Journey Through Galatians: Grace Versus Law

You who've received Jesus, you've put your faith in Him. God does not find any fault in you.

What do you mean? But what about those issues I'm working on? He doesn't see them. You have non-imputation of sin.

The Bible says you have been made perfect in Him. The Holy Spirit doesn't indwell sinful buildings.

Yet the Holy Spirit indwells you. He's been given to you because your sin has been stripped away, taken completely out of the way.

Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us.

If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com that's citylightnyc.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

How are you forgiven ones? Justified ones? Made righteous ones? Blessed with every spiritual blessing and heavenly places and Christ ones?

We're celebrating what Jesus has done through his substitutionary death for us on the cross in the series on Galatians. Before we begin, let me just say, I was so appreciative.

As many of you know, I experienced flooding in my Williamsburg condo. It's a duplex, but it's a ground floor duplex.

So my bedroom and our children's bedroom, it was all in the basement, and we started flooding last year. When I said flooding, I thought I knew what flooding was. It was one or two inches.

It doesn't sound like a lot, but that's enough to ruin your carpets, ruin the baseboards, ruin whatever was on the floor and require immediate repair.

And that happened several times. The Lord moved us to Long Island. Thank God. Because this Friday, my neighbor, who has the keys to my condo, we still have it. We're waiting to either rent it or sell it.

He went in. I said, just shoot me some video footage of what it looks like. It was 18 inches of water and at the height, two feet of water, all of the ground floor units and my whole building were completely wiped out.

And I'm looking at that, and I'm sitting in a very, very dry Long Island home. And I'm looking at what my bedroom and my children's bedroom would have looked like.

I was frustrated with one to two inches, but 18 to 24 inches now, the water's up to the mattress. Now everything is ruined, the walls are ruined because when the water touches out for that many hours, you got all sorts of growth happening within the walls.

And I'm saying, Lord, you knew this would happen. And in your wisdom, you moved me out because that would have at least taken a month of my time, months most likely.

To live in a hotel during this series on Galatians, to try to prepare this series out of some economic hotel, the insurance company would have put us up in in Long Island City like last time, where it's all breakfast is included.

Yeah, breakfast is Cheerios and that six month old sausage egg and cheese sandwich you just unfroze this morning.

So God is good, isn't he? Amen. Amen.

So we're continuing our series of Galatians, we're in Galatians chapter two, before I begin Galatians chapter two, let me just give a quick recap.

Those of you who are just joining us, this series is so important, it's so pivotal because there are two distinct, two separate covenants that people can live under.

One is known as the old covenant. You can also call it the old covenant of the law. Under the old covenant of the law, you were never ever justified.

The law cannot justify you, the word justify means pronounced not guilty. Under the system of the law, you endeavored, you tried real hard to be approved unto God.

You strived to be justified and you strived according to your own self effort, according to your own discipline, according to your own religiosity, according to your own works, yet you failed every time.

That sounds depressing, just saying it, doesn't it? And a good question to ask is why have such a system, that just sounds cruel, right?

If you look at the scriptures, it doesn't seem that that was God's original intent. When giving the law, he actually seemed to have offered them a choice.

And he said, hey, this, this, this, Lord, is this what you want? And they're, and they all in unison with their pride, the children of Israel responded with, yes, this is what we want.

For we are well able to keep everything you've commanded us to do. That didn't work out too well. So God said, okay, pride.

So there's going to have to be another system where you come to the end of yourself, where you realize that you cannot do it alone, you're not all that you need a deliverer, you need a savior.

So you have the Old Testament, the Old Covenant system of law, where you endeavor to be approved unto God through your own self effort, never really were.

And then you have the new covenant, where you are fully approved, fully justified, completely, not based on your own doings, not based on your own self effort, but based completely on what Jesus has already done for you, which is keep the law and its entirety.

And become a sacrifice for your sins, your sins fell upon him and his righteousness fell upon you.

There was a divine exchange there, which system seems better?

Amen. Yet what we find is typically people not knowing the differences and mixing the two covenants.

And the whole book of Galatians is written to warn us against mixture. You cannot mix the covenants. You cannot try to balance grace out.

Grace by its very definition is extreme. It's radical. And it doesn't need us in the equation to do stuff to help us save your out in order to balance things out.

So typically, when I begin like this, the argument, the response, because this is true gospel, but it comes against what we've typically been taught, the response is, oh, so you're telling me the Old Covenant law is done with? Well, I'm not telling you, but that's what the Scripture tells you.

Well, what they hear then is, so we're not even supposed to read the Old Testament? No, you're supposed to read the Old Testament. It's still the Word of God, just as much as the New Testament is the Word of God.

In fact, in the New Testament, it says these things were written for our example. There's so much we can learn, but just know that was a different system.

