All right, good morning. I'm gonna ask you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter five, and I'm gonna read the first two verses of this chapter. Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters in all purity.

This is the next verse in our study of 1 Timothy. We've been going through verse by verse for quite some time. So it's just the next verse, but I sort of have a sense that it's appropriate for us as a church. So it's the next verse that the Holy Spirit has for us. And if you're here this morning, I trust that the Holy Spirit has brought you here to hear this message. It's also, I think, very appropriate for the Lord's Supper as well.

And I wanna start it with a question for you. and that is this, to consider, what is the atmosphere that ought to prevail in how we treat each other at church? and I use that word, atmosphere. It's a word that's a little bit intangible, a little hard to pin down, but it's real, it's real. Every place has a certain atmosphere. The DMV, you go, you kind of expect a certain atmosphere, you get exactly what you're expecting. When you go to the doctor's office or the workplace, it has a certain atmosphere. So what is the atmosphere that ought to prevail in the church, in our relationship with each other? If someone were to come in who doesn't know us and just observed how we treat one another at church or during the week, what would they say? They'd treat each other like work colleagues or like acquaintances. What should they say? What should they notice? What should they observe?

Well, the answer is found in our passage. And I should say the answer's found in our church as well. This is one where we're to excel still more, I think, in this. But in our passage, Paul's been exhorting Timothy to focus on the ministry of the word in this church that's been assigned to Timothy and to really give himself to the ministry of the word and give himself to also providing in his own life an example. of obedience to the word that he's ministering to others. And so it's a really powerful section here at the end of chapter four. He comes to the end of it, and then these two verses that I just read completes that picture of the ministry of the word. And what he tells is this, that the ministry of the word must take place in a family environment. And that's the answer to our question. What atmosphere should prevail in the way that we treat one another? It's fitting and right that the ministry of the word, take place in an atmosphere that is like a family, and actually is a family. It's fitting, it's right, it can be no other way, and that's what he reminds Timothy of in this passage.

So three points this morning. First, what it means, that the ministry of the word must take place in a family environment. It's a short passage. There's one command in it, so I kind of hope to cover the whole passage just in this first point, what it means that the ministry of the Word should take place in a family environment. Second, I want to look at why it's so fitting and why it's so important that the ministry of the Word take place in a family environment. And for that, I'll kind of step back and look at all of Scripture a little bit in that. And then third, how this, the church being a family environment, leads us to the Lord's Supper. And so it'll prepare us for why we came this morning, to hear the word and also to partake of the Lord's Supper as well. So first, what it means from our passage that the ministry of the word must take place in a family environment. And let me read it again, it's so short. Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters in all purity.

First of all, what you can notice about this passage is the ministry of the word involves rebuke. He's telling Timothy how to rebuke when the opportunity comes. Don't sharply rebuke, but appeal as family members to those that you are rebuking. The ministry of the Word is confrontational. It's confrontational by nature. And so that's what you should expect when you come in here and benefit from the ministry of the Word. You should expect to be confronted. There's nothing more diametrically opposed to the flesh, actually, than the gospel of Christ. It's totally opposed to what the flesh wants and what the flesh expects.

Grace is actually sort of the epitome of what the flesh expects and the entire life that flows out of it. as a response to God's grace in Christ. We still have to deal with the flesh, which fights and strives against the Spirit. It fights and strives against everything that comes from God's Word. You can become out of line with the life that flows out of the gospel and out of God's Word, the life of obedience. You can be out of line at any point along the way, and the ministry of the Word confronts you just where the flesh is talking to you. or it should, that's what Timothy was to apply himself to and to strive to do that in preaching, not only the reading of the word, which he was to give himself to and the teaching, the doctrine that comes from it, but exhortation, exhorting people for their lives to match and to conquer the flesh in just the place where the flesh is warring against them.

