The Church of Eleven22 - Iron Sharpens Iron: Be Free - Wk 5

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

When your brothers and sisters in Christ, there is a need for accountability. But what does it look like to honor God and each other when it comes to disagreement and confrontation?  - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas.   To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com     

Amen and amen. If you've got your Bibles, I hope you do. Galatius chapter two, we're in week five of this series called Be Free. And it is for freedom that you have been set free. I hope you know that. How many of you know there are some things worth fighting for? You may know that? I feel like you're fighters, all right?

There are some things that are dumb to fight over. The Hebrew word is Twitter. I don't know if you know that. But then there's some things worth fighting for. And we're going to see an epic fight, a showdown here in Galatius chapter two, beginning in verse 11, and I hope you're excited about Beach Babism Weekend. Are you excited? You're going to do this?

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and never have been baptized as a believer, then I think you should do that. And if you're like, I don't know, I want you in your mind to come up with a reason why you're not. And then we want to dismantle that by the end of our time here together, okay? It's probably fear. That's probably what it is. It's probably the fear of man, isn't it?

It's probably some reason that's not rooted in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is for freedom that you have been set free. And what you're going to see over a thousand times on Sunday when we baptize all these people is you're going to see these people who have already been set free through the gospel of Jesus Christ, celebrate that publicly. We're going to celebrate with them together. Amen. Amen.

So it's going to be awesome. All right. Galatius 2, beginning of verse 11, says, but. So we've got to stop for a second and talk about what was happening before the but. So far, what Paul has been doing is establishing his authority as a true apostle. So the first two chapters of the book of Galatians, he establishes that he is an actual apostle of Jesus because in order for the people in Galatia to trust his message, first they got to trust the messenger.

That's what he's doing. And there's a group of Judaizers, these people that have moved into Galatia and says it's not just faith alone in Christ that saves you. It's faith plus your activity, your work. And the particular that they're talking about is circumcision. And so before Paul unpacks the gospel in the next two chapters, chapter three and four, the first two chapters, he establishes that he is a messenger of God, that he was on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians.

His name was Saul of Tarsus at that point. He was a Pharisee of Pharisee. He was a religious leader. If good works impress God, he's got more good works than all of us put together. And on the way to Damascus, the resurrected Christ, physically. and visibly appears to Saul of Tarsus, thumps him off his horse and says, why are you persecuting me?

In that moment, Saul surrenders his life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He realizes that Christ is who he says he was, that he is God, that he died on the cross for the sins of all mankind who would believe that he was dead, buried, resurrected on the third day, and when Paul's eternity changed, to symbolize this, God changes his name, too.

So he used to be Saul of Tarsus. now he is the Apostle Paul. He's commissioned by Jesus to take this good news of the gospel and go and share it everywhere he can to the ends of the earth. He is trained by Jesus for three years, this kind of supernatural Bible study in Arabia, this kind of even hard to get your mind around, that he's like a 101 student in a disciple group with Jesus who downloads this gospel to the Apostle Paul. And he says, I didn't get this from Peter, I didn't get this from the church, nobody voted

me into this position, Jesus himself trained me, and then his gospel is affirmed by the other apostles. He goes after 14 years of ministry, he lays it before the other apostles and says, this is the gospel that I have been preaching, that we are not saved by works, that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, period, and the apostles go, high five, you're getting it right. Now he's going to establish that the reason that he can confront the Judaizers, the people that are trying to add to the message of the gospel, but it's because he's an actual apostle. And because he's an actual apostle, he can even go toe to toe with like the head honcho apostle of them all.

All right, Catholics, this is your favorite one, Peter. That the gospel stands above every man and no man stands above the gospel. And so that's what's going on here. But when Seifus, that's the Aramaic name for Peter, But when Seifus came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. Well, that's a way to start it, isn't it? I love this so much. By the way, if we simply took that one verse right there, the whole world would be changed.

If you got a problem with somebody, if you just oppose them to their face, everything would be different. The great theologian of the 21st century, Mike Tyson said, you wouldn't say the kind of thing you would say to a man online that you would say to his face. because you might get that face punched. All right? That's just true. I'm not saying that's biblical. I'm just saying it's real, though. And so this doesn't mean that he tweeted about Peter

so that everybody else could read. He did not start some kind of smear campaign about the Apostle Peter. He didn't talk about Peter to others. He didn't even do the evangelical way where he shared prayer request. We need to pray for Peter because he's a sinner and I'm just concerned for his soul.

No, no, no, no. But to his face. So we'll come, Matthew 18, it's kind of the preeminent text on that. We'll come back to that in a little while. And so here's what you've got to understand. So the Apostle Paul plants the church in Antioch. It's like home base where all of his church planning and missionary journeys are coming from. And Peter, who's working in Jerusalem, after Acts 15, we talked about this last week,

after Acts 15, when they all agree that what it takes to be a Christian is you don't have to become Jewish first, that it's faith alone in Christ. Why will we make it difficult for those who are turning to the Lord? And so they make a deal. And Peter's like, or Peter and Paul make a deal. Peter's like, I'll take Jerusalem. And Paul's like, cool, I'll take the rest of the world. So that's kind of how they divide it up.

