Helping a Brother Back to the Gospel

Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help us to do this. Lord, this passage has some The difficulties in it and some of the things are hard to wrap our minds around, and I know that we have not mined everything in these verses that there really is to mine. But we do thank you for this text, and we thank you for what you have shown to us. Lord, there needs to be a gospel revolution in this body.

You've taken us so far. But Lord, I'm just realizing this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much further that we can go, and the explosive potential in our personal lives and our families, and our marriages, and in our ministry and our outreach and our evangelism and the impact of this church on the surrounding community. Lord, I, I feel it in my bones.

This place can absolutely explode. If we would just come alive with an awareness of this amazing thing called the gospel of what you have done for us, if we would just let that in and let ourselves see it, it would humble us, it would level us to the ground. And then it would exalt us like we've never been exalted before, through the power and through the blood of Jesus. And Lord, we would be in a position to where we would say to anyone trying to stop us, we cannot stop speaking.

What we have seen and what we have heard through Jesus. This is an insane message, Lord, compared to all the religions of the world, we have the best story. And it's true. This blows any other religion away, that we as sinners can bring our sinful selves to you, and just say, Lord, I cannot save myself.

I cannot make even the smallest contribution to my salvation. And so I throw away all of my righteousness that I thought I had, and I believe in Jesus, and I want to receive his righteousness. What a message. What a gospel.

And what a savior. Take us deeper into the glories of Calvary, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said, Let me have you guys turn to Galatians chapter 2. While you're turning there, I do want to say a word of thanks for, all those that were involved in the outreach, community outreach dinner, last night.

this was a, a dinner that, was provided, through the generosity of people, just bringing food and also partly through your giving. But I think we had about 15 people from the community who came and stayed through the program last night. We were hoping for more, but this is this ministry is is growing, and we're trying to figure out how to get the word out and communicate the love of Christ and the fact that people in the community are welcome to come and participate in something like this, but a ton of people were involved in In this ministry, if only one person from the community showed up, it would have been well worth everybody's investment in in this ministry, but there were people involved in decorating and worship.

leading worship, we had some, 3 youngsters, 1 college and 2.

Two in college. Wow, kids are growing up, and another youngster that were involved in leading and worship and people involved in decorating, showing up the day before. Many people in our church involved in bringing food and the young people who were part youth, and, well, I can't even say young people because they were adults. Forget the distinctions.

There were people who put on a skit, a very moving, powerful skit last night. that, that moved me to tears as I, as I, witnessed it. Mike Martinez brought a very powerful gospel message, telling his own life story and making a gospel appeal. And so we just know God was there last night and we're very thankful for all, all those that were Involved in this ministry.

In fact, if you were involved in this ministry in any way, shape, or form, we had some in the first service either leading up to it, bringing food, or you were there last night and helped out in any way, please stand so we can express our appreciation to you. Thank you very much. And Mike and Lisa Martinez, thank you for your leadership of, of this ministry. This ministry is something that we want to be very close to the heartbeat of what we're all about as a church.

It's not just a token thing we're trying to throw in to say, look, look what we've done. We're a merciful church. We want this to be right at the heartbeat of what we're all about as a church because this is gospel in action. God has shown His love towards us who were poor, wretched, blind, miserable sinners, and we want to show to others.

The same love that He has shown to us, and we want to do that in tangible physical material ways as well as sharing the love of Christ spiritually and his desire to give mercy and salvation to sinners just as we have received that. And so let's continue to pray for the Food pantry ministry and our growing ability to do outreach and to minister to those who are in our community who have need. Just to encourage those of you that were there last night, I was talking to one of the ladies from the community, and, actually one of the ladies thanked me 3 times.

Thank you for providing this, for us.

Just was very grateful. And another lady says, I've been to other dinners before, and, and they're all great, but the food is great. But she says, the love I feel from the people here is, she says it it touches me deeply. So it wasn't just about the food.

It was about the love of Christ that those who were there last night experienced through you, who were there. So thank you for being involved in this ministry. Galatians 2, I think I had you guys already turned there, so I would hope you're there by now. and just to help you, there is in the bulletin, a copy of what is largely the new American Standard text of the passage that we're going to be looking at, that we looked at last week, and that we will be looking at.

also today, Galatians 2:11 to 21, everything is New American Standard, which is the translation I use, but if you see it underlined and italicized, those are changes that I made just to make the wording a little bit more literal, to bring out the more literal idea of the translation, but everything else is from the New American Standard. Keep that handy as a resource. I'm gonna have you make a note on something in this text that I think will help you to track with what is actually happening.

in this passage, but the title of the message is helping a brother back to the gospel, helping a brother back to the gospel.

