Inconsistency Blurs the Gospel

Transcript

GR 2087
06/04/2017
Hypocrisy Blurs the Gospel
Galatians 2:9-14
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of Galatians, chapter 2. We have been looking into this chapter which related to events that took place as I gave you the reasons why I would hold the view that what he is referring to is the Jerusalem Conference of Acts chapter 15 in these opening verses of chapter 2, an event that took place some 14 to 17 years after his conversion. He said in chapter 2, verse 1: “Then after an interval of fourteen years.” We noted there are some who say that is after the three years that he referred to at the end of chapter 1. Some take it back to his initial conversion. But some time has gone by. The Apostle Paul has taken his first missionary journey and he carried the Gospel to the region of Galatia and established the churches of that area. Those churches are now the recipients of this letter.

In this letter Paul is establishing his apostolic authority, an independent apostolic authority which is very important because he has been appointed to carry the Gospel to regions of the world that the other apostles were not sent. That did mean that they could not carry the Gospel to Gentiles. They did. We saw Peter being the first to do that in Acts chapter 10. By and large Paul will be the one expanding out into regions like Galatia. Then beyond to Asia Minor and then over into Greece and so on; so his authority as an apostle, both his personal authority and the message that he preaches and they are intertwined. Part of the problem that has come up at Galatia is that false brethren, note verse 4, remember, “It was because of these false brethren secretly brought in who has sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus to bring us into bondage.” This is the issue that was being dealt with. Jews had come from down in the region of Judea, Jerusalem, professed to be believers, professed to have a clearer, more full Gospel than Paul was preaching, claiming to speak with authority saying Paul didn’t have it correct. He only had part of the Gospel which meant that it wasn’t a true Gospel and you see they had infiltrated among the churches. They were false brethren. They were disguised as believers and you can understand the confusion as we have talked about in our previous studies. Now they come and tell these Gentile believers, “It is wonderful that you have trusted Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the Savior. He died. He was raised from the dead.” As we saw in Acts 15 there is no indication that these individuals we call Judaizers denied that. That would have made it more clear. They simply said that is not enough. You Gentiles also have to be circumcised and keep the Mosaic Law. In other words you must join Judaism. So it is no longer the pure Gospel of God’s grace that the Apostle Paul preached.

So he has been defending his apostleship and the message that he preached. They go hand in hand. If they can undermine Paul and his credibility as an apostle that will raise questions about the message that he preaches.

Back in chapter 1 he claimed in verse 11 for example: “The Gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. I didn’t receive it from man, I wasn’t taught it. I received it directly from Christ in a revelation from Him.” As we will see as we proceed here even tonight this is not to indicate that it is a different Gospel than the other true genuine apostles preached but Paul has an independent authority as an apostle even as an apostle like Peter does and that becomes important for what is going to come up as well in chapter 2.

“So the difference’” Paul says “is that Peter had an apostleship directed toward Jews. Paul had an apostleship directed toward Gentiles” and that was somewhat resolved and settled at that Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15 as we have looked at.

Verse 7 of Galatians 2 said, “On the contrary, seeing that I have been entrusted with the Gospel to the uncircumcised (the Gentiles) just as Peter had been to the circumcised. For he who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised, (the Jews) effectually worked for me to the Gentiles (the uncircumcised;” so the same Gospel but different focus, one to Jews and one to Gentiles. It didn’t mean they couldn’t cross over. Sometimes Peter preached the Gospel to Gentiles. Sometimes Paul preached it to Jews but the focus of their ministry as apostles sent by God had different realms of ministry.

So as we pick up with verse 9 we sort of broke off in a thought and “recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John,” (remember Cephas is Peter as Paul referred to him repeatedly by that name, “James, Cephas and John who were reputed to be pillars gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do;” the leadership in Jerusalem where Paul went with Barnabas and some others to resolve this issue, to be sure that we don’t have a divided church in its early history, a Jewish church and a Gentile church and then a Gospel for Jews and a Gospel for Gentiles. There is only one Gospel. Some confusion to that as we carry the Gospel to other places even among some today thinking there is an adjustment not just in superficial things as we have noted like learning a language, being acquainted with the customs and so on but the message is the same wherever we go. It is the same message for the salvation of Jews and Gentiles. So it was recognized in the church the grace that had been given to Paul. It was a grace given, his apostleship.

