Galatians 2:1-3 - Back Up to Jerusalem

[SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Lord just the fun and the celebration, the rejoicing that goes when your saints meet together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord is brothers and sisters and Christ that we can come together and enjoy one another because we enjoy you in each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for this time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for the Lord's table, which we'll get to celebrate this morning in the communion of that signifies and symbolizes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do pray for each individual, one of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: That this would be a time where we're growing in the grace of knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ability to trust in Him and see His life lived out throughout our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we have, we're continuing our story in the history of Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a great quote that is very frequently used that America will only be the land of the free and so far, or in so long as it is also the home of the brave.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's very true.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's no less true of our spiritual freedom.

[SPEAKER_00]: and Paul has shown himself and will continue to show himself to be the kind of person who is willing to stand up and fight and be persecuted and even die that others would know about the freedom that is found in Christ alone by grace alone to faith alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Galatians gives us this history of Paul's message

[SPEAKER_00]: of good news.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost in some sense a sort of expurgated punchy history on how the good news came to be understood by the church and what that meant as the men, whom God was directing, sust out and understood more fully what Jesus and His death means for everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: That gospel simply put as we're studying on Friday nights.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus Christ died for the sins of man, so that we may by faith alone, by trusting in Him, return to our relationship with Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't get much more simple than that, and yet the entirety of the rest of the Christian's life will be spent plumbing the depths and never finally getting there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Growing deeper and deeper in our understanding of what it means.

[SPEAKER_00]: the trust in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: for our salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul's been serious about defending some things so far if you're catching yourself up.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's been very serious about defending his apostleship, which is a word we don't use very often outside of the church, but the apostleship was the specific office to which he was appointed by Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it came with all of the qualification to give the message and also the authority and power to give the message that God had given him to deliver.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul was serious about defending this not because he wanted their loud or their adulation or their praise not because he wanted them to submit to his authority but because he knew his message was so important that if someone was able to cast doubt upon the messenger then the message would be put into question and that to Paul was unacceptable because that to Jesus was unacceptable.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was very serious about defending the source.

[SPEAKER_00]: The source, as we studied last week, was direct revelation from the risen glorified Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we got to spend a little bit of time last week digging into what that looked like.

[SPEAKER_00]: We said we don't have to the quite the details that we might have hoped for.

[SPEAKER_00]: We might want just like we don't have a lot of the details in Genesis and Revelation that we would satisfy all of our curiosity.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, we have the information we need.

[SPEAKER_00]: which is that Paul was not making this up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul was not dreaming this up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul was not thinking this up that this came directly as a revelation from the risen glorified Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he was very serious about defending that source.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's also very serious about defending this purity.

[SPEAKER_00]: We might think that Paul sounds a little bit like

[SPEAKER_00]: Like someone who's trying to claim personal individual originality with his gospel, because he defends that he keeps saying, no, no, no, no, yeah, I talked to Peter, but Peter didn't add anything to my gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: I talked to these people, and they didn't add anything to my gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we might be thinking like, Paul's like, no, I'm cooler than you guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard of Jesus first.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was the fan of Jesus before he was cool, but that's not what Jesus is saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not what Paul is saying here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul is trying to defend the purity of his gospel saying that he did not receive it or have it edified or edited by anyone else for the very specific and important reason that the purity of that gospel is the basis of how we can approach God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if anyone was allowed to tinker with it, it wouldn't be the message direct from Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anyone was allowed to revise it, then it wouldn't be the message that we were meant to have.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a big deal, a big deal to Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: It should be a big deal to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the question we might ask is, what difference does it make?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what difference does it make of people figured it out?

[SPEAKER_00]: What difference does it make if Paul had allowed someone to tamper with his gospel or chosen to tamper with it himself?

[SPEAKER_00]: What difference does it make to us?

[SPEAKER_00]: If that we know where this message comes from and where to find it in the word.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it makes all the difference in the world because it's the difference of knowing that the message of salvation that we believe is truly the only hope for all of mankind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's so much so and was so important that God sent and spent special time supernaturally revealing it to Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: He protected that message with his spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He preserved it for us in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: and he's taken it down through generations and generations and generations so that you might put your faith in Jesus Christ and I might put my faith in Jesus Christ and know his love, his grace, his hope, his life and forgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why this message is so important.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not trusting some very tale.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not trusting some amalgamation of popular myths.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not trusting

[SPEAKER_00]: something that some very clever Jewish man figured out some two thousand years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: We trust that what God has directly revealed because they loved us too much to let us die alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: He entered our reality repeatedly.