I want to challenge you guys at the outset to put your thinking caps on, and to be prepared to do some hard thinking. This passage verses 15 to 21, I had studied this passage about 5 years ago, and I got it. I understood it, just Paul's flow of argument. And then when I came back to it about 3 weeks ago to begin preparing for today, I, I totally lost it.

And I, I was looking at Paul's reasoning and it's like, what is his point here? And it took about 2.5 weeks to get back into his reasoning and to really comprehend what he was saying. So, if it took me 2.5 weeks, and if you and this message can get it the first time around, then you guys are really smart people. but you're going to have to think and just do some hard mental work of tracking with Paul, because as he reasons in this passage, he makes certain assumptions and certain leaps that he would assume you're going to make, you got to make those leaps and then track with them as he picks up there and continues in his reasoning.

But ultimately, what we can't understand What we can understand is that Paul in this passage is helping a brother, who is Peter back to the gospel. guys, one of the things that that we need to understand is that whenever we're involved in any sin, whether it's bitterness, anger, lust, immorality, hopelessness, despair, anxiety, jealousy, envy, discontentment, it doesn't matter. Whenever we find ourselves in sin, there is a reason that we're in the location where we are, and that is because we have stepped away from being mindful of gospel truth and now we find ourselves in sin.

The encouraging thought about that is that when you are in sin, That ought to tell you that the first step you need to do is to come back to the gospel.

When you see a brother or a sister who is in sin, one of the primary ways that you minister to them is not just in pointing out their sin, but then to call them back to the gospel, and then the reason from gospel truth to whatever issue it is, that is plaguing them. At that point in time, we actually see Paul doing this. as he's writing the book of Galatians, they have moved away from the gospel. They're being enamored by a very homely gospel that Paul is stunned that they would be even attracted to a gospel that says, you got to be circumcised to be saved, and, and keep other regulations that are in the Old Testament law, and they're looking at the true gospel, and they're turning away from that for this.

Other gospel that requires these things. And Paul is just, he's flummoxed, he's totally amazed that they would be attracted to this. And as these believers are moving away from the gospel, what happens? You read Galatians 5, and the implication is, there's growing carnality and fleshliness and sin in their midst, and in their relationships with each other, we learned literally that they were biting and devouring each other.

Not physically biting each other, but, but through their words, through their attitudes, biting and devouring one another. How does a church get into that state? They get into that state and their relationships, and in their behavior when they move away from gospel truth. And when you move away from gospel truth, You find yourself in these kinds of predicaments, and Paul is trying to call them back, put the gospel in front of them, and beckon them back into the gospel.

We find Paul doing this throughout many of his, other letters. In fact, you'll notice this pattern if you go through all Paul's epistles, you'll notice the pattern, whatever the issue is that believers are struggling with, Paul reminds them of gospel truth, and then he reasons from that gospel truth to the issue that is at hand. For example, when he writes to the Corinthians in First Corinthians, he's writing to a congregation of people, where there were people in the church that were literally engaging in sexual immorality with temple prostitutes in the city of Corinth.

And then they would come to church on Sunday, and everything was fine.

They would act like between them and the Lord. And the way they justified their immorality was by saying, it's just a body thing. And God doesn't care about the body. He only cares about our soul.

And so I can do whatever I want with my body, as long as my soul is pure and devoted to God. Well, that's wrong thinking. And so they're engaging in immorality with temple prostitutes, as we learn in 1 Corinthians. How does Paul reason with them?

How does he minister to this ethical problem? Well, look at what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. He says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you whom you have from God. There it is.

He states the gospel truth. When you believe in Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit, who now indwells you. And because the Spirit indwells you, that makes your body a temple of the Holy Spirit. So you're gonna join the temple of the Holy Spirit to a harlot at a pagan temple.

He then says, here's another gospel truth. He says, you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price. What's he talking about? Our redemption.

The fact that Christ through his shed blood purchased us. He says, you've been bought with a price, therefore you're not your own. Therefore, glorify God in your body. The members of your body have been purchased by Jesus.

You see how he goes back to gospel truth, reasons from gospel truth to the issue of sexual purity. Later in the book, he's dealing with the Corinthians false doctrinal belief that, because God doesn't care about the body, then we're gonna live in a disembodied non-physical state for all of eternity. And Paul wants to help them with this. And how does he begin as he ministers to them with regard to this?

Look what he does in 1 Corinthians 15:1. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel, which I preach to you, which also you received, and which also you stand, by which also you are saved. And then he begins to restate for them the historical facts of the gospel. Christ died for our sins.

He was buried, he was raised on the 3rd day, he appeared physically, basically. To hundreds of people. Paul then reasons from those gospel truths to the doctrinal issue that was at hand. Over and over again.

Paul does this when believers are in sin, he puts the gospel in front of them. He calls them back to the gospel, and then he reasons from gospel truth to the issue that is at hand. Now I say that at the beginning here because that's exactly what we will observe Paul doing with Peter. As Paul speaks to Peter, in chapter 2.