So the ministry of the word is confrontational and sometimes involves personal confrontation, and what I mean by that is like one-on-one confrontation as well, and that's really what this passage is about, is Timothy ministers the word that he has those occasions, when he's to give not only a rebuke from the pulpit, so to speak, in his preaching, as he's thinking about how to exhort the congregation, but also one-on-one to these as well. Think of examples from scripture. Apollos was instructed in that way, and for him, the problem was his teaching. He was teaching boldly, he was teaching truly, but a little bit imperfectly. And so when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And they did it in this way. They did it in the way that Timothy is commanded to. They didn't sharply rebuke him, they took him aside in love. They talked to him as a brother.

I can remember times here at church, both giving rebuke and also receiving rebuke as well. And the times that stick in my mind is when it's ended well. Actually, I'm sure there's been other times as well, but that's what we ought to expect. If the power of Christ is at work among us, to cause us to grow, then we ought not to be afraid, either to give a rebuke where it's needed or to receive one as well, and it's to be done in love.

Psalm 141 and verse five, David says this. He says, Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me. It is oil upon my head. Do not let my head refuse it. Or Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 12 says this. Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear. And so when the rebuke comes, if it's fitting, it's like oil on your head. It's something that's life-giving. Or it's like an ornament. around your neck, it's not something that kills, it's something that gives life and causes growth as well.

So the ministry of the word involves, includes rebuke. It is confrontational. And sometimes, sometimes, not always, but sometimes, one-on-one rebuke. And all that sort of assumed in what he tells to Timothy here, because what the command is really about is the manner in which Timothy is to give these rebukes in a situation that calls for it, when he takes someone aside privately and speaks to them specifically.

And the command is, first of all, don't sharply rebuke anyone, don't berate anyone, but rather encourage them. And second of all, the command is when you give a rebuke, give it in a way that is appropriate, that's loving, don't speak to everyone the same, not one size fits all, but you're to speak in a way that fits each person. And that required wisdom, and I can just sort of see Paul as he's writing to Timothy to say, how can I give Timothy a good guide for how he is to rebuke each person in a way that fits them? in love.

And what he tells Timothy is not just, well, when you rebuke an older woman, give her the respect that's due to an older woman. What he ends up telling to Timothy is, when you rebuke an older woman, treat her as you would your own mother. And he says that for each of the groups. Treat them as family. And that's the way, that should be obvious in the way in which you're giving this rebuke.

So there it is, that the ministry of the word takes place. in a family-like environment. So here's this one aspect of the ministry of God's word, and he's telling Timothy, make sure that this part especially takes place in an environment that's like a family. He says, first of all, do not sharply rebuke an older man, but it actually applies to all four of these categories, so that's the first command.

And so a rebuke that's given in the church should not be sarcastic. should not be embarrassing, should not be addressing down, should not be high-handed in the way that it's given, shouldn't be demeaning, shouldn't treat someone like a child or speak to them like a child. I hope you don't have a boss who treats you like any of those things, because if you do, it's hard. It's a difficult thing. But I hope even more that you don't treat anyone this way. And especially at church, it's very unfitting at church. At church we should treat one another like beloved family.

And so that's the other part of the command. Do not sharply rebuke, but rather appeal, rather appeal to an older man. as your father, to younger men as brothers, to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters in all purity. And so to an older man, he tells Timothy, who's young himself, when you give a rebuke to an older man, treat him as your father, and to a woman, treat him as your mother, meaning with special honor, where you honor your father and mother with special reverence.

When you rebuke a younger man, Treat him as your brother. That is like a peer, like a peer, and like a valued member of the family. And to the younger women as sisters, and there's a special note of caution here for Timothy in all purity. And so when he's ministering to a young woman, one-on-one, he's especially to avoid any temptation to immorality. He's to treat them as his own sister, with purity in thought, and indeed, and I think even in appearance, and I think that would mean keeping some degree of separation, some degree of caution, and yet ministering to them, ministering in that way, and so Timothy is to be careful in that, and a guide for him is he's to treat each of the young women as he would to his own sister.

