 The wisdom of God that is just packed in there, and these verses are no exception, verses one and two, there's just so much there for us to learn from, so much packed in, and I pray that we'll be able to dive into some of that this morning. We have a lot to take from this, and I pray that you won't allow this instruction simply to pass in one ear out the other. This is important instruction that we need to take heed to if we want a healthy, biblical, thriving, fervent, serving church that exalts Jesus Christ. We need to take heed to what the Lord is telling us to do here. We all have to learn how to handle confrontation, and as we've been walking through these two verses, we began last week looking at the heart that we need in this for obedience. Today, we're gonna look at a heart for wisdom and how we are to go about this in wisdom from the Lord, and then lastly, we're gonna look at the heart that we're to have for our family, and we get this from verses one and two here. We all need accountability. We all need exhortation, and we all need to be able to provide that for a brother or sister who needs help. So we saw that last week in verse one with respect to a heart for obedience. The Bible says, do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him. In that beginning of this verse, we see two verbs, two commands. These are commands here that we must obey. One, do not rebuke, epiplakesase. Don't strike, don't inflict with blows. Don't verbally assault a sinning older brother, but you're to exhort him as a father. The second command is, but exhort. And this is a command to every Christian that we are to exhort in the church. The first command that we're looking at says, don't be abusive with your leadership. Don't be abusively authoritarian with your leadership. And this is the second command here, and this command is the one that's often tough. You must resolve in your heart to obey the Lord and this command to exhort. And you've got to follow through. There's a command here to exhort. He says, don't rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father. So now, how do you communicate as we review last week? How do you communicate, censure and correction without disrespect or abuse of authority when you're dealing with an older man, an older brother in sin? You paricaleo him, you exhort him, you call him to your side, you make an appeal, you urge, you exhort, you even rebuke in the biblical sense of the word in that way that you expose sin and then correct sin in a loving manner, but you call him to your side, you plead, you make an appeal. This is the way that you are to respectfully confront sin in an older man. Now, incidentally, this is like other things in the Christian walk. This is one of those things that is an example of something that we're all commanded to do, but then you also have those in the church that are specifically gifted by God to do this. This is what it says in Romans chapter 12 verse six. Paul says in Romans chapter 12, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, but he who exhorts in exhortation. Now think about that for a moment. The Lord specifically gifts brothers and sisters in the church with a gift to exhort, but now that doesn't let everyone else off the hook. Ephesians four says that it's those who are gifted with that gift that are used that gift to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. So if you are gifted in exhortation, exhort, and then use your gift to equip others in that. Exhortation then is a, not only a command, but it's a skill that we have to cultivate. It's a skill that we have to develop. There are those in the church that are gifted to do it. And so as you learn how to have those conversations, as you learn how to do that tough thing sometimes, look to those brothers, look to those sisters that are gifted and learn from them. You know, in Ephesus here in 1st Timothy, Timothy had a really tough assignment. There were older men in the church that were teaching false doctrines. They were leading people astray. And so Timothy had to have many, most likely many tough conversations. But could he escape that? Could he step back and say, no, no, no, Lord, not me, and allow somebody else? No, Timothy had to obey the Lord. But oftentimes that's a fearful thing to step out and do. You must overcome your fear of man. You must overcome, as the Bible says, don't fear their faces. The way that you overcome your fear of man, the way that you become faithful to the Lord in this is to merely step out and to begin doing it. And as you do it, learn from those in the church that are gifted at doing that. This is a skill that we have to cultivate in ourselves. And this is a skill that's required that we implement. All right? Secondly, another incidental here. Incidentally, we are to exhort in the church, exhort one another faithfully, more and more with a view of the imminent or expected at any time return of Jesus Christ. Listen to what it says in Hebrews, chapter 10. In verse 24, it says, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Now when these words were written 2,000 years ago, they saw the return of Christ as being imminent. They saw an urgency to what was being written. Fast forward 2,000 years into our context, has it gotten more urgent? Well, yes it has. We're that much more closer to the imminent return of Christ. There's that much more urgency, that much more necessity for us to exhort one another and stir one another up to love and good works, so much the more as the author of Hebrews says, as you see the day approaching, the imminent return of Jesus Christ should have, is to have a purifying and sanctifying influence on our lives. We, because of that, aren't to grumble with one another, aren't to be at odds with one another, aren't to have conflicts with one another. Listen to what James says in chapter five. James says, the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. Consider this, that Christ's return is at hand. How should we be living our lives and then how should we be interrelating with each other, with one another, in the church? How much more than important is this command that we should be exhorting one another? And all this for the purpose that brothers and sisters would persevere to the end and be saved. We're facing difficult times, so many pleasures, so many leisure, so many entertainment, so many distractions. For our own personal Christian walk, much less the work that the Lord has given us to do, and we can be swept away by the current of this world. As we see that day approaching, we need to be exhorting one another more and more. Listen to what it says in Romans 13, beginning in verse 11. Paul says, do this, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry or drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. Paul writes to this church here in Ephesus, in this church, he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. So what should inform our understanding of this exhortation to rebuke, to correct, to exhort, to encourage, to plead, to urge? It is the fact that the day is fast coming when the Lord will return and will he find you sleeping? You must exhort one another, exhort one another, wake one another up. There is no time. There's no time here for apathy. There's no time for indifference. There's no time for this lethargy that has just swept through the church. I mean, how many people do you run into sharing the gospel and you're out sharing the gospel? We don't run into anybody out sharing the gospel other than false teachers, Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons. Listen, the time, the days are short and the days are evil. Wake up, we're to exhort one another to get to the work because the Lord is coming back and he's given us a work to do. People are dying. Understand, the Lord Jesus Christ came first as the suffering servant, but he will come back as the conquering king to execute judgment. He comes back to execute judgment and we've got a great commission. Too many Christians today, examine yourself in this. Too many Christians today live their so-called Christian life half asleep. Is that you? Are you living your Christian life in indifference, in apathy? Are you living your Christian life like some sleeping drug has come over you? Wake up and get about the work that the Lord has given us to do. We need to obey him and be faithful to him in this. People are dying and going to hell. Are you like those foolish virgins that slept and slumbered while the bridegroom delayed his coming? There's a warning in that, amen. Jesus himself said in Mark chapter 13, watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And the testimony of scripture is that he's coming suddenly. He is coming. So this, again, back to Hebrews 10, exhortation is to be practiced. It is to be commanded. But there is an urgency and an import to this command to exhort because of the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is coming. We're to faithfully exhort one another more and more and more as we see that day approaching. Brothers and sisters, we've got to be faithful in this. As you see your brother, your sister waxing and waning in apparent sleep and slumber, we need to exhort one another. Wake up, get to the business, and do that with the right heart. The second point on your notes is that we're to have a heart for confrontation. We're to have a heart to obey the Lord in this. If you're in Christ, obey the Lord. But lastly, secondly, we're to have a heart for wisdom in this. Point to a heart for wisdom. Here, Paul says to Timothy, don't rebuke an older man, but exhort him as, and it gives here instruction for the manner in which we're to exhort one another. First, it's important that you do it. We must exhort. When we see sin, when we see someone faltering, when we see someone trailing away or withdrawing themselves, exhort them. But also, secondly, the manner in which you confront sin in the body of Christ is important too. It's important the way that you do it. It takes wisdom. Here, we're not to verbally beat someone down, but we're to exhort, and here it is, as an older man as a father. Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters with all purity. In other words, it's not all zeal here with no tact. We're to use tact. You can't be a bull in a china shop when you're gonna exhort in the church. This is not to be a tongue lashing. We're not to be abusive or authoritarian. We're not to be lording it over them as the Gentiles do that we see in Matthew 20, right? You must say what needs to be said. You must deliver the hard truth, but you must wrap that in as much context and care as you can. It's the velvet covered brick is the analogy. You deliver the hard truth. You say you don't shy away from saying what needs to be said, but you wrap that in as much love and care and concern as you can. Here, think for a moment about how you might approach a father, for example. And consider that in the light of scripture. Exodus 20 gives us the command, one of the 10 commandments, that we are to honor our father and our mother. But I'll think if you read your Bible and you go beyond Exodus 20, you've got Exodus 21, which describes if a rebellious son or daughter repudiates a father or a mother, that's a capital offense. They could be put to death for that. So it's important that we honor our father. So how would that inform your understanding of how you approach an older man in Christ who's in sin? We're to respect them. We're to exhort them as a father. The word they're honor from Exodus 20 is to put great weight upon, great respect. How might you demonstrate respect, demonstrate honor, demonstrate care and concern to an older man who is sinning? That, if you understand it that way, right? It's going to impact the way that you say it. It's gonna have an impact on the words that you choose to use. It might even have an impact, right? If you're thoughtful about it, might have an impact on your body language. It's not a, right? It's an exhorting. It should impact your body language. It should impact your facial expressions. It should impact the way, the manner in which you say it. It should impact the context in which you say it. Now, you're not to be in this exhortation, this role here. You're not to be a pushover. You've got to say that which needs to be said, but it's the manner in which you say it that is also important. It's to be done with respect, to be done with wisdom. Timothy had some hard things to say, some tough things to say, but he had to use wisdom in how he did that. Now, this also, this exhortation and this manner in which we're to exhort also applies to younger women, to older women and to younger men. We should be wise in every situation in which we enter into exhortation with a sinning brother or sister. We've got to use wisdom. And here in chapter five verses one and two, there's a lot of rich relational wisdom from Paul here. Otherwise, as James says, if you're not careful, if you don't think through with wisdom how you're going to use your tongue, you can start forest fires. Listen to what James says in chapter three. The tongue is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our God and Father and with it, we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. And we've got to be careful when we exhort, that we exhort with wisdom, that we use our words carefully and that we respect an older man, an older woman, that we respect our younger brothers, our younger sisters. Right here though in verse one, it begins that older men are to be exhorted as a father. In other words, as a father, you're not to exhort from a position of superiority. He's an older man. You're to exhort him as a father. There is a natural humility and a healthy fear in the way that you should address and respect your father. That same humility, that same healthy fear should be there in exhorting an older man. Some people have a tendency to forget themselves. And they can come across very haughty, very pointed, very disrespectfully when they go to address an older man. And usually that's the fruit of pride. It's the fruit of an immature, younger man who's not using wisdom in how he speaks to an older man. But be warned from this. Proverbs chapter 30, verse 17 says this, the eye that mocks his father and scorns obedience to his mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out and the young eagles will eat it. But be careful, young men, in how you address an older man. Approach this older man is one example we see in scripture from Daniel in Daniel chapter four, when Daniel in addressing King Nebuchadnezzar, he's addressing a man of position, a man of authority, and so he addresses him with respect. Listen to how Daniel addresses him. Oh, King, now he's about to rebuke the king for his sin. Oh, King, he says, let my advice be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by being righteous and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity. You know, let my advice be acceptable to you. It's just a humble way of addressing someone in authority here. And we have to take practical examples from this in the way that we do the same thing. We're all gonna need accountability. We're all gonna need exhortation. The older man, the younger man, the older woman, the younger one, we all need it. How you do it is important. Jim, you know, Jim may be twice your age, right? I need to talk to you, brother. Can we just step into another room and talk for a moment? You go in the room with Jim. I have such great love for you, brother. I'm so grateful for you. I looked at your example in the church and just grateful that you're here and grateful for the example that you've provided. And I've learned so much from you. It's just been a joy getting to know you. Jim, brother, there's something that's been grieving my heart and I really need to talk to you. It's something I feel pressed to talk to you about. And I pray, Jim, that you'll accept this in the spirit with which it is intended and the love that I have for you that here's what we need to talk about in you. Is that a respectful way to address an older man? It's just that of love and care and concern. Not a Jim. By now, as old as you are, you ought to know better. But here I gotta, you know, no. We gotta be respectful the way that we talk with one another. We see examples of this in scripture with the way that Paul interrelates with other people in the church. Let me give you an example of that. Go to Acts chapter 22. Acts chapter 22. Let's just look at some wisdom from Paul in the way that Paul has done this. Acts chapter 22 and look beginning at verse one. Now this isn't an individual here. Paul is about to address a mob of angry people who would just as soon carry him out and kill him as look at him. And so how did Paul address this mob? Acts chapter 22, look at verse one. First, he says, brethren and fathers. It's very respectful, right? Calling them brothers. Brethren and fathers. Hear my defense before you now. And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept all the more silent. So I'll think about it for a moment. He addressed them as brethren, addressed them as fathers and then addressed them in Hebrew as a sign of respect and great love for them and a sign of respect for their heritage together. It's just a respectful way of addressing this mob that just as soon would have taken him out and stoned him to death. He said what needed to be said, but he did it respectfully. There is a limit to that. They still wanted to take Paul out and kill him. So he's gonna say what needed to be said, but he did it in a respectful manner. Flip the page and look at Acts chapter 23. Acts chapter 23. And look beginning in verse one here. Acts chapter 23, verse one. Now again, you have here the position of the high priest and the position of the high priest was worthy of respect. Paul is saying to Timothy in first Timothy chapter five that the position of an older man is worthy of respect. And so make the application here. Acts 23, verse one. Then Paul looking earnestly at the council said, men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall. Okay, at first Paul gets away from himself there, but then he's told who Ananias is. He says, for you sit and judge me according to the law do you command me to be struck contrary to the law? Those who stood by said, do you revile God's high priest? And Paul said, verse five. Now this is, you gotta understand, these are not righteous men. These were wicked Pharisees and commanded in contrary to the law to strike Paul. So could Paul have been justified in what he said was certainly, but there is an element here that Paul wants to respond to this person and authority with respect, with deference respectfully. Verse five. Paul said, I did not know brethren that he was the high priest for it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. Here he wants to address the high priest with respect. It's also fulfilling a commandment, obeying a command of the Lord here, where to do the same. Flip the page again and look at Acts chapter 26. Acts chapter 26. Here beginning in verse one, we have Paul addressing King Agrippa. And here he could have addressed King Agrippa, as this wicked king with no respect whatsoever. He's a wicked king. But listen to how Paul addresses him. Chapter 26, verse one. Then Agrippa said to Paul, you are permitted to speak for yourself. So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because today I shall answer for myself before you, concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, especially because you are expert in all customs and questions, which have to do with the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently. Just a very respectful way to address someone in authority, right? So Paul's gonna give his testimony, but he addresses King Agrippa with respect. Flip over to Galatians chapter two. This is the passage that many of us are familiar with. Galatians chapter two. Now here, Paul is addressing Peter. And Paul is gonna have to address his sinning brother. But he does so with respect and deference. Look at Galatians chapter two and look at verse 11. You know, when Peter had come to Antioch, the Bible says, I withstood him, Paul says, to his face. Now, many of you young guys might think to yourself, well, that's all bravado. He got up nose to nose. He had his right bicep flex. He's about to unload. That's not what, face to face here. Withstood him face to face means that he handled it man to man. We're exhorted in scripture. Matthew 18, church discipline. You're to go to your brother alone and deal with him. You're to face him face to face. You're not to whisper behind his back. You're not to slander. You're not to gossip. You're not to tail bear your offense to someone else. You're to go to him man to man. Here's what Paul did, he went to him. This is an act of respect for your brother. You go to him man to man and you work this out. So he withstood him to his face. Because he was to be blamed, he was in sin. For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter, you wicked sinner. That's not what he said to Peter. He said to Peter before them all, he asked them a question. And again to elicit the right understanding. It wasn't disrespectful. It was very respectful. It was loving toward his brother. He was drawing Peter in to his exhortation in order that Peter might come to this conclusion on his own, just a very respectful way of handling this brother. He says, if you being a Jew live in the manner of Gentiles and not as Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. And he goes on with his questioning of Peter but a very respectful manner in the way that he addressed him. We've gotta learn from this. Back in 1 Timothy chapter five, these positions, if you will, warranted respect. Well what the Lord is saying to us through 1 Timothy chapter five is that we are to respect one another in the way that we exhort. Older men worthy of respect. Younger men also, younger women also. Older women worthy of respect. We must demonstrate deference, respect, love, care, concern in the way that we exhort one another. It's to be done, as Paul says in Galatians six, in a spirit of gentleness. We're to love one another in this. But too he says here, not only are older men to be exhorted as a father, but he says here that younger men are to be exhorted as brothers. And again, having the right heart here for confrontation, we need to exhort our younger brothers in a similar way. Now, notice here that it does not say to treat younger men like sons, all right? It says here to treat them as brothers. In other words, not inferior to us. You don't treat a young man as inferior but you treat them as equals. You don't look down on them. You treat them as equals. You show loving respect. This is the Christian understanding of the brotherhood of believers. Whether you're a brother fresh out of the oven, say five minutes, or you're a brother, an older brother, it's been in the faith a long time and you're twice as age. You treat them as equals. You show loving respect. This speaks to our unity in Christ. There is no hierarchy in that sense. We are all one body, one brotherhood, one sisterhood in Christ that removes any air of superiority or any air of hierarchy. This command going to Timothy now also means that these people in Ephesus are not his sheep. They are the Lord's sheep and they are Timothy's brothers and Timothy is to interact with them as brothers. Seeing them this way does not mean that you don't confront. Nah, he's just a younger brother. No, you must confront them in their sin. You must exhort. Matthew 18 verse 15 says this. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. That word there go in that verse is a present active imperative. It's a command. If your brother sins against you, you're commanded to go to him, tell him his fault when you're brother back. Often write the worldly way to handle this. The worldly way, the way that most people in the world handle confrontation is to avoid it. They don't want to have anything to do with that and they will avoid it at all costs. They will even avoid confrontation in their own family. They won't confront one another or deal with one another's sins or deal with division or discord in the family, much less with anyone else. And yet here we have this command from the Lord to do this person to person. Listen to what it says in 2 Thessalonians 3 beginning in verse 13. Here Paul says, but as for you brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. We need to do this and we need to do this faithfully. Don't grow weary in this. And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person, do not keep company with him that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, it says, but admonish him as a brother. That word for admonish, present active imperative. It's another command. This is something that we are to do. This is to be a way of life in the church. And speaking of this, it rises out of an understanding in the Old Testament for how Old Testament Israelites were to interact and interrelate with their brothers. Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 17 says this. Leviticus says, you shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. This is necessary. Now notice there, Leviticus 19 that it says, you shall not hate. What we get from that is this. It is loving to exhort a brother in sin. It's the loving thing to do. It is unloving, it is hateful, not to. What does the Bible say about exhorting or rebuking or correcting your kids? You discipline your kids, you love them. If you spare the rod, you spoil the child. If you don't discipline, you hate your kids. We're to discipline out of love. We're to discipline because we love. There's a great example of this in the Proverbs. Flip with me to Proverbs chapter 27. Proverbs chapter 27. And again, we've gotta remember this is necessary in the body and necessary for many reasons, which we'll discuss. We must do this. We must have the culture of this in our church. Proverbs chapter 27. And look beginning in verse five, verse five. Listen to this wisdom. Proverbs 27, verse five. Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. All right, now think about this for a moment. The words there carefully concealed literally means drawn up or withdrawn, closed up or withdrawn, okay? In other words, rebuke is an evidence of love. Failing to rebuke shows a withdrawn or a concealed or a closed up love. We must be faithful if we love our brother to rebuke when necessary. The word for friend, faithful are the wounds of a friend, that word for friend there literally means one who loves. Faithful are the wounds of one who loves, but it goes on the kisses of an enemy, that word for enemy there is literally one who hates. But it says the kisses of one who hates are deceitful. Okay, therefore an enemy may seem like a true friend because of the deceitful kisses that he gives or the deceitful gestures. He may approach you as a friend, but he's not willing to rebuke. He's not a friend. He doesn't love you in that way. Here, the true friend is the one who is willing to wound for our good because we need it. We all need accountability. We all need exhortation. We need a loving brother, a loving sister to come by, call us to their side and say, come on brother, right? You want your friend, somebody you know, to tell you you've got something in your nose before you, right? Hey buddy, your fly's down. I mean that's a good thing to hear from a brother. We need exhortation. We need help. We need the loving brother to come alongside and exhort us. We're commanded to do it. A friend, if a person genuinely loves his brother, he will not fear to exhort his brother or rebuke his brother, correct his brother when that time is necessary. Now men, young men, let me give you a warning in this. Although older men may treat you as equals and we are to treat older men as a father with respect and that is very helpful for you younger men in your maturing and as you grow in Christ, you should not think of yourself as equals. Even though older men may treat you as brothers, may treat you as equals, don't necessarily think of yourself the same way. You're to respond to an older man as a father, okay? Treat older men as fathers. Don't think more highly of yourselves than you ought. Often this is a fruit of a young man's pride and it is a young man's disease that they think of themselves that way. You need to be humble around older men in the faith. Don't think of yourselves too highly, more highly than you ought. It's also an interesting footnote here that although Paul exhorts here for us to treat older men as a father, exhort younger men as a brother, that he often in scripture will call young men sons or children, call believers children. And that in scripture is always a show of affection. It's a sign of affection. My beloved son Timothy, my dear son in the faith, Timothy. That's just a sign of affection. Paul says here that we're to exhort younger men as brothers. He goes on to say in verse one that we're to exhort older women as mothers. And again, like older men, this is rich with respect and deference. Timothy had a wonderful mother who from his youth taught him the scriptures which were able to make him wise to salvation. But think about your mother. Maybe you didn't have the best mother in the world, think about the way that an older mature, nurturing, godly, loving mother should be exhorted. Think about the way that you should appeal to or urge an older woman were to do that as a mother. We have an example of this in scripture as well. In the church at Philippi, there were two women in the church that were being divisive. And so Paul exhorts a couple of brothers to listen, go and deal with these two older ladies in the church. It was written in an open letter to the church at Philippi. So Paul is dealing with these two divisive ladies in the church at Philippi in an open letter. Listen to how he dealt with them. Listen to Philippians chapter four, beginning in verse one, where Paul says, therefore my beloved and long for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. I implore, he says, I urge, I'm begging you, you idea, and I implore Sintiki to be of the same mind in the Lord. I urge you, you wicked ladies. No, I urge you also, true companion, help these women and not just help them. He addresses them as a, you know, as he would his own mother, exhorting them to be of the same mind. Listen, get this divisive problem fixed here. But then he goes on, who labored with me in the gospel. They're co-labors with Paul in the gospel, recognizes them as sisters, very respectful. He says with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. This is just a loving way to confront an older woman, older lady in the Lord. But also he goes on to say in first Timothy chapter five, that we're to exhort younger women as sisters. Same amount of respect, same amount of equality as younger men, not as inferior, not as daughters per se, you're not to look down on them, but as sisters. However, here, back in first Timothy chapter five, this exhortation in verse two is laden down, loaded up with additional significance because of the additional and very important, very significant words, with all purity. Purity there means agneia in the Greek. It's sexual chastity, sexual purity. But it also conveys innocence. It conveys an integrity of heart, an integrity of mind, purity in thoughts and in actions. And it's not just purity here, it's all purity. There's a comprehensive scope to this command here. All increases the urgency with which we are to exhort. The importance and necessity of our exhortation, we're to exhort here with all purity. But there's a warning here. We cannot, you are not to play games with the purity of God's daughter. You're not to play games, you're not to play games with a purity of most likely someone else's future wife. You are to exhort as sisters, but you're to treat them with all purity. You're to treat younger women in the church with as much sexual or lustful indifference as you would your own physical flesh and blood sister. That's the way you review other sisters in the church. The church is no place for adultery. Church is no place for fornication. That's tantamount in this context. Tantamount to incest. And you're to view it that way. So check your heart, men. We are to view our sister with as much lustful indifference as we would our own flesh and blood sister. You know what I'm saying? That's the way that we're to show respect to our sisters here. Think about it for a moment. How much drama, how much sin, how much bitter fruit would be avoided, in the church, in the pulpit, if men would be serious about that warning? How much sin could be avoided? How many pastors wouldn't have fallen? How much sin, lying, deceit, adultery, fornication would be avoided in the pews if men would obey that warning? Listen to 1st Thessalonians chapter four. And here Paul says in verse three, this is the will of God for you. Your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and in honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this manner, because the Lord is the Avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified, for God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God who has also given us his Holy Spirit. So what do you do? What kinds of safeguards or guidelines are implicit in Paul's command here? How do you think about this? How are we to relate to younger women as sisters? One, you don't spend time behind closed doors with women in private, with someone who's not your wife. You keep the doors wide open, the window shades open, brothers around. If you're courting, you're to interact, interrelate with your sister with all purity. You don't put her purity or even the appearance of her purity at risk by spending time alone behind closed doors with her in private. You don't give looks, right? You don't give flattery. You don't give huggy consolation when she's not feeling well. It's you avoid the touch, those things that, in other words, if her purity is your highest consideration, then she's going to be indifferent to you in terms of lust, indifferent to you in terms of that. Do not desire her in your heart. She is to be honored. She is to be respected as God's daughter and as someone else's future wife. If she's going to be your wife, and there's a time for that, it's called engagement and marriage. There's such wisdom from the word of God in these, just these simple words. It is absolutely necessary here to have this heart for confrontation in the Lord's body such that we can keep his body pure, to be faithful to him in these things. We're ahead of a heart for confrontation. Let me leave this point with this. First Thessalonians chapter five, verse 14, Paul says, now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly. Comfort the faint-hearted. Uphold the weak. Be patient with all. Lest you think that this command in First Timothy chapter five is strictly for Timothy, this is what we're all to do. We exhort you, all brethren, all of you. Warn those who are unruly. Comfort the faint-hearted. Uphold the weak. Be patient with all. Goes on to say in verse 15, see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. Now point three on your notes. We're to have a heart for obedience to the Lord. We're to have a heart to do this in wisdom, with wisdom from the Lord. Thirdly, we're to have a heart for our