We're gonna look at 1 Timothy chapter five, but I want you to look over to the book of James. James, right after Hebrews. I said that and I can't find it myself here. I wanna read a couple of verses out of the book of James. You know, the book of James, A lot of people really don't understand this book because James speaks a lot about works, the works of a believer. And James is not teaching salvation by works in any way. He's in agreement with Paul. You know, a lot of people have, they say that they think there's a disconnect between Paul and James, as if Paul believed justification by grace through faith, or justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, but James believed justification by works. And what's strange about it is they both use Abraham as an example. But James and Paul are not talking about the same thing. And we have to understand it. See, that's why context is so important to understand the scriptures. Paul in Romans, in all of his epistles, but Paul in Romans was talking about justification of a sinner before God. How does God justify sin? And we know what justification in that context means. It means to be forgiven of all our sins by God's grace and declared righteous in God's sight, all based upon the merits of the obedience unto death of Christ as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer, our preserver, without any works at all from us. Now that doesn't mean that because we're saved by grace we shouldn't work at all, but our works do not contribute to the power and the righteousness that saves us. That's all Christ alone. It's not what we do for God, it's what God has done for us. And that's what Paul's talking about. Think about it like a courtroom. standing before God in His court of justice. How can God be merciful to me and still be true to Himself, His justice? And it's only by His grace through the righteousness of Christ, not any work that we've done. Well, James is talking about something entirely different. He's not talking about justification before God, he's talking about the vindication. Justification in the sense of vindication of our claim of being a believer, being saved, having faith. It's like James is saying, you say you believe God, you say you love God and you love Christ. Does your life vindicate that or does it expose you to be a hypocrite? That's what James is talking about. So he's literally talking about justification before men in the sense that we, as men, look at us and judge us. Now, you gotta understand now, there's a lot of things you need to unpack with that. First of all, the fact that unbelievers don't really know what a Christian is. First John 3, you know, that's what he says. The world will not know us. It didn't know Christ. So, but what James is telling us is that there are certain things that because of the grace of God that's been written on our hearts that we should do. And one of the things he mentions, look at James 1 verse 26. Well, let's look at verse 25. James says here, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty. Now, what is the law of liberty? That's the gospel. The bare law will not set us free, will not give us liberty. Only Christ sets you free. The word, he said, the word will set us free, the truth. The gospel is a message of liberty and freedom in Christ. that urges us and inspires us to serve God, not out of law, but out of love and grace and gratitude. You see the difference? So that perfect law of liberty is the gospel of God's grace in Christ, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. Now, I understand how people think naturally, because I was there. He's not saying that you earn your blessings by your deeds, but you'll be blessed in those deeds. And there's a difference. That's a blessing. It's a blessing for me and you to serve God. Now, how is God gonna bless us? He blesses us in different ways, but mainly He's blessed us with the free gift of salvation. He may take one of his children, like Abraham, and make him rich. But I'm gonna tell you something about Abraham. The riches that God gave him, Abraham didn't earn them and didn't deserve them. He may take another believer and set him aside for something else, for martyrdom. How about Abel? How about Stephen? The world would say, well Abel and Stephen were cursed. God says they're blessed. So understand that. We have to judge things like that in a different way than the world does. And it's tough now sometimes. I'm not saying it's always easy. I walked in here with this roller behind me. Y'all can't see it, I'm hiding it from you. And what happened is I fell and I pulled a muscle in my leg. And it was getting better till I go back walking by with my cane, but then I irritated again with my own stubbornness. And Debbie and I have been, why is the Lord letting me go through this? There's a reason. But I'm blessed. I know I am. And hopefully I get healed up here, and you know, it takes a little while for me. And I know, you know what I'm talking about. But anyway, he says, so verse 26 in James 1, he says, if any man among you seem to be religious, and a lot of people do, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Now you know what it is, that they bridle not their tongue, they use their tongue as a weapon. You remember, I think it's later on over in James, he talks about the tongue being an instrument that is set on the fire of hell. How we can, you know, people can be destroyed, murdered. If you go out and use your tongue to murder a person's reputation, that's what you've done, you're a murderer. Things like that, you know. We have to be careful. And then, here's what he says in verse 27, pure religion and undefiled before God, and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless, that's orphans, and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Now when he