We are saved by grace. That is the beginning of the operation if you will of God’s special grace that brings us to salvation and thus gifts us and enables us to be effective in our service for Him. It is grace given to me. Paul takes no credit, no special honor. He is defending his apostleship but he is defending it in the context of God’s grace bestowed on him to carry out a specific ministry. Repeated emphasis in I Corinthians chapter 15, verse 10. Paul said, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” He repeats this.

Come back to Romans chapter 1. Just run through this whole area of God’s grace. We are saved by grace and now we are enabled to serve God by His providing grace, His enabling grace. In Romans chapter 1, verse 5 it mentions “Jesus Christ our Lord through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles.” This grace that Paul is focusing on here and in Galatia is not primarily his salvation but that enabling for ministry, the grace gift if you will and Paul’s grace gift bestowed on him was the gift of apostleship. It was God’s grace given to me. He is responsible in the exercising of that grace because with that gift comes the enablement for carrying out the ministry with that gift. That is what Paul is talking about here, God’s grace that he received. It was given to him.

You are in Romans, come over to chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, verse 3: “For through the grace given to me.” Note that emphasis. It is grace given to me. You can’t earn or deserve, merit grace. Not because of my standing out with extra labor and toil. Even that was a result of God’s grace, not a cause of His grace. “Through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think” but think in the context of what God at the end of verse 3 “has allotted to each a measure of faith.” And that grace gift comes with that measure of faith. It is that ability to trust God to do and carry out the ministry that God has given to you. It goes for all of us.

You come down to verse 6: “And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” So we are talking about Paul’s particular grace gift because that is the issue as he writes to the Galatians but a good time for us to be reminded we all have been gifted by God’s grace when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. It is sovereignly bestowed. It is not, well, here is the list of the gifts. Pick the one that you want and go.

We have looked in I Corinthians 12 particularly and through chapter 14. They are bestowed at the sovereign determination of God so we can talk about the body of Christ functioning as one unit. Each local church for example as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, that local church didn’t come behind in any spiritual gift as he addressed them in the opening chapter of his first letter.

So each is given a measure of faith, a gift of grace and sometimes you look at someone else at the way they are being used and we say,” I couldn’t do that.” Well, if God hasn’t given His grace to you and the faith to trust Him to do that, you may not be able to at least not to the degree as the person who is gifted in that area. Part of what we do is come to recognize what God has gifted us to do. So Paul is defending his gift of grace.

While you are here come over to chapter 15 of Romans, verse 15: “But I have written very boldly to you on some point so as to remind you again because of the grace that was given me from God.” Paul didn’t think his gift should be a secret. God has gifted me. He called me to be an apostle, given me the gift of His grace to carry that ministry out according to His will for me. So he will stand firmly on that. It is not a matter of pride. It is not a matter of arrogance. It is a matter of this is what God has gifted me by His grace to do and I will do it. It is essential. That is a responsibility for which we will be accountable.

Well you are this far you can turn over a few pages to I Corinthians chapter 3, verse 10: “According to the grace of God which was given to me.” See how Paul repeatedly refers, what he is talking about is the gift and the ministry he had as a result of that gift and his gift was to lay the foundation, to bring the Gospel to a city like Corinth to lead people to Christ. Now there were people there gifted by God’s grace a little differently than Paul. They didn’t have the gift of apostleship but they had other gifts and now they had to be each man careful how he builds on the foundation Paul established with the Gospel, that grace given.

Come back to Galatians and then just go through Galatians, the next book is Ephesians. We will just look at this one more section of God’s grace. Ephesians chapter 3, look at verse 2: “Indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you.” The Ephesian church at Ephesus, Paul carried the Gospel there to them. God had given His grace to Paul to be one sent by Him as an apostle to carry the Gospel to places like Ephesus. It was for their benefit. As we have noted on our study of gifts on other occasions, a gift is not given you for your benefit. The gift is given to you for the benefit of others and naturally you benefit and grow as you exercise your gift, you benefit from the gift of others. It makes us “other focused.”