And if you have your whatever text you're using of the Bible, or if you want to use this handout, I want to encourage you guys to do this. in fact, let me begin reading in verse 11, and then I'm gonna have you mark something. As Paul tells this story, he says, But when Cephas, who is Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he was eating with the Gentiles.

But when they came, he was withdrawing and holding himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy. With the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not literally walking straight with face toward the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, and now here begins Paul's quote of what he says to Peter.

And he says, if you being a Jew, live Like the Gentiles and not like the Jews. How is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews? We learned this last Sunday, his reasoning process is this Peter, if you being a Jew, have been living like the Gentiles, which is what you've been doing, eating with Gentiles, and eating like the Gentiles as you dine with them. How is it that given that now you turn around, And by your behavior, you're conveying a message of compelling the Gentiles to become like the Jews, because you, the apostle Peter, a representative of Jesus Christ, now that you're pulling away from these Gentiles, the Gentiles are now thinking, There must be something defective about us.

And if Peter, the apostle, the primary apostle is pulling away from us, then maybe that means Jesus doesn't want anything to do with us. And maybe there is something incomplete or defective about us. Maybe we should be circumcised and start eating kosher and become Jewish. In order to fellowship with Peter, and even Jesus himself, maybe we're not even true brothers in the Lord.

And so by Peter's actions, he's conveying this message to the Gentiles, which was a dangerous message. Well, I just want to tell you guys that we're going to pick up in verse 15. But I want to encourage you to, to think this way, verses 15 to 21 are a continuation of Paul's words to Peter. And so put a quotation mark at the end of verse 21.

That's actually the way it is in the new American Standard. I don't know what it is in the other translations. But many commentators would suggest that Paul, Paul's words to Peter began in the middle of verse 14, and they continue all the way to verse 21. OK, even if, not everyone agrees with that, but even those who say the whole thing is not a direct quote, even those who say that would say that the gist of what Paul says here is the gist of what he can convey to Peter on this occasion.

And so we're going to treat this whole thing as a Quote of what Paul said to Peter on this occasion, as he confronted Peter about his behavior. And so like verse 20 a very famous verse that many of us know, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Very likely, those words were first spoken by Paul to Peter, as he was calling Peter back to the gospel, as he confronted him over his sins.

Now, what was Peter's failure? Let's just review this, and then we're going to jump right on board, and pick up in verse 15. You look at the language here, we might look at what Peter did as no big deal, but when you look at the language Paul uses, this is very serious. He describes Peter as not walking straight with his face towards the truth of the gospel.

And so if the gospel was not in front of his face, then what was Paul would tell you it was fear. Peter feared the party of the circumcision, or he feared the. He feared what the Jews would think about him. He feared what the Jews of Jerusalem would do to him.

Once they heard that he is dining as a Jew with Gentiles and even eating like the Gentiles, eating non-kosher food, as he's fellowshipping with the Gentiles. So he's fearing the circumcision. And Paul also uses the word hypocrisy twice. In this passage indicating Peter was behaving contrary to what he knew to be true, what he had even preached before.

And here's the most insidious thing of all. Peter is not focused on the gospel. Fear is in front of his face. He follows that fear, and he walks right back into law, right back into law.

And now that right there is a problem in and of itself. And Paul says in chapter 2, verse 11, Peter stood condemned. In other words, Peter was in sin, and Peter knew that he was in sin. And the tense of the verbs is not, it was just a quick momentary sin, but it says he was withdrawing and was holding himself aloof.

This is something that lasted for a while. And while Peter is in this mode of withdrawing from the Gentiles, he is now back into law mode. And that's where the danger lies that Paul is now wanting to help Peter to get out of. sometimes we as believers, we might be governed by fear and we follow our fear, but we end up into a totally different sin that creates a problem on its own.

maybe, maybe you're with friends that wanna go see a movie that you already know about and it's full of immorality, profanity, and just, the movie is an utter offense to the name of Jesus Christ and everything that Christ stands for and calls you to stand for. And they're like, you wanna come, you wanna come? And suddenly fear grips you, you don't want to lose their friendship, you don't want to offend anybody. And you're like, well, yeah, I'll go.

And so what you're doing is you're following your fear, but you follow that fear right into the theater, and you're now being exposed to filth, to profanity, and to blasphemy of the name of Jesus Christ. And now as you're exposed to all of that, and you bring those images into your being, you now got a totally different problem that has nothing to do with fear. Fear was merely what, what you were following into this sin that now is a problem in and of itself. And that's what happened to Peter.

he's following his fear, but he ends up following that fear right into something else that in and of itself is now a problem that Peter needs help with. And understand too guys, and what this is like, I know what this is like. When, when we step back into like a former pattern of behavior, it's not just the behavior, but it's a whole mentality and lifestyle that comes with that, right? just as an example, there are people in our church, that have struggled with drunkenness, and for years of their life, they have, drunk alcoholic beverages in order to get plastered, to get drunk, and for whatever reason, And now they're at a place where they have been delivered of that, and they don't want anything to do with that.