I think it's interesting, as he tells Timothy, as a minister of God's word, and directs him in how to rebuke, that nobody's left out. in the church, there's four categories, older man, older woman, younger man, younger woman, and Paul could have divided up in different ways, but Timothy as a minister of the word is to minister to all, and even in this matter of private rebuke, like an individual talk to each one.

That's different from what I've heard from one pastor, who, by the way, is a really good pastor, and I won't mention his name. He's been a blessing to me, and probably you, too, if I mentioned him. But he was preaching something that I don't agree with, and he said, I'm not a pastor, he was preaching to his own church, and he said, I'm not a pastor to the women. or to the children of this church. He says, I'm a pastor to the men of the church, and they're pastors to their own family, and I'm only a pastor to them.

In this church, when they do the Lord's Supper, they make that obvious, and so the men come forward, and then the men serve communion to their own families in that way. So that makes a certain kind of sense, I guess, that God ordained the church and he ordained the family. And in this pastor's mind, it's a very rigid flowchart. It's very compartmentalized. It doesn't overlap at all.

The problem is, It's not what the Bible says. It's not what the Bible says. First Thessalonians chapter two verse 10 Paul's talking about, he's telling the Thessalonians what they remember about how he was when he was with them. You are witnesses and so is God. How devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behave towards you believers. Just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you. each one of you, as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory."

And so he says, you remember how we were, we were exhorting the men among you, and then they were to pass it on. No, he says, remember, and we were exhorting each one of you. Or this passage, which tells Timothy not just to take responsibility for the men in the church, but for each one. And he's given special instructions, especially for how to deal with the young women and so on.

And so the basic building block. of the church, like is mentioned in 1 Peter 2, 5, as living stones being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up as spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. It pictures stones coming together to make a temple and actually to make a priesthood to offer up sacrifices. And the stones, the basic building blocks, are not families, but individuals, individuals. And the minister of the word is the minister to each one individually as well.

So pastors, elders have a responsibility to pastor each one directly, not indirectly. And so the family, and the church, they're both God-given institutions. God cares very much about both of them, but they support and strengthen each other in all kinds of overlapping ways. But the ministry of the word must take place in a family environment, and that's what he tells to Timothy, to take responsibility to each one and to minister to them appropriately, to minister to them in the context of a family kind of relationship. 

So the minister of the word is responsible to each person in the congregation, sometimes to rebuke them, And you are too, you are too. It's not just the minister of the word that's to administer a rebuke in a way that is fitting for each one, but you are as well. Or, not just rebuke, but what's needed even more often is encouragement. But to do either one of those, you have to take an interest in others at the church. You have to take an interest in growing together with others as a church. 

No, why do I say that you too have the responsibility to give a rebuke when it's called for, to help someone grow, and to do it in this way, to do it in the way, like speaking to a family member. Well, in Ephesians chapter four and verse, 15, it talks about how the church is to grow. And so each part of the body, not just the minister of the word, but each part of the body has a role to play in causing the growth of the entire body. And it's a speaking role and it's speaking truth. It's speaking the truth. If you care about someone, you care about them enough to speak the truth to them, to cause them to grow and to speak it in love. 

So as a church, We're to relate to one another as a family. And when it comes to a rebuke, if it's appropriate, we should be ready to receive it as oil on the head or as an ornament and also ready to give it as well. Not out of frustration. You know, see somebody doing something that irritates you and say, That's not the way we do things around here. And just do it out of frustration. You're not ready to give a rebuke if that's what you're thinking. It's really not for your own good or for your own convenience, but it's for their good. And so it's to say, I've seen this in you. I'm concerned. Maybe I've got it wrong. But I'm telling you this because I really care about you. I'm not telling you about this to think worse of you at all and to lay it before them. Speak to them as a father, as you would your mother, as you would your brother or your sister. 