Paul didn’t get a gift of apostle and entrusted with the Gospel so he could sit at home and rehearse in his mind the great truths of the Gospel not that he wouldn’t do that but he had to carry it out and you will note it is a stewardship of God’s grace. You might think well boy, has he crossed the line to arrogance. No he hasn’t. He constantly reminds himself and others, it is a stewardship of God’s grace but that stewardship is something I am responsible for and accountable to God with. So it is an enablement and a responsibility, his apostleship.

Come down to verse 7 if you are still in Ephesians 3. It talks about the Gospel of Christ Jesus to summarize it there, verse 6 and in verse 7: “Of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me.” And you will note what goes with that. “According to the working of His power,” that supernatural enablement that makes the gift effective. That is true in all of our gifts. That is why the body functions so well. In every gift there is that supernatural enablement to do. It may not be as spectacular as we look back on the gift of apostleship and the impact of Paul’s life throughout so much of the world but it is just as much a stewardship of God’s grace, serving in not as visible and a recognizable way but contributing in such a way. In Paul’s analogy of the body, writing to the Corinthians about the gifts, some of the gifts aren’t as showy but that doesn’t mean they are not important in the development of the body. So Paul’s claiming here is not to be wrongly taken.

Come back to Galatians 2 and you will see. Galatians 2:9: “Recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John.” And remember the James here is the brother of the Lord. He mentioned that back in chapter 1, verse 19 of Galatians. “I did not see any other of the apostles except James the Lord’s brother,” on an earlier brief visit. This is not James the brother of John that is referred to here. James, Cephas and John, Peter, James and John were three inner circle disciples during Christ’s earthly ministry but James the brother of John was executed by Herod in Acts chapter 12 as we have noted on other occasions. So this is James the brother of the Lord who was saved evidently after Christ’s resurrection from the dead. These three are reputed to be pillars; the apostles and elders in the church at Jerusalem which becomes the mother church and even when persecution scattered believers, the apostles maintained their home base at the church in Jerusalem. So that is why they went there to resolve the theological conflict, example in Acts chapter 15. “There were reputed to be pillars. They gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.” That expressed their agreement and support of the ministry of Paul and Barnabas to the Gentiles, so that we might go to the Gentiles, they to the circumcised.

Some might agree today, different people would say, “oh yes, my ministry is going to be directed to this group of people, to that group of people.” “Fine but we have to agree you will be taking the same Gospel to that group of people that I will be taking to this group of people. There can be no variation in that.” That is what Paul is battling for here and it becomes an issue with Paul because remember as we talked about, circumcision is not an issue among the Jews. Every Jewish baby boy was circumcised at eight days so the Jews that got saved, this was not an issue of well, do they have to be circumcised? They have already had circumcision, part of their Jewishness, if you will, and they were still free to eat, keep that in mind as we will move along in a moment, as they want. So just because they have converted to Christ and become true believers doesn’t mean they now have to have ham sandwiches for lunch. They can still eat what they want to eat. It is like you get accustomed to eating so it is not an issue. We don’t tell people that are saved from another society, now you have to learn to eat American hamburgers, whatever.

When we went to China many years ago I thought well this is easy. I have eaten Chinese food but eating Chinese food in America was different from eating Chinese food in China. I ordered pancakes for breakfast one morning at the hotel and I waited and I waited and I waited and I waited. My, they must really be busy in the kitchen. When they finally came out they bought three little round balls about the size of a ping pong ball on a plate rolling around. I don’t think they even knew what a pancake was. (That had nothing to do with what we are talking about. That just came to my mind.)

So they are agreed. That was settled at the Jerusalem Council. Fine. This is the Gospel. What Paul is preaching is the Gospel. Jews don’t have to become Gentiles. Gentiles don’t have to become Jews but anyone who is going to be saved has to believe the pure Gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as payment in full for their sin. Circumcision is not a requirement. It doesn’t mean Jews couldn’t circumcise their baby boys on the eighth day. Circumcision never did save but it has particular significance in light of the covenant promised to Abraham and his physical descendants.

So Paul and Barnabas are going to carry a ministry to Gentiles. This is going to be a plaguing battle. You are aware when Paul writes to the Corinthians there is an issue there over food; some of the foods sacrificed to idols because these kinds of things become issues as we will see in a moment.