says visit the fatherless, the orphans and the widows, he's not talking about going to their house and knocking on their door. I mean, that's okay if you do that. And they shouldn't be neglected. But he's talking about helping them with what they need to live. That's what that visitation is. Just like when God visits his children, it's not just so we can sit around and gossip or talk or anything. It means he helps us with what we need. And that's what he's talking about. We'll go back to 1 Timothy 5. What, I entitled the lesson Correction and Care. This whole chapter goes through that. And so I divided it up into two sections. But sometimes correction is necessary. Sometimes we have to be corrected. We have to be encouraged. We want to be corrected in the right way. We don't want to just embarrass people. We don't wanna just say, you know, have a I gotcha moment, that kind of thing. You know, I read a couple weeks ago, I think it was from Galatians chapter six, it said, when a brother or sister is overtaken in a fall, you who are spiritual, that is spiritually mature, you be careful how you approach them, lest you come under the same kind of test and fail, because we have that potential. Don't ever look at another person and say, well, I would never do that. I was listening to an old song I used to love when I was a teenager called Walk a Mile in My Shoes. You ever heard that? It said, walk a mile in my shoes, walk a mile in my shoes, and before you despise, criticize, and abuse, walk a mile in my shoes. I don't, the guy who wrote it, I don't know what he had in mind, but that's a good idea, you know? You know, somebody comes in and they may be a little cranky and stuff. You don't know what they've gone through that morning. And like I said, now, it's tough for us to consider all this all the time, but we have to try. So understand that when God saves us, he teaches us He teaches us the things of God, the things of Christ, the things of salvation. And that should overwhelm us. I mean, think about it. What do we deserve? All of us now, the best, the worst, and every, I always say it this way, the best of us, the worst of us, and everybody in between. What do we deserve? We deserve death and hell. And that's at our best moments and at our worst moments. Somebody challenged me on that, and I quoted that Psalm. I think it's Psalm 50, but I'm not sure. But it says, it says, man at his best state is altogether what? Vanity. Worthless, that's what vanity means. Nothing. At his best. So, I always think about Christ when he, on the Sermon on the Mount, boy, that's one of the things he was teaching throughout the Sermon on the Mount. Man at his best is vanity. And he used the Pharisees, their religious leaders, their religious teachers, as an example. And he told them, he said, look, unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter heaven. If you're saved, grace. That's it. And grace reigns through righteousness, not yours, not mine, but Christ. That's what salvation is all about. Now given that is the ground of salvation, it ought to establish within us a love for Christ and a love for the brethren. And not just the rich ones, but the downtrodden ones. And you can read it back in the book of Acts. There were widows who were complaining because they weren't being taken care of. They were just being neglected. And you gotta understand now, back then, an orphan and a widow, usually what happened, if they're in the hands of the world, they ended up out in the streets begging. They didn't have social security. or IRAs or insurance, things like that. So what Paul is telling Timothy is remind the church at Ephesus that if there's widows who are widows indeed, you take care of them, the church, a sister in Christ. He's not preaching a welfare state here. And he's not saying that the mission of the church is to feed the poor. Now, listen, we're to be charitable people. We're to help people when they need help. But it's not the mission of the church here to set up a soup kitchen. Now, you might contribute to different organizations who help people. You know, I know a lot of people, you know, like St. Jude's, you know, they help children with cancer and all. Those are good things. They're not salvation now, but they're good things. And so when somebody starts a church and makes it the mission of that church to feed the poor, they're not doing what the word of God says. The mission of the church is to preach the gospel, but not to the neglect of those in need, especially widows and orphans and brethren in the faith. In fact, When it comes to welfare, for example, all right, if there's an able-bodied man or woman who can work to help themselves but won't work, you know what the Bible says? What is the first Thessalonians? If a man doesn't work, he don't eat. Don't feed him. If he's able now, we're talking about one who is able, and that's what the problem with our government is. It's just, it's made itself to where it attracts people who are able to work, but they won't. And they want the American taxpayer to pay for it. And that's wrong. So anyway, that just, give you my speech there, all right? But anyway, look at verse one. He says, rebuke not an elder. An elder is an elder in the faith. It's a man, not a woman. Now there are older women who've grown in grace and in knowledge, but he's talking about the office of elder in the church here. But they know the gospel. They know the word of God. They know how to instruct people in the ways of God. So rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father. Now no elder is perfect in himself. He may make some mistakes. He may misstate things. And if he needs correction, how do you entreat him? How do you correct him? You go to him like you would your father, with respect, with honor, with regard. And you know, Christ, he