What the Bible Really Says About Grace vs. Law — Galatians Chapter 2

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, it's good to have everybody back with us again, and for those of you out in television, you may wonder why I mean back with us. It's because we take a break after every 30-minute segment, and while the camera crews get ready for another one, we have a coffee break, and consequently you'll see the coffee cups. We just have a good time of fellowship all afternoon, and if you're ever coming through Tulsa, we'd love to have you come in and be a part of this taping session, but please call us so that we're sure to be here when you are. Again, all the past programs are available on video, audio, and in the printed page, and we'd love to have you contact us if you're interested in any of that. Alright, now we're here for Bible study and we're going to buy up the time and use every minute for searching the Scriptures, and we trust that you'll learn how to study. Galatians chapter 2. Now as we remember this little letter was written primarily to straighten out the false teaching that had come into Paul's churches that he had started with the false teaching of law keeping and circumcision, plus Paul's Gospel of Grace. Now here we are as we saw in our last program, some 22 years after Pentecost in about AD 51, and Paul has already established churches throughout Asia Minor, and the church in Antioch of course has been more or less the home base. It's where Gentiles first began to be interested in the things of God, and consequently it's in Antioch that the thing really boiled over to the place where the Lord instructed Paul to now go up to Jerusalem and meet with the apostles and the elders of the Jewish congregation. I refuse to call those Jewish believers Christians simply because the Bible doesn't. Now I know I stand alone out there, and that's alright because like I've always told people that come to my classes, I have never taught anywhere classes or even on television with the idea of having any monetary return. So I don't have to worry about if people like it or if they don't like it. As I told one gentleman one night, I said, fine with me if you don't want to come back. It's no skin off my nose. But you know what? He came back a couple of weeks later, and he became one of my best students. So I feel the same way even here. I can take my stand on some of these things without compromise, because I've only got one that I am responsible to, and that's the author of this book. And I handle it realizing what a tremendous responsibility it is. Whatever you are, if you're a Sunday school teacher, if you're just going to hold a devotion in your women's groups or whatever, never forget that when you handle the Word of God, it's an awesome responsibility. I never forget that, and that's why we appreciate the prayers and letters of encouragement and confirmation many times. So I do feel that Paul and Barnabas as they now come from Antioch, and they're going to try to prove to the leadership of Jerusalem that you cannot add anything to the relationship between Christ and the believer except faith, and faith alone in Paul's Gospel. Now when we left off in our last program we were in verse 2, and I hope I made the point that he says we communicated. In other words they didn't just flippantly say, well this is what we believe. But they sat down and they looked at it point by point, line upon line, because you see these revelations that came through the Apostle Paul are so above and beyond Judaism, that it took some time for these people to understand where he was coming from. Those of you who remember my teaching back in Romans 1.16 where Paul says, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. And what does salvation imply according to Paul's teaching? It's that whole body of truth that involves justification, sanctification, forgiveness, redeemed, baptized into the Body of Christ, indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and you can just go on and on and on. These are all new revelations that you won't find until you get to Paul. You don't find that taught in the Old Testament. You don't find the Old Testament believer told, the Spirit dwelleth within you. Do you? No, it's not back there. Except for Abraham of course, but you don't see the Jews told, you're justified by faith and faith alone, and you've been bought with a price. No, all of this has to be after the cross and the resurrection had been completed. So Paul communicated carefully, line upon line, precept upon precept, this Gospel, or that Gospel I should say, which Paul says, I preach among the Gentiles. Now why does the Holy Spirit prompt the man to use the word that? Well to signify the difference between Paul's Gospel and what Peter and Jesus and the eleven have been teaching to Israel. Now you've heard me over the last umpteen programs make the comment that Jesus and the twelve were operated under the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the Gospel of the Kingdom was just simply that the King is here, He is ready to set up the Kingdom offered to Israel since Abraham was given the covenant. And that was the whole scope of that Kingdom message, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Messiah of Israel. But now you see the Gospel of Grace is that this same Messiah of Israel who was crucified, shed His blood, was buried, and rose from the dead, is the Savior not just of Israel, but of the whole human race. Not to those who keep the Law, not to those who do something, but to those who simply believe. Oh that's a whole new concept, and these Jews couldn't comprehend it. So they have to bring Paul to Jerusalem, and the Lord of course instructs him. So Paul says, I communicated unto them that Gospel, which I preach amongst the Gentiles, but privately. In other words they probably had a little small ante room where just the leaders of the Jerusalem church were meeting now with Paul and Barnabas. But privately to them who were of reputation. Now read that