They asked Paul to remember the poor and the Jerusalem Church is a poor church because when you are a Jew in Jerusalem and in that region, Judea, when you converted to Christ you were out, your family disowned you, you could lose your job and the church is beset by poverty. Paul was happy to do that. At the end of Acts chapter 11 we find he has already been part of taking an offering to Jerusalem. We are familiar with the offering he talked about in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 that he was involved in collecting to take to the church at Jerusalem and he thought it was fitting that Gentile, recognized by God’s grace, we have become heirs. He will get into this in Galatians chapter 3, in particular of promises where “in Abraham all the nations of the earth will be blessed” and it is true the Jewish Messiah and His death on the cross that we Gentiles have had salvation provided for us. So while we don’t have to adopt Jewish practices and convert to Judaism, we do appreciate greatly the Jews and the unique place they have in the purposes and plan of God and that our Savior is the Messiah of Israel and Paul is a Jew but he is comfortable going to Gentiles and telling them you ought to express your appreciation in this material world. We dealt with this when we dealt with the offering as in 2 Corinthians but you recognize the special place that the Jews have in the plan of God and remember the church started out in Acts 2 as a Jewish church. It is not until Acts chapter 10 that the Gentiles come into the picture. So Paul says, “I am happy to remember the poor” and with that primarily to remember it in his ministry among the Gentiles. That will give them a connection to express the tie they have back to that “mother church” and the part that the Jews had played in the Gospel that has now being brought to Gentile worlds.

Now these first ten verses Paul is focused on the problem he had with false brethren. They try to bring division and dissention into the church, the churches of Galatia. Do it over doctrine. What is the Gospel? Is the Gospel, is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as payment in full for our sin? Or is the Gospel death, burial and resurrection of Christ plus circumcision and the keeping of the law? And further, or tied to that, division over personalities. Does Paul have authority as a genuine apostle or not? Because if you can undermine people’s confidence in his authority as an apostle naturally you have raised questions about the message that he claimed to preach. So they are intertwined and this is what those of verse 4 of chapter 2 are doing.

Now we pick up in verse 11 and we have a little different kind of conflict. This comes from within the fellowship of believers. It is a conflict occasioned by error on the part of a leading apostle, Peter. So we say verse 11: “But when Cephas came to Antioch I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.” This will further establish Paul’s independent authority as an apostle. He can stand against another apostle who is being inconsistent, even one of the stature of Peter. Not that Paul was doing this in arrogance but it comes to the defense of the Gospel and the maintaining of that purity. So he says, “When Cephas came to Antioch,” remember Antioch is some 250 miles north of Jerusalem. We are not told why he came but it wouldn’t be unusual that he would come out and visit other areas, has contact back and forth in Antioch which becomes a center of ministry out in the Gentile world and obviously Paul and others came down to Jerusalem to make sure the Gospel is clear all around in the ministry going to Gentiles and the ministry going to Jews.

Paul and Barnabas had returned to Antioch after the Jerusalem Council, the end of Acts 15, verse 30 – 35. They went back and spent some extensive time in Antioch. It was probably during this time that Peter came perhaps as a follow up from the contact there and the conference that was held in Jerusalem. Peter comes up to visit and see the ministry there and be part of it.

You are almost taken back. Last week we saw that Peter was among those, Cephas in verse 9 who gave to Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship and recognize that God had appointed him an apostle to the Gentiles. Now Cephas comes to visit Paul in Antioch, the ministry there, “I opposed him to his face. He stood condemned,” pretty strong to hear. There is no room for variation when we are talking about the Gospel and the potential corruption.

What did Peter do? “He stood condemned.” In other words it was his actions that condemned him. That is why Paul opposed him. It is not just a personal disagreement. Peter by his own actions condemned himself so Paul opposed him. It wouldn’t have been easy. They had just gone through a difficult resolution there in Jerusalem that took some sensitivity as we saw. Paul said he met privately first with key leaders there which would have included, Peter, Cephas. They resolved it. There is a public expression of agreement and fellowship and now Peter comes and does something that is worthy of condemnation so Paul opposes him.

What happened was verse 12: “Prior to the coming of certain men from James he used to eat with Gentiles.” So Peter evidently came up and spent some time there and after the conference as I mentioned in those verses at the end of Acts 15 we are told that Paul spent some time in Antioch with Barnabas. So Peter came up and spent some time there and it was good fellowship and he entered into fellowship with the Gentiles there and he ate with them. No problem. Remember this is an issue.

