1 Timothy 3:14-15: Application

Recap of the Church's Identity and Function

0:06 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. Chapter 3 of 1 Timothy verses 14 and 15.

0:46 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.

1:20 In our study we noted first of all the specific circumstances which precipitated this letter to Timothy. And then secondly, we noted the circumstances which precipitated this letter to Timothy. 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.

1:48 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.

2:03 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, the pillar and ground of the truth, the living God's church, that these were not simply terms used for filler, but that they form the rationale for this passionate concern for the ordering of the life of the church.

2:45 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

The Nature of Application: Reproof, Correction, and Training

3:29 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.

4:12 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.

4:57 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.

5:18 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. Something positive. And so I found myself in the position, it was heads the other fellow would win and tails I would lose.

5:38 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.

5:54 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.

6:10 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.

6:26 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.

6:45 So that's the pattern of our application of this text this morning. And we begin, first of all, by simply underscoring again

Application 1: A Summons to Church Identification

6:56 the 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 propaganda of the Bible, that is, the only God-ordained, scripturally instituted structure for the propaganda of the Bible, that is, the only God-ordained, scripturally instituted structure for the propaganda of the Bible, manifestation and preservation of the truth of God in any given generation, then there are a multitude of applications growing out of those truths.

7:41 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 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.

8:13 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 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,

8:57 who are not formally, really, and vitally identified with a true Church, who are not formally, really, and vitally identified with a true Church, I did not say the true Church of Jesus Christ. I personally, and the elders of this conference 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 brothers, We hold that the churches of our Presbyterian brothers, brethren, are true churches of Christ. That many of the churches of our friends in Methodist

9:33 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

10:14 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,

10:31 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. If a baptized Christian is not recognized in the New Testament, the thief on the cross accept it. 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, accept it.

11:14 The pattern of New Testament normalcy is given to us in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. I say it is the pattern of normalcy that is given to us in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter pattern of New Testament normalcy. Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit

11:33 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

12:10 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,

12:53 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 Word of God. And in the church, and the same day they were added to them, and then there was wholehearted involvement notice in the totality of the church's life and ministry.

13:37 The they who were added are grouped together, no doubt accepting 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,

14:16 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 room. The New Testament temple with his glory, and everyone who had heard the message of truth

14:59 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? Do you believe that the church is part of the church?

15:25 And when you are in 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 is instituted to be God's.

15:54 Do you really believe that the church is instituted to be God's? Do you really believe that the church is instituted to be God's? by Jesus Christ is the pillar and foundation of the truth? If so, why are you not identified with it?

16:08 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?

16:29 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?

17:00 Your standard may go beyond God's.

17:04 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.

17:28 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?

17:39 Because career advancement calls to another place. Will people root themselves up from their local surroundings and relocate for the sake of shekels? You're unwilling to do it. Will you do it for the sake of your soul?

17:57 Shame on you.

18:00 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

18:43 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 condition. 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.

19:09 Perhaps God will use you as a priscilla or an aquiline 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.

Application 2: An Indictment Against Para-Church Organizations

19:53 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 a summons concerning that matter, but the text stands as an indictment against the vast majority of para-church organizations and institutions. The text stands as an indictment against the vast majority of para-church organizations and institutions.

20:34 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, an organization and institution of structure called alongside to help 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, para-legal assistance, para-medics.

21:13 Here are people giving medical aid who are not trained physicians, but they've had sufficient training to help in medical emergencies. Para-legal societies. Men and women who are not registered lawyers. They have not passed an examination at the bar, but they offer help in law, legal matters, in areas where the expert is not needed.

21:40 Well, the para-church 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. 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.

22:01 I'm referring particularly to those who have provided medical assistance to the church. I'm referring particularly to those who have provided medical assistance to the church. 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.

22:23 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.

23:06 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. 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.

23:50 Those seminars which gather the people of God together by the thousands claiming to be an institution to make disciples and a tool to bring the Church either to evangelistic maturity or to maturity in Christian grace and experience. Those things which are the distinctive tasks 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.

24:33 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.

25:13 What God made 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

25:57 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.

26:19 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 Moses.

26:37 A godly man is needy of money and cleverness. A Azerbaijani man should not get separated from his 측. NOAAAAAM 1 Timothy 1.5-7 4 and so on.

27:10 It Wild side is good thing, and it II is bad thing. mission 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

27:31 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.

28:10 Among our Presbyterian brethren, and I commend to every preacher present the section in volume four 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 any of these things. And I commend to every preacher present the section in volume four

28:41 of Thornwell and the leader on the other side, one of the Hodges, as to whether or not the church needed any of these things. 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 any of these things. And I commend to every preacher present the section in volume four of Thornwell and the leader on the other side, one of the Hodges, as to whether or not the church needed any of these things. And I commend to every preacher present the section in volume four of Thornwell and the leader on the other side, one of the Hodges, as to whether or not the church needed any of these things. And I commend to every preacher present the section in volume four of Thornwell and the leader on the other side, one of the Hodges, as to whether or not the church needed any of these things. And I commend to every preacher present the section in volume four of Thornwell and the leader on the other side,

29:12 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

29:53 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.

