Father, what a privilege it is to come into your presence right now and to have sung a song like that that reminds us that you have made a way in our lives. Lord, we come into your presence today on the first day of this week, not because we've been good and managed to come here with a whole spring of achievements. We come here today not because we're wonderful people but because we are sinners who've been saved by your grace, where people who've been called, we've found a home, we've found a Father and a Savior. Lord, we come here today because you made the way to our hearts and because we've seen time and time again that you've made a way in our lives and we praise you for all that you are and all that you've done. We praise you for being a God who is the Creator, the sustainer, the one who answers prayer and many in our church this week can say that you answered prayer. We praise you for being a God who is the one who knows everything, the end from the beginning, who has a plan, who works that plan and that we are not just a cog in the machine. We are your people who you love dearly but you have a plan for us. We gather today Lord thinking of you and your grace and your mercy and your forgiveness and all of the things that you've shown us and we're grateful for who you are. Thank you for the command to meet one in seven days in worship so that we can remember who we are and who you are. And so Father, we come into your presence and we recognize that you are holy and we confess our sins. We're not here to play church but Lord, you know our hearts and you know where we fall and short. We know where we have sinned, we know and you know where we knew what the right thing was to do. We knew it because it seemed too hard. You know the guilt that your people feel and you know those who need cleansing today. We come and confess our sins. And Lord, we ask for the cleansing that is ours because Jesus died on a cross, not because we've been good. Forgive us. We'll lead us into a new week ready to go. Lighthearted because we're forgiving with new hope. Lord, we thank you for all that we have. We thank you for our friends and our family. We thank you Father for the challenges, even the trials because in the midst of them you can show us your power. But we thank you Lord for this church and I thank you for those who have given and sacrificed and made the ministry of what it is today, our staff, our leaders, our servants, our teachers. Father, there are too many to name right now but you know them. Their names are written in your book and Lord, I pray that you would bless this church and the new facilities that we have, Lord, that others would find Christ here and find grace in your love. Lord, we do pray for our country and pray that you would pour out your truth and your peace in a country that really needs it right now. We pray for our leaders. We pray for our president. We pray, Lord, for your sovereign power because we know that nothing happens and particularly for those who are in leadership but that you are sovereign, you're not surprised. So we pray for those in leadership that they would hear your truth that you would impress it upon them and that they would have no choice but to pass on your light and your goodness in their positions of authority. Teach us now. Lord, teach us to hear you and teach us in your word. You pray for the one who stands in front of your people for giving him his sins and use one Father who is finite to communicate your infinite truth. We give you now of our offerings and our tithes, Lord, you deserve more than we can give that take these things now knowing that we give because we're glad because of what Christ is done but we pray in his name. You know, I'd have kept the clap and going but when God passed out with him, man, I didn't get any. And so I couldn't keep it going but that was wonderful. Thank you so much. Our Texas morning, Galatians 2, 1 through 10, so if you have your Bibles, we'll take them and turn to Galatians 2 back in the New Testament. We also have that type for you in the program so if you just turn back there, you'll find it. We're studying through Paul's letter to the Galatians. The church spread out through Asia Minor. What we call Asia Minor today, what was called Galatia back then. Galatians 2 versus 1 through 10 is our text, Paul the Apostle says this, 14 years later I went up again to Jerusalem this time with Barnabas. I took Titus on also. I went in response to a revelation and said before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles but I did this private lady to those who seemed to be leaders for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. Did 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 a 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 recognized the grace given to me. They all agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and be to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. It's really nice to have a heavyweight fighting for you when you're in need of some muscle. If you were walking through a poorly lit parking garage one evening and you saw some shady looking characters coming your way, it would be nice if you had somebody that was six foot five with biceps-like tree trunk standing next to you and going with you. It'd be nice having a heavyweight fighting for you, I'll never forget my first days of junior high. Some of you said can you think that far back? Yes, it wasn't that far back. But I remember going to school and I was so small and those guys were so big and I remember being just so thankful I had a friend. His name was Jim Crow. We're still friends today. I'd cause problems and he'd clean up the mess. He was my muscle man and it was fun because I had a heavyweight. Well Paul, in the first century, was a heavyweight fighting for you. He was a heavyweight fighting for your freedom in Christ. That's what Galatians is all about. Galatians is a letter that Paul wrote. He tells us that he was fighting for grace, fighting to preserve grace against those people