is found in Galatians chapter 2 verses 11 to 14. So please open with me in Galatians chapter 2 verses 11 to 14. Galatians 2, verses 11 to 14. Hear now God's word. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. and the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like the Jews, to live like Jews. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray. Our gracious God and loving Heavenly Father, may the Holy Spirit give us wisdom as we open your holy word this morning. Help us to receive your word by faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Beloved congregation, trying to be fluent in our second language takes a lot of mistakes and corrections. We are very appreciative of those who take time to let us know whenever we mispronounce words. Like last month, I was here, I exhorted here last month, I butchered two words. Liz Gilman made sure I got the word Viscount correct. I kept on saying Viscount. My wife told me after the service that it should be you lambs, not eel lambs. But I don't like lamb meat anyway, so I'll stick with eel lamb. I will never forget an embarrassing experience I had last year. It was my second time filling the pulpit here in the U.S. We were in North Michigan, Ellsworth, Michigan, in a very Dutch congregation. And on my way to the pulpit to start the service, an elder handed me a paper and he said, please include them in your congregational prayer. I said, sure. And when I opened the paper, On the pulpit, I read three of the hardest Dutch names I've ever seen in my life. I didn't even know you could do that with the alphabets. I was sweating like crazy on the pulpit because that's my first time praying for, you know, Dutch people. And I have no idea how to pronounce Dutch names. But I served in the Filipino Chinese churches in nine years. So my mind can only use what it has. So I basically applied Filipino combined Chinese pronunciations to Dutch names, and I butchered those names. It was embarrassing. I forgot those names, but to give you an example, it would be Deboer, which is Mark's family name, Mark Deboer, with a Filipino Chinese touch on it. That was embarrassing. But after that incident, my wife and I would intentionally ask people to tell us whenever we mispronounce words. And we've been learning a lot. And we're thankful for well-meaning people who will help us even in putting, you know, as they say, emphasis on the right syllable. Got that from Don. Well, this principle of accountability is also very essential in the life of the Church. As the Apostle said in his letter to Timothy, Apostle Paul, the Scripture is profitable not only for teaching but also for reproof and correction. And that's very important in the life of the church. Accountability goes beyond surface-level conversations. It aims to be part of other people's sanctification. And this is not easy at all. It's awkward, right? Most of the times, it's awkward, but again, it is very essential. So this New Year message, if you will, let us be accountable to one another for the purity of the gospel and the holiness of God's people, because tolerance is the mother of liberalism and all ungodliness. We have three sermon points this morning. The first one is confronting a life opposed to the gospel. Keywords for the children is confront. Number two, restoring in love for the sake of the gospel. The keyword is restore. And the third point is leading the people around us to the light of the gospel. Keyword is lead. Confront, restore, and lead. The first point, confronting a life opposed to the gospel. Hypocrisy was the main issue that our text is dealing with. And the word hypocrisy was mentioned twice in verse 13. Now verse 14 tells us that hypocrisy means conducting oneself in a way that is not in step with the truth of the gospel. Now, generally speaking, there can be variations of how hypocrisy shows itself in our lives. Hypocrisy can be living a life in contradiction to what we profess, right? Peter, who happens to be the object lesson of hypocrisy in our text, has quite the reputation. He had one of the best confessions of who Jesus is, right? He said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Ironically, he was also known to have denied Christ, the Christ he confessed. Now, another example of hypocrisy in the Bible is when Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the law when he said to them, woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Now cleaning the outside of the cup but not the inside. This is the common definition of what hypocrisy means. This is actually the main issue that Paul was trying to address in our text. Paul used the illustration of Peter's hypocrisy. including the hypocrisy of the Jews who were with Peter and even Barnabas who were led astray by that same hypocrisy. Now he used this illustration, not to bad mouth Peter, he used this illustration in his letter to them because this was the main issue he was trying to address to the church and believers in Galatia or Galatia. Now, as we have mentioned, the hypocrisy that Jesus addressed with the Pharisees involves their desire to please people. The same group of people or a group at least associated with the Judaizers were the ones whom the Apostle Paul mentioned at the end of verse 12, the Circumcision Party. I don't know if Paul came up with that name, It's a pretty good name during that time. Judaizers were known to preach and teach a false gospel. They preach and teach a law righteousness gospel. They insist on following the law, including ceremonial laws as an essential part of salvation. And that Gentile believers must be circumcised. Now, the true gospel, on the other hand, teaches that external evidence or good works are not prerequisites to being saved. Instead, good works were the results of being saved. And that is why the true gospel boasts in Christ, and the false gospel boasts in the flesh. Hypocrisy is believing the true gospel but acting in accordance with the false gospel, at least in our text this morning. Peter was not preaching a false gospel that the Judaizers was preaching, right? But he was not conducting himself in step with the truth of the gospel. Listen to Paul in Galatians 4, 12 to 13. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised. He was talking about the Judaizers. And only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Verse 13. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. The false gospel seeks human recognition, but the true gospel seeks the approval of God. Verse 12 of our passage exposes Peter's folly. It says in verse 12, before certain men came from James, he, Peter, was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party." Now, Peter's fear of the circumcision party was no different from the Judaizers making a good showing in the flesh. And this is the main theme of the book of Galatians. Listen to the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 1 verse 10. For am I now seeking the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. So the Apostle Paul confronting Peter and the people who were with him was pleasing to God. Because when the issue at stake concerns compromising the gospel itself, avoiding confrontation is sinfully man-centered and self-serving. Not being bold to give godly confrontation And resenting, receiving godly confrontation is anti-gospel. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers. Let us be accountable to one another. And it is particularly beneficial to Redeemer Reformed Church in this season of the life of the church. We may not have a pastor now, but we have one another. And so let us go ahead and talk to the family or the person you have not seen in a while in the church. Minister to them. Pray with them in whatever season of their lives they are in right now. Whatever their reason may be, we can minister to them through our accountability to them. Remind them of their responsibility as members of this church and the blessings it entails. Encourage them with your sincere concern. Let them know and let them feel that you love them. The point of confrontation is always to point the wayward to the gospel of Christ. There is forgiveness and the joy of salvation. We are wayward in our own ways. We are hypocrites in our own ways. And the gospel keeps us on the right path. And that is why diligently using the means of grace every Lord's Day, particularly the preaching of the word, helps us to be reminded of this gospel truth. We all need the gospel. We need the gospel every day. We need to remind each other of the gospel. Because one way or another we need refreshing renewals and restorations. And this brings us to our second point. Restoring in love for the sake of the gospel. The key word is restore. And when we talk about accountability with one another and our responsibility to confront and restore our brothers and sisters who sin, we must have a clear understanding that real Christians struggle with real limitations. In our passage, even apostles, such as Peter, have imperfections. He had tendencies to contradict what he professed, as do we. This is important because it is commonly known that the Judaizers who taught the law righteousness gospel were legalistic at the core of their teachings. Legalism is the opposite of the gospel. Legalism teaches that one must gain recognition from others and boast in the flesh. On the contrary, the Apostle Paul says in chapter 6 verse 14, but far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now by saying Peter had limitations, we are not trying to justify the hypocrisy of Peter and the Jews who were with him by saying it happens, right? Deal with it. We want to be careful of having a legalistic spirit, wearing colored glasses when we look around us and become one of the two. First, self-righteous, or second, having the spirit of timidity. Now, self-righteousness makes us see the mistakes of others as a gauge of their spirituality, and worse, our spirituality. Right? Self-righteousness seeks assurance in one's merit and even in the shortcomings of others. Having the spirit of timidity, on the other hand, is also a form of pride. It diminishes the finished work of Christ on the cross, which is the only power to save and sanctify. No one is beyond saving, brothers and sisters in Christ. No one is beyond being recovered. The spirit of timidity is false humility. It is actually a form of self-righteousness. Therefore, we use the lens of the gospel in confronting sin and confronting the sin of one another. And one concrete means God uses to accomplish his sanctification in us is our brothers and sisters in Christ. Therefore, we confront one another's sins, not for the sake of confronting them. The goal is to restore them in the gospel. And one of the important ways our passage teaches us how we must properly deal with our confrontation of other people's sin is this. address the person directly. Verse 11, but when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. Now when you look at our passage, especially verse 11 and verse 14, one can say that the Apostle Paul's opposition to or confrontation with Peter's hypocrisy was public and that verse 11 should be read through verse 14. Now, if that is true, we can ask the question, did Paul violate Matthew 18, where Jesus instructed that the confrontation of a fellow believer should happen in private first and not in public, unless the person is unrepentant. The answer is no, obviously. It did not violate Matthew 18 if there was only public confrontation. Again, the passage did not tell us if there was a private confrontation or if verse 11 and verse 14 were two different confrontations. Now, one of the possible reasons can be because Matthew 18 15 says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Peter did not directly sin against Paul. As we have mentioned in the beginning, Peter's hypocrisy was not in step with the truth of the gospel. It was an offense to God and the church because the sin was done in front of the believers, both Jews and Gentiles. The hypocrisy was a contradiction to the gospel and hurtful to the gospel works, specifically among Gentiles, whom the Apostle Paul was specifically called to be a missionary to. Now, another reason that is implicit has something to do with apostolicity of Paul and the uniqueness of his authority during that time. So we can say that what happened here is more descriptive rather than prescriptive, right? The apostles were given distinct and special authority to speak to the church on behalf of Christ. So the same authority the prophets had in the Old Testament the apostle had during that time. And we can read this in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19b to 20, which says, you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. The canon was not yet existing during that time, at least formally, it was not yet complete. Now by God's providence in our time, we consider the Bible as the authority over our faith and practice. The apostolic office had ceased when the canon or the Bible was completed. Historically, churches have also developed a book of church orders based on scripture that indicates due process of doing church matters systematically and orderly, including the due process of church discipline, which we will discuss in our third point. Again, the practical point is that Peter and his sin were addressed directly. The Apostle Paul's example here teaches us a godly wisdom that confronts worldly wisdom, especially in dealing with these kinds of issues. The modern world loves the word tolerance. Now, Asian culture is generally a non-confrontational culture. Quite the opposite of general American culture, which is known to be straightforward, right? But I heard you also have Minnesota passive-aggressive happening, I'm not sure. But at least American culture used to be very straightforward. In the Philippines, you may get feedback on your sermons, especially things they disagree with in your sermons, indirectly. Right, second hand, third hand, or social media. Here, on the other hand, you can receive feedback right after the service, right? I filled the pulpit for Anoka OPC last Sunday and received feedback from a five-year-old girl. She asked me verbatim, do you enjoy doing pastor? Such a profound question. I was speechless. Now, I heard stories from one of my professors that if you preach a bad sermon in a Dutch church, you know, elderly Dutch people will tell you how bad they are, how bad your sermon was, but invite you over for tea afterward. I do not like tea, by the way, so I'm not looking forward to such a comment. But we live in a generation, right, where tolerance is praised. That's a big problem. We are now afraid to call sin, sin. And to call evil, evil. Tolerance is the mother of liberalism and awe and godliness. Liberalism is not calling sin, sin and evil, evil. Yes, but it has now evolved to calling evil those who call sin, sin, and evil, evil. Ridiculous, right? An American government official this year, early this year, called it cruel and close to sinful to ban minors from the medical procedure of their transitioning, quote, unquote. That's crazy. The president of United States of America, supposedly a Christian nation, called it cruel and close to sinful to ban minors from the medical procedure of transitioning. That is pure evil right there. And the sad thing is that it also has been happening in the church in some way, shape, or form. And some led to totally abandoning orthodoxy and embracing liberalism. There is also a tendency for a non-confrontational culture to have pastors and ministers who, instead of privately confronting people, would weaponize the pulpit to address sin issues. That will