May I encourage you this morning
to follow as I read again, as I did yesterday morning, from
Paul's first letter to Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 3. Yesterday morning I read the
entirety of the second and third chapters so that the basic content
of those chapters might be fresh in your minds. This morning I
will read only the text which formed the focal point of the
opening up of the Word of God yesterday morning. These things write I unto thee, hoping
to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou
mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house
of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth. In our time together yesterday
morning, I sought to open up in your hearing the basic truths
which God has deposited in this text of Scripture. In our study,
we noted first of all the specific circumstances which precipitated
this letter to Timothy. Secondly, we noted the explicit
purpose for which this particular section of the letter was written. These things of the text pertain
primarily to the things of details touching Church order—the ordering
of the public worship of the people of God, the relative roles
of men and women within their life together as the Church,
the matter of the recognition and function of elders and of
deacons. And then that which constituted
the bulk of our study was the third line of truth in the text,
namely, the fundamental reasons for these concerns that the Apostle
expresses. And it was my thesis that when
Paul designates the Church as the house of God, pillar and
ground of the truth, the living God's Church, that these were
not simply terms used for filler, but that they formed the rationale
for this passionate concern for the ordering of the life of the
Church. And so the fundamental reasons
for the concerns expressed by the Apostle in the letter, and
in particular this section of the letter, is to be found in
the glorious identity of the Church, House of God, Church
of the Living God, and the supreme function of the Church, the pillar
and the ground of the truth. Now, if you were not here yesterday
morning, may I urge you please to get a tape of the exposition,
because, as I suggested, really I'm preaching but one sermon
in two installments, and everything that I say today by way of exhortation
and admonition assumes some conviction with regard to the exposition
of yesterday morning. Now this same apostle Paul, in
writing his second letter to Timothy, stated in that very
familiar verse, chapter 3 and verse 16, that all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, and for discipline or training
in righteousness. Now, yesterday morning we spent
the bulk of our time considering the teaching of 1 Timothy 3,
14 and 15. Very little time was spent in
reproof, correction, or training or discipline in righteousness. Whereas this morning there will
be very little in the way of positive teaching, but rather
the bulk of our time will be spent in the reproof, the rebukes,
the corrections, the instruction or discipline, the training in
righteousness, which ought legitimately to be derived from this text
in 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. Now, as I worked out the areas
of application, I noted that they fell into two basic categories. Some were negative, some were
positive. Then I wrestled with how shall
I lay them out in the sermon. If I give the positive first,
some will surely conclude, poor Pastor Martin, in his old age
he's getting soft, and so he's starting with the positive, fearful
to plow in and dig up with the negative. On the other hand,
if I started with the negative, there are some who would say,
oh, there he goes again. If only once he would start with
something positive. And so I found myself in the
position it was heads the other fellow would win and tails I
would lose. So I said, well, Lord, what shall
I do? And my mind went back to the
pattern of the hortatory sections in Scripture. And there is a
definite mixed pattern in Scripture. Sometimes you have the negative
first, followed by the positive. For instance, Ephesians 5.18,
Be not drunk with wine, negative, but be being filled with the
Spirit, positive. On the other hand, we have admonitions
which say, put off, therefore, all of these. Colossians 3.8,
then you have the positive, Colossians 3.12, put on, therefore, as the
elect of God, and you will find this mixed pattern in Scripture.
And so what I decided to do is to take my two lists, the negative
and the positive, and take one, then the other, one, then the
other, and that way I hope I will please everyone, unnecessarily
offend no one, and then I have a third reason That way I place
the things of lesser importance toward the end, so if I run out
of time, you will have gotten the most important positives
and negatives. So that's the pattern of our
application of this text this morning. We begin, first of all,
by simply underscoring again the great doctrinal perspective
that is given to us in the text that we opened up yesterday.