[SPEAKER_00]: He entered his reality chiefly through the person and work of Jesus Christ and repeatedly through the corrective hand in this case of Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: or using Paul as his tool to preserve and protect that gospel and all of church history stands as a resounding trumpet call for the severity for the seriousness, for the supernatural interference with planet Earth that God has done in order to keep this gospel alive and available to mankind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Belations two, one through three reads, getting directly into our study.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then after an interval of fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was because of a revelation that I went up, and I submitted to them the Gospel, which I preached among the Gentiles.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I did so in private to those who are of reputation, for fear that I might be running or had run in vain.

[SPEAKER_00]: But not even Titus, who's with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, for ten years later, in chapter one, we saw that Paul had been operating as an apostle.

[SPEAKER_00]: He'd been carrying out his apostolic mission for some years before he even met any of the heavy hitters from the Jerusalem church.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was already a part of what he was writing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there are scholars who have spent years and years trying to figure out how the Galatians' accounts mix with Acts and which is which and which meeting and which fourteen years from what date I'm not going to bore you with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It'd like to.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd love to give you my thoughts on where this all falls together.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think that's the most important thing to us right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And quite frankly, I don't think we have enough information to be dogmatic about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not going to waste your time with what I don't think I can be dogmatic about.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, what we do know from Galatians is that when Paul finally did meet up with Peter, it was for a very short period of time.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just wanted to get acquainted.

[SPEAKER_00]: They wanted to get to know one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was why he went up.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't go up to compare notes per se.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, let me fill out my story with your story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get these things in sync so that we're saying that no, no, no, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: It seems like they spent most of the time just getting acquainted, laying down some history together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it worth it?

[SPEAKER_00]: More than a decade later, Paul again goes up to Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul had been freely sharing and teaching this gospel that entire time, uninterrupted by any interference from the Jerusalem crowd.

[SPEAKER_00]: Better than a decade, Paul had been traveling, working.

[SPEAKER_00]: He'd gone on his first mission strip at this point.

[SPEAKER_00]: and taking this gospel as we saw first to his hometown, his home region.

[SPEAKER_00]: He took this gospel everywhere he went with it undoubtedly.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's suffered for it a great deal already.

[SPEAKER_00]: He'd been doing this and teaching this the entire time.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's his point?

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, this message from Jesus Christ is not subject to the approval of anyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when it comes up the second time, he brings two buddies with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to find the right buddies for the equation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's Barnabas.

[SPEAKER_00]: Smiley, as always.

[SPEAKER_00]: Barnabas is the son of encouragement.

[SPEAKER_00]: Barnabas is that sunshiney guy you always want on your team.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the guy that guy who looks on the bright side of a train wreck, which means more to Mike than it does to the rest of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he is a great fella to have around.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's that powerful voice of encouragement that lifts up that hopes all things in all people.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's also Jewish.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a great thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's one of these early Jewish believers that have put their faith in Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is going to be very important given the crowd that they're going to be talking to in Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was the one who brought Paul into the church assembly.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the one who said, hey, this Paul guy, I think his conversion is real.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is the real deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can dare to hope that this man who was killing Christians and persecuting the church might actually be someone in whom we can trust.

[SPEAKER_00]: We also know that the accompanied Paul on his first missionary journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they'd put down some real history together.

[SPEAKER_00]: They'd travel together and if you want to get to know someone, travel with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Spend a couple of months on the road with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Boy, you'll get to know him better than you ever wanted to get to know him before.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's something that Paul and Barnabas had done together.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other friend that Paul mentions bringing up here is Titus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Titus was a disciple and a close associate of Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a Greek, as Paul tells us later, a strong leader that Paul could send anywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: Timothy and Titus kind of sit in opposition to not an opposition, but in balance to one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: Timothy tends to be the more sensitive type of leader.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one who is more likely to not just barge in and give his opinion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Titus is more the strong less sensitive leader.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Timothy had to be rebuked for his timidity, or at least encouraged, not to be timid, whereas Titus was the kind of guy that you could send to Crete.

[SPEAKER_00]: The kind of guy that you could send to, I don't know, we might say like a New York City, a really tough, tough atmosphere, and Titus was that guy that made him a really good man to bring into this situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a trustworthy friend and proven follower of Faithful Follower of Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see why that's so valuable coming up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why these companions?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why Barnabas and Titus in this situation?

[SPEAKER_00]: Bringing these two men would help the Jerusalem church understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what we need to get.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul's trip down to Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said it was by revelation as we're going to see.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul's trip down to Jerusalem was to save the Jerusalem church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Barnumus was well-known.

[SPEAKER_00]: He had a reputation.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a trustworthy guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as a Jewish Christian, they would have been comfortable with Barnabas.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was undoubtedly circumcised.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was raised in the same Jewish culture that they were all raised in.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was no question that Barnabas and Paul could be or were likely or maybe even were definitely walking with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were in.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were in the end crowd.

[SPEAKER_00]: No question about those two.

[SPEAKER_00]: Titus, on the other hand, would be a strong witness to the fact that trusting and Christ saves apart from any religious rituals, ethnic bias, or even the law of Moses.

