And I hope you had a great class, family essentials class. That going well? Some good teaching, yep. We're thankful, I'm thankful to Charlie and Ben for taking that on and looking forward to seeing the fruit of that in our church. So keep coming and keep encouraging others to come to that too. We need everybody there. But tonight in the book of Galatians, and look with me if you will, we're in chapter two, walking through the book of Galatians. And tonight's sermon title is called Contending for the Faith. And we've been studying through the book of Acts in Acts 11 this morning, looking at the example of Peter and Peter's conduct and Peter's direction and Peter's work and ministry through the chapter 11 there. And tonight we're gonna see another part of Peter's experience. We're gonna see how Peter, how things happen with Peter here in Galatians two. But the passage is Galatians two. The section is Galatians two 11 through 21. We're gonna get through about four verses tonight. This section just needs to be split up. That's the way it is laid out. There's a lot of information here. But we're in Galatians two, and let's start reading in verse 11, Galatians two 11. Now, when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.   Let's pray. Father in heaven, God, we praise you and thank you for your word. God, thank you for the authority of your word. Thank you, Lord, that the wisdom that is from above or comes from you, you've authored it. You've authored scripture. And we have the inerrant, infallible word of God in our hands. We praise you for that, Lord. We praise you, God, that truth doesn't come from man or through man or according to man. Then we've seen the wicked, awful fruit of that in many movements throughout history. So thank you, Lord, for your wisdom. Thank you for your direction, your guidance. Thank you, Lord, for your gospel. Thank you for your infinite wisdom. Lord, we praise you. We glorify the name of Christ, exalt you, God, for the salvation that we have in Christ. Thank you for these glorious truths from your word. Help us to live by them and apply them. God, I pray even now, Lord, by your spirit that you would apply these truths to the heart, that there would be souls converted, that the saints would be edified, for the glory of your name, for the good of your church, Lord. We love you and thank you in Jesus' name, amen. All right, contending for the faith. Here in Galatians two, we've been looking at Paul's experience here with the churches at Galatian, the problems that he's facing, and we're gonna see a problem here addressed tonight with Peter. We are men and women under authority. On Sunday mornings, when we do our scripture memory together and we hold our Bibles up and we recite our memory verse together, we're saying as a symbolic act, that we are under the authority of God's word, that it's God's word that has supreme authority over us, that we are under the teaching of God's word, that we're not to play games with God's word, that we don't have authority over God's word. God's word has authority over us. We are under the gospel. We're under the Bible. We live according to God's word. We operate according to God's word. We teach according to God's word. God's word is authoritative And we're under that authority. Praise God that that is not from men. If you grow up believing Catholic doctrine, then you live under a system of theology that is largely developed by the traditions of men. And you can see the fruit of that. Whenever a gospel, a gospel, it's not the gospel, like Paul says in one, six through nine, six through 10, it's not another gospel.  You see examples of godlessness. You see the results of man's thinking. If man devised the gospel, it'd be a works gospel. If man devised the gospel, there'd be a way around sin. There'd be all kinds of excuses wrought in there. Just look at the laws that our country comes up with. When Congress gets together and devises a law, and it's got a thousand pages to it, it's just riddled with contradiction and error. And thank God, thank the Lord, that we don't have the devising of man's minds in the gospel or in scripture. This comes from God, and it is perfect, pure converting the soul, right? But we're under that authority, and praise God it comes from him. But now that truth is constantly being assaulted from without, right, from outside. Constantly being assaulted. We have the Catholic Church assaulting the truth of God in devising traditions that contradict scripture, in devising plans that contradict scripture. Every other religion in the world is just a figment of man's imagination, a figment of man's devising, right? Everything apart from genuine true Christianity is simply just a fabrication of some guy's mind, some guy's imagination. But it's constantly being assaulted, did God really say, right? They come to scripture and they look at a passage and they twist it, as Peter says, to their own destruction. They're constantly looking, constantly trying to manipulate and pervert and corrupt the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is undergoing constant assault from without. But it also, as we're gonna see tonight, it comes under constant assault from within, doesn't it? When you live as a disciple of Christ, you live with the flesh. You live with the reasoning of the flesh. You live with the propensity of the flesh to sin, the propensity of the flesh to be deceived, the propensity of the flesh to wander off into error. So that gospel, that authority, even in your own flesh is being assaulted all the time, right? And we have to protect ourselves. How do we protect ourselves from falling into error by taking heed according to his word, right? How do we protect ourselves from falling into sin by taking heed according to his word? How do we contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints by taking heed according to his word? His word is our sure guide for how we do everything and certainly how we defend and protect the faith that was delivered to the saints, right? So it is constantly assaulted from without, constantly assaulted from within. And we are, as disciples of Christ, responsible to contend for the faith, responsible to defend the truth of God's word against error. Why? Because our own souls are at stake and the souls of others are at stake because God has delivered his truth and he's given us the responsibility to be ministers of reconciliation and thereby teach the truth and defend the truth and protect the truth and propagate the truth. And that's our role if we're disciples of Christ. We are accountable to one another and that is a loving thing to do. We're gonna see in this passage, it looks like here, Paul is leveling a stern rebuke against Peter. Now there is a very stern rebuke in chapter one against the Galatians that so soon they're falling away from the gospel that Paul preached, right? And in here we're gonna see Paul level a rebuke against Peter. Now this is done in defense of the gospel. It's done in defense of the faith, done in defense of scripture, right? And we're gonna see him do that tonight. This account here in Galatians two should humble us. If Peter, an apostle of Christ, can fall into or be persuaded or led away or carried away by this kind of error into such dangerous territory that would forever damage and corrupt the gospel of Christ if something wasn't done about it, if God wasn't in control of those things, if he can fall into that kind of error, then certainly we need to walk very circumspectly ourselves. There's much about Peter's life that should humble us. If Peter can have difficulty, certainly I am in big trouble. I have got to be in the word. I have got to depend on God, all right? We've got to walk in the truth. We've got to maintain strict adherence to scripture, faithful study of scripture. We've got to be bathed in the word like we talked about this morning. It's got to be that life and death reliance on the truth of God in order to be protected from error, be protected from heresy. So this should humble us. Apart from Christ, we're nothing. Apart from Christ, we're in big trouble. Apart from Christ, we don't have truth. That truth comes from God's word, okay? We cannot live on yesterday's grace. I want you to let that sink in for a second. God says in his Bible that his mercies are new and fresh every morning, and we need mercy from God every day. We need grace from God every day. We can't live on yesterday's grace. I'm dependent on him now in the preaching of his word. You're dependent on him now in the learning of his word, in the application of his word, in the walking the Christian life so that you walk in the light and not in darkness and stumble, right? We're dependent on God and we need his mercy. We need his truth every day. We need his truth in every circumstance. We must live by the word of God. So point one from here in Galatians 2 verses 11 through 14, the first point is that we must contend for the faith. Contend for the faith. We're gonna see Paul do that and look at verse 11. Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. First point I want you to see from the first part of verse 11 is that you need to contend with action. You have to do what you must do. It is your responsibility. Here Paul is presented with a circumstance, all right? And Paul is going to defend the faith of God. He is a disciple of Christ. He has the word of God. He knows he must defend the word of God, defend these Galatian Christians, these Antioch Christians from error. And so he must do what he's been called to do. That is not easy. Okay, think about the courage of Paul in this circumstance, all right? He's not exercising authority over Peter, but he's exercising the authority of God that comes in his word, that comes in his gospel. And he's about to withstand Peter, an apostle that walked with Christ. He's about to withstand him to his face, okay? He's about to confront him to his face. Takes great courage, that's not easy. Paul in Galatia, Paul here in Antioch is fighting a tough battle. You've got these Judaizers and you've got guys coming that are battling against him, battling against his apostleship, battling against the gospel. At every turn he's being questioned and accused and something is, they're attempting to tear down the walls every time he turns around. He gets something short up over here and the entire time he's working here, there's all kinds of accusations and stuff going on behind his back over here. I mean, it's a tough assignment and Paul is working laboring, as he says later in Galatians, like he's in childbirth with them, laboring for their souls, laboring for the faith, for their good. But now this is also we're gonna see not easy for the church, not easy for James. This here in verse 11 or verse 12, for before certain men came from James, these men are coming from Jerusalem to Antioch, James has got his hands full in Jerusalem with the same issue. Now these guys who are gonna confront Paul and Antioch, they came from James, came from Jerusalem with the same ideas, the same doctrine. Listen, if you are going to be saved, it can't be on the basis of faith alone and Christ alone, you're gonna have to add circumcision to it. You're gonna have to add the dietary laws to it. You're gonna have to have keeping the law added to it in order to be saved. So the early church here is fighting a very pivotal, a very critical battle and Paul, James, the new church has their hands full, okay? And so this requires men of action. We have to be men and women of action today, don't we? In the same way that the gospel in the first century, the gospel here in here in Antioch is being assaulted. The church today is just running great, right? No assaults against the gospel at all, right? Just smooth as silk, no problem. Lowery beds of ease, right? No, we've got assaults against the, myriad assaults against the gospel, myriad attacks on God's word and people's souls hanging in the balance. It's a constant assault, a constant attack. And so we as Paul, we're gonna take from his example here, we as Paul, we as James, we as Peter need to be fervent in doing what we must to contend for the faith, taking action. We see Paul here taking action. They required a lot of courage. It's difficult action, right? But this is given for our admonition. We see Paul do it, we need to do it. We need to fight this fight, okay? It is right for Paul to do that. It's right for him to withstand Peter. We're gonna see more of that in a second. It is right for you to withstand and oppose error. It is right for you to call out error, to call out heresy where you see it. It's right to preach it from the pulpit. It's right to do that because people's souls are at stake. And I want you to see an example of this. Go to Matthew 16. Matthew 16, gotta do what we must. Antesane is the word in Greek. It's to oppose, to withstand, to stand in objection to. And Matthew 16, chosen this example, this reference for a reason. I want you to see how this applies. But this is Jesus Christ. This is here in Galatians 2, theological subversion. It is truth subversion, okay? It's coming from within the church. We'll look at this in a second. Matthew 16, look at verse one, Matthew 16, verse one. Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and testing Christ, asked that he would show them a sign from heaven. Now he answered and said to them, when it is evening, you'll say, it will be fair weather for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be fair weather today, foul weather today, pardon me, for the sky is red and threatening. Hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. Man, what a scathing rebuke. You can look at the sky and tell the weather, but you can't discern the signs that you got. Jesus Christ talking to you in the flesh, God in the flesh, you can't figure that out. Man, a scathing rebuke. Verse four, a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And he left them and departed. Now when the disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. And Jesus said to them, he's gonna have a teaching moment here. He's gonna warn against error. We just saw error, heresy, inaction with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So Jesus, now turning to his disciples, the 12, he's gonna give them a lesson. Now when the disciples had come together to the other side, verse five, they had forgotten to take bread. And Jesus said to them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Now he compares the false teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees to leaven. And they reason among themselves saying, is it because we have taken no bread? But Jesus being aware of it said