Such people know that they cannot even drink one drink of an alcoholic beverage. They know that for themselves, because to just take one drink, is not just a drink, but it's a whole lifestyle. And we've had people in our church that God has delivered from that. And then they step back into that and it's like, well, just one drink and it won't hurt.

And they take a drink and suddenly the whole lifestyle just floods back upon them. And I know because I remember years ago, we had a guy in our church, whom God had delivered from alcohol. And he started drinking again. It started with 11 can.

And before we knew it, I had to go to a bar in Norco and fish this guy out of a bar. His wife called and said, This is where my husband is. Can you go get him? And I went to the bar.

It's the only time I've ever been into a bar. The guy was sitting at the counter. And he looked up at me and said, What are you doing here? And I said, Well, that's what I want to ask you.

But as we stood out in the parking lot, And this guy was begging me to punch him in the face. He had drank, and a whole mentality, the old mentality came upon him. You guys know what that's like. what that's like?

So here's Peter, he's been a Jew living according to the law, the system of law. It's been in his blood and his thinking, and in a moment of weakness, he follows his fear. And he's now in sight of law mode, and the whole mentality, workspace mentality is coming back. All of the mentality that's attached to that is now back in Peter's system.

And Paul knows I got to do more than just tell this guy, what are you doing? How can you do this? I got to help this guy get out of law mode and back into gospel mode. What is law mode?

Let me explain this, the system of law of Old Testament. Law is a system wherein we must fulfill the commandments of the law in order to be counted as righteous before God. It is a torturous way to live. It really is to look at all of the 613 commandments in the Old Testament, and they have to learn them all because you're even responsible if you disobey a provision of the law that you didn't even know about.

So the Jews were, I got to know all 613. I got to listen to what the rabbis say about how to go about fulfilling the law. I'm commanded to remember the Sabbath. What does that mean?

What do the rabbi say? How do I remember the Sabbath? I'm not supposed to do work, but what is work? What is defined as work?

And, I can walk, but how far can I walk? When we were in Israel on the Sabbath day, there was a, there were 3 elevators, and one of the elevators on the Sabbath day alone, automatically stopped at every floor, just automatically. You didn't even have to press a button. Because Orthodox Jews believed that to press a button in the elevator was work.

And so there was one elevator for such Jews that automatically stopped at every floor, and you didn't have to do the work of pressing a button. And so where did they learn that? Well, they learned that from the rabbis, and so all of these regulations and all of the man-made stuff along with that. And, and so they're living according to this way, and their belief is if I can be good enough and obey the law well enough, then I can be counted as righteous before God.

And yes, I fall short, everyone falls short, but I know, on the Day of Atonement, when I come for the Passover, the celebration of Jerusale I'm going to bring a sacrifice according to what the law commands. And the sacrifice has to be perfect. And I got to check this out, make sure that there's no blemishes anywhere on this animal. I bring the sacrifice, and I offer it up.

And now I have atonement, a totally clean slate for a brand new year. And an hour later, they think a lustful thought, or they get angry, and the slate isn't clean anymore. And it's like, man, what am I going to do? And I gotta be better, I gotta be better and offer another sacrifice.

But when's the next festival? When am I going to make it back to Jerusalem? What if I die between now and the Day of Atonement? The next time I offer a sacrifice?

And can you see the lifestyle here? The whole mentality of not really knowing if you're good enough, and if you're righteous enough before a just and a holy God. There are so many people in our culture today who live according to this exact way of thinking. And they're trying to be good enough.

In fact, USA Today, a number of years ago, did a survey where they, they, they surveyed 650 Americans and they asked the question, what do you think your chances are of getting into heaven? How would you answer that? One person said, my chances are slim, maybe fifty-fifty. I have to be more of a nice person, but I'm still in the running.

That's the mentality of many people. That's law. That's trying to be good enough to be counted as righteous before God. And so Peter, in a moment of fear, steps back into law and this whole mentality comes back upon him.

And Paul gets in Peter's face and says, Peter, look at me, follow me. Let's come back to the gospel. That's exactly what Peter does in verses 11, or verse 15 and following. And I don't know a better way to outline this.

We're going to go with this, even though it's probably not the best. Peter or Paul makes 7 statements, 7 statements, by way of reasoning Peter back from law mode into gospel mode. And the 1st 3 statements that he makes are actually reminders, very touching reminders to me. And his basic gist is Peter, remember when we got saved, you and I, Jews, remember what our thinking was?