[SPEAKER_00]: Titus would be that picture.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you'd have Barnabas and Paul, who they likely trusted there to say, I have seen Jesus' work in this man's life, even though he's a Greek.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though he's never spent a day under the tyranny of the Mosaic law, even though he doesn't fit our mold at all, even though he might make us uncomfortable.

[SPEAKER_00]: Titus was the true and vital picture that Christ, what Jesus was doing in this new thing called the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: was not about any ethnic or provincial sets of rules and regulations nor was it about any sort of racial bias on part of God or man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul bought brought the best possible group to make sure that this gospel was understood.

[SPEAKER_00]: Barnabas just having finished up that first missionary journey with Paul would have seen the spirit enter countless people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, maybe not countless, but many, many people

[SPEAKER_00]: who were not circumcised.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many, many people who had never heard, even heard of the law of Moses in any real specific way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Never had any opportunity, and yet as Peter noticed, in Acts chapter ten, the Spirit came upon them just as he came upon us in the beginning.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this was the perfect group of the perfect balanced group to come meet with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul and tells us why he went up to Jerusalem because of a revelation.

[SPEAKER_00]: This tells us that Paul is still receiving direct revelation from Jesus Christ as a part of his apostolic office.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to say this again because it's so vital.

[SPEAKER_00]: God instigated this correction of the gospel when the Jerusalem church was wavering.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Jerusalem church was wondering

[SPEAKER_00]: These believers were still figuring out how amazing, how huge, how large this wonderful picture that Jesus had painted for them to go about.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus said, as we've mentioned before, go make disciples of all nations, those disciples heard, go make disciples of the Jews in all those nations.

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't realize until much, much later.

[SPEAKER_00]: how extraordinarily open this offer of salvation was.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it took time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And because it took so much time and it took God re-entering into this equation through Paul to straighten the wavering baby church out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul then it says submitted to them this gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: We might get this idea that you're like submitting your vote or maybe submitting your paper so that it can be graded.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think our translators and our commentators often take the same view and I don't agree with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think Paul is going, hey, is this okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what I've been teaching.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is this the right message?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: He received it from Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: In person, likely over multiple meetings, not just a one-time deal, and over continued reality of revelation.

[SPEAKER_00]: The sense of this Greek word is tough to get in translation, but it has far more the idea that Paul laid it all out on the line for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said, look, this is what I receive from Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got Titus here and Barnabas, and they can attest to the truth of this and the power of this and the results of this,

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna lay it all out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nice, clear, simple and easy for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul writes, he's writing in the present tense here.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that I am preaching, you might translate this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is currently teaching this gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Galatian churches who he had just been with would likely say, okay, so the same one he gave us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's still giving it, even though these meetings have happened, nothing has changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing has impacted the truth of this message.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel that the Galatians heard believed and were saved by was the very one that he laid out on the line for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: This gospel can hardly write a letter without clearly writing out the basics of this gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just look at a couple of times that this comes up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Romans five, eight, but God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel, pure and simple, God created you, God loved you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And He paid the penalty for everything that you've done wrong and everything that I've done wrong that we might come back to Him because He loved us that much.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's remarkable.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, Paul, first Corinthians, fifteen, for I delivered you as a first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for us in, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures.

[SPEAKER_00]: Simple, direct.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, Christ died for your sins and my sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: By faith, we accept that gift of salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no added bonus.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no added attached requirement of obedience or some sort of tyrannical acceptance of anyone's different set of rules.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, we'll find that the life of Christ within us goes so far beyond any ten commandments, two commandments, five, fifteen, six hundred and thirteen with the life of Christ, what Jesus is doing in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: so far surpasses any silly legalistic standard that this gospel must shine out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Galatians one, three, three, five, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever, more amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians two eight nine for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope that this is so crystal clear in your mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope that this is so obvious to you because this is the information that a person trusts in to enter into a relationship with God once more.

[SPEAKER_00]: For he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Colossians one thirteen through fourteen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Titus three five through seven.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to his mercy by the washing and regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out upon us richly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Through Jesus Christ, our Savior, for the being justified by His grace, we would be made airs, according to the hope of eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could go on the entire service, just reading Paul's simple summations of the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't write a letter seemingly without at least intimately of not expressly putting it why, because it's not just the message of your salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also the message for your growth.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's grace is not just what gets you in the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just your get out of hell free card.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is also the only provided plan for you to grow in Jesus Christ and meet a growing Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pause discussion with those of reputation, likely many or some of the Twelve Apostles was done in private.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was a meeting that was held behind closed doors, which is kind of funny, because Paul was a pretty tough guy, he seemed like that kind of guy who didn't mind making some noise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why didn't he just show up at church on Sunday and say, I object, there has been false and just go and fire and broom stone the life out of him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why didn't he do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why am I private?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why not, isn't this important enough to address before everybody?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if this awful, disgusting legalism has been snaking its way in and enslaving believers, wouldn't that be important enough to address in loud, bombastic expressions before the body?

