 If you will, you can pass the cups to the aisle and the brothers will come by and grab those for you. Thank you, brothers. I just want to continue encouraging you to spend the time, you know, each month before that the Lord's Supper comes up in just reflecting on those things and what importance they play in a healthy biblical church and how important they are to us. Many of you, I know I have, we've come out of churches where there's no real significance to any of those things and the Christian life was so-called basically just superficial. You know, Sunday to Sunday, just go to church, go home. You've got your life that you lived during the week and then you show up on Sunday and you're Christian for a couple hours and just meaningless, but the Lord has called us to much more than that and so the Supper has great significance for the Christian and for his church. Alright, our sermon title this morning is a Heart for Confrontation. A Heart for Confrontation. And our passage is in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 we'll begin looking at today. A Heart for Confrontation from 1 Timothy chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 and here Paul says to Timothy beginning in verse 1, do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father. Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters with all purity. And it's interesting to think about that title for a moment. A Heart for Confrontation. Usually when you think of confrontation, you don't think of a heart for it. You think of avoiding it or something that's negative. The Bible is very clear that there is a time and a place for confrontation and we need to understand not only what that time and place is, we've got to have the right heart about it. There's a specific way in which we're to do that. We are to confront our brothers and sisters when there's a need to confront them and there are often needs in the body. For that we'll begin looking at that example and that command today. Now the purpose of Paul's writing to Timothy is we've been working through this letter to Timothy. There was a main purpose for the letter that we came across and that's where Paul says to Timothy that he's writing so that we should know how we are to conduct ourselves in the household of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Ultimately that's the purpose for the letter. We need to know how we're to conduct ourselves. Now as Paul has been instructing Timothy, he's spent the last couple of paragraphs that we've gone through on Timothy's own personal life, Timothy's own personal character and Timothy's own ministry, the way that his ministry is to look and remember that flows down to us by way of application for the personal ministry that we are to have. The personal life is a Christian that we are to live and so he moves on now from Timothy's personal life and Timothy's personal ministry to now how do we interrelate in a very practical way with other people in the church? How do we do it? And in this we're going to see several different aspects, several different categories. As we get into verse 1 and 2 here beginning in chapter 5, we're going to look broadly at various ages and genders. How do you interrelate to or relate to older men, older women, younger men, younger women? How are we to do that? Then he moves on in verses 3 to 16 with Howard to relate to widows. That's going to have important application for us as well. Then he's going to address how we relate to elders in verses 17 to 25 slaves in chapter 6 verses 1 and 2 and then false teachers and their followers in chapter 6 verses 3 through 10. Now the instruction that he gives here beginning in verses 1 and 2 are necessary for the pastor. The pastor's got to understand how to do this. Here Pastor Timothy, a very difficult assignment in Ephesus needs to know how he's going to relate to people in his church and there are tough situations he has to address. But if we want to be a church healthy, that is biblical, that is thriving, that is pure, that is fervent and zealously following the Lord Jesus Christ we ourselves have to know how to do this and this is something that we must do. We all have to learn how to handle confrontation and it needs to be done with the right heart. We have to learn how to invest in one another's lives. And listen, this is largely abandoned in the professing church today but it's something the Lord commands us to do and we need to be serious about doing this if we want a church to be blessed by God. We need to have a right heart for confrontation. We must be willing to invest in each other's lives. Anonymity, which is so popular in the church today anonymity will kill your spiritual life and will kill the church. If most people with a consumer mindset they want to slip in a little bit late and avoid everybody and then slip out a little early so they avoid everybody. They don't want anybody knowing their business and so they're just anonymous in the church. It's like going to a movie theater where you don't know anyone else you get a good show, maybe eat some popcorn and then you go home and that's what has degenerated into the modern church today. No man, no woman in the Lord's church is to be an island. We were saved into a community. We're saved into a brotherhood, a sisterhood, if you will, and we're to be together in this work of seeing that the body is matured. Seeing that Christians are grown up into the stature, the fullness of Christ. And I mean this in the best possible way but in light of that, listen, we've got to be in each other's business. That's what the Lord would command. That's what Scripture teaches. We're not to be anonymous. We're not to be islands. We're not to be lone rangers. We're saved into a community. There's points that we're going to explore from these first two verses. If we want the right heart for