Well, it's going so good at Antioch that Peter, who's like the boss of the whole church, wants to go and visit. And here's how his visit goes. When Sevis came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. And like, whoa, Paul, what was going on? Here's why, because he stood condemned. Now, not in the Romans 8-1 kind of condemnation, not like eternally.

Peter didn't lose his salvation. He was just not acting in accordance with the gospel. He was clearly in sin. So this is how it went down. Verse 12. Four, before certain men came from James, those were the Judaizers. And I'm, we know because of what James said in Acts 15,

that James did not send these men with his message that people claimed to be there by, yet they were name dropping. And they were adding to the gospel. And so before certain men from James, the people that were trying to add to the gospel, Peter was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision parties. So here's what happens.

So Peter shows up on the scene, and at first it's going super good. Think about it. Think of you were a Christian in Antioch, and you had heard of Peter. Wouldn't you want to meet Peter? And church is having like a potluck. And all the Gentiles are there. And so they cook Gentile food, which is. the best, by the way.

Bacon rat filet is Gentile food, which is gospel meat. I've told you this before. You need to know this. If you don't think Jesus is good, pre-crucifixion and resurrection, no bacon rat filet cooked medium rare. Couldn't have bacon and you couldn't have the medium rare. Post-resurrection, medium-rare that thing. If you overcook it, then you're a sinner and wrap that puppy in some pork.

I'm talking about whatever. I'm serious, man. They had baby-back ribs. pulled pork, they had lobster, all the things you couldn't eat under the old covenant at the, at the Gentile cookout, man. And Peter's pulling up to the table. And he's like, man, this is so good. Oh, my God, I never had this in my life.

Oh, the Lord is good, isn't he? Bless the Lord all my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name. He's eating all the stuff you ain't supposed to eat. He said, we're free to in Christ. And so everybody wants to meet Peter. Because think about it, they're like, this is incredible. Pete, what was it like? What was it like when you were on the mountain of transfiguration

or when you walked on water or when you learned from Jesus? And he's up there, I mean, he's just like eating shrimp cocktail and all the things you ain't supposed to if you're a Jew. And he's tearing it up. Everybody says, this is so cool. And then, then one day, the circumcision party shows up. And ain't no party like a circumcision party, right? I mean, what?

Circus religion party don't stop. And so, but when they show up, all of a sudden, when he walks into the next Wednesday night, potluck, and somebody's like, hey, man, you want to try these pickle pig feet? And he's like, he just sits over and he separates himself. Now, here's the thing, here's the problem. He knows better. He knows better. We talked about this last week.

The first person to lead Gentiles to Jesus was, Peter. Like he's hungry one day, hanging out on his rooftop, just chilling, goes into this trance, has this vision where God says, hey, man, there's, don't call unclean what I have made clean. And he shows him a picture of all kind of, I mean, all this stuff that previously you couldn't eat, frog legs and gator tail and all this stuff that is in the old covenant you couldn't eat. And now, in the new covenant you can, and then right when God, again, one of my favorite verses, Acts 10, 13, rise up, kill, and eat. And then immediately somebody knocks on the door, it's like, hey, there's a Gentile named Cornelius asking questions about the Lord.

He wants to know if you'll talk to him. And God uses this religious guy that grew up in this, under the Jewish code, to go into Cornelius's house. And when he gets there, he's like, you know, I ain't even supposed to go in your house? Like my people don't go in your people's house. But the Lord told me, so he steps in, shares the gospel, the spirit of God falls on Cornelius. Here's a Gentile going on all acts too, speaking in tongues. And Peter doesn't even have a category for it.

So he knows better. And even though he knows better, for fear of the circumcision party, he acts one way with his Gentile brothers, and he acts a different way with the folks from Jerusalem show up. Now, I hope you love Peter. I mean, he makes me feel better about my own discipleship. Because his whole life, even post-res resurrected filled with the spirit life. is nothing but a series of highs and lows. And I hope this makes you feel better

about your own walk with Jesus. Anybody else like me, like two steps forward, saturated, and then we kind of hit reverse for a minute. Wait a minute. I ain't even act like I know Jesus anymore. What is wrong with me? It's called, you're a human. That's what's wrong with you.

That we are in this process of what is called progressive sanctification. The fact that you would say that it's progressive it means that he ain't done with you yet. We all got a long way to go. Right. And if you think you're finished, you are. You're done, man.

If you think you've arrived, it's because you're probably not a Christian. That's why. You probably don't know Jesus. You think you are him. That's the difference. And so Peter's whole life, man. I mean, this incredible highs.

Like one of my favorites, Mounted of Transfiguration. I've told you this a million times that Jesus goes up on the mountain to transfigure himself. but we don't even know exactly what that means, display his glory. And so he invites Peter, James, and John to come him up on the mountain with him. Not because they're his favorites.

Everybody's like, well, they're his favorite. So the only place that says that is in the gospel of John. John is called the one whom he loves. But it's written by John. So I'm going to take it up with him when I get there, you know. I think it's because these three can't be trusted. So he's like, hey, boys, sit around here by the can't fire, write some worship songs. I'm going up here.