who kind of crept into the early church and were trying to teach something else. And so today in our text we're going to be seeing how Paul teaches that it is grace that we're saying, by grace you can say through faith, that's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God and we're going to see how he fights against those who wanted to introduce Jewish law keeping into the equation. There were people who dogged Paul wherever he went. These guys were called judisers. They were legalists. They were Jewish conscripts to the faith. Some of them were Christians. Some of them were led astray and some of them were just playing liars. But they were judisers and what they were teaching was, you got to follow the laws of Judaism. You got to follow the Old Testament as well as have faith in Christ. These guys were doing this kind of like the healthcare system today. A lot of you have companies that pour in to your benefit package. They put money in and they say, here's what you get for a must but you've got a copay. You've got to give in. You've got to contribute a whole bunch of money yourself or you don't get the benefits of your own plan. That's what they were saying. Christ died for you. That's great. Now your contribution to your faith is, be good, obey the law, be circumcised, obey the dietary regulations. That's what you got to do in order to really experience the benefits of salvation of Paul says no. That's a lie. That's heresy and he was fighting against legalism and fighting for grace. I am so glad he fought for us back then. But guys, Paul is still fighting for us today. In the church, he's still fighting for us today because legalism still creeps up on us. Have you been in the church that taught faith and all these other things you had to do? Legalism is still around us. A whole lot. It was that my son's basketball team celebration party. And I was talking to a Christian who told me about when she came to Christ, it was so exciting. Everything was new and fresh, she felt forgiven and accepted and loved. And then, as she started to listen closely, she realized that the teaching of the church was slanted this way. The more you do in the church, the holier you are. The more work you do, the more you manage to work it up, the more God will love you, and the more blessings you will experience from God. That's what works right, isn't it? That's what Paul was fighting against in the first century, and we fight that today. It's a good way to build a church, by the way, you know, in all these work days we've been having. I've been, I could have had a hundred people out here Saturday working around, if I'd have said listen, you guys, as Steve Brown said, you get three free sins if you come. Or a couple of years out of purgatory, or whatever. But you've been here, it's not the way it works. And so the reality is Paul had to fight for the gospel. So let's take a look at the bare knuckle brawl. Let's see how Paul takes his gloves off against these legalists and what he says. First of all, I want you to note the line in the sand versus one through three. Paul gives a little biography. Fourteen years later, I went up 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. Paul gives a little biography about his earlier years. And he said here that God told him after about 17 years of ministry that he needed to go to Jerusalem. And he needed to put the case before the Jewish Christian leaders. Peter, James, John, those guys who were the true apostles, followers of Christ. Paul was called differently. Paul had a ministry to the Gentiles and he'd been carrying on this ministry in Asia Minor and other places. But he had these legalists following him and so finally God said go up to Jerusalem. Tell them what you're preaching. Tell them that it's the same gospel that they are teaching. So that's what he did. He went up and he was so smart. He took Barnabas within and Titus. Paul set this up. He brought Barnabas. Everybody loved Barnabas. In the early church, Barnabas, whose name means son of encouragement. That might have been his real name. It might have been a nickname. But he was the kind of guy that everybody loved so much credibility. He had given a bunch of money to the poor Christians in the early church. And so Paul comes to this council with Barnabas, you know, credibility. Then he brings Titus. Titus was a convert under Paul's ministry. A Greek never a day in his life probably ever followed any Jewish regulation. Uncircumcised to the Jew that was heretical. Probably never kept the Sabbath. He probably never ate right according to the Jews. And so here he Paul at the conference with Barnabas, the consummate Jew and Titus, the consummate Gentile convert the Christ. Paul said, this is the gospel. The gospel is, we are saved by grace, by God's unconditional call through faith. And there is not one thing that we contribute to our salvation. That's what we've been seeing about all morning. About the righteousness that we get in Christ. I can almost picture Paul. I don't think he did this, but it makes a good part of the sermon. That he took his sword and he drew a line in the fan and he said, guys, this is the gospel. Now if you believe the gospel is I'm teaching the gospel crossover. And the implication of verses one through three is Paul had saw all of those guys cross the line. Said, Paul, you're right. The gospel you teach is the same gospel we teach. Read about this council in Acts 15. James let it. And they all agreed that the gospel of grace is the gospel that we ought to hold to. There is nothing that you add to the work of Christ. I told you the story a few years ago about the man who had just been let go from work. And he was so depressed. And as he was driving his car to look for work one morning, he got a flat tire. And he just thought, I don't need this. And so after fixing his flat, his hands were dirty and his clothes were dirty. He knew he was going to have to turn around and drive home. He got a call on his cell phone from his wife that said, I'm leaving