We're under a different system. God hasn't changed, but the way in which he deals with people has, and the cross of Jesus changed everything. Hallelujah.

And they hear things like, oh, you're just saying, throw out the Old Testament? No, I'm saying throw out living today like you're living in the Old Testament.

Live in light of the cross of Christ, live in light of this new covenant that we're under. Also what they hear is, oh, so you're just saying like the Ten Commandments has gone to, throw out any holiness, throw out any type of law.

And what they hear, because they don't stick around long enough, what they hear is, oh, there's a pastor who's encouraging lawlessness. He said, don't live under the law.

He's encouraging lawlessness. And the exact opposite is true. When you live under grace, there's more holiness.

Yeah, except it comes from the inside out, from the power of the Holy Spirit within you, not the way religion brings it from the outside in.

God is not after behavior or modification. He's after heart transformation. And what's happening during this series is our believing, our faith is getting sorted out.

Because right believing leads to right doing wrong believing leads to wrong doing. Amen.

So what better place to begin the second chapter of Galatians, then the book of second Corinthians. Let's look at this first. Amen. Second Corinthians chapter three verses seven through nine.

Just just want to show you a couple of things here. But if the ministry of death written and engraved on stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses, first notice what the Apostle Paul calls the old covenant, the system of law.

He calls it the ministry of death. Why was it the ministry of death? Does that sound like a system you want to be under by the way?

The ministry of death because the law is like a giant magnifying glass. It comes over you and exposes your cracks. It exposes your sin.

It places a demand on you, but doesn't impart unto you the power to fulfill that demand. So it just brings death. Under the new covenant, there is a demand, but you're imparted with the Holy Spirit and with the new created spirit, a born against spirit.

You're imparted with power to fulfill that demand. But if the ministry of death written and engraved on stone, talking about the giving of the ten commandments was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses. Remember his face was shining like a light bulb. They said it was radiating like the new day sun when the law was given.

Because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, verse 8, how will the ministry of the spirit? That's what we're under now, the new covenant, the new testament. These are all synonyms, the ministry of the spirit.

How will the ministry of the spirit not be more glorious? Can everyone just say that with me more glorious? Make a choice. What side of the cross do you want to live on?

I want to live on the more glorious side, the new covenant side. I don't want to live on the wrong side of the cross, the BC side, the pre-crucifixion, pre-resurrection, pre-day of Pentecost, giving of the Holy Spirit and church being birthside.

No, no. I want to live without balance, radically, extremely on the new covenant side. Verse 9, for the ministry of condemnation, if anyone asks you what is the law, what is the system of the law?

Oh, I know, ministry of death, ministry of condemnation. That's what it is. For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness, what's the ministry of righteousness?

The ministry of righteousness, grace, the new covenant of his grace. The ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory, so essentially the Apostle Paul is saying the new covenant is better than the old. Amen.

Now let's go into the book of Hebrews. Chapter 8 verse 6, but now he has speaking of Jesus, obtained the more excellent ministry. In as much as he is also mediator of what?

Hebrews 8:6

Better covenant. We as people are messed up and we have an innate propensity to gravitate towards the system of the law.

You know where you first see that in the Garden of Eden? God gave him a choice, the tree of life, which is Jesus himself. And when I talk about grace, I'm not talking about a doctrine, I'm talking about a person.

Grace has a lot of definitions. It's the means by which we are saved. God's riches are Christ's expense. But even deeper than that, it is Jesus himself because the law was given by Moses. It was a thing that was given, but grace and truth came in the person of Jesus Christ. That's what it says in the Gospel of John.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry and as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

I was saying that man has a natural propensity toward the law. In the Garden of Eden, he was given a choice, the tree of life, which is Jesus, which is grace, or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What is the knowledge of good and evil? It's the law. The law brings the knowledge of good and evil.

And man, since that day, up until now, we just gravitate towards what makes sense to our carnal mind. And we've been taught by our parents, by society, by this whole world system, do good, get good, do bad, get bad.

You're saying, yeah, isn't that Christianity? No. While you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you. Under grace, you do bad, you get good. See, I knew it. You say that kind of stuff. Everybody's going to lose their minds, start swinging from the light bulbs.

You'll go to the bathroom, pastor, come back up, and they'll be building a golden calf running around here, half naked, just over strength. Getting cast. No, that's not how it works.

Because when you really see his beauty, when you see the cross, when you understand what he has done for you and inside of you, you are transformed and you are changed.

All called the law, the ministry of death, the ministry of condemnation, he also said the strength of sin is in the law. The more you preach law, law, law, you know what you're going to get? Not holiness, more sin.

