1 Corinthians 3, and this evening I want to look at verses 1-4. Paul writes, 1 Corinthians 3, beginning in verse 1, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, For hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? And the topic I want to consider in our time together is the subject of carnal Christianity, carnal Christianity. Now, before we look into that subject in particular, I want us to walk through these four verses so that we can have a proper understanding of what Paul is saying before we address this topic head on. Looking to verse 1, we find Paul's confrontation of the church's spiritual condition. Paul's confrontation of the church's spiritual condition. And I would have you notice first that as Paul confronts the church regarding their spiritual condition, he confronts them as those who belong to the same spiritual family. Paul writes to them as fellow relatives in the Lord. And if we retrace our steps from chapter 3 backward, we will find that this is not the first time Paul addresses them as spiritual siblings. Turning back one chapter to verse 1 of chapter 2, we read of Paul affirming them as fellow Christians, and I brethren. When I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God." And looking to chapter 1, we find that Paul addresses the church as brethren in verse 10, verse 11, and verse 26. And alongside of these statements are Paul's introductory words which assert that those to whom he is writing to have a credible testimony of faith. Paul is writing to, chapter 1, beginning in verse 1, the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. And I emphasize this to show us that Paul is writing to not the world, but those who claim to be Christians. He is writing to those who at one time made a public profession of their faith in Jesus and have been carefully received into the membership of the church. And he is writing to these Christians, to these fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, in a spirit of love, humility, and pastoral concern. And I want us to notice that Paul does not come at them with a personal vengeance. He does not approach them oppressively with a desire to crush them. He comes at them strong, yes, he comes at them straight forward, undeniably, but in a spirit of Christ-like compassion. And again, the fact that he calls them brethren here in chapter three, and not children, illustrates this. By calling them brethren, we see Paul coming alongside of the church as they are, in the same family. joined heirs with Christ, the people of God. Paul meets them on their level. Although Paul has been a spiritual father to them, he doesn't use that as a position to lift himself up and beat the church down. Paul doesn't say, now listen, I know better than you do and I deserve respect. No, in fact, we find absolutely no personal interest in Paul's confrontation of the church in Corinth. Paul doesn't confront them by saying, I can't believe you would do this to me. Here I am, your church planting pastor, and this is how you repay me? You repay me by living sloppy lives and making my name look bad? How dare you make me look so poor to other churches and other pastors? No, Paul is not confronting them as a tyrant. He is confronting them as a brother. He is not confronting them because he wants to, but because he has to. He is not confronting them because he enjoys it, but because it is needful for their souls, for the testimony of Christ and for the sake of truth. And he is confronting them, we see here in chapter three, verses one through four, because they are living carnally. Now let's look at this word carnal for a moment. Paul says, and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. And this word carnal in the original language literally means to be driven by fleshly desires like animals are. And this is a helpful illustration. Animals are not governed and influenced by spiritual instincts. They are governed and they are influenced by natural instincts. An animal does what he does not because he is convinced by God that it is true and right. No, an animal does what he does because it is what he feels is right and it is what he feels it is best for him. A pig wallows in the mud because it desires to do so. It has no reasoning abilities of looking nice or smelling good to others. And that same pig will put his snout into a bucket of slop despite what's inside that bucket of slop because the pig cannot discern the difference between what is best for it and what's good. And this is how Paul is describing those in the church in Corinth. He is describing them as those who are living as the natural man does, outside the realm of God's truth. Paul is describing them as those who are being governed by their own thoughts, their own feelings, and their own sinful desires. And if we want to get brutally honest, Paul is saying that their actions have been proving that they are living like the world. They are living like those who do not have the Spirit of God within them. And Paul is confronting them as spiritual infants, babes in Christ. And this is not to say that the entire congregation are brand new believers, but that most of them are acting like