Okay, I lost my voice over the weekend.
So if you find it, would you bring it back?
I need to holler tonight.
I did find some throat spray.
This is what Beyonce uses.
So if I start kicking some Beyonce, I've got my hot tea.
And it was if we can get through this here.
Appreciate your prayers.
Do be praying for the best family this week.
And David lost his brother.
And it's been a tough couple of weeks for them.
And I know they appreciate your prayers.
Arrangements will be coming later.
They have some family that's out of the country.
And so we'll let you know as that is decided.
But I know they appreciate your prayers.
Now today is part three of our study in Galatians called Free.
And today we'll be in Galatians chapter two.
We'll be in the first 10 verses.
Some of our life groups are also doing this study
in homes during the week.
And so we're putting discussion questions
on our website at iargile.com for you to download.
You can also pick up a copy in our welcome center.
If you'd like to know more information about a life group,
you can see somebody in our welcome center
and they'll tell you more about life group.
In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus taught us
in the parable of the wheat and the weeds
is also known as the parable of the wheat and the tares,
that whenever the good seed of God's truth is planted,
that the enemy will be there too planting the seeds of lies.
And right along with the good crop of wheat,
there is also growing a bad crop of weeds.
And so as the apostle Paul is faithfully planting
good seeds of the truth of the gospel,
the religious false teachers are planting
the bad seeds of false doctrine and lies.
And so Paul warned the elders of the church
to be on your guard for yourselves and also for the church.
In 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1,
the Spirit clearly says that in later times,
and we're in later times, that some will abandon the faith
and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
Such teachings come through hypocritical liars
whose consciousness have been seared as with a hot iron.
And all throughout Paul's ministry,
he fought for the truth of the gospel
and for those who wanted to change it and to add to it.
In Galatians chapter 2, Paul continues
to defend his authority as an apostle
and that the message that he taught
was the same as the message of the other 12 apostles
in Jerusalem.
So Galatians chapter 2 and verse 1,
then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem,
this time with Barnabas.
I took Titus along also.
I went in response to a revelation and meeting privately
with those esteemed as leaders.
I presented them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.
I wanted to be sure I was not running
and had not been running my race in vain.
Yet not even Titus, who was with me,
was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
This matter arose because some false believers
had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have
in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.
We did not give in to them for a moment
so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
As for those who were held in high esteem,
whatever they were makes no difference to me.
God does not show favoritism.
They added nothing to my message.
On the contrary, they recognized that I
had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel
to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised.
For God, who is at work in Peter as an apostle
to the circumcised, was also at work in me
as an apostle to the Gentiles.
James, Cephas, and John, those esteemed as pillars,
gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship
when they recognized the grace given to me.
They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles
and they to the circumcised.
All they asked was that we should continue
to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do,
all along.
Now, before we dive in, let's get introduced
to the characters that are in this chapter.
Paul, of course, is the great apostle to the Gentiles,
the Gentiles who are referred to here throughout the chapter
as the uncircumcised.
Barnabas was one of Paul's closest friends.
It was Barnabas who made it possible for Paul
to be received into the Jerusalem Church.
Remember, these people were afraid of him
because of the things he'd been doing.
The name Barnabas means son of encouragement,
and you will always find Barnabas encouraging somebody.
When the gospel came to the Gentiles at Antioch,
it was Barnabas who was sent there to encourage them
in their faith.
Titus was a Gentile believer who became a Christ follower
through Paul's ministry.
Titus was taken to Jerusalem as an example
of what God was doing in the Gentile people.
Years later, Titus helped Paul go to some
of the most difficult churches and work out
some of their problems.
Then we have three leaders of the church in Jerusalem.
We have Peter, who a lot of times in this chapter
is called Cephas.
We have John, who is part of the inner circle with Jesus
when Jesus was on the earth.
And we have James, the half-brother of Jesus.
All of Jesus' brothers and sisters
were half-brothers and sisters because they
had the same mother.
But of course, Jesus did not have an earthly father
because he was heavenly-born, virgin-born.
Jesus' brothers and sisters did not believe in him
during his earthly ministry.
But it's recorded in the Bible that his brothers and sisters
were part of the early church, where they became believers
later.
James became a believer in Christ
when the resurrected Christ appeared to him.
James went on, became the main leader of the Jerusalem church,
and he wrote the book of the Bible, the New Testament
book of James.
Along with these people were the other apostles
and church elders.
There were also Jewish legalists.
These were the religious false teachers
who insisted that you had to keep the law of Moses
if you wanted to be a Christian.