slowly. If you're going to have a general meeting, a conference, and then you're going to meet with those who had the reputation, well what group of people are you talking about? Well the leadership, and that would include Peter and the eleven, and maybe a few of the other Jewish elders in that church. So they were in more or less an ante room, but themselves first as Paul was delineating that Gospel, which I'm preaching to those Gentiles, and it leaves out circumcision and law keeping. Oh they couldn't see that. Now let's move on, verse 3. Ephesians 1.2 "...but neither Titus," who was evidently with Paul and Barnabas now, who was with me, and a Greek, a Gentile, one of his converts up there in his missionary journeys. "...but neither Titus," who was with me, being a Greek, "...was compelled to be circumcised." Now at least they held them at bay long enough for that, that they weren't going to try and bring Titus under circumcision in order to be a part and parcel of this great council meeting. Now then verse 4. Ephesians 1.2 The next two words are brought in. They didn't sneak in. The leaders no doubt had something to do with it, because they were brought in. Now that's why I'm a stickler for every word. Now if that word brought wasn't in there, then I could say Peter wasn't aware of these people, but I think he was, because somebody was influential in bringing these people into this great council meeting of the Jewish believers at Jerusalem, to confront Paul and Barnabas, and you can include Titus if you like, but it's predominantly against Paul and Barnabas. So these false brethren were brought in unawares. Now there's another Scripture that uses that same word, the little book of Jude. The little letter of one chapter, just in front of Revelation. And so you see when false teaching slips in to a congregation or to a denomination, it's nothing new. It's nothing new, the writers of Scripture are already aware of it. The little letter of Jude down to verse 3-4. Jude is only one chapter long, so it's verse 3-4. Jude 1-3a "...Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints." Now verse 4. Now there are certain men, not a lot of them, but enough of them, crept in unawares. See a false teacher will never come into your church. He'll never come into your denomination and say, Okay folks, I'm going to give you a little poison to go along with the good stuff. Well he wouldn't do that, he's not that crazy. So what does he do? He comes in like perfectly sanctioned, he's got all the credentials, but he's a false teacher. And this has been a warning from day one. There are certain men crept in, that is into the midst of the congregation, unaware, secretly, without people knowing what they are, who were before of old. In other words, God in His foreknowledge knew what they were going to do, and that's why He's warning the believer to be careful, for they have crept in, they were before of old, ordained to this condemnation, God's condemnation. And what kind of men are they in reality? They're ungodly. And they are turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Sound familiar? Sure it does. And yet the gullible whole just can't see the difference. And that's what they are, they're gullible. Oh these men may sound as though they've got all the answers, they may be polished, they may be like an Apollos, and they may have a knowledge that would make me look what I really am, just an uneducated cowman. But they're false teachers, and they are leading people astray. Now come back to Galatians, and you'll see that same word, and they're using the same modus operandi. They'll bring false teachers in without the whole knowing who they are. And look what they do. They came in privately, or secretly, to spy out our liberty. Now what do you suppose Paul is talking about when he says liberty? Well that he was no longer Barnabas, or Titus in particular, that they were under the demands of the Mosaic Law. They were set at liberty from that. Now I don't want to get risqué, but we've got to face facts as to how life was back in these days. Not every home had a private shower and a bathroom. Some of them did, but not all of them. So where did most people keep their fleshly cleanliness? Well in public baths. Now when these Jews would go to these public baths, and here is an uncircumcised Gentile such as Titus, you think they're blind? Well they could pick it out in a minute. In fact this is another reason that back in the ancients at the time of the early church, and before, the Jews did not like to really take part in the Olympics, because a lot of the Olympics were run totally naked. And what did they do? They were marked men. So this is the whole idea here, that these Jews were going to slip in and spy on Paul and Barnabas, especially in their relationship with Titus who was a Gentile, to check out and make sure that they were practicing circumcision. They probably watched how they ate. Are they eating kosher? And it was all done to just submarine the apostle and sink him. That's all they're trying to do. They want to sink him. They want him to be absolutely put out of business, rather than go out to the Gentiles with the message that he's been preaching. So they came in secretly to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that these Judaizers, although most of them now are believers in Christ as the Messiah, but what are they going to try and do? They want to bring Paul back under bondage, which means what? The Law. They actually wanted Paul to say, Okay fellows, you win, you win. I'll go back to my congregations and I'll just tell them, Okay folks, I've had it all wrong. I'm sorry, I've been teaching you wrong. I guess we're going to have to give in. Go ahead and practice your circumcision if that's what you want to do. Go ahead and keep the dietary Laws, keep the Laws of Moses, because after all I was wrong. Now let's read on. Now the real Paul stands up, and he says to whom? That is, the leaders of the Jerusalem congregation, to whom we gave place by subjection. Now