it. And can you imagine what grown men must have thought as they heard these words from Paul? Paul is calling them Christian infants who are still sucking on a bottle. They are spiritual babies who are still absorbed with themselves and have not learned to be the examples and leaders God intends them to be. This is a very striking term that Paul comes at them with. As the men in the church read this letter from Paul, no doubt it would awaken their conscience. It would humble them in their pride that the Apostle Paul, hearing what he's hearing from Chloe, would confess that this church is acting like a bunch of babies. And this truth bleeds into verse number two. Notice in verse number two, Paul's concern for the church's spiritual growth. In verse one, we see Paul's confrontation of the church's spiritual condition. Verse two, we see Paul's concern for the church's spiritual growth. And Paul says, I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able to bear it. And you can see the desire of Paul in wanting to feed them, but their inability to receive it. And continuing on with the metaphor in the previous verse, Paul speaks of the church's inability to receive the weightier truths of the word of God and the weightier truths of the gospel. Paul has instructed them in the basics of Christianity 101, which is the milk of the word, the elementary truths that pertain to Jesus. Paul has taught them about faith. Paul has taught them about repentance. Paul has taught them about the new birth. But Paul wants to give them the meatier, salted truths of the Word of God, namely the fullness of Bible doctrine and its associations to Christ. But he cannot. And he cannot because they were spiritual infants, content with drinking milk through a bottle. They were satisfied with where they were in their spiritual immaturity. To put it in modern day terms, they wanted chocolate milk than a delicious steak. They preferred to have the chocolate milk given to them than a Ruth Chris steak. Paul wanted to introduce them to the finest restaurants that can be found in Palm Springs, but they still wanted to go to the local McDonald's for a Happy Meal. And we find in this concern of Paul's the church's personal rejection of truth. It wasn't that Paul did not want to give it, it's that the people didn't want to receive it. And the problem lies with them. They were dull in hearing. They were arrogant in thinking that they knew more than they did. They thought that they had reached a point in their Christian life where they had arrived, so to speak. And this led to their negligence in their spiritual growth. And Paul is coming at them saying, you are to blame for your lack of maturity. You are to blame for your carnality. You are personally responsible for not developing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. And in this, Paul is pleading with them to grow up. Paul is urging them to appreciate the milk of the word. Yes, the simple truths that flow from the gospel, but Paul is also encouraging them to be strengthened with the meat. And then in verses 3 and 4, we read of Paul's contention with the church's ungodly actions. So in verse 1, we have Paul's confrontation of the church's spiritual condition. In verse 2, we have Paul's concern for the church's spiritual growth. And then in verses 3 through 4, we have Paul's contention with the church's ungodly actions. Notice it. Paul is reasoning them with questions. And he says, for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men, that is, the natural man, as the one without Christ? For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? And the answer to his rhetorical question is, yes. And he wants them to answer it. And in this, Paul gives the proof of their carnality. Their carnality is demonstrated through their envyings, through their strife, and through their divisions. Their spiritual immaturity is revealed through their lifting up of men. And that's only scratching the surface. As we continue to work our way through this book, we will find that their involvement in sexual sins, 1 Corinthians 5, verse 1, their quickness to be flippant in their observations of the Lord's Supper, 1 Corinthians 11, their misusing and boasting of spiritual gifts, and their lack of love one for another expose that they were living like those who did not know Christ rather than those who knew Christ. and envying, and strife, and divisions. The apostle James tells us plainly that such things are earthly, sensual, and devilish. James chapter three, verse 16, for where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil works. So we see the battle where it is. Satan has entered into the picture through the hearts of men by the actions of these believers and he has worked his way into the church, and they're boasting of men, of Paul, of Paulus, and Cephas, and the going back and forth, and delineating the power of the gospel, and lifting up pulpit personalities. Paul is seeing the battle for what it is, and the battle is satanic. The battle is not against flesh and blood, that's not the issue. The battle is Satan has a hook within the church, and is dragging it down. That's why Paul is coming