Is This God’s House?

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great privilege to share the Word of God with the Saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church.

What is the church? Does any of this matter? Why do you waste your time going to a building every Sunday when you only get two days off work and that time could be better spent in bed, on a trip, at the ball field, or literally anywhere else? If Jesus lives in my heart, why do I have to go to some building with a steeple?

All of these are questions asked by an unbelieving world, and if we’re honest with ourselves, some of us in this room may be currently, or have in the past asked them as well. Or maybe you’ve heard someone say, “The church is not a building, it’s a people.” Which holds some truth to it, but also is used as an excuse to never meet with other people with an intention to worship.

I was reading a commentary on Leviticus this week and I cam across the following quote. “The modern world emphasizes an individualistic way of coming to God, where everyone does according to their own preference in how and when and where and with whom they will meet with God. This thinking runs deep in the modern western world and is rarely even questioned. As described in the book Habits of the Heart (1985) Robert Bellah and his colleagues interviewed a young nurse named Sheila Larson, whom they described as representing the experience and views of many Americans on religion. Speaking about her own faith and how it worked in her life, she said: “I believe in God. I’m not a religious fanatic. I can’t remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It is ‘Sheilaism.’ Just my own little voice.” This way of thinking dominates spirituality in the modern western world.”

So from this perspective, what is the church? It is simply an option that some take and others don’t need.

In some parts of American Christianity, the church is a cultural assumption. Going to church is simply what we do on Sunday mornings. Like clocking into work, we’ve gotta punch the time card. We sit in the pew, hear a message but don’t really listen, then go off to do our own thing the rest of the week until its time to return again next Sunday.

In this perspective, what is the church? It is simply a ritual. An item on the checklist of life.

Then in other parts of American Christianity, the gathering of the church is emphasized, but when it gathers for entertainment. I saw clips from last week in which a “church” had a Super Bowl themed service. There was a halftime show which included congregational singing of Garth Brooks’, “I’ve Got Friends in Low Places” and Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball.” One of the staff literally punted a Bible. I scrolled to the preaching portion where the speaker was unironically teaching from Taylor Swifts, “Shake it off” song lyrics. All the while the congregants had been given light up inflatable sticks to cheer on from the crowd.

In this approach, what is the church? It is simply an entertainment source meant to satisfy an individuals need for fun and community.

Church, I don’t want to sound like