to them, oh you of little faith. Why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves or the 5,000 and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves or the 4,000 and how many large baskets you took up? How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. All right, I want you to see a couple of things from this. First, he compares the false teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees to leaven. Now he's not concerned here at this point with conduct of the Pharisees and Sadducees with the conduct of the disciples. He's concerned with what? With doctrine, with teaching. It's that which accords with godliness. It's the doctrine that he's concerned with and he compares it to leaven. Now it's compared with leaven for a couple of reasons. One is that leaven corrupts from within. Leaven is in the dough. It is woven in between bread and it corrupts from within. Here in Galatia or here in Antioch in Galatians two, same kind of thing. We're seeing heresy enter from within, not from without. This is leaven from within the professing church, these that came from James who came to the church at Antioch and now are introducing this heresy came from within. Damning lies, damning heresy comes from within the guise or the disguise of truth. It comes from within, wrapped up in truth, consumed inside truth. It comes from within. That's the most corrupting, the most damning lie is the damning lie that is shrouded in truth. And we see heresy like that today, don't we? They're certainly doing that here in Galatians two. But I also want you to see that with leaven, leaven spreads and here this doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the reason that it's compared with leaven secondly is because leaven spreads. It spreads insidiously.  The entire lump will be corrupted. So it's from within and it's constantly spreading. It is constantly subverting. This is not, I want you to see, this is not syncretism. It's not blending here in this problem in Galatians two and certainly this problem of the Pharisees and the Sadducees is not blending the culture with religious truth, with Christian truth, with the faith. It's not taking Hinduism and aspects of Hinduism and blending with Christianity, you see? It's not syncretism. It's also, it's not blatant. It's not just somebody walks in the back door of the church at Antioch and says, you know what? Jesus is not God and everybody needs to believe that. It's not blatant. It is shrouded in truth. It is concealed in the dough, in the lump of truth. The poison is there and you can't necessarily spot it right off the bat.  It is corrupting and perverting the truth of God. And don't we see the same thing today? Inside the professing church, inside those that would say, we follow Christ, we believe in the virgin birth, I believe in a six day creation. We believe in the resurrection, we believe that Jesus Christ lived a perfect sin in his life. We believe in the substitutionary atonement. Inside that camp are those that would say, all you gotta do is just admit, believe and confess and you're saved. And they leave repentance completely out of the gospel. They're those that say all you gotta do is just walk the aisle, say the prayer. All you gotta do is just keep these seven sacraments. You live like the devil during the week and just confess to a priest and take Mass on Sunday and you're good, right? I mean, it's that leaven and that spreads. We've seen that spread over centuries, right? It's just one little heresy starts and then fast forward 2000 years and you've got entire denominations, entire sects that are created and organized around that first introduced heresy 2000 years ago. You know, Gnosticism is still alive and well today. That heresy, Nestorianism, the heresy of Arianism, Jesus isn't God, that's alive and well today. Still perpetrating, still spreading, all right? So that's that leaven. It is not blatant, it's not syncretistic, it's coming from within. And listen, here in Matthew 16, why did Jesus Christ choose to teach his apostles about it? It's because his apostles weren't immune to leaven. They weren't immune to error. If Peter can be swayed, you can be swayed. I can be swayed. If an apostle, they're walking with Christ and if they can be swayed by the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees such that Christ needed to warn them, well then certainly we must depend on Christ and we must depend on his word because we can be swayed. No one is immune. No one's immune. We have to depend on Christ, we have to depend on God's word. Proverbs 16, 18 says, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall, right? Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. We cannot be proud. We cannot be prideful in our walk. We have to be humbly dependent on God to be protected from error. And we see that now, Peter, there's signs here in Galatians too obviously that Peter repented. We're gonna see in a minute that Peter in his actions, in his basically compelling the Antioch believers here to follow the dietary laws is associating himself with the other heretics farther up in Galatians too that were compelling Titus to be circumcised. He puts them in a camp with false teachers, all right? But Peter's not a false teacher. Paul doesn't call him a false teacher. Shows that Peter repented of this error. Otherwise we'd have scripture later that talks about Peter being a false teacher. But he's not, okay, he repents of that. Peter is doing this here not on the basis of conviction. I want you to understand that too. This error, this heresy, this error that we're gonna see here in a second that Peter's falling into is not based on his conviction that he believes that that is right. If you look at Titus, go back to Acts. Let's look at that. All right, I'm sorry, Galatians. I don't remember what time of the day it is. Galatians. Wow, where am I? Galatians too. And look at Galatians two and look at verse three, all right? Look at verse three, Galatians two, three. Now this is Paul with Titus and they're confronting these Judaizers who say you need to keep the law to be saved, all right?  And this occurred because of false brethren, see what he calls them, secretly brought in who came in by stealth to spy on our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus. They might bring us into bondage. To whom we did not yield submission even for an hour that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. We're gonna look at that more in a second. They're not compelled to be circumcised even though those false brethren were compelling them to be circumcised.  You had to keep the gospel. You had to keep the law in order to be saved. They believed that. Here, Peter's problem is not that he believes you have to keep a law to be saved, it's his hypocrisy. He's being swayed. It's not according to conviction, it's according to his conduct, it's according to his fear. We'll see that in a minute, okay? But this is no one is immune to this. We need Christ. It's interesting in Matthew 16 with that account that with those apostles, with the disciples, life and limb were at stake, right? They were facing great persecution. They could have been killed.  