gives specific instructions about his people doing that to each other. He says, first of all, do it in private. Don't publicly embarrass people. And if it's a serious error in the truth, go to him private, and if he repents, you've gained your brother. If he doesn't, take two or three others and meet with him. And if that doesn't work, then you bring it before the church. That's what happened. And you all have experienced that with a former pastor. You went to him privately first, and then a group of you went to him, and then he wouldn't relent, and you brought it before the church, and he had to go. But you did it with honor and respect. He says, do this to elders, in verse one, he says, and the younger men as brethren. You count the younger men as brothers in Christ. You're my brother. You heard that song, He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother? That's what it's talking about, we bear his burdens when needed. And then he goes, verse two, the elder women as mothers, respect them as you would your mother. The younger as sisters in Christ with all purity. And that purity means without mixed feelings. It's not like coming to a person and saying, well, I hate your guts, but God tells me to love you, so I guess I have to. That kind of thing. Because that's wrong, that's a wrong attitude. Verse three, honor widows that are widows indeed. In other words, they're not widows by their own choice. Their husbands either left them. or their husbands are dead. And they have no visible means of support. Verse four, though, he does have a codicil of this. But if any women have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home. In other words, they've got family. Now, sometimes women back then, they were left destitute. They didn't have families to take care of. but show piety at home. In other words, if they're living in the home of their children, let them show respect and regard unto the Lord and the truth. And to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable before God. To requite is to provide for their mother as she provided for them when they were children. And that's good and acceptable before God. It's good and acceptable not as the ground of salvation. And not as if you're earning anything from God by it. It's good and acceptable because it honors God. It goes back to the old Matthew 5 16 verse. Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and do what? I always say give you the key to the city. No, glorify your Father which is in heaven. That's our aim. I want to do good works. I know that if I do any good works, number one, it's no part of the righteousness by which God saves me and keeps me. Number two, it's not by my own power and goodness and strength. It's God that works in us to do that which is good in his sight. And number three, it's not perfect. and therefore is covered by the blood of Christ. That doesn't mean that Christ's blood makes up where I fall short, that means Christ's blood covers it all. He is my righteousness, you see. Verse five, now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. Now she's desolate, she's a widow indeed, but she trusts in God. You know by her testimony. Continueth in supplications and prayers, night and day. Verse six, but she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. A widow, even a widow indeed, who lives for herself and not for the glory of God. That's an unbeliever. And that's why he says she's dead while she liveth. Now let me caution you here. He is not talking about what we call lordship salvation or works-based assurance. He's just simply talking about what spiritually comes forth from a sinner saved by grace upon whose heart God has written his love and his truth. And there are evidences of salvation, folks. But we don't gain our assurance from looking within ourselves to find those evidences. The main evidence is faith in Christ, continual faith in Christ. I'm gonna talk about that in the next message, when he talks about an unction from Christ in 1 John. There are evidences. A person who does not love, you remember what Paul told Timothy by Capernaum, Chapter 4 and verse 16, take heed unto thyself and unto thy doctrine, continue in them. A person who does not receive and love the doctrine of Christ gives no evidence of salvation. I was talking to a man about that last night, you know. There's a pastor of a church up north who claims to believe what we believe. But he has people who deny what he believes teaching in his church, teaching Sunday school. And I said, well, what's, he said, well, what's wrong there? I said, that's a compromise. And what, it's confusion and compromise. And that's what he's talking about. He's talking about those who preach and teach and love the doctrine of Christ and go for them. In verse six, that she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. Talking about somebody who lives for themselves and not for the glory of God. In verse seven, and what's the opposite of works-based assurance? I'll tell you exactly what it is. Get it in your mind. Christ-based assurance. Running the race of grace. You know that's what you're doing right now? I couldn't run if I, If you come up here and say, I'll give you a million dollars, you can run down the aisle, I've just lost a million dollars. But I'm running the race of grace. What is it? That's continually looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Now there's the assurance. That's Christ-based assurance. Am I looking to Christ? Is He really my only hope of salvation? Oh, I know He is. I don't have any hope in myself as being the ground and the procurer, the assurer of salvation, because I know myself. I know when things go bad with me, I don't always act the way I should. In fact, I've told you all once, we all go through trials. And when I go through a trial, I'm