[SPEAKER_00]: Here we see one of the great principles of dealing with misunderstanding in the word, in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a disagreement.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a confusion.

[SPEAKER_00]: You wonder what someone else is saying?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you think they're saying something you disagree with?

[SPEAKER_00]: The first place to deal with that is in private.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first place to deal with that is one on one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did I understand you correctly?

[SPEAKER_00]: Were you communicating correctly?

[SPEAKER_00]: What it sounded like you were saying actually what you were saying?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I want to give you the benefit of the doubt.

[SPEAKER_00]: and Paul in bringing these two men with him and Paul in coming to these people these men in private was expressly giving them the best chance possible to understand exactly what Paul was about and what the gospel he'd receive from Jesus Christ and also gave them the best chance possible to honestly and openly explain what they knew or what their misunderstandings were.

[SPEAKER_00]: The situation without any issue of ego or pride or frustration, it didn't have to devolve into a shouting match.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Paul went about this in the loving and sensitive way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christ, that's good news.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we move on to Paul's fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul writes that he was afraid that he may have run in vain.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, very often this has taken as, I was really worried that I had this whole thing wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: And nobody wants to waste anybody else's time, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's just not what Paul's about or anyone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is it?

[SPEAKER_00]: What are you wondering though if the apostles would deny the gospel?

[SPEAKER_00]: Was he wondering if he'd got it wrong?

[SPEAKER_00]: And we could think that some level of humility like that would be admirable.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Paul was willing to ask the question, maybe I am out of line.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was willing to check.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think that's the tenor of what's going on there.

[SPEAKER_00]: We wouldn't matter if they did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul got this message again from Jesus Christ directly.

[SPEAKER_00]: If they were to say, actually, I think you kind of missed on this one, the circumcision ten commandments thing is probably still a good thing to keep on there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would that have changed his message that he received directly from Jesus Christ?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an authority issue at play here, isn't there?

[SPEAKER_00]: Clearly Paul came in hopes to stop the perversion and destruction of the gospel at its source in the Jerusalem church.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was given a direct revelation from Jesus Christ to come down and do this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He chose exactly the right people to come with him to come down and do this, to preserve the purity of this gospel which he's preaching.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is likely contributed to the victory at the Jerusalem Council.

[SPEAKER_00]: of Jerusalem Councils, whenever everybody got together and went, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's absolutely right.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about putting believers back under the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about making believers or new these Gentile Christians into Jewish Christians.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can come because the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: The results?

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul continues to talk about this meeting and coming verses.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna go on and move through what this means and what this is about.

[SPEAKER_00]: But one of the results here is that Titus, who is right there, was not compelled by anyone, is the intimate intimation or any of the big players in that meeting to be circumcised.

[SPEAKER_00]: possibly Peter was there.

[SPEAKER_00]: John, who knows, James could have been any number of big names that we know from elsewhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: And every single one of them looked at Titus and went, yes, that man has filled with the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that man loves Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that man is, and you know what, putting him under the law isn't gonna do him a lick of good.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let's not even bother.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's not even invite him to become circumcised so that they can be part of our club.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul's point, everybody got it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He came in in the power of the Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He came in by the revelation of Jesus Christ to protect the gospel and he knows it was a success.

[SPEAKER_00]: Coming down to it, the gospel plus nothing equals everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel of Jesus Christ that we've looked at again and again, God is only Son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Give His life that you and I might come to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here equals our salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It equals our growth.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel plus anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel plus any ritual.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel plus any ten good works.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel plus any set of rules.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel plus any amount of money you're supposed to give.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel plus any amount of being nice to whoever else it is equals hopelessness and loss.

[SPEAKER_00]: It equals a situation where we're trying to get ourselves at least some of the glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the result is nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the unbeliever it is not salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's tragic.

[SPEAKER_00]: For the believer, it's not growing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's spending our lives in sad, infantile, legalistic, babyhood.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not acceptable.

[SPEAKER_00]: This body needs more from you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord's plan demands more from you in your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: A relationship with God can only come by God's amazing grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: We often hear that that salvation is free, but it's only free to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: You see, God can offer us this salvation because He paid the penalty, because He paid the price, made the sacrifice, and satisfied His own righteousness so that we might come to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is fantastic news to share with everybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it didn't come through any number of smart people sitting down and figuring it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: We would not know it if God had not revealed it to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We pray with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the gift of this day, this time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sweet moments that we spend looking to your word, knowing and trusting you as we come to celebrate communion and pray that our hearts would be overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness for your amazing love and sacrifice for us and Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: In whose name we pray, amen.