after them. That's why Paul is passionate. He sees the roaring lion opening up his mouth wide and he is about to swallow this church alive. Paul tells us in Galatians that these works, envying, strife, and divisions are the works of the flesh. They are not the fruit of the Spirit. They are the complete opposite of the fruit of living in the Spirit. So the church needs to consider this. They need to examine where they are. They need to change their ways and get right with God at once. Their ungodly actions are destroying their relationship with Christ, their lack of unity is a poor testimony to the lost world, and their unwillingness to yield themselves entirely to the truths of Scripture is causing the devil to smile and the Lord to frown. So Paul has a contention with them and his contention is a holy, zealous, righteous contention. It is a healthy contention because of their ungodly actions. Now having walked our way through these four verses seeking to gain a better understanding of what is being said, I want us to realize that some have created an entire system of belief around these four verses. In fact, some read and interpret all of scripture through what Paul says here, fashioning a misleading idea that most Christians live carnally. Most people who are not living for God and have not lived for God for years, though they've had some association with a church, are just, quote, backslidden. And the belief is that these are Christians, but they don't act like Christians. And I want to look at this. And I know this can be very confusing, since as we read in our text, it is possible for Christian people to live contrary to the truths of God's word and even walk as Gentiles. But I want us to notice here that there is nothing in the text that we are considering, there's nothing in the entirety of the letter to the Corinthian church that indicates that God or the Apostle Paul quickly writes them off as those who remain in some third reserve group of Christians. and that's the doctrine of carnal Christianity. We have this third group of Christians, or people, rather. You have the lost person, obviously, in sin. You have the spiritual person who is saved, and then you have those who are saved, but they continually live as if they are not saved. And I want to show us that the fact that God, through Paul, confronts the Corinthian church in their carnality, shows us that God does not accept and God does not justify carnal living as the norm. Now do others act carnally at times? The answer is yes. As we see in this letter. And we see this reality in the life of Abraham. the father of faith. We see this in Isaac and Jacob. We see it in the 12 sons of Israel. We see it in Moses. We see it in King David. We see it in Solomon and so on. This truth cannot be denied, yet at the same time, it cannot be denied that living in a continual, careless, unchastened condition of carnality is not the mark of a true believer. Let me repeat it again. Living in a continual, habitual, careless, unchastened, cold, calloused condition of carnality is not the mark of a true believer. Now how do we know this? Because the Bible says whom the Lord loves, he rebukes. What is God doing through Paul? Rebuking. Why? Because he loves. His children are erring. As many as he loves, he rebukes and chastens. Those who belong to him, who stray from his ways, are chased after by the good shepherd. And what we find here in 1 Corinthians is the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ, sending his under-shepherd, the apostle Paul, to draw the sheep back into fellowship with the Savior. They've left his presence, so to speak, by their wayward ways. So the good shepherd sends his under-shepherds to gather them up and bring them back onto the straight and narrow path. You see, God doesn't look down from heaven saying, well, They prayed the prayer and they are safe from hell, so I think I'll just let them alone and let them live how they want to live. No, no, we see that he that began a good work in them will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And what we read here was one church at one time in the history of their church. I think we have this concept that Paul coming to them at one specific time was the totality of their testimony, but that's not true. The marks of carnality were not the norm in every church as we read in the New Testament. that which was happening in Corinth at this time was unique. Go through Galatians, did it have its problems? Yes. Go through Ephesians, did it have its problem? Yes. Go through Colossians, go through 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, go through all the letters to the churches. They were not perfect, they were not sinless, but they did not live in a continual state of carnality. And so the entire lifespan of this church in Corinth was not in a state of carnality. So we can't make a blanket statement affirming that God happily accepts and excuses those who live habitually in a state of unbelief, disobedience, perverseness, and spiritual carelessness. There are plenty other verses in the Bible that teach us what is true, right? Faith without works is dead. A tree is known by its