family here. Notice the words that the Holy Spirit specifically and purposefully uses. We're to exhort the older man as a father, younger man as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters with all purity. And scripture often paints just a beautiful picture of our family in scripture, believers being in the family of God together. And our spiritual family here is the context which informs our understanding and the importance of our exhortation, the necessity for us to confront in the church. We must certainly confront sin in our physical families. We also have to do that in the family of God. This has profound implications. Ephesians chapter three, beginning in verse 14 says this, for this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, God related to you as father, from whom the whole family in heaven, believers called family there, in heaven and earth is named. God says in second Corinthians chapter six, verse 18, I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty. Again, a picture of family. In Matthew chapter 12, beginning in verse 49, Jesus says this, while he was talking to the multitudes, behold his mother and brothers stood outside seeking to speak with him. Then one said to him, look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with you. But he answered and said to the one who told him, who is my mother and who are my brothers? And he stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, here are my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. We have a family when you come to Christ, you're coming to the family of God, you're adopted into his family and he sees you and interrelates with you based on that metaphor. We are brothers and sisters. We have God who is our father. It says of Jesus Christ that he's not a shame to call us brothers because we're tempted in the same way. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. This is, I think it's for several reasons in the church, for several reasons. One, when many people in this day and age came to Christ, they lost everybody. They lost their family. They were disowned, disinherited. They lost their jobs. They lost fiance's. They lost everything. And Jesus says himself in Mark chapter 10 verse 29, assuredly I say to you, there is no one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels who shall not receive a hundred fold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. We find our family identity in the family of God. We find our family identity in Christ. But also here for another reason, there's such a care and concern in this for the peace and unity and purity of the church. This time, at this time, you had Gentiles pouring into the church by faith in Christ. And there was a real potential problem that would have created two churches. The Jewish people at this time were so racist, they would not have considered Gentiles or Samaritans as brothers and sisters in the faith. So by using this language, it promotes unity and peace in the body of Christ. Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, verse 19, he says, now therefore to Gentiles, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you're fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. We're not the black sheep of the family, we're a part of the family. We're to be part of the family, seed, the spiritual seed of Abraham. But another reason is that we should love one another and care for one another as we would our own physical family. That's the reason behind the exhortation, to love and care for one another. The metaphor of family here, these words that are used should impose upon us the importance and the necessity of our exhortation of our brothers. We must doggedly labor to maintain peace and unity, must doggedly labor on behalf of our brother, on behalf of our sister, that they might persevere to the end and be saved. This is the household of God. Everyone who repents, everyone who turns from sin, everyone who puts their faith and trust in Christ alone to save them is a member of God's family, is adopted into that family. In that sense, the Christian's family is the body of Christ that takes precedence. In that sense, Cornerstone Baptist Church is just not like my family. This is my family. We are brothers and sisters together and we have a responsibility in that to exhort one another that we might all persevere to the end and be saved. Philip Graham Reichen said this. He said, blood may well be thicker than water, but the spirit is thicker than blood. That is true. So just like an orderly and loving family, each person is treated or should be treated with love, with warmth, with respect, with gentleness, not abusive, not authoritarian, not lording it over them. In that same sense, there must be accountability. There must be a confrontation of sin. And this is completely lost in most churches today. Completely lost. Anonymity rules. People don't want to get into one another's lives. They remain isolated. Proverbs 18 says the one who isolates himself seeks his own desire. We're to be in one another's lives. We cannot be the kind of family that doesn't love to the degree that we will confront our brother or sister when they need it. We must be doing that. We're to enter into one another's lives and apply the gospel where to love in that way. Think about it this way. What kind of care or concern would you begin to demonstrate in your own family if your son, if your daughter, if your wife began withdrawing herself, himself, from the family? What would you do? That's your physical family. There's a necessity for that in God's family. And that's the reason, the basis on which we get this exhortation. If you're in a church like that that doesn't practice this at all, you could leave, be missing for months, and no one would call you. Not even concerned that you're gone, you know? You may come back. Someone that's missing from that church for three months comes back to