Actually, Peter James John, get in the truck. You can't be trusted alone, all right? I did student ministry for 15 years. I know who these kids are. They're all on our staff now, by the way. But anyway. So you have this moment. He sees Jesus and Elijah and Moses.

They've been dead a minute, and they show up on the scene. And then what happens? Peter's like, you know what? There's Jesus displaying his glory. There's Moses who's been dead a long time who wrote the law. There's Elijah who was like the major prophet. I should probably speak right now. Everybody's probably interested in what I have to say.

and he sticks his dumb head and they can go, it is good that we are here. And he screws up the whole thing. Literally, Jesus like unglorifies. It's like, what do you doing? And then the Bible goes on to say, Mark records it, and not knowing what to say, he kept on speaking. I love it so much. Husbands, you ever done this? As the words are leaving your dumb face hole.

You're like, oh, no, I shouldn't have said that part out loud. So what do you do, husbands? more words that'll do it no no no okay so he screws it up how about this peter walks on water that's got to be a high holy moment does it not i mean how many of you had taken steps on water zero and i think when the other disciples are busting peter i'm he's i bet he's like well how many steps you got onto the water and so they're out in the middle of the night they're trying to cruise over to the other side of the sea of galilee and the wind of the waves are coming and then jesus comes walking on the water And Peter is like, if that is you really Jesus, then ask me to come out on the water with you.

That's a moment of faith. Do you think you got faith? That kind of faith to get out of the boat? Ha! You ain't even get baptized. What's the kind of faith you got? That's what I'm talking about. I'm like, what's so many people.

Okay, listen. Do you know why he asked to get out of the boat? Because he was a Talmuddin. He was a disciple. And disciples didn't think that they were just going to learn what you know. They thought you were going to become who you're doing. who your rabbi was. So what he's saying is, I'm following you.

You call me to follow you. So how far does that go? Can I follow you out there? And Jesus is like, come on, big boy. And boop, boop, he hops out. And again, I believe that he took like Rick Flair steps, okay? And if you don't, Rick Flair was an evangelist in the 1900s. You should look him up.

It's good dude. There it is. See, I knew that Thursday night crowd knows. And then what happened? So there he is. Walking on water. Next minute, he's sinking because he's afraid. because he took his eyes off Jesus.

Jesus puts that joker back in the boat and says, why do you doubt you of little faith, reprimanded? Or Peter's standing on at Cessori of Philippa, and he makes the declaration of all declarations. When Jesus says, who do you say that I am? He says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus is like, bro, you nailed it, man. You absolutely nailed it.

That's what we're going to build the church on. And I'm going to change your name to Rocky. And while the theme music's going, dun dun, da, da, da, da, da, da. He's like, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I mean, he thinks he's the dude. He gets handed the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Does it get any better than that?

On the same page in my Bible, Jesus says, let me tell you what the church is going to be all about. I'm going to be handed over to the chief priest, arrested, beaten, crucified, dead, and buried, but on the third day, be resurrected. And the Bible says, Peter rebukes Jesus. He's like, Jesus Christ, get over here. I don't know if you know this,

kind of a big deal, you just put me in charge. I got the keys to the kingdom of heaven, rattle, rattle, rattle. Not on my watch, you're not going to the cross. I mean, talking about missing the point. And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. So I know you're scarred and triggered because, you know, you weren't breastfed as a kid or you had to go to public school or whatever your problem was. But when Jesus calls you the devil, it ain't going good, is it? Even when he gets, you know, he makes this promise, I was a problem. I was. You know, never leave you or forsake you, chops off a guy's ear, and then that night denies that he even knows Jesus three times. And then after the resurrected Jesus shows back up, Jesus takes him

to breakfast, and he asks him three times, do you love me, do you love me, do you love me? And he's reinstating him. And even in the reinstatement, Peter messes it up at the end of John 21, after Jesus says, follow me. This is like the cosmic do-over. Like, I'm going to re-invite you afresh to follow me because I'm not done with you. And Peter's like, but what about John? You still hog him the most? Like, what about these guys? And Jesus is like, oh my gosh, what is wrong with you?

Does it sound familiar to anybody else, or did I just give my own testimony via Peter? So now he's like the Pope of the church. He's the main dude in Jerusalem. And his problem is that he acts one way with this group of people and another way with this group of people. That's bad, man. That's bad.

So he's hanging out with these dirty Gentiles until the religious people show up. And they say, why are you eating with those people? This is not a new phenomenon in the church or in this country. You get this? The roots of some group of people, of people thinking they are better than another group of people goes all the way back to the very

beginning of the church. And I want you to see how the gospel uproots that kind of prideful, ego-driven sort of demonic thought. You see, here's the thing. Basically in the whole Old Testament, there's two things. There's a bunch of things, but there's, when it comes to the law, the Torah, there's like 613 of them. And they basically fall under two categories, and there's two categories under one of the categories. There's a bunch of rules about cleanliness, and then there's a bunch of rules about sacrifice. And the rules about cleanliness fall under two categories. One was ceremonial, and one was moral. And the reason that God gives us his law is because it is a reflection of who he is, and because God is holy, we're

to be holy. Holy just means set apart. So, Some of them seem kind of random, and they are kind of random, so that you would be ceremonially different than everybody else so that you would stand out. And these are things like you can't wear like a multi-blend clothes, can't live next to brackish water, just that kind of stuff. Then there's this moral cleanliness. Like, how about don't kill each other, only sleep with your wife and just don't take stuff that's not yours?