you. Just don't even plan to come home. Your clothes are in a box and I sent them to a PO box. Don't even come home. And he's so depressed. And he gets in the car and tries to drive somewhere and he gets in an accident. And it's a total. And he escapes with his life and he crawled down on his knees. And he looks up to heaven and he says, God, why me? And he hears a voice from heaven that says, I don't know Sam, there's just something about you that ticks me off. Some of us have that view of God. That he is angry and that we never really have managed to be good enough to gain his acceptance. That's not the gospel. The gospel is that we buy rights on a tip not off. And yet he put the punishment on his son and accepts you and me through faith as his children. Linda Graham who lives over in Coco Beach now, but as a past number of Willa Creek sent me this piece, entitled The 12 Steps of Insanity. You might recognize these. We admit we are powerless over nothing. We can manage our lives perfectly and we can manage those of anyone else that will allow it. We came to believe there is no power greater than ourselves in the rest of the world is insane. We made a decision to have our loved ones and friends turn their wills and their lives over to our care. Have I heard these? We have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of everyone we know. We admitted to the whole world at large the exact nature of their wrongs. We entirely ready to make others straight enough and do right. We demanded others to shape up or shift out. It was just of anyone who has ever harmed us and we became willing to go to any lengths to get even with them all. We got direct revenge on such people whenever possible except when to do so would cost us our own lives or at the very least a jail sentence. We continued to take the inventory of others and when they were wrong promptly and repeatedly told them about it. We sought through nagging to improve our relations with others as we couldn't understand them all asking only that they knuckle under and do things our way. Having had a complete physical and emotional and spiritual breakdown as a result of these steps we tried to blame it on others in order to get sympathy and pity in all our affairs. Guys, Paul fought for grace because if you're trying to do it all right then you're going to try and give everybody else to do it all right. You will go crazy because we're fighting for them and that's why he drew the line in the sand and fought so hard. Secondly I want you to note not only the line in the sand notice below the belt versus four and five. Paul said 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 into them for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you. These people who followed Paul were fighting dirty. They were hitting below the belt. Somehow they managed to get into this first council of the church, this first theological debate on law and grace. And they got in there because they were trying to find out how free those Christians really were. How excited are they really? How free do they act and do they experience that freedom? Paul says they were false brethren. Guys, listen to this. Anybody who teaches a gospel of Christ and something else is teaching a false gospel. You can take that to the bank. And there's a truth that is so important for you to understand. There will always be someone who is willing to make you into their spiritual slave. Did you hear that? There was always someone who is willing to make you into their spiritual slave. There are competing ideologies out there. The reality is that nobody out there, there are a few, believe in absolute truth. Only a few people really believe in absolute truth but they do believe in absolute power. What people believe in is their own truth, their own ideologies, and they will stop at no cost to get you if they can get you to conform to what they want you to do. There's no lack of people who are willing to make you a spiritual slave. So then, I mean, that's why, guys. It is so important that we are staying brave so that we can have that as a filter for all that you hear on the radio, for all that you hear taught on Sunday morning, for all that you read in books and magazines, for all of the charismatic leaders that are out there. There's legalism in our denomination. By the way, I'm Presbyterian by conviction. I grew up Baptist and it's okay to be a Presbyterian, I have found, and I'm here because I'm glad to be here. I believe in the doc, but I want you to know there's legalism within our own denomination and one of my goals as a pastor within our denomination is to keep grace alive so that doing it right doesn't become the hallmark of our denomination. Other evangelical struggle with us too. Every subcultural or sub Christian cult that we talk about has either something for you to do or an oppressive burden. Go and door to door as the means of getting righteous or a strict social standard that you must keep. We're not a fight against that. Like Paul did, sometimes it means we have to fight hard. I like what comedian Mark Lowry said one time. I never heard Mark Lowry. He's crazy, but I love what he says. He said many times growing up, I say, daddy, I'm too sick to go to church. Daddy would say, throw up and prove it. I grew up like this. Now if I couldn't throw up, I went to church and if I did throw up, he'd say, now don't you feel better? Let's go to church. I think all Christians ought to go to church. I believe that God called us one in seven to be here to reorient ourselves and give him the honor and praise to remember who we are. We ought to be doing that. Whether you're a little healthy or a little sick or whatever, we ought to do it. But when you start linking, when you start linking the actions of Christians with an achieved righteousness, you've gone away from grace. Yes, and that's what Paul is fighting against and sometimes we need to fight against that too. Now let me give you another truth that goes along with this from verse five and it's this. When people hit below the belt, it is often appropriate to strike back hard. When people hit below the belt, it is often appropriate to strike back hard. Now, kids, I'm not telling you to go out and hit somebody if they are mean to you, but I'm saying that sometimes in the church when it comes to grace, sometimes we need when we confront what is wrong to hit it. And yet sometimes we think it's more spiritual if we let heresy go on. It's not how churches die. Our culture expects you to curl up whenever they say anything that we know to be immoral is moral. They say, just go along with it. They want Christians to just wag our tail and say, yes. There's a time to fight back. Be kind. Be kind. Don't fight about those things over which there is legitimate room for disagreement. Sometimes it's appropriate for us to fight back hard. This is a guy you are one of the warmest congregations I know. You are kind and accepting the people. A lot of people have told me that they come here because of you because they felt home. We are a grace church and we never want to change that. I have some pastor friends who say to me, do you struggle with this in your church? I have these guys who are always trying to get me to do this and they are kind of legalistic. I say no. Because they don't stay here long. They will come once, they will come twice, and then they will leave. Or they will hear, you don't want to go to that church. And they just don't come. That's good. We need to continue to be God's people who exude grace. Fight for it. Paul did. And sometimes we have to fight. Our grace is light and warmth and freedom. Legalism is dark and cold. It's got hell written all over. Then lastly, I want you to notice here today as we see the outcome of this bare knuckle brawl for freedom. Look at the effect in verses 6 through 10. The effect of Paul's battle. As for those who seem to be important? Whatever they were makes no difference to me. God is not judged 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 recognized the grace given to me. They all agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and date of the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor. The very thing I was eager to do. Every effect has a cause. When we went to seminary in Chicago area, we lived a mile from Lake Michigan. And many of you know what the weather is like there. We experienced every winter what's called Lake Effect Snow. Some of you know what that is. That means when a storm would come from west to east and it would drop all that snow, it would hit Lake Michigan and back up. I understand people on the other side had Lake Effect Snow too in Michigan but it would just back up and dump it again. The cause of course was the lake and the effect was snow that stayed until spring. And it was cold as we... I'm so glad I'm in Orlando. But what was I saying? Effect. Oh yeah, the effect. Every cause leads to effect. When Paul at the end of this conference on grace stood up to walk out when the dust settled when it was all over, what were the effects? There were a few. The first effect was that the Christian is preoccupied with a message of grace and not with the celebrity status of Christian leaders. I love what Paul said here. He said, listen, when I went to Peter, if you were Paul, wouldn't you have been a little intimidated to go to the before Peter and James, the half-brother of Jesus and John and all of those guys and present your case. These guys were bigwigs, monkey mucks in the church. They had walked with Jesus and seen him after his death. And Paul just kind of goes in and I said, they didn't add anything to my message. God didn't care what you looked like on the outside or what experiences you've had. You see, one of the effects of grace is that the Christian is so unpreoccupied with the celebrities in the faith because we are preoccupied with Jesus and his grace. Paul never got over the fact that Jesus died for him. He never got over the fact that he tried to be good and couldn't be good enough and Jesus called him, the chief of sinners. That's the way it ought to be with us. We've got a lot of wonderful celebrities in the Christian church but the grace effect, the effect of grace is that we appreciate their ministry but we are never overwhelmed with them because we are overwhelmed with Christ. In the news, we've been hearing a lot about how the people in America are responding to President Clinton's accusation against President Clinton. And some of you may be wondering, may we're going to preach on that? Probably not. But I'll do an illustration on it. And one of the interesting things that someone told me this week about high school students in America, when asked that they were upset about these allegations to the President, if these allegations are true, would they be upset? And the high school students said basically no. The reason is because the students at least see the President as a celebrity like movie stars, like Hollywood movie stars and all Hollywood movie stars are promiscuous. And because he's viewed as a celebrity, it doesn't matter much to them what he does. And sometimes we get that way when we come so attached to the celebrities that we forget Jesus. And one of the effects of grace is that we never elevate the celebrities because we're preoccupied with Jesus. Another grace effect is that we're able to embrace other true believers as they differ with us on different issues in the church. I love this. One of the grace effect is that in the church we can tolerate great diversity. Even have a guy up front with a beard and a microphone that sings a song and makes you clap and all that kind of stuff. You know, we have great latitude in church. I bet there was great diversity in the early church. I bet you, I'll bet you, in the early church there were discussions over worship style just like there are today. There were some churches that were more contemporary than other churches. In some churches the pastors used jokes in the sermons and other churches they thought know the churches