Truth and Fellowship of the Gospel

Amen. Well, thank you, Cata. Oh, that's loud. Thank you, Cata, for reading that to us and for praying that we do ask that God will bless the reading of his word and as we open it up this morning.

And it's great to be in Galatians. It's a great letter and we trust that we will learn a lot this morning.

You know, it's good to do a recap. Some of you maybe haven't been here the last couple of weeks. This is our third installment in Galatians and we'll be doing it through

to November. So this is our third installment. We're in chapter two. So if you've not been, you've missed chapter one.

And maybe you have been here the last couple of weeks, but our minds are weak, aren't they? So it's always good to have a recap.

So this is a letter of Paul, the apostle, and we'll see him a lot this morning. And he's writing to the churches of Galatia.

It says that in chapter one. Now, if you read Acts chapter 13 and 14, you see Paul on his missionary journey where he goes through, he visits, he encourages, he helps to run and to challenge these churches in the province of Galatia.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

We can see some of them there. We have Iconium, Antioch, Lystra, Derby. These are places that are mentioned.

You know, it's great to go and read Acts. That's your homework. My youngest daughter, she just started school. She loves homework. Brilliant.

So I hope you guys are the same, but go and read Acts. Read the background, the context of Galatians. It is very helpful.

OK, but in Acts 13 and 14, Paul goes through these churches and that is who he is writing to.

That there is modern day Turkey. You might recognize it. That is the situation that we are in.

But Paul, he is writing an impassioned and a frustrated letter to these churches.

Why? Well, he's addressing a false teaching.

This false teaching that the Christians, especially the Gentile Christians, they had to follow certain Jewish laws in order to be truly saved.

That was this false teaching that had come in.

And Paul is writing to challenge that.

And he's writing in about A.D. 48 to 50, probably around A.D. 50 is the timeline on that one.

And we saw in chapter one, we saw that Paul, he calls himself an apostle.

What does that mean?

Well, it means that he was commissioned by God himself, was given the message directly to go and tell others.

And we see in chapter one that he defends his authority to be doing so.

He also defends the message that he is giving.

This message is that there's only one gospel.

That Paul, he was commissioned by Jesus.

He received it from Christ himself.

I know that word gospel.

I'm always wary we use words that maybe aren't common in the world.

Well, to define the word gospel, it means the message concerning Christ, God's kingdom and salvation.

That is what the gospel means.

And literally, it means good news.

But we'll see the gospel again in a minute.

But Paul, in chapter one, he's defended his authority and his character to preach.

He's addressed the presence of this false teaching.

He's defended his calling.

And this is necessary.

Because if people don't think he has the right to speak, then they're not going to listen to the content of his message, are they?

So that was chapter one.

And that brings us to this morning.

And hopefully, nice and simply, two things to remember.

First of all, in the first half, we see the truth of the gospel.

And then in our second half, we're going to see the fellowship of the gospel.

So let's get stuck into the truth of the gospel.

Paul now goes on to defend the message that he has been giving and the truth of it.

You know, the truth, it's a bit of a flimsy concept nowadays, I believe.

We live in the world of fake news, of AI, where we could watch something and we go, I don't know if that's real.

You know, it could be made up.

Started with photo editing, now video editing.

What is true?

What is really true?

You know, some people would say we live in a post-truth society.

What does that mean?

Well, it means that we all have our personal truth.

That if it's true to you, then that's fine.

But then that makes truth subjective.

But truth is not subjective.

Truth is black or white.

It is one thing or another.

Things are true or not.

And this morning, we will see the truth of the good news of Jesus laid out and defended.

So, please have the Bible in front of you.

It's so helpful to have it in front of you as we go through this morning.

It is God's word and it is so important to read it.

So, in verse 1, in the start of verse 2, we see that after 14 years, Paul goes up again to Jerusalem.

So, at the end of chapter 1, he visits Jerusalem after three years of his conversion.

And then 14 years later, he goes back to Jerusalem.

He takes this man Barnabas with him, who is a partner in the gospel work that he was doing.

And he also takes Titus.

And we'll talk about Titus in a minute.

But you know, he doesn't go up because it's really nice that time of year.

He didn't fancy a holiday.

It was a revelation from God.

He felt God speaking to him and saying, Paul, you need to go to Jerusalem.

So, he goes and he meets privately in verse 2, those esteemed as leaders.

These were the Jewish leaders, sorry, the Christian leaders in the church in Jerusalem.

And they are mentioned later on and we'll speak about them then.

But he goes and he presents the gospel to these church leaders in Jerusalem.