confrontation number one, we need to have a heart for obedience to the Lord's commands. Right heart for obedience. Secondly, we need to have a heart for wisdom. We need to understand that these things need to be done in wisdom. We need to get wisdom from the Lord with how to do that. We need to take that to heart and do these things correctly. And then thirdly, we're to have a heart for our family. And the Lord uses family terms throughout this paragraph and we'll look at those. So the first point here is we need to have a heart for obedience. A heart for obedience. We get that from verse one where Paul says in Timothy do not rebuke an older man, do not rebuke him but exhort him and exhort him as a father. So we have two commands represented by two verbs in this first verse. You have do not rebuke that's a command and then you have exhort and that's a command. If we're to have a right heart for confronting sin in the body of Christ, we need to have a heart to obey the Lord in these two commands. That's not, it's easier said than done. Because exhorting someone or confronting someone in sin, it's a really easy thing to do, right? No, it's not an easy thing to do. It's a very hard thing to do. You've got to go to someone and you've got to talk to them about their sin. Not easy to do, but this is a command. This is a command. This is not a suggestion. It's a command from the Lord. And if we want a healthy, thriving, holy living, fervent, zealous, obedient church, this is something we've got to come to grips with. We need a heart here to obey. These commands do not rebuke and then the command to exhort come in the context here of confronting an older man in his sin. How easy is that? Not easy at all in the beginning. This is something we have to learn how to do. And it also necessitates that we have a right heart in doing it and it necessitates a heart that's like, alright Lord, you've commanded that I do it. And so as difficult as it may be, I'm committing myself to your word. I'm commending myself to what you are having me do here and I'm going to obey. I'm going to do this. At first blush now, as we look at this, do not rebuke but exhort. It sounds a little like a contradiction because there are other passages. If you know your Bible, there are other passages in scripture which specifically say that we are to rebuke. Speaking of elders, right here in 1st Timothy in chapter 5 verse 20, Paul says this. He says, those who are sinning rebuke them. Rebuke them in the presence of all that the rest also may fear. Of the elders' task in Titus chapter 1 verse 13, Paul says, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. He says, this testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. And Paul tells Timothy later in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 2 he says, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. So we've got several passages and there are others commanding us to rebuke. But here in chapter 5 verse 1 he says, don't rebuke. So where's the difficulty here? Where's the rub? Paul says, there's a different circumstance in mind here. He has a different context in mind. And the reason there's a different context is because he uses a different word. Now it's not obvious in the English, but it's there in the Greek. Here in chapter 5 verse 1, Paul uses a word that he only uses here. He uses it nowhere else. And for you Greek guys it's called a hopox legamanon. Hopox legamanon. It only appears once in the New Testament. It doesn't appear anywhere else, okay? And this is this word is epi meaning upon and plakesace meaning to strike. Epi plakesace. The word being used here is different from those other examples of rebuke in Scripture in that it means to strike or to inflict a blow. It's speaking here of a verbal assault. It carries a sense of violence and violence with your tongue. So what Paul is saying to Timothy is listen, don't verbally assault an older man but exhort him as a father. Don't tongue lash someone older than you. You're to be respectful and you're to treat them with respect. You're to exhort them as a father. And so that's where this differs. It is metaphorically used for someone who is beating up someone else verbally abusing someone with their speech. Now maybe you've been in a church where that's happened to you. I was speaking with a guy earlier in the week that happened to him in a church where the leadership of the church verbally the leader verbally abusive raked him over the coals. How many of you have known someone maybe you yourself have been in a relationship before that has been verbally abusive. You have to go home to verbal abuse every day. Every day you come home you get a tongue lashing. Here Paul is telling Timothy to be careful that this doesn't happen in the church. We're not to verbally abuse one another. We're not to verbally violently assault one another with our words. In this sense don't rebuke them in that way. It's interesting that this word when we look at chapter 3 and the character of an elder in verse 3 it uses a very similar word when it says that an elder is not to be given to violence. That word for violence is a similar word. We're not to be violent with our speech toward one another. Are there times in the church where you need to rebuke? Yes. But does that mean that you're going to verbally assault them? Absolutely not. Does it mean here that when it says do not rebuke an older man, do not verbally assault an older man? What does that mean that it's okay to verbally assault an older woman? No. It means you can verbally assault your mother-in-law. No. No verbal assaults. It's not a verbal assault to an older man. It's not a verbal assault to an older woman. It's not a verbal assault to a younger man or a younger woman either. It carries through the whole phrase. We're not to beat each other up with how we talk to one another. We're