So this is what it means that the ministry of the word must take place in a family environment. It's important. He tells that to Timothy here in this passage. 

The second part of my message, I want to think of or consider why it's so fitting and so important that the church relate to one another as a family, and why it could be no other way. We're to relate to one another in this matter of rebuke, but actually in every way, including encouragement, including all kinds of ways the church is to relate to one another as family, and it can be no other way. In church, We should relate to one another as family because in church, you have a relationship with others that's brought about by a birth. That's the same way in which you have a relationship with family. It's brought about by a birth. When you're first saved, you trust in Christ. And it means that something has happened right before you trusted in Christ. And that is that God sovereignly has reached down and he's done a work in your heart. He's made you alive spiritually and he's caused you to be born again. He's put a new life in you. It's taken root in you. It's an invincible life. It's a life that can never be quenched out. It's going to strive against your flesh and it's gonna win and it's going to last for all of eternity. It's the new birth.

And the Lord spoke to Nicodemus about The new birth, he told Nicodemus, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, you first must be born again. And that was a great shock to Nicodemus. But when you're saved, it's a birth. And so in keeping with that, when you're saved, you soon find out you're also part of a family of others that have been born in that same way.

And you're told that you're told that you're saved. You're forgiven. You have eternal life and you have a new family. You have a new family of others who have been born in the same way they've also entered it by birth.

God didn't have to tell us that we have a new family. He could have told us there's others that are saved and you'll relate to them as family when you get to heaven, or maybe not at all. But he tells us now that we have a family of those that we didn't choose. They were born as our family. They were born again as our family.

You choose your friends because your friends aren't born into being your friends, but you don't choose your family. You don't choose your family, and so if you meet people that are friends with each other, you're talking to them, you might say, well, how did you all meet? How did you all become friends? And they'll tell you, well, we met at such and such a place, and then we kinda had a similar interest, and we just kinda hit it off, and we've been friends ever since, and so on.

But if you meet somebody's sibling, You don't say, now, how did you become siblings? How did you become brother and sister? Because there's no story like that. It's by birth. It's by birth. You're born that way. And so you become someone's brother or sister by birth. The bond is lifelong, even if that person isn't someone that you would choose as your friend. Maybe you have a brother or sister who's so different from you that you wouldn't normally be friends, and yet they're your brother, they're your sister.

And it's the same in the church. When you're born again, when you are saved, you're united to Christ. There's a union there that can't be broken, and by that same motion, by that same measure, you're also united to, we are united to one another. Romans 12, five says we are members of one another. And it's not by choice that we're members of one another. We can choose to treat one another as family. and we should choose that, but we can't choose to cause each other to become family. Like you can choose to be someone's, a friend. It's by birth and it happens by the new birth as well.

And so in the New Testament, it's totally fitting. It's totally fitting that the most common way for Christians to refer to each other in the New Testament by far is with family terms. Brothers, you just read that over and over. It's like part of the background. It's in scripture, you hardly notice it, but it's everywhere. That Christians are referring to one another as brothers and as sisters, by family terms. It's brought about by a birth. And it's unique to the church. That you're brothers and sisters with someone that you're not related to, but the gospel has brought about a birth and made you the brothers and sisters in Christ.

Now you might say, well actually that's not so unique. The Jewish people in the synagogue called each other brothers, and that's true. So Christians just carried it over, what they had already been doing in the synagogue. Well, that's true, and actually when Peter enacts, you can see this when Peter or Stephen or Paul speaks to a crowd of Jewish people, even like an evangelistic message or even like a hostile situation, like Stephen was in or Paul found himself in at one time, they refer to them as brethren. They call them brethren, and they're Jewish brethren. Paul says, I could almost wish myself a curse for the sake of my kinsmen, my brethren. according to the flesh, and he's talking about his countrymen, the Jewish people.