Let's go back there for a moment. And then let's move on from there. Look at what he says in verse 16, or verse 15. He says, we are Jews by nature, you and me, Peter, we're Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles.

And you could put sinners in quotes. this was a normal way that Jews would refer to Gentiles. and sinners was synonymous with Gentiles. In fact, there's some gospel passages in the Gospels, where in like Matthew's Gospel, it has the word Gentile.

But in Luke's Gospel, it has the word sinner, and the exact same incident. And so the two words were synonymous. A sinner was a Gentile, a Gentile was a sinner. This was the way the Jews viewed the Gentiles.

And he says to Peter, we are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we, you and me, Peter, we Jews have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we Jews, That we are might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. The first statement that he makes is this, by way of reminder, Peter, going back to when we were converted, we knew at that moment that the works of the law could not justify anyone before God.

We knew it.

You remember that, Peter, you remember coming to that realization, that point of exhaustion and frustration where you looked at the law, you looked at yourself, And you said, I've been trying this all my life. I've been trying to be good enough to be righteous before God, and I am never going to succeed at this. Do you remember when you knew that, Peter? When both of us knew that.

And understand also, guys, that in Paul teaching this as he did and reminding Peter of this, that no one can be justified by the works of the law. That's not some novel New Testament revelation. Anyone who was careful in their reading of even the Old Testament would have been taught this from the Old Testament as well. In fact, in Psalm 14:3, the psalmist says there is no one who does good, not even one.

And the psalmist is not saying no one ever does a good thing from a human standpoint, but what he's saying is in the eyes of a perfectly holy God, no one ever does a perfectly good thing. Isaiah 64:6, the prophet says, all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment. Even the good things that we do, even the righteous things that we do are like filthy rags in the eyes of a perfectly righteous and a holy God. In Psalm 143:2, the psalmist says, and do not enter into judgment with your servants, speaking to God, he's saying, Lord, do not enter into judgment with me, your servant, for in your sight, no man living is righteous.

There it is, right in the heart of the Old Testament. Someone living according to the principles of the law is realizing this and saying, God, please, when you deal with me, don't deal with me according to what I deserve, because the truth is nobody, nobody alive is righteous in your sight. And James 2:10, James makes an utterly devastating statement. He says whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

He's become guilty of all. Just think about that, guys. You can keep the entire law all of your life and in a moment of weakness, disobey one time, and all of the crushing weight of the law comes down upon you. You are 100% guilty and condemned under the law.

This is difficult for us and for some to grasp, but it's what the Bible teaches God standard is absolute perfect righteousness. Those who get into heaven must be absolutely, perfectly, flawlessly righteous. They must have a perfect righteousness. And there are some who ignore this and say, Well, I think I'm good enough to get into heaven.

And it's the equivalent is, imagine that I take somebody's life, and I've broken the law. And I've been arrested for that. But as I'm being arrested, I say to the arresting officer, Officer, you don't understand. think about this.

I have never run a stop sign in my entire life. I have never run a red light. I have obeyed all the traffic laws. I've always paid my taxes.

I've paid them on time, my DMV registration. I've done that on time and Would that carry any weight at all? No. In fact, the way it used to be, it's not so much anymore for taking someone's life.

I could get the death penalty for that. So think about it. There were people who murdered someone and received the death penalty. Their life was taken away from them, even though such people had no doubt obeyed the law of the land thousands of times.

And yet because of their crime, the weight of the law came upon them and required their life be taken from them, and that's the law of God. If we keep the whole law and yet stumble at one point, we're guilty of all of the law. It takes one hole to sink a boat. That's it.

One hole to sink a boat. And Paul is saying to Peter, do you remember, do you remember what we realized when we put our trust in Christ? We came to the point where we understood that by the works of the law, we could never be justified or be counted as righteous before God. Paul then makes a second statement to Peter, and that is going back to that point of conversion, as he's reminiscing with Peter.

the second statement is that we knew at that time that only through faith in Christ could a person be justified before God. He says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ. Paul is saying, Peter, you remember, we, we saw that we could never be righteous enough and obey the law well enough to be counted as righteous before God. But there was a point where we saw Jesus, and we saw in him an absolutely perfect and spotless righteousness.

He perfectly fulfilled the law. And we looked at our righteousness. And then we looked at his. And we were like, I don't want this anymore.

I don't want to be found before God in this. And we saw that righteousness as our only hope for salvation. That only by faith in him could we ever be counted as righteous before God. And the third statement that's tied in with these is that upon those realizations, we believed in Christ and were justified through Him.

Paul says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we, have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ, not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law, no flesh will ever be justified. They looked at their own righteousness, which at one point they were no doubt pretty impressed with. But once they saw Jesus' righteousness, they then looked back at their righteousness and said, I don't want this.

