Standing Against for the Gospel - Galatians 2:11-16

Now, a true friend and a true brother, someone who truly cares for you, will tell you hard things.

They're going to tell you in a kind way, in a loving way, in a humble way, in a tender way, that you're off the tracks, that you're not you're not saying something that's accurate, that you're not, that you're not doing something the right way.

You're incorrect.

You're wrong.

You're breaking a rule.

You're breaking a law.

This is a kind thing to do.

What is not kind is to know someone is wrong and to not lovingly show them what is right.

That is showing that you actually, in fact, don't care about the person that is that you'd call your friend, that you'd call your brother, your sister.

Today in our passage, we're going to see Paul oppose someone for the sake of the gospel.

He's going to stand up against a brother in Christ because he is erring, because he is mistaken, he is wrong, and he is painting the gospel in a light that is not honoring to Christ.

And this isn't just a common man.

This is a man that walked with Jesus.

He literally walked on water with Jesus in a storm.

He denied Jesus three times the night that he was heading towards the cross the night before.

And this man's name is Cephas in our text, but you would know him better as Peter.

And Paul is going to show uh show Peter face to face, not behind his back, not uh not on Reddit, not in a chat somewhere online.

No, he's going to talk to Peter face to face, and we get an account of what what he said.

And both Paul and Peter are Jews.

They both were raised in a way that would look forward to the coming Messiah that would that would save, that would rescue.

And both of these men had known Jesus, both in different ways.

But we're going to see a kind and loving Paul go to give an account of his interaction with Peter when he was erring.

He was mixing and blending and mincing with the Judaizers.

He was scared.

He was seeking their approval.

And for him, that was a problem because he was leading people astray.

He was he was in the wrong and he was blurring, distorting the gospel by not his words, but by his actions.

But by his actions.

And sometimes what we do in this life speaks louder than what we say.

Speaks louder than what we say.

And I think some of you can uh can relate with that.

You might tell your parents one thing, but your actions are contrary.

You might know something to be true and right, but your actions are opposite.

You might say you're going to go do something, and then you go, don't do it.

And you would call these people hypocrites, people that are not people of integrity, people that are good for their word.

And I think we all at one point in our life have fallen, have failed in a certain way, like Peter has.

When we we see people in this life, we seek to please them.

We seek to honor them before the Savior.

We seek to honor them and give them what they want rather than what Jesus would want from us.

So we're going to pick up in verse 11 today.

And I hope that you see, see the care, the seriousness that Paul has as he holds and assesses the gospel and how that affects our lives, how it frees us, and how we are, how we are to live our life in this world where people are striving to earn their way to heaven, striving to blend religion and works in hopes of pleasing God or getting to the next level.

So I hope that you're picking up on this tonight because we're going to get back into Paul's defense, and then also we're going to see in the final couple verses how Paul is speaking to the gospel and what justification is.

Let's read our text today.

Let's start in verse 11.

Galatians 2, verse 11.

Galatians 2:11

But when Cephas, this is Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles.

But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.

Fearing the circumcision party.

This is a prime example of peer pressure, a prime example of seeking to act in a certain way, modify or change your behavior to gain the attention, to gain the approval, to gain the respect of a certain people.

Now, people from James would be speaking of the Christian brothers in Jerusalem.

James, as we looked in our last book that we worked through, James is the leader of the Jerusalem church, the brother of Jesus himself.

James, these men coming from James, coming from Jerusalem, were inbound.

We're inbound.

And Paul is is uh is calling out Peter.

He's calling him out.

He's like, hey, what's going on?

You're eating, you have the liberty, you have the freedom to eat however you wish.

There's there's no longer a dietary restriction placed on you as they would be following the laws of Moses, the dietary regulations of Moses.

We think back to Deuteronomy when Moses is giving the different laws and regulations of what animals, what things are clean, what things are good to eat that are pleasing to the Lord, and those which are not.

There's a list of things.

You can take a look there in Deuteronomy chapter 4.

Deuteronomy 4 · chapter mention

You could also find it in Leviticus chapter 11.

