Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Day four of Galatians chapter two, it's 11 through 14. We're gonna talk about how do we confront a brother that we see in sin. Galatians 2.11 says, But when Cephas, that's Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. Let me say that again. 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, for that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their contact 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 a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? All right. So how do you confront people? Well, the first thing that Paul does is he does it to his face. The reason he does it publicly is because Peter is sinning publicly and because Peter's public sin is leading other people to astray. Matthew chapter 18, the Bible says this if your brother has sinned against you, go and tell it to his face. Well, the first question you have to ask is, is this person your brother? If the person that is sinning is not a Christian, then you need to have an evangelism conversation because that fur that brother first and foremost has to repent of all of his sins and surrender his life to Jesus. So the first question is, is it my brother? And then you have to ask, is it a sin or is it just my personal preference? This is why you have to know the Bible. And so if that is true, if it's your brother and they have sinned against you and it is causing a ripple effect of pain, because that's what sin does, then the Bible says you should talk to people and not about them. That's right, you should talk to people and not about them. Why? The goal is repentance and restoration. Because Matthew 18 says, you never know, you might win your brother over, and that's the whole point. So let me ask you, we talk about this all the time. Do you have men like that in your life? Have you appointed some men? Have you deputized some men in your life that if and when they see you heading down a path that leads to destruction, if they see you out of step with the good news of the gospel, if they see you out of step with what the Bible calls us to be, do you have men that you have invited to come and confront you face to face? Now let me ask you this, let me turn it around. Has someone asked you to be this kind of man in their life? And you see some pattern in their life, you see something that is leading others astray, you see something that is not in alignment with what Christ has called us to do, and are you scared to confront them? Well, why? Honest goodness, if you are a mat carrier for someone and you are not carrying their mat, you need to go resign. You just need to go straight to them and say, hey man, there's this thing going on in your life, but quite honestly, I'm too scared to talk about it. So I need to resign my position because I don't have what it takes to love you enough to hold you accountable. Now, the how we do this matters a lot. I know Paul is very aggressive, and there are some aggressive verses here in the Bible. Like Jude chapter 1, verse 23 says, Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by flesh. So there is a mix of snatching and mercy. I think the reason Jude just uses the word snatch is because this is very, very important. This matters now. Sins do not typically diminish in size and scope. They get bigger and bigger and bigger, especially when they are not confronted. Now, later in Galatians chapter 6, Paul is going to say this, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him. Now here's the major part, in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you too may be tempted. So the idea here is not to just put people on blast because you can't wait to be that sort of person that's policing everybody else's behavior. But what you were looking for here is restoration. And the driving force has to be gentleness and patience. The point is that you would love your brother more than you love what your brother thinks about you. And in fact, I pointed out Galatians 6.1, which means in four or five, six weeks or so, we are going to come back to this one. So if there is somebody in your life right now and you see they're your brother, and you see that they are out of step with the gospel of Jesus Christ, then I implore you to go talk to them now, so that in two or three months, when I get to Galatians chapter 6, or however long it is, that you will not feel guilty then, you will know that you have done what God has called you to do. Go and talk to people, not about them. And you never know how God might use you, not to just change them, but to change the people that are watching them. Amen.

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