The more you preach grace, true grace, biblical grace. In Romans, we learned that grace not only establishes you firmly and the new covenant declares you not guilty, but also it's an empowerment against sin.

You see, true holiness come out of you, but through actually no self-effort of your own. So you can't get religious pride. You can't become hearty of how you cleaned your life up. No. All you did was yield. All you did was acknowledge that you died with him and then his life sprang up.

But yeah, man has messed up. We always gravitate towards the law, but we need to shun it and not mix it. For if the first covenant had been faultless, the first covenant, the old covenant had been faultless, that means there was a fault with it. There was a problem.

Then no place would have been sought for a second. Yet even in the old, there's prophetic words that a new one is coming. Why? What was the problem with the old? Because finding fault with them, the problem with the old is that God found fault with them.

Do you know God doesn't have that problem under the new? You who've received Jesus, you've put your faith in him. God does not find any fault in you. What do you mean? But what about those issues I'm working on? He doesn't see him.

You have non-imputation of sin. The Bible says you have been made perfect in him. The Holy Spirit doesn't indwell sinful buildings, sinful vessels. Yet the Holy Spirit indwells you. He's been given to you because your sin has been stripped away, taken completely out of the way.

So it doesn't find any fault with you. The problem with the old is he found fault with them still because the law can never justify you. Why? Why did he still find fault with them? What was the problem with the old? The problem with the old was the problem with everything.

We were in the equation. Under the old, God the Father had a covenant with the people. Guess who kept breaking their side of the bargain? The people. They kept messing up and messing up. So God had a solution. Under the new, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory who's keeping your side of the covenant intact.

So you have God the Father. He made a covenant. And on your behalf, Jesus is forever keeping your end of the bargain. He's forever upholding the covenant in your place so that God will not find fault and so that you cannot take any credit. And guess what also you can then do?

Rest. Rest. It can be a piece that he's got you. You won't mess this thing up. Because finding fault with them, he says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord.

When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, says the Lord. Hallelujah.

Well, let's begin in Galatians chapter two, starting in verse one, we're going to go line upon line, precept upon precept. I encourage you to pay attention, rewatch the broadcast on YouTube, listen to the podcast.

This isn't something that you'll get overnight. For a lot of you, a lot of questions will be raised. This is a journey our church has been on for decades.

Just this year of 2023, we went through Roman six, seven and eight. If you haven't watched those sermons, they're online.

We had summer life groups all based on grace, and now we're doing this whole series.

Because a church that's fully living with no mixture and the new covenant is a blessed church. It's a church that knows all the things that have been freely given to them by God. It's a victorious church.

You want to see a church that has a mixture. You're going to find Christians who have a spiritual insecurity. They're living under condemnation. They're living under shame. They don't have boldness.

And they constantly, they may not admit it, but secretly just seems like they're trying to appease an unappeasable master.

But when you understand grace, you can rest and know that he looks at you through the blood of Jesus and you are well pleasing to him.

And no, this does not produce laziness. It doesn't. I know. I know who gets most excited about this message of grace.

If we had evangelism right after service, they'd be the first ones to say, I'm going to. If we had 40 days of fasting, they'd be the first ones to fast. If we had a building campaign, they'd be the first ones to give.

From the outside, someone would say, I feel like they'd be the last ones because you just, you keep preaching God will love you whether you do it or not. Yeah, grace blows your mind.

Grace is upside down, topsy-turvy. Grace is unlike anything the world has ever, ever seen before. It's the mystery of grace.

I tell people that they're not cursed by God if they don't have and are giving goes up.

Hallelujah.

So here, what's happening with the Galatians? A group called the Judaizers has crept in.

And the Judaizers are Christians, in a sense, they believe in Jesus, but they also believe you had to keep the law of Moses.

So they crept in and they told, as an initial thing, they told all the men you have to get circumcised because that's the right of passage to becoming a Jew.

And Paul loses his mind. It's the angriest you ever see him. The most passionate, the most emotional you ever see him.

Because he realizes if you mix even a little bit, it's like drinking a glass of water that's 99% pure water, but 1% arsenic. Would you drink that water? No.

He says, mixture will nullify. It will frustrate the grace of God. You cannot have any mixture yet.

Way too many Christians are actually living with mixture.

So he's bringing some order here and some much-needed correction here. And we left in Galatians chapter 1.

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

He's essentially telling you his travel plans, not because he needed filler material to fill up the New Testament with.

But he's just, he wants everybody to know. He wants his listeners to understand that he got the gospel of grace supernaturally, directly from God.

But he didn't get it alone in some bush in the wilderness. But that he actually went to Jerusalem and met with all the top apostles and they confirmed.

They said, yeah, that thing that you got, that's what we got. We're under a different dispensation, we're under a different system of order.

