Fear God or Man - Justification or Damnation?

Salvation has always been by Grace through Faith in Christ alone!

In Galatians 1:10, after giving what some would consider harsh rebuke to the
Galatians, Paul testifies that he is not seeking man's approval. In fact, he is so bold as
to say that when you seek to please man, you are not being a servant of Christ. This
morning we are going to look through Galatians 2:11-21, so if you will, please turn your
bibles there. We will see Paul's continual opposition to a salvation based on any other
terms than by grace through faith because of Jesus' work. I would submit to you as
well that Paul's rebuke, his harshness as some would call it is the most loving thing he
could give them in light of the scriptures. In fact, the gospel starts with knowledge of
this basic truth. The knowledge that you and I and everyone else that has ever lived
and ever will live, excluding our Savior is completely and utterly sinful and unable to
merit favor before a holy perfect and righteous God. This point is foundational to our
salvation. If you don't come to the grips with the fact that you are as theologians put it
“totally depraved” you cannot receive the gospel. This truth is rapidly becoming hate
speech in our country and already is in many places in the world. The sad thing is, this
won't affect everyone's life in this room. Many of you (my self included) choose to fear
man and not bring the offense of the Gospel into your work places, homes, classrooms,
coffee shops, the church and anywhere else you go.

Let's pray together.

In Galatians 2:11-13 Paul said this But when Cephas [that is Peter] came to Antioch, I
opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned [literally, he was clearly wrong].
For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when
they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the
rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led
astray by their hypocrisy. But, when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the
truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a
Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force Gentiles to live like Jews?”

We know from last week that the circumcision party was pushing a gospel + external
acts. Peter approved of this heresy and led others, even Barnabas away with this!

As we begin to look through these passages, there are two types of fear I want you to
see in verses 11-13.

The first one is this:

The fear of man leads to compromising the gospel – exchanging the truth for a
lie.

When we shy away from the truths of scripture we do no one any service. There
are many dying and going to hell today unless Christ intervenes, some in this very
room, and we keep our mouths shut because we fear what might happen if we bring
the offense that is the gospel.

So, what does this fear of man look like today?

When we fear man, we say that all roads lead to Heaven, because that is what
people want to hear, we say that homosexuality is OK and that Jesus wants you to be
happy (and not holy), we tell our children that disobedience is acceptable by not
holding them to clear biblical teaching, and we approve of
conversations/attitudes/doctrines/you name it by our inaction (which is what I believe
Peter did here).

You see the bible lays out essentially two types of sin:

The 1st type is doing what God has commanded you not to do – Clear commands
in Scripture.
The 2nd type is NOT doing what God has commanded you to do – James 4:17 So
whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Here, Peter feared man and thus compromised the Gospel. He agreed with the
Judaizers in their gospel of Jesus + the Mosaic law. He did not do what he should have
done, which would have been to rebuke them for their heresy and continue to eat with
the Gentiles, accepting them as brothers.

I want you to notice what it does NOT say. The text does not say here that Peter
openly professed this faith + the law gospel that the Judaizers were preaching. In fact,
Peter preached the gospel to the Gentiles in Acts 10 when God gave him the vision
and sent him to a Gentile named Cornelius. Now, look with me at what it does say: For
before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they
came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.
Before these men came, whoever they were, Peter was eating with the Gentiles. He
was most likely eating the food that they were eating which would have been the major
point of contention. But, because of the fear of man, (because of the fear of the
circumcision party) Peter drew back from these gentiles and kept his distance. Peter
preached on this occasion with his life and actions.

Our inaction says the same things. When people gossip, we don't stand up for
God's Word. When we hear a brother or sister in unrepentant sin, we don't hold them
accountable. When we hear of doctrinal error we just say “huh...” and don't refute it...
Maybe because we don't know the Word.
If you remember from last week, in Acts 15, we have account of the Jerusalem council
where the apostles and elders gathered together to discuss the Gospel going to the
Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas were there. The bible says here that after much debate

Peter stood up and said to them

READ Acts 15:10-11 – “Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing
a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to
bear. But, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as
they will.

This is surprising to me because as best as I can tell, the book of Galatians was written
AFTER the Jerusalem council where this issue was settled.

But here there is a sobering reminder that our standard is the Word of God, not
the man of God. We need to be able to say imitate me as I imitate Christ as Paul said
to be sure, but our final authority for faith and practice is always the Word. Not myself
or Allen or any other preacher that stands up here. Many cults today follow one man as
the final authority. Remember Gal 1? Even if an angel in heaven preaches another
gospel, let him be eternally condemned! Seek the scriptures for yourself.

The second point here is that the fear of God leads to upholding the truth in the
face of opposition – whoever/whatever that may be.

Paul knew who Peter was; he was the lead apostle in the early church. But, when Paul
saw the hypocrisy and the fact that he was leading others away from the truth with his
hypocrisy (remember even Barnabas was led astray!) he brought correction. Paul's
argument here also, I believe uncovered a wrong belief in many that Israel was
inherently doing the right thing while the Gentiles were inherently doing the wrong thing.
I see this come out when Peter's position was that the Gentiles had to be like the Jews
to be saved. The Israelites are God's chosen people to be sure, but is it any better to
supposedly worship God for the praise we can receive from man as many did or
worship a statue made of stone? Both are idols. Both are sinful.

Also, we cannot be timid when preaching God's word. You have as much responsibility
as I to proclaim His glorious gospel to the world and preserve the truth of the gospel.
Because, as we learned last week, God is not a people pleaser, and shows no
partiality. He sees the heart.

We also see here that Paul addresses Peter publicly about his public sin.
We should do the same. What good would it do, for our elders to sit by as I stand
before you and teach heresy and then come to me later and say something to me
behind closed doors? The damage would be done!
So where is Paul going with all this…
Justification by Faith is the only answer.

Galatians 2:15-16 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners [difference
between their lineage]; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law
but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to
be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law
no one will be justified.

Here we see Paul refute a doctrine of works that existed since the beginning of time
and still exists today. I know I grew up in church wondering when the exact moment
was that people started being saved by faith in Jesus. What happened to those who
died a day before Jesus died? Were they evaluated on their works? The answer is of
course, an astounding NO!

Paul also shows that the proper position to come from is that ALL come with nothing
before God and bring nothing to offer him and it is ONLY by His Grace through faith
that we are justified – DECLARED INNOCENT! Wahoo! That word is so beautiful.
Everyone in this room, apart from Christ deserves to be under God's wrath. You are all
sinners... but by His grace... He chose, to save many of you. Praise God! And he
desires for many more to recognize the need for a savior because of your helpless
state of rebellion, repent of your sins and turn to Jesus as your only hope!

Verse 17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be
sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!

Here Paul uses his question to obvious answer technique that he used in other places
such as Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace
may abound? By no means! (Same word here as in Gal 2:17)... NO! Are you kidding
me? Never. Strong and emphatic no. Justified in Christ meaning by grace through faith.
Paul understands that salvation is an ongoing process called sanctification: he process
by which Christ makes us more like himself. Justification is sealed by God upon
conversion, that is settled, no one can be plucked from the mighty hand of God by
good or bad works. He is the one who has sealed us unto redemption. But if we
continue to sin even after God has poured out His grace on us is it Jesus that is a
servant (diakonos – deacon, minister) to sin? Is He a slave to sin? NO! This is the
cheap grace theology, and that is essentially what it says. Jesus saves you to a life
where you sin and it's ok, God's grace is sufficient. It is. But if we continue in our sin
without ongoing repentance and applying the gospel everyday, then we are not saved
(1 John 3:6).

Galatians 2:18-19 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
If Paul says that salvation is by any other means other than faith in Christ then He is
rebuilding the law as means of his justification and by the law no one will be saved. In
fact, the purpose of the law was to make that clear. We have a righteous and perfect
standard by which to live, but we are unable to meet this standard and so Christ came.
It was always God's plan to send Jesus. The law was never sufficient. Only Christ is
sufficient for our redemption.
Do you understand that now you have the opportunity as a believer, for the first time to
actually live for God? It is only because we have the Holy Spirit that we can now live
for God (1 Cor. 2:14). People try to live according to their arbitrary moral standard.
They know there is accountability to their actions, God has given consciences to man.
In fact, I was confronted at work just this week because I was throwing paper away in
my wastebasket. He shared with me his justification by recycling gospel and to be
honest I was challenged by the fact that he didn't know me and came with his message
boldly. As we talked, he found out that my wife and I and family are very health and
environmentally responsible. We try to honor the temples that belong to God that He
has given us and take care of them as well as take care of the earth he has given us
and not be wasteful with His resources. This man also found out that I ride my bike to
work to which he replied “Oh, then you are much better than me.” While I don't know
what he believes will save him, many people have a sense of responsibility and
morality that will not be sufficient in their salvation on that great day when we stand
before Jesus in judgment.

Galatians 2:20-21 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if
righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

If you are like me at all, and I’m pretty sure at least some are, you don't take the time to
meditate on the Scriptures. This particular scripture is so rich, but we read it, and
maybe give it an amen or feel a warm fuzzy and move on.
Some of you know that I grew up in a Christian home, my parents are still married (34
years… except for the fact that they were married on leap year!) and I remember the
Philips Craig and Dean song “Crucified in Christ” on KSBJ and, I'm not here to knock
the song, but my point is that we sing the songs, we say amen, but how are we living
it? I wonder how much understanding we have of what it means to be crucified with
Christ. What does that mean that I have died along with Christ?

I would venture to say that the majority of us are trying to continue to live on our own.
What I mean by that is that we have worldly passions and desires and sin in our hearts
that we do not put to death. We continue to follow the pursuits of the American dream
over the mandate to take up our cross and follow our Lord. I would submit to you that if
more of us lived like Jesus, we would not be more loved by everyone like many liberal
theologians would have you believe. Our Lord was hated by many and eventually
murdered. Literally, being crucified with Christ means that the life we lived before
conversion is gone. It is dead. This is a major external evidence to our salvation.
And furthermore, Paul is saying that the life we live now (is not the same as the life
before) in the flesh (or our earthly bodies) we must live by faith in the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. So our lives should become testament to who God
is and what He has done. That means we don’t do finances, marriage, giving, working,
loving, parenting, serving like the world. We are called to be utterly different, just as our
God is.

In closing, I want to challenge you with Paul’s last statement and pose a question.
Verse 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law,
then Christ died for no purpose.

Can you make God’s grace worthless? Really? The condition of our heart is made
apparent in our lives when we seek to clean up the outside with out a true
understanding and acceptance and application of the gospel. We show God, the
church, and the world that God’s grace is worthless to us when we do two things.

1. Continue in our sin and trample on His grace – When we live un-crucified lives
for ourselves, disregarding the sin in our lives, the poor, authority, God’s Word,
our call to pray, our utter dependence on Him.
2. Continue in our own righteousness (which we know is truly worthless) and
trample on His grace – When we live un-crucified lives, we try to earn His grace
and favor by not applying the gospel practically, trusting in our good works to
make us feel better or more in God’s will.

Now is the time in our service where we have heard the word of God and have to
either receive His call to repentance or stay where we are. I would challenge each and
every one of you today to search your heart in this time of response to God. Some of
you need to be saved. You are trusting in yourself. Others need to continue to grow
and live by faith and continue to put to death the cares of this world.
All of us have opportunity right now to receive His grace that is sufficient for our lives
and go out from here and live according to Christ so that a watching world will be
saved and give glory to God.