serious. I really never come out on the other end of the trial feeling good about myself. Well, I acted the way I should have acted. No, I complain. I go, why, Lord? You know that. Even old Job, when he was dealing with the problems that he had, he really started out pretty good, didn't he? The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. But then those three miserable comforters came to him, and he began to defend himself. Here's what they said. Now, Joe, what's wrong with you? What have you done in your life to deserve God's punishment? And Job said, well, I don't deserve this. And he began to argue with God. Why God? You know what God told him, don't you? I think it was through the young man Elihu or Elihu, however you pronounce it. Well, Job, he said, now, before we have this discussion, it's kind of like God said, now, Job, before we have this discussion, I want to know something. Where were you when I formed the world? Where were you when I put Leviathan, the whale, in the sea? In other words, he's telling Job, you're not on the same standing with me to debate with me. God is God, and what he does is right. Think about it. It may not seem right to me, but what God does is right and wise, and it's gonna be good for us. It is. It's like I told you, I said, I don't know why I'm going through this trial, but I know it's gonna come out in the good end. So that's the point here. Living for the glory of God. Look at verse seven. And these things give in charge that they may be blameless. That they might not be accused. Or if they are accused, they're accused falsely. Now again, this blamelessness is not referring to our righteousness before God. We are blameless in the sight of God based upon the imputed righteousness of Christ. We're holy, unblameable. What does that mean? Romans 8, 33, I think. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justify it. But if we're serving the Lord, we're blameless before men, even though they may falsely accuse us. Understand that. So verse eight he says, but if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, his family, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. Talking about a man who claims to be a believer but won't provide for his family? And he says he's just a hypocrite. Worse than an infidel. An infidel is an idolater who doesn't even claim. to be saved by the grace of God. He says in verse 9, he says, let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, seventy, having been the wife of one man, in other words, not multiple marriages, well reported of for good works, and again, you know what the good works were, that's the work of God within us, covered by the blood, pleasing to God. If she had brought up children, if she had lodged strangers, That's people that would travel and who were believers and they'd come to the church and they'd be taken care of if they needed. If she have washed the saints' feet, humility is what that's talking about. Remember when Christ washed the disciples' feet? In other words, serve. That's what we are, we're to serve one. If she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good word. And so what you have there is the model of a true Christian widow. And none of these things are done by her if she's a true Christian in order to gain or maintain salvation. That's the context. And that's the context of every command and every evidence that is given under the gospel. They're never to be applied to a person as if that person is trying to work their way into God's favor, work their way into righteousness. Need to understand that. See, that's context. That's what the whole Bible is about. And he says in verse 11, but the younger widows refuse, for when they have begun to wax or grow wanton against Christ, they will marry. Paul shows that it's wise not to enroll younger widows in this program of support if they marry again. That's what he's talking about. In other words, if their husband died and they remarry and their husband takes care of them, or if their husband left them, left them destitute, and then they remarry. That's what he's talking about here. A younger widow is more likely to marry than an older widow, like 70 years or above. more likely, it's not always the case. And so, now I know we can get into some different circumstances and situations and raise questions about what if and what about, but we cannot improve on what Christ says. Well, what if this girl does this? We can get into a lot of that, and I know there's a lot of issues about divorce, but that's not what Paul's talking about here, and that's what I wanna stay with. So he says, verse 12, having damnation because they have cast off their first faith. If they marry an unbeliever and leave the faith, understand that. That's what he's talking about. You know, a widow, a young widow who remarried, she's to keep her eyes on Christ for salvation. That's the cause. Because all too often, they remarry an unbeliever and they Never listen to the gospel, they never live by the gospel. If the man is religious in a false way, they follow him. You understand what I'm saying? So, this is talking about a young widow, in verse 12, a young widow who marries an unbeliever and leaves the faith. All right, that's why he says they have damnation, because they've cast off their first faith. So don't get that confused. And then the last verse, and with all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. And then he goes into about the younger women marrying and marrying children and all that. You know the old saying, idle hands are the devil's workshop. I always said idle minds are the devil's workshop too. But basically, whatever these widows are going through in need, the church is to help them. And these widows are to be looking to Christ, the author and finisher of their faith at all times. Okay.