Leviticus 11 · chapter mention

Now we we have the the luxury, we have the freedom in Christ as Christians, as people who are following after the Lord in the year 2026, and we can enjoy invertebrates, we can enjoy bacon, uh, we can enjoy pulled pork, and this is a good thing.

But for Peter in this time, he's eating with the Gentiles, enjoying what he wishes, eating and not having any regulatory rules placed over his head, but he knows that these guys coming down from Jerusalem, these guys, these Jews coming down are influential.

These people might be might be swayed by by the Judaizers.

He's not sure.

He's not sure.

So he's modifying his behavior based on who's going to be around, who's going to be approving of what he is doing.

Before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself.

How how awkward would that have been?

Imagine you're sitting and having meals with a brother, and all of a sudden uh old friends come into town and you want nothing to do with that friend sitting to your left or to your right.

Uh you you're seeking the approval of someone else.

That's it's a harsh thing, it's a it's a misleading, and it's a wrong thing for for Peter to do this.

He separated himself fearing the circumcision party.

We'll continue on in verse 13.

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

Barnabas, the man who was sent to meet Paul at that time, Saul, and he has a personal missionary type relationship, a brother, uh, a brother figure to Paul, and he was led astray.

He was led into sin by their hypocrisy, doing one thing and saying, saying another.

And that is that is uh something that I think we all struggle with.

I've said that before.

We we can be a people that in front of maybe our our parents saying and doing one thing, but in front of our our friends doing another, or vice versa.

You'd be hanging out with your friends, interacting, speaking in a certain way, but then when your parents are around, you snap out of it.

Uh maybe that context might be a good for you if you're thinking about the accountability and and the ways that your parents would hope you would conduct yourself.

But you see this tension here.

Peter is being opposed by Paul because his conduct among certain individuals, Christians coming down from Jerusalem, yeah, he's he's afraid of what people are gonna think of him.

He's afraid that that these people might lose interest in the gospel that he's preaching because he is interacting with people that are thinking that in order to be saved, you must have faith in Christ, and also you must have a set number and strive uh striving for good works.

You must be attaining and maintaining your salvation by the works of the law, the works and the laws of Moses, as we see in the first five books of the Old Testament.

So not only is he condemned, he is also affecting other people.

His sin is affecting those around him, and Barnabas was led astray by the hypocrisy.

Others are led astray when you struggle with sin concerning this gospel.

You have to be clear on the gospel.

When you are uh in a place in in school or maybe in public and you're thinking to yourself, I just want to make sure that these people think I'm okay.

I want to make sure that I'm pleasing these people because I think highly of them.

Maybe, maybe they're an upgrade of some kind in your in your circle of friends.

Maybe they have have have cooler toys or they have a more a more popular reputation about them, and you're seeking to gain their approval when you and your your current friends have have a good thing going.

You have mutual love and respect for one another, and and other people can be hurt.

Other relationships can be damaged when you're seeking to please people that are that are not honoring the Lord, that have a distorted view of the gospel.

So that's an important thing for us to understand.

And and there's gonna be times in your life when you're gonna have to take a stand for what you know is truly right, and it's gonna cost you something.

It's gonna cost you maybe a loss of friendship, a loss of reputation in front of certain people.

Now, that is something that I think is a big deal for for students your age.

Your reputation, your name, your your clout, your street cred, your reputation is a big deal because let's be honest, you guys don't have a whole lot.

You don't have a whole lot.

And that's not a dig, that's not a knock on you guys.

But as far as material things, as far as what you can show, as far as what you've earned or what you've you've made for yourself in this life, there's there's not a long list.

You might have like a couple trophies that are kind of dusty because they're participation trophies sitting on your on your on your uh shelf in your room, and you might be like, it's a big deal.

T ball, MVP, you know.

You know, but uh you have a reputation whether you like it or not.

You have you are influential whether you like it or not.

It's true.

And now the people that will be uh learning and responding and growing based off of who you are and what you stand for, um that's that's not always in your hands, but when you're growing up, you you have an influence on people.