happen eventually if tolerance is not addressed. If we are going to be cowards to confront each other's sin and confronting one another in the gospel for the sake of the gospel, that is what will happen to the pulpits of the Church of Christ. A legalistic preacher and a non-confrontational shepherd are sure recipes for apostatizing, the apostatizing of many confessing Christian churches. A legalistic preacher and a non-confrontational shepherd are sure recipes for apostatizing of many confessing Christian churches. Brothers and sisters in Christ, Do not be afraid to call sin, sin and evil, evil. Consider our text, Paul confronted Peter. Peter is one of the three inner circle members of Jesus. As they call it right now, one of the OGs. But Paul confronted Peter, why? Because Paul cares about the purity of the gospel. the purity of the church. But if you think about it, Paul also cares about the purity of Peter. And this is a very important practical principle we must keep in mind. Because out of fear of man, fear of what others may feel when confronted, Fear of what others may think of us and what it might do to our friendship, our relationship with them. We may think we will be less effective when we confront them. But that is only humanly speaking. We may think that doing nothing is the most loving thing. No. Out of fear, we may try to rationalize that a problem is not consequential when it really is. Confronting sin may make us marginalized, but that is the Lord to choose. And ours is to preserve the purity of the gospel and the purity of the church. Yes, confrontation without love condemns and is not the gospel. On the other hand, love without confrontation tolerates and is not the gospel either. What Paul did was in step with the truth of the gospel. It was motivated not by the fear of man, but of God. It was not a concern. about how the confrontation might hurt feelings and result in an awkward relationship, but how sin could hurt and badly hurt a person if not addressed and not confronted. We may ask a very practical question. Will it work? Will confrontation work? Brothers and sisters in Christ, our dilemma is not whether confronting sinning brothers and sisters result in their recovery and restoration. Our main concern is to do the will of God. Due process and proper procedures of confrontation and correction do not guarantee restoration. We can only do so much. Our job is to be faithful to the Lord and do the right thing. This past year, I had to confront two of my closest friends. One of them did not contact me again, and one of them got restored, praise to God. But our job is to be faithful to the Lord and do the right thing and be in prayer for the restoration of those wandering of the path of the gospel. We can also trust that our plans are not God's plan. Our timing is not God's timing. We know a lot of people, I know a lot of people who were restored in the faith after 10 years of being a wayward child. It's important to trust God, and in trusting God, do His will. Now, moving on to our third point, leading the people around us to the light of the gospel. Another important reason sin must be dealt with among the covenant community of God is that we are all parts of one body. Our sanctification, or the lactor of, affects the whole body. In our text, Paul implies that Peter's one act of hypocrisy resulted in collateral damages. It was not as if Peter hated the Gentiles, right? Peter was a good apostle of Christ, especially after the resurrection. He did not hate the Gentiles. No, he was actually eating with the Gentiles. And no doubt, we can assume safely, he did so sincerely. But he was pressured and saw the Circumcision Party, which is a weird name for a coalition. Thankfully, that is, again, descriptive, not prescriptive. We do not want to put an announcement on the real Circumcision Fellowship in our bulletin, right? Now, kidding aside, people were led astray because of Peter's sin. This is the reason why we always pray for our elders and deacons' purity, because we need it as a church. This is the reason why the leaders are praying for the members' purity, because the church needs it. We need one another's holiness. God's word said in James 5.16, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. This is a hard culture to establish, at least personally, speaking from a very non-confrontational culture I grew up in, confessing our sins to one another is a very hard commandment. to follow. Brothers and sisters, the means of sanctification normatively are found in the covenant community of God. And one sanctification is the business of the whole congregation. It takes a church to raise a godly child. Again, it's a good reminder that normatively, It's really hard, if not impossible, to live a Christian life without being part of the church, right? Therefore, another concrete application to our message is always to have a high view of the local church. I like you know, car conversations with my daughters, at least at the moment. We stayed at the Blouse for two nights, and we were talking about the wedding that will be happening next week, yay. And my daughter, my eldest daughter, said, how does it work? How does one become, you know, how does one have a