And so they set their righteousness aside, their standard of trying to obey the law and how they were doing, they just set all of that aside, threw it away.

And they looked at Jesus and they said, this is my only hope. I need a perfect righteousness to get into heaven. Jesus, you're the only one that's got a perfect righteousness. And so I abandoned my righteousness, and I put my trust in you, Jesus.

And the moment Peter and Paul and the rest of us put our trust in Christ, all of our sins were forgiven in an instant. And the perfect righteousness of Jesus was wrapped around us. God said, I now count you as righteous, perfectly righteous. And now we can get into heaven.

Isn't that amazing? Oh man. Paul, here's this guy, Peter in law mode, and Paul gets in his face. He's like, hey, Peter, let's reminisce here.

Remember what we realized years ago, by the works of the law, we could never get justified, be righteous before God. Peter's like, yeah, I remember. You remember when we realized that it was only through Christ, not by the law, that we could be counted as righteous before God? He's like, yeah, I remember.

Paul's like, you remember Peter, how we believed in Christ and actually got justified instantly? Do you remember that, Peter? Yeah, I remember, I remember. Paul's like, OK, good.

Let's, let's continue on from there. Let's continue on from there, the 4th statement. And this is what's going to require some thinking on your part. And because essentially what Paul conveys in verses 17 to 19, is the true intent of the law was to point us away from itself to Christ.

Please hang with me, guys, this will pay you back. We've looked to the law for our salvation, try to obey the law. And then we realized that we could never do that. We saw in Christ a perfect righteousness.

We put our trust in Him. And at that point, we walked away from the law, and we walked to Jesus. So now the law's back here. And Jesus is right here.

Now, Now, imagine the law as a person represented as Moses. What is Moses doing when we walked away from the law? Is he over here crying? Like, why are you leaving me?

Why are you abandoning me? Is he sad? Is he lonely? Is he upset that we're walking away from him to go to Jesus?

Is he? What you're going to see is he's actually Moses is over here clapping, like, awesome. You go, you go. To Jesus, because that's the purpose of the law anyway, to point us away from itself to Christ.

Now, look at the reasoning in verse 17. All right, if you can get this, I'll be impressed. Verse 17. But if while seeking to be justified in Christ, Paul says to Peter, We ourselves have also been found to be sinners.

Is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be. For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God.

Do you get it? OK, let's explain this. Verse 17, you've left the law, Peter, you're now with Jesus. And as you're with Jesus doing what Jesus wants, you're sitting at a table dining with Gentiles, and you're eating on kosher food with the Gentiles enjoying unity, fellowship with them, following Jesus.

As you're doing that, guess what? You're found to be a quote unquote sinner. You can put sinner in, in quotes there, because as you're following Christ, you're found to often be doing something contrary to some ceremonial provision that's in the law. The law said only kosher, and don't, don't eat, don't have anything to do with Gentiles.

And yet here's Peter having something to do with the Gentiles, and the Jews, unsaved Jews would have looked at Peter and said, You are a sinner. You are living in violation of the law of Almighty God. And so we deem you to be a sinner, because you're following Christ, and you're doing something that violates the law. Do you understand it that far?

All right. So Paul says, we often do. He says, I find myself, you find yourself, Peter, we often find ourselves, and we're even found out by other Jews who don't know Christ to be quote, unquote, sinners in the eyes of the law. Does that make Christ a minister?

of sin, does that mean that it's wrong? May it never be. But verse 18, here's what is wrong. If I rebuild what I have once destroyed, in other words, if I go back away from Jesus, as you have done, Peter, and I come back to the law, and I start rebuilding what I once threw away, It's then that I'm actually violating the law, because I'm doing the opposite of what the law intended for me to do.

The law was designed to point me to Jesus away from itself to Jesus and to go, go with him, you're bankrupt. I can't give you salvation. I've been used by God to just show you that you cannot be righteous on your own. So leave me and go to Jesus.

And if you're doing that, Paul says you're really living out the full intent of the law. But if you leave Jesus, as you've done Peter, in a sense, and you've come back to the law and you've started to rebuild what you once threw away, you're actually at that moment, the true transgressor of the law, because you're doing the opposite of what the law was designed to cause you to do. Paul then says in verse 19, for it was actually through the law, through the influence of the law that I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

through the influence of the law, I reached a point in my life where I looked at the law, I looked at myself, and it's like, I can't, this will never give me salvation.

I will never be righteous before God, trying to obey the law. And so there was a point in my life where I just died to the law, and I turned away from it. And now I'm living to God. And Jesus Christ, as he's going to say in the next verse, and in doing that, I am truly fulfilling the real intent of the law of God.

But if I leave Christ, and I go back to law, as many of the Galatians are doing, The Jews would go, Oh good, now you're coming back to the law. Now you're being obedient to the law. Paul would say, No, it's the opposite. Now you're actually transgressing the law.

