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00:00 Good morning. Last week, as you all know, has been an
00:06 eventful week. And later today, I understand the funeral or I think the
00:13 burial officially will happen. Well, what made Lee Kuanu such a great leader?
00:21 As you can see from the shots here, everyone came to pay respects. They had
00:27 to block off the roads. 10-hour waiting period. Malaysians are not asked to
00:32 come. Lee Kashing himself came. Bill Clinton leading a delegation. The
00:38 country of India flying the mass half mass all nations everyone. What made Lee
00:45 Kwanu such a great leader? Was it because he was popular? Was he
00:50 dely loved? He was. But there's one other quality which is critical to the text today. He was prepared to make hard
00:56 decisions. And one thing you'll notice about great leaders and it's very fine line between a great leader and a dictator is that
01:03 they will tell you what it is and they will not be afraid. It's a very
01:10 important biblical truth. And sometimes I think in the church where we get very wishy-washy, we we we turn our faith to
01:18 something where God is loving and kind. We forget there's the other side of it. There's a side where the gospel
01:25 confronts you. And today we look at one of the most explosive text in the New Testament. In fact, it's considered the
01:30 most where you have one apostle telling off the most influential apostle at a
01:36 time. Peter in his face in public
01:43 really never give face. And how do we apply that today in our context? So
01:49 we're looking at continuing about how we're going to demolish our barriers whether denominations and other things
01:54 and how the gospel confronts us. And I pray that this morning this will really be something that we take home to heart.
02:01 Let's come before God in prayer. Lord, we uh we just
02:07 we just ask ourselves how do we make a mark in this world that one day Lord when we leave this world and when we uh
02:14 when we come to see you have we stood up for the truth. Were there times in life where we were had to
02:21 make hard decisions but we were not able to Lord we remember
02:26 the words of Lee Kuanu who said at the birth of the country they don't have a
02:32 waterfall Singapore doesn't have a waterfall Singapore has no natural resources
02:38 but look where the state is today and we ask ourselves on our own spiritual life
02:43 at the end when we come before you and when you will ask did we make hard
02:49 choices? Did we stand up for the truth? Were we ready to confront issues? How
02:55 should we answer, oh Lord? And we ask this and we ask you stir our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen.
03:02 We we just going to recap a little bit of uh what was spoken last week. And last week we looked at some people who
03:09 came from Judea to Antioch. And Acts 15 actually picks it up. And it says unless
03:15 you're circumcised according to the customs taught by Moses you cannot be
03:21 saved. And essentially what they have done is they have added to the gospel.
03:26 Now this is an important account and Acts 15 records it because the text
03:31 you're reading today appears before this. Now what happens in Acts 15? The council is then uh brought about. It's
03:39 called the Jerusalem Council and Paul and Barnabas are actually appointed to go up to settle this matter. So this
03:46 this event happens before it. It's an important milestone. Now what we looked
03:51 at last week is gospel plus today can be in many forms and you can just add to
03:57 the gospel and not only can you add you can subtract and many ways if you add
04:04 you will also subtract. So the point is it doesn't matter whe you're Baptist, Anglican, Presbyterian, Catholic,
04:09 Protestant, charismatic, evangelical, reformed, whatever you want to call it, is how central is a gospel to our lives.
04:17 Last week we looked at it much more in terms of choosing a right church. What
04:24 we want to look at today is how the gospel is worked out in your lives.
04:30 How is it practical? How are you walking in the gospel? And
04:36 three questions. Why confront? When and how do we confront? And most important,
04:42 confronting ourselves. Because I think when people look at the text, they get
04:47 so overwhelmed by this confrontation with Peter and Paul, they miss the big
04:54 picture. And I want to humbly suggest to you, the narrative of Peter and Paul is
04:59 just the background. There's a deeper story to it. Why confront? Because Jesus
05:06 divides people. Do not suppose I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did
05:12 not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I come to turn a man against his
05:18 father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her
05:23 mother-in-law, a man's enemies will be members of his own household. Matthew 10:34-36.
05:32 Wow. Painful. Isn't this the same Jesus when he came into the earth, peace on earth? What
05:40 happened? And I think it's timely what brother Obi just shared. You see, Jesus
05:47 will divide. You have a family. Your family are all from another religion, another church.