It's no longer us endeavoring to be approved unto God based on our own effort, but it's through Jesus and what he did for us.

And that's essentially what he's getting into now. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and also took Titus with me.

And I went up by revelation. That doesn't mean he teleported out of his body into Jerusalem. It just means that nobody invited him. He didn't get any invite.

No singing telegram. No card in the mail. The Lord told him to go and he says, I went up by revelation because the Lord told me to go and communicated to them that gospel, the gospel of grace.

I let him know what I was preaching. I was preaching Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

Mixture comes in and says, Jesus plus, well some stuff you got to do to help save your out equals everything. No!

When it comes to your approval and justification before God, there's nothing you can contribute. This either relieves people or to the religiously proud it upsets them.

It upsets them because they realize, wow, that scorecard they were keeping, that they thought God was keeping, doesn't actually exist.

And really exposes your motives. That gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who are of reputation,

unless by any means I might run or had run in vain. Here's what Paul is saying. I'll let you know when the next verse.

He's saying, I met with the head apostles in Jerusalem. This is like the original 11 plus a few more. The 18. They were in Jerusalem.

And I came to check out this gospel of grace. I wanted to make sure I wasn't off. I wanted to make sure we were on the same page.

But to those who are of the highest reputation, I did it privately. He's not saying I did it privately because if they rebuked me, I didn't want to get corrected in public.

He's saying, in case there was some debate, in case there was some arguing, we won't cause a ruckus amongst all the Christians in Jerusalem, but it was done privately. Are you catching that church?

Okay. Verse 3.

You're not even Titus who was with me being a Greek was compelled to be circumcised. And verse 4. And this occurred because of false brethren. He doesn't say confused brethren. He doesn't say well intentioned, well meaning brethren. He calls them false brethren.

Not even Christians. False brethren secretly brought in who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.

By the way, that very word religion, the root of it is back to bondage. Religion is bondage. Why? Because religion takes your eyes off of Jesus and puts them on you.

Religion says you have a part in a role to play in your own salvation. You have to help save your out. You have to contribute to the already finished work of the cross and nothing can be further from the truth.

Oh Lord.

Listen, here I am in 2023 talking about Judaizers and you can almost feel, well okay, how does this apply to me today?

Because we're not in the first century dealing with a group who's going to come in and ask men to be circumcised, but we are dealing with modern day Judaizers all of the time.

Anyone who would get you to do stuff to earn God's favor, to be more loved by God, to be more approved unto God is a Judaizer. Any teaching that puts a burden on you, to do things, to win God's affection more, to do things that will come to you.

To contribute to your own right standing with God is a false teacher, Judaizer.

Because Jesus plus nothing equals everything and it comes in all different shapes and sizes.

Here's a very, very subtle one, a teaching I heard all of my Christian life. When the praises go up, the blessings come down. How many of you heard that?

And you may even believe it, but it's not true. It's a very initial Judaizing move. Because what that does is it makes you really important.

And it sets up God the Father in this strange, bizarre, transactional way. Like God the Father is really, really insecure. He needs to be reminded how awesome He is.

And He's got these blessings though, He's insecure but almighty. And He's keeping them from you. But if you tell Him, you're awesome enough. If you worship Him loud enough, if you praise Him enough, He'll come around to you.

And so as your praises go up, He'll be like, you know, this guy's not so bad. He's going to change my mind. All right, He just kicks down, have some crumbs. Here you go.

And we're like, it's this weird old covenant, appeasing a God that can never be a peace type system that's being communicated through that.

What's the reality? The reality is, is that you have already, according to Ephesians 1-3, you have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.

When you praise, praise is the language of heaven. Praise causes you to come on the same frequency, the same vibration, the same divine stream as heaven. And as you praise Him, you're not paying God for blessings with your praises.

You're not putting in self effort to, now He loves you more and He's going to throw down something to you that He wouldn't normally do.

You're just becoming more aware when you praise, you're becoming more aware of what you already have.

In fact, Paul says, the Holy Spirit has been given to you that you may know the things that have already past tense been freely given to you by God.

Like fasting, people think fasting changes God. No, that's a hunger strike. And nothing you could ever do can cause God.

Fasting doesn't change God. That's a law way of looking at it. Fasting changes you. And now you can receive what He's already given you better.

Praise doesn't change God. It doesn't change His mind about you. It changes you. It seems so subtle. But beware the Judaizers. Don't give Him space even for a little bit.

And there's Judaizers out there in the form of compromised teaching, legalistic pastors because they don't really trust the Holy Spirit in you.

So they feel that they got to put you under the law to extract the right kind of behavior from you. No, there's a better way, the Jesus way, the new covenant way.

And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty, religious people hate freedom, the hate liberty.

So we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us back into bondage to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour.

