Welcome to this message from the teaching ministry of university Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Florida under the leadership of senior pastor Mike Osborne. All right, let's turn in our Bibles now to the book of Galatians, please, where we continue our study of this wonderful book by the Apostle Paul. The book of Galatians, our series is called Astonished. It's called that because Paul is astonished in this book that the Galatian believers were drifting away so quickly from the gospel of grace. It's also called Astonished because the more we study Galatians, I believe the more astonished you and I will be at the wonder of the gospel. That's at least our prayer and I'm hoping that that will indeed take effect here at UPC. Our sermon in text this morning is Galatians 2, 1 through 10. If you don't have a Bible, reach up under a chair, pull out a hard back Bible and turn to page 1151, 1151. That's where we are today. Galatians 2, beginning at verse 1. Paul says 14 years later, I went up again to Jerusalem. This time with Barnabas. I took Titus also. I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run 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 brothers 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 remain with you. As for those who seemed to be important, whatever they were, makes no difference to me. God does not judge by external appearance. Those men added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognised the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. This is God's word. Pray with me please. Our Father, we thank you so much that you loved us so much that you gave your heart to us in a book. Thank you that you've given us the book of Galatians to take us back again and again to the good news that Jesus is Lord and that you have won our salvation. So Holy Spirit, our prayers that you will come and speak to us today and point every single heart, every single eye to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, the week that we've just had could possibly be titled explosion. The images of last week's explosions will be long seared upon our brains. I'm sure. I saw a video of the explosion that took place in that fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas. Perhaps you saw this same video. It was taken by a father sitting in a car with his car with his cell phone and at first it was just a fire going up out of the out of the fertilizer plant. And all of a sudden this was meant that this massive explosion happened, this massive explosion that pretty much leveled this town, right? And when it happened, the camera just went chaotic and the little girl back in the back of the car shouted to her father. Daddy, daddy, get us out of here. Get us out of here. I can't hear. I can't hear. It was terrifying. And then of course, if you're like me, your eyes were glued to your TV all of last week watching the drama in Boston unfold. It to began with explosions. The two bombs that went off there at the Boston Marathon were filled with half inch nails and two to three millimeter in diameter pellets. They were like what has been described as IEDs, those same ones that go off in Iraq and Afghanistan. Three people died, as you know, over 100 people, 180 people were injured. Some very severely, at least 13 people lost limbs. And so we come to this passage of scripture in which we read about a guy who refused to be circumcised and a meeting of Paul with some colleagues of his 2000 years ago. What possible relevance does a passage of scripture like this have to such traumatic events as those. And I'm here to tell you that it is extremely relevant because in Galatians chapter two, an explosion of another kind goes off. Not an explosion that kills, but an explosion that gives life, not a destructive explosion, but a constructive one. And believe it or not, if more people could just get Galatians two, the world would change. So this passage is vitally important to us this morning. And I trust you'll find that out. Let's review what Galatians is about first. Some of you I suspect have not been here while we've been going through Galatians chapter one so far. So let me bring you up to speed. Galatians is about the gospel to put it in a nutshell. As you might know, Paul, the apostle who wrote this letter, had established some churches in Galatia, which is called Turkey today, modern Turkey. During his missionary journey, his first missionary journey had been traveling through that area. He planted churches. And at first the Christians who lived in this area were doing great. They were growing in Christ. They were making disciples. But then some false teachers who became known as Judeaizers, crept in, found their way into these churches. And they began teaching that in order to be saved, in order to be truly accepted by God, in order to be truly loved by God, you needed to do more than just trust in Christ. And what he did for us on the cross. In order to be saved, you had to adopt the customs and the ceremonies of the Jewish faith. And in particular, they gave a lot of emphasis to the right of circumcision. Now I know that seems kind of weird to our modern American ears. But in that time, and in that culture, that was a pivotal issue. When someone back then talked about circumcision, what they were really talking about was becoming a Jew. If they were Gentiles, they had to become a Jew by going through that if they were male. And they had to adopt the ceremonies that were prescribed for the Jewish people back in the Old Testament. And Paul in this letter calls that a perversion of the gospel, to insist that someone be circumcised, to be