He goes and presents what he has been speaking about for the past 17 years.

You know, in the second half of verse 2, we have a slightly funny phrasing.

He says, I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.

You know, I'm not a big horse racing fan.

I don't know if you guys are.

I never really got the whole horse thing.

If you want to challenge me on that later, feel free.

But I never really understood the whole horse racing thing.

But you know, sometimes I have found some enjoyment in horse racing.

It's when the jockey falls off.

Hopefully they're okay, of course.

But the horse, it just keeps running.

And this horse just, you know, happy as Larry, running along.

Having a great time.

Here's one here.

This was actually a horse in Mexico and it won the race, having lost its jockey at the start.

But you know, once again, I don't know anything about horse racing.

But the rules of horse racing is that a horse with no jockey can't win.

This horse had totally wasted its time and energy by running and absolutely given everything

to win this race while he was trained to do.

But it was totally pointless.

Why am I going on about this?

Well, Paul, he doesn't want to have wasted his time.

These 17 years that he spent, he doesn't want to have been running this race in vain,

as he calls it.

But this is strange because Paul, he went up not because he doubted in what he had been doing,

not because he didn't trust the gospel that he had been preaching.

No, he went because he felt God wanted him to go.

Paul wasn't unsure.

Paul was confident in the gospel of Jesus Christ that he was preaching.

He had got it straight from Christ himself.

He was an apostle.

He had spent so long.

He was so committed to this good news that he was going around telling others about.

He was so committed to it.

He was suffering for it.

And he would go on, as I'm sure you know, to suffer even more and eventually be killed

for this message that he was proclaiming around the world.

So what does he mean here?

Well, he's fighting for the truth.

That truth that Gentiles can be saved by faith alone.

If these other Christian leaders in the center of Judaism in Jerusalem,

if these church leaders disagreed with him, if they undermined him,

then Paul's work, in a sense, would have been in vain.

The Gentile Christians, their confidence and their faith

would have been shattered.

It would have emboldened these false teachers who are saying the wrong thing.

But thankfully, we see that Paul has not been running in vain.

We meet this man, Titus, in verse 3.

Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised,

even though he was a Greek.

So Titus was a Greek.

He was not a Jew, essentially, a Gentile.

Okay?

That he was brought up to the center of Judaism.

But, you know, he wasn't made to be circumcised

by the Christians in Jerusalem so that he could fit in.

The main, but not the only thing that these false teachers were saying

was that these Gentile Christians should be circumcised.

That's something that the Jews followed from the Torah, their laws.

But there was other laws they were trying to put on these new Christians.

But circumcision was one of the main ones that they tried to impose.

But, you know, if Titus wasn't made to be circumcised here

by those who ran the church in Jerusalem,

then it means that no one should be, that no one has to.

Jesus plus nothing.

Jesus minus nothing.

The good news of the gospel is that it is just Jesus.

That Jesus is enough.

In verse 4, Paul explains what he's talking about.

He explains what he's talking about.

He says,

This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks

to spy on the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus

and to make us slaves.

These Judaizers, as they were called,

they were trying to put these Christians back into the slavery of rules.

that you must do X, Y, and Z in order to be saved.

But, you know, if anyone was going to stick to the Jewish laws,

it would have been Paul.

Paul, as he admits in chapter 1,

he was top Jew.

He was zealous.

He loved the rules.

That was what he lived for.

In chapter 1, verse 14, he says,

I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age

among my people

and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

You know, the false teaching that creeps in here

is very close to the truth.

These false teachers,

they weren't saying to abandon all that they'd heard

and go back to, you know,

all following all of the rituals and all of the traditions.

But they were just adding things on.

And, you know, it's often when false teaching comes in,

it sounds almost right.

If we were to play that game,

have you played it two truths and a lie?

Most people have played that game.

We play it with a teenager sometimes.

So if I was to tell you things that are true about myself,

two of them,

and I was to give you a lie,

you know, if I give you an outrageous lie,

like I'm the president of America,

you would spot it a mile off, wouldn't you?

But if I said something that,

oh, that could be true,

if I just twist it a little bit,

I'm more likely to get away with it.

And that's the game.

But, you know, that's a little bit like false teaching.

That's when false teaching can be dangerous,

and that is why Paul is addressing it here.

Paul, he is fighting for the freedom found in the gospel.

We might hear from society or friends or family,

we might hear that, you know, Christianity,

well, it's oppressive.

It's old-fashioned.

It's just rules.

Oh, you can't do that.

And you must do this.