to be patient. We're to be loving. We're to be kind. We're to be gentle, the Bible says. Here you don't tongue lash people in the church. Older man there. Same word used for elder where we get the office of elder, but here it just means someone older than you. Alright? Someone older than you. We're not to verbally assault a sinning older man. Okay? Now, the command carries through the entire phrase, the entire sentence. You don't rebuke anyone that way, but you exhort younger men, younger sisters, and older women. You exhort them. So, the first command that we're looking at here from verse 1 is basically this. Don't abuse your leadership. Don't abuse that brother for whom Christ died. You don't verbally assault them. You're not to be verbally abusive. Additionally, it also carries here the sense of disrespect. You're not to be disrespectful. When it says don't rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, the manner in which that you're to talk to an older man is to be respectful. How would you speak to your father? How should you speak to your father? You speak to your father with respect. Honor your father and your mother, right? You're to treat them with respect. So, it carries here also the sense of don't disrespect them. This comes on the heels of Paul's exhortation to Timothy not to let anyone look down on his youth. In the same way that Timothy is not to allow these elders to look down on him because of his youth, he's not to look down on them with his authority. He's to be loving in this, to show respect, to show deference. Take care with how you speak to people, with how you correct them, how you confront them. Cannot be abusive. You can, with your words, cause to stumble that one for whom Christ died. If you verbally lash out or assault someone verbally in correcting or rebuking or exhorting, you can cause them to stumble. You can get in the way of Christ. You can get in the way of the Holy Spirit and the work in that person by having them focus on your attack versus having them focus on the true solution to their problem, which is the work of the Holy Spirit. Abusive authoritarianism is often accompanied by or uses to get results, fear. Not fear in the person, but fear is a weapon. Fear is a tool to gain a response. Authoritarianism used as a way to get a response out of you. It's often accompanied by pride in the person who's doing it. It's done because they are insecure or because they are defensive and they feel as though they need to be in control. It is a patented lack of trust in the Holy Spirit who is the one who will get the results. It doesn't matter ultimately. It doesn't matter what you say, how you say it, what you do, or how you're going to do it. You don't get the results. The Lord uses you as a means to accomplish His ends and He gets the results and He gets the glory. So if you come to a situation where you're going to confront someone and you think that you're going to manufacture results by being heavy handed, you're thinking unbiblically, you're in sin. You're not to confront someone that way. It's the guy that comes in his pride and says, do it because I said so. And if you don't do it, my wrath is going to be on you. That's not the way that we're to treat one another in the church. It produces, this manner of doing things, this abusive authoritarianism produces fake superficial results based on intimidation, based on a fear of man. It's not based on a fear of the Lord and a desire to please the Lord out of a loving heart. That's nothing to do with that. And as a result, it produces cold dead heartless religion. It will produce joyless and hopeless so called Christians. It will produce dead orthodoxy. It doesn't give way to the spirit of God and so it's not going to produce holiness. The Bible says, James 1 verse 19 and 20, So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath. For the wrath of man expressed often in this abusive authoritarianism does not produce the righteousness of God. And in your heavy handed, authoritarian, abusive, verbal, tongue lashing of another person, you can actually get in the way of the Holy Spirit and in your pride wreck the life of that person that you're trying to help. So you say we can't in our anger and pride produce the righteousness of God. The Lord will use the means of your loving correction, your loving rebuke, your loving entreaty, your loving appeal. He will use your loving appeal to produce the right results and he gets the glory for that. You have the potential you think about it this way in your verbally abusive assault against someone else creating not a convert of Christ, creating an entirely different convert altogether, a convert of Satan and you may do that for good if you're not careful turning them away from Christ. This is a foolish and sinful approach to leadership. It's a foolish and sinful approach to dealing with people. We've got to learn from it. This is often fueled by pride. There's many examples of this in Scripture. Many examples but I want us to look at one. Turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 12. Here's an example of someone in his pride trying to control the situation not giving heed to the spirit of God and that trying to control things himself in an effort to be manipulative in an effort to get superficial results gives way to his pride, gives way to this abusive authoritarianism and he just makes a mess of things. 