So you could say, well, that was just carried over, but it's actually very different in the church. The Jewish people called each other brothers because they are brothers in a sense. They're descended from 12 tribes, and the 12 tribes go back to 12 brothers. And so they all go back, they're literally brothers or cousins to one another, could be abbreviated as brothers.

But it's interesting moment in Acts where the gospel breaks out as the Lord foretold to the Gentiles. Suddenly Gentiles are being saved without converting to Judaism. And it leads to the first controversy in the church, and they call a council together. What should we do? Is this possible that Gentile people are being saved? Can they really be saved without becoming Jews? And so they consider this question. consider the Lord's teaching on it, consider the Bible's teaching on it, and they write a letter to everyone, and it explains the conclusion, what they've concluded in it. It's an interesting letter to read, but the address kind of settles the issue. And I'll read it for you, the address, Acts chapter 15, verse 22.

It says this, then it seemed good to the apostles and elders with the whole church to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas leading men among the brethren. And they sent this letter by them, and here's how it starts. The apostles and the brethren who are elders to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles. Greetings, and then it goes on to explain, but you already know what it's gonna say. They're already calling them brothers. And so the gospel has made those who were not born brothers, they were born different nationalities from each other to call them brethren. And that's the power of the gospel. That's the power of the new birth that makes that sort of family relationship.

So when you call someone from church brother or sister, Or when you think of them as your brother or sister. Or when you treat them as your brother and sister. And it's not because of physical birth, it's because of the new birth. I don't wanna say it's a proclamation of the gospel. We'll save that for an actual proclamation of the gospel. It's good to be careful with that. But I think it's the next best thing. It's a proclamation that agrees with the gospel. that supports the gospel, that puts the gospel on display, because it's a relationship that's been brought about by the life, the birth that's been caused by the gospel.

I had to laugh in a good way this week. I had the graveside service for Mr. Wierson. And I was told before I went there, well, it's family only. And that's normal. The graveside service is family only. We're going to have a memorial service at the end of the month that I'm sure will be a large, well-attended group for Mr. Wierson. But family only for the graveside service. And so that means to me usually there's going to be about 10 people there or less. You know, and it's going to be not like an audience, but it's going to be like a very small group. So I went to the graveside service for Mr. Wierson. There's more than 40 people there all trying to get under a shelter in the rain. And many of them didn't have the last name Wierson or never had. or hadn't married into the family, but they consider themselves part of their family. And the Worsons had a way of making people family, especially people in need.

Usually meant opening their home to them to stay, and opening their heart to them as well. Sometimes because of the new birth, sometimes in advance of the new birth. for those people, in other words, before they were born again. And I think that's how we ought to be as well, anxious to include people in our family because of the new birth. There's a cost to living in that way, but there's a great gain to living in that way. And so I think that's a way in which Jim and Doris are an example to each one of us as well.

That's the way the Apostle Paul was. as well. I came across this just in studying this. Remember Romans 16, it's all these names. And what are all these names for? Well, there's a purpose. Paul's life was full of people. And Romans chapter 16, verse 13, he says, greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. And that's life in the church. You have your own mother, and you have others that are a mother to you, or a father to you, a brother to you, a sister to you, and so on.

The family relationships in the church in this way, it doesn't dissolve natural family bonds. God makes both, and they're both important to God, and when they're all in Christ, it strengthens both. Your church family strengthens your natural family, and your natural family strengthens the church family as well. So it doesn't dissolve family bonds, and that's obvious in scripture. Obviously it doesn't dissolve the bond between a husband and a wife, and so on. or even extended family. And so right after our passage in 1 Timothy, he's gonna talk about widows. And he's going to say this, if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents for this is acceptable in the sight of God.

And then later he's gonna say, but if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So the fact that we have a new family and a new birth that doesn't dissolve the family that we have by our physical birth as well. But there can be, and scripture speaks of this, kind of a sense of compensation, so to speak, in the church if you have no family. or if you have no family because Christ has made a division. in your family, a separation in your family. The church can become your family. And I'm thinking especially of a passage that the Lord gives Mark chapter 10 and verse 29.