fruit. Those who call Jesus Lord will do the things that He says. They will persevere. Though they fall, though they fail, they will get back up because it is the Lord who holds them up with his hand. The just man falls seven times, but he gets up again because he loves the Lord Jesus Christ. So the practical question that stems from all this, that stems from this doctrine of carnal Christianity and this excusing of people who live sloppily in the Christian life is why do we excuse others so quickly? Why do we automatically assume that the one professing faith in Jesus Christ with their mouth who is still in love with the world are spiritually okay? Why do we with the most passionate arguments go on their defense when they are the ones living disobediently? And I can answer the question. I'll tell you why. And the reasons are we've accepted a wrong view of the gospel and the Christian life, and we think that we are too judgmental to question the reality of people's faith. Think it to be unloving to look at somebody with a doubtful eye, even though they have been living wrong and they've been doing it for years. We think it to be unloving to go to them and warn them about the possibility of them not being in Christ. We refuse to go to people and mark them as somebody who may not know the Lord because it's a whole lot easier to justify someone's rebellion against God than to confront them in their rebellion against God. It seems nicer to others to assume the best of them than to question and criticize the reality of where someone stands spiritually. And it's hard to confess, listen, it's hard to confess that we may bear responsibility in leading others to live by a false hope. And that may be the biggest reason. If we grew up If we were taught in a system that you just rush people through the ABCs of salvation, admit you're a sinner, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and confess your sins, if we have been guilty of leading people quickly in a sinner's prayer, and we have all these tally marks in our Bible, and yet there's no change in their life, then we may bear the responsibility that they are going astray, because they really didn't get saved, and that's hard for us to swallow. And I'm speaking by personal experience because I was taught in that way and I've led others in a quick prayer. I thought we would just spend five minutes and go over a few verses and it was done without allowing time for the spirit to work, without waiting. for the marks of true conversion by the new birth. And so to look at that and to see those that are living headlong in the world today, even though we quote, led them to the Lord, it's a humbling matter. Let's take it for instance, let's take it for example. Look at the multitude of children that have passed through our churches. Look at the multitudes of those 18 to 35, 18 to 40, who grew up in church, they attended the church school, they made a profession of faith, and today, they want nothing to do with God. Today, these, quote, church kids are living with their boyfriends and girlfriends, they're getting drunk on Friday nights in the bars, and they are posting pictures on Facebook of their worldly lifestyles. And often we hurriedly say, well, they're fine. There's no reason to worry. There's no need to pray for their salvation. There's no need to preach the gospel to them. We just need to tell them to get back in church. They need to rededicate their lives for the Lord. They need to strive to do better. And we think this because to say otherwise means they may not be saved. It means that we've been wrong not to pray for them and we may be somewhat accountable for giving them a false hope of salvation. And let me just say here once again that we cannot and we must not accept such a doctrine. To assume those who live carnally are spiritually okay can lead to a great deal of damage. Number one, it waters down the gospel. And that is great damage. Just go back and read Galatians chapter one and see Paul's passion about those who deal with the power of God into salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if we assume that everybody who lives carnally is spiritually okay, then preachers won't preach the gospel. They'll never urge for people to come to Christ. Another thing it does is it cheapens the importance of holy living. If we just accept that most quote believers act like the world, then what's the point of preaching on holiness? Holiness is just an option for few, it's not a command for all. Another thing it does is it dampens the unity and the purity of the church. If we think that every quote believer can live as they please and still go to heaven, then the church is at stake. And greatest of all, it can lead to souls being damned forever. If we automatically assume that anyone and everyone who says that they are a Christian is unquestionably a Christian despite how they live, it can lead to souls being lost forever because they're never pressured. They're never examined. They're never questioned. And my personal philosophy is this, it would be better to encourage those who live carnally to examine their salvation and question whether they are truly