So it's important that that we have we have a reputation and that we have a relationship with people around us, especially those that we care about, that when we go and and share a hard thing, uh it's not gonna land on deaf ears.

They're not gonna be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you keep, you don't treat me well, you don't you don't encourage me, you don't you don't build me up.

You you're just you're just here because our our parents are friends and we're just we're just in the same circles all on and off.

It's it's just what we do.

No.

You guys need to be building reputations, you need to be thinking about what you stand for and why, because one day you you're gonna have to take a stand, you're gonna have to make a defense, and you're gonna have to rebuke at one point in your life.

You're gonna have to correct someone, you're gonna have to tell someone that they're wrong.

And you can do it in a way that communicates love, that's that's hoping to build them up, or you can do it in a way that seeks to tear them down to elevate yourself.

Let's write this down for point number one.

Did I?

Apparently, uh apparently I didn't uh take those songs out from last week.

But point number one, when necessary, rebuke with love.

When necessary, rebuke with love.

Correct someone in love because you care about them, because you want them to be walking in a way that would be pleasing to God.

If you see someone off the tracks headed towards danger, heading towards a cliff, heading towards destruction, you need to in love, say, hey, what you're doing is wrong, and other people are following you.

You have an influence.

And and we could look to the apostle Paul and say, hey, this man cares so much about the gospel that he's he's willing potentially to lose friendships so so that the gospel might might stand without any hindrance of his own doing.

Meaning he's gonna take a stand for the gospel, and and he potentially might lose a friend, but he knows what he's doing is right.

He knows that the the result of his of his actions, the result of his correction, the result of his words is going to preserve the integrity, the purity of the gospel.

That is Paul's heart.

We sang a song, multiple songs this evening, speaking about only one gospel.

In the past weeks, we've we've seen Paul defending his case, sharing where it is that he got his gospel from, why it is the only gospel that saves, and he's defending his apostleship.

He's defending his reputation, saying, I am who I am because of what Christ has done for me.

That is Paul's only boast, is in the Savior.

Paul's only stand, his only confidence is in the one who radically changed his life, who saved him from his sin.

That is Paul's goal.

And his goal for Peter here is that he would see that his actions are having a strong and negative effect on the people around him.

The people that he's trying to win for Christ, his actions, his shrinking back, his hypocrisy is affecting others in a negative way.

Verse 14, let's continue on.

Paul's saying, but when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, I said to Peter, before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force Gentiles to live like Jews?

How can you force Gentiles to live like Jews?

Now, now Paul is doing this in a way that is public before them all, before the brothers that came down from Jerusalem, he is telling, he's telling the Galatian churches, look, it was not one for one.

He was out of line.

Peter was doing something hurtful, something destructive in the community, and I confronted him.

I have authority, I have the ability to speak to an influential leader that is striving to make disciples, and I'm gonna correct him.

Sometimes we might think of people in high places and friendships, and we could think that they're they're uh a delicate thing.

And you might be you might be right.

You see people have falling outs.

You might see um your favorite sports player get on some super team and they have some beef off the court and all of a sudden it destroys the team.

They're not able to reconcile, they're not able to forgive, they're not able to work things out off the field.

And that is that is a result of pride.

And we see in the in the scriptures that this this interaction does not have a negative effect either on Peter or Paul, but we see that that Paul is is striving to maintain the integrity of the gospel and the integrity of the reputation of fellow brothers in Christ.

He cares so much for Peter that he'd be willing to tell him, you're wrong.

Don't do that.

You need to correct yourself.

You need to turn back from what you're doing.

This is a problem.

And we need to do it in love.

If you're gonna correct your brother, if you're gonna correct someone in this room and say, hey, like I don't know what you're doing, what you're saying, it's not honoring to God.

It's it's it's it's hurting, it's hurting your your testimony, it's hurting your your reputation before unbelievers.

Why, why are you blending, why, why are you living living this way and saying things at church in a different context another way?

Why is that?

That's wrong.

That's foolish.

Don't do that.

