Continuing through Galatians we come across three important teachings for the church today...

::::::::

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in--who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery-- to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)--those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. -- Galatians 2: 1-10 (ESV)

We begin to see the nature of the false teaching besetting the Galatians take form in Paul's letter as we delve into the second chapter. He is still providing his own apostolic background however. This is not done in a boastful manner but out of necessity. False teaching is insidious and spreads like poison throughout the body of Christ. When entire churches have fallen for a heresy it becomes difficult to get them out. Try having a rational, biblical conversation with a follower of Joseph Prince. It simply is not possible. The same goes for Joel Osteen followers. Or TD Jakes or whoever the cult of personality pastor is. There are far too many people in church today who worship the man of God instead of God Himself. Make no mistake about it beloved; it is still idol worship. Here we see in Galatians the heretics are named for the first time -- the Judaizers. We see the issue at hand -- circumcision. We see the result that the church does not realize and that Paul is trying to teach -- being yoked back into slavery. To connect these dots we must understand that this group of Jewish believers brought into the church at Galatia the notion that circumcision, along with faith in Christ were necessary for salvation.

When we consider this heresy we must first understand why it was so attractive to the believers at Galatia. These were former Jews themselves so they related to the wolves. They were raised under the covenant of circumcision and leaving it must have been very difficult for them. Along comes someone who sounds reasonable on these matters. We must understand that much of false teaching sounds reasonable to us. If God loves me why wouldn't He want me rich? If I am no longer under the law why do I need it at all? What's the big deal if I believe in circumcision? I also believe in saving faith! Except your faith is not saving you if you think you need circumcision too. Paul will expand mightily on these points the deeper we go into this letter. For now, I want us to focus in on this nugget:

Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in--who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus

Not everyone that spells Christ correctly is actually a Christian. I say this because the church today in America is a series of broken off little tribes meeting in their tent while paying lip service to actually being the body of Christ. This is the direct result of the purpose driven church model, which applies carnal business models of growth onto what was supposed to be a supernatural plan. The Bible does not teach us that we water or sow but Rick Warren gets the increase. Only God can get the increase. Jesus tried to teach this when his mother and brother were trying to see Him and He replied who are my mother and brother except he who does the will of my Father.

Yet because of false brothers." Think about that for a moment. In the church at Galatia there were people that were regarded as brothers in Christ but who were secretly false. There were people that attended the services, bowed and "amen"-ed at all the appropriate times and even broke bread with the believers but they were false the whole time. I point this one little verse out because we see this happening with increasing frequency in the church today. People defend wolves because they believe they have gauged their sincerity, or their love for Jesus, or their heart. Beloved we cannot make such foolish judgments. Who is my brother except he who does the will of my Father? Some of the best dressed, well-rehearsed and pillars of pseudo-piety in your church today are actually the most voracious wolves. How come many times no one realizes it? Because they are evaluating them based on their subjective opinions of how well they play church. Are their prayers long -- they must be powerful in prayer. Are they involved in many ministries? They must have a servant's heart. Are they involved in missions, street preaching, or leading small groups -- well they must love Jesus. Beloved; church involvement, especially today within the compromised church, is not indicative of any true spirituality at all. How are we supposed to discern then? Who is my brother except he who does the will of my Father! The will of the Father is only found in the Word of God. The singular unifying factor for the body of Christ is correct doctrine, period. There is no other unity that matters. Why? Because doctrine does not change. It is definitive. It is not subject to our feelings. If you have a brother that serves in five ministries, runs your soup kitchen and is on the intercessory prayer team but believes that God wants us all rich you need to remove him from ministry, the prayer team and the soup kitchen. He is not a good brother -- he is a false brother. I once asked Dr. Michael Brown about Joseph Prince. Brown had written a great book exposing the errors of hyper grace but his answer on Prince was that he was "a good brother with some holes in his theology." No Dr. Brown. He is a false brother whose false doctrine disqualifies him from fellowship.

Just like they were seeing in Galatia. I am sure the Judaizers were well known and maybe even widely popular. I am sure they were front and center for every service and helped out whenever they could. Secretly however, they were spreading their false doctrine throughout the church until everyone was infected. This is how the NAR spreads. Who we unify with matters beloved. I know plenty of Mormons who are nice, likable people but they are wrong theologically. They are not my brother because they do not do the will of my Father. The false prophet who believes in gold dust gemstones, glory clouds and angel feathers is not my brother in Christ. Just because you see them every Sunday does not mean they are sound or are your brother/sister in Christ. Some are false. Galatians 2 continues:

^'But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 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 the Gentiles to live like Jews?"' -- Galatians 2: 11-14 (ESV)

One of the greatest protections these days for false teachers are otherwise sound teachers who do not think they should "name names." We often hear the familiar refrain about how we are supposed to reach out to them privately or pray and leave it up to God. The first error is in conflating the protocol for when a brother sins against you and when you are dealing with a false teacher. There is no biblical instruction to reach out to the wolf privately and ask him to stop being a wolf. Why? Because the wolf does not matter to God -- the sheep do. As we just saw the error is in assuming everyone is our brother and refusing to see the false brothers in our midst. Likewise, there is zero biblical instruction to pray for wolves. According to Scripture their destruction is from long ago and not idle.

Anytime there was cause to name names, Paul did so. Alexander the Coppersmith, Hymenaeus and Philetus were called to very specific account for their heresies and inconsistencies with the Gospel. As we see here, so was Peter! In this account, Paul explains that Peter was behaving as a hypocrite. He had no problem eating with the Gentiles until some folks from the circumcision party showed up and then he withdrew. The result is others followed his lead and withdrew as well, separating out the Gentiles from their Jewish brethren. Jesus spoke extensively against hypocrisy. It is also one of the top reasons why the unsaved do not come to church. They view Christians as Peter refusing to eat with the Gentiles.

Notice here that Paul did not address Peter privately either. In front of all he corrected him. There is nothing wrong with transparency, especially in the leadership of the church. Quite frankly we need more of it today. I went to a very good solid, Gospel church for over a decade and still whenever someone public fell from grace we never heard it addressed from the pulpit. I remember when Ted Haggard, the head of the National Association of Evangelicals was caught doing crystal meth with male prostitutes. All we heard was to not cast stones or judge his situation! The hypocrisy needed to be called out. The world sees a church that has no problem extending their judgmental finger at sinners and screaming repent unless they happen to already be inside the church. Then we should just pray for them. No.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 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. -- Galatians 2: 15-16 (ESV)

Justification. One of the pillars of our theology. God requires sinless perfection. We are the opposite by nature and nurture. The Old Covenant required a blood sacrifice because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Paul reminds us all that we are not justified by works of the law. No one in fact can be justified by the works of the law. We are only justified through faith in Jesus Christ. The punch line for the Galatians is in their willingness to appease the Judaizers they yoked themselves back to the law and as we will see in later chapters rendered Christ useless to them in doing so! You cannot mix the grace of God with the law.

When it comes to salvation that is. Do not miss this because it is why so many have fallen for the deception of Joseph Prince. Prince mixes the eternal with our current state. When we stand before God to be judged we will either be held to the letter of the law or we will be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no third option. In Galatia, the Judaizers had convinced the congregation that in order to be saved, one must still be circumcised. By doing so they forfeited the grace of God that could save them. The greasy grace of Joseph Prince however, teaches that believers do not need the law now, before judgment. Beloved, the law of God is not a bad thing. God laid the law down for our own good. Thou shall not commit murder? Probably a good idea. No coveting avoids envy. No anger avoids hatred. The problem is not with the law -- it is with us because our sinful nature is so depraved we cannot possibly keep the entire law. Does that mean we discard it for this life? Hardly. Jesus Himself said that not one dot in the law shall be done away with until He returns. It still serves as guardrails for the Christian life. At a bare minimum we know being in step with the law is pleasing to God so shouldn't we at least be trying? Becoming more and more Christlike is not moving further away from His law!

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! 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. 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. -- Galatians 2: 17-21 (ESV)

If we insist on being judged by the law then God will oblige and we will nullify the His grace. The work of Christ on the cross is no small matter. It is our sins He bore there. We were crucified with Him but without the actual pain and punishment. In doing so we died to the law as it relates to judgment. The indwelt Holy Spirit should prompt us to want to obey the law because we know God has it for our good and because we now see sin as the Father sees it. Carrying these lessons forward we need to be mindful of infiltrating Judaizers in our church and the body of Christ as a whole. They are false brothers. We need to stop evaluating people based upon how sincere they seem and start using the bible as our only plumb line. Who is it that is my mother and brother except they that do the will of my Father?

Amen.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- April 20, 2018

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.