And that's how you need to be in your life. Do not yield submission to anyone who will try to get you to mix systems, mix covenants.

You know there are red flags to know when you're accidentally or inadvertently mixing covenants. If you're under guilt, shame, condemnation, you're mixing covenants.

If you get a religious pride from your good works, you're mixing covenants.

If you ever feel far from God, you're mixing covenants because you've been brought near.

But Pastor, what if I fall away? What do you think you abandoned you? You think he's a fair weather friend?

I forgot how I stumbled upon this. There was something from some witch's coven and they were partnering with the enemy.

And I remember all the phrasing was, this is getting a little odd.

But all the phrasing was, they were listing different spirits and they were saying how they will borrow your power.

How you will borrow their power, borrow their power. And I just thought, you know that's interesting. The Lord never lends. He only gives.

A demon will come and loan you its power, but it's on loan.

Do you know God never even loans you anything? He just gives. That's why some people say, hey, that was a preacher and he had a crazy sinful life.

And meanwhile, he built a giant church, mega ministry, God flowed through him. How did that happen? He had a secret dark side because that's how God is.

The Bible says that the gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable. No backsees with God.

He doesn't even loan. He just gives you. You want to be a knucklehead? You want to mess that whole thing up? That's on you. But God just gives.

Oh hallelujah, man, you can feel the wheels grinding right now.

This is why we're doing eight weeks for six chapters. I'm going to try to hit.

And if you have any questions, fill out a connection card, email us. We'll review the questions. I want to answer some of your questions.

This should rattle you. They should honor you. They should even anger you. Should anger you that you weren't told this sooner.

Verse six, please.

But those who seem to be something, Paul's just talking about what went down in Jerusalem.

But those who seem to be something, whatever they were, it makes no difference to me. God shows personal favoritism to no man.

I just chuckle at that verse. You just picture Paul in Jerusalem in the green room. A bunch of celebrity apostles walking around.

There's Paul still has missionary dust on his face. And he's like, you know, these guys don't add anything to me.

They seem to be something, whatever they were. It makes no difference to me. God shows personal favoritism to no man.

For those who seem to be something, added nothing to me. He's saying they didn't add anything to this gospel of grace that I received by revelation.

But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised, that's us, Gentiles, had been committed to me.

As the gospel for the uncircumcised was to Peter, for he who worked effectively in Peter, for the apostleship to the circumcised, also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles.

And when James, Seifas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me in Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.

That we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. What is all this about? Paul, he realizes he has a battle here. The Galatians have been compromised.

He even says later, Google, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Who has hypnotized you that you did not obey the truth? You actually allowed covenant mixture into your community.

He realizes he's going to have to set a posture where they understand who he is and why he's preaching this gospel.

So he reminds them, hey, I didn't get this revelation again out in the wilderness, sleeping in some cave.

But I got it from the Lord and then I went to Jerusalem and submitted it to the other chief apostles. And they all agreed with me.

They said that what you got, we got, and they laid hands on me in Barnabas and blessed us, will go out to the Gentiles, Peter will go out to the Jews, but it's a big confirmation of this message. Are you catching that?

He's essentially name dropping a little bit and saying, I'm not just in a bad mood writing to you out of nowhere, this is confirmed.

Verse 10, they desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.

Can you just go back to verse 5, please? Just go back to verse 5, because I wanted you to see that phrase that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

This is what has Paul so up in arms. This is the entire theme of the book of Galatians.

What is the truth of the gospel? The truth of the gospel is Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Get that.

What a relief will come to you when you get that. What a peace and arrest will come to you when you get that.

What a sweet intimacy that will develop between you and the Lord when you get that.

When you're weak, when you fall short, Satan who comes with a hiss, his name in the Hebrew is Hassatan, the accuser.

Who does the accused you to? Well, the accused is you to God, but you know what else the accused is you to?

He accuses you to you. Masquerading as your own internal monologue. This is your weak. You always fail. You're dirty. You're no good.

You can't live up to God is tired of you and you think it's you thinking that. Some people think it's God talking to them.

This is why, by the way, this is why. This is a statistic from the decade and a half ago. It might be even worse now.

For every person, every Christian sitting in church, there's 50 prodigals who fall in a way.

Do you know why they fall away? They fall away because they get tired of themselves doing Christianity under the old covenant.

And they feel that God has given up on them. They've given up on them. So what's the point of going to church? And they just backslide.

But when you know he's with you, a friend that's six closer than the brother. When you know that even if you're in the sewers of sin, I brow deep.

He's still loving you and he's still holding your hand pulling you through. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Okay, let's go to verse. I think we were on 11, 10, about the poor, and then 11.

Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I would stood him to his face because he was to be blamed.