If we have some appreciation of the glorious identity of the
Church as God's house, the living God's Church, and some appreciation
of its supreme function as the pillar and ground of the truth—that
is, the only God-ordained, scripturally instituted structure for the
propagation, manifestation, and preservation of the truth of
God in any given generation—then there are a multitude of applications
growing out of those truths. And the first is this, this text
issues a summons Not a suggestion. You know what a summons is. It's
an official call from the legal authority for you to appear at
a certain time in a certain place. This text issues a summons to
all professing Christians to identify themselves with the
life and ministry of a true Church of Jesus Christ. It is a summons
to all professing Christians to identify themselves with the
life and ministry of a true Church of Jesus Christ. It is sad but
true that there are not a few who profess to be the recipients
of the saving grace of God in Christ, who manifest many of
the marks and the fruits of grace, some of those very marks that
were opened up in our hearing from this pulpit last night,
but who are not formally, really, and vitally identified with a
true Church of Jesus Christ. Now notice I said with a true
Church of Jesus Christ. I did not say THE true Church
of Jesus Christ. I personally, and the elders
who promote this conference I know, share this view. We do not take
the position that only a Baptist church is a true Church of Jesus
Christ. We hold that the churches of
our Presbyterian brethren are true churches of Christ. that
many of the churches of our friends in Methodist or Alliance churches,
and you can name many denominations, are members of true churches
of Christ. And though we would have to confess
that we believe they are true churches with certain irregularities
and abnormalities, there are no doubt irregularities and abnormalities
in our Baptist churches as well. And we do not take that narrow,
and I call it unchristian, position that only churches that maintain
what we understand to be the purity of biblical teaching with
regard to the proper subjects of the ordinances and the proper
government of the church are true churches and everything
else is non-church. I abominate that position. It
is an insult to Jesus Christ and to his true people. But I
am saying I am saying that a text such as 1 Timothy 3, 14, and
15 is a summons to every professing believer to find himself formally,
really, and vitally identified with some true church of Jesus
Christ. Just as an unbaptized Christian
is an abnormality not recognized in the New Testament, the thief
on the cross accepted, so a baptized Christian who is not vitally
joined to a living body of Christians is also an abnormality not recognized
in the New Testament, the Ethiopian eunuch accepted. The pattern
of New Testament normalcy is given to us in Acts chapter 2. I say it is the pattern of New
Testament normalcy. Peter is preaching on the day
of Pentecost. The Spirit of God has attended
the Word with mighty power. People have been brought to true
poverty of spirit. People who were once arrogant
in their understanding of the Scriptures, so arrogant and prejudiced
that they put Jesus Christ to death thinking they were doing
God's service, are now crushed and broken to the point that
they cry out, what shall we do? And in response to that cry,
Peter gives them words of direction, and now we read in verse 41 of
Acts 2. Then they that received his word
were baptized, and there were added unto them that day about
three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' teaching and fellowship in the breaking of
bread and the prayers. And then the summary statement
in verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people,
and the Lord added to them, day by day, those that were being
saved. And so we see that the pattern
of New Testament normalcy is the proclamation of the word
of the gospel, followed by the saving reception of that word,
they that received his word. This in turn is followed by open
confession of that reception in God's appointed confessional
ordinance of baptism. But immediately following that,
there was the formal commitment to and identification with the
existing church, and the same day there were added to them,
and then there was wholehearted involvement notice in the totality
of the church's life and ministry. The they who were added are grouped
together, no doubt excepting some who apostatized, some who
no doubt were weak in the faith and vacillated, but the vast
majority can be described as those who continued steadfastly,
not merely in the Sunday morning apostolic teaching service, They
continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching, yes, and
in the fellowship, all that pertained to their shared life as a body
of Jesus Christ, and in the breaking of bread, referring probably
to that distinctive commemorative meal, the supper of remembrance,
and the stated seasons of corporate prayer. This is New Testament
normalcy. Because God had constituted the
church, the pillar, and the ground of the truth. It was God's house
where He had come in the midst of the most unusual manifestations
of His presence. In Acts chapter 2, as a mighty
rushing wind, God came and filled His new living New Testament
temple with His glory. And everyone who had heard the
message of truth from that initial pillar and ground of the truth
came into that living temple, and they themselves were now
part of the church which was pillar and ground of the truth. Now let me make application to