05:55 You tell them you became a Christian. You want to come to ABC on Sunday. They first get annoyed. Then you find that
06:02 you're getting more involved in church. The annoying becomes resentment. After a
06:07 while, it becomes competition. It can be husband Christian, wife not.
06:14 Father-in-law, non-Christian, you're Christian. Mother-in-law from another
06:19 church, daughter-in-law from this. He will split families. Now, why is Jesus saying that? Jesus is saying unless I am
06:27 in your life at the top I'm not there at all. Jesus is not going to take second place.
06:35 The gospel will divide. And here you have a case. Now the case here is about
06:42 intimidation. You think about it. You you you're in a family you know you want to please your
06:47 father or you want to please somebody important. You have two choice. either I
06:54 please them or I'm going to please God. Now that's going to split. And here Paul at that moment nowadays we
07:02 look at Paul like a big shot. At that time people look at him as secondass apostle. Who's the main big player
07:09 Peter? No this is the man who walked with Jesus. He's with the Jerusalem pillars. Who are you Paul? You you no
07:16 one really saw you. You never really saw Jesus only only on on a journey to Emas.
07:22 and he tells off Peter. Now you may think it's all very arrogant. It's not
07:28 true because when you look back at chapter 2 verse two you see the way the
07:33 language goes. He says I went in response to a revelation and sat before
07:39 them sat before Peter John and James. And the Greek is almost like you know those
07:45 Chinese movies where he comes and humbly says here my brothers is my gospel do I
07:53 have any issue but now in public he's going to tell Peter off in his face I
08:00 had a friend who was in a church a huge church the pastor is very influential stands up there talks everybody shakes
08:07 you know one day the the pastor asked everybody to take out all the wallets put it in the middle here and everybody
08:12 pray over the wallets. Stupidest thing I ever heard. Absolutely nonsense. He's a church
08:19 leader. I say, "What do you do?" I say, "Yeah, pastor, ma, cannot tell him off." Ma, you cannot do that. You know,
08:26 there's another player in this entire dialogue. We always look at Peter and
08:31 Paul. There's one other guy, you know, he's called Barnabas. And look what happens to Barnabas. You
08:36 know what happens when you don't stand up? And you're a nice guy. What's the difference between a nice guy and a good
08:42 guy? A nice guy doesn't like to offend. A good guy, a good man is willing to
08:49 stand up for the truth. And what happens to Barnabas in the end? In the end, we are told here in verse 13 that Barnabas
08:57 himself is led astray. So we are called to engage others with the gospel even it
09:03 brings conflict. Now how do we do it? How do we stand up for the truth? And the text sets before us some
09:09 difficulties because the language is confrontational. So there are two questions they ask.
09:15 One, when do we do privately? And two, when do we do publicly? So the biggest
09:21 obvious question is this very dongy face to to this big shot. No, why don't you talk to him privately? Why you go
09:27 publicly in front of everybody and wallop him? You know, not very nice, right? So we got to ask ourselves this. So let's let's break it down and ask
09:34 ourselves when do we do it privately first. But first let's look at the charge. The charge is four-fold. Number
09:41 one, he becomes a racist. He becomes a racist. He now distances
09:48 himself from the Gentiles. We find that in verse 12. Number two, he's a hypocrite. Verse 12. Before certain men
09:55 came to James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. When they arrived, he begin to draw back. Number three, it results in
10:03 Gentiles being influenced in false teaching. We find that in verse 17, he says, "How is it then you force for it?"
10:11 Verse 14, "You force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs." He is saying that the
10:18 Gentiles looking at this now, looking at this such an important apostle
10:23 distancing themselves from the Gentiles. You know what Gentiles do? We must have done something wrong. So we better get
10:29 ourselves circumcised and because lastly he leads even the church leaders astray.
10:35 Now here's important point. The case is more behavior not a false teaching. The Bible is not
10:42 asking you if you have a family where three members are Catholic and you are Protestant over dinner table to lecture
10:47 them. The Bible is not asking you that you have friends who are charismatic you go and find them and tell them you know
10:54 you you thinking not very right. You know the Bible's not asking me to do that. In fact, the Bible has something
10:59 more important to say. It doesn't matter whether you're Catholic or Protestant or Baptist. What's more important is the
11:06 way you walk. That's the key point here.
11:11 At a certain point, who cares? Your theology can be correct, but your
11:18 walk is the key issue here. Now, private confrontation. Most famous text, Matthew
11:23 18. If your brother sins against you, go and show him of his fault just between
11:29 the two of you. And then the text goes to expand. He doesn't listen. Bring one other person. Don't bring more people.