So we have the Judaizers, but the Apostle Paul is saying, Peter, yes, our Peter, the disciple with the foot-shaped mouth from the gospels.

He's saying, he's a big problem in all this. So I would stood Peter. What happened? Verse 12.

For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles.

Under the law, you're not supposed to eat with Gentiles, but Peter knew he wasn't under the law anymore. He knew he was under grace.

But when they came, whoever these certain men were, he liked them. He wanted to impress them. He wanted a good reputation with them.

But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. Holy cow, this is deep.

First of all, it's a public rebuke, and it's a public rebuke forever immortalized in the Holy Scriptures.

What could have warranted that? What happened at that? You know what it was? It was a church potluck dinner.

It was what these had to have, and a Gapet feast. This wasn't some fancy ceremony. Church potluck dinner.

And Peter goes, oh, look, there are those guys. They're under the law. If I eat with Gentiles, they're going to look at me funny,

so I'll separate myself and I eat with the Gentiles. And Paul says, that is horrible. What a message you're sending out, Peter.

If anybody should have known. If anybody should have stood strong, it's Peter. You know why?

Peter was the first person to get the revelation that the Gentiles were also welcome into the kingdom through Jesus.

He should have stood strong, but you have a little bit of the old Peter coming out, don't you?

The Peter who was a man-pleaser, the Peter who wasn't completely set free from the opinions of others, the fear of man-Peter.

And Paul says, this is so bad because what you're essentially saying is you have to keep the law of Moses,

and we know we're no longer under a system where we have to do things to be approved.

Hey. You know what's also encouraging there?

The Peter, this was like over 10, 15 years after, on the day of Pentecost, Peter preached that fiery message, and 3,000 were saved.

And he still was a work in progress. Amen.

Okay, I guess I'm just excited about that. Everybody else has arrived. So they're like, good news for you, pastor. Me? I'm all right.

Four before.

Well, next verse, verse 13, and the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him so that even Barnabas, now if anybody should have known,

it was Barnabas. Barnabas was Paul's sidekick. They're like the Holy Ghost dynamic duo. Barnabas got that same gospel of grace alongside with Paul,

Barnabas fell into it and played the hypocrite with them so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

Verse 14, but when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all,

you got to love Paul.

Listen, this is the minister of grace. You'd look how he acts sometimes, and during the lockdowns and all that,

I would people were just, remember how brainwashed people were, and how angry people were, and how fascistic some people became.

And there was a woman, who'd been with me for years sat in a second row, and I thought it was my imagination. She would start to distract me every time I talked about the lockdowns or COVID or what was happening.

And at first I thought it was just my imagination, but she was visibly distracted. She hated it. She sent messages to Pastor Mel, can he just stick with the word?

Yeah, I'm sticking with the word. So out of my spirit, I didn't get in the flesh, I promise, I get in the flesh, I'll let you know.

I get in the flesh, media team will let you know, get in the flesh all the time. This wasn't me getting in the flesh, but the Bible says,

Paul says, rebuke publicly that the others may fear, even under grace there is an element, and I rebuke you publicly.

You just, you want to distract me publicly? You'll get rebuke publicly. Hallelujah. Amen.

That we would preserve what the Lord is doing here.

Paul, he rebuke some publicly and says to Peter, if you being a Jew live in the manner of Gentiles, and not as the Jews, here's what Paul is saying.

Paul is saying, Peter, you're living under grace, you're Jewish, and you've been set free, and you don't live as a Jew anymore.

I know what happened, Peter. Remember, Peter, in order to understand that Gentiles were welcomed into the kingdom, he had a vision of a large sheet descending from heaven.

And in the sheet was all manner of animals, and he heard a voice. It was the Lord's voice saying, rise, Peter, kill any.

And Peter being a holy Jew said, no, no, Lord, nothing unclean has ever touched my lips. And the Lord thundered back what I have cleansed, call not thou one clean.

Remember that from the book of Acts? And what there really was, it wasn't so much about the dietary law, it was the Lord saying, Gentiles whom you call unclean are now welcome into the kingdom.

But it also meant the dietary law was wrong. And Paul is saying, Peter, you had that vision on Tuesday, on Wednesday in the morning, I saw you having bacon and eggs.

You don't even live as a Jew, you were so happy, that night you went to a restaurant, you ordered shrimp and lobster. I saw you.

You, a Jew, don't live like a Jew, you're living in freedom, but you compel others to live under bondage.

That's like a message for ministers, ministers who fought, they themselves know the freedom of grace, but they manipulate people with that spirit of old testament bondage.

That's why I never hide what I have. I'm talking about materially. There are preachers, they are so blessed, because look, when you plug into Jesus, you may not like, when you plug into Jesus, he's the God of abundance, he's the God of prosperity,

you're going to be financially blessed, but they hide it, because they're afraid of what people will say, and they're going to stand before God and God, they will have to give an account on why they didn't let other people have access into that prosperity and abundance, but they played like they were poor, but secretly they were hiding things.