in the faith and get mad at me. And even if they get mad at me, me rather than assume that they are in the faith, if I were to say nothing and they die in their sins, guess what? They die and go to hell. It would be better to go to them and say, you're acting like a Gentile. You're acting like an unbeliever. And even if they are in Christ, even if they are on their way to heaven, and I'm wrong, guess what? I've got nothing to lose as far as their soul is concerned. Oh, they may get mad at me, but a genuine believer, if he's walking in sin, usually will not get mad at you. It's the lost, unregenerate person who's questioned about his faith who gets mad. And look, 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, Paul calls on the church in Corinth to examine themselves. At the end of two letters addressing where they are spiritually, Paul says, examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobate. You see, so Paul having looked at the totality of their fruit, the totality of their actions, though he's coming to them as brothers, Though he does confess that there are some in the church with credible testimonies in the faith, he sees overall that there are lost people in the church, and there are those who think themselves to be saved who are not really saved, and he would rather press them to examine themselves in the Lord than not press them at all. And this only proves that Paul did not accept the popular doctrine of carnal Christianity. If Paul accepted it, then he would never at the end of his letter say, examine yourselves. He would just let it brush by, just try, keep trying. Just keep living the way you are. Don't worry, don't be, no, Paul says, examine yourselves. Paul did not flatter others into thinking they were true Christians when their lives demonstrated a sloppy and openly sinful relationship with Christ. Now again, we're not talking about little petty sins. We're not talking about somebody having a burst of anger here and there. We're not talking about a Christian just wasting his time from time to time. We're not talking about these things. We're talking about continual, habitual rebellion against God. We're talking about sexual sins that not even the Gentiles were a part of. We're talking about taking the Lord's Supper and treating it so lightly, so flippantly. We're talking about a lack of love for Christ. That's what 1 Corinthians 13 is all about. They have no love for God and for others. At least that's what their lives are demonstrating. So these things, strife and division and contention, these are devilish things. And so Paul comes at them, he points to their carnality, and he's concerned. He's concerned. So as we talk about this doctrine of carnal Christianity, we need to understand that it is not just the norm. It is not something that is accepted, something that's justified by God or the Apostle Paul. Though they are acting carnally, it's for a time. It's one place at one time in history. It's not the norm of every church in every epistle. Now having given you these truths to chew on, I want to conclude by giving you two practical truths that these four verses provide. And the first truth is that we have a responsibility to grow. And we see this exclusively in verses 1 through 2. Paul could not speak to them as spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. And Paul wanted to feed them with meat, but they could bear only milk. And what was their problem? Their problem was they were content in being infants. They were content where they were spiritually. They were satisfied with what they knew. And I hate to say it, but many people in churches today have the same problem. They are content with what I call status quo Christianity. They are happy with knowing the elementary truths of the Bible. They are pleased with hearing the same simple Bible stories of Noah and Abraham and Joseph and Job and so on, but they will not, they will not dive deeper. They will not mine out the greater wonders of God's word. Most Christians do not read their Bibles more than five minutes a day. Most Christians come to church one service every couple of weeks and think themselves to be strong in the Lord. And I'm talking about those who claim to be Christians for 10, 20, 30 years. And we look at the Corinthian church here stuck on milk, we shake our heads in disappointment when this is sometimes a picture of us. And I say this to say, God does not desire us to remain babes in Christ. It is not something that glorifies Him. God desires for us to grow. to know Bible doctrine, to swallow the heavier truths about God and His relations to man. God desires that we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And let me say, this growth doesn't happen by accident. There's no magic wand that is waved over our head that makes us grow in a moment. Christian growth is not passive, it is active. It takes work, it takes our energy, it takes our self-denial, it takes our saying no to other things and spending adequate time in reading and meditating on the word of God. So let me ask you here, are you growing? Do you have a desire to keep moving forward in your faith? Do you see a discontentment with