And then, right on the heels of this are instructions on sacrifices. Why? because none of us can keep ourselves clean. That's why. And then Jesus shows up on the scene. And he says, well, there's two things about the old covenant. One, it's old, and there's about to be a new one, because I am going to live a life that fulfills every promise and prophecy and law of the old covenant.

I'm going to be clean. And since you can't be clean, I am going to be the final sacrifice for, you. And because I am the final sacrifice, the sacrificial system is gone because I am the final lamb that was slain for the forgiveness of sin. And whoever would believe in me, then you get my cleanliness, therefore you would stand right before God. And so, listen, man, Peter believes that. Peter even preaches that. And yet in this particular situation, Peter is not acting like he believes that. He is out of step with the message of Jesus. Now, the way we treat people puts on display what we actually believe about God.

Let me say it again, okay? The way we treat people puts on display what we actually believe about God. And when you get the gospel wrong, it will spill out into other areas of your life. A part of the reason that the works-based righteousness will ruin you. you is because you believe you deserve the blessing of God, but nobody else that can do what you do does. And you begin to forget about grace. I mean, think about this. The greatest commandment.

Lawyer comes up to Jesus. What's the greatest commandment? Again, he's got 613 to choose from. And he says this, here's the greatest commandment. Love God. That's the first one. What's really interesting about church history in all the earliest creeds, like the Nicene and creed and all that. Nowhere does it talk about loving God. It talks about all the doctrines

that you are to believe, and doctrine matters. But we just left out the most important thing. Jesus said, love the Lord of your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then he says, and the second one is like it, and love your neighbor as yourself. The idea being that we love God because he first loves us, and then God's love that we know flows through us and the fuel by which we love one another is because we know that God first loves us. All throughout the New Testament. 1 John 2.9 says whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. If there is any group of people that you look down your nose at, it is because you have taken

your eyes off of the cross of Jesus Christ, period. You can't say that I love God and hate your brother. You just can't do it. In fact, when Jesus is teaching several times, he says, Like in the sermon on the Mount, he goes, well, hey listen, man, don't just love people that love you. Everybody does that. Terrorists do that.

You realize that? If you just love people that look like you and vote like you and act like you and do stuff that you want them to do for you, you're just loving you via them. He's like, so love people that aren't like you. When you throw a party, why do you just invite the people that are going to invite you back to their party? I dare you when you throw a party to invite people that aren't like you at all,

that you would consider an outcast. Why? Because you're an outcast, and Jesus invited you to the party. That's what he's saying. And what was driving this, it says it, at the end of verse 12, fearing the circumcision party. Listen, the fear of man will lead you to places you don't want to go. It'll make you stay longer than you wanted to stay,

spend money you don't have, and reap more pain than you ever intended. The most commanded thing in the Bible is don't be afraid. And Peter, the apostle Peter, is so driven by fear, he acts in a way that's out of step with what he actually believes the gospel to be. And so when Paul sees this, he goes to his face. Verse 13. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even, Even Barnabas, and I think when he says this, he was like, it hurt his heart. Barnabas is his friend.

Barnabas means the son of encouragement. Barnabas is the guy that every time he text you is like thumbs up and emojis and happy faces. That's Barnabas, okay? Remember Barnabas is the one that ran cover for Paul when Paul first started showing up to church and everybody was nervous because he used to kill Christians. And Barnabas was like, no, no, no, no, no. Trust me. He's with me.

and now Paul is like, listen, Peter, I don't think you understand the kind of impact your actions are having on other people. You see, because what's happening is two weeks ago at the potluck when you were sitting down with everybody eating baked beans with pork fat in it, everybody's like, wow, we're friends with Peter. And now two weeks later, when the circumcision party is here, and they're sitting over there at the adult table and all the Gentiles are sitting at the kid table and the people you're eating with are questioning whether they're even saved because they haven't been circumcised. And then what begins to happen is you have no idea the kind of impact, the kind of influence that you have. And so that's what begins to happen. He says, and the rest of

the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. The Greek word for hypocrisy means to speak behind a mask. That's what it means. It was actually an acting tournament, an actor would stand on stage. Everybody knew that person wasn't displaying who they are. They were acting like somebody else. And so the Apostle Paul says, you're being a hypocrite because you're not being who you know yourself to be. You know that it is by grace that we are saved and not by works. You know this, but around certain people, you're acting as if it's your works that save you. Listen, if you have a high standard and don't live up to that standard, that's not hypocrisy. That's just, that's just humanity. You get this? Like, listen, man, I'm the worst hypocrite

in the room, which makes me not a hypocrite. The moment you declare your hypocrisy, you can no longer be a hypocrite. Paul says that he was the chief sinner among all sinners, which means all he is declaring is, I can't live a perfect life, so I need Jesus to do for me what I can never do for myself. But here what Peter is doing is Peter is acting like somebody that he is not. And so listen, man, you talk to people all the time. I don't know that hypocrite gets used a lot except when talking about church people. You ever notice that? So anytime I invite somebody, hey, you just come to church.