Now, something interesting about Antioch, if you look to the book of Acts, it's it's the first the first city, the first place that Gentile believers came to be.

It's the first place where the spirit stirred in the hearts of non-Jews and people who were serving and worshiping and following after other gods, not Yahweh, came to know Jesus as Lord, Antioch.

And this is an important place in the New Testament, and uh this uh it's it's uh a first place in the scriptures that we see believers receive the title Christians, little Christs, Christ followers.

This is the first place that we we see this term used.

You you would uh call yourself uh a Christian, and if you have Christ, if you have the Holy Spirit in your life, you have been saved, you have turned from your sin and placed your hope and faith in Christ for salvation.

You, like the the believers in Antioch, can call yourself a Christian.

That's that is your title, that is your identity, little Christ, someone who is following after the Lord and Jesus Christ.

So rebuking in love, correcting in love, doing it in a way that's respectful, not behind someone's back, not like, hey, can you believe what so-and-so did?

They should really turn back about that.

They they need to make it right.

Oh, hey, oh, hey.

No, you need to go face to face, do it in a way that's respectful, that's honest, that's gonna show them them respect, and and it's going to be honoring to the Lord.

Honoring to the Lord.

Don't don't go and and slander someone, don't go behind their back, don't spread gossip.

No, go go to them face to face and and handle things that you see to be a problem.

So James is is hypocrisy.

Or sorry, Peter's hypocrisy was that he was aligning himself with the Judaizers, saying, I can't be eating this food because if I do, I'd be I'd be associating with people that are potentially eating food that has been worshipped, has been sacrificed to false gods.

That is Peter's fear, and that's the the Judaizers' uh legalistic and uh works-based uh approach to their air quotes salvation.

They they are not saved because they have a false gospel.

But the concern here is I can't eat certain food because it's unclean, and because potentially it's been it's been placed on the altar to give worship to a false a false God.

In the book of Acts, um there's a vision that that Peter has, and he sees a a linen sheet, a sheet falling down from heaven, and he sees all kinds of animals, both clean and unclean, and God gives him an understanding that there is no no longer any any rules and regulations.

All things are permissible, whether you choose to eat the something that has uh a cleft uh foot or toe or not, or something that has scales, or something that is uh an invertebrate, something that is in the sea, or if you want bacon, you can have bacon, Peter.

This is okay for you.

There's there's no sinful um sinfulness in this, and it's not something that we would we would understand face value, but when you see the the context of the Old Testament in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, God's people obey the dietary commands because that is how they are set apart from the Gentiles, from the people that are around them.

And in Peter is is living in a way opposite of the revelation that God gave him.

It's not what goes into you that defiles you, but it's what comes out, it's what's produced in your sinful, in your sinful heart, and that is what is the focus here.

If you're if you, though a Jew, live like a gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force Gentiles to live like Jews?

How can you tell a Gentile believer that in order to be saved, you have to eat like us?

In order to follow the God of the scriptures, you have to be circumcised.

In order to follow Yahweh as a believer, you have to adopt the cultural, the ceremonial, and the different festivals and practices of a Jew.

That's how you become a Christian.

No, that's not true.

But that's what the Judaizers were trying to convince these young Christians to be.

They wanted them to say, to be a Christian, I must repent and believe in the gospel and also do all the Jewish things that that Father Abraham and Moses and all these other guys would have you do.

That's a problem.

That is a false gospel.

Now, it's not the good works that we do.

It's not the the resume that we could build as faithful Christians that that saves us.

Something that is is interesting to me is in the Psalms, one of one of the heroes of of the Jewish religion, King David.

King David speaks to righteousness, and it's it's interesting to me.

It's interesting to me.

Psalm 143, verse 2 says this enter not into judgment with your servant.

Psalms 143:2

He's speaking to God.

Lord, don't judge, don't judge me harshly.

Don't don't punish me.

Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous.

No one living is righteous before you.

King David.

King David says that.

He says here in verse 1, hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my pleas for mercy.

In your faithfulness, answer me in your righteousness.