do you know what that means? To get rid of this idea that your converts don't have to keep the Law of Moses. We did not give in to that subjection. No, not for an hour. He didn't even weaken. He never even had any second thoughts that he was going to give up. No, not for an hour. Why? Now watch this. Paul did not give in to all that pressure for one purpose, and what was it? That the truth of the Gospel may continue with you. Now he's writing to Gentiles, remember, and he's rehearsing what he went through. And what was the purpose? That Gentiles could continue to revel in the grace of God, without being weighed down with all of the burdens of law keeping. Now you want to remember, any kind of a religion is a burden. That's why most of your oriental religions in particular, their whole format for keeping people under their thumb is superstition. They keep people scared to death, that if they don't do exactly what their religion commands, hey, they're in trouble. And that you bring it into any kind of a legalistic system, they keep people under their thumb, and that's not freedom. We'll be here in a few weeks, or maybe a few months, I don't know. But come over to chapter five in Galatians, if you will. Galatians chapter five, verse one, and this is what he's talking about, that we would never have to give up a verse like this. Galatians five, verse one, and here's the admonition, stand fast, unmovable in the liberty, the freedom, wherewith Christ hath made us free. See that? Not under bondage. We have liberty, we've been set free. And he says, be not entangled again with that yoke of bondage. That's what the Law was. The Law was a legal yoke of bondage. Oh I've said it before on the program, Judaism, and when I speak of Judaism we were talking about a break time. I hope you all understand what I'm talking about. Judaism of course was the religion of Christ's day, and to pretty much the extent of Orthodox Jewry today. But what were the roots of Judaism? The pure mosaic and Levitical Law that you had back there in the time of Moses. But the religion degenerated, and as they came up through the centuries, and the Rabbis began to make comments on the various portions of the Old Testament, and it just gradually became watered down from its original purity, and I'm not saying this with any criticism of the present Jewish religion, but truth is truth. And so it had degenerated down to a religion, and that's why Paul called it that in chapter 1, at the time of Christ, and it was no longer resting on the Ten Commandments and the Torah, but it had become 613 rules and regulations. That's what Judaism had become. Now can you imagine living 24 hours a day under the constant pressure of 613 rules? Well you didn't hardly take a breath and you'd break one of them, and yet they had to be scared to death of what the religion would demand of them if they broke one of these 613 commandments. Now read on a little further in Colossians chapter 2, verse 14, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Colossians chapter 2, verse 14, and oh what beautiful language. I hope the New Versions don't take this out, and I hope they leave it just like it is. Colossians chapter 2, verse 14, and again it's this same apostle writing to the same kind of Gentiles up there in Asia Minor, and look what he says. Now what do you suppose that was? 613 of them. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. See that? It was contrary to us. In other words there was no freedom, because human nature was always bumping them. It was contrary to us, and he took it out of the way, and how did Christ take it out of our whole system? Nailing it to His Cross. See that finished it. The Cross was the end of the Law. And we must never forget that, and yet this is why so much of our preaching and teaching is in that area before the Cross. And that's why they can hang on to all this legalism, and all the strings in the commandments, because they are not recognizing that the Cross completely finished it. The Lord nailed those things to the Cross, yes including the Ten. And we're not under their binding power, now we're under their moral, absolutely. We still live under the moral code of the Ten, and I will never take that away. Let me show you Romans chapter 13. It's so obvious that they still have a valid role in our Christian experience, but it's not a religious dogma. I don't want to go until you find it, because I know people in their living rooms have to look it up too. Romans 13, and Paul says, Romans 13, "...but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath already fulfilled the law." The work of the Cross was love. It was love epitomized. It was God's love for mankind that nailed Him to the Cross, and as a result He fulfilled the demands of the Law. Now look what the next verse says. Romans 13, "...for this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." That's obvious enough isn't it? But it's not a legalistic, pressurized system whereby we have to say, Oh I don't dare do that. No I can't do that, the Law is against it. No we've been set free. Now that's not licensed. How many times have I said that over the last few years? That's not licensed, because as soon as we come under this Law of Love, we no longer want to break these commandments. We have the indwelling Holy Spirit who directs our thinking and our actions. Now that's not to say we're going to be sinless, we're not going to be perfect. We're human, and as long as we're in the flesh we're still going to fail. But the Lord has made provision for that. Now if you'll come back quickly for a moment in Galatians chapter 2, and again I want to look at verse 5. Paul is under pressure to give up this Gospel of Grace and add law keeping and circumcision, but he says, we gave place, no not for an hour, today I guess we'd say not for a minute, that the truth of the Gospel, that is Paul's Gospel, might continue with you. Now beloved stop and think, what if Paul would have given up? 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