saved, meant that what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross was not enough. You had to add to it. Jesus plus works equal salvation was what these guys were teaching. The blood of Christ, trusting in the finished work of Christ, well that's good and well. But that's not enough. What you really need to do is you have to obey the stipulations of the mosaic covenant. And so Paul in chapter one said that anyone who dared to spread that false gospel, quote unquote, should be eternally condemned. Let him go to hell basically was what he said to use modern parlance. Now not only were these false teachers perverting Paul's message, that is the gospel of free grace, but they were also discrediting Paul himself. They were saying that his gospel, what he was teaching was at odds with the gospel being spread by the apostles in Jerusalem. And so that brings us to chapter two. In this chapter, Paul is going to say, no, no, no, no, I'm not at odds with the apostles in Jerusalem. The gospel that I preach is the same one, the very same one that they preach Peter, James, John, Barnabas, me, we're all telling people the exact same thing, the same good news. And what is that good news? That Jesus Christ died and rose again for all who put their trust in him. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. You don't have to be circumcised to be saved. You don't have to obey the law to be saved. Christianity is not about what you do for God. It's about what God has done for you in Christ. That is the good news. God's grace is free, unearned, undeserved, unmarried favor to quote the title of a pretty popular book that's out by Tullion Chavision right now. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. That's the explosion. That's the explosion that needs to go off in your heart. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. And when that explosion goes off in your heart and in my heart and in our hearts, our lives are changed and we are on fire with gospel good news in our community. You need to understand and believe the gospel, whether you're a Christian already or a non-Christian. You need to believe the good news that Jesus Christ has won your salvation. And when you believe that, at least three things are going to happen. And that's what we're wanting to talk about today. When you believe the gospel, when that explosion of gospel good news goes off in your heart, at least three things are going to happen. Let me tell you what they are and then we'll look at them. First, it's going to demolish your categories. Then it's going to set you free. And then finally, it will propel you into mission. All right. So that's our plan. Let's dive right in. First, when the gospel explosion takes place in your heart, when the gospel grips you, when you believe it, when you really live on it, it's going to demolish your categories. Look at verses one and two in verse one, Paul began this chapter by saying 14 years later, I went up again to Jerusalem this time with Barnabas. I went in response to a revelation and said before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seem to be leaders for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. Now look, we're not going to get into the details that exercise a lot of scholars about whether this was Paul's second visit to Jerusalem or Paul's third visit to Jerusalem. That is an interesting subject, but it's not really germane to what we want to talk about today. Whatever the case, Paul is saying here that he went to Jerusalem to have a private conference with the leaders of the church, Peter, James and John, especially, and he takes along with him a couple of friends. One of the men he takes with him to Jerusalem is Barnabas. Barnabas is a Jewish Christian. Barnabas was Paul's traveling companion on his first missionary journey. And then he also took along with him Jerusalem, a Gentile Christian named Titus. Titus was a young man who had formerly become a follower of Christ under Paul's ministry, and later on, you might know that Paul even wrote a letter to Titus, and it's called Titus, later on in the New Testament there. Now here's the question. Why did Paul take Titus to Jerusalem? The whole point of this passage revolves around that question. Why did Paul take Titus? It was because Paul wanted to prove something to those Judeaizers that I was telling you about. Titus was a test case, you might say. Because like I said, Titus was a Gentile. That means that he was uncircumcised. And you recall I said that the Judeaizers were saying that you had to be circumcised to be saved. Well, when Paul takes Titus to Jerusalem to meet with his Apostle friends, if the Apostles insisted that Titus be circumcised, then the Judeaizers would be proven right. You do have to obey the mosaic law in order to be saved, and the gospel of grace would be compromised. But if the Apostles agreed with Paul that Titus did not have to be circumcised, it would prove that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, apart from works of the law, and the Judeaizers would be proved wrong. So that's the issue. That's the test that Paul is involved with. And do you know what happened? Well, verse three says, not even Titus was compelled to be circumcised even though he was a Greek. Even though Titus was a Gentile, the Apostles did not insist. They did not ask. They did not compel Titus to be circumcised. Do you understand what's at stake there? I mean, at first glance, when we read through this, we just sort of maybe yawn a little bit. But Paul was not yawning. Paul understood exactly what was at stake in this test with Titus. He says in verse two, that