He says, Enter not into judgment with your servant.

He admits, he confesses, for no one living is righteous before you.

And that is exactly what the Judaizers were trying to convince people to do.

Earn your righteousness, earn it by blending faith in Christ and a list and a resume overflowing with good works.

Look at my resume, God.

Look what I've done.

I have faith in God and look at all these good things.

Surely I am righteous before you.

Surely I deserve to be with you forever.

No.

If you're a Gentile or if you're a Jew, you're saved in the same way.

You're saved in the same way.

The gift of faith that God gives you to believe in Jesus, to believe in him, in the work that he has accomplished for you, is the only way that you can be saved.

You don't take faith in Christ and add it.

Add it to your list of good deeds, faithful deeds to the Lord.

Those are not what save you.

It's faith alone in Christ alone.

He goes on in, Paul does in verse 15.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.

And you might be thinking, Paul, why are you talking, why are you talking down to the Gentiles, man?

Why are you talking down to them?

Why are you giving them the cold shoulder?

Why are you looking down your nose at them?

But Paul here is saying, he's saying, hey, look, we we were raised, we were born and raised in this Jewish faith.

We were raised Jews.

We are cultural and religious Jews.

And from the from the very earliest of days, we were taught from the Torah, we were taught that Yahweh alone is God.

That's not what the Gentiles were taught.

That's not what was being taught outside of the people of Israel.

Outside the people of Israel, they were worshiping multiple gods, worshiping false gods, all the while thinking that they could live forever.

They could attain life after death by worshiping these false gods that they have made with their own hands with materials that God has made.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.

Verse 16.

And this is a big, a big verse for us because this is what Paul is going to use to spring from for the next few chapters.

Verse 16.

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.

Because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Three times the word justified is used.

It's repeated three times in the same verse.

Surely this means that we need to understand what this word justified is all about.

Now, if you pop quiz, justified, if someone were to ask you, what does it mean to be, what does it mean to be justified?

What does it mean to have justification?

And a simple, a simple response would be this.

Justification is a work of God and love for unworthy sinners.

A work of God in love for unworthy sinners.

God declares you righteous.

God declares you righteous.

It's nothing that you can do.

It's not a label or a title you have earned.

It's what and who God says you are.

Justification.

A person who would perfectly from the beginning, first breath of their life to their last, if they, if they never sinned, imagine that, if you never sinned once in your life, you never made a mistake, you never lashed out against your parents, you never lied once to them, you never stole something from your sibling.

You never once told a lie.

You never once held a bitter thought in your mind or in your heart.

You never once rolled your eyes behind your parents' back.

Never once.

Never once.

If you never broke any of the laws of God, you would be a righteous person.

But one infraction, one mistake, one failure disqualifies us all.

One failure just takes one.

One little blemish, one transgression against the law disqualifies us from eternal life because God is holy.

He is perfect and he is righteous and he cannot tolerate sin.

He doesn't mix and mingle with sin.

His son Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, modeled what it looks like to please God in every single way.

He came to fulfill the law.

He came to be the example of what perfect righteousness looks like in human form.

God that took on flesh.

Now we would all look to ourselves and look inside and realize I'm definitely not God.

You look around at the mountains, you look at, you look at the skies, you look at the night sky, and you look up and you're like, I definitely did not make that.

The coolest thing that I can make is like a dude perfect trick shot after I try it a thousand times.

That's about as cool as I get.

That's about as amazing as I get.

And then you act like you did it the first time and run around screaming and post it online, and hopefully people will like it and subscribe to your channel.

No.

No, we we are pretty uncool.

We are pretty pretty low compared to the creator.

And that is that is a a wild understatement.

God is amazing, He is glorious, He is wonderful, He is the creator and sustainer of all things.

And His Son came to live among us.

His Son came to do what we could not perfectly obey the law, perfectly obey God, God the Father.

And we have to understand something.

If we're striving to be in right standing with God, we're working so hard to just be perfect enough, to be good enough, to be uh in right standing enough to be approved by God, we're gonna fail.

