let us turn to God's Word and
turning to the chapter we were reading in 1st Timothy chapter
3 and directing you this evening to the words that we find here
at verse 15 1st Timothy 3.15 the Apostle
writes to this young man but if I tarry long that thou mayest
know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which
is the church of the living God the pillar and ground of the
truth but if I tell thee long that thou mayest know how thou
oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the
church of the living God the pillar and ground of the truth
taking up then the subject matter of the church as the house of
God. The church, the house of God. The church, which of course is
made up of sinners, sinners saved by the grace of God, is really
the greatest of all the works that ever God has performed. that is plainly stated here in
Holy Scripture, Ephesians 3 and verse 10, to the intent that
now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, that
is the angels, to the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God. those glorious beings the cherubim
and the seraphim the whole host of angels how it is as they look
to the church that they see something of the manifold wisdom of God
they are in heaven they are there before the very throne of God
and yet it is to this world this world that lies in the wicked
one And what God is doing in the salvation of sinners and
gathering together such sinners into local churches that the
angels witness something that they don't see. Even there in
that glorious abode. These are the things which the
angels desire to look into. Remember those words that we
have there in the opening chapter of Peter's first epistle. where
he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and that great sin atoning sacrifice
and he goes on at the end of verse 12 having spoken of all
that Christ has done to make that declaration which stings
the angels desire to look into and of course there's an allusion
there to Exodus 25 and that typical worship that
was practiced there in the Old Testament dispensation. Remember
what we're told in that particular 25th chapter. We have the instruction
given to Moses whilst he's there in the mount, those 40 days,
how to make the Ark of the Covenant. And in that ark, of course, he
will place the tables of the covenant, the two tables of the
law, the covenant that God had entered into with his ancient
people, and then the covering, the mercy seat. And on each end
of the mercy seat, the cherubim and their faces towards the mercy
seat, stretching out, as it were, their wings and looking, looking.
upon the mercy seat, and it was there on the great day of atonement,
Yom Kippur, that the high priest alone was to go into the Holy
of Holies, and there he would sprinkle the blood of atonement,
which things the angels desire to look into. That is the church,
the purchase of that precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church, it's the house of
God and how God has put all things under Christ's feet and made
him to be the head over all things to that church which is his body,
the fullness of him that filleth all in all. That's the glory
of the church of course. It is Christ's church. It is
Christ's body. And those who are saved by that
grace of God, that sovereign grace, are united to Christ,
bone of His bone and that flesh of His flesh, the blessings of
union with the Lord Jesus. And here I say again, we have
the greatest of all the works that ever God has accomplished. And of course when the Apostle
is writing here to Timothy and again later to Titus these are
partial epistles. So he's dealing with matters
that concern the church. He's giving instruction to these
young men with regards to how they are to conduct themselves
in the affairs of the churches of the New Testament. But if
I tell you long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave
thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God
the pillar and the ground of truth who are we aware that we
have a responsibility how we behave ourselves when it comes
to matters that concern this house the house of God and I
don't mean of course the bricks and water I mean those living
stones those who are members of that body of the Lord Jesus
Christ now We read through the chapter and we see how in the
opening part, the first 13 verses, the apostle is giving instruction
concerning what we might term the standing offices in the church. He speaks of the overseers, or
the pastors in the first seven verses. This is a true saying. If a man desired the office of
a bishop, more literally, an overseer, He desireth a good
work. And then he goes on to speak
of the qualifications of those overseers. And as I say, he makes
mention of these things throughout the epistle. In verse 17 of chapter
5, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor,
especially they who labor in the words and doctrine. Now to
be laboring then in the word, in the word of God, in the great
doctrines of the word of God, the teaching of these scriptures
of truth. Again in the second epistle we
have that verse, study to show thyself approved unto God a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of
truth are there to give themselves to that then that they might
rightly divide the word and not to abuse the words but to seek
to study the word and to understand the words and to interpret the
words and to be faithful and not to take a text out of its
context and make it a pretext but only to seek that they might
present to the people that that is a faithful setting forth of
what God is saying here in Holy Scripture. All these then are
the things that he is speaking of there in those opening seven
verses and the importance of these things. The overseers were
also the pastors and the teachers it doesn't Paul in another epistle
in the Ephesian epistle speak of those gifts that the exalted
Christ has received and given he gave some he says pastors
and teachers for the edifying of the body of Christ and so
on they're overseers now it's interesting when we turn to the
20th chapter of the Acts where Paul calls to himself the Ephesian
elders and gives them instruction and he makes reference to those
whom the Holy Ghost has made overseers and says they are to
feed the flock of God or the flock of Christ. He uses the
word there, they are overseers, but they are to feed and the
The verb there, to feed, it's really the verbal form of the
word that we have here as a pastor. The overseers are to pastor the
flock of gods. That is the charge that's given
to them. And in order to that, of course,
they are to study the Word. And as I said, they are to rightly
divide the Word. But he doesn't just speak of
the overseers or the pastors. He also goes on, at verse 8 through
13, to make mention of the deacons. Verse 8, he says, likewise must
the deacons be grey. not double-tongued, not given
to much, why not greedy and filthy lucre, holding the mystery of
the faith in a pure conscience, and so forth. And we're told,
aren't we, of how the office of the deacon began back in Acts
chapter 6, where it seems initially the
sole function is in the church with the apostles. and they were
involved in doing everything. Then there's some dispute with
regards to the ministry to the widows, some dispute between
the Grecians and the Jews. And the apostles recognized there's
need for another office. And so we read of the appointment
of the seven and they're there to serve the tables. and it is
argued that that is really the origin of the office of the deacon. And all these offices, of course,
are so vital to the well-being of the church. I say the well-being
of the church, they're not essential to the being of the church, but
they're essential if the church is going to do well. And this
is what Paul is concerned about as he is giving all this instruction
to this young man, this young man Timothy. He says here at verse 14, These
things write unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But
if I tell thee long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest
to behave thyself, in the house of God which is the church of
the living God he hopes to join Timothy at Ephesus but in the
meantime this young man is left there and he's got to address
himself to these issues As he says in the opening chapter of
verse 3, I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went
into Macedonia, that thou mightest judge some that they teach no
other doctrine, neither give heed to fables, and then thus
genealogies. He's given him a charge. He's
got to be there to attend to those matters that are wanting.
in the church at Ephesus, but the apostle is desirous that
he will yet come again to him. And he gives very similar instruction
really when he writes in the epistle to Titus. And then in
the opening chapter of that letter, verse 5 of chapter 1, he says
to Titus, For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest
set in order the things that I wanting. and ordain elders
in every city as I appointed thee." There's great concern
then about proper order with regards to the matter of the
churches. Paul had been greatly used of
course, we have the record throughout the Acts of his many journeys
all over great portions really of the
Middle East and everywhere he goes he's preaching the Word
and there's a mighty movement of the Spirit of God and sinners
of the Gentiles are being converted and they're being gathered together
but Paul is instructing these young men that they might be
of some real assistance to him in setting matters in order in
these infant churches time in the game when he writes to the
Corinthians and Corinth was a place where there was a remarkable
church it was a highly gifted church and yet there was a great
deal of disorder and he reminds them doesn't he all things are
to be done decently and in order and and right we read in the
11th chapter there in that first epistle he says the rest will
I set in order when I come going to go back, he revisits these
churches. In the meantime, there are these
young men who are assisting him and they're attending to these
various things. Well, let us come to the words
of the text and what is being said here in this 15th verse
concerning the church, the house of God, which is the church of
the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth first of
all to consider the church as the ground of the truth the ground
of the truth in some ways the words that he uses here at the
end of the verse pillar and ground are synonymous we might say But, of course, there is a difference
between them. The pillars in a building would
be there to support the roof. But the whole building, of course,
is stayed on the foundation. And that's the reading that we
have in the margin for grounds. The pillar and stay, says the
margin, of the truth. the foundation, the groundwork
of truth. Now, it's interesting, isn't
it, the expression he uses? The Church of the Living God,
the pillar, and the ground, or the stay, of the truth. We need to be careful with regards
to our understanding here. We're not to imagine that he's
saying that the Church authenticates the truth. That's what the Roman
Catholics say. The Roman Catholic Church teaches,
doesn't it, that the Church makes decisions with regards to the
canon of Scripture, what books are to be included. When we say
the canon, we mean all the books that make up our Bible, particularly
the New Testament, but the whole of the Bible. The Church of Rome
says that the Church stands, as it were, above the Scriptures
and makes that decision which books are to be acknowledged
and which are not. So if you get a Roman Catholic
Bible, of course, you'll find that the books of the Apocrypha
are included. They're not in our Protestant
Bibles because we don't recognize them as being a proper part of
the canon of Scripture. We deny that the Church is that
that authenticates the truth of God. It's the truth of God,
rather, that authenticates the Church. We put it the opposite
way round. It's God's truth that is the
true stay of the Church. And remember what Luther said
at the time of the Protestant Reformation concerning the great
doctrine of justification by faith, that here is an article
by which the Church stands or falls. We measure the authenticity
of the Church by the Word of God, not measuring the Scriptures
themselves by the church and Rome of course will always want
to add to the scripture in any case and bring in traditions
and say that they are on equal standing with the scriptures
of truth the passage is not saying that, it is the word of God that
is the truth to the law and to the testimony If they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them. And here is Timothy's at Ephesus. And remember, one of the seven
letters, well the first of the seven letters in Revelation 2
and 3, the first of those letters is addressed to the church at
Ephesus. What does Paul say concerning this church, the angel of the
church, the messenger of the church at Ephesus? Nevertheless, he says, verse
4, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first
love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent. and do the first works, or else
I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick
out of his place, except thou repent." Or they had to go back
to those first roots, they had to go back to those first principles
that were taught when the Apostle was there ministering at Ephesus.
And we have the record of his preaching there, don't we? In
the Acts of the Apostles. And we come to that presently.
What do we see here then with regards to the church as the
ground of the truth? Well, the truth is that it governs
the whole corporate life of the church. Jude exhorts, earnestly contend
for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And when he uses that expression,
the faith, he's not speaking of the grace of faith, the grace
of believing, the gift of God, that saving faith that comes
by the operation of God in the soul of the sinner. When he says,
earnestly contend for the faith, he's speaking of the body of
truth that is to be believed. And that body of truth that the
church adheres to in all its life, in its government, in its
worship, in its witness, All of these things are to be rooted
in the Holy Scriptures. The Word of God is to regulate
all that the Church is doing, the way in which it functions,
its governments, its offices. As we've said already, it goes
through those standing offices in the previous verses. The worship
of the Church, Now the apostle speaks so plainly against any
will-worship men introducing into God's worship what they
think will be pleasant and pleasing and what confusion there is so
often of course. What departures we see in these
days from what is termed in the New Testament the simpliciter
that is in Christ Jesus. Well that is one of the great
hallmarks of pure worship is it not? It's so simple. whereas men want to produce something
grand and glorious. We have all that, of course,
in the Old Testament. We have a worship there that
is spiritual, yes, but in many ways it's more physical. It appeals more to the senses.
It's sensual worship. or the pomp and ceremony has
nothing to do with worship under the New Testament. Christ has
come and all of those types and shadows, all those figures are
now fulfilled in Him. But the whole life and witness
of the Church, I say again, is to be rooted in Holy Scripture
and regulated by the Word of God. Now, even then in the Old
Testament, time and again Moses is told to make all things according
to the pattern shown unto thee in the mount all according to
that pattern and interesting isn't it when we come to the
revelation very last book of holy scripture remember that
passage at the beginning of chapter 11 John says and there was given
me a reed like unto a rod and the angel stood saying rise and
measure the temple of God and the altar, and then that worship
therein. All of the worship of God here
is being measured by that reed like unto a rod. It's being measured by the Word
of God. All is to be measured by that
standard. All things are to be done decently
and in order. The corporate life of the church
is a burden. but then God's truth also governs
the lives of all individual believers those who are the individual
members of the church Christ says you shall know the
truth and the truth shall make you free all the truth of God's word and
now Paul emphasizes this again and again and when he writes
those epistles we have of course not only the doctrinal portions
but we have those more practical part of the epistles having laid
down the great doctrines He then spells out the implication of
believing these doctrines and living by these blessed truths. Those things, he says, which
ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. Writing to the Philippians. Oh,
he had done these very things himself, and they were to take
heed. Himself, in a sense, was the
pattern to them which would hereafter believe, and so he can say that.
what they'd learned, what they'd received, what they'd heard,
what they'd seen, what they'd seen. They were to do these very
things. And again, look at his language
when he writes in the second letter, the second epistle to
the Corinthians in chapter 10. Verse 3 it says, For though we
walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God,
to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ, that's the Christian's calling, is it not? We're to
fight the good fight of faith. And what are the weapons of this
warfare? Well, they're not carnal, they're
spiritual weapons. But now we have to cast down
all the vain imaginings and the vain reasonings of men and bring
everything, really, ultimately into the captivity of obedience
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our calling as believers. And poor time and again, I remarked
this morning how only at home we were reading there in that
great second chapter of Philippians, that lovely passage full of the
doctrine of Christ. And it's so practical really,
because what he is really saying to those Philippians is that
they need that mind to be their mind. And what is it? It's lowliness
of mind, it's humility. It's humility. Let nothing be
done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind. Let
each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man
on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, and
then, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, took upon him
the form of a servant. You know the passage. How God's
truth demonstrated in him who is the way, the truth and the
life, that is to govern the lives of all believers who make up
this church the ground of the truth the ground of the truth
but then also he does use this other word he speaks of the the
pillar of the truth the house of God which is the church of
the living gods the pillar and ground of the truth. Here is
a house, the house of God well it's not all ground work there
will be something built on that foundation there'll be some superstructure
and amongst other things there'll be pillars and the church is
the pillar of the truth. Now, what are we to make of this
statement then? Well We're told our ancient rulers
had their various edicts posted up on the pillars of their public
buildings. That was quite a common practice.
It would have been common certainly in the day in which the Apostle
was living in those times, days of the great Roman Empire, there
were many fine public buildings. and the authorities would post
their public pronouncements on the pillars of so many of those
buildings. And so, Thomas Scott here makes
the comment, the observation, how the church holds forth scripture
and Christ as the pillar holds forth a proclamation. The pillar
is something to be seen. And there is the proclamation
set forth on that pillar. And what is the great proclamation?
Well, he goes on, doesn't he? To tell us what the message is,
without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory. Here we have the very sum and
substance of the Gospel. That remarkable 16th verse that
follows the text. This is what is posted, as it
were, on the pillars. It is the doctrine of the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. That's what the Church is to
proclaim. That is our great business, to preach Christ. and Him crucified. I determine not to know anything
among you, says the Apostle. Say Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We preach Christ crucified. And in those two words,
you know, Christ crucified, we have everything really. We have
the person, Christ, and we have the work, crucified. All His
obedience leads up to that, doesn't it? Obedience unto death, even
the death of the cross. Well, this is what we proclaim,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember, we're told of the
apostles that they were pillars of the church. In Galatians 2.9 Paul says of James and Cephas,
Peter, and John who seemed to be pillars, he says, they were
pillars of the church. And of course again reverting
back to the ground, we're told by Paul in Ephesians 2.20 that
the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. And so, what were these men to
do? They were to labor in the Word
of God. I referred previously to Acts
chapter 6 and the origin of the office of the deacon. And the
reason why they appoint those seven men there in that chapter
is in order that the apostles might give themselves. Give themselves
to what? Well, we will give ourselves,
they say, to prayer and to the ministry of the words. That's
what the apostles wanted to be about, prayer. Prayer and the
ministry of the words. And so, as we've already said,
when the Apostle is addressing these young men who are helping
and assisting, and the various elders that are going to be appointed,
he speaks of those who to labour in the word and doctrine, here
in that 17th verse of chapter 5, are there to study, to show
themselves approved unto God, workmen not being afraid in any way but concerned
only to rightly divide the word of truth the faithful proclamation
of the word of God and it's not just it's not just the officers
of the church it's the whole church that he's
speaking of here it's the church that is not just the church officers
that's every member in the church the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth. And so when Paul addresses
the church of Philippi, he reminds them what they are to do, holding
forth the word of life. That's what the church does,
it holds forth the word of life. That's a great thing, isn't it?