he feared that he may have run his race in vain. Now, what does that mean? It doesn't mean that Paul had any doubts at all about the gospel in his own heart. But here's what it means. He understood the peril that the church would be in if the Judeaizers were to somehow win the day. I mean, he brings Titus down to Jerusalem, right? He meets with them in this private conference room. What if the Apostles were going to go soft on doctrine? What if the Apostles caved in to the pressure of the Judeaizers? What if they refused to accept Titus as a brother in the Lord? What if they were to agree with the Judeaizers that Titus in order to be saved in order to be loved by God had to be circumcised? It would be disaster, disaster for the gospel, disaster for the church, disaster for Paul's credibility. But Paul's fears were happily unfounded because verse six says that Peter, James and John added nothing to his message. That means that they agreed with Paul that Jesus plus nothing equals everything. What I want you and me to get from this episode is that the gospel demolishes our categories. See, a lot of Christians are like the Judeaizers. They want to put conditions on people that God never put on people. In other words, they say, if you just follow the rules, if you check this box, if you jump this hoop, if you obey this regulation, you'll be accepted by God. Examples. Oh, you're a Democrat. Well, you can't be a real Christian. Oh, you struggle with depression. You're on medication. That doesn't sound like the life of faith to me. Oh, you use a credit card. You're in a lot of debt. How can you be saved? Oh, you struggle with same-sex attraction. Sounds like you can't be a Christian. Oh, you've never been baptized. You don't speak in tongues. You do speak in tongues. You like Joel Osteen. You read that book. You go to that church. You've never led anybody to Christ. What's wrong with you? That's a hidden or often not-so-hidden message that a lot of Christians exert upon other people. Maybe you've been the object of one or more of those kinds of accusations. Maybe you've been the promulgator of one or more of those accusations. See, this was what I was trying to get across to the children. We give grace to ourselves all the time. We get ourselves off the hook all the time, but we find it so hard to give grace away to those whom we feel are just a step or two beyond the reach of God's arm of grace. What is grace anyway? Kids gave a good definition of it, not getting what you deserve. I heard a speaker one time tell a story about the time that he was really late returning his rental car. He had rented a Hertz car from the airport, and he had gotten stuck in traffic in LA, and he was 58 minutes getting his car back to the Hertz counter in the airport. He was already in a terrible mood when he got there, so he slapped the keys down on the counter, and he said, how much do I owe you? And the Hertz woman looked at him and said, nothing, you're good. It's all clear. And the man was puzzled and said, but I'm an hour late. And the woman said, well, here it hurts, we have a one-hour grace period. He said, really? What is grace? And her reply was, I don't know. I guess it means that even though you're supposed to pay, you don't have to. It's good. Even though you're supposed to pay, you don't have to. The stories that Jesus told were about grace, and they offended the religious establishment. Why? Because they counteracted all of their categories. Think about it. Who was the hero in the story of the Good Samaritan? A pagan. How much money did the boss pay the guys that he hired at the end of the day? The same that he paid the guys who had worked all day long. Who was the son that got to eat the fat and calf? Not the responsible older brother, but the younger prodigal son. Who went to heaven? Not the rich man, but the poor beggar, the one named Lazarus. That's throughout the gospels. Read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You'll see it again and again and again. Jesus Christ was always contradicting the things, the regulations of the religious people of his day. He was giving Titus tests all the time. He was given grace to people that everybody else thought didn't deserve it. He was giving grace to people whom everybody else thought were a little bit too beyond the reach of grace. His disciples were uneducated fishermen and hated tax collectors. His followers were adulteresses and lepers. His most scathing criticisms were leveled at the Pharisees. People who were more scrupulous in their obedience to the law than you or I will ever be. Jesus challenged all of the categories of these religious people and you know what they did to him? They killed him because grace is offensive. The grace is annoying. So I'm going to ask you this question. I really ask you to search your heart. Who is your Titus? What person? What group of people do you find it hard to give grace to? Could be someone in your own home? Might be a neighbor, might be a coworker, someone that you see at school. Everybody's probably got a Titus. Somebody who challenges us about this issue. Will we give grace to someone whom we feel probably doesn't deserve it? Grace writes Philiancy is unfair. We deserve God's wrath and get God's love. We deserve punishment and get forgiveness. We don't get what we deserve. We work hard for wages which vanish at death. We do nothing to deserve grace and we get life eternal. When once the gospel of grace explodes in your heart, you'll never be the same. It'll destroy your categories and you'll probably find yourself giving grace to people that you thought didn't deserve it. The second thing that