We're gonna fail.

Justification is unachievable.

You can't attain it, you can't earn it, you can't build your way up to get it because you're never gonna get there.

You're never gonna get there.

One failure separated us all.

And when sin entered the world through Adam, every offspring of Adam and Eve, everyone born that took their first breath is sin stained because of our great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, all the way back, grandfather Adam, right?

We all fall short of the glory of God.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray.

We're all seeking out what's best for us.

We're all seeking out how to how to please and serve ourselves.

And we do a good job of that, but it doesn't honor God.

It doesn't please God when we do things our way.

But Jesus perfectly pleased the Father.

He perfectly obeyed God in every way.

He came to fulfill the law.

So for us, it's impossible.

It's impossible.

It's unachievable.

This justification is out of reach.

But the good news is that Christ makes it available to us.

Let's write this down for point number two.

See that justification is unachievable.

It's unachievable.

You being righteous in God's eyes is impossible for you.

Period.

It's impossible.

Your right standing in front of God is not something that you can produce.

It's not something that you can manufacture.

You can't look to the end of your life and the end of your career and say, man, I was a I was a five-time All-Star Christian.

I was league MVP of my church three times.

I got the solo on Sunday morning a thousand times.

You won't believe it, but a thousand times I had the solo on Sunday morning when we were singing songs.

I got the most humble award because I stacked chairs more than anyone else on Sundays.

You can't go to God at the end of your life and say, look how good I am.

You can't.

So stop looking left and stop looking right and trying to compare yourself to others.

Well, I'm surely, I'm surely ahead of uh little Timmy over there because that dude he disrespects his parents on the daily.

And he gets caught all the time.

Me, I don't get caught, but he he gets caught all the time.

Lil Lil Timmy doesn't pick up trash, I do.

Stop comparing yourself to people around you.

Stop comparing yourself to your siblings who struggle with obedience.

Stop comparing yourself to your neighbor who yells and talks back to his mom and dad.

Stop comparing yourself to people that you would see on TV that are getting sent to jail, that are on trial.

Stop comparing yourself to infamous characters in history books.

I'm surely not as bad as them.

The truth is you are.

If you're to compare yourself in front of God to the worst sinners in human history, if you don't have Christ, you're equals.

Period.

You're equal.

You're an equal.

If you don't have Christ, you will be accountable for all your sin.

And there's a lot of it, let's be honest.

We all have utter failures all the time.

And the funny thing is, it's we we can kind of deceive ourselves and be like, well, I haven't been grounded in like months.

But inside, you're like, man, I've been I've been saying so many disrespectful things to my parents.

You're you might be thinking of all the all the half-truths that you haven't been caught for.

You might be thinking of all the ways that you you haven't been seen doing wrong, but you you have an understanding of of your standing before God.

Justification is is unachievable.

You cannot earn your way to heaven.

Justification.

By works of the law, these these Judaizers were thinking that they can earn their way.

I don't struggle the way that my brother does.

I don't struggle the way that my sister does.

I have better self-control.

I have a better grip on my temper.

I have a better grip on my language.

I have a better grip on my emotions.

I don't have emotional outbursts like so-and-so does.

I'm different.

I'm ahead.

I'm better than.

Stop comparing yourself to people around you.

Compare yourself to the spotless lamb.

Compare yourself to Jesus.

See how you stack up.

See how you stack up to the Savior.

And start there.

Start there.

Don't look at your works.

Don't look at your resume.

Don't look at your life and compare yourself to the worst.

Don't compare yourself to the people around you.

Compare yourself to Christ, the one who purchases salvation for those who would repent and believe.

The conclusion of this section of scripture that we're looking at today is something that I think we should all really wrap our minds around tonight.

Because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

No one will be justified.

We cannot have right standing before God because of our works.

Because of our obedience to God's standards.

Even though those are good things.

Those are good things to follow after God.

It's good for us to obey God.

It's good for us to say, God, what would you want me to do today?

How can I serve you?

How can I follow you today?

How can I please you today?

I want to follow you today.