Jesus said, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will not receive a hundred times as much now in the present age houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms along with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. And so we're given a hundred times more in the church what some people are called to give up as Christ makes a division for them. I've heard many times over the years at Trinity Bible Church, people saying, well, the church family here is especially important to me. And the fact that we are a family, a church family, is especially important to me because I have no other family. Maybe I'm estranged from my family. And so I've heard that often from people.

We should expect people in the church with no family. whose lives don't fit an ideal where they're situated in a nice family to find the church to be their family. That's what scripture tells us to expect and that's what we should expect here as well. So, what it means for the ministry of the word must take place in a family environment. From our passage, where especially in this matter of rebuke, Timothy is told, make sure you do this, carry out this aspect of the ministry of the word in a family-like environment.

Why it's so fitting and important in the church is because our relationships in church have been brought about by a birth. And so that's appropriate that it be a family type of relationship. And now for the third part of the message, how this all leads us to the Lord's Supper. The atmosphere that ought to prevail in how we treat each other at church ought to be a family atmosphere, not a workplace atmosphere or any other sort of atmosphere, because that's the atmosphere that ought to prevail as well in your relationship with God. It's a family atmosphere that should prevail in your relationship with God, and God has chosen that it be that way.

And so our relationship with one another, if it's a family relationship with one another, it's to be a reminder to us that that is our relationship with God as well. Scripture teaches us about the Trinity, most of all, by teaching us about salvation. In fact, you get hints of it in the Old Testament, the hint of the triune God, that God is plural as well as one. You get hints of it in the Old Testament, but you don't really see it until you come to, when it comes time to accomplish our salvation, and Christ comes. Now you see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You see the Holy Spirit descending upon him as a dove.

And when it comes into view, how does God speak of the eternal relationship between the three persons of the Trinity? Well, the way in which he puts it on display is by speaking of it as a family relationship. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Or the Gospel of John, where Jesus is constantly talking about his father and how he comes to do the will of the father. And in salvation, God is calling us into that relationship. It's almost hard to take in, to think about the glory of this. He's calling us into the eternal relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and it's a family type of relationship. The family is the analogy that best enables us to grasp the atmosphere of that relationship.

And so the Lord prays this wonderful, profound prayer. John chapter 17, read verse 22. And this is what he prays for the people that he's about to die for. The glory which you've given me, I've given to them. So that they may be one, just as we are one. I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me, and love them even as you've loved me. So that's the purpose of salvation, is to share the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with us. And so because of what Christ did for you on the cross, and the father sent him to do it. He didn't do it independently, but because of what Christ did for you on the cross, God is your father. He's your father. You have the same relationship with him, the same relationship of love with him that the son himself has.

And that's not some distant achievement for you. that you're to enjoy a relationship that's like a family relationship with God. It's like a father and a son after you've achieved a certain maturity. Or maybe after you've gone to heaven and been there for a few thousand years, then you can finally relate to God as father. No, it's given to you freely in the gospel. That's what's given right up front. from the moment that you believe the gospel, that's what undergirds the entire Christian life. It's the atmosphere of the Christian's relationship with God.

And so Romans chapter eight, verse 15, for you've not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you've received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba Father, you've received a spirit of sonship. And that's the Holy Spirit in which we are to live in the Christian life.

a really good book, it's by J.I. Packer called Knowing God, came out in the 70s, and I think was influential in this church beginning. It's kind of associated with a lot of the Puritan literature being reprinted at that time. So it's a wonderful book, it's a really deep book. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend it to you. And I'll read you just one of my favorite parts of it.

which says this, you sum up the whole of New Testament teaching in a single phrase if you speak of it as a revelation of the fatherhood of the holy creator. In the same way, you sum up the whole of the New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one's holy father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. And I love that. It's a great summary, cuts right through the New Testament and what the Christian life is about as well.