fiancee? I don't, I didn't, those are the hardest questions. Those are harder than finals examinations three weeks ago. So I said, it starts with friendship. And she had a follow-up question and she said, so when do I get to have a friend like that? And the middle child asked another difficult question, should we marry a Christian or a non-Christian? Now, that's a good question. I said, of course, you should marry a Christian. And she had a follow-up question again, and she said, how about a Christian who don't go to church? I don't know about that, but yeah. So finally, I said something really profound so that there will be no more follow-up questions. I probably said something like, All Christians should go to church, but not all who go to church are Christians. And I had peace and quiet after that. But that's a good question, right? Normatively, according to our confessions, there is no salvation outside of the church. The same is true, there is no sanctification outside of the church normatively. That's a very important point that we want to make this morning. Right? Consider your church in your decision in life, brothers and sisters in Christ. Whether you are moving, or getting married, or retiring, or choosing a university, include the church in your agendas. Consider that. Consider that. Now going back, our goal is not merely confronting sin, not only hoping for repentance, but ultimately being recovered into God's wonderful covenant community, right? To be strengthened in fellowship and to diligently use the ordinary means of grace in order to be nourished in the faith. And it is notable to end this message with an important aspect, of how the whole church deals with sinning brothers and sisters. And this is always a hard topic to talk about. We submit to one another by properly implementing church discipline. Verse 14, Thou says, but when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? There are public sins that should be dealt with publicly. But again, you should qualify, right? Many people calling out people online for their sins use our passage as proof text. Ridiculous. We make an important distinction between the apostolic authority of Paul and our ecclesiastical duties now, our duties in our church, right? Everything must be done in order. Church members should know that one of the things we signed up for and we are privileged to be under is our church's constitution and bylaws, particularly as we are on the subject matter of church discipline. Church discipline is a wonderful blessing to the church. One of the biggest problems of the Christian churches in the Philippines is this, church discipline. There is no orderly way to deal with church disciplinary actions. If there are documents, they are not being properly applied. Worse, members do not want to be accountable because they can Always transfer to other churches, right? Especially megachurches that mostly do not concern themselves with sin issues and only have what they call a cell group leaders to micromanage the members of their cliques. First of all, small groups are not the church, right? This is sad. It is hurting the body of Christ. The sad thing is that this issue of church discipline is not being implemented properly and it's not usually talked about. It's more prevalent than we would like to admit. I believe that church discipline is one of the wonderful blessings the church membership provide for its members. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have imperfections and inconsistencies. There will be seasons of struggles and shortcomings. To be part of a church that is concerned about our sanctification is one of the things we must thank God for because it is there to honor God and help us honor God. If you are here today and you know There are sin issues in your life you must deal with. Repent of them. Run to Christ and find someone to talk to in this church who will be accountable to you and pray with you and struggle with you and kill sin with you. Talk to your elder. Send them emails. Bother them. Talk to them. ask for prayers and guidance. Now, if you are here this morning and a brother's or sister's absence has been bothering you, talk to one of the elders and deacons and work together to pray for and reach out to those who need to be ministered to. If you are here this morning and think you are not equipped to be an avenue for a sinning brother or sister to be confronted, corrected, and restored, pour out your heart in prayers for them. Prayer works. Prayer is powerful. And when opportunity opens itself, reach out to them and ask them how you can pray for them. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us confront one another for the sake of the gospel. To the congregation of Redeemer Reformed Church, let us be accountable to one another. Let us pray. Our gracious God and loving Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. We pray that you continue to speak to us in a very personal and special way. and speak to us as a congregation. May you be glorified, your gospel be proclaimed in the purity of one another. We pray that you help us to walk and live in holiness. Help us to be accountable with one another. This we ask and pray in Jesus' name, amen.