They're like, well, it's full of hypocrites. I'm like, I know. You'll fit right in. You should come. You should come. Don't we all agree that none of us live up to the standard of which we even want to? That's why we have a savior that even in our own hypocrisy loves us and redeems us. And not saying it's okay.

He's saying, I've died for it. So he keeps going, verse 14. But when I saw that their conduct was, here's the key, underline this, not in step with the truth of the gospel. That's what he's upset. That's what's worth fighting over. When I saw that Peter and all the other Jewish Christians, when they were acting one way in front of this group and another way in front of another group, when they were not living out the gospel, when I saw that their conduct was not in state orthopedo, that's what the word is. That's where we get like orthodontics. Ortho means straight.

So they want to like straighten out your teeth. Orthopedic. They want to all your bones of like do what they're supposed to do. When I was not, when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, by the way, this is important. What Paul is implying here is the gospel is not just the thing that saves you. The gospel is the thing that sustains you and sanctifies you all the days of your life. The gospel is not like the kindergarten that just gets you started. and then you move on to the deeper things at graduate level.

No, no, no, no. That the gospel lights our path and is a direction, and if we don't walk in light of the saving grace of Jesus, then we are walking out of step from the way that God has called us to, so we never graduate from the gospel. He says, but when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Seephas before them all.

So we know this is a big deal because Paul remembers word for word. He says this, and the Bible does not say how he said it. So I don't know if it was loud and mean or if it was nice and I don't know. He says in front of everybody, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like a Jew? Now first and foremost, there's a lot going on here. So he asked the question.

By the way, to the Judaizers, it was news. He's like, hey man, if you've been eating ribs with the Gentiles earlier, how in the world you're going to try to force them to live by the Jewish law? And the Judaizer's like, do what? You've been eating ribs? Don't like this isn't happen to you. When your church friends and your work friends get together, you know what I'm saying? I remember when I was a youth pastor a hundred years ago and I would go visit some of our students

on their campus and I'd pull up and, you know, be like, hey, do you know where Timmy is? And they were like, yeah, why are you looking for Timmy? Is he in trouble? I'm like, no, I'm his youth pastor. And they'd be like, Timmy goes to church. And then I would go, hey, Timmy, how you doing? He's like, hey, man, I was asking, you know, Susan, where you were. And they'd be like, oh, I've been trying to share my faith with Susan all the time.

Have you? Because I don't, I think your two worlds are colliding, broski, you know what I'm saying? So that's kind of what's happening here. So one of the things I want you to see here is that no one, even Peter to the head of the church is above the gospel reproving us. No one. To which I would say, thank God for the elders of the Church of 1122. Okay?

So, oh, man, trust me. I have many, many elders in my life. It's like elder night. There's one right there. There's one right there. I mean, they're all sitting together. They love me enough. They love you enough.

And they love the gospel, the most. most to to my face confront me and say, hey, here are some things that look like they are out of step with the gospel. Now, everybody loves that when it happens at church, right? So let me ask you something. Where are you out of step with the truth of the gospel? Where are you out of step with the truth of the gospel? I can tell you, it's going to be in one of three areas. For some of you, it's the lust of the flesh. Like you're doing things. with people that you ain't supposed to do. You're looking at stuff you ain't supposed to look at. You were trying to satiate and satisfy your flesh with the things of this world and it will

never do it. Where are you doing this and trying to make an excuse like you deserve it? And again, what's crazy about the lust of the flesh is it could be, I mean, it could be heroin or it could be ice cream. Now, if you're going to, if you have to choose, I go with ice cream. but if you don't get down to the root of it, you'll be controlled by it for the rest of your life, okay? It's when your flesh screams out, I deserve to feel a certain way. And instead of looking to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, you look to a relationship, you look to romance, or you look to some substance to do for you, what only Jesus can do for you.

Or for some of you, it's lust of the eyes. You would never admit this, man, but you're greedy. You are so greedy. and you get rewarded for it in your company. And you think the more do you make is yours. And you, you're robbing God, you're not being generous to the kingdom. I'm telling you, and you think some stuff is going to satisfy you. And it never will.

Or for some of you, it's the pride of life. See, this is at the root of where Peter is off. It was really a pride issue. because he wanted the people back in Jerusalem to think he was really somebody. So he was out of step with the gospel for the approval of man. Now here's the real question. It's one thing for you to be able to say, well, okay, of the three categories of sin, this is where the enemy usually gets me.

But here's the next level. Does anyone love you enough to point this out to you? and it will never be enough for you to come here and let me point it out generally speaking over the weekend that a part of the reason God put us together as a faith family is so that we would be close enough together in relationships with one another so that you would have somebody in your life and I would have somebody in my life when they saw you out of step with the truth of the gospel they would love you enough to come up and say whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa the direction of your life is heading somewhere and And it's not heading where Jesus has for you, and it's not hitting where you want to go.

And so you may get mad at me, but I love you more than I love what you think about me. I've told you about my best friend Brad Bowen. His mom's sitting right here and just thought about it. Bradley, man, I love that guy so much. He came to the Lord through 1122. I baptized him on a mission trip. He was the dude, man. I loved him so much.