Just a reminder, in Acts 10 Peter went to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, presented the Gospel. In Acts 11 the leaders of the church in Jerusalem called Peter on the carpet for doing such a thing. You know where maybe for us to appreciate the issue here, the Gentiles are unclean. You go there, you fellowship with them, you share with them, you are defiling yourself and Peter had to express how God had given him a special vision, you don’t call unclean what I cleanse. And the leaders there agree. But now you have men who come from James. Remember James is one of the pillars at Jerusalem in verse 9. So prior to the coming of these men from James and I take it these men are probably believing Jews. They are not pointed out as false brethren or corrupt but in Jerusalem it is a different world. While they resolve the issue of what is the Gospel the Jews didn’t have to really make many changes because there weren’t many Gentiles that would be saved in Jerusalem. Primarily the church, we have Cornelius and some there but primarily the church in Jerusalem and Judea is going to be Jewish. So they go on not having to deal with something. Now he is up in Antioch and those who come from James aren’t accustomed to eating with Gentiles, we fellowship with believers.

At any rate Peter now feels some pressure and he doesn’t want to be viewed as not spiritual. Some of these things carry over. Traditions die hard.

Some of you have come out of backgrounds, Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism where you had been ingrained in you through your childhood and to adult. Over the years I have had people say things like, “you know, when I first came to Indian Hills I didn’t feel like we really worshipped because we didn’t say the Lord’s Prayer together in our service.” Well why do we have to say… but it is a tradition. And our traditions die hard. Some of you know how that is. You have your tradition. Sunday morning you come in and sit in your seat and if someone sits in your seat it is a little irritating. That is our tradition, we sit there. And we have our order of service.

One of the professors I had many, many, many years ago in Bible College said “Someday just to see how your people are doing, just totally change the order of your service. Get up and preach your sermon first. Half of the people will miss it. Then sing the songs. You will see how people react.” We say, “Well we are not a church of traditions.” But we are. Why do we do that? Why don’t we do that? And we get into a pattern. There is nothing wrong with a pattern except when that becomes identified as what is really Biblical and spiritual when it is not necessary.

So we can understand Peter was raised this way. His whole life has been devoted to Judaism. This is the way you eat, this is what you eat, these are the people you eat with and these are the people you don’t eat with.

So “when they came from Jerusalem and James he began to withdraw, hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.” Peter was afraid of what they would think. So now he begins to move away from having fellowship and association and eating and that is carrying it to another level with the Gentiles. That has an impact. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy. So Paul now is dealing with these as believing Jews. Up in verse 4 he was concerned about the false brethren but now he is concerned about believers conducting themselves hypocritically, not consistent with their life now as a believer in Jesus Christ. “He began to withdraw himself,” separated himself. Really cuts off fellowship. “He feared the party of the circumcision.”

So the Gospel was settled but you get the sense here. So we agreed, that is the Gospel but that doesn’t mean I have to go and have dinner at a Gentile’s house and there is a little bit of truth in that. You can pick your friends. So we agree that is the Gospel and the Gentiles are saved the same way we are but and in Jerusalem it was easy because you know on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, three thousand Jews were saved so I have plenty of Jews to have fellowship with and our church is primarily Jews. So we follow Jewish practices, great. But now he comes up here and you see the inconsistency. Before these Jews came Peter was comfortable with the Gentiles. He had had that impact of that vision in Acts 10 but now he is sensitive to what people think and the impact of his inconsistency, verse 13: “The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy,” out of fear of what Jewish Christians would think. Others are influenced. I have defiled myself as a Jew by eating with Gentiles because there are all kinds of things. Not only the food that is served but how were things cleansed and how were things cleaned and would my food be defiled if a Gentile touched it or prepared it and all that went on with all the Jewish laws.

You see the words, “joined him in hypocrisy” and the word hypocrisy and you are aware we get the word ‘hypocrite’ from the Greek word which is basically just hypocrite. We have carried over into English and then they put a preposition on the front that means ‘with.’ So the picture is here you are playing the role a hypocrite with others. So they join with him in hypocrisy. You are aware it came from the meaning of an actor who was playing a role in a play. So he was pretending to be someone he is not. That is what actors do. They are playing a role. So that is what a hypocrite is doing. He is playing a role. He is putting on a different front.