just drinking milk? And do you have a passion to feast on the ribs of the Word? Now I'm getting you hungry. Barbecue ribs, the meat that satisfies and sustains. And I ask, look back at where you were last year to where you are today. Have you grown in your knowledge of scripture? Have you grown in being freed from the power of certain sins? Have you grown in your love for others? Have you grown in being more patient, more forgiving, more tender, more gentle? And listen, if truth be told, we are either growing or decaying in our Christian life. I see no evidence in scripture that supports the reality that someone can just stay the same as the months go by. You and I are either marching forward or sliding backward. We are making progress or making excuses. We are conquering through Christ or being conquered by the devil. So let me ask, where are you? Be honest with yourself. Recognize those areas in which you need to grow and nurture them. Don't be content with the milk. Desire the meat. And let me just remind us here that it doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian, how much you know of the Bible, we all have need of growth. There's never a point in which we can let up or give up. There's never a point in which we reach a point of standstill in the Christian life. We have a responsibility to grow and others cannot do it for us. The pastor cannot make us grow. Our spouse cannot make us grow. They cannot do it in our place. It is a personal decision that we might make each and every day. Grow. Don't be in this spiritual infancy that Paul speaks of here in 1 Corinthians 3, verses one through four. And the second practical truth I want to emphasize from this text is the certainty that we have a responsibility to confront those who are living carnally. We have a responsibility to confront those who are living carnally. And just to be clear, I am not saying that we are given a biblical license to be pharisaical police officers so that we can nitpick every little failure of others. What I am saying is that there is a responsibility to confront others when they are involved in obvious public cancerous sins that damage their own soul and tarnish the testimony of Christ and His church. Look at the context. Paul here is speaking of their division. He is speaking of what he has heard from the house of Chloe about this faction going on in the church. And he doesn't just let it dissolve on its own. Paul doesn't say, well, I'm just going to stand back and pray about it. Paul doesn't just keep his hands off the situation and say, I just hope it gets settled somehow, some way. He doesn't say, I'm going to stay out of it because it's not my business. People are gonna do what people are going to do. Paul doesn't just brush it under the carpet and pretend that everything is okay when it is obviously not. Now Paul calls out their problems specifically and he is doing everything he can to show them that their actions are contrary to the word of God. Paul is showing them that the things that they are involved in are dishonoring Christ. Now let me ask you a question. Does Paul confront them with strong words because he hates them? Is Paul against them? Does Paul get in the middle of their business because he enjoys it? Does Paul stick his nose in the personal affairs of others because he is trying to be some Pharisaical goody two-shoes? Why does he confront them? He confronts them because he loves God supremely. And loving God, he loves God's truth. And loving God's truth, he sees that his truth, God's truth, is being compromised by the sloppy lives of others. And he does not want the truth of God to be perverted. Another reason why Paul confronts him is that he loves them. He loves the people who Christ died for. He loves the people who make up the church in Corinth. He's had personal relation with them. He doesn't want to see them defeated. He doesn't want to see them deceived by the devil and their sinful stupidity. So he approaches them with the desire that they would awake out of their spiritual slumber and seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. He is confronting them first because he loves God, second because he loves them, he confronts them third because he loves lost souls. And lost souls are looking in at the church and being pushed away by these divisions and strifes and arguments and lack of love. and the church can go out into the world and witness all at once, and says Jesus is the Savior of the world, then Jesus gives you a hope and a joy unspeakable and full of glory, Jesus gives you a peace, and then people come in and see this is not the Jesus I want. I don't want a Jesus that doesn't affect your life. So Paul is getting after them here, saying your double-mindedness here Your hypocrisy is no help to the world. You will not help lost people come to know the Lord by your sinful actions. Paul loves God. He loves them. And he loves lost souls. That's why he's confronting them. And the same can be true of every confrontational man in the Bible. Moses and the prophets calling out the wayward ways of Israel. Why did they do it? Because they love God, they love his truth, they love God's people, and