And an ultimate way, because the law doesn't want you to come back. The law was intended to push you away from itself to Jesus. Now do you guys follow that? OK.

When you think about the law, it was sad when we were over in Israel seeing people that are devoted to the law and Jews to this day that wear the phylacteries and they've got the box on their forehead strapped to their forehead with, Deuteronomy 6 and a, and a little rolled up text inside of that box, and they don't shave their sideburns, but they're very long and curly and, and keeping the Sabbath regulations. when the Sabbath came, the whole area was just like a, a ghost town, the shopping areas and, and so forth.

And as they're studying the law, we saw some bar mitzvahs at the Wailing Wall, and these people, they're chanting the law. They know this, the law backwards and forwards, and, and one of the groups that was doing it, it almost sounded like a rap, and they were just doing it in Hebrew.

It was like a sing-songy thing, and they were just quoting. The law and it was admirable the degree to which they worked to memorize the Old Testament law. But it's sad to see them so devoted to this thing, and to not see the arrow that's pointing to something else. And that is to Jesus.

Whenever you see a sign, By the side of a road or anywhere that has an arrow on it, the purpose of those signs is not to draw attention to themselves. You never see a tour group standing around a sign that has an arrow on it, and they're all just looking at the sign like admiring. The metal alloy makeup of it and the enamel paint and the hardness rating of the enamel that was used and you never see a tour guide just explaining all the details of this sign and people are riveted for hours to this sign that all the while has an arrow on it pointing to something else.

That's what the law is.

There's an arrow inside the law that's pointing our attention to something else, and that is to Jesus. Saying there is no salvation here. I am only here to tell you that you cannot save yourself and you can never be good enough to be righteous before God. And we're like, well, where do I go?

Well, that same law prophetically speaks of a coming Messiah, who will bear our sins. And by his death, he will justify Declare righteous, the many, as it says in Isaiah 53, there is one who can justify, and he's coming. And for us now, we look back and see that he has already come. And so Paul is saying the true intent of the law was to point us away from itself to Jesus.

So he's saying, To Peter, you've come back to the law. You, you need to get out from where you are now and get back to Jesus because that's actually the true intent of the law. The law itself doesn't want you here. There's a 5th statement.

That he makes as he reasons with Peter, to reason him from law mode back to gospel mode. And this is more of a personal testimonial that's designed to set an example of thinking for Peter. The 5th statement is, when I believed in Christ, I was crucified with him to the law, and I truly became alive to God. Guys, think about it.

How alive can a person be to God, who's always obsessing about whether he's even right with God or not? am I even righteous? Does God consider me righteous? Am I really a child of his?

Am I being good enough to get into heaven? And, I've had 5 or 6 really good days. And so I think I'm in good with God and, and I'm enjoying his favor. But, what, today's been a really bad day.

And I think I've lost that favor. And I need to offer a sacrifice, but I'm not going to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices until 2 months from now. And what if I die between now and then? How alive can you really be to God, when you're so obsessed about your standing before him and whether you're even under his favor, whether you're deemed righteous enough by him or not?

But look at verse 20. Paul says, I've been crucified with Christ. Christ died. He was crucified, and that had everything to do with the law.

The sentence of the law that we deserve for our sins was executed on Jesus, who never sinned, and he was crucified in a sense by the law, as a sentence of the law was executed on him. And Paul says, when I came to Jesus by faith, and I looked at the cross, and I saw the sentence I deserve executed on him, and I realized, so if my sentence has already been executed, If the full sentence of the law has been executed already on Jesus, then the law no longer has any claim on me. I'm no longer bound to this.

And Paul's saying to Peter, at that point, I died.

I died to the law. It's like you can't threaten me anymore, law. I won't listen to your threats. I'm, I'm actually dead to you.

I will be no more responsive to your threats and your condemnations than a dead man would be to any stimuli around him. He says, when I saw Christ being crucified, and that was presented to me, he says, I realized in that moment that I died too. I died to the law, just as the law no longer has claim on Jesus, it no longer has claim on me because my sentence has been executed. He says, it's no longer I who even live, but it's Christ who lives in me.

You're like, well, Paul, how do? How do the right way to behave if you're not looking at the law for the standard? Paul's like, well, Christ, who is perfect, the perfect fulfillment of the law lives inside of me. And so I just follow him.

I follow him as he speaks to me, primarily through, through the New Testament Word, Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. In other words, between now and when I'm in heaven, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Paul saying to Peter and to us, I was justified on my day of conversion by faith. And every single day I live by faith in Jesus, this one who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

This one who loves me, I never question his love. I'm not wondering because I had a bad day and I missed my devotions this morning. Maybe he doesn't love me. quite like he did the day before, maybe he doesn't love me at all anymore.