1 Kings chapter 12 beginning in verse 1. This is a story of Rehoboam. Rehoboam comes on the scene after Solomon and he makes some really foolish decisions with respect to leadership and we need to learn from this. In 1 Kings chapter 12 look at verse 1. It says here that Rehoboam went to Shechem for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king and so it happened when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard it he was still in Egypt for he had fled from the presence of King Solomon and had been dwelling in Egypt that they sent and called him then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam saying your father made our yoke heavy now therefore lighten the burdensome service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us and we will serve you. So Solomon had a heavy yoke taxes on the people. So they're coming to Rehoboam who's now becoming king. They're saying to Rehoboam listen can you lighten the load. If you lighten the load we're going to serve you. You're going to gain the favor the love the loyalty of your people. You'll just lighten the taxes a little bit give us a little bit of a break here. These were elders making this request very likely those that were of the same age as Solomon who is Rehoboam's father and had served Solomon when Solomon was king right. So they're making a reasonable request here and their request is wise. Had Rehoboam followed their wisdom and had complied with their request there would have been peace in Israel but what does Rehoboam do? Let's read on. Verse 5. So he said to them depart from me for three days and then come back to me and the people departed from me. Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived and said how do you advise me to answer these people? So they spoke to him saying if you will be a servant to these people today and will serve them and answer them and speak good words to them then they will be your servants forever. Now you win more flies with honey right. So what it is you speak to them kindly respectfully lovingly with their best interest at heart and you win loyalty forever. This is the same instruction to Timothy. Don't speak to them in a verbally abusive way. You exhort them as a father with respect, with love, with care, with concern, not with a verbal tongue lashing. Now think about it for a moment. Rehoboam was about 41 years old when this happened. So he's not a young man. He's just completely foolish. He's 41 years old. But these men that he's talking to are older than he is and Rehoboam didn't make a rash decision here. He took three days to consider what he was about to do. Foolish. Look what he does. Verse 8. But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, his peers, who stood before him. And he said to them, what advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me saying, lighten the yoke which your father put on us. Then the young man who had grown up with him spoke to him saying, this seems typical of a lot of young men who often fall victim and pray to pride. Thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to you saying, your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us. Thus you shall say to them, my little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist. In other words, you thought the taxes were heavy before. You're going to see my power in my severity and Rehoboam here is going to fuel his pride. Verse 11. Now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges. You want to make a scourge? You take a whip and you add pieces of metal and bone to it. It was a wicked whip. This is Rehoboam and his pride in his authoritarian abusive leadership. And now if he had gone the other direction, it would have been peace. But in an effort to control or in an effort to fuel his pride, in an effort to manipulate to get his own way or whatever the case may be here, he takes this authoritative and abusive stance. Look at verse 12. So Jeroboam, all the people came to Rehoboam the third day as the king had directed saying come back to me the third day. Verse 13. Then the king answered the people roughly. Why? Why the necessity to answer them roughly? Again, this is just more pride, more control, more exercising of your own authority. It's wickedly unbiblical. It's sinful. We're not to answer roughly. We're to exhort the older man as a father. The older woman as a mother. This is just another example of this. He answered them roughly and he rejected the advice which the elders had given him. Verse 14. And he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men saying my father made your yoke heavy but I'll add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips but I will chastise you with scourges. And so the king did not listen to the people. That's interesting here, this turn of phrase here at the end of this clause. Listen to this. He didn't listen to the people for the turn of events was from the Lord that he might fulfill his word. Now God is not the author of evil but God uses even evil, even the sins of Rehoboam here to accomplish his ends. The Lord had said that he was going to judge Israel. He's going to judge Judah and here he uses the wickedness of Rehoboam to do just that. This is again, it's an example of abusive authoritarianism and we're not to respond to people that way. We're to be careful with how we interact with one another. Now there's a lot that can go wrong here, right? You set out as a maybe a young Christian and you want to be faithful to the Lord. You want to obey the Lord's commands and you say, you know what? I've got to get serious about doing this. I need to be faithful to the Lord in this and Lord lays an opportunity before you. Someone you know, maybe a brother or sister that you're close to and they're in sin. What is your responsibility to them? The scripture clearly says multiple places that you are to exhort them. You're to be faithful to the Lord here and so maybe this fear of doing things wrong or this fear of how do I speak to them? How am I to do this without sinning, without causing them to sin? Does that give you an excuse to shrink back and not do it at all? No. You've got to plunge in. It's how the Lord will grow you. How the Lord will mature you in doing this very thing and in doing this very thing he grows and matures and purifies and sanctifies the church. It's something that is necessary to do. We are to exhort one another. Older men, older women, younger men, younger women. They're not to be verbally assaulted, but they are to be ministered to. So there's a second command here. We're not to rebuke, that's the first command, but we are to exhort. That's the second command. It's split by a very strong contrasting word for but, a la in the Greek. It's a very strong contrast. Not to do the one at all but make sure that you're doing this over here. We're to exhort. And although there is a wrong way to do this, that we must avoid, we must confront sin in the body of Christ. And there's a necessity for this that backs up this command. There's a necessity for the purity of the church. For the sanctity of the church. For the testimony of the church to the world. How effective is the testimony of a church, a sinning church to the world? I'm not going down there. The church is full of hypocrites, right? Or every time a pastor falls into immorality. Or when you've got wicked hypocrites that attend that church and people know like when that guy goes to that church I'm never going to go to that church. I've seen the way that guy lives. It's a wicked, terrible testimony. So for the holiness and for the testimony of Christ's church we must do this. There's also another necessity that backs up that command. And it's a necessity for us to love and care for our brothers and sisters. Let me give you an example of this. Turn to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 If you love your brother. If you love your sister then you care about where they will spend eternity. You care about how closely and how fervently and how faithfully they follow the Lord. You care if they begin to withdraw themselves or if they begin to fall away. It's like caring for your own son or your own daughter. I care about what happens with my daughters. I'm concerned about what happens with my wife. We're to be concerned for one another in the church. Here in Hebrews chapter 2 let's begin to set this up. We have a responsibility because souls hang in the balance. There must be accountability in the church and you are your brother's keeper. We see that here established in the letter to the Hebrews. Look at chapter 2. Look beginning at verse 1 He says here, therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proves steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? In other words we need to give heed to what we hear so that we can persevere to the end and be saved. Not neglecting this salvation that the Lord has provided. Flip the page and we see the outworking of that in chapter 3 beginning in verse 12. Chapter 3 beginning in verse 12 we're here. The Bible says beware brethren lest there be in you. That'd be one thing if it said that but it's any of you. He's not just speaking to you personally. We have responsibility for any of us. Beware brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. That word there for exhort is our same word that we're looking at in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 1. We're to exhort. And we're to exhort daily and we must do this. This is another command. It says in verse 14, 4 we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. And so what is the reason? What's the necessity that backs up the command that we are to exhort one another? The very real possibility that there are those who will fall away from the faith. We saw it in 1 Timothy when Paul charged Timothy there were some teaching divergent doctrines making shipwreck of people's faith. And so Timothy was charged with going in and stopping that nonsense because people were falling away. They were realizing. And so we looked at that passage on apostasy. Here this same warning holds true. We must as Christians persevere to the end to be saved. Now aside from the vast majority of what gets taught in modern evangelicalism today that you can profess Christ with your lips and then if you depart the Lord three years from now and you're still a Christian it's not what the Bible teaches. If you fall away from Christ it means you were never saved to begin with. I heard this story and I know you know exactly what I'm talking about. There's a book called Eternal Security where it said that becoming a Christian and making a profession of faith is a lot like getting a tattoo. If you walk into the tattoo parlor, get your tattoo, walk out the doors and say you know what that was the stupidest thing I've ever done. Doesn't matter you got the tattoo. It's done right? His analogy was you walk into a church, you profess Christ and you walk out the door and you think that's the stupidest thing I've ever done. I'm going to be an atheist. Too bad. You made the profession. Now you're a Christian forever. Is that what the Bible teaches? No. That is a lie straight from the pit of hell and it will damn you if you hold on to that belief that you can just go off and live in your sin apart from Christ. Here it is if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end so it is then incumbent upon us faith and death, eternity and heaven or hell hang in the balance and it is necessary that we persevere to the end holding our confidence in Christ. This letter was written because the Hebrews here in the dispersion were considering going back going back to Judaism under great persecution. We can't go back. We are not of those who shrink back to perdition. We are those that press forward to the saving of the soul and we are responsible to one another in that we are your brother's keeper. So when you notice someone who is trailing off or withdrawing themselves or pulling back from faith in Christ it's necessary. We've got to go after them. We've got to exhort them. There's a manner in which we do it that's important but it must be done. Go on to chapter 4. Look at chapter 4 verse 