this, to those of you present this morning, by asking several
very simple questions. Do you believe that the church
is God's house? that when his people gather there
is a peculiar, a singular presence of God in the midst of his people. Do you believe that it is the
living God's church, not a human organization or a merely pragmatic
or convenient arrangement for getting Christian work done? Do you really believe that the
Church as instituted by Jesus Christ is the pillar and foundation
of the truth? If so, why are you not identified
with it? Why are you not answerable to
its oversight? Why are you not poured out in
its life and its ministry? How can you claim to have sincere
attachment to Christ while you are indifferent to His body,
which is the church? I say our text in 1 Timothy 3
is a summons to every believer, every confessed disciple, to
be formally and also really and vitally committed to a true church
of Jesus Christ. But someone objects. There is
no true church in my immediate area. To which I answer, number
one, by what standard are you judging whether or not there
is a true church? your standard may go beyond God's. I answer,
secondly, if your standard is valid and there is no true church
to which you can commit yourself with a good conscience, then
perhaps God is calling you to move from the area in which you
presently find yourself. Do people move from one geographical
area to another for economic reasons? All the time. People
have an opportunity in their career for advancement. They
think nothing. They average about three years
dwelling in my area, metropolitan area. The average length of time
in any given home is three years. Why? Because career advancement
calls to another place. Will people root themselves up
from their local surroundings and relocate for the sake of
shackles? You're unwilling to do it for
the sake of your soul? Shame on you. Furthermore, I
hear of people who move simply for the aesthetics of the climate,
sometimes because of physical problems. Their allergies become
so irritating that they pack up and move hundreds of miles.
If people will do this for these reasons, then surely, if God
has not sovereignly planted a church in your area, and there is no
real prospect that such a church will come to birth in the near
future, and you have precious little ones, as well as a wife
and others who desperately need to be found in God's house, found
in that which is a pillar and ground of the truth, then your
priorities are all mixed up if you're not willing to pay any
price short of sinning to be found in such a church. Someone
else objects and says, yes, there are some true churches, but no
churches that share my reformed convictions. What shall I do?
Maybe God has some lessons to teach you about how to be gracious
to people who do not understand the way of God as you do. Perhaps
God will use you as a Priscilla or an Aquila to help some understand
the way of God more perfectly. Furthermore, there may be aspects
of God's truth, certainly not in the area of soteriology, but
in other areas where that church that does not hold to the doctrines
of grace distinctively has advanced far beyond your knowledge and
experience with respect to the Word of God. I have seen churches
that are not of Reformed persuasion that have put me and my own people
to shame in terms of their hard understanding of and vital experience
of certain dimensions of God's truth. You need to weigh very carefully
any justification before being found outside of a formal, vital,
real commitment. to a visible congregation of
God's people. But now then, the text not only
issues the summons concerning that matter, but the text stands
as an indictment against the vast majority of parachurch organizations
and institutions. The text stands as an indictment
against the vast majority of para-church organizations and
institutions. Now, for some to whom the term
para-church may convey no intelligent meaning, let me just define what
I mean by the terminology. A para-church organization is
an organization that claims to be an arm of the Church, an organization
and institution of structure called alongside to help the
Church in its functions. You hear the term much in our
days, paralegal assistance, paramedics. Here are people giving medical
aid who are not trained physicians, but they've had sufficient training
to help in medical emergencies. Paralegal societies. Men and women who are not registered
lawyers. They have not passed an examination
at the bar, but they offer help in legal matters. in areas where
the expert is not needed. Well, the parachurch groups are
those which supposedly work alongside the Church as aides to and arms
of the Church. Now listen carefully as I make
several qualifying statements. If you miss these, you will misrepresent
the burden of what is upon my heart this morning. I am referring
particularly to those institutions and organizations which usurp
the distinctive, biblically defined tasks of the Church while being
utterly insensitive to the biblical norms for the life and ministry
of the Church. Now, I think one would be hard-pressed
to prove from Scripture that it is the task of any given local
church to form a translation society and to bring together
under the aegis of one local church men of sufficient scholarship
to make an accurate translation of the Bible. So I'm not referring
to societies organized to translate and disseminate the Scriptures,
matters of this concern with respect to the reprinting of
literature and other things. I'm thinking of those organizations