11:35 Then tell everybody. The principle is to keep issues as private as possible
11:40 slowly building up intensity. If the sinner doesn't repent, number two, it
11:46 applies when one is not aware of sin or refuses to admit it. Now let's ask how it applies to Peter's case. Number one,
11:53 is this a case of Peter not knowing he is wrong? No. How do we know that? Why
12:00 did he do what he did? And it's an important point. We are told here in verse 12, he drew back because he was
12:10 afraid. Not because he did not know. He was afraid.
12:17 Secondly, we already read just now in chapter 2:e 2, Paul already went up to
12:23 Jerusalem and laid it before Peter. And to make it clearer, he brings Titus along, an uncircumcised Greek. And Peter
12:32 says, "No problem. Same gospel. We're not going to add to it." So, it's not a case of Peter not
12:40 being aware, and it's not a case of him not knowing the truth. So private
12:46 confrontation applies to that. I like to suggest it doesn't apply in this case. Now let me caveat here why sometimes
12:52 Matthew 18 you cannot just apply it across the board. Now you try to talk to
12:59 someone like Anolim they say I don't think what Anolim said on Sunday right talk to him. What will Anolim will
13:06 probably do? Anelim will probably try to talk you down. Give you 10 verses why you're wrong.
13:15 You see lawyers, preachers, car salesman
13:20 can talk you around the world. So when they do wrong, you know what's their favorite point? Aya, how come this
13:27 fellow don't got problem? Come and talk to me. Who wants to talk to you? You just talk the guy down. You're not
13:34 interested in changing. I know that for myself. I'm I'm by nature combative. So
13:39 my my private stand used to be you go pro and talk to me. I I searched myself and I found out that's actually quite
13:45 selfish because I actually have no intention of changing. I just want you to back down and and talk you out of it.
13:51 So scripture doesn't apply it legalistically. Now let's apply it publicly. When do you do it? And I will
13:58 look at another text and it's found in 1 Corinthians 5. The case here is a man
14:04 who has his father's wife and is so bad Paul says is a sin even non-Christians
14:11 don't have. and you in the church, you have it and you you're proud of it. You're not doing anything about it. And
14:17 Paul is so upset because not only is he doing such a terrible sin, the church
14:23 isn't bothered. They they almost like, "Hey, look at it. This is really cool. This guy is doing this." And he says
14:29 this and I have already pass judgment on the one who did this just as if I were
14:34 present. Now, he is not only not doing it privately, he's not even there. Hey,
14:39 you know when you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and I'm
14:44 with you in spirit and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ is pre present, hand
14:50 this man over to Satan so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit save on the day of the Lord. This
14:57 is public humiliation. No private talk. Why? He gives the
15:04 reason in the following verse. Your boasting is not good. Don't you know a
15:09 little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Now notice the same verse is repeated almost word for word
15:17 in Galatians chapter 5 which is a continuation of this of the teaching here. A little yeast works through the
15:24 whole batch of dough. Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly. 1 Timothy 5
15:30 context of elders so that others may take warning. So when do you publicly go
15:35 after somebody? where you to stop spreading of sin and false teaching. And
15:41 that's why sometimes on the pull pit we make remarks about certain other
15:46 speakers and some people don't like it. They come why you badmouth other people. We are not personal about it. It is our
15:54 view. You're in a public area and in a public scrutiny you're open to it. Now
15:60 the same goes for me. If I say anything up here today which is wrong, you have a
16:07 right to confront, you have a right to do it. You should not be intimidated.
16:12 How do you apply it on a more personal level? many ways. I was in a Bible study
16:18 group years ago in another church I was helping out and this person
16:26 started to badmouth another person and he went on and on and on and on. So I
16:32 looked at the Bible study leader. My mind was saying can you ask him to shut up? You know the Bible study leader gave
16:39 me a look like Py let him finish. By the time he finished he had ran that
16:45 person down and few other people down. Now what has happened? That means in that 20 minutes in the Bible study group
16:52 which is meant to build each person up. He had used it as a platform to slander people.
16:58 Now if you're a Bible study leader, what should you do? You should stop the guy there and then. Will he get offended?
17:04 Definitely. But it's spreading. Here's another example.
17:09 You're in a youth group. Your kids go to college. Youth groups are interdenominational.