And you have to go to church on a Sunday.

And you can't do that before you're married.

And all that kind of stuff.

Maybe that's what we hear.

But the truth is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is freedom.

What do I mean by that?

Well, it's freedom from sin.

It's freedom from the curse of sin.

The curse of sin.

We are all sinful by nature.

Yeah, we all have individual sin.

We mess up at times.

Well, that is because we are sinful in and of ourselves.

What does that mean?

Well, it means that we have an eternal separation from God.

God is just.

God is holy.

That means that he cannot just put up with our disobedience.

Cannot just put up with our sinful nature.

God wouldn't be just if he just said,

you know what?

I'll let you off this time.

God is holy and God is just.

The law, these rules that the Jews had to follow,

all that it achieved was it pointed out to the fact that they couldn't follow them.

If I gave you a massive list of rules,

all that would happen is that you would feel guilt and shame

and you would feel not good enough

because you wouldn't be able to follow them.

That was essentially what the law did for the Jews.

You know, the gospel of Jesus Christ,

it says that Jesus, he came to this earth.

We're approaching that time of year again when we'll think about that.

But Jesus came, he came as fully human.

So he could feel how we feel.

He could be tempted.

But he was also fully God,

which meant that he did not sin.

He resisted temptation.

He lived that perfect life.

And he went all the way to the cross.

And as he lived his life,

he made many claims and he backed them up with miracles,

which proved that he was who he said he was,

the Son of God.

He went all the way to that cross that we think about Easter time.

He gave up his life.

And yet he suffered physically.

And yes, he died physically.

But in those three hours of darkness,

that eternal separation from God,

that separation of God that we deserve,

it was put upon him,

the undeserving one.

Why?

So that if we trust in him,

we don't have to face that.

And he physically died.

But he was resurrected again,

showing that sin and death had no hold upon him

because he didn't deserve to die.

He witnessed to many and then ascended back to heaven

and is preparing a place for us.

How wonderful is that?

That means that if we trust in him,

if we rely on Christ and not on ourselves,

as we sung about earlier,

yet not I,

but through Christ in me,

then we can have our sin problem forgiven.

That we can have freedom in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Graham Helpfully,

a couple of weeks ago,

said,

by grace alone,

through faith alone,

in Jesus alone.

That is the good news,

the truth of the gospel

that Paul was getting across.

You know,

if that is not you this morning,

please speak to me after.

Please go along to Hope Explored.

What a great opportunity

to go and discuss these things

and to really tease them out.

It's the most important thing we'll ever do

is address our position

before the God who made us

and the God who loves us.

But you know,

if we are saved,

then we respond in love and appreciation.

We respond by doing what he wants us to do.

Not because we have to,

not because of a condition of our salvation,

but because we want to.

And you know,

not reverting back

to what we were doing before

in our sinful ways.

It's a silly example,

but it's the only one I thought of.

Can you imagine being set free from prison?

Captive in there.

You've got the whole world in front of you,

but you keep going back

because you really enjoyed the yard time

where you could look up to the sky

and imagine the possibilities out there.

That's probably just a,

like what I see in films,

it's probably not reality at all.

But you know,

imagine that.

Imagine going back to something like that.

But in a sense,

if we go back to our sinful ways

after being saved,

then that's what we're doing.

So that is the truth of the gospel.

And to finish,

we have the fellowship

of the gospel.

I don't know if you hear the phrase

the fellowship of,

and in your head,

you just start going,

a few blank faces.

I'm talking about the Lord of the Rings,

the fellowship of the ring.

So the Lord of the Rings,

the J.R. Tolkien book,

and then the famous film series.

Here we have the fellowship of the ring.

There are a varied bunch.

Ignore the horse,

just photo bombed in there.

But the rest of them,

you've got an elf,

you've got a man,

you've got a wizard,

you've got a king,

and you've got the hobbits,

of course.

And this fellowship,

they came together.

They had a purpose.

They had something to do.

They wanted to get rid of this ring.

They went on a quest.

They all had the same purpose

and goal in mind,

and they were dedicated to it.

And they traveled all that way

to Mordor.

Anyway,

you can watch it later on.

But read Acts first.

Okay.

So,

why am I talking about this?

Well,

this was the fellowship of the ring.

But here in the second half,

we see the fellowship of the gospel.

Here we see that the Christians here,

they had a common goal and purpose.

They wanted to see the good news

of the gospel spread abroad.

And they have real unity

in what they are doing.

In verse 6,

read along with me,

it says,

As for these who were held

in high esteem,

whatever they were

makes no difference to me.