Doctrine, concerned with the word of God. And so we sit there. That's an important point to take away from this. Doctrine, if you don't have the right doctrine, God's deadly, okay? Doctrine is so important. And this is God's word. This is eternity to souls. Like one thing to be concerned about temporal life, but don't fear the one who could kill the body.  That's the one you fear, right? This is life and death. This is eternity. This is heaven and hell. So Jesus Christ isn't concerned here with just temporal danger. He's concerned with doctrine, right? And this is leaven here that works insidiously from within. It has a nature to grow fast, right? So the first thing there, you've got to contend with action. Do what you must. When you see leaven confronted, when you see error confronted, and we'll talk about that, that's done in love, that's done in great humility, knowing that you can be swayed, that you can fall into error, right? That's got to be done, but it has to be done. We have to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. That's our responsibility to do, and we see that example in Christ. But next at the end of verse 11, back in Galatians two, I want us to see that we need to contend with authority, all right? We need to contend with authority. Look at verse 11. Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. Now this is not with authority in terms of characterizing your contending. This is with the authority of God's word. Contend with the authority, the supreme authority, our only source of authority. You contend with authority, and that's what Paul's gonna be doing here. Categnos menas, being blamed. It's a passive participle in the Greek, which means that Peter here in his stumbling is being blamed. Now Paul's not the one, in this case, being that is blaming him. Paul is going to withstand him, going to oppose him for his error. But here, Peter, in his falling from the gospel, in his trailing back and his drifting away is being blamed by the gospel, being blamed by God. It's a passive participle there. He is to be blamed because he's falling away from truth, all right? He's wandering from truth. This is not Paul asserting his authority over Peter. Paul doesn't have the authority to do that. He's not asserting his authority. He's asserting here in this contention. He's asserting the authority of God, the authority of scripture, the authority of the gospel. It's not by man, not through man. This is Paul operating, contending on the authority of God's word. And this reprimand is necessary. It's not only necessary here in Antioch for Peter. It's also necessary in Jerusalem. It's necessary over you. It's necessary over me. It's necessary over everything, everywhere. It is necessary that this happens. And it's a public departure. And so we're gonna see them. It requires a public rebuke. In this circumstance, Peter, who has heavy influence, okay? Peter has great influence. He's known now among the churches in Judea. And he's got influence in the church. And his sin is in a very public, as a very public nature, right? He sways from the truth, retracts from the truth, retreats from the truth in public. And then that public swaying, that public departure leads to very public consequences. We see people, even Barnabas swayed, let away with this error, okay? And so that requires then Paul to give a very public rebuke. He is going to rebuke with authority, but it's on the authority of God's word. It's on the authority of the gospel. The gospel has authority. God's word has authority. We have responsibility when we contend for the faith to contend with the authority of God's word. Now, that brings then a very important point to bear for us. You must, if you're going to contend for the faith, you must know the word of God. You must study the word of God. You must have confidence in the word of God. You gotta have a right doctrine. You gotta have a right understanding of scripture. You have a responsibility therefore to study diligently to make yourself approved, right? A workman. You must study diligently to know the word of God so you can apply it. Isaiah 8.20 says, to the law and to the testimony. Now this is talking about false teachers. He's addressing false teachers. To the law and to the testimony. That's his exhortation to you. To the law and to the testimony. You're gonna contend for the faith. To the law and to the testimony. You're gonna withstand someone because of their error. To the law and to the testimony. If you have error in your own life, to the law and to the testimony. If you're gonna say anything to the law and to the testimony. He says, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Powerful statement from Isaiah. That applies to us here, Paul. Why? Why could he do this? Because he was to the law and to the testimony. He was operating on the authority of God's word. And he had an exhortation, a command of God to exhort from God's word. To contend for the faith from the authority of God's word. To the law and to the testimony. Jesus to the Sadducees said, you are not, you are misled or you are mistaken because you don't understand the scriptures. That was a common rebuke. They're misled, they're mistaken because they don't understand the scriptures and we are not to tolerate that. We're not to tolerate that in ourselves. We're not to tolerate that in our church. We have to contend for truth. Go to 1st Timothy. And let's just walk through a few passages of scripture that lend support for that. That's something that we're commanded to do. Go to 1st Timothy. And look down at 1st Timothy 1, verse three. As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor do you feed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in the faith. All right, go to chapter six, 1st Timothy six. There's a couple of pages to the right. 1st Timothy six. And look down at verse 20. Oh Timothy. Now this is an exhortation to us, the command to us as well. Guard what was committed to your trust. It's committed to your trust, to my trust, our trust. Committed to the trust of the church today. Avoid, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge by professing at some of strayed concerning the faith. That strayed concerning the faith is too damnation. People's souls are at stake here. Look at 2nd Timothy chapter one. 2nd Timothy chapter one. Look down at verse 13. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you. Keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Okay, powerful exhortation. Look at 2nd Timothy chapter two, chapter two. And look down at verse 16, 15. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and idle babblings for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer, like leaven. That's the way it works, right? It spreads like cancer. Hymenaeus and Phyleteus are of this sort. He names them by name who have strayed concerning this truth saying that the resurrection has already passed and they overthrow the faith of some. There is never any shortage of wicked error, right? Of damning error. We're dealing with one in Galatians. Here's another one here in 2nd Timothy. So look at Titus now, just a couple pages to the right. Titus chapter one. And look down at verse nine. It's a command here. Titus 1 9. Holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convict those who contradict. We have to know the word of God. We have to understand doctrine. Now we've seen the results of a misguided use of authority, right? Now we can think of all kinds of example of that. Here, Paul is exercising the authority of God's word, applying the authority of God's word to his circumstances, to the circumstances that Peter finds himself in. On the authority of God's word, he levels this rebuke because he's to the law and to the testimony. He knows God's word and he's got a responsibility to do that. But now you must learn the word of God. I must know the word of God in order to convict those who would contradict. We do that on the authority of God's word. Today we see all kinds of examples, don't we, of people who have used man's authority to do that. There is no authority in man, in and of himself, to do anything. There's no authority in you, in and of yourself, to do anything. You can only act as long as it's in accordance with God's word, right? But we've seen that all the time with the Catholic Church and the Crusades. Good example, killing Christians. We saw it in the Reformation where killing our brothers and sisters for error, believing a lie, because of man-made traditions. You don't believe that we should baptize believers or you don't believe that we should baptize infants, we'll kill you. You don't believe that the body and blood of Jesus Christ is actually in the sacrament of the mass, we'll kill you. You don't believe that the church in state should be won and there should be a theocratic, we'll kill you.  It's like looking for excuses to kill. It's just, that's the way Christianity's been and that's all based on the authority of men. That's based on the mind of men. That's men exercising authority that they come up with and of themselves. That's not God's authority. That's not the way things are to be done. When you rebuke, when you correct, when you admonish, when you exhort, all of those things that were commanded to do, all of that must take place from a proper understanding of God's word and on the authority of God's word. And you're to do it, as the Bible says, in love, in a spirit of gentleness. That's the way we're to do that. When you see your brother in error, in love and in gentleness, hey, I just wanted to call your attention to something. I heard you talking and just had a concern. Can I show you what I'm talking about? You go to the Bible, to the law and to the testimony, right? You see a brother in sin. Hey man, I just, I want you to know right up front, I love you, you're my brother, I'm concerned for your soul. There's something I need to talk to you about, right? Gentleness, humility, meekness on the authority of God's word, with God's word. That's the way that we're to operate. When you go in an authoritarian, and you start off that way, you wicked lost man. Whoa, wait a minute, what was your name again? You know, it's like, that's not, we're not to do that, right? That's not the way this works. It is on the authority of God's word, okay? And according to his spirit, in a spirit of gentleness, in a spirit of love, that's where you start. And we see harsh rebukes in scripture against false teachers, right?  That's the way it goes. When people's souls are at stake, you contend and you rebuke, right? And there are times where that's appropriate. Here, Peter's leveling a pretty harsh rebuke, but it's public, and people are being swayed, even Barnabas, and so he levels a pretty hard rebuke. We're to do that in love, but we're not to tolerate, we're not to be pushovers, we're not to give away the farm. This is not peace at the expense of truth. You see that? This is contending for truth, and we wanna have unity and peace in the truth, not at the expense of truth. That's what Paul's doing here. Many today, they find themselves in the position of seeking and requesting and demanding and crying out for peace at the expense of truth. Now imagine that applied to this situation in Galatians 2 with Peter. If Paul had said, you know what? As soon as these Judaizers leave and go back to Jerusalem, things will get back to normal. Peter will start eating with Gentiles again, and so just don't make a fuss over this. Just let things lie. When they go back to Jerusalem, everything will be just fine. Can you imagine? No, I mean, what Peter or Paul's doing here is required, okay? Back to Galatians 2. So you gotta contend with authority. Look at verse 12, verse 12. Now he stood him to his face because he was to be blamed. Verse 12, for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who are of the circumcision. Next point in your notes is, be consistent with your convictions. Don't compromise your convictions. Be consistent. James 3 says that we all stumble in many things. We all stumble in many things. There's a propensity to stumble. We are prone to wander, prone to error. So none of us is immune, but you have to live consistently with your convictions. This rebuke here against Peter is not because he believed that you had to keep the law to be saved. We just saw, walking through Acts on Sunday morning, in chapter 10, how the sheep comes down with the clean and unclean animals in it. And Peter is contending within himself over what this vision means. And then we see Peter come to grips with that as God saves Cornelius and his entire household. And then we've seen how Peter believes that in Acts 11, right, this morning even. When he goes to Jerusalem and he has to explain the account to those Jerusalem believing Jews of what happened. Peter believes the right thing. But Peter isn't acting. He's not living. He's not walking in consistency in accord with his convictions. He's playing a hypocrite, right? And that's what the rebuke here is for. Peter, it says, was eating. Before they came, he would eat. Now this shows and implies that Peter was eating clean and unclean food. He wasn't keeping the dietary laws any longer. He was having full fellowship with the Gentiles and he was eating food that the Jews in Jerusalem or the believing Jews, unbelieving Jews even, would have believed were unclean, that were inappropriate. This would have been scandalous. And we've talked about that going through the book of Acts. He was eating. Now that eating too is in the imperfect tense. It means it was ongoing. It wasn't just once. It was just, that was his manner of life. That was what Peter had now become accustomed to doing. Then this came in verse 12 here before certain men came from James. These certain men were of the sort that we talked about a couple of weeks ago that were in Jerusalem, unbelievers who believed that you must keep the law to be saved, they were circumcised Jews. Now it says here that they came from James. Now that is a little stinger. This is Paul writing and he's rebuking Peter. It's interesting that he doesn't rebuke James. Now James, they came it says from James because that group of Judaizers in Jerusalem were under the umbrella of James's authority, under the umbrella of the church in Jerusalem, but they believed you had to keep the law to be saved. They weren't saved themselves, but nevertheless under James's authority. So the fact that he didn't rebuke James in the same way that he's rebuking Peter here, but because they came from James, it gives them a little stinger there. That would have caused James to say, and I gotta get a handle on this. That would have been a little stinger to James to say, we've got this problem here in the church in Jerusalem. This needs to be addressed, needs to be fixed. Now James does that. We know from Acts 15 with the Jerusalem Council, Paul comes with Barnabas to the Jerusalem Council. James, John, Peter approve of Paul's gospel. They all agree with his gospel and they send a letter back to the churches at Galatia affirming Paul's gospel. So we know that James and Paul agreed. We know that James, Peter and Paul agreed. So this is just a situation here that James is gonna have to get control of, but James isn't being rebuked here, Peter's being rebuked. This rebuked is not being prompted, I want you to understand, by a change in Peter's theology. It's not that Peter, after Acts 10, after Acts 11, has all of a sudden now reverted back to saying, yeah, you gotta keep a law to be saved.  