No, I'm not going to hide, I'm blessed. That is blessed me. Amen. He's blessed me, so I in turn can preach to you, bless you back and tell you about a wonderful, wonderful, generous, opulent God. Hallelujah. I'm free.

I'm sin-free. I know that I'm beloved, so I'm not going to manipulate you and tell you God's not going to be pleased, you're going to be angry if you miss church on Sunday. He'll love you the same. You lose out, you miss out. See, this is where people miss it with works. You're not saved by your works.

You don't score points with God with your works, but works, such as church attendance, being nice to people, tithing, praying, Bible study, evangelism, those are all phenomenal things. Those are things we should do, but not to gain God's favor, we already have it.

Not to gain justification, as it is, we've already been justified and declared not guilty. They're now a thank you back. Hallelujah.

And again, somebody who doesn't get grace, they'll be like, I can't believe he's preaching that. He's not going to have anybody in church next Sunday.

You know, we just keep getting bigger, more financially. The more I tell people, you're not cursed if you don't hide, the more finances go up. Amen.

Grace does not make sense. Go blow your mind.

Another reason why he's talking about all, let me just, we're going to get back to Peter. Another reason why he's getting into all the history of how he went to Jerusalem and met with all these people, he's establishing some facts. He's saying, this gospel of grace, the world has never seen anything like it.

It's brand new. Every single world religion in essence function the same. It's an unappeasable God or God's and they say, you do good, you get good, you do bad, you get bad. There's like a million world religions that that's their foundation.

Grace is the exact opposite. Never before, never since has the world seen a faith like this. And Paul is saying, I got that. Mind blowing. I went to Jerusalem and a whole other group of people got the same thing and we never even conversed.

We never communicated. That's why he's writing all this. He's saying, we know it's from the Lord. We know it's divine just how it came to be.

Hallelujah. But when I saw that they were, oh, I missed that part. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, that's the second time the possible Paul uses that phrase, the truth of the gospel.

What's the truth of the gospel? Say with me, Jesus plus nothing equals everything. All right, if you being a Jew living the manner of Gentiles and not as a Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?

We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.

So we are not. We cannot be justified by the works of the law.

Even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified.

Can you just leave it on that? I'll let you know when to turn.

There's a giant scale in heaven. And on one side, all the good deeds of their life fall. And on the other side, all the bad deeds of their life fall. And if they're good deeds, outweigh their bad deeds, they go to heaven.

If they're bad deeds, outweigh their good deeds, they go to hell. And usually they say, I think I'm going to heaven. I believe so. I hope so. I mean, I'm no Hitler.

There's always a joke. Everybody thinks that God is going to compare them to Hitler. God doesn't compare you to Hitler. God doesn't compare you to Manson or some other serial killer. God compares you to Himself. He compares you to his son, Jesus. So we're all found lacking.

If you put your confidence in your own works, your own good deeds, your own behavior, you are in big trouble. You kid right now, sell everything you have.

Withdraw money on your credit cards. Go into debt. Move out of America and pull a mother to reason and go to Calcutta. And spend the rest of your days clothing, the poor, and feeding the hungry. Spend decades like that. And guess what? It will not be one notch on your belt. It won't be one credit to you if you're thinking that's going to help with your salvation.

If you think that's going to put you in better standing with God, you wasted so many years. You cannot help us save you out. You cannot add to the already finished work of the cross. It didn't cry out. It is almost finished.

The old covenant is called the old covenant for a reason, because it's done with. When I first got saved, I thought the old covenant was older covenant.

You know, like we got a newer one that was written like a couple of thousand years after the older one. So that's why we call it the new. No one explained to him, you know, the old isn't an older and the new, a newer version of the old. The old is called the old because we don't live under it anymore.

And the new is called the new because that's the system, the umbrella that we're under now. And it's such a better system.

It's a system where there is now no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. It's a system where you are already blessed. It's a system where you don't have to try to earn his favor.

But grace is already undeserved, unmerited favor that he lavishes you with. Hallelujah. That whole story of the prodigal son and the older brother, that older brother is the picture of a religious, judyizing church person who gets upset that some ex-druggy came in and got saved.

The next month has everything they've been praying for years for. And they start listing their good deeds. Well, don't you know, I ushered in church and I cleaned up that. I was a part of the worst team that set up tear down team. We all know that's the hardest team.

Lord, because you trusted in your own stuff that you did to score points. But if you know you're already, already fully qualified. And now you still do these things. Why should I do them if I'm not earning something?