and institutions and structures which are usurping the distinctive
tasks of the Church. And those tasks, of course, are
summarily set before us in such passages as Matthew 28, 19 and
following, in which the Church is commanded to make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them, teaching them to observe
whatsoever I have commanded you. And so I am thinking of those
evangelistic associations committed to the making of disciples. those
independent boards which send people out to make disciples
of the nations, those institutions which claim to be ordered of
God to build up the church to maturity, those seminars which
gather the people of God together by the thousands claiming to
be an instrument to bring the Church either to evangelistic
maturity or to maturity in Christian grace and experience. Those things
which are the distinctive task of the Church. Furthermore, I'm
qualifying what I'm saying by this very vital note. I am not
saying that this text constitutes an indictment upon the motives
of men and women identified with such organizations, even some
of their founders. I am saying nothing about motives. Furthermore, I am not saying
that God has not used these organizations in the past. is not presently
using many of them in the present and will not use them in the
future. However, what God has done or
may yet do in the exercise of his unfettered sovereignty is
neither the rule of our conduct nor the standard of our accountability. And never forget that. What God
may do in the unfettered exercise of his own sovereignty is neither
the rule of our conduct nor the standard of our accountability. Rather, we are to regulate our
behavior by the word of God. Even Timothy who had breathed
so much of the spirit of the Apostle, had even seen with his
eyes so much of the Apostle's activity. Timothy was not left
to sanctified instinct or to indistinct remembrances of basic
patterns. When it came to behavior in the
house of God, Timothy needed a letter. And that letter spelled
out in detail such matters as public worship and prayer, the
relative roles of men and women, the care of the widows, etc.,
etc. Acceptable service must be according
to the rule of Scripture. 2 Timothy 2.5, a man does not
win the prize in the race unless he keeps the rules. Good motives are not a negation
of evil and unscriptural practices. Those men who put forth their
hand to help steady the ark had the highest of motives, but God
killed them. Their motive was that the glory
of the God of Israel should not be stained by that which was
the very symbol of his presence falling into the dusty roads. But when they put forth their
hand as those not commissioned to touch the ark, God killed
them. And furthermore, much that may
presently appear as success and advancement is but veiled retreat. and defeat in the Church of Christ. And so I say this text is an
indictment upon the vast majority of parachurch organizations and
institutions, particularly those which usurp the distinctive tasks
of the Church while being utterly insensitive to the biblical norms
for the Church. Now is this line of concern merely
a matter of narrow-minded Baptist bigotry? No, my friends. This issue was hotly debated
in the mid-1800s among our Presbyterian brethren, and I commend to every
preacher present the section in Volume IV of Thornwell dealing
with ecclesiastical matters, particularly his essays dealing
with church boards. And here was the great debate
between Thornwell and the leader on the other side, one of the
Hodges, as to whether or not the church needed independent
mission boards to accomplish its tasks. And Thornwell stood
firmly on the position. that every task committed to
the Church was a task for which the head of the Church had furnished
the Church with all that she needed to do her work. And he
was utterly intransigent on that point. Let me give you some samplings
of his wholly intransigence. Reading from page 158, Under
this general head of the anti-Presbyterian, we would say anti-biblical character
of the boards, we will suggest another consideration which has
commended itself very forcibly to our minds. It appears to us
that this whole system involves an abandonment of the great principle
that it is the duty of the Church as such, in her ecclesiastical
capacity, to conduct every department of the work which the Savior
has committed to her. Is the Church the pillar and
ground of just three quarters of the truth? both as to theory
and duty, or is the church pillar and ground of the truth in the
totality of the revelation of that truth? That's the issue
that Thornwell saw with an eagle's eye. To this principle the Presbyterian
Church is pledged, for this principle she earnestly contended through
the years of darkness, anxiety, and apprehension. In this contest
we participated heartily and warmly according to the measure
of the grace given us, and can see no reason for abandoning
it when the victory is now within our reach. We believe, said the
Assembly of 1837 in her Circular Letter to the Sister Churches,
that if there be any departments of Christian effort to which
the Church of Christ is bound in her appropriate character
to direct her attention and her unwearied labors, They are those
which relate to the training of her sons for the holy ministry,
sending the gospel to those who have it not, and planting churches
in the dark and destitute portions of the church. Here, the obligation
of the Church in her appropriate character is distinctly admitted
and given as one reason for rebuking the various voluntary associations
which, without any warrant from God, had taken these matters
into their own hands. He says no independent group
of men have a right to take upon themselves the training of people
for the work of the ministry. the sending of men to preach
the gospel, or the planting of churches. He says they have taken
from the hand of Christ that which he has deposited in his
church. That's Dabney's language, no
bigoted Baptist, but a perceptive, biblically thinking Presbyterian. He goes on to say, the argument from the scriptures
against the system of independent boards is, of course, a very
short one. to all who sincerely receive
our standards. The great object of a visible
church organization or definite system of church government is
to put the church in a situation and provide her with all the
necessary furniture of officers and means for building up the
kingdom of God and extending its conquest throughout the world. As under the old dispensation,
nothing connected with the worship or discipline of the church of
God was left to the wisdom or discretion of men But everything
was accurately prescribed by the authority of God, so under
the new, no voice is to be heard in the household of faith but
the voice of the Son of God. The power of the Church is purely
ministerial and declarative. She is only to hold forth the
doctrine, enforce the laws, and execute the government which
Christ has given her. She is to add nothing of her
own to, or to subtract nothing from, what her Lord has established. Discretionary powers she does
not possess. And then just one other quote
that brings all of these various lines of argument together and
pinpoints them. In other words, the real point
at issue between the reviewer and myself is whether the Church,
as organized by Jesus Christ and His Apostles, is competent
to do all that her head has enjoined upon her, or does she require
additional agents to assist her. This is the real question. Did Christ give the Church all
the furniture she needed, or did He partially supply her with
a general direction to make up the deficiency? Upon this question
I fearlessly join issue. So strong are my convictions
of the adequacy of the Church as organized in the scriptures
to meet all exigencies, that if it can be clearly shown that
she is incompetent to discharge any office assumed to be imperative
upon her, I should think it much more probable that the duty was
not enjoined than that the Church was thus relatively imperfect.
What she clearly cannot do is not commanded. And I tell you,
I would not have wanted to be on the other side of that debate. He summarizes and said, this
is the heart, the nexus, the core, this is the living central
nerve of the issue. Has Christ, as the great nourisher
and cherisher of His church, the divine architect of His church,
who conceived in His own infinite mind and purpose all that He
desired for His church, has He left with His church a sufficient
rule of faith and practice in these things of church behavior
given to us by His own Word and by apostolic testimony? If so,
then sincerity notwithstanding, the activities of sheer sovereignty
notwithstanding, this text stands as an indictment upon the vast
majority of parachurch institutions and organizations that have usurped
the distinctive role and function of the Church while living in
open, blatant indifference to the norms established for the
Church. This is a very practical thing,
perhaps to many of us here. To what are you going to give
your time? Many of these organizations have no conscience about bleeding
away hours from gifted men and women and boys and girls. The
exercise of whose gifts and the expenditure of whose time in
a local church could result greatly in a wider propagation of the
truth of which the church is pillar and ground. The expenditure
of time and energy and money within the church would make
her much more glorious as God's house, the living gods called
out people. My friend, you better seriously
evaluate Within what sphere do you expend your time, your money,
your talent, and your energies? I hasten on now to a third line
of application, and it is this. This text trumpets a clarion
call to the most meticulous adherence to the revealed norms for the
life of the Church. both in government, worship,
and ministry. This text trumpets a clarion
call to the most meticulous adherence to the revealed norms for the
life of the Church, both with respect to its government, its
worship, and its ministry. The attitude which prevails greatly
in our day is this. If the main doctrines of the
Church are held, the central doctrines concerning Christ in
the uniqueness of his person and the sufficiency of his work,
and if there is a broad concern to take that message to men in
our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the
earth, is it not a form of ecclesiastical fiddling while Rome burns to
be concerned about nitpicking details of church order? I mean, can't we be a bit flexible
about worship? And if plunking on guitars and
having a freewheeling kind of worship service attracts people
and we're able to meet them where they are, what's wrong with it? The great issue is, get the gospel
to men! And granted, it may not quite
be a matter of biblical normalcy to have women in places of public
instruction in the mixed assembly, but let's face it, we're living
in the age of radical feminism, and how are we going to reach
such Such people, if the moment they come within our assemblies
they sense there is a cursed male dominance in leadership,
will drive them all away. So let's just turn, as it were,