He's with the Lord now. He went to be with the Lord about three years, almost three years ago. He's a single guy. He was like 50-something. he's on his own construction company smart good looking athletic won two national championships in college he was the dude man funny all the things so we're going hunting one day we're driving down the road and i'm like brad bro how are you still single i mean seriously you're good looking you're smart you got money how are you still single and he looks at me for a second and he goes you know what it's a lot

of fun until i met you that's what he said that's the truth but when he got when he met jesus and he got a bunch of Christian brothers that loved him more than what, more than we cared about what he thought about us, then we love each other enough that if any of us are out of step with the gospel, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, do you have the kind of people in your life that you've invited in to say, please, if I pull the Apostle Peter, will you be the Paul in my life to step in and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, bro, where you were heading ain't good, it ain't good. And listen, there's actually four different places where Peter was out of step with the gospel. First, fear.

It says for fear of the circumcision party. And Paul tells Timothy, God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind or self-control. The Bible says where the perfect love drives out fear, that the opposite of faith is not doubt. People had all kind of doubts, and they still had faith in Jesus. The opposite of faith is fear because fear paralyzes and faith produces action. And so if you are ruled by fear, you are not being ruled by the Spirit of God because where the Spirit of God is, there is freedom. And where there is fear, there is no freedom. I mean, listen, when you know the gospel, there's no room for fear.

Now, you can be a little scared. Scared ain't fear. Fear is frozen. scared is a feeling that God gives you so the bear doesn't need you, no problem. And then moving forward in the light of fear by faith, that's called courage. And we need some courage. Amen? But listen, but when we know the gospel, Paul says like in Romans 831, if God is for us, who could be against us?

Also, he's out of step with the gospel because he's being a hypocrite. You don't get to live two lives when you're a Christian. I'm not saying we don't struggle and stumble and fall in sin, but when we do, we confess and we repent and we run two grace, we don't run it from it. But when Jesus has asked, what's the greatest commandment? He says this, he's quoting the Shema. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Ahad.

It just means one. There's only one God. And when you see him for who he really is, then your response is to love him with your one and only life. You don't have an online life and a social life and a work life and a church life. You just got one life. You're just you. And you're supposed to love him with all, your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

This whole idea of bifurcating our lives as if we got different lives is so antithetical to what the Bible says that we are supposed to do with our one and only life. In fact, the word integrity comes from the word integer, which just means one. You know what it means to be a man or a woman of integrity? Is you're just the one you, no matter where you are or what you're doing, it's just you. and your loving God with your one and only life. So he was being two-faced. He was being a hypocrite.

The third place where he was out of step with the gospel is legalism. He was buying into what the Judaizer says that Jesus, faith in Jesus wasn't enough. It was faith in Jesus plus some works of man. And I'm telling you, legalism can't save. By works of the law, no one will be justified in the sight of. of God. And so Paul sees this and says, bro, you're out of step. And then lastly, it was pride. It was pride. And pride is the root of all racism and pride is the root of all religious elitism. And this kind of, it was kind of both of these things were happening when he shows up

in Antioch. Because he was like, hey man, I've been trying to obey the law my whole life. And he thought he was better than somebody else. Listen, there is no place for any type of racial or religious pride in the church of Jesus Christ. Why? Because every single one of us by nature and nurture, we were all dead in our trespasses. But God being rich in mercy, he rescued us, not because we had a head start on anybody, but because of his great love for us, he sent Jesus to reach out and redeem me and you. And so do you have people in your life that if you were out of step with the gospel that would love you enough to tell you? Now, some people, will say, well, why did Paul do this publicly? Because it says, I confronted him to his face,

but I said it in front of everybody. Well, the verse that people will always point to, and we're going to teach on this in the fall, is Matthew 18. Matthew 18, 15 says this. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. That's step one. And so people will say, well, why didn't Paul tell him one-on-one. Well, here's why. First of all, there's a process here. The first piece of this, if your brother sins against you. So if somebody has sinned against you, the first question you have to ask is, is this my brother or sister in Christ? If it's not, then you don't have a forgiveness conversation. You have an evangelistic conversation because they have sin, not just against

you, but against an almighty God. And judgment is upon them. And so, before you worry about your little feelings being hurt, you need to share the good news with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we are never to hold unbelievers to the same standard that we hold believers to. So you don't have a forgiveness conversation, you have a gospel conversation of what the gospel is for that person. So the first question is, is this person your brother? So is Peter Paul's brother? Yes. The answer's yes. So you check that one. Next, if your brother sins against you, the first thing you've got to ask is did this person break one of God's precepts or just one of my preferences because oftentimes we get all offended man some people's spiritual gift is being offended you notice that

and there's two ways to make noise these days either do something or criticize somebody that's done something I mean it's called the internet I mean so what half the thing is about and so is it actually a sin or is it just something you disagree with is it just your preference that is offended okay so Was Paul sinned against by Peter? No. He was not personally sinned against. What Peter was doing, though, was out of step with the truth of the gospel. This is why it did not require a one-on-one conversation. Peter was publicly out of step with the gospel, and he was a key leader in the church. And so the reason that Paul rebukes him publicly is not only for the benefit of Peter, but also the benefit of everybody that is listening. And if you jump back to Acts chapter 15, we see that the apostle Peter then

is restored to walking in line and in light of the gospel because he says it is by grace alone that we are saved in Christ alone. You see, the way this thing is done is two brothers that love each other enough that somehow there has been this invitation where they say to one another, if I am out of line, would you please love me and the work of the church and the work of the kingdom enough to point this out that I would not be a stumbling block for anybody? Like this is my relationship with several of my buddies and especially the elders here of this church. And I'm just telling you, it goes way better when you have that kind of relationship. So do you have friends like this? And if you're like, no, not really.