God does not show favoritism.

They added nothing to my message.

These esteemed others,

as Paul calls them,

they had nothing to add

to what Paul was preaching.

The gospel is the gospel.

And that was true then.

And it's true now.

That's why we need to guard

against false teaching

if it comes in at all.

And Peter,

he's named later on.

It might be in your version,

Cephas.

That's him.

That's Peter.

But he had seen firsthand

in Acts chapter 10 and 11,

Acts 10 · chapter mention

he had seen the Gentiles

come to faith

and receiving the Spirit

with no add-ons,

just by accepting the truth

of what Jesus had done,

his death and resurrection.

Acts 11 and 18,

when they heard this,

they had no further objections

and praised God,

saying,

So then,

even to the Gentiles,

God has granted repentance

that leads to life.

So Peter,

he couldn't add to this

because he had seen it firsthand.

And Paul,

interestingly,

he sees no hierarchy

because God doesn't.

It says,

God does not show favoritism.

All are the same before God.

Everyone is equal before God.

We can maybe explore that

in growth groups

or discuss after maybe

about how that would relate

in church circles,

but that's not time

for that this morning.

But we are all the same

before God.

When God looks out,

he sees us in two categories.

It's sinners or saved.

So that means if we are saved,

then we are all equal.

You know,

it's remarkable

that nothing is added to

in the gospel here

that Peter and the others,

they basically sign off

and say,

we are preaching

the same gospel.

Think about it.

14 years has elapsed

between when they've seen each other.

Think of the distances involved.

This wasn't in the day

that you could email

or send a text

and say,

oh,

how's your doctrine on this?

What do you think about that?

Can you remind me of this?

You know,

in human terms,

this is remarkable,

but it's because

of the work of God.

This is God's work.

And so the gospel

has been stuck to.

The truth of it

has been kept.

And we see in verse 7 and 8

that God is working

in Paul and Peter,

but in different ways.

Verse 7 says,

It is all God's work here.

Peter and Paul,

they are just messengers.

They are just being used by God.

And they are equal in role.

There is no hierarchy.

They just have a different calling.

They've been called

to go to different places

and to speak to different people.

And when you break that down,

that means that there is no difference

between a Jewish Christian

and a Gentile Christian.

And that really affects

the false teaching

that was being put in here.

There is real unity

and responsibility

in the body of Christ.

What do I mean by that?

The body of Christ.

Elsewhere in Paul's letter,

he talks about the body of Christ.

That is the church.

Not the building,

not Brunsfield,

but the global church.

All Christians

are the body of Christ.

You know,

what do we know about the body?

Well, there's lots of different parts.

I can read Paul's letter

that explains this.

But essentially what he says

is that the church

is the body of Christ.

There's different parts.

There are hands.

There are feet.

They do different roles.

But we need all of them

for it all to come together

and to work well.

If we were missing

any part of our body,

then I'm sure we would struggle

in certain ways

to do certain things.

So they are equal

but have different roles.

And we see that in verse 9

where James, Cephas, and John,

those esteemed as pillars,

they gave me and Barnabas

the right hand of fellowship

when they recognized

the grace given to me.

They agreed that we should go

to the Gentiles

and they to the circumcised.

There's marvelous common appreciation

and respect shown here

between these two parties.

Yes, they have different roles.

They have different areas.

They have a different ministry.

But they have the same gospel.

There is mutual encouragement here.

We'll see next week

that there was challenge

when things aren't right.

There's accountability in this.

You know, the right hand of fellowship,

it's something that we don't really,

maybe that's not fair to say,

buy into nowadays,

but not explicitly.

But you know, really back then

it was a strong thing.

It meant that we were partnering.

We're partnering in this together.

It means that there would be encouragement,

there would be challenge,

that there would be prayer

for one another.

It was really a sense saying,

I am with you no matter what

in our shared work of the gospel.

This is a great example

to follow nowadays.

Partnering in our work.

It might be in big ways,

it might be in small ways.

Partnering in the work

of spreading the good news of Jesus.

So we have our final verse.

And it might seem a bit random.

It says,

All they asked was that

we should continue to remember the poor,

the very thing I'd been eager to do

all along.

Seems sort of added on,

out of place.

But you know,

this here is the outflowing

of this fellowship.

Outflowing of this like-mindedness.

It was probably meaning by the poor,

it was probably meaning

the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.

They were really struggling.

They were facing massive hostility

for what they believed.

They were being persecuted.

They were facing really tough times.