30:15 For this principle, she earnestly contended through the years of darkness, anxiety, and apprehension. And if you know your history, you know to what he is referring. 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 a church, that Thornwell saw with an eagle's eye. To this principle, the Presbyterian church is pledged

30:38 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 in the dark. To this principle, the Presbyterian church is pledged. And if you know the measure of the grace given us, and can see no reason for abandoning it when the victory is now within our reach, and can see no reason for abandoning it when 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

31:16 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 God. 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.

31:59 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 is to be put into place. The great object of a visible church organization or dispensation is to put the church in a situation and provide her with all the necessary furniture of

32:41 church management and putting the church in a situation and providing its maintenance. The great object of a visible church organization or dispensation is to put the www. była-in-online-council in a situation where all measurements of the conduct and jobs are needed. Before prayer, as my first eel as history taught everyone with the teaching of church and business, I would love to hear your thoughts. I had an rêve about a history on this

33:08 behavior. 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 his 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,

33:54 or does she require additional agents to assist her. This is the real question. Did Christ give...

34:04 Did the church 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 of her own, 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.

34:47 What she clearly cannot do is not commanded.

34:55 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...

35:08 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,

35:51 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 and indifference. To the norms established for the church. Now, this is a very practical thing, perhaps to many of us here. To what are you going to give your time?

36:21 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. Why? The expenditure of time and energy and money within the church would make her much more glorious as God's house.

Application 3: A Call for Meticulous Adherence to Church Norms

36:52 The living gods called out people. My friend, you better seriously evaluate within what sphere you expend your time, your money, your talent, and your energies. Well, 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.

37:32 This text trumpets a clarion call to the most meticulous adherence to the revealed norms for the life of church. 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. 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,

38:17 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.

38:52 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 people if the moment they come within our assemblies, they sense there is a cursed male dominance in leadership? We'll 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.

39:29 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 elements, it will lead you into nothing but headaches if you try to establish it. You get so upset.

39:55 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.

40:22 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. It 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.

41:07 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.

41:24 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.

41:44 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.

42:02 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 Christ? Or kings and rulers?

42:25 Well, the church is to reflect that truth in the pressure and burden of its prayers. People come into a little group of people, 30 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.

42:50 A group of 30 people. And they think that what they're doing is influencing Parliament? And the Senate? And Congress?

42:59 They're either crazy, or they've got a great God.

43:04 And that's the message. That's the truth. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He pleased.

43:12 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's 98 and on her way to glory and happens to have a little bit of a twitch in her left pinky.

43:35 And I don't mean to be unkind. God's concerned about the twitch in her pinky.

43:41 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, and 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?

44:25 Then the church better reflect that truth in its prayers. Do you see?

44:31 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.

45:06 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.

45:16 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.

45:36 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.

45:47 And you go right through the book of 1 Timothy and you can relate every single major direction to an aspect of truth.

45:57 I just say, church government is of no real consequence. Who are you to say that? Are you wiser than Christ?

46:09 This text trumpets, it's 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.

Application 4: A Sober Warning Against Tampering with the Church

46:24 But then I must hasten on. I should be done here when? Already? It's quarter after ten.

46:31 All right? Okay.

46:35 Because if I don't get any further than this, dear brothers and sisters, I am constrained to sound this note. This text thunders, 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,

47:18 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'm appalled at how many ministers have so little sense of dread at this point.

47:55 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, crippled with their doctrinal deviations.

48:25 And usually it is low views of the church as God's house, church of the living God, pillar and ground of the truth which contributes to this attitude. Will you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, please? 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul, using the analogy of the Christian workers in the first nine verses, takes up two metaphors.

48:53 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.

49:17 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, just let your mind sweep quickly from chapter 1 through to chapter 16.

50:00 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.

50:31 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. When there was a man and a woman who thought they could lie with impunity, God killed them. He said, my temple is holy

51:15 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.

51:24 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 30. 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?

51:51 You have even seized the opportunity at this conference to take innocent people and infect their minds, 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've 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,

52:35 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, tender-hearted, forgiving. And you sit Lord's Day by Lord's Day with an unforgiving spirit to some brother or sister

53:19 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 repent. The church is God's house.

Application 5: Evaluating Gifts and Sphere of Exercise

53:48 The church is the assembly of the living God. And it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Then let me give you briefly in closing the other headings. In the fifth place, the text constitutes a point of reference.

54:08 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.

54:40 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. I plead with those who may sit amongst us today, self-consciously, self-conscious that the head of the church has endowed you with gifts of one sort or another.

55:20 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.

56:02 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 on your ministry in this area and that area. Why don't you give yourself to this or to that?

Application 6: Warning to Official Workmen and Apostate Church Members

56:19 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 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,

56:58 read Dabney's article, Volume 1 on that text. And then it stands as a signpost to those identified with apostate churches. If the church is no longer upholding the truth, what in the world are you doing in it? Oh, but grandma and great so what?

Application 7: Direction to the Unconverted

57:16 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.

57:42 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. And 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.

58:19 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, sirree.

58:28 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, is among you. And oh, we could bring forward testimony after testimony.

58:53 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.

59:31 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.

59:54 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, oh 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.

60:30 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.