So the other Jewish believers joined him in hypocrisy. Now we have another kind of problem. We don’t have false brethren corrupting the Gospel as unbelievers or denying Paul’s apostleship, now you have believing Jews by their action implying that Gentiles aren’t as clean or holy as Jewish believers are. Now this is a serious problem. You have someone of the stature of Peter. Now you have other Jews and the result was in verse 13, “Even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.” And Barnabas as we have noted from Acts 4 was a Levite, believer from the Jewish priestly family in Israel. He is even caught up in this. Here is a man who has traveled with Paul to these Galatian churches on his first missionary journey.

You know peer pressure is great. We talk about and are concerned with our young people, teenagers and peer pressure. You know we as adults have peer pressure, really? Sometimes when we have opportunity to share the Gospel, we are afraid to do it because of what? What will people think? So we can understand here, but even Barnabas

Now Paul has a difficult situation on his hands. Barnabas has been a close associate. He is carried away. Peter is off the rails here. Other Jewish believers are off the rails. Now we can have a split of the church between Jew and Gentile just by practice. Well we agree that Gentiles can be saved and evidently you don’t view them as holy, undefiled like Jews are. So if we let this go and Paul lets this go, we will end up with a Jewish church and a Gentile church and never shall the twain meet. Pretty soon what will you have? If the Jews can’t fellowship and eat with the Gentiles does the Gospel we are preaching cleanse the Gentiles completely and fully? Remember the issue back when through the vision in Acts 10 God made clear that Peter had to go to the Gentiles. What did He say? “You don’t call unholy what I call holy.” That is the issue here. Does the Gospel cleanse the Gentiles so that they are holy, undefiled before God? Then why are you backing away from them? That is why he says, “He stood condemned. I opposed him to his face.” This is a serious matter and it is not done with. He puts it in the letter and here we are 2,000 years later reading about another stumble on Peter’s part. He doesn’t do this so he looks greater than Peter. It does show his apostleship is a full apostleship with the full authority from God so that when another apostle is inconsistent Paul doesn’t say, “Well you know I am not on the level of Peter. I am an apostle appointed by God, entrusted with the stewardship of His grace but obviously Peter is more important and greater than me. He was with the Lord during His earthly ministry.” It doesn’t matter. The Gospel is at stake and consistency with the Gospel.

“Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.” Carried away, carried along. We have to be sensitive. We have to be careful. The impact of our lives, what we do, the way we conduct ourselves.

I was reading in one of my theologies written in the 1800’s. Sadly reading there about a man writing in defense in the Southern Presbyterian Church, theologian of that church and their seminary; why the black people could not be accepted on the same level as the white people. Well, are they not cleansed from their sin? So these things come down in different ways at different times. I think here is a man, three of the volumes of his theological writings preserved and reprinted and yet sadly he is making a passioned defense of maintaining the white supremacy in the church. It comes down in different ways, in different times. It comes down through the cleansing of the Gospel. But here at the foundation but then we have to be careful we don’t get off track and lose our way.

Remember we mentioned this morning in Revelation chapter 5 “I was slain” and it was from people of all tribes, of all nationalities, all languages. We noted there is only one Savior. There is only one Gospel for all people of all kinds in the world. And that starts out why it is crucial right here. There is no division and there can be no division. It is not enough to have an agreement. But I don’t have to associate with them. There are times you know you have those you associate with. You have to be very careful. What am I saying here? That is what the issue is here, it’s a hypocrite.

So he said to them, verse 14: “When I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel.” This is the issue, “the truth of the Gospel,” “the truth of the Gospel.”

It is not a matter of saying the Jews have to have a ham sandwich. They don’t but they cannot refuse to eat with Gentile believers and as we have seen in Romans 14 and I Corinthians and so on, you don’t have to force your view of foods on one another. There is liberty there. So if I was having a Jewish believer over for lunch I might decide that day not to have ham sandwiches or I might have a variety of sandwiches and you can pick out what you want. So that is not the issue. The issue is withdrawing and not having the fellowship and recognizing that they are just as holy.