And we see in Acts

that they were raising money

in other churches

and sending it

to these Christians in Jerusalem.

You know,

if the truth

and the fellowship of the gospel

is applied,

then we're not inward focused.

We're not thinking all about us

and how things affect us.

But we look outward.

We look outward.

Yes,

in message telling,

but also physically

looking after people

and really caring

for how other people are.

That is

the truth

and the fellowship

of the gospel

applied out the way.

So as we finish,

I thought it'd be helpful

just to look at some practical things

as to how

we can think about this.

So from our first section,

how can we stick

to the truth of the gospel?

Well,

first of all,

there's study.

Read the Bible.

Yes,

individually,

it's so important

to have that one-on-one time

in God's word.

In this age that we are in,

this is the age

that God speaks to us

through his word.

So it's important

that we spend time

reading it,

understanding it,

getting to know it.

You know,

it's also great

to come together

on occasions like this

and to hear from God's word,

to attend home groups,

to go to places

where God's word

is discussed

and that we can learn

and also when we can be corrected.

These things are important.

Why?

Because if we don't know the Bible,

how are we going to spot

false teaching coming in?

How are we going to guard

the truth

of the freedom of the gospel?

Well, one of the best ways

to do so is through prayer.

We need to pray

because we need God's help

in these things.

Just as it was God

who kept the gospel true

in those 14 years

and no deviation

in that time

for Paul and for Peter,

likewise,

we need the Spirit's help.

And lastly,

challenging what isn't right.

You know,

if there's things

that aren't right,

if there's things

that are being said

that aren't true,

then in a loving

and a gracious way,

we need to challenge

these things.

We cannot just let

small things,

it's not quite right,

but we'll just let it go.

You know,

these things snowball.

We cannot allow

false teachings

to come in

because they are dangerous

and it will cause

a lot of problems.

So how can we encourage

fellowship

in the gospel?

Well,

meeting with other Christians,

meeting together.

We're not going

to encourage people,

we're not going

to have fellowship

if we don't meet together.

As Craig said,

grab a coffee

at the end,

speak to someone.

You know,

encouraging people,

encouraging one another,

both within Brunsfield,

yes,

but then out with as well.

How do we do that?

Well,

within Brunsfield,

if we come,

we come to the prayer meeting,

we'll encourage people

by being there,

by attending,

speaking together,

how about you ask

someone after the service

how their prayer life

has been this week.

Now,

it's a challenge,

but it's an encouragement

that we care

about one another.

We could message people

during the week,

how are you getting on?

Anything I can pray for,

that's really encouraging.

It encourages this fellowship

in the gospel.

Or they're serving.

You know,

it's brilliant

to be able to serve

one another.

It's really encouraging

to see people serve

and give up time

and do roles

that are just in the background

that are so important

and are so helpful.

That's within,

but then we also have without.

So it might be going

to speak somewhere,

giving a talk.

Maybe it's helping

at other churches' events,

doing camps,

this type of thing.

We've been blessed

at Brunsfield

to have people come

to our church weekend away

to do the cooking,

to look after children.

That was really encouraging.

Or maybe you're on holiday

and you attend

a local church.

That will be really encouraging

for them,

wherever that is.

And then you've got

more formalized ways

of fellowship

in the gospel.

So we have things

like the Origin Events

in Edinburgh,

where lots of people

from all the churches

in Edinburgh

and beyond

gather together

to sing and worship

our God together.

Similar with the

praise gathering,

which some people

here are involved in.

And we also have

gospel partnerships.

There's one in Glasgow.

There's some all over the place.

But Graham,

he's heavily involved

with the East of Scotland

gospel partnership,

working with other churches

to see people

in our city saved.

Wonderful.

And finally,

what does our saving faith

cause us to do?

Well, inwardly,

we rejoice.

Rejoice in the freedom

of the gospel,

the truth of it.

And then there's

that outward pouring,

the gospel applied,

preaching the gospel,

telling others,

telling your friend

over lunch,

whatever it might be.

Telling the good news

of Jesus to those

who we rub shoulders with.

But then practically as well,

remember the poor,

those who are

in difficult times,

those who are struggling

physically,

mentally,

whatever it might be,

looking out

for others.

God,

Father,

we just thank you

for your word.

We thank you

for the opportunity

and availability

we have of it.

And we thank you

for speaking

to each one of us.

And we pray

that your spirit

will work in us

this week

as we go

and as we

consider

and apply

these things

that we have

heard from you

this morning.

And so we just

ask your blessing

on the rest of our time.

In the name

of the Lord Jesus.

Amen.