Well, are you this kind of friend? Are you more concerned about your friend or what your friend thinks about you? I dare you. I'm telling you, Mark chapter 2 is one of my favorite passages where the guy can't get into the house Jesus is teaching in, so he's got four friends that tear the roof off. We talked about it last week. Can you write down four friends? And if they see you out of step with the gospel, they would lovingly tell you that. Because these kind of gospel friends, it's like a retirement account. If you wait until, you need them to try to build them, it's going to be too late. And it goes way better when it's not some random person via email telling you all your faults and sins.

Listen, a dog can bark at everything that's wrong. You notice that? Think about that next time you fire off an email. Hey, here's everything. That's what you do. You ever seen a dog fix any problem? No. Okay?

So when I got some brothers in my life, they're like, hey man, can we talk about this? And are you bold enough in the gospel to be this kind of friend? I hope so. Now, before you go out heresy hunting, because I know some of you, some of you, you don't realize the accidental Pharisee that you are. You're like, finally. I've been trying to point out everything wrong in every ministry in America, and I'm ready. You know, that's not what we're talking about here. Jesus gets very specific instructions on how to do this, how to have these kind of gospel conversations.

In Matthew chapter 7, which is a part of the sermon on the Mount, Jesus, first of all, says the most quoted verse by non-Christians in the whole Bible, judge not that you be not judged. You got to read more than one sentence in the Bible, okay? Later in the same passage, he's going to call people dogs. Sounds kind of judgey. Judge not that you be not judged. For, with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. And then he gives this parable. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye? Have you ever noticed how easy it is to see the speck in your brother's eye? Now, again, I'm not just talking about people that get on your nerves. The people get on your nerves? You get on theirs too. Just know that, okay?

So you see something in somebody's life and be like, I can't believe she does this. So why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Listen, I think Jesus was funny. He's like, I know you're trying to get this thing out of their head, but you're banging them in the head with a two-by-four coming out of your face because you can't get that close,

because you're swinging it around like this, and they got a little bit of sawdust, over there. That's what he's saying. So, he gives us a prescription of how we do this. He says, why do we see the speck that's in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the spec out of your eye when there is a log in your eye? So before you pick up the scriptures to use them as binoculars, to be like, hey, man, I see you, sinner. Maybe first use it as a mirror to see the problems in your own life. Here's what I've found. Okay.

When I notice all of the sin in Pastor Vinkie's life, and I'm going to tell you, and then I begin to apply this, and I say, all of them little salt aspects in his eyes. And I'm like, well, let me do what Jesus tells me to do, because that's what I do, right? And then I hold up the mirror to my own. My list is so long, it takes me a long time of confession and repentance before I can ever get to the point where I can point out the speck in his. I'm telling you. And so he says, or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there's a log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye. But it doesn't stop there.

And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. The reason that you self-examined via the gospel first is so that you can serve your brother. Not in judgmentalism as I'm better than you, but as ever. a brother or a sister on level ground saying we are all sinners in need of a savior, but I see the direction your life is going. And if you keep going in this direction, it's going to hurt you. Now, listen, if you had something in your eye, like tonight, I'm in the lobby, I'm hanging out, and you came up and you're like, hey, I got something in my eye.

Can you help me? And I was like, I sure can. Let me get a hammer and a chisel. You'd be like, whoop, what? I don't think you're my guy. Mamas, how do you get something out of your child's eye? It's very tender. It's very gentle.

You do a little bit, right? It's very easy. You don't smack them in the side of the head as hard as you can, hoping to remove the speck that way. But because of one encounter with Paul and Peter, there's a whole bunch of Christians just been like, finally, you've got a speck, and you're trying to smack people in the head and knock it out, okay? You got issues, man.

You got issues. And they're internal. And then he says, do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn and attack you. So what he's implying here is that this goes way better when you have some serious relational bank with your brothers and sisters in Christ,

and this has been mutually agreed upon. I love you, you love me, we're going to try to point each other to Jesus. Let me tell you the worst thing you can do, man, the absolute worst thing you can do. If you're serious at all about deepening your relationship with Jesus, and you invite some brothers or sisters into your life to say, hey, listen, man, when you see a log or a speck in my eye, you see me walking out of step with the gospel, would you please step in? Would you love me and my family enough?

Would you please step in? And then the moment they take the chance to do it, and you stiff arm them, you dummy. You're the dog that they're talking about. And if you're the person and you've tried and you've tried and you've done it from a place of love, saturated in the gospel, then you can't just continuously to go down this road. I'm just telling you. First Corinthians 512 will say it this way. For what do I have to do with judging outsiders? The answer is nothing. The church does not need to judge the world. I don't know why this is a newsflash. Lost people act like lost people. Don't believe me? Watch the news tonight. So it's going to be lost people acting lost.