happens when grace or the gospel explodes in your life, when you believe the gospel when it really gets down into your arteries, the second thing that happens is that the gospel will set you free. It will set you free. Look at verses four and five. Paul says this matter arose and he's talking about this circumcision matter with Titus. This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ and to make a slaves. And we didn't give into them for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you. See, these Judaizers loved bringing people into bondage. Let's talk about them for a few moments. By insisting that Gentiles conform to the Old Testament law, the Judaizers added works to grace and so they destroyed the gospel because the gospel is about freedom, freedom from guilt because Jesus took your sins to the cross and paid their debt. Freedom from shame because Jesus brought you into his family and welcomed you as his brother or his sister. Freedom from fear because God loves you and will never ever give you up no matter what. And freedom from judgment because Jesus bore the wrath of God on the cross and satisfied divine justice to the full once and for all. That's what the gospel does. It sets you free. But legalism on the other hand, that is adding something to grace, expecting you to do your part, you know, to earn God's love. Legalism is the attempt to be accepted by God on the basis of something that you do like your good works or your self denial or your disciplines or something like that. But in reality, what legalism does is it enslaves you. It brings you under bondage because you can never do enough to satisfy it. If you buy into the system that says that you can do something to earn God's love, you'll never ever get over that mountain. It's too high. It's too big. Perhaps you've seen the movie The Mission. This movie is a little bit dated now, but it's a great movie back in 1986 was when it was made. And one of the stars in the movie is Robert De Niro. He plays the role of a slave trader named Mendoza. And Mendoza has been making his living for some time by capturing and selling slaves or, I mean, Native Indians that live in Central South America to the plantations. This movie takes place in the mid 1700s in South America. And so he's been a slave trader. Well, one day he finds his brother in bed with his wife and he cracks. He snaps. He he's enraged at what his brother's done. And so he kills his brother. And then as soon as he kills his own brother, he is just overwhelmed with guilt. He is just tortured with shame over what he's done. So what is he going to do with his guilt is the question of the movie. And he goes to these Jesuits that were in the South American jungle. And one of the Jesuits says, okay, if you want to get rid of your guilt, here's your act of penance. Climb up this huge mountain that's next to a waterfall. And what the Jesuit priest did was he took Mendoza's armor and his weapons and tie them up in this big net with a strong rope around Mendoza's neck and around his body. And so Mendoza has to start off at the bottom of this huge mountain and climb and claw his way up the waterfall until he gets to the top where the Indians live. Do it again and again said the priest. And so he does it, you know, he tries to do it. It's tortuous. It is horrible. This act of penance that he has to do, but he's driven because he's got to be free. It's got to be free of this burden that was pictured by this huge net of weapons and armor. At one point, the Jesuit missionary has takes pity on Mendoza. He thinks that he can help him. And so he comes down the mountain a little bit and cuts the rope so that the burden falls off his back. But that's not good enough for Mendoza because he wants to climb the mountain himself with his burden on the back. And so he goes all the way back down and ties the burden back on himself again and up the mountain he climbs until finally in this very culminating scene is so moving, he gets to the top where the Indians are and they're all gathered there. He's just collapsed. He is so exhausted. One of the Indians grabs a knife and walks over to Mendoza and it looks like he's going to kill Mendoza out of revenge for what he's been doing to them for so long. He comes over with the knife and puts it up against Mendoza's neck. Mendoza thinks his life's over. But instead of killing Mendoza, he moves the rope to the burden and cuts the rope holding it on and it falls off down the waterfall. And when the feeling of forgiveness, when that sense of freedom hits Mendoza, he is just weeping uncontrollably. And then all the Indians gather around him and they put their hands upon him. They touch his beard. They reassure him. They say in so many words, you are forgiven. And then Mendoza begins to laugh uncontrollably. And the Indians are all laughing along with him. It's a beautiful picture of what Jesus Christ has done for the sinner. When the sinner places his or her trust in Christ, the burden of guilt and shame rolls off of your back and disappears never to be seen again. And you might collapse in tears over your guilt, but Jesus touches you and lifts you up and there's laughter in heaven over another sinner whose burden is loosed from the back. That is what God has done for you in Christ. If you've put your trust in him, he's released you of your burden of sin and he is singing and dancing and laughing over you with joy. You are free of sin's penalty, free of sin's power, free of sin's peril. And in not too distant future, you will be free of sin's presence when you reach heaven. And that's the gospel. That is the gospel of freedom. But the irony of