“I saw that they were not straight forward about the truth of the Gospel,” “the truth of the Gospel.” Now they have fallen into the same trap that unbelievers fell into. You can see why confusion comes.

Up on verse 4, “It was because of false brethren who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty.” Verse 5: “But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the Gospel might remain.” Now we have believers functioning hypocritically but it comes to the same issue. “They were not straight forward about the truth of the Gospel.” There is Christian liberty but there is no liberty with the truth of the Gospel because there is only one truth of the Gospel, the truth that cleanses Jews from all defilement and if God says they are holy, how can they not be holy enough for my fellowship and vice versa and on it goes. So it is the truth of the Gospel at stake here.

“I said to Cephas, ‘in the presence of all if you being a Jew live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews?’” By your behavior you are saying the Gentiles have to conduct themselves like the Jews or they are not really clean. We all forget what we have learned. Peter had the lesson impressed on him in Acts 10 in that vision. He agreed in Acts 15 at the conference that we forget under certain kinds of pressure.

I was talking with a well-known pastor one time at lunch a number of years ago. He said, “Gil do you ever want to resign?” He said, “I am not accomplishing anything.” He said, “I teach week after week after week. Something comes up. The people act like they didn’t learn anything.” That is not true of everyone but sometimes under the pressure of the moment we forget what we learned or under the pressure of what is going on we don’t want to implement what we learned in that setting. That is what is going on here. Peter, what’s wrong? When those Jews weren’t here you were comfortable with the Gentile eating with them, fellowshipping with them. He is just pointing out the hypocrisy before them. Why? The truth of the Gospel is at stake. Now is not denying it or undermining it. It is just not putting it into practice.

As I mentioned as down through church history there has been those kind of divides that come up. We had it in our country the racial divide. In Biblical times they had slaves and masters and Paul had to remind both. Masters had to remind they had a master in heaven. They should function in light of that. The slaves had to remind themselves that I serve my master in heaven even as I serve this earthly master. There is a constant reminder of what is going on.

Verse 15 we will move into. We won’t go this far. “We are Jews by nature, and not sinners from among the Gentiles.” He is going to go on to remind them of the Gospel that “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” It is hard for the Jews to recognize and accept even when they have trusted Christ that God’s Gospel is powerful enough to cleanse us dirty, filthy unclean Gentiles but it does. We are not the chosen people the way Israel was. There were certain things required of them but those wouldn’t save them, circumcision and their food laws never did save them. They had to have inner cleansing as well but they did have to have a special unique role. There are many advantages of being a Jew. Paul mentions that in his letter to the Romans. There are many but we realize the Gospel, it cleanses.

So we can sit down with anybody of any race, any culture, any language and what binds us together as brothers and sisters, we believe the same Gospel. We have the same Savior. Whatever the color of the skin or anything like that they have been cleansed and purified by the blood of Christ and the truth of the Gospel is at stake. If we conduct ourselves in such a way that we deny that the truth of the Gospel, we are not being straight forward with the Gospel. It doesn’t do enough on the side I say, “The are cleansed too but I think it better we don’t fellowship with them or get together with them.” So the hypocrisy is pointed out.

Traditions die hard. Peer pressure affects us all. The Word of God is the standard. We have to come back to that. Paul has to remind Peter and we must stand against even fellow believers when they are not straight forward with the truth that God has entrusted to us. Otherwise what would we pass on to the next generation? Now we see what happens when the Gospel gets corrupted by practice, by teaching and then the next generation gets raised in churches with a corrupted Gospel and pretty soon we look and say “They are so far from the truth they don’t know what the truth is.” So it is imperative upon us to be faithful with the truth, be straight forward with the Gospel and to maintain its purity.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your faithfulness. Lord in Your grace You have saved us and You have entrusted us with the stewardship of grace in gifting each one us. How awesome it is that You, the sovereign God have bestowed special enablement upon each one of Your children so that we can function is such a way as part of Your body wherever we are to contribute to growth, development, maturity. Each of us are responsible to the truth to be faithful to the truth, to maintain the truth and to live the truth in our relationship with one another. Thank You for Your love for us, Your grace that envelopes every aspect of our lives. We want to be faithful to that grace and with that grace we thank You in Christ’s name, amen.