17:15 Suddenly the group gets hijacked by people from another church. And suddenly they start to teach you very strange
17:21 stuff. You know, you know what's the normal respond? Pull the kid away.
17:27 That's not biblical. You think Lie Kuanu had done that? Lie Kuwanu even if he was
17:32 the only person the youth he would have stood up and told them you were wrong
17:38 because that's what Martin Luther did. We are on this earth to stand for the
17:44 truth. It's painful. It's unpleasant. But you're caught to do that. You're
17:51 called to do that sometimes privately. But when there's a danger, it spreads,
17:56 you do it publicly. Now, there's some caveats to it, but you do it in simple
18:02 English. You know what God is asking me and you this morning? Am I a coward?
18:10 If we stand for the truth, we make a point on it.
18:15 And that's where greatness for Christ comes. Singapore will not be there today
18:21 if one man didn't stand up and fight for things against all odds. How to confront
18:29 three points first. Check your facts. This is important. And sometimes we have this problem. We like to put names out
18:36 there and then run the guy down and make a joke about it. I tell you where the biggest slanders all happen in the Christian circles because we we have
18:43 this thing like yeah everyone's going to forgive us. So let me give you an example. This is a magazine called Spiritual
18:49 Counterfeit Project. You can Google them up. They are their aim is to expose cults, expose false
18:58 teachings. Very famous magazine. One day they started to look at this
19:03 church. And if you were around last week, I brought up this church. My friend is a full-time worker in this church. When I was in Sydney, I attended
19:10 their church. It's a really strange church. The services are really strange. In case you were not around last week,
19:16 they named theirelves in locality the church in Sububanga. You cannot call yourself first Sububang church is as a
19:22 sin. After they did research, they decided to publish a book. You can see down there Neil Ty daddy and the SCP
19:31 labeling the church a cult. You know what the church did? I think this will happen more often in Christian circles.
19:38 The church sued, you know, sued after four years, they drove the
19:44 SCP into bankruptcy. And not only that, at the meantime, very
19:49 intelligently, they posted an open letter and stated their statement of beliefs. It's called Living Stream
19:55 Ministries. You can go to it. The statement of beliefs is almost identical to the Baptist church or the
20:00 Presbyterian church. You can't find one inch of heresy in it.
20:06 So, sometimes you you got to be careful. Some of us, we like to just shoot our mouth off, you know. So, here's the
20:11 opposite extreme. On one hand, we must stand up for the truth. On the other hand, some people have this
20:16 self-righteous trick, you know, a I'm put on earth to tell you off, you know. I tell you, there's a personal reason
20:21 why for that. We'll go into that later. But be very careful. Check your facts. Number two, check your motives. Here's a
20:28 website I saw a true church. Like I told you last week, anyone who calls yourself a true church is the false church
20:34 already. And you look at the names he put on there. Everybody's wrong. Billy Graham, Charles Swindle, John Piper, you
20:41 name them. You might as well burn all our books in our library. Only he is right. You see, and people who do this,
20:47 who go into this self-righteous streak, tend to have a certain personality. Their church members look like this.
20:54 I mean, it's very frightening. Now, Hebrews says something which is quite interesting, and we want to go into this
21:01 a bit in detail. It says, "See to it, no one misses the grace of God and that no
21:06 bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." If if you read uh
21:12 modern psychiatry books, some of it, have you noticed some people are always very negative? After you talk to them,
21:18 they're always running someone down or this person like that, that person this open mouth only very critical.
21:25 Psychiatrist will call this projection. You know it means their life something
21:31 bad happened in the past they're generally very unhappy they're very bitter and because of that it projects
21:38 out it comes out it comes out in the critical spirit check our motives we're
21:43 going to go into this a bit in detail but most importantly what is the key point of the text here the key point of
21:51 the text here is about Paul and Peter and about Peter's walk Meaning in the
21:57 end, people don't care so much about your theology and how smart you are of the Bible. People care about the way you
22:06 live. Check your walk. Let look at Mother Teresa. Evangelicals, I love to
22:12 criticize Catholics, you know, but they come they come to Mother Teresa, they occupy quiet
22:18 because Mother Teresa describes a life which puts us to shame. By the way, a
22:24 lot of things some of Catholics friends do put us to shame. Who's at the forefront fighting the Allah issue is
22:29 our Catholic brothers. You know who was the forefront bringing education to Malaysia, the Jesuit priests.