That's the business of the church, it's not the business of para-church
organizations and societies, it's the business of the church.
That is the only institution that we read of in the New Testament.
And of course that has been the great contention of the Baptists. Very rarely have all para-church
organizations In fact the primitive Baptist in the United States
would have nothing to do with any sort of para-church organization. No, it's the church that holds
forth the word of life in the world. And it's interesting to
observe the context in which we have those words there in
Philippians. Philippians 2 verse 16 but see
the context such a practical thing really now he comes home
to us he says at verse 14 do all things without murmurings
and disputings that she may be blameless and harmless are sons
of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation crooked and perverse nation among
whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word
of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have
not run in vain either at lay but in vain and those those three
verses 14 15 16 Here in our authorised version
are punctuated as a single sentence. How do we hold forth the word
of life? Do all things without murmurings
and disputings, blameless, harmless, sons of gods, in the midst of
a crooked and perverse nation, shining as lights in the world,
with let our light so shine before me? that they may glorify our
Father which is in heaven or we are to be pillars of the truth
in that sense holding forth the word of life and then finally
we have the expression the house of God the house of God which is the
church of the living God the pillar and ground of the truth
The house of God is the same as the house of prayer. That's what it is, it's the same
as the house of prayer, that's what the church is about, really,
prayer. Timothy is there at Ephesus,
and as I said, it was a a terrible place to be really,
it was a center of great pagan worship because there stood a
great temple the temple of Diana and we read, don't we, in the
Acts, in Acts 19 of what went on there and what a position
there was to the ministry of these men, these apostles There
in that 19th chapter, we read of a certain man, in verse 24,
Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana,
and brought no small gain unto the craftsmen, who be called
together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs,
ye know that by this craft we have our wealth, Moreover, you
see and hear that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout
all Asia, Asia Minor, Turkey, this Paul hath persuaded and
turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are
made with hands, so that not only this our craft is in danger
to be set at naught, but also that the temple of the great
goddess Diana should be despised, and the magnificent should be
destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship us and there's
a great uproar there's a great tremendous uproar because of
the preaching of Paul and what he is proclaiming concerning
the only living and true God there was a time when God went
on the ignorance of men, the Gentile nations but as Paul says
when he is at Athens. God now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent, they are to turn from their vain idols, they are to
turn to the living God. And what is God's house? So different
to Diana's temple. God's house is a spiritual house. We don't look now for fine buildings. I know We see corrupt Christianity
all about us, don't we? Magnificent cathedrals and what
have you. But God's church is a spiritual
house. Peter tells us, doesn't he? Ye
also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy
priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. We're lively stones, living stones,
that build up this spiritual house. And what is the point
and purpose of it? It's to offer spiritual sacrifices. And what are spiritual sacrifices?
They're our praises, and they're our prayers. That's why we come
together to worship in this fashion, Lord's Day by Lord's Day. We
engage in a service of public worship. we come to praise God,
we come to present prayers to our God that's the church and each of us individual members
of the church not members, we come as part and parcel of the
congregation and there we have to look to
ourselves and examine ourselves much struck by that couplet in
the hymn of Charles Wesley that we just sang when well, it struck
me many a time but it strikes me every time we sing the hymn
the ruins of my soul repair and make my heart a house of prayer
always how do we come to worship God we're so conscious of what
we are as sinners and the ruin of our souls and how daily we
ruin ourselves and we have to come and we ask God himself to
make our hearts houses of prayer. That's what it is to be in the
church of the living God, is it not? Or the Lord Jesus himself. Remember when he cleanses the
temple of the buyers and the sellers. What does he say? My house shall be called to all
nations The house of prayer. The house of prayer. Oh God, grant grace that we might
know then how to behave ourselves. How to live, how to conduct ourselves.
That's the force of the word that we have here. As Paul addresses
this young man, and as God by His Spirit in His Word, I trust,
addresses us tonight. The Lord Jesus might well say,
He will come again. Oh, that blessed day will come
when the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, the voice
of the archangel, the dead in Christ shall rise for us. But,
says the Lord, if I tell thee long that thou mayest know how
thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is
the church of the living God, the pillar and grounds of the
truth. Amen.