This eating, this emphasis on food, the dietary laws and on having fellowship together is a common theme in scripture and it is important that every believer, we do that together. We're all brothers and sisters, we're all to eat from the same table, that's very important. Look at 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10, let's look at that. We're all to eat the same table. 1 Corinthians 10, I looked down in verse 16. The Bible says the cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Now these Galatians who were not observing the dietary laws, they were washing the blood of Christ. They were believers, brothers, all right? And this is the communion of the blood of Christ. They had communion in the blood of Christ, they were saved. The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? Well, certainly it is and we're all to partake of that. Jews and Gentiles together, verse 17. For we, though many are one bread and one body. Now you could take that though many, we're of all various races, various backgrounds. There were many diverse people, but we're all one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread. Observe Israel after the flesh. Are not those who eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar? What am I saying then that an idol is anything or what is offered to idols is anything? Listen, this is all one offering, one table, one fellowship meal together. And so now Peter, back in Galatians 2, is retreating from that. When these certain men from James came, now all of a sudden he's retreating back from this fellowship, retreating back from the table. Now, the implications of that are, this is important to understand and contending for the faith, the implications of that are, is that we no longer have fellowship. We're no longer one body. We're no longer one table. I'm separating from you because you don't keep the dietary laws and what I'm communicating, what Peter is communicating is, if you want to be one body with me, then you have to keep the dietary laws. Peter, by his hypocrisy, by his conduct is perverting the gospel. That's why in Galatians 2 it says, or look back at just an example of that, verse 5, chapter 2, verse 5, on the issue of circumcision, the same issue. To whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, Titus was not circumcised, why? That the truth of the gospel might continue with you. That's powerful, right? You know, he didn't circumcise Titus, why? Because it's the truth of the gospel so that that might continue. Here, Peter, in his hypocrisy, he doesn't believe it by conviction, but in his actions, in his hypocrisy, is saying, you don't keep the dietary laws, you're lost. You have no fellowship with me, I have no fellowship with you, and it creates a schism to bodies, all right? You cannot compromise with your convictions.  And we're gonna see that here.  And here, Peter certainly did. So much so that Peter was threatening the faith of these believers in Antioch. Threatening the gospel itself by saying that, no, we're not gonna have fellowship together, you're gonna have to keep the dietary laws. He was threatening the purity of the gospel, threatening God's word, all because he was playing the hypocrite. Now listen, the Bible has a lot of strong warnings about causing someone to stumble. When you sin, it has consequences. You may not see it, but when you sin in private, it has consequences. It has consequences on the body of Christ. And those consequences, like a leaven, like a cancer, can spread and can influence. When the church behaves like the world, man, don't we see the wicked fruit of that sin? In most cases, the church has lost its testimony. You talk to people at the door, you're witnessing to them. And how many times have we heard, yeah, I don't go to church because it's full of hypocrites. You know, in the gospel, Christ is blasphemed because of the conduct of his so-called saints. So your sin has consequences. Your sin has consequences in the church. When you act with a mean spirit, you act in anger, you snap. When you sin openly like that, when you, you're not coming as Christ would come, you're not coming in love. Your sin has consequences. You can embolden others in their sin because they see you in your sin. You know, I've got this mean spirit, and so everywhere I go, I'm rebuking people with a mean spirit, acting toward people in a mean spirit.  You know, if your leaders are doing that, can you see how quickly, how insidiously that leaven can spread, and how a culture can develop that is, it's not Christ-like. It's not honoring to God. It's not biblical. It's sin. It's all the way. So our sin has consequences. You must be in accord with God's word. And it's, we can all be swayed by that. We can all stumble into that. We can all be led by that, carried away, just like Barnabas, led away by that. We have to be very, very careful. Our sin has consequences. But there's also the concept in scripture that your good conduct has consequences, right? Look at Philippians one. Let's just see one example of that. Look at Philippians one.  And that's where we wanna be, isn't it? Look at Philippians one, and look down in verse 12. But I want you to know, brethren, this is Paul speaking, I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. He's going through a tough road. He's got a tough time. Paul is being persecuted, threats. I mean, he's got it tough. But the things which have happened to me, he says, actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, verse 13. So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to the rest that my chains are in Christ. Verse 14. And most of the brethren in the Lord having become confident by my chains, and you see that? Now Paul's conduct here, Paul's circumstances starting to have an influence on those around him, starting to have an influence on the church. They're now becoming more confident by my chains are much more bold to speak the word without fear. That's amazing. When you hear about a brother being persecuted, brother going through difficulty, doesn't it embolden you? It's like, reading scripture emboldens you to be like Paul, to be like Christ. Hearing the stories, great, I love biographies, these historic biographies of Christians, our brothers and sisters from ages ago, seeing what they went through for the faith. And doesn't it give you great confidence? The great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews, right? You're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Doesn't that spur you on? That passage of scripture looking at the stadium filled of God's witnesses, cheering you on to greater boldness in