22:36 And do you know if you look at scripture, if you just do a search on how much in the Bible talks about
22:42 helping the poor, you'll be shocked is everywhere. Is a major theme of scripture. So people look at Mother
22:50 Teresa, they see this old frail woman who likes to help uh people are disadvantaged. They see her as a nice
22:57 person, not a good person. You'll be surprised.
23:03 This woman is a fighter You know in life she has stood against many
23:09 issues. One was the abortion issue. The second was at one point in the late 70s
23:16 the Indian parliament under the BHP tried to pass an anti-con conversion
23:22 law. If only our Christians in Malaysia had this guts in the 60s to stand up to it. If only our Christian MPs in
23:29 Salangos stopped this before they said the Bible in Malay couldn't be used. And when in
23:35 1979 in the lookup uh standing in which is basically the Indian lower congress
23:42 they tried to pass an anti- conversion law the person who stood up to say no you cannot do it was mother Teresa
23:49 at one point she was invited to the white house to speak when Clinton was around and Clinton is prochoice
23:55 she stood up there and basically blasted Clinton so Philip Yansy was around said
24:01 President Clinton what do you think of what Mother Teresa had to say today because she was very critical of
24:06 Clinton. She doesn't care. You know how Clinton replied. She says it is difficult to argue against a life so
24:15 beautifully lived. You see when our walk is so full with
24:21 love, when our walk is so filled with the grace of God, we may not be perfect.
24:29 People find it harder to throw stones. But when the church is full of
24:34 judgmental people, self-righteous people, people who probably have issues
24:39 inside they have never dealt with, you stumble others. You confront
24:45 unnecessarily. What is the goal of confrontation? The first Corinthian text is very useful.
24:51 The last part of it, hand this man over to Satan so that the sinful nature may
24:58 be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. We must ask ourel when
25:04 we criticize someone privately or publicly when you when your issues do
25:10 your emotions stir you up are you destroying the person or restoring the
25:15 person let's take a pause here everyone here I suspect have people you have
25:21 issues with privately or otherwise correct and when we pause to think about it this anger
25:28 wells up you know it wells up and we want to do that. And
25:34 what today's text is teaching us and I I will go through this in detail is are you going to destroy that person when
25:39 you confront or you going to restore the person? The other type of us is when we
25:45 get very offended, we run. I'm not that type that confronts.
25:50 When you run and you run and you run too often your life, you end up like Barnabas.
25:56 One day you'll be led astray because you never had the courage to stand up for the truth. You see the case
26:04 of the text is more than about Paul and Peter is about walking the truth of the
26:10 gospel. Let me give you the real intention of the text. This is the bigger picture. One of the best, most
26:17 intelligent, profound, meaningful movies last year was called The Lego Movie. I'm
26:22 kidding. And in the Lego movie, a very interesting character is called bad cop, good cop. He's actually the same person.
26:30 If you seen the movie is actually, of course, a dig at culture. You know, when
26:35 you when you you interrogate someone in prison, you probably have two policemen. One guy goes and whack the guy, the
26:41 other guy goes and tells say, "Oh, you're okay." Okay. The whole idea to extract information. Now, I want to ask you a question.
26:48 You look at the verse, you look at text, you look at all the things Paul did.
26:56 What did Peter say? Did Peter come to po uh did Paul come to Peter and say, you
27:02 know, you are ABCD E? Instead, he says this, you know, verse 14, when I saw
27:08 they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. It's an important verse. Let me break this down. You see,
27:16 if bad cop was there that day and not Paul and he saw Peter, you know he said
27:21 he would have done this. He said, "You're a racist. You're a hypocrite. You let others astray. Repent or you go
27:27 to hell." Now, doesn't that sound like a lot of church people?
27:32 Now, let's be honest. We become Christians. One day in our lives, all of you here
27:40 accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Somewhere along the line, well, becoming
27:45 a Christian very hard, not so easy, right? So, you come to church, you get
27:50 this hellfire preacher who pounds on you. Oh, the bar of the gospel is very high. You need to live like this. You
27:56 need to do this. You cannot do that. You cannot do that. What does it make you feel? You feel depressed.
28:02 The issue with Christians is not that like Peter, we don't know the truth. The
28:08 issue with us is we struggle to leave the truth. You sit there, I know myself, and I say, "Look, I don't need to tell
28:14 me that. I need to know how." You think of your struggles. So, some
28:20 preachers or pastors who pound it on you, you just get depressed. So, every Sunday becomes a chore. You leave the
28:26 church feeling guilty. Bad cop. How about good cop? Good cop will tell Peter
28:32 this. Hey, it's okay. May he all sinners. God still loves you. Try not to
28:39 do it next time. Okay. This the opposite extreme in a lot of what we call seeker friendly churches.
28:45 You make you feel so good. God loves you. Hallelujah. And you leave, you feel very great. But
28:52 your life still sucks. You're still in bondage.
28:58 You still have things in your life you know you shouldn't be doing, but you're doing. This is the core of the text, not
29:06 the fight between Paul and Peter. You see the question we ask ourselves is why
29:13 didn't Paul just tell Peter look you're a sinner. He doesn't do that. He says
29:19 when I saw they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. The King James version has it better. He says
29:26 when they walked not upright according to the truth of the gospel is a terribly
29:33 important point and is lifechanging to you and me. And what Paul is trying to do is this.
29:41 He's trying to get to the root of why Peter does it.
29:47 Simple question, simple analogy. You look at a girl or a guy and say he or
29:53 she likes to sleep around. Let's say a girl. The girl sleeps around.
29:58 He comes to church. You know what you do? You're a sinner. No, you're going to go to hell. Then she feels bad. I I
30:04 think I better not sleep alone. After two, three months she does it again. She comes to FBC, she feels rotten.
30:12 Correct? Or the other side, good cop. Ah, God loves you. God loves you. Doesn't, you know, but what what's why is she sleeping around? And statistics
30:19 will tell you quite likely because when she was young, she didn't have affection. Correct? There is a root to
30:27 every sin you and I experiencing. All of us here, if you're struggling with
30:33 pornography, you're struggling with anger, you're struggling with forgiving someone in the
30:39 past, you're struggling with corruption, there's a root to it. And Paul digs it
30:46 out. And here's what he starts off. He says, "How do you become a Christian?" By the gospel. How do you be a
30:54 Christian? What does he mean by that? That means how do you live a Christian? And Paul is saying, "By the gospel.
31:01 You live like a you came into the kingdom by the gospel. Now live by the
31:07 gospel. And this is why he goes on says we who are Jews by birth and not Gentiles know a man is not justified by
31:14 observing the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in
31:19 Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith and not by observing the law.
31:25 Because by observing the law no one will be justified. If I tell you again and
31:30 again, you have a bad temper, bad boy, bad boy, you're going to hell, you're
31:36 going to hell. You are doing exactly I'm doing exactly what Paul is saying. I'm actually putting the law on you. So you
31:43 go back, you say, "I was saved by Jesus, but I must now repent of my bad temper."
31:49 After 3 months, your temper gets worse. You come to ABC, you feel worse. That's
31:55 what Paul is saying. And what Paul wants to do is go right in and pull it out. So
32:00 let's figure out why Peter behaved the way he did. Why Peter did what he did.
32:08 An apostle who knew the truth and could not get past it. And when you look at
32:13 this, you understand Peter better. You know what Peter is? Peter is a habitual sinner.
32:20 Isn't that like us? Let me break it down to you. Number one, Peter has a superiority complex. In Acts 10, it
32:26 says, "You're well aware it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him." If you know the
32:33 account, he sees a vision of of of of animals coming down from heaven and he
32:38 sees is unclean. And God tells him, "Don't say anything. God made this unclean." Then he visits Cornelius. And
32:44 when he visit Cornelius, this is what understands. God has shown me I should not call any man impure, unclean. His
32:52 natural indoctrination is this. He is better than you. I'm better than a
32:57 Gentile. He fights it. He's a habitual sinner. He's got a superiority complex.
33:03 Now, here's the interesting thing. He not only has a superiority complex, he's
33:08 got an inferiority complex. You know the story in Matthew where he
33:14 tells Jesus very clearly, "Hey, everyone betray you. I will stand by you." And Jesus tells you, well, the will
33:20 cockro three times. You'll betray me. And Matthew describes it very
33:25 graphically. Then Peter begins to call down curses on himself.
33:31 I can imagine him swearing in Hawen or Cantonese. You know, it's that bad. And he swear to them, I don't know the man.