Okay? So I mean, you can stand in the dark and cuss the darkness all you want to. He says, is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? And this means, listen, one day we will all be judged. If you have this tattoo, I'm so sorry, we need to figure out how to redeem it and add some verses to it to make it true. But don't, the verses like, only God can judge me. Oh, he's going to judge you. And you want a lot of people before you get there to step in and like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Before you go to the final eternal one, why don't we work on some things here before we get there?

You know what I'm saying? So, the reason that you take the log out of your own eye, that you confess and repent of your own sin, that you make sure it's not your pride driving you, it's not your enneagram number, please don't blame anything on that ever again, is so that you can love your brother or sister enough for the sake of the gospel and for their walk with Jesus

and their impact on everybody else so that they could walk into freedom that God has for them. And the reason that we do this, the driver, is because we sinned against the Holy God. Every single one of us, we sinned against the Holy God. And God sees the speck in our eye, the sin in our life. And Jesus had no log to pull out of his own. So he placed it on his back. And he carried it to Calvary.

And he carried my sin. and your sin to Calvary. And he pushed up on his nail pierced feet and he said, it is finished. That sin, that place where you and I are walking out of step with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Jesus placed it on his back and died on the cross. That for anyone who would believe in him, we would be forgiven and reconciled unto him. And because we have been reconciled unto him, then you and I become ambassadors of reconciliation. So this Sunday, we're going to go to the Atlantic Ocean.

And every single person, there's like a thousand people signed up right now, which means there could very well be 2,000 people get baptized. You know why? 1122 ain't good at the RSVP, all right? You ain't good. You're real good at inviting one more, is you real good at worship. There's many things you're good up. Signing up for stuff, you are terrible.

Okay, so it's a speck in your eye. I've removed the log for mine. Okay, I sign up for stuff. And so over a thousand times we're going to hear people publicly declare how the gospel has changed their life. We're going to ask, who is Jesus Christ? And they're going to say, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. We're going to say, upon your public declaration of Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, I baptize you my Christian brother or my Christian sister in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit.

We're going to dunk you in a big old wave. God's going to love you by just crashing a wave on your head. It happens every time. We're going to pull you up and you're going to be different, man. Different. Because you've been redeemed. You've been saved. You've been rescued.

Now, here's your action item. Perverbs 27, 5, and 6 says, better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful of the wounds of a friend. Perfuse are the kisses of an enemy. Here's what I dare you to do. Starting tonight, there's some people you're here with. And before Sunday, there's some people you know.

and they go to church and stuff, and I want you to love your friends enough to say this. Hey, have you been baptized? And they'll say yes or no. And if they go, nah, then I want you to love them enough to go, are you a believer in Jesus? And they go, yeah. So what's happening is they're out of step with the good news of the gospel. Because the command of scripture is when you believe, then you go public with water baptism.

Okay. So what you ask me, have you been baptized? And they go, are you believing Jesus? I am. Then you go, you want me to go with you? You want me to go with you? Because oftentimes what's happening is fear is paralyzing somebody. And what they need is they need a corner toader like you to say, I'll go.

And I would love it this year at Beach Baptism, that if it wasn't just the pastors and the staff and the elders out in the water, but almost everybody that we baptized, there were somebody coming with them. One of you were coming with them. Hey, this one more. Or this person has been a Christian forever, but they've been scared. and so I'm out here with them. And then went, because there ain't no hierarchy here, man.

It don't matter who baptizes you. It matters in whose name you're being baptized. That's all that matters. And so I dare you to love people enough this week. Does you say, hey, have you been baptized? Are you a believer? I am. Then how about this?

How about I'll walk out there with you? And you have no idea. Just like Peter didn't know the negative impact he was having by his actions. You have no idea the kind of generational impact that that one step of faith could have when you walk out in the water with your friend. We just stand up and let me pray for you. Our good and gracious heavenly, Father, Lord,

God, we thank you that you loved us enough that you did not say what we wanted to hear, but you told us what we needed to hear, that we have all fallen short of the glory of God, that the wages of our sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And that for anyone who would believe, we would receive the right to become children of God.

But Lord, in that very moment, we're not glorified. We're not completely perfect. We've got a long way to go. And God, I thank you for the church, the local church, the local body of Christ that you have put us into community together to love one another, to encourage one another, to rebuke one another, to care for one another. God, I thank you for the elders of the church of 1122 that would love me, that would love this church and most of all would love you enough to point out all the specks and logs in my eyes

and God that we would have the courage to love people more than we love what people think about us and Lord we pray this weekend at beach baptism that you and you alone would be glorified in every single profession of faith and so God there's a bunch of people listening right now and they know who they're supposed to go ask the question to and just thinking about that. it makes them scared. So Lord, I thank you that perfect love cast out fear. Lord, I pray that you would go ahead. Your spirit would already begin the work of the conversation. And there would be hundreds of more people that would go public with their faith because of the faith of their friend that loved them enough that says, you want me to go with you? God, we love you because you love us first.

We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen.