Oh, Sovereign Lord. Oh, Father, there are so many ways that we can cry out with the psalmist and say that say that the enemy has has come into your holy place. The the enemy troops have defiled your sanctuary. They have trampled on your holy courts. They have desecrated your holy gospel. They've come into your your very church and brought unholy things into your church. Lord, we see the walls of the church, the defense walls, the doctrinal walls being broken down. We see the suffering of your people, the persecution of the saints around the world. And we cry out, oh, God, that you would arise. that you'd remember your people, that you'd come and save us. Oh, Lord, yours is the pearl that the merchant went searching for, and when he found it, he sold everything he had and bought the pearl. Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the value and the glory. Oh, God, keep our hearts fixed upon the value of the kingdom, the treasure of the gospel. Keep our hearts from being led astray from anything that's of lesser value. Father, I pray for the purity of your church. I pray that you would jealously guard the purity of your church. I pray for the marriages in this room, the marriages represented in this room, even the future marriages represented in this room. Father, I pray that you would grant a holy covenant in each Christian marriage, an undefiled and protected covenant, and that you would help husbands and wives in your church to love each other, to be loyal and faithful to each other. and to honor Christ through the great parable of Christ in the church. Lord, I pray that you would comfort your people. For any who are hurting, any who are listening to this and are hurting, I pray that you'd bring comfort through your Holy Spirit as we open your holy word together. In Jesus' name. Amen. First, Timothy, Chapter five. Verses one through two. This is the word of the Lord. Do not rebuke and. The better translation this morning is do not violently 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. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. God exists eternally as one God. And yet. As a family of persons. God exists in his one Godness as a family of three separate and distinct persons. And yet, when I say that God exists as a family of persons, I am in no way saying that there are three gods. There is one and only one God, but he, the eternal God, exists eternally as this family of persons. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, all who share in the one essence of God. So again, we're not talking about three gods. May it never be. We're not talking about things like the things suggested by that dangerously, I think, heretical book called The Shack, which was all too popular just a few years ago that suggested, even in literary form, that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit could take on bodily human form. May it never be. We're rather talking about the mysterious, glorious, brilliantly inapproachable love. That exists between the three persons of the Godhead. God, the father. God, the son and God, the Holy Spirit, love each other eternally. With this exclusive, unassailable divine family love. So God is family in that sense. And since the one God exists eternally in this family of persons, therefore, God has ordained for human society that the societies of humans ought to function in terms of families. God is family in person. Therefore, God has ordained that the society ought to be built on top of the family. And in the Bible, there are different levels of this. For example, first there is the nuclear family. That's the fundamental building block of human society, the nuclear family. Ephesians 6, 4, and you fathers, do not provoke your children, it's not somebody else's children, that's the nuclear family, to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. And I suggest to you that that verse, Ephesians 6, 4, is the fundamental building block of all human society. And if that verse is violated, then human society itself is in trouble. But then in the Bible, there's a second layer to family, to what family is, and that's the church. The church in the Bible is a family. Acts 2, 44 through 46. Here's the church as a family. Now, all who believed were together. and had all things in common, that's family, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing, continually daily with one another, I'm sorry, with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, that's family. You break bread in each other's houses. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. So the church is an institution of family ordained by God. And then in the Bible, you actually have nation families, you have national families. And the kingdom of Israel was designed to be basically a big, large national family. They were to be a family and not just a nation. Of course, in the New Covenant, once you reach the gospel in the New Covenant, it becomes not national family, but the kingdom of God and the global family of the global church. But in terms of Israel, Stephen speaks to Israel as a family. as a national family. In Acts 7, 1 through 3, Stephen is being accused. He's about to be martyred by his own family members. The high priest said, Are these things so? All the false accusations. And he, Stephen, the martyr, said, Brothers. And fathers. Listen, the God of glory appeared to our father. See, we're family. We're a national family. Abraham. when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Tehran and said to him, get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you. The earliest Puritans, I know there's all kinds of debates over American history here, but the earliest Puritans who came to America had a vision of God's divine family in the Trinity and how God wanted to build human society based on families. They had that vision. They had a vision for the nuclear family being a God-centered home and a God-centered family. And the church then would be made up of nuclear families that were God-centered. And if all the nuclear families were God-centered, then the church would be a God-centered family. And then the nation itself, the vision of the at least earliest Puritans, was for a nation that would be made up of churches that were groups of God-centered families. So the nation itself would be this great big family of God-centered people all built on top of God-centered nuclear families. That was the original, at least earliest, vision. But of course today, all of that is under assault in serious ways, in unprecedented ways. The nuclear family is under attack. in the Western world in unprecedented ways. And as the nuclear family begins to disintegrate under the pressure of the attack, then you watch the church family start to fold. And so you see it's been going on, but now it's going on with a much more rapid pace. This apostatizing of the church family, the church family is drifting away from the sound doctrine of the New Testament. Why? Because the nuclear family is under attack. And the result of that is in the Western world, The national families, the nation states, the national families are now in big jeopardy. They may not know it, they may not believe it, but the truth of the matter is, with the nuclear family being under attack and the church family apostatizing, that means that the nation families of the Western world are in danger of imploding. And if nothing changes, they will. They will implode. History tells us that. Our passage in First Timothy, we're now in chapter five, brings us to the family nature of the church. The church is a family. Now, of course, it's very true that the spiritual health of the nuclear family will determine the health of the local church. That's very true. And we're Genesis family church and we talk about that all the time. But I want to point out that it's also true that the spiritual health of the church family, however healthy the church family is, will have a big impact on the nuclear family and also on the national family. The church is kind of in between. So if the church is healthy, it can have a good impact on the nuclear family and on the national family. But if it's unhealthy, it's going to negatively affect both sides. And therefore, when it comes to the spiritual health of the church family, in a very real way, our homes are at stake and our nation is at stake. The question is, how should we conduct ourselves within the family of God, within the church? And of course, the book of First Timothy as a whole is written to answer that question, the whole book of First Timothy answers the question, how should we conduct ourselves within the family of God? But First Timothy, chapter five, verses one through two are the verses that really get to the heart of it. What does it mean for the for the church family? to really be the church family in a biblical sense. First Timothy five, one through two again. Listen for the family language. Do not violently rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father. That's family language. Younger men as brothers. Older women as mothers. Younger women as sisters. It's all family language. With all purity. So you hear the family language, father. Brothers, mothers, sisters, this is the church as a family and Christians, by definition, are those who use the language of family to address one another. And we do that because the blessed apostle Paul taught us to do it. This is what Paul taught us. Colossians one, one through two, the language of family. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother. He's our brother. To the saint. and faithful brothers, the brethren, the family in Christ who are in Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father. He's the father of the family and the Lord Jesus Christ. Where did Paul learn this language? Why did Paul address the church in the language of family? Well, he learned this from Jesus himself. Jesus taught us that the church is a family. Mark 10, 28 to 30. Then Peter began to say to Jesus, See, we've left all and followed you. So Jesus answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left the former family house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or land for my sake and for the Gospels, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time. And here comes the language of family, church family houses. and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands. So you're adopted into the family with persecutions and in the age to come. Eternal life. In fact, the language of the church family is so strong in the New Testament that there are cases in which a Christian has an unbelieving nuclear family. So he's the only Christian in his nuclear family. Say, for example, his father and mother are Muslim. He grew up in a Muslim family, but he became a Christian. And in that case, the language is so strong in the New Testament that the church family actually takes precedence over the nuclear family. When the Christian has an unbelieving nuclear family, the church family takes precedence. That's the language of the New Testament. Matthew 10, 21. Here's the persecution. Now, brother will deliver up brother to death. This happens in Muslim countries all the time. A brother becomes a Christian, the other brother kills him because he's no longer Muslim. Now, brother will deliver up brother to death and a father, his child and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. But, of course, this doesn't always have to result in violent persecution. Even in a non-violent situation, If there's a Christian with an unbelieving nuclear family, his family members don't have to be violent Muslims, they can be atheists or Mormons, or they can even be church-going people, just the kind of church-going people who are clearly not born again. They're not authentic Christians. In that case, when the Christian has an unbelieving nuclear family, then his loyalty as a Christian is to his church family, above his nuclear family. That's why Jesus says, Matthew 12, 48 through 50. But he answered and said to the one who told him, remember, his mother and sisters are outside. The house is crowded and they want to get in to see him and their family, their nuclear family. They said, Jesus, your family's outside. Let them in. And this is what he says. 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. This is my family. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. That's my family. Of course, there are Christians who, by the grace of God, have nuclear families that are full of true believers. That's an exceptional grace that isn't true for many Christians, but there are some Christians who actually have nuclear families who belong to the Lord. And in that case, I think the church is merely just an extension of the believing nuclear family. So, you honor God in the nuclear family, and then the church just extends that, and this becomes your extended family. Of course, it's an absolutely necessary extension. I think some people focus so much on the family, they forget that the church is actually important, but it's just an extension. The church is an extension of a believing nuclear family. But, however, back to the case of a man who has an unbelieving family. He faces a choice. between following God. Or staying with his anti-God, unbelieving family. And when he faces that choice, he must count the cost. Luke 14, 25 to 27. Now, great multitudes went with him and he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters. Yes, in his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Why is this? Why must the church family take precedence over the unbelieving nuclear family? Well, it's because the church is Christ's own family. And all Christians are members of that family, and Christ is the head of the family. So an unbelieving husband, who nevertheless calls himself a Christian, he thinks he's a Christian, says that he's a Christian, but it's very clear he's not. He has never, he's never been converted. There is no evidence. There is no fruit. He demands that his wife and children go with him to a tolerant community church in downtown big city yonder. He makes that demand of his family. He's an unbeliever, thinks he's a Christian, but he makes the demand that they go to an unhealthy church, a bad church, really bad church. And he makes the demand upon his wife because he, quote, wants to go to a church where his unrepentant, cohabiting neighbors can still take the Lord's Supper and feel welcomed and unjudged by the church." But his wife is a true believer. And so she responds with meekness and gentleness. By saying that although she respects her husband's authority, She nevertheless must follow Christ first. And in this case, because her husband is an unbeliever, she's going to take the children to family Bible church, which is just south of downtown big city yonder, because they really believe the Bible. at that church. And her husband, of course, is very irate at this, and he lashes out at her, and he says, doesn't your Bible tell you to submit to my authority? How dare you go against me? And yet the wife remains unmoved. She's a submissive wife. She is obeying the Bible. But in this case, the church family takes precedence over the unbelieving husband, because in this case, her children are at stake. And in this case, she must obey Christ rather than her husband. That's at least the way I read it. Christian brother, Christian sister. There will be times. When Christ's family. Under Christ's headship and Christ's own holy word. Necessarily divides the nuclear family. Meaning the true believers from the unbelievers. That there will come division in the ranks of the bloodline family because of the gospel that happens. And just as on the atomic level in science, when the atom is split open and the nucleus is split open, and that creates a great, sometimes, depending on how you do it, it creates a great explosion. You know, just go home and divide a nucleus and see what happens. When bloodline family is divided over the sake of the gospel, sometimes there is explosive hatred and many persecutions. And the question is, when that happens in your own family, whose side will you be on? When you as a Christian are singled out for interrogation at the Thanksgiving dinner table, will your loyalty side with Christ? Or will it side with your unbelieving family members? And then there's a great comfort here. Here's the comfort. The comfort is when your own unbelieving family members shun you and perhaps verbally persecute you, you have a place to belong. You have a shelter and a family. Christ's own family, the church, becomes true family for those who have been ejected out of their own nuclear families for the sake of the gospel. It becomes the place of warmth and belonging and health and security for those who have been pushed out of their own families because they follow Jesus. So the church family must take precedence over unbelieving nuclear family members for this reason. The church family is Christ's own family. It is His family. When you read Isaiah 53, it sounds as if Christ never has any children. He's cut off. He has no descendants. Isaiah 53, 8 says he was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare his generation? He had no offspring. For he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people, he was stricken. So you may say, well, Christ had no family. But in a real gospel spiritual sense, Christ indeed had children. Isaiah 8.18 says, here am I, by the way the author of Hebrews picks this up and applies it to Christ, here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me. It's his family. We're his children. So remember God exists in an eternal family of persons from eternity past. There's been this family of the Trinity until eternity future. There will always be one God existing in a family of three separate and distinct persons. And Jesus invites us into the fellowship of that family. John 17, five, and now, oh, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. But here's the astounding part of the gospel. The astounding part is that this eternal Christ, this Christ who had no beginning, has taken on humanity. Fully God. He's become human. He's taken on human being. Which means that Christ as human being is not ashamed to call us brothers. Hebrews 2, 10-12, for it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, that's Christ, and bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings, for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, one family, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers. saying, I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will sing praise to you. Jesus, risen from the dead in the flesh. Is our brother. Capital B, of course, brother. John, 2017, Jesus said to Mary, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my. Brothers. We're family. And say to them, I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. However, let's keep it, let's keep it straight. Jesus is still Creator. He's still Father. We are His offspring. We are His children. That's why He says in John 21, 4-5, But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus, and so He said to them, Children, have you any food? So I think then that there are really only two families in life. There is the family of the world, which has a father, and the father of the world is Satan. There's his family. And then there is the family of the church, and the church has a father, and God is the father of the church. And the world, even though the world claims to be kind and nice and tolerant, come into the family, the world says. We'll be kind and nice and tolerant. The world, I believe, is really an abusive family. It's an abusive family because Satan is an abusive father. But the church is different. The church ought to be different. The church is a truthful family. You come into the family of the church and there will be times when the church, because it's a truthful family, will speak truth to you and it will hurt. It'll be like surgical truth because you have sin and the church is trying to help you. become holy, so it's it's sometimes painful. But yet, ironically, the truthful family of the church is the only truly loving family on earth. And it's the only truly loving family on earth, because in the church, Christ is our loving brother. Capital B. And God is our loving father and Christ, the son and God, the father, always speak the truth in love. And God. Is love. So, the point is that the church family is of utmost importance, and this is so because the church is Christ's own family, and Christ is the head of the family, but still the church is sinful. This side of heaven, the church, is sinful. And so there will, indeed, be conflicts, and feuds in the family of the church. And then the question is, how do we handle it? The church is Christ's own family, but we bring conflict into the church. So how do we deal with it in the family of the church in a distinctly holy manner? What does it mean for Christians to handle it when Christians bring sin into the family of God? And there's a specific way that the Apostle Paul says we need to handle it. If we're a family, this is how you handle it when Christians bring sin into the church. First Timothy five, one through two again. And this is why I want the word violently in there. If you look at translations like the New American Standard, it's it's there. Do not violently rebuke. That's that's how you handle it. So when when the church family is exposed to sin, someone brings sin into the church. This is how you handle it. Do not violently 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." Here's the logic. Since the church is a family, that means all the church members are family members, and that means that we should treat all people who belong to the church in the same way that we would treat our own family members. In specific, Timothy is a bishop or a pastor. He's the overseer of all the churches in Ephesus, and so he, as the pastor, is never to violently rebuke an older man. Just, the Apostle Paul says, in the same way, as he would never dream of scolding, screaming at, or shouting at his own father. Timothy is a pastor, but he should never consider the fact that he can act like a tyrant king who can go shouting down in wrathful tones all the members of his congregation. Rather, he should exhort an older man as if he were his own father. So what we have here are family ethics. We're talking about family manners and family ethics, and this is much the same as it was in Israel. Remember, Israel as a nation was supposed to be a family, the family of Abraham, the family of God. And in that family, there were ethics and there were manners for how to deal with members of the family who sin. Leviticus 19, 17 through 18. You shall not hate your brother. It's a family member. In your heart, you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, so there is sin you need to rebuke and not bear sin because of him, but you shall not take vengeance. Nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. So I think this applies not just to pastors, but really to all Christians. Instead of violent rebuke. We are to correct each other when we see sin in each other's lives with gentleness. With the gentleness of a family member. Rather than violent rebuke, we should plead. We should plead with one another. We should urge one another and appeal to one another for the sake of godliness. We don't come violently, we come with tears. 1 Corinthians 1.10, the apostle says, now I plead with you. This isn't a violent rebuke, this is, now I plead with you, brethren. Brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together as a family, in the same mind and in the same judgment. Philippians 4.2, the great apostle could have come down hard, but instead he pleads, he implores. I implore you, O Dia. And I implore Suntuche to be of the same mind in the Lord. I implore you, gently." Philemon, 8-11, therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, I could just lay down the law. Yet, for love's sake, I rather appeal to you. I come with tears. Being such a one as Paul the Aged and now a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I appeal. to you, for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who was once unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me." Sadly, I have been in far too many church board meetings. in which a man has been violently treated by the church leaders. The man who was attacked was made subject to verbal assaults, to brow beatings, to scoldings and to threatenings, brought to tears in front of the church leadership in an ungodly manner, And I say by speaking to a fellow brother in Christ with such violent language, these church leaders have shown themselves to be disqualified from their positions by the very action of the way that they treated the brother. True Christian confrontation in the church ought to come with tearful pleading. What we want to hear in the church is a Christian sister stand up at the women's Bible study. And give her testimony and say she meaning the Christian sister who rebuked her, she rebuked me. Because of my sin. And I was furious at her for doing it. But. She did it with such tearful pleadings. That I felt loved by her even when I was too proud to hear her. And now I've repented and I'm thankful. So the church is the family of Christ, and there are two great implications that flow out of that. The first one is, since the church is Christ's own family, we must plead with one another to cease from sin rather than violently rebuke each other over sin. So we need to treat each other as family members. But then there's a second great implication that flows out of this, and that's where we'll end. And then, since all family members in the church belong to the family of Christ, The second great implication, at least in the mind of the apostle, is we must carefully guard each other's purity before Christ. And I just get that straight from the text. First Timothy five, one through two, do not violently 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 of course, this is spoken directly to Timothy, because remember, Timothy is a young pastor, less than 40. He's a young man. He might be unmarried. And therefore, he is to treat all young women in the church as sisters with all purity. And this is his example. This is what makes the mark of his ministry. First Timothy 4.12. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. This is how you will prove yourself, Timothy. by your purity. Pastors, in particular, must be vigilant, not lax regarding their own purity. Biblically speaking, it is a given that fornication, adultery, pornography, lust, crassness, and immodest speech should never be named amongst the pastorate. That's the New Testament. Pastors, I think, must have an unyielding, uncompromising standard here. It needs to change. It needs to change. By the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit within them. And let me just give you three examples, because pastors are falling all over the place. So here's three examples. I think pastors should never expose their eyes to movies that contain even a hint of sexual immorality. Second example, I think pastors should never put themselves in situations where they are alone with a woman who is not their wife. And third example, I think pastors should never, ever allow the sin of lust to become commonplace or trite in the church, such that it's just kind of part of the church culture of grace. I think I think pastors, when they hear of lust in the church, ought to tear their clothes as an example to the church. But this applies not just to pastors, because we're all members of the family. And Paul argues the principle of all purity on the basis of family relationships. 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 through 8. These should be terrifying verses, especially for today's church. For this is the will of God. You want to know the will of God for your life? This is the will of God. Your sanctification. That you should abstain from sexual immorality. That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. That no one should take advantage of, listen to the family language, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother. That's family. If you're sexually impure, you are defrauding your brother in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all such, as we have 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. The English language has a word for this when family members Members of the same family commit sexual immorality with one another. The English language has a word for it. It's the word incest. Incest. And it ought to be a disgusting word. It ought to be an abominable word. We ought to be disgusted by the story in 2 Samuel 13. God wants us to be disgusted. Remember, Yonadav, the friend of Amnon, came to Amnon and asked, Why are you the king's son, 2 Samuel 13, for becoming thinner day after day? Will you not tell me? And Amnon said to him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister, which should be just disgusting and abominable when we read that. And then, of course, Tamar responds to Amnon, pleading for him to stop, 2 Samuel 13, 12, but she answered him, No, my brother, your family, do not force me for no such thing should be done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing. So a lack of purity in the family of God is like incest. To the Christian sister, I say, when you come to church wearing immodest clothing, And I don't say that just kind of hypothetically. The sad thing is I've been in way too many churches in the last 10 years where there are sisters who come to church wearing immodest clothing. Sometimes they're leading the songs in immodest clothing. If you come to church dressed in immodest clothing, sister, you are being like the other Tamar, the Genesis Tamar. You're dressing like the harlot in order to seduce your own family member. Or I would say to the Christian brother, brother, if you're in a courtship relationship and you're not yet married and you're pushing the bounds of propriety in the relationship. Brother, you're being like Amnon. You're not much better than David's son, Amnon. She is not yet your wife, therefore you are pushing incest upon her." Or then there's the Christian engaged couple. I've met a few of these, too, who come to me as the pastor and say, well, yeah, we're staying pure until marriage. We're just kissing, that's all. We don't violate the purity of the relationship. We just kiss and that's it. That's all. This is what I say, anyway, as a pastor. This is what I say to the brother. Talk to the man. If your future wife were engaged to a man, they're engaged. But ultimately, you somehow know that the relationship is going to fail to reach all the way to the wedding altar. And he's just kissing your future wife. along the way. How