this passage is that there are people, false teachers, Judaizers, you name them, whatever they are who want to spy on the freedom that we have in Christ. Just like those two brothers from Chechnya had infiltrated the US, had settled among us, had become part of our culture until the day they dropped those two backpacks on Boyleston Street in Boston. So there are false brothers who love to creep in amongst Christian people, among the church. False brothers whose agenda is to steal away the freedom of the gospel and load Christians down with do's and don'ts and aughts and shoulds and moralisms. Some of these false teachers preach moralistic sermons from pulpits in our churches today. False teachers that take the focus off of Christ and put it on lesser things. Are they unimportant things? Sometimes no. But they're lesser things. They're minor things when the main thing is Christ. And about those people, Paul says in verse 5 that we should not give in to them for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might remain with us. Now look, yes, is there a danger? Is there a danger from the other direction also? I'm talking about the danger of antinomianism. That is the idea that says, oh, it doesn't matter how you live. You know, Jesus has set you free from your sin. He's set you free from guilt. And so therefore go ahead and indulge the flesh. Go ahead and live any way you please. That is what we would call antinomianism. Yes, that danger exists. But look, show me the person who really gets the gospel. Somebody who really understands what Jesus has done for us on the cross. And I'll show you someone who weeps over her sin every day. I'll show you someone who will seek to serve and obey God with all his or her heart when the gospel explosion happens. You care about the glory of God. You care about obeying God and staying in his path. And when you swerve from the path, you want to be back on it. That's the way grace works. See, grace doesn't just set you free. It also motivates obedience. Once the gospel of grace explodes in your heart, you will grow to hate your idols. And you will fight your flesh and press forward in service to Christ, which brings me to our last point. Not only does the gospel when it really takes shape in your heart, demolish your categories. Not only does it set you free, but in the final place it will propel you into mission. Notice how Paul ends this text in verses 9 and 10. He says, James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognize the grace. There it is given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. That word eager means to strongly desire. It means to be diligent, to endeavor, to strive, to do your best. See what we're learning in this text is that gospel transformation has two different byproducts. This is something that we've been talking about a lot and we'll continue to talk about it. Gospel transformation results on the one hand in gospel proclamation. That is sharing the gospel by word, but it also as verses 9 and 10 say results in gospel demonstration sharing the gospel by deed, particularly focused on the poor, the weak and the disenfranchised. Tim Keller has said that if you don't love the poor, you don't know what God's done for you. The more you know what God's done for you, the more you will love the poor, the weak, the helpless, the defenseless. So that's what we learn from Galatians 2, 1 through 10 and I want you to talk about these things when you leave here today. Talk about these three things when you meet with your family, with your friends, with your life group. Here they are, three things to talk about. What is your Titus test? Who or what is your Titus? Do you have one? To whom do you struggle giving grace in other words? Second thing to talk about this week is, are you free in Christ? Have you experienced the cutting of the rope of your guilt? And do you know what that's all about? If not, there are people here who love to introduce you to the freedom of the gospel. And then third and finally, are you eager to meet the needs of the poor? Would you agree with Paul in verse 10? Does that turn you on? Do you desire to help those who are helpless? You know, coming up on May 4th, we're going to have our next Saturday of service, as was announced earlier today. That would be an excellent opportunity for you to exercise your desire to minister to the poor. So put that date down on your calendar. My prayer today and in the future is that there's going to be such an explosion of grace in your heart, in my heart and in this church, that it will set us ablaze with love for Christ and love for those who don't yet know Him. Will you join me in that prayer? Let's pray. Lord, we thank You so much for the good news. Thank You for setting us free in Christ. Thank You that we do not add to the gospel of grace that You have done at all. You have saved us monogistically. We thank You, Lord, that You have reached down to us in Your sovereign goodness and love and have opened our hearts to the gospel. And we ask that as we leave here today, You will continue by Your Holy Spirit's work in our lives to create among us a culture of grace to the poor, grace to the lost, grace to the defenseless. Lord, may we be people whom You use in Your mission to make disciples of all nations. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. We at University Presbyterian Church, thank You for listening to this message. Our mission is to help people know God, grow together, and serve others. To learn more about the church or how to have a vital relationship with God, visit our website at www.uPC-orlando.com or call our offices at 407-384-3300.