the church and someone thinks to themselves to say, hey, Deacon Bob, where have you been? And Deacon Bob answers from going to and fro on the earth and walking back and forth on it. If you know that passage of scripture. No one cares. There's no confrontation. There's no getting into one another's lives. There's no accountability. There's no exhortation. There must be loving accountability and loving exhortation among our family. Now the bottom line is you need accountability. I need accountability. You need to be asked how you're doing. I need to be asked that question. We must hold one another accountable. It protects our peace, our unity, our purity. And this is wisdom from God for the church. We love our family. We're gonna do this. This is how we're to conduct ourselves in the household of God. It's a purpose for Paul's writing to Timothy. Now to add to this, aside from a very popular notion, believe it or not, we are not all children of God. We're not all in the family of God. That is unbiblical to say that. Some are outside of Christ and they're of their father, the devil. That's what scripture clearly teaches. It's such a sad, grieving memory for me. But attending a false church a long time ago and just having been newly saved, Lord, it just saved me and coming to grips with what scripture teaches. I just remember sitting in the church and thinking about the church and the way the church is to be. And I know people and you've got people that are committing adultery, people in fornication, people lying and hating, gossiping, causing division, causing discord. And then to sit there in church and listen to a song that was often sang, heard it many, many times in that church. I am a friend of God. I'm a friend of God. And so you who are living in your sin, in open rebellion against God, in your fornication, in your adultery, in your lying, in your gossiping, in your cheating, in your sin, singing on a Sunday morning in praise and worship, I am a friend of God. That's not a friend of God. That is an enemy of God by their wicked works. In order to be a friend of God, in order to be in the family of God, you must turn from your sin and put your faith and trust in Christ alone to save you. You must turn from living for yourself. Here's an exhortation for you. If you're in your sin, if you've not submitted yourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, if you've not put your faith, hope, trust, reliance in Christ alone, then you are an enemy of God by your wicked works. You are still of your father the devil and you will one day stand before him in judgment and find yourself in hell. Turn from your sin, turn from living for yourself and turn to Christ. Christ will forgive you, he'll cleanse you, he'll pardon you, he'll wash you, he'll put you in his own family and make you a brother. Make you a sister. Put around you loving brothers and sisters who will care about whether you go to hell or not, will care about whether you're drifting into sin or not and will love you enough to come and talk to you about it. Apart from that, you know, a lot of people that you go to, you try to exhort them in that way and they gnash at you with their teeth. We see that in scripture. Others receive it. Receive the exhortation. The Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect spotless lamb of God died to save you from the power of sin, died to save you from the penalty of sin, died to save you from the wrath of God if you will put your faith in him. He'll give you a new heart. He'll give you a spirit that cause you to live the Christian life if you'll turn from your sin and live for him. If you're here today and you're a Christian, let me conclude by saying this. As much as you are commanded in scripture, and we are, it's many places in scripture, you're commanded to exhort your brother, you're commanded to exhort your sister. As much as we're commanded to do that, we also have to be humble in receiving it. Receive exhortation well. Prepare your heart, use wisdom, think about it in the context in which it's in, in the context of our family, and receive it as a loving, humble brother or sister should receive it with love, with humility, not with evil suspicion, not with being too sensitive or too defensive. Receive exhortation well. Reminded of Galatians 4, as your brother become your enemy because he tells you the truth. No, that is a friend who is faithful, not afraid or ashamed to wound you when necessary to help you. We must persevere to the end and be saved. I think this passage sums it up well. Listen to this from Colossians chapter three, beginning in verse 12. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Let's pray. Father in heaven, God, thank you for this simple, clear command that is so profound. God, I carry so much weight for the body of Christ and grateful to you for it. God, help us to apply this wisdom to our hearts and live by it. Help us to be faithful in this. Lord, we're told in scripture, we must persevere to the end to be saved. And so, God, I need my brothers and sisters and I know they need me. And Lord, find us faithful to live in this way that when one trails or one becomes lethargic or one falls asleep, God, that we would go to them in love and a spirit of gentleness and return and airing brother from the airing of his way such that, God, when they stand before you, they'll do so with joy. We praise you and worship you in this, God, and ask for your help knowing that none of this is possible in our own effort, none of this is possible in our own strength, but we rely and depend on you, rely, depend on you, Spirit of God, to help us in this. And we pray, God, that when you return, you'll find us faithful in these things, not sleeping, faithfully doing the work that you've given us to do for our own good, for the good of the saints, but also, God, for your glory and for your everlasting praise and worship. In Jesus' name, amen.