they love lost souls. What about Nathan going to David? Why did he do it? Why did Nathan stick his bony finger in David's face and say, you are the man, you're the one that's guilty, you've been living wrong? Because he loves David. He loves God, he loves others. Why did Paul go to Peter, Galatians chapter two, when Peter was stepping out of the bounds of the gospel? Because he loved him. What about Jesus confronting his disciples? What about Jesus confronting the seven churches in Revelation? Well, as many as I love, I rebuke. So I'm saying if we truly love God and if we truly love other people, we will desire that they do what is right. because that is the best for their soul, and that is the best for the cause of Christ. Now listen church, when we see others going astray spiritually, and again I'm not saying be nitpicky, and you better be careful, you better be prayerful, you better be wise in your going, you better make sure it's spirit led, you better make sure that it's of a just cause, But when we see others going astray spiritually, when we see them swallowing down the poisons of this world and it can affect their marriage and their family, it can affect the testimony of the church, when we hear of those who call themselves Christians making blatant, sinful choices which can lead to great spiritual disasters, we must go to them and we must warn them. We must go to them and tell them what harm they are causing to their testimony and what harm they are causing to the kingdom of God. We go to them in meekness. We go to them clothed in humility. We make sure that we are not seeking to take a speck out of their own eye with a two by four in our own eye. But we go to them and we speak the truth and we speak the truth in love. We do not coddle them. We do not make excuses for them. We do not soften the situation for the sake of our reputation. We confront them with a prayerful desire that God would use us to lead them in a right relationship with the Lord. If you saw children playing on Highway 247 here and a truck was coming down the hill 70 miles per hour, are you just gonna let them be? Will you just stand back and say nothing? If you see a blind man near the edge of the Grand Canyon, getting closer and closer to the edge, are you just gonna sit back and say nothing? If your neighbor's house starts to burn and you know that they are asleep inside, are you just gonna stand back and pray and hope for the best? Or are you gonna do what you can to wake them out of sleep for their safety? So what about people's spiritual well-being and people's spiritual safety? You see, in all of these instances, no, if there's a child on 247 and a truck's coming, I may even run after that child and push him out of the road so that he might be okay. If I saw a blind man coming to the edge of the Grand Canyon, I'm gonna do everything I can to keep him back. If I see my neighbor's house burning when I know they're sleeping inside, I'm gonna pound on the window and get them to awake. But when it comes to people's spiritual condition, what do we do? Are we more concerned with the physical life of others than their spiritual life? Can we ignore and overlook the spiritual dangers that come across the paths of others? And I know the reasons why we are shy to confront others in their carnal ways is because of hurt feelings and self-preservation. We don't want to hurt their feelings and naturally we want to be liked by others. But look at Paul here. The primary thing he was concerned about was the truth of Christ. He was more concerned about what God thought than about what the church felt. He was more worried about what God knew him to be rather than what others would say about him if he confronted them and they acted in bitterness. So I say if we are going to help others and truly help others, There are times in which we will tell them that they are living wrong and that they need to submit themselves to the truths of Scripture and not the opinions of men, and it will cause us maybe to be belittled by their opinion, and it will eventually cause hurt feelings in their own hearts and lives, but guess what? When the Spirit comes and convicts us of sin, He convicts us only to drive us to confession and repentance. He doesn't do it because He hates us. He doesn't do it because He's seeking to be mean towards us. He does it because He wants to help us. What if, church, what if we took these truths seriously and looking out for our brothers and sisters in Christ When we see them stray, we went to them in brotherly love and said, I'm concerned for you. I see this and I see this. It doesn't add up to what I see about the Christian life in the Bible. And if truth be told, your lifestyle of living this way may prove that you are not in the faith. I just can't help, but maybe, maybe, and I'm not just speaking our church alone, but Christianity as a whole, if people had this spirit confronting people where they are, maybe, maybe we would see a revival happening in the midst of our churches. Maybe we will see a great harvest of souls. Maybe, maybe then we will have an impact on the world because we will be expecting Christians to act like Christians.