Paul says, I never questioned that. He loves me. Nothing will ever separate me from his love. This one who loves me, who gave himself up in death for me and served my sentence that I deserved under the law.

Of God every day my eyes are on this one who loves this one who loves me enough to give up Himself in death, to pay the sentence that I deserve for my sins. He says, When I believed in Christ, I was crucified with him to the law. And I truly, now that I don't worry about my status, am I under God's favor or not? Am I righteous or not?

Now that I don't worry about that, all of my energy is now into just God. I'm so alive to God now, rather than obsessing on whether I'm righteous or not. Statement number 6. In fact, I just Basically made that point.

Paul saying, I believed in Christ, I died to the law. Now I live by faith in Christ, who loved me, who gave himself for me. And then the final statement that Paul makes to Peter and to us, is I never, I never want to nullify the grace of God by looking to the law for my righteousness to any degree whatsoever. And guys, we can all be guilty of this.

But Paul says in verse 21, I do not nullify the grace of God. I don't set aside the grace of God. This favor that I'm under, that's what grace means. It's, it's favor.

It is ill deserved favor. Paul would say, I know that I deserve hell, but I get the favor of God as I am declared righteous before him. I never set that aside. I never removed that from my focus and my appreciation.

I don't nullify or set aside the grace of God. Because if righteousness to any degree comes to the law, then that would mean that Christ died needlessly. If I'm going to get back into law mode and think I can at least even improve my sta standing before God, and, and be a little more righteous before him, and that I would then be more favored by him, if to any degree, I by my behavior, by the works of the law, try to make myself a little more righteous to God, if I could do that and contribute at all, then Christ didn't need to die.

And so he's saying to Peter, consider what you're saying by your actions, by your actions.

And come back to gospel truth. Now that Paul has started talking about the law, Paul, Paul's the guy that If you want a short conversation with him, just don't mention the word law, because if you use that word or ask anything about it, he's going to go off and And that's, starting here, and all the way through chapter 3, and through the length of chapter 4, it's all about law and the Christian's relationship to the law. Now that he's started on it, there's nothing that's gonna stop him.

So he's gonna be on this theme even beyond this chapter, and even beyond the, the next chapter.

But guys, just in closing, here, here's what I want you to take away from this. It is so critical that every day we get up in the morning, and we pick up the gospel and we put it in front of our face. And then we walk. Gospel truth, put it in front of our face, look at it, appreciate it, celebrate it, and then walk.

And don't let anything else in front of your face in terms of your focus. And whenever you fail to do that, and then find yourself in sin, realize that the reason I ended up here is because I did not put the gospel in front of my face. Some of you right now maybe are roiling over with is bitterness, with anger, and in front of your face, every day is some offense that's been done against you, and you just can't get that out from in front of your face. Maybe for some of you it's lust.

You're looking at images that you have no business looking at, and I'll tell you, you're looking at those images guaranteed you're going to walk crooked. Set those aside and put the gospel, put this love, this true love from Jesus, this one who loved you enough to give himself up for you, put him in front of your face and stare, just gaze upon him and appreciate and celebrate him. Maybe some of you are in a place of hopelessness, despair, discontentment, anxiety, jealousy, envy.

Immorality, just disobedience to God, maybe hatred against another person.

My message to you is, if you're a born again child of God, there's forgiveness for that. Come back to the gospel, and just soak in that forgiveness that is yours through the shed blood of Jesus, celebrate the fact that you're forgiven. But also realize this very gospel that promises you forgiveness is the very gospel that if you keep it in front of your face can deliver you from these very things. Learn to go to the gospel, reason from gospel truth to whatever the issue is that you're dealing with.

And let's learn to help each other with that as well. Let's not just go to each other and wag our finger in each other's faces and say, how can you do this? And this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. Let's point out the wrong, but then let's say, let's go together.

This is what Paul does to Pete. Let's go together to the gospel. Do you remember when we realized, and when we believed, when we came to this realization, Paul is joining with Peter, and saying, let's reminisce a little bit about what the gospel's all about. Let's learn to do that.

Parents, as you're dealing with your children, Take your children back to gospel truth. And then just reason from there when they're fighting with each other, as I said last week, or you see pride or arrogance or whatever, do you just see that, or do you see that there's a gospel problem here and can you just lovingly put the gospel back in front of them and say, let's just ponder for a minute and then let's move from there to this issue that we're seeing in you right now. Our children need the gospel, not just when they're at church and in Sunday school and at youth group and Sundays, just the ministries here at the church, but through us, they need to hear it.

They need to hear it in those opportune times where issues emerge that tell us and should tell us that they're not walking with their face toward the gospel, and God has given us to them to put the gospel in front of them and to teach them how to walk with the gospel in front of their face.