33:38 And if you read the text, you know why he does it? He's afraid because the the the servant girl asks
33:45 him, then someone else asks him again. After the third time, he breaks. So when you look at Galatians 2:12, when it says
33:53 when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles
33:59 because he was afraid.
34:04 He needs approval from people. Let me break it down.
34:11 He's got a gospel plus lifestyle. He needs to feel superior.
34:17 I need to feel superior. I'm better than you because I'm a preacher.
34:23 I'm better than you because I'm an architect. You're an engineer. We all know engineers are secondass citizen to
34:29 architects. But you know that's another story for another day. Correct or not? Do you tell me
34:37 when you walk into giant and you see the Nepali guard, you don't actually think you're better than the guy?
34:44 We all struggle with that. Number two, we all have a inferiority complex. Our
34:50 superiority complex is to compensate for that. I feel incomplete
34:57 because my marriage broke down. I feel incomplete because my business
35:04 didn't do well. Gospel plus lifestyle. You know, we could add it all up and
35:12 everything I put there. You throw a stone here, you'll hit
35:17 somebody. If we are honest with ourselves, this is us
35:23 every day. All of us are simultaneously insecure
35:29 and simultaneously superior, arrogant at the same time. It's a gospel plus lifestyle.
35:38 That's our problem. And that's why Paul doesn't go to Peter and say, "You're a
35:43 racist. You discriminate. You're a hypocrite." He says in not too many
35:49 words, "You are not acting in line. You're not walking, you're not walking
35:54 in the trajectory of the gospel." So, here's the million-dollar question.
36:00 How does the gospel help me? You see, this is where false teaching permits in every denomination. You see for all of
36:06 us at one point in life we say yeah Jesus is my Lord and Savior I accept enter
36:13 kingdom now I'm a Christian I go on I do my work I do this then life throws me a curveball become very difficult then I
36:21 come to church the pastor keep hammering you this preacher come tell you you're a sinner you're sinner you're sinner you
36:26 feel very depressed because what we have done is we've made the gospel like a like a entrance you
36:32 know you get in there but we continuing on with the law with following a set of
36:38 rules. So let's bring back the gospel to center. Let me try to break it down easier for you. Say someone in church
36:46 had adultery and we were eating at garden cafe and everyone rumored that you know this person sleeping around.
36:54 If you're a bad cop, you go to that person and say you dirty person, you come to FBC, you going to go to hell.
36:60 You know you're a good cop. Yeah, I don't want to get involved with these things. God loves you. God loves you. I
37:06 pray you will change. The question is, what would Jesus have done?
37:14 This is what he would have done. In John 8, he goes to the woman. He says, "Where
37:20 are those who judge you? They're not around. Neither do I judge you."
37:27 Then he says, "Go and sin no more." So what he does to her is that he fills
37:34 her so much with the love of God, the mercy of God, a God that doesn't throw
37:41 stones at you that she is so filled. Why? Because the story is telling you of
37:47 a woman who is rejected. That's the root reason. A woman who people want to curse
37:55 and outcast and God makes her fool.
38:01 What is an easier way for a person to repent of adultery? You hammer her with the law or you fill her with so much
38:09 love that she turns. That's what Jesus does. And if you read the story of the
38:15 Samaritan woman is almost identical. Almost identical. Let's give another
38:21 example. A lot of people here struggle with corruption. Let's not let's not BS the thing. I'm an architect. You think
38:29 they're going to tell you that they before GST they all fix the accounts.
38:35 Two things again. You play account. You're going to go to hell. Going to go to hell. Repent. Go back. Feel very bad.
38:41 Wow. Last week I already t him the officer p do all this thing. Sunday preacher tar me. I'm not fit. I'm going
38:48 to go to hell. Oh, hey, don't talk about it. Don't talk about it. It's okay. What
38:53 would Jesus have done with Zachas? He tell Zakias, I'm coming to your place
39:02 for a meal. And everybody says, "What? This guy is a traitor to our race. He's
39:07 a sinner." But Zakias short guy.
39:13 Jesus singles him out in a whole crowd. picks goes to the tree, brings him down,
39:21 takes him home. What does Zakias do? He says, "If I cheat anyone, I'll give
39:28 back. I pay back for a fool." Then Jesus says, "Salvation has come to this
39:34 house." What is the best way to get Zakias to change our corruption habit?
39:39 To hammer him with the law or to take him home? Love him. a short guy that no
39:46 one sees. Show him you love him and then his heart willingly changes.