You're missing it. You do them because you've already been blessed. And when you do those things, not trying to earn, but because you've already, you're already blessed. You're in the zone. You're in the good receiving zone.

That last sentence for by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Verse 17. But if we notice it's in quotes. Paul is quoting a question that probably came up at that potluck.

That argument that they had. But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. Is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not. What a kind of a confusing verse. What does that mean?

He's saying, if under grace, we still have issues in our life. Does that mean that Christ is a minister of sin? He echoed the same sentiment in a different way in Roman six when he said,

Where's the sin is grace abounds? Should we continue to sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. Because that's the first question that's going to cross all of our minds when we initially hear grace.

Is will then is Jesus an enabler? Does he just turn a blind eye and enable us to do wrong? Absolutely not. The exact opposite happens under grace.

Oh, hallelujah. Certainly not. Verse 18. For if I build again those things which are destroyed, if I build again the teaching of the old covenant of law, then I myself am a transgressor.

For I, through the law, died to the law that I might live to God. Verse 20, I encourage every single person your homework this week is to memorize Galatians 220.

I believe it was either the first, definitely the second verse in the Bible I ever memorized. Even back then the Lord knew this would be my life message.

I didn't even know what it meant. I was just listening to the old bishop preach on my walkman and I loved the way he quoted it. So I memorized it in his voice. Seriously, I remember pacing around my parents bedroom with a walkman and I was like, I have been crue... I won't do it.

But he was, he was an aha preacher. So it was 16 year old me. Yeah, that's true story. But I did it over and I just loved. He had this texture in his voice. It just was like with the richness of God.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

So you might say now, Pastor, this freedom, this victory over sin, this whole new covenant thing, how is it activated? Well, we established it's not activated by you trying really hard.

So what do you do? You yield. What do you yield to? You yield to the past tense fact that you died.

You died 2000 years ago. You died three ways to three things. You died to the law. You died to sin and you died to your sin nature.

Now, you go, I don't know, my life doesn't always reflect that. I know that. But the more you believe that, the more you appropriate that by faith, the more you will experience that.

You want more freedom? You want more new covenant realities in your life? Focus on Galatians 220. Really? Think about the cross. Study the cross. Become an expert on the cross. Become an expert on Jesus, the person of you, what actually transpired on the cross?

Met it, fill your spirit and your soul with that. And that will activate the power. Remember, your life is transformed. How? By the renewing of your mind?

I have been crucified with Christ. Let's all say that actually. I've been crucified with Christ.

I died to the law. I died to sin and I died to my sin nature. And he says, in the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me.

You know, you'll often hear me say, on the cross, Jesus knew you. Jesus thought of you. Jesus remembered your name. You said, well, are you just being poetic and emotional pastor? Why do you say that?

I say that in part because of here how Paul words it. He doesn't say who loves me, present tense. He specifically said past tense, who loved me in that moment.

In that historic moment on the cross when he took on your sin and gave you his righteousness in that moment, he loved you.

He loves you perpetually all the time. But in that moment of the divine exchange that started it all, he loved you, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Let's all shout hallelujah. Worship team, come on up. Let me finish with 221. Hallelujah.

I do not set aside. The old King James says it better. He says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. I do not set aside the grace of God. God's grace is everything.

So I don't want to frustrate God's grace either. How do you frustrate God's grace by being a mixing judyizer? No mixture allowed.

By looking to yourself, looking at yourself, look to Jesus by trying no yield.

Let the Holy Spirit empower you. I've been doing this a while, so I reckon we have a lot of new people. I know a lot of you, your mind is untilt right now.

When I first 20 years ago started digging and uncovering these truths, it also messed me up. It's a radical thing to believe.

I take the Lord's hand and do a deep dive of your own and realize we're on a journey.

Paul said grace is a mystery. It's at times perplexing. It'll make you question so many of your belief systems, so many of the ways you relate it to God.

And yes, there is a danger to grace. If it's not preached right, people can go off. Even Peter gives a warning saying there are people who distort Paul's teaching. They misunderstand it to their own detriment, to their own demise.

He's talking about the grace message, but that doesn't mean we back off of the thing that Jesus died for. Hallelujah.

I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through my behavior, my works, my good deeds, through my keeping of the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Isn't that a brilliant thought? If you could fix you, then you would have fixed you already.

Can you imagine all the suffering, the pain that Jesus went through? Not just the physical, but the perfect being made sin.

He's saying all that was for nothing if you could get God to change his mind about you by trying to really be a good person.

Then why did he have to come? You either need a savior or you don't need a savior. But most people are like, I need a savior a little bit, but I also got to help him shoulder the load.

No, he did it all. You have the humble position of just receiving.

This is the City Light Church Podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boy on Jansik in City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com.

Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you.

We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace.

Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.