the faith, greater love, greater obedience. That's so your positive conduct can also have an impact for the gospel. You see a brother fearless, you see a brother bold, you respond boldly. Goodness is infectious. You see a brother with acting with kindness, acting in love towards someone, that's infectious. We just see that all the time. Someone does something good for someone else. I don't even know what product they're selling or that commercial someone sees. Someone opened the door for someone and they do something nice for someone else and then they help a little lady cross the street. You know, it's like, that's sort of the concept behind that thing is that goodness, kindness is infectious, all right? So we wanna be that way. In the church, in the church here in Galatians, in our church, there is an infectious consumerism that has infiltrated the church today. You go to church because what it can do for you, what's in it for me, right? You go, I witness to people all the time, so I just feel fed. I just wanna be fed. I'm fed here. This is where I'm fed. So that's what they go to church for. So you're gonna be, you're awfully skinny. You're not being fed well at that place based on what some of them talk. But that's what they go to church for. They go to be fed. It's that consumerism mindset in the church. I wanna go to church for what it'll do for me. It has a good kids program or what the case may be. I like the ladies there. It's a little social club. We get together on Wednesdays. I mean, the whole deal, right? But now, for you coming to the church, if we're not to be led by that consumerism mindset, and you know that your conduct has influence, and you know that you're to live out, according to scripture, the one and others, then you don't come to church with a consumerism mindset. You come to church saying, what can I do to edify my brother? What can I do to serve my brother? What can I do to embolden my brother in the faith? What can I do to help him with sin? What can I do to encourage? What can I do to love? That's what church is to be about. You come to church, and in church, you think. And here, Paul, in Galatians 2, is doing that very thing. Now, it doesn't feel good, I'm sure, to Peter, and it's not easy to do for Paul, but at the same time, it is necessary, and that is an act of love. That is the loving and right thing to do. Need to come to church, not with a consumerism mindset, but with the idea that you're gonna serve. So you don't compromise with your convictions. You're consistent with your convictions. You don't compromise with your conduct because your conduct has consequences, and those consequences, hearing back in Galatians 2, are serious and immediate. Look at verse 13. Verse 13, and the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him. Now, that word hypocrite, literally, koupakri se, right, in the Greek, hypocrisy, literally means playing a part, like an actor. He literally joined in his pretense, joined him in pretending, that's what it literally means. He's pretending, and so they joined him in pretending with him, and this was immediate. It happened right away, and then look at the end of that, it says, they played the hypocrite with him so that even Barnabas, Barnabas, son of encouragement, Barnabas, with Paul leading the ministry to the Gentiles, that even Barnabas gets pulled away, retreats back as a result of Peter's influence. So even Barnabas gets pulled away, and he was carried away with their hypocrisy. They're pretending, they're play acting. He's not acting, when you don't act in accord with your convictions, you're playing games.  It's inconsistent, that's what we see here. This is to be, we're to be consistent in how we behave because those things have consequences, and in order to protect us from that, in order to protect the church from that, you, back to point one, you have to be willing to do what you must. You've gotta be willing, when you see that, to do something about it. You've gotta be willing, when you see that, to confront it, to get it out of our church. 11 is to be cut off. Cancer has to be cut out, dug out. We've gotta do that. And point three, back in Galatians two, don't play the hypocrite, don't do it. Look at verse 14. But when I saw, when Paul saw, that they were not straightforward, that word straightforward there, just means walking rightly. Literally means walking rightly. When I saw that they weren't walking rightly about the truth of the gospel, it wasn't that they, you know, he's just not eating with Gentiles. And Paul is associating that with the truth of the gospel. We looked at it a second ago. He said to Peter, before them all, had to be public, there are public consequences here.  Do you see the inconsistency here in Peter's actions? He's saying, listen, Peter, you live as a Gentile.  You're living as a Gentile. So if you're living as a Gentile, why are you now compelling Gentiles to live like Jews? That's hypocrisy, that's inconsistency. I want you to see that tie. If you look there in verse 14, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? Look back up in verse three, yet not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. Two issues here, Peter, because of his conduct, is in the camp with these false teachers. False teachers compelling Titus to be circumcised. We're talking about keeping the law here. Now, Peter, in swaying from the truth of the gospel, is by his actions compelling Gentiles to live as Jews. Do you see that? So that is dangerous ground. Peter in the camp with false teachers. Now, again, like we made that point, Peter is not called a false teacher here. Peter's not doing this based on conviction. He's not doing this based on a theological position that he's come to. He's doing it out of fear because he fears these Jews from Jerusalem. Now, the reason he fears them is because there's a contingent of Jews in Jerusalem persecuting Christians. In Acts 11, we went through that this morning, Peter going to Jerusalem, he was speaking to who there? Believing Jews, right? That's what the Bible says. Those out literally, out of the circumcision. Here, we've got Peter fearing those out of the circumcision. When he went to Jerusalem in Acts 11, he wasn't afraid to give the account of Cornelius. He just gave the account, he trusted God. He walked through the steps like the Bible says in order. He presented the case. What happened to them? But now all of a sudden, these men come from Jerusalem and he's afraid, he's retreating back in fear. Why is that? It's because you still have a contingent in Jerusalem of Jews, those out of the circumcision who are attesting that you must keep the law in order to be saved. And they're so dogmatic about it, they're doing it so much out of their own conviction, they're persecuting genuine Christians for it. And Peter is fearful. Peter now sinfully fearful, not trusting God here, sinfully fearful of that persecution. And so that he fears that. And he's compelling. So now it puts Peter in the camp of a false teacher, in the camp with the false teachers, but Peter, not doing it based on conviction, not doing it based on a theological position, he repents of this, all right? And he gets it right. And that's proven out. Look at 1 Corinthians 15. This conflict with Peter, with Paul, doesn't last for long. Praise the Lord. And many will say, we read the commentaries, you look at information on this. All kinds of interpretations and twisting of this passage to try to make excuses for Peter's conduct here. The one that is crazy to me is that this whole situation between Peter and Paul was just Peter acting out, a word for hypocrisy is behaving like an actor. He's playing a part pretending to disagree with Paul so that Paul, in the presence of all, would rebuke him so that everybody could learn from that. Now, that's people who think that Peter is their pope. And so, they've got to pretend, they've got to come up with some rationalization for why Peter, certainly our pope being infallible, cannot fall into this kind of error. And so, they use that idea that, well, Peter's just playing a part. And so, Paul rebukes him, you know, it's like a teaching moment. And they're playing a role, it's crazy. So, we see that this conflict here between Peter and Paul doesn't last forever. 