1. Chapter 4 it says therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Listen for our brothers and sisters. Don't come short and when someone begins to trail you go to them and you exhort them saying listen brother I'm concerned for you don't fall short. Hang in there. Many of you may have been in a position before in your own Christian experience where you felt like throwing in the towel. Listen throwing in the towel is no choice at all. There is no choice. You follow Christ. You throw in the towel. You're going to hell. We have to get involved in each other's lives and if you've been here for any length of time you've seen those that have begun to withdraw. They've begun to turn back to their sin. They're not holding their confidence firm to the end and maybe you've gone to them too late and there are many who are not here and that should grieve us as soon as it seems that someone is departing the faith. You go and you wrap your arms around them as Spurgeon says you grab around their knees. Let them go to hell over your dead body. We're to exhort one another. We're to care for one another. We're to make sure this doesn't happen. It's necessary in the body of Christ to do this work and you have to have a heart that wants to obey the Lord in this because people's souls hang in the balance. We've got to be faithful. Look at verse 11 chapter 7. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. We don't want anyone to fall. Flip the page to chapter 6. Chapter 6 and look down at verse 9. Chapter 6 verse 9 here he says, but beloved we're confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation though we speak in this manner for God is not unjust to forget your work and your labor of love which you have shown toward his name in that you have ministered to the saints. Our labor in the Lord is not in vain and the Lord remembers your labor of love. Your labor in exhorting your labor for the saints to see them strengthened. He remembers that and that is shown toward his name in that we ministered to the saints and do minister it says there. Look over another page chapter 10 look down at verse 23 chapter 10 verse 23 it says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. This is called the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. It is not enough to say the doctrine of eternal security. Eternal security is a portion of the perseverance of the saints. The doctrine that encompasses all of this is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. We're to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider one another in this to stir up love and good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of some but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching it is incumbent upon us to do this. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 and this more is exhortation. This is our responsibility to the body of Christ verse 12 says this therefore strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be dislocated but rather be healed pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord looking carefully. That's what we're talking about here looking carefully watching out for one another lest any one fall short of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and by this many become defiled lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. We're to look out for one another we're to watch carefully. This was a reality for Timothy in Ephesus Ephesus was a difficult assignment and Timothy was going to have to confront those in sin. It was tough in chapter 1 verse 3 back in 1 Timothy. Timothy was commanded to approach older men elders in the church and charge them to stop teaching divergent doctrines stop teaching false teaching. So how do you then censure an older man without communicating disrespect or without communicating an abusive authoritarianism if you're in Timothy's shoes or in our shoes. How do you do that? Well you do what verse 1 goes on to say you exhort them it means to call along to your side. It has a semantic range meaning anything from comfort to encouragement to correction to reproof has a wide semantic range to encourage them. You're to correct them. You're to appeal to them. You're to call them to your side. Again this paricaleo here in verse 1 is a present tense active verb which means that it's ongoing it's consistent it's a way of life. Galatians 6 verse 1 says this brethren if a man is overtaken in any trespass you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness considering yourself lest you also be tempted to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ right heart for confronting sin then is not a violent verbal attack but the right heart for confronting sin is a loving restorative redemptive patient gentle forgiving strengthening corrective respectful confrontation. That's the way we're to do it. It's exhort calling them to your side. Now put yourself in Timothy's shoes. This is something we all have a responsibility to do. Timothy is reasonably young and he's been somewhat faint hearted. Now imagine you in the situation of having to address an older man in a sin. Would that make you think you might be faint hearted in that situation? It's not easy to do. It's a learned skill, something we have to be ready to do so that we learn how to do it. He's been commanded to set an example. He's been commanded to make sure that his progress is evident to all. His leadership to this point could be characterized possibly as timid. There was conflict raging in the church at Ephesus. Things were becoming unraveled. Ephesus was coming apart at the seams and Timothy was going to have to step in deal with false teachers. There were women who were devotees of the false teachers who were being led away by various lusts. He was going to have to deal with that. He was going to have to say some hard things and do some hard things and rebuke and resurrection were absolutely going to be necessary. But he could not give into his timidity or his fear in this. You, Christian, cannot give into a spirit of fear or timidity in this. You must do it. Very quickly, let me give you one example. Go to Ezekiel chapter 2 with me. Let's take some exhortation here from the Lord himself on this. We must do this and be thankful in this to this point that you don't have the assignment that Timothy had in Ephesus and you don't have the assignment that Ezekiel here had in Israel. And then take exhortation from the Lord on what to do about it here beginning chapter 2 verse 1. So God said here, He said to me, to Ezekiel, son of man, stand on your feet and I'll speak to you. Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me and He sent me on my feet and I heard Him who spoke to me and He said to me, son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel. How would you like this assignment? To a rebellious nation that is rebelled against me, they and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day for they are impudent and stubborn children and I am sending you to them and you shall say to them thus says the Lord God as for them whether they hear or whether they refuse for they are a rebellious house yet they will know that a prophet has been among them. Listen, whether they hear you Matthew 18, if they hear you, you've won your brother. Praise the Lord. But whether they hear you or not, whether they're going to listen to you or not, you have a job to do. You must exhort. Verse 6, you son of man do not be afraid of them and don't be afraid of their words. Though briars and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks though they are a rebellious house but you shall speak my words to them whether they hear you or whether they refuse for they are rebellious but you son of man hear what I say to you do not be rebellious like that rebellious house open your mouth and eat what I give you in other words speak my words. Listen, they may be rebellious or they may not be they may receive your words or they may not you're not to fear them do the work that God has given you to do whether they receive it or not and you're not to be rebellious as they are you're to do what the Lord has asked you to do this is a job that we've got and we have to do this faithfully and well because this is so important to the soul of that person and so important to the health and vitality of the Lord's church James 5 19 this is why it's so important James says this brethren if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back let him know he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins in this lives are at stake the church is serious business this is not a weekend deal the church is made up of people who have never dying souls and we need to care for one another in this if you're here today and you're a Christian pleading with you I am pleading with you on the authority from God's word and for our own benefit for the benefit of Christ church which he purchased with his own blood be faithful to the Lord and exhorting your brother if you see people trailing off go after them you see people sinning get that corrected if you yourself are sinning receive exhortation with humility it's for the good of this church for the good of the body for the good of that person soul for your own good and for the good of God's name if you're here today and you're not a Christian what in the world are you doing there is judgment that hangs over your head we come to you now and exhort and plead with you be reconciled to God or you will face an eternal torment and eternal judgment against your sin aren't you sick and tired of the life that you're living turn to Christ and listen when Christ forgives you of your sin washes you clean he adopts you into his body and he puts you in a family of people that care for and love and tend to your soul you're not alone in this the Lord will wash you and cleanse you and care for you says Ezekiel like a baby for your eternal good if you persist in your sin in life for yourself you will die and face the judgment and fury of Almighty God be reconciled be justified turn from your sin and put your faith in Christ people my brothers and sisters I love you and I love this church we've got to be faithful to the Lord in this don't give up on going to your brother going to your sister don't be slack in approaching and exhorting and loving and holding accountable we have to have accountability Lord has blessed that here amen if you've been here you've seen beautiful fruit come from brother loving brother and just going and addressing sin don't stop don't give up on that work and in that there's great blessing, great faithfulness to the Lord and the Lord will continue to give us fruit amen Father in heaven God we love you Lord and we thank you so much for this instruction is so practical and God thank you for that thank you for the the fruit that we've seen as a result of that in this church and God I pray that we just continue to be faithful in these things I love my brothers and sisters and I care about what happens to them and I know they care about what happens to me and we are our brother's keeper and we see that clearly from your word help us to be faithful in these things to honor you Lord but also for the good of their soul so help us as we apply these truths I pray that we'd be convicted by this God I pray that we'd be shamed Lord when we don't faithfully obey you in this but that Lord you would continue to bless you continue to bear fruit as a result of the faithfulness of your people in this and that you would be honored that Christ would be exalted and that when we get to heaven we'd be there together and we love you Lord and thank you for this time of worship I pray that you'd be pleased with it in Jesus name Amen