half a blind eye to that which the Word of God says. The important
thing is we must reach people with the gospel. And everyone
knows if you don't have one strong, dominant leader who really is
the chief honcho, you can't make anything go. Nothing was ever
done by a committee but wasting time. And so though the Bible
seems to teach some kind of a parity and plurality of elders, it'll
lead into nothing but headaches if you try to establish it. So
why get so upset? That's the mentality that prevails,
and I say this text is like a trumpet sounding to that mentality, saying,
No! These things I write unto you,
Timothy, that men may know how to behave themselves in God's
house, and His house rules are not to be spurned. His house
directions are carefully to be scrutinized and prayerfully and
wisely and in dependence upon the Holy Spirit implemented as
He enables us to do so. All that Paul has written about
prayer in the church, the subject matter of prayer, who is to pray,
the relative roles of men and women, the standard for elders
and deacons, that is not put there as filler for a few people
who have a meticulous kind of mind and spirit. It is put there
for every church that claims to stand under the Lordship of
Jesus Christ. The apostolic mentality was just
the opposite. There was a thriving church at
Ephesus, a good measure of church order already implemented. Yet,
as we noted yesterday, Paul robs himself of the comfort and support
of his choice companion Timothy, robs sinners in the regions beyond
of the impact of his evangelistic gift. And he puts him back in
Ephesus. Why? To regulate behavior in
God's church because God's house demands careful housekeeping. God's temple must be glorious. It is the pillar and ground of
the truth. And the pillars must be strong
and polished. And the truth must be held forth
in all its beauty. and in all its glory. As I suggested
yesterday, refusal to press after conformity to all the meticulous
details of New Testament norms for the ordering of the Church
is in some way or another a misrepresentation of truth. You just take those
two chapters. Is it true that God is sovereign
over the nations and over kings and rulers? Well, the Church
is to reflect that truth in the pressure and burden of its prayers.
People come into a little group of people, thirty people, and
they hear them crying to God to govern and rule and turn the
hearts of the Reagans, the President Reagans, of the Mrs. Thatchers, of the great leaders
of the earth, and they say, these people are crazy. A little group
of thirty people. And they think that what they're
doing is influencing Parliament, and the Senate, and Congress.
They're either crazy, or they've got great God. And that's the
message. That is the truth. Our God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He pleased.
The heart of kings is in His hand, and that glorious truth
of His absolute sovereignty is a truth of which the Church is
pillar and foundation, so its prayers better be occupied with
something more than dear old Sister Jones, who is ninety-eight
and on her way to glory, and happens to have a little bit
of a twitch in her left pinky. And I don't mean to be unkind,
God's concerned about the twitch in her pinky. Yes, he is. But when the twitch in her pinky
and the itch in another sister's left ear and all of these things
dominate our public prayers, someone coming in would get a
totally erroneous view of God. And so he says, I will that prayers,
supplications, intercession be made for all men, for kings,
for rulers, those in authority. Is God the God who delights in
mercy? The God who will have all men
to be saved, the God who in the will of his precept, in the will
of the free unfettered proclamation of the gospel, the urgent overtures
of mercy, is he a God who delights to show mercy to all? Then the
church better reflect that truth in its prayers, you see? Has
God from creation established role orders? Yes, He has, so
Paul says. May it be evident in the life
of the churches at Ephesus, they are a pillar and ground of the
truth. Someone stepping in should sense, yes, there is sensitive,
loving, but authoritative, responsible, godly male leadership in this
place. and coming out of a society that
has no concept of assigned roles, they should be struck immediately
with the sense of order and safety and blessedness of such an arrangement. For they notice that the women
are not sitting there, cowered over in a corner, afraid to look
up. They are open-faced. They are
happy. They are ebullient with the joy
of the Lord. but perfectly willing for the
men to take the lead in the public worship, in the proclamation
and teaching. And they scratch their head and
say, something doesn't fit here. I've been told if there's male
dominance in leadership, it utterly shrivels your own identity as
a woman. But here's a bunch of women who
obviously know who they are and they're happy in it, and yet
men are leading. There's some truth around here
I never encountered before. The church is pillar and ground
of that truth as well. And you go right through the
book of 1 Timothy and you can relate every single major direction
to an aspect of truth. Who are you? Who am I to say
church government is of no real consequence? Who are you to say
that? Are you wiser than Christ? This text trumpets a clarion
call to the most meticulous. adherence to the revealed norms
for the Church in its government, in its worship, and in its ministry. But then I must hasten on. I
should be done here when? Already? This quarter after ten?
All right, okay. Because if I don't get any further
than this, dear brothers and sisters, I am constrained to
sound this note. This text thunders a sober warning
to all who would tamper with the peace, purity, or stability
of a true Church of God. This text, which designates the
Church as God's house, the living God's assembly, pillar and ground
of the truth, I say this text thunders a sober warning to all
who would tamper with the peace, purity, and stability of a true
Church of God. It is a sad but undeniable fact
that multitudes of Church members, even in Reformed churches, have
little or no sense of dread at the thought that they might be
a catalyst to precipitate disruption, instability, or a grieved Holy
Spirit, and I am appalled at how many ministers have so little
sense of dread at this point. They make such snap decisions
that will affect the whole assembly and possibly affect it with disruption
disunity, disharmony, they will leap onto the bandwagon of some
late doctrinal fad, without hours of painstaking reflection and
study and meditation, until the Church is utterly crippled with
their doctrinal deviations. And usually it is low views of
the Church as God's church of the living God, pillar and ground
of the truth which contributes to this attitude. Paul, using
the analogy of the Christian workers in the first nine verses,
takes up two metaphors. The church is a field and the
workers are men who sow and plant The church is a building, and
the various ministers are construction workers. Verse 9, For we are
God's fellow workers, you are God's husbandry, or tilled land,
God's building. Now as a building, verse 16,
know ye not that you, second person plural, that you, Corinthians,
as an entity, as a church inhabited by God, do you not know that
you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple
of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy,
and such are you. Think of it. Corinth, with all
of its problems, And just let your mind sweep quickly from
chapter 1 through to chapter 16. Corinth, with all of its
problems, is still a true church. And as a true church, it is God's
temple. And where God is, He is there
in His burning holiness. And the apostle says, if you
destroy the temple, he uses the same verb, then God will destroy
you. You mar his temple. You destroy his temple. God will destroy you. I say that
is a trumpet warning in our ears, lest by carelessness with speech
carnality of attitude, by a plotting, scheming disposition to have
our own way, we should in any way unnecessarily disrupt the
peace, the unity, and the purity of any true Church of Jesus Christ. God wanted to make that message
very, very clear in the early Church. And when there was a
man and a woman who thought they could lie with impunity, God
killed them. He said, My temple's holy, and
I can't have unholy liars in it. I'll kill them and get them
out of the way. Acts chapter 5. And that's not
the only place. You had some people at Corinth
whom God had destroyed. For this cause many are weak
and sickly among you, and not a few sleep. 1 Corinthians 11
and verse 13. Am I speaking this morning to
some man or woman, boy or girl, who even as you came to this
conference came from the foul work of undermining the peace
or purity of one of God's houses? You have even seized the opportunity
at this conference to take innocent people and infect their minds
with your foul work of gossip, of slander. of undermining respect
and confidence in some God-appointed overseer. Here at this very conference
you have been about your wicked work of destroying the house
of God. My friend, may God the Holy Ghost
thunder warnings in your ears and put his fear in your heart.
He that destroys God's temple, him shall God destroy. Am I speaking to some who harbor
attitudes which grieve and quench the spirit? So instead of the
living temple throbbing with the life of the living God, so
that the livingness of God is known, and I use the word without
embarrassment, known and felt, The Spirit is grieved because
of your unwillingness to obey Ephesians 4, to be kind, tenderhearted,
forgiving. And you sit Lord's Day by Lord's
Day with an unforgiving spirit to some brother or sister or
brethren or sisters. You sit with a veil of resentment
to one of your public teachers and overseers, and the Spirit
of God is grieved, and the sense of the livingness of God has
long since left your assembly. Oh, my friend, may God fill you
with fear and bring you to repentance. The church is God's house. The church is the assembly of
the living God. And it is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God. In the fifth place, the
text constitutes a point of reference from which each Christian ought
soberly to evaluate his gifts and the sphere of their exercise.
The text constitutes a point of reference from which each
Christian ought soberly to evaluate his gifts and their sphere of
exercise. I'll give you the key passages.
Romans 12 and 3 lays upon every Christian the duty of a mature
and accurate assessment of his gifts. But in the two other major
passages pertaining to gifts, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians
4, to which we might add the minor passage 1 Peter 4.10, the
context of the exercise of the gift discerned by sober assessment
is the church. It is for the building up of
the body, the church, for which the head of the church endows
men with gifts. And I plead with those who may
sit amongst us today, self-conscious that the head of the church has
endowed you with gifts of one sort or another, and you may
be wrestling with, where shall I invest the exercise of those
gifts? And there may be some very attractive
opportunities, but those opportunities are not found in the framework
of that which God has made pillar and ground of the truth. Oh,
my friend, I plead with you, regardless of how attractive
the opportunity may appear, regardless of how useful you may seem to
be, I plead with you, make no decision about the sphere of
the exercise of your gifts apart from praying through 1 Timothy
3, 14 and 15. And I think I can speak as one
who has felt that pressure. I have had good and godly men
pressure me. Why do you limit yourself to
Trinity Church? It's evident that God has put
his seal upon your ministry in this area and that area. Why
don't you give yourself to this or to that? And I have come back
again and again to the word of God and have said, before God
and men, show me from the word of God where there can be any
higher usefulness. than to strengthen that which
is God's house, living God's church, pillar and ground of
the truth. Now that's all I can do is give
you the head, because I've got no time left. But it issues a sober warning
to all who are the official workmen in the Church of God. 1 Corinthians
3, 10-14, read Dabney's article. Volume 1 on that text. And then
it stands as a signpost to those identified with apostate churches.
If a church is no longer upholding the truth, what in the world
are you doing in it? Oh, but Grandma, and great so what? Some of you identified with apostate
churches need to come to grips with this text. Do you have any
grounds to plead for the maturation of your soul? If you're in any
other church but one that's a pillar and ground of the truth, don't
tempt God with prayers for maturity while you sit identified with
a compromised structure. And then finally, it's a word
of direction to the unconverted. God can save any man in any situation
where he comes in touch with the truth, but he's most likely
to save you where there's the richest deposit of his truth,
both in proclamation and in the outliving of that truth, and
that's his church. You dear young people, don't despise the fact
that mommy and daddy take you by the seat of the pants and
the back of the neck and plunk you down in church. If you're
ever going to get saved from hell, you'll get saved because
God takes the truth and makes it powerful in your heart. You
ought to be where there's most truth and where it's most powerfully
and accurately preached and where you can see it lived out. This
whole idea, well, the church is to build up the saints and
then the saints are to go out and get people. Don't get people
in church to get them saved. You don't find that taught in
the Bible. No, siree. Witness wherever you go. Seize
every opportunity. But try to use every bridgehead
of witness to get people into church. Because when the unconverted
comes, what will he cry if God is there? First Corinthians 14,
he falling down will cry out of the truth, God is among you. God is among you. And oh, we could bring forward
testimony after testimony. Some sit here this very day who
were saved because The Word was preached, and the power of God
was present in the house of God, and the life of God was manifested
in the people of God, and that combined pressure brought them
broken and bleeding, mourning to the feet of the Son of God. Well, you have to work out those
things. Time has left us. May God grant to each of us To
face honestly the implications of this grand text concerning
the dignity and the awesome responsibility of the Church, let us pray. Our Father, we are so thankful
for your holy word. We thank you that in it we have
the only and the sufficient rule of faith and of practice. Oh,
may we have an understanding of and a commitment to all that
Your Word teaches with respect to Your glorious Church. Deliver
us from a sinful censoriousness of others. Keep us, Lord, from
a wicked impugning of bad motives to those who perhaps have been
careless with respect to the Church. Surely, O Lord, we have
enough to do to mourn our own miserable and meager measure
of obedience to the light we have, without standing as pharisaic
critics of others. Humble us, fill us with your
Spirit, and help us to run in the way of your commandments,
we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.