39:55 You see where I'm going with this? It's a consistent pattern in the entire
40:01 Bible. We could continue with the prodigal son. We could continue with the
40:07 good Samaritan story. If you read it is consistent. And let us look in the end at the most
40:14 simplest sin. Middle-class Christianity who sits here who thinks they're quite
40:20 righteous because they know the Bible or because I stand here and I I can preach
40:25 to you. And we have the simplest of all pr of all sins, pride. And what we all
40:31 want to do is make a deal with God. We want to say, "God, I never slept around. I maybe cheat my tax a little bit, but
40:38 I'm not such a bad guy. God, let me make a deal with you. come to FBC. I sit here. I I serve a little bit and you get
40:44 me in. We're all cool, right? And this is what Jesus would do because a guy called Nicodemus tried that.
40:52 And how did Nicod how does Jesus get him past? He tells him, for God so loved the
40:59 world, he gave his one and only son that whosoever believed in him will not
41:05 perish, but have eternal life. on Palm Sunday. This is our message.
41:12 And Nicodemus doesn't take it in. He came to make a deal with God.
41:18 But much later, that love overwhelms him, surrounds him, and breaks him out.
41:28 The key to fighting sin in my life and
41:33 your life is not following a bunch of rules. is not also coming to a church
41:39 that makes you feel good with this love of God. It is this one word. The word
41:45 that Jesus through Paul mentions at the beginning of chapter one when he says,
41:52 "I am astonished you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the
41:57 grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel." Is this word called
42:03 grace, the power of grace that allows for genuine change. John Piper puts it this
42:10 way. We don't want to just see the grace of God in all his beauty saving sinners
42:17 and sanctifying saints. We want to share the power of that grace. You hear the
42:24 word power, the grace, we want to feel it saving. We want to feel it conquer
42:31 temptations in our lives. My desire, my desire to feel the power
42:37 of God's grace, conquering the pride and selfishness in my life inclines me to
42:43 behavior that demonstrate the victory of grace, namely love. I'd like to ask the
42:48 worship team to come up. I want to ask you a question. If you're
42:54 like me, number one, are you insecure and at the
43:00 same time have a security complex? If you're like me, this means a lot
43:07 because I am caught by grace. Just because I'm a preacher means nothing.
43:12 Just because you're successful your work, it means nothing because I'm caught by grace. I don't
43:20 care what people think. I care what God thinks. It so fulfills me.
43:26 How do you enforce grace? Well, it doesn't just come naturally. It requires
43:31 encouragement and rebuke. Titus say this, the grace of God, hear
43:36 this, that brings salvation has a to all men. It teaches us to say no to
43:43 ungodliness and worldly pre uh pasants. Notice he doesn't say the law. It's the
43:48 gospel. But at the end of it, he says, "Encourage and rebuke with all
43:54 authority. Sometimes it needs a confrontation."
43:59 So, if you're like me and you're struggling with sin, I pray God's grace overwhelms you today.
44:07 Number two, if anyone has confronted you, rebuked
44:12 you, take it the way Peter did. You see what happens at the end when
44:20 Peter's older, he writes this. He says, "Bear in mind our Lord's patience means
44:25 salvation." That's our dear brother Paul also wrote with the wisdom God gave him. Any other
44:32 person who gets rebuked like that publicly won't talk again to you. Correct or not.
44:38 But Peter is so fooled with grace he sees pass it. Here's another magazine
44:44 that went after the local church led by Hangigraph. Unlike the SCP, they came clean to say
44:52 we were wrong. I want to ask the counselors to come up.
44:58 We want to do what we call is a outer call. Can we have the counselors up?
45:04 Outer call is a charismatic thing. Like we say, we don't care whether you're Protestant or Anglican. Can I have the
45:10 counselors up? You see, the text today is really not about two people fighting.
45:20 It's about you and I struggling with our sins. And I ask you if you you feel in your
45:26 life there are sins that have got a foothold in your life, God this morning is asking you his grace is sufficient
45:33 for you. That grace has power. And I pray that if you struggle, you're
45:40 willing to come in front to let us pray for you and that you become like a woman caught in adultery. You're so filled you
45:47 will live a life of sin. Yes, you will fall back at what Peter did. Sometimes
45:54 you need to be rebuked. But that's the Christian life, isn't it?
45:60 It's one of the most powerful texts in the New Testament. The grace of God.