1 Corinthians 15, and look down in verse three. For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. And that he was seen by Cephas, then by the 12. After that, he was seen, and I want you to see that, he was seen by Cephas, then by the 12. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained at the present, but some had fallen asleep. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all, he was seen by me, as one also born out of due time. For I am least of the apostles who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Verse 10. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I but the grace of God, which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I, or they, right? Peter, James, so we preach, and so you believe. They believe the same gospel. Look at 2 Peter. This wasn't Peter, as some have said, and tried to contend. Drifting off, and now we have two different gospels. And then say that in Galatians. They entrusted the gospel to Peter, to the circumcised, and to Paul, to the uncircumcised. Gospel to the Jews, gospel to the Gentiles. We're not talking about two separate gospels. We're talking about the same gospel that they both agreed on. And look at 2 Peter, and look at chapter three. 2 Peter, chapter three. And look at verse 15, verse 14. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless, and consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul. Now this is Peter speaking, right? As also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you. As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of things, of these things, in which are some things hard to understand? Yeah, hard to live by. Which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do the rest of the scriptures. Peter's saying here that Paul's writing scripture. They agreed on the gospel, right?  The truth of the gospel is at stake, right? And Paul makes that point with Titus. Paul's making that point now with Peter, and we've got to contend with that. Based on this example of Galatians two, the example of Christ is the command of Christ. Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. Here we see Paul contending earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. That goes to say that we must contend for the faith. We have to do it. Our culture defines love as do what feels good to me and stay out of my business, all right? But now Christ defines love as keeping his commandments. And in the church when you're loving towards someone, with someone, you're going to them in love to do what is necessary for the well-being of their soul. And here we see Paul doing that with Peter and Galatians two. We need to be in each other's business, right? To go to them in love to help them. Their soul is at stake, and you have a responsibility to do that. And we, if we love Christ, contend for his gospel. We contend for the word, all right? Love here in Galatians two is the courage on the part of Paul to confront Peter. You have that kind of love for your brother. You have that kind of love for our church. You have that kind of love for Christ. You will wage war for the faith. You'll battle for the faith, for the truth of the faith. You'll confront someone when they need help. Listen, I, you can fall. I can fall into error and not see it, right? You can be deceived. I'm not sure here that Peter and Galatians two thought to himself, and I'm really in the wrong, but I'm fearful, and so I'm gonna do it anyway. I mean, there are situations that you find yourself in that you didn't see it coming. And that's why Christianity is not a lone ranger. It's a spectator sport. This is us together, waging this war together, battling together, contending together, going to our brother in love. And we've got to be ready to do that. Paul, in this passage, stood here and did this alone.  Takes great courage, takes great conviction, takes you acting in accordance with your convictions to contend for the faith and to love your brother and to love the church of Jesus Christ that he purchased with his own blood. And we've got to do that, and we have a great example here in Galatians two to do it, but it's not in love.  And that kind of spirit, it's not the way we're to do it. We've got testimony, we'll see in Galatians six of how to do that correctly, but it's gotta be done in love, it's gotta be done. And we need to be faithful to Christ and obeying him in this, according to the example of Paul, let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we love you. God, we love your church. God, we love our brothers. And Lord, it's our desire, it's the desire of our heart to contend for the faith. Lord, to take this truth that you've given us, this truth we carry around in privy pots and to be zealous for that. I praise you and thank you, God, for the zeal that you've given us, for your house and for your bride. Lord, the concern and love that you've planted in our hearts for our brother. You know that the love of the brothers is a mark of conversion. And that, God, you authored that and thank you, Lord, for it. And help us to act consistently with our convictions in that. Lord, to stand up where we need to stand up, to call out error when we see it, because people's souls are at stake. Now, the purity of your church is at stake, the purity of your gospel. And help us to be faithful to you. We are so weak in our flesh. The Paul here, by Paul's example, he wasn't weak, but we have you to guide us, you to direct us, you to help us, you to empower us. Thank you, Lord, for that. We want you to bless this church. We want this church to be pleasing to you. We want it to be just an enormously bright light. Lord, just a testimony of your grace and goodness. We want it to be a beacon, God, of who you are to this wicked and lost world that others wouldn't blaspheme because of our sin, because of our weakness, because of our failures. And we know sin has consequences, God, please help us walk in the light, walk according to your word. Gotta make us diligent stewards of your word, God, that we could be approved, that we could do that, Lord, and live for you, and strengthen us, God, by your spirit.  We need you, Lord, and thank you. Thank you for the salvation we have. Thank you for this teaching and your word. Lord, help us to apply it. Apply it to our hearts, by your spirit, for your glory, and the good of your saints, the good of your church. Jesus' name, amen.