would you feel about it if you knew about it? This is what I say as a pastor. I say, you are engaged, but she is not yet your wife. Therefore, she is still your sister. Therefore, you must treat her as such. But let's get to the heart of what's at stake here. So we've said that the church is a family and that in this family, we must vigilantly guard each other's purity. But then the question is why? What's the big deal about sexual purity in light of the doctrine of the church as a family? And I say, here's the big deal. This is why it's such a big deal. In this family of the church, there is a husband and there is a wife. The husband is Christ. And his bride is the church. So, therefore, when it comes to sexual purity in the church, the purity of the bride of Christ is on the line. It's the purity of the bride. That's why it matters. One more time. First in the five one to two. Do not violently rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father. Young men, his brothers, older women, his mothers, younger women, his sisters with all purity. Why? Because the purity of the bride of Christ is on the line. First Corinthians six fifteen. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make the members of a harlot? May it never be. And I know that Second Corinthians 11.2 is mainly dealing with doctrine. We're talking here about false teaching, and there's an analogy based on false teaching and adultery. But I think it still straightforwardly applies to moral purity. Second Corinthians 11.2, For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. We then are Christ's own family. As his family, we are to correct each other with tearful pleading, and as Christ's family, we are to vigilantly guard the purity of our relationships in the church because the purity of the bride of Christ is at stake. But here's sad truth. We, as the church, the family of Christ, we sin. We sin. There is horrifically, I say horrifically, a large amount of sexual immorality in today's church. There is also fighting, gossip, hating, backbiting, lying, slander and betrayal in the church. There is not only conflict in the church, there is bitter conflict in the church. And so what is needed in the family of God is a lot of repentance. and a lot of mercy. We need an enormous amount of repentance in the American church, an enormous amount, and we also need a gigantic amount of forgiveness in the American church. We need to forgive. We need the blood of Christ to pay the otherwise unforgivable debt of our own sins, and then we need to be willing to go to our brother who has hurt us so deeply and forgive his debts. But all of this, I say, must be centered on God. It must be kept God-centered. Without God, there is no answer to the why should we question. If we ask why should we maintain tenderness towards one another in the family of Christ, or if we ask why should we be vigilant about guarding the purity of our relationships in the church, the only meaningful answer to that question is because God has his own family. It's God's family. As members of Christ's family, we know the Father. And knowing the Father, we know the coming wrath against those who claim to be His servants, but who are not. And we know that the Father has already told us through His Word that if a man claims to know God, and at the same time violently abuses God's children, or attempts to seduce God's children to sexual immorality, then that man is a false servant. Not a true Christian. And the father promises that he will come against that man in wrath. Jesus says that if he finds that servant mistreating his family members, he will cut him in two. Jesus says. And appoint his portion with the hypocrites and he will be cast outside where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. On the other hand. As members of Christ's own family, We know the Father, and knowing the Father, we know both His tenderness and His purity. The father is tender and the father is pure. Therefore, we want to be tender towards one another and we want to be pure towards one another. And we know this because Christ has revealed it to us. Christ is tender and Christ is holy and pure. And we know that in heaven we shall see Christ and we shall be be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And there in heaven. It has to go heavenward there in heaven. we shall finally discover the family for which we have longed all of our lives. What I discover is that in this wicked world, the wicked world is a global family fathered by Satan. And in that family, I have not belonged. And I suppose you've discovered that too, that the family of the world just doesn't accept you because you have Christ. We have been despised by the world. We've been hated by the family of this world. But there in heaven. We shall meet our eternal family. We shall belong perfectly to that family. They will not hurt us. Our family members in heaven will never speak to us violently. Nor threaten our purity. For there in heaven. We shall be the holy and blameless children of God. We shall join together as a family. Sometimes you get a vision of it. All the Christians through all the ages. Singing the eternal praises of the father. and lauding the eternal glory of the sun and delighting in the eternal love of his spirit. God's family. As we come to the table this morning, it's a family table, a table of family. First, the doxology. Praise be to God, our Father, whose children we are. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who has adopted us into his own family through the redemption price of his own blood. And praise be to the Holy Spirit, who works both great tenderness and absolute purity into our hearts. until we, the children of Christ, clearly bear the family resemblance of Christ. Thank you for joining us for the preaching of the Holy Scriptures. You can find more resources at our website www.GodCenteredUniverse.org You may also send correspondence to us at the following address, PO Box 461978, Aurora, Colorado 80046. God-Centered Universe is a faith-driven ministry that exists to encourage the Church in family-based discipleship and to call the Church to continue trembling joyfully at God's Word.