John Calvin, I'll quote him a few times. These are sort of par for the course for him, but he makes much of God as our Father. He says, And he says, for until men feel that they are cherished by God's paternal care, they will never submit to him in voluntary obedience. In other words, it's his care is given to us freely in the gospel. It's given to us in grace. And then that undergirds the whole life of obedience in response to that. And those I found those quotes from Calvin. They're kind of par for the course in his institutes. There's all kinds of quotes like that. He makes much of the fact that God is our father.

There's some passages in the Gospels, especially in the Gospel of Matthew, where the Lord talks about salvation being for the one who does the will of the Father, does the will of the Father, like Matthew 7, verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven, will enter. Or chapter 12, verse 50. where he says, for whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother. And so you might say, well, doing the will, boy, that sounds like works. That sounds like salvation by works. Should read it in context, and I think should also make much of the fact that he talks about doing the will, not just of God, but the will of the Father. Will of my Father, he says that. I don't think that's just a filler word. for God, it has a deeper meaning to it, to do the will of the father, which first and foremost is to relate to him through the gospel as father, as father, and then there's a whole life that proceeds from that as well that is matching with the will of the father. 

So the ministry of the word must take place in a family environment, that's a relationship with one another, because ultimately that reflects God's character. his disposition towards us. It should be some sort of a dim reminder, some sort of echo that that's what's at the heart of God's relationship with us as well in the gospel. And so we should even strive to make a family kind of relationship with one another in the church. There's a deep significance to that, a deep significance. It's a reminder to each one of us, not only that we're brothers and sisters in Christ, but that God is our father and that he relates to us in that way. 

In that quote of J.I. Packer, he talked about the title of God as holy father. And I think Christ himself in the prayer that he gave before going to the cross referred to his father in that way, holy father. And there's much built into that, that God is our holy father. Father, and how can that be? That He's holy, He doesn't compromise any of His holiness, and yet He's our Father. Well, it's because of what we are reminded of here at the Lord's table, here, that Christ has died for us, and that God might be our holy Father. 

Our Father has rebukes for us too. As long as we're in sin, the Father has a rebuke for you. There's rebukes even from time to time in the church for one another that are appropriate, that are actually life-giving. God has rebukes for you as well, but he's depicted in scripture giving rebukes in this way, like it says in James chapter one, five, to the one who lacks wisdom. the wisdom of holiness. He gives wisdom generously and without reproach, without upbraiding is what it says in the King James Version. He gives us wisdom like we are family. because we are a family in that well. He rebukes us just as the Lord Jesus rebuked his disciples with patience towards us. In fact, that's what causes his rebukes to go down deep into our soul, is that they come from a father's hand. And when you recognize that, that's what causes his rebuke to actually bear fruit in your life. 

So we come to the Lord's table, This morning, you come to God, your Holy Father, your Holy Father. And so as you come to the Lord's table, you ought to have a sense that God himself, your Holy Father is speaking to you here at the Lord's table. He's showing you something at the Lord's table. He's reminding you. He's putting something into your hands and into your mouth. He's opposing doubt. He's strengthening faith. He's reminding you who you are. and how he considers you. He considers you the same as his son. He considers you united with the body of his son and united with his blood. He considers you as his own son and that's the holy life that he's put into you as well. And so we're to be reminded in that. 

At the Lord's table as we come and approach God himself through Christ as our holy father, let's pray. Dear heavenly father, We thank you that we can speak of you in that way, in a way that is shocking almost, to refer to the God of the universe and the God of all holiness, the righteous judge as our Father. And this is true because we come to you in Christ. And so we pray here at the Lord's table that you might remind us of your love for us, remind us that you've invited us into your family through Christ and that we are a part of your family. And then Father, we pray that you'd spur us on to treat one another as family, to strive even to treat one another as family and to encourage one another appropriately in love to grow in you. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.