I want to make your name known today.

I want to represent you well today.

Those are good things to do.

But don't hang your hat at the end of your life on the good things that you did for God, though they are good.

It does please God to follow him, to obey him.

It's good.

That's a good thing to do, to honor the Lord with your life.

But don't be proud.

Don't find your hope in the good things that you do, in your behaviors, in your yeses, in your no's.

Compare yourself to Christ and know that he was perfect, he was spotless, and you're not.

It's faith in Jesus Christ alone that anyone can be saved.

This is Paul's repetitive, thorough, and clear introduction into this book.

Paul is trying to make it crystal clear that he has a place at the table to speak on the gospel.

His gospel is the one he received from the Lord Jesus Christ.

His gospel is one that is valid.

What he has to say and how he reflects and represents God in front of others is to be listened to.

You don't get to heaven by eating the right things, going to the right services, having the right medical procedures done at a young age.

This is not how you enter the kingdom of heaven.

You enter the kingdom of heaven washed by the precious blood of Christ.

You enter the kingdom of heaven by saying, I'm imperfect, but my Savior is.

That's how you enter.

I really hope, I really hope that you guys see that tonight is that it's there's a lot of distractions out there.

There's a lot of people trying to gain your attention.

About likes and subscribes and stuff, but like we all do that.

We all do that.

We all have an attention budget and we're spending it every day.

We all have an attention span and we're and we're committing it to something every day.

Where are you spending your time?

What are you fixing your mind on?

What are you fixing your eyes on?

There's a lot going on in our world today.

There's a lot of distractions out there, a lot of ways to get to heaven.

A lot of ways that people would say, if you just do, if you just manifest, if you just work.

This is how you get to heaven.

You see the work of Christ, you recognize your position, and you say, I need to be forgiven.

And you're the only one that can forgive me of my sins.

That's how.

That's how you can stand before God justified.

You can stand righteous before God the Father and stand with confidence because you have an advocate, you have a savior that stood in your place.

That is how you can be saved.

It's only through Christ.

It's only through Jesus.

It's only through his cross.

It's only through his perfect life and his righteousness that is accredited to your account.

That's it.

That's the only way.

And that's what Paul is so passionate about.

When people are trying to give some kind of saucy new recipe for how to enter the kingdom of heaven, Paul will not have it.

Paul wants the original recipe straight from the Savior Himself.

Repent and believe.

Repent and believe.

Will you do that tonight if you haven't before?

Will you turn from your sin?

Recognize that you fall short.

Recognize that you can't earn your way to heaven.

You can't stack up enough good things.

You can't go to church enough.

You can't read your Bible enough.

You can't pray enough to get there.

You need Jesus Christ as Savior.

That's all you need.

And if you have Jesus as Savior, you have everything.

God, thank you so much for Paul's thorough and at times abrasive abrasive words.

We we get rubbed by them in certain ways, and we we think to ourselves, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.

Like Paul, there's only one gospel.

I get it.

I've heard it before.

I know the story.

I have it memorized.

I I can give the right answer on the test.

When my small group leader asks me, I know what to say to get their nod and smile.

But is it real?

Is it true for you tonight, student?

That is that is my heart, God, that you would you would wrestle with their hearts, wrestle with these students' hearts and challenge them to understand that you are the only way.

You are Jesus, you are the way, the truth, and life, and no one gets to the Father.

No one can stand righteous before the Father and enter heaven unless they have Christ, unless they have Jesus as their Savior.

God help them to know that.

Help them to have faith to believe that, and help them to live a life that is bold and courageous for the gospel, that is going to correct and rebuke people in love when they have it wrong.

God, there's a world that is perishing, and we we have the only remedy, we have the only antidote.

We have the the only savior, and it's it's him that we look to, it's him that we fix our eyes for salvation, for hope, because he, Jesus, he is the Lord of life, and there's no other way that we can be saved.

There's no other way that a lost sinner can be found unless they confess their sin before the Savior and plead for forgiveness.

Will you work in hearts through your spirit and through your word this evening?

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.