And these are the people who are stirring up
all of the trouble.
So these are the people we're talking about in Galatians 2.
Acts chapter 15 also gives more detail to the story.
So verse 1, then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem.
This time with Barnabas, I took Titus along also.
We've already seen that Paul did not spend a lot of time
with the other apostles.
He only spent 15 days with Peter and a brief time with James.
But 14 years later, he returns to Jerusalem.
Paul and Barnabas had completed their first missionary tour.
And now they've returned to Antioch.
They're wanting to celebrate all the Gentiles
who had put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
But the Jewish legalists, the false teachers,
heard about this.
And they got upset.
And so they go to Antioch.
And they begin to teach the people there
that you first had to become a Jew
before you could become a Christian.
Acts chapter 15 records that a group from Judea
had gone to Antioch proclaiming that unless you are circumcised
according to the law of Moses, you cannot become a Christian.
Paul and Barnabas had a huge debate with these guys over this.
And it was determined that they should go to Jerusalem
and meet before the other apostles and the elders of the church
and have this debate resolved.
And so Paul's trip to Jerusalem was to resolve this issue.
It would come to be known as the Jerusalem Council.
Verse 1, then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem.
This time with Barnabas, I took Titus along also.
Paul took Barnabas with him.
He also brought Titus.
Titus was an uncircumcised Gentile who had become a Christian.
Titus was going to be a witness.
Verse 2, I went in response to a revelation.
It was the Holy Spirit who had led Paul to go to Jerusalem.
And so he was obedient and he went.
The Antioch Church also agreed and gave their blessing.
Verse 2, I went in response to a revelation
and meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders.
The esteemed leaders were Peter and James and John
and the other apostles and elders.
Paul wanted to meet with them privately
to make sure that they were on the same page
and that they agreed on the theology
before they met publicly.
Verse 2, I went in response to a revelation
and meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders.
I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.
This is the gospel that Paul preached to the Gentiles,
that we become a Christian by grace through faith.
These verses in Romans walk us through how to become a Christian.
This is God's plan of salvation.
Some people call this the Romans road.
It would be great for you to memorize.
If you have a pen or a pencil, take it out
and write down these references.
If you wanted to lead someone to Christ,
tell them how to become a Christian.
You could use these six verses and explain to someone
how they can become a Christian, how they can become saved.
Romans 3, 23.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
This is the gospel that Paul taught.
Romans 6, 23.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Romans 5, 8.
But God demonstrates His own love for us in this.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 10, 9 and 10.
If you declare with your mouth Jesus's Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified.
And it is with your mouth that you profess your faith
and are saved.
Romans 10, 13.
Love this verse.
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
And you didn't hear anything in any of these verses
about you being good.
Verse 2, I went in response to a revelation
and meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders.
I presented to them the gospel that I
preach among the Gentiles.
I wanted to be sure I was not running
and had not been running my race in vain.
This doesn't mean that Paul wasn't sure of what he believed.
He was completely confident in the truth.
But if the church leaders were going to side
or even compromise with the false teachers,
then Paul felt like all his work had been done.
The truth of the gospel is an absolute essential doctrine.
It is worth fighting for.
What happened at the council in Jerusalem
was recorded by Luke in the book of Acts chapter 15.
Peter presented the case for the gospel of grace
to the council.
It was Peter who was first chosen by God
to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
Peter told the council that God gave the same spirit
to the Gentiles in the same way that he gave the Holy Spirit
to the Jewish believers.
In God, there is no difference between the races
at the cross Jesus tore down the walls
so that in Christ there are no racial divisions.
I had one of our African-American members
tell me the other day about how he had left a predominantly
African-American church and came to the church at Argo.
And his former church called him and said,
man, what are you doing going to that white church in Argo?
And he said, well, last time I looked,
I think it's red brick.
Good answer.
First three, yet not even Titus, who was with me,
was compelled to be circumcised even though he was a Greek.
You see, Titus was a true believer.
He was a Christ follower.
But Titus was another race.
He was a Greek.
He was a Gentile.
He was living proof that circumcision following
the law of Moses was not a requirement
to be in a growing relationship with Jesus.
Titus was a Christian.
And to require him to go under the bondage of the law
after he had experienced the freedom in Jesus Christ
would have been a disgrace.
Verse four, this matter arose because some false believers
had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have
in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.
See, it's possible that some of the religious false teachers
actually believed their legalistic gospel
because that's what self-righteous people do.
They can't see when they're wrong.
But Paul refers to them here as false believers.
That means that they are not Christ followers.
That means that they are not Christians.
That they are just religious.
They may have even been planted in the churches by Satan
to corrupt the gospel because Satan is a deceiver.
Their purpose was to try to destroy
the freedom that a true believer enjoys in Jesus Christ
and to put the believers under the bondage of legalism.
Christians are set free by the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
That sets us free from the law of sin and death.
Second Corinthians chapter 3, where the spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom.
John chapter 8, if therefore the sun shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed.
Verse 5, we did not give into them for a moment
so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
I saw a TV show recently.
And the plot was that we had lost World War II.
And the Japanese and the Germans had both won.
And the Japanese had taken control of the United States West Coast.
And Hitler was in control of the US East Coast.
And imagine how different our lives would be today
if that had actually happened.
Verse 5, we did not give into them for a moment
so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
Thank God that Paul did not give in.
How different would our faith be today if he did give in?
The leaders of the church in Jerusalem were in complete agreement with Paul's gospel.
And the Jerusalem Council declared their full support ever since.
And even to this day, there are still enemies of the simple grace of Jesus Christ.
They tell us that we become a Christian through faith in Jesus plus something.
Good works being baptized,
keeping the Ten Commandments, going to church, doing religious rituals.
These can all be good things, but they don't make you a Christian.
It's only by grace through faith that we are saved.
And Paul made it crystal clear that these teachers are wrong.
In fact, Paul pronounced a curse on any person who preaches any other gospel
than the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ.
It's a serious thing to mess with the gospel. Verse 6,
As for those who were held in high esteem,
whatever they were makes no difference to me.
God does not show favoritism.
They added nothing to my message.
The religious false teachers had hoped that the leaders in Jerusalem would disagree with Paul,
but they did not.
Paul let them know that he respected the leaders,
or he would not have gone to Jerusalem and sought their counsel privately.
But he did not fear them, and he did not have to have their support.
He simply wanted them to see what God was doing
through his ministry to the Gentiles,
and recognize that the grace of God was at work in his life,
and they saw that.
Regardless if he had their support or not,
he was going to stay true to the gospel message.
Paul was not being proud.
He was just stating the facts.
Paul knew better than anybody that everything that he had
and that everything that he had done was by the grace of God.
Paul referred to himself as the worst of all sinners.
It was all by the grace of God.
He had faithfully preached the gospel for 17 years
with a little help from the other apostles,
verse 7.
On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of
preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised,
just as Peter had been to the circumcised.
The leaders agreed that God calls people to different areas of ministry.
Peter was called to the Jewish people to lead them into a growing relationship
with Jesus Christ.
Paul's call was to the Gentiles to lead them
into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
That doesn't mean that Peter would never help a Gentile
or that Paul would never help a Jew.
It just meant that each of them recognized
that they had a distinct calling of God on their life.
Verse 8.
For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised,
was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.
The same Holy Spirit that blessed and gave power to Peter's ministry
was the same Holy Spirit that blessed and gave power to Paul's ministry.
And that same Holy Spirit had the same gospel message for both.
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith.
Verse 9.
James, Cephas, and John, those esteemed as pillars,
gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.
When they recognized the grace given to me,
they agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
After the counsel in Jerusalem, they never questioned Paul's message again
or his apostleship.
Verse 10.
All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor,
the very thing I have been eager to do all along.
This verse reminds us that the gospel is all about people.
It's not fussing about the rules and regulations.
It's about people.
People that are hurting.
People that need to hear some good news.
People that need some hope.
That people are so much more than just a number.
That every number has a name.
And every name has a story.
Jesus said that you all know the truth.
And the truth will set you free.
It's good for us to remember the truth.
The Lord's Supper helps us to remember the truth.
That Jesus died on the cross.
And that he was buried.
And that he rose again from the dead.
And that his sacrifice was for you and was for me.
May we always remember the truth.
And that truth will set us free.
This morning we're going to share in the Lord's Supper together.
And just a moment if you're a baptized believer in Christ,
we're going to invite you to come to one of the tables
and get a cup of juice, a piece of bread,
take it back to your seat, and then we'll share it together.
The Bible says to examine your own heart
when you come to the Lord's Supper.
So I'll encourage you prayerfully to do that.
So you come as you're ready.
He just took the bread, he blessed it, and he broke it.
And he said, take it.
This is my body that was broken for you.
And he took the cup, and he said,
this represents my blood that was shed for you.
And every time you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.
And God, for your sacrifice for us, we thank you.
Help us to always remember what you've done for us.
May it affect our life from the inside out.
Help us to never get over it.
Thank you for your love for us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