worship service was too holy a place to talk about those kinds of things. We know which one, which churches were the right churches of course, but guys there's so many differences. Different language, different languages used and great diversity in the church. I heard of Southern preachers say this week that one of the biggest lies is when the preacher stands up in front of his church and says, I just have a few words for you this morning. Some preachers speak along some shore. Some Christians are absolutely convinced that homeschooling is God's way to do it. Some others say, now Christian school is the right way and others say, well, we've opted for the public school. In this church we have all three big groups of all three. And we're going to let any of that divide us here. Why? Because what unites us is Jesus. Is the effect of grace is that we major in the major and not the minors. We don't get off in the weeds because we don't have to. Because Jesus is the center. Well fight for that. I fight for your right to homeschool and for your right to put your kids in public school. And whatever. Last Friday and Saturday I did the successive matter seminar in Atlanta and that is a seminar associated with Pat Morley's ministry. Man in the mirror. I'm one of the staff speakers and I get to meet men in different parts of the country as I speak. I met a man last Friday and Saturday who had had a heart transplant never met any never ever met a transplant patient. I've met a lot of people who have organs taken out. I've never had anything that had had them replaced with others and there he was with buttons. His life was radically changed. He's so different. The way he lived his life. The way he spent his time. All that was radically different. But the most important thing that was changed about him was the way he related the people. These relationships were all different because of his heart transplant. That's true with us. We relate to people not on the basis of how they outwardly conform to our style of Christianity but on the basis of their heart transplant and Christ they're one of us. That's how we accept them. That's why we put up with each other so much around here. We are not a church that everybody conforms each one standard but we can put up because of Christ. There's one more aspect of this grace effect in verses 6-10 and it's that there are many different people to reach with the gospel of grace and God gives different ministries to different people. I love this. It has been so freeing to me but I gotta tell you I am a recovering guilt whatever is a pastor. I don't even know how to put it. I struggle with guilt over this because we know that if a program is going to fly in the church the pastor's got to be excited about it. Every pastor's got to be excited about every burden that everybody in the church has. Every staff member's got to be excited about every plan, every idea. People come to you and they say, isn't that a wonderful idea? And you go, yeah. Is it going to be great if you implemented it? No. And I love this. Paul had a ministry to the Gentiles. God called him to work with those uncircumcised pagans. The Jewish Thomas history has it. Went to India and died there. We don't know but there's so many people to meet. There's so many people to reach with grace and so many different ways to do it. And I don't have to have a passion about what you have a passion for. You don't have to have a passion for what I am excited about spiritually by God's grace. There's people to meet. Here's the truth. There's more in enough room for grace messengers and no limitation to the way that grace can be communicated. So you have permission now to be who you are in Christ to follow the ministry that God has given you to do it. You don't have to be like me. Please. Don't do that. And you don't have to be like anybody else in this church. Follow the ministry that God has given you. Paul did. I don't worry about the celebrities. I love these quotes. Emerson said, who so would be mature must be a non-conformist. John Ruskin, the English art critic said, I fear uniformity. You cannot manufacture great people anymore than you can manufacture gold. Schopenhauer, the English German philosopher said, we forfeit free force of ourself in order to be like other people. But I like what Francis asked very the first bishop of the Methodist church in the United States said best. He said, as he prayed at a deacon ordination service, O Lord, grant that these brethren may never want to be like other people. The effects of grace is that you get to be who God called you to be and not a clone. The only person he wants you to be like is his son. You take it to heart. Father, we thank you for the boldness of a man like Paul who would stand up and fight for what is true. And then he could clamp his hands and laugh. And then he and then he could teach us to enjoy all of the liberty that we have in Christ. Father, we're not looking for grace to be an excuse to sin, but for an excuse to obey you because of your love for us. So as we live our lives this week, Father, we ask you to give us your Holy Spirit's power to live for Christ, not because we need righteousness. But by your grace, we already have it, but we pray these things in his name.
You know, in church, we're not just addressing the mind, but also the heart. And if God has touched your heart in any way today, or maybe you have something on your heart that you'd like to pray for, my friend Karen Vickby will be up front and I'll be up front. And we would love to pray with you or talk to you about any concern that might be on your mind and your heart. If you would like to experience the grace of Christ for the first time and welcome Christ into your life as a believer, then we'd love to pray with you about that as well. And now may the amazing grace of the Master Jesus Christ, the outrageous love of God the Father and the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit go with you this week as you remember his deep love and concern for you. Amen.