem to be something paul said because you know what it's human nature to begin to think if somebody walks around like he's special he must be and then sometimes they treat him as if they are special even before my dad came to christ my dad taught me lessons one of the things my dad said to me is um he he said this maybe a couple times that i can remember in my lifetime but it stuck with me my dad said i'm not impressed with men i'm just not he said that guy he said he gets up in the morning like i do and my dad said it like this he said he puts his pants on one leg at a time just like i do and that's how my dad was he was not impressed with men so i'm that way too it doesn't matter what other people think about this person i'm not really impressed you know what impresses people like me humility love grace a knowledge of Jesus compassion those things are very attractive to me and when i have friends like that or no people like that i'm very impressed with them because god has worked in them and that's what i believe i want to be like like jesus christ anybody can walk around with their their head up in the air like they're very special and very important and can demand for people to treat them that way because they really think they are there's only one person in this universe is important that's jesus christ the rest of us are in need of him and that's how it works and so paul said these people think there's something special they walk around as if they are these people seem to be something he said but it makes no difference to me it makes no difference why well in Philippians chapter 2 verse 3 paul says let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself notice in verse 6 he says god shows personal favoritism to no man romans 2 11 makes it clear there is no respect of persons with god so he says those who seem to be something added nothing to me they didn't contribute to my knowledge of the gospel on the contrary verse 7 they saw that the gospel to the to the uncircumcised has been given to me paul in other words and the apostle peter had specific ministries paul knew that god had called him to take the message of the gospel to the gentiles and that's what he did but the apostle peter had a ministry to the circumcised he in other words would minister to the jewish nation and so he said i have received a commission to take this message to the gentiles but on the other hand we have the apostle peter who takes this message to the to the jew so he's saying as i was speaking to these people who were who were serving the lord prior to me instead of correcting me they blessed me so the men of genuine recognition recognized and encouraged my ministry but verse 10 they desired only that we should remember the poor the very thing which i also was eager to do i've mentioned this to you before when you look in the sermon on the mount when the lord jesus christ is speaking he speaks concerning the practices of a religious person during the first century and if you were to look at somebody and that was a religious person in the jewish faith this was a person who gave gifts this was a person who prayed and this is a person who fasted those were the three airmarks of a religious person a religious person during the time of christ would pray would fast and would give their alms jesus spoke of those things but he said some people do those things to be seen by men and that's why jesus said when they do those things that are that are proper things to do right things to do praying and fasting and being generous those are all good things but when they do that to be seen by men they receive from men their reward by the attention that men give them for being that way now one of the things therefore that a genuine believer would do would be he would be or she would be generous to those who had genuine needs and so in verse 10 when it says they desired only that we should remember the poor the very thing which i was also eager to do he's simply saying that as an airmark or a genuine demonstration that i have a relationship with god make sure that you care for the practical needs of people in other words don't be the kind of person who simply says god bless you be warmed and filled and walk away when you could have helped them but instead of helping them they had a genuine need you simply give them a pious phrase and say i'll pray for you because in reality the church was known for its generosity especially for those who have need in the brother or sisterhood of christ in first john 3 17 it says if anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him how can the love of god be in him and so he said i desired to be generous because that's an airmark of somebody who really loves now in verse 11 but when when peter had come to antioch i withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed for before certain men came from james he would eat with the Gentiles but when they came he withdrew and separated himself fearing those who were of the circumcision and the rest of the jews also played the hypocrite with him so that even barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy peter acted the role of hypocrite this is an interesting thing i want you to notice that the apostle peter who was one of the original 12 somebody who was an outspoken leader as a matter of fact every time you see the list of the 12 apostles you'll find something consistent you'll see the apostle peter is always the first one mentioned and judas is always the last one there's a mix you know mix mixing of the names of the other apostles in between the other 10 but the apostle peter is always the first one named the apostle peter was somebody that the lord jesus christ looked at and said your name is going to be rock the confession of faith that you have given is what i will build my church upon you who crumble easily you who waver back and forth will one day have a strength that's going to come through the power of the holy spirit that's what's going to happen to you the apostle peter was somebody that early in the history of the church was used by the lord jesus christ with the keys to the kingdom in that he had preached the message on pentecost when 3000 came and into a faith relationship with god it was the apostle peter who also preached the samaritans he was an individual who was used in a variety of ways to use those keys to open the doors of the kingdom to various people group people groups and so the apostle peter was well used by the lord well he was in in japa and while he was there he went on to a rooftop at noon and he was praying now or prayer and he was praying and he had a vision he saw a sheet with many animals on it lord from heaven then he heard a voice from heaven that said rise up peter slay and eat and he began to argue with the voice of the lord who was speaking to him not so lord i've never eaten anything unclean because on this sheet were all kinds of unclean or non kosher animals and this is a kosher jew and he's saying no way am i going to do that i've never allowed myself to eat something that is regarded as unclean and the lord said that which i have pronounced to be clean you are not to call unclean well at that time these representatives of a Gentile were knocking on the door there and they were saying that a man by the name of cornelius was asking the apostle peter to come and to see him so the apostle peter knowing this is the lord goes with these Gentiles into the home of a Gentile man by the name of simon the tanner and now while he is there he basically is he says god has shown me that what he has called clean i am not to refer to as being unclean and when he says god has shown me that it's in a sense in a tense that god has opened my eyes i completely understand this that there is no separation in the body of christ between a jew and a Gentile and he's saying that i understand that god is not a respecter of persons that god is saving Gentiles along with the jews which was a real real amazing thing so he knew that and yet i want you to see what's taking place here verse 11 when peter came to Antioch i withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed for before certain men came from james he would eat with the Gentiles but when they came he withdrew and separated himself fearing those who were of the circumcision and the rest of the jews also played the hypocrite with him so that even barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy the apostle peter was a stumbling block to those who at one time were strong believing and knowing that god had opened the door to Gentiles before he had regularly eaten with Gentiles but these false christians arrived and when they arrived they acted as if james had sent them and they were now introducing their legalism and so peter actually joined their group and he began to separate from the Gentiles even as i mentioned normally he would eat as a regular practice with Gentiles because they were family but now he's withdrawing from them and that paul says is the sin of hypocrisy and his hypocrisy affected other believers notice other jews including barnabas who was a leader in the fellowship were drawn away that gives to us a great example of the influence and authority of the apostle peter and his personal impact on people never forget by the way that you have that kind of impact on some people too i do and you do too you have friends who look up to you friends who know you've walked with the lord for a while they look up to you and as they look up to you you model christianity especially new believers you model that i told you the truth the truth when i first got saved my friend bill had started going to uh calvary chapel and had claimed a profession of faith in july july 29th 1970 i got saved in december of of 1970 and so he had made a profession of faith five months before i had to me he was equivalent to an elder in the body of christ because he was five months old in the lord i can still remember being at a bible study when one of the girls said today is my spiritual birthday and we said really how old are you and she said i'm a year old today i remember looking at her going and saying to her wow a year man are you mature i thought a year old christian was like billy graham i mean this is this is a theologian you know they can pronounce the books of the bible i was still learning how to say ecclesiastes you know and this person knows where it is they know where those books are amazing they're so deep and that's kind of how it works so you may be thinking of yourself as really nothing that's not true you have people around you who have not been walking with christ as long as you and they watch you now that's not a it's not easy all the time i'll be honest with you sometimes it can be a bit of a pressure to realize that but it is true you never know you never know who goes to your church with you you never know that i have been in san lusa bispo marina i get up early and we go to a little a little coffee shop where we can buy some coffee and some cookies and we go that's 250 miles away it's 7 30 in the morning the shop is just opened it's a saturday we go walking up i'm about to open the door when somebody's coming out they open the door up and they look at me and they say hi pastor david i see that you enjoy this this shop too i'm 250 miles away from here and they're saying hi pastor david i have been on airplanes with stewardesses who have heard my voice who will walk up and say to me are you david rosales and i'll say who wants to know and i'll say yeah yes i am well you know what i listened to you on k-wave i was sharing not long ago that uh you know a few years ago now marina we're taking a flight and and we were seated in the waiting room there in ontario and and uh i'm noticing that there's nobody there at the gate and i'm wondering what's going on and i'm supposed to be in a certain place at a certain time to teach so i go up to the counter and i speak to the person behind the counter and they say oh your flight was canceled and i say really it wasn't posted we didn't even know no your flight has been canceled and i said what are we supposed to do well you'll have to go downstairs and you have to speak to somebody there at one of these desks so i'm walking down and i'm getting stressed i'm thinking man i got to be in this this other state doing something tonight and so you know this lady says you're gonna have to fly out of los angeles but my my the the guy who dropped me off has already left what time are we supposed to be there in two and a half hours and it's just a lot of stress but i have to go and i have to process through there in ontario so i'm standing with marina line and i am not a happy camper i am not happy and i'm just when i get upset i i get quiet so i'm just standing there very quietly and i breathe hard and marina knows that she can see man i can't believe oh man i i what am i going to do oh man i'm so so i'm standing in line and so i get to the after several people i get to the front desk and i'm standing there like this and the lady says to me um what flight were you on i said we were on this flight where are you going to we're going to this city oh you're gonna have to fly out of los angeles i said yes i know do you have any id i said yes and i hand her my my license and she looks at me and she says david was all this i said yeah she goes i listen to you on k-wave oh praise the lord that's great good you know god said you have a great you were just breathing and you're so upset and here you go oh praise god jesus you're so good come on man but you never know you you know this is true you never know who is seated next to you you never know who is is is shopping i went to buy something for marie for for christmas today and and as i'm there in in the store unit with my daughter because my daughter has to tell me that's okay mama mama like that and a lady walks up i actually walked by and she smiles you know and and i'm and i and there's you know i i think i i wonder if i know her um but i'm not one of these people who will turn and look at you a second time i just don't because i don't want you to get the right wrong idea you know like hey baby i don't want you to think that you know so i'll just kind of look down you know but she walks up about five minutes later and she says pastor i just want to say hi i go to your church you know you never you never ever know you do have a witness you may not even be aware of you do there are people in this church who see you and when you may not even see them and and i am telling you that is an absolute true thing the apostle peter had a reputation and an influence and when he began to act as a hypocrite his influence was so great that even barnabas barnabas was the son of encouragement who when paul got saved brought paul under his wing in order to disciple him into how christians act not necessarily teaching him theology so much as putting an arm of christian brotherhood around him and accepting him and actually using his influence to help paul to be accepted by the brethren who are afraid of him because of what he had recently been doing and so even barnabas is being carried away with the hypocrisy so what does the apostle paul do he confronts him it says in verse 14 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 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 so paul confronts the apostle peter and says listen you're acting the role of a hypocrite and he did it in front of witnesses he said they weren't being straightforward in other words they weren't walking a straight path they were not walking uprightly so notice how he says i said to peter before them all this was an open sin well known therefore it required an open confrontation it is not advantageous to correct in secret an error that occurs publicly and so it says in verse 14 if you're a jew and you live in the manner of gentiles why are you compelling in other words you are undermining the grace of god now not only is paul using this as an example to bolster grace but he is also using this as an example to establish his own authority now he says in verse 15 we who are jews by nature not sinners of the gentiles in other words sinners of the gentiles meant that they didn't have the law as their standard he's saying we who are jews by nature have a tremendous advantage in that god is given to us that which he didn't give to gentiles well we according to verse 16 know that a man isn't justified by the works of the law but by faith in jesus in other words no amount of obeying law makes a man righteous righteousness is a matter of the heart it's a matter of faith in the lord jesus christ again boiling it down to basics the legalists are saying you need to do these things to be right before god paul is saying you need to need to believe this man to be right before god you need to believe jesus to be right before god because jesus will transform you from the inside practical application before i was a christian i might have a girlfriend i might be faithful to her i might not just depends on my mood and any opportunities that may be given to me to be unfaithful i get married opportunities have been given to me to be unfaithful but i've never been unfaithful why is that because before i knew the lord and before i was married i didn't really have a love for the people i was with and i didn't have a faith in christ that taught me what love is and so by my nature i'd do what pleases me and and that means it doesn't matter if she never finds out but she doesn't know it's not going to hurt her and that was my mentality but i get saved and after getting saved god introduces me to a girl named marie who becomes my wife and so the opportunity is given it's never been acted upon why because love for that woman forbids that i should do anything to break her heart it isn't because she'd kill me which you would but it has nothing to do with that it's not because oh i'm afraid she's going to find out or what it's never been anything like that i i don't think anything like that it's always been because love demands loyalty because love demands faithfulness because love demands that because that's what love is and so because i have a love for this woman my behavior will demonstrate that through faithfulness or well you know what when you fall in love with the lord jesus christ it's not a matter of oh he's not going to like this and oh he does like that i mean that helps you read the word of god and you say oh so this pleases you well i want to please you but what is the motivation for pleasing him so that i can get saved so that i hold fast to these things and i'm going to make it in through the skin of my teeth no i do these things because of a love for god and that's what god said when when jesus was asked what is the great command in the law jesus didn't say you need to do this or do that he what did he say he said love the lord your god with everything that is within you you want to know what the great commandment is it's love love god with everything that is within you and love your neighbor as yourself in this the whole law and prophet hangs on this commandment that has a that has an application if you love god whom you haven't seen then you're really going to love people whom you have seen and that's why john would say a person who says he loves god whom he has never seen he yet hates his brother who is who he has seen is a liar because how can you love god whom you haven't seen and hate your brother whom you do see and so christianity has always been love it's god's love for us and it's our love for him a legalist will come in and say oh no no make sure you cut your hair in a certain way make sure that you wear certain kinds clothes make sure that you sing certain kinds of songs make sure you do certain kinds of things and and then you're really christian jesus didn't say that jesus said by this shell all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another he said greater love has no man than this and a man laid down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do whatsoever i've commanded you and so what is he saying he's saying that everything is wrapped up in what is called the royal law you shall love your neighbor as yourself and the legalists will come in and get you to doing all kinds of things and not only that but the fruit of it is going to be that you begin to judge others who don't do exactly what you do and now you judge them because all you know how long did you pray today brother i prayed for 25 minutes all you know one of these days you'll pray as long as i do because i prayed for 35 minutes and that's what they do how many chapters did you read well you know i i really didn't get into my devotion you didn't get into your devotions how do you survive without your devotion you know i got up early this morning was laying in a porcelain bathtub and i was reading i read the entire bible this morning you know what's wrong with you i mean people do that i had that laid on me i've had that laid on me you know you read the word of god because you want to talk to god you pray because you enjoy your conversations and you want god to speak back to you when you read his word so the best relationships i know are the kinds that that are constant communication that's why you pray so much you know when i took maria on our first date i picked her up at 11 i went home at one in the morning i picked her up at 11 in the morning and went home at one in the morning we were together for all that time and we talked constantly and have never stopped she and i hit it off so well the very first date we have done nothing but talk we wouldn't even play the radio you know we would we didn't play we didn't play the radio we just drive and talk we've always done that to this day we still do that we always are constantly just talking i enjoy talking to the person i'm in love with prayers the same way oh you know i better pray our father we're in heaven how will be thy name oh no no no no no i don't talk like that to anybody else you know i speak to the lord of my heart jesus you know what's going on right now i'm standing in line and i'm not happy and you're gonna have to help me and i actually talk my heart to the lord he knows it he knows all things he already read my heart long before i disclose he knows my thoughts before i think them the words before they're formed on my tongue he knows it all together and so how can i hide from him pretend he doesn't know these things i learned that a long time ago so you'd be open with him and you talk to him it's love and legalism will keep you from jesus christ legalism will keep you from loving people and you know one of the things i thank god for with my own pastor pastor chuck was he did not condemn us when we were hippie kids sitting in his church barefooted with long hair sticking our big toes in the communion cup holders he did not kick us out of the church and for that i will always be grateful a couple of things and then we're gonna have communion a man is not justified he says by the works of the law justification what is it well justification is to declare the righteous the rightness of something or someone justification is a legal term it's the act of god whereby he declares righteous the one who believes in jesus christ justification stresses forgiveness it's really a subtraction of sin it is that someone becomes just or right before god in jesus it's more than forgiveness of sins because it's the removal of guilt and the removal of condemnation it's not only the removal of guilt and condemnation it is the giving of and receiving of of righteousness we are justified as a matter of grace through faith in roman 3 24 it says being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in christ jesus roman 3 28 says we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law peter's actions had actually given credence to the false gospel of the judaizers because if judaizers are correct in their doctrine then all who have fellowship with gentiles are actually sinners because they're ignoring jewish ritual law that's why paul in verse 18 says for if i build again those things which i destroyed i make myself a transgressor he's simply saying i'm not rebuilding a system of legalism that destroys the gospel of grace and finally he says in verse 19 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 in the life which i now live in the flesh i live by faith in the son of god who loved me gave himself for me i do not set aside the grace of god for if righteousness comes through the law christ died in vain i am completely set free in jesus christ i will never return to the law because the law will never set a person free he's saying i live by faith in jesus and jesus said if you know me i will make you free and you will be free indeed and that doesn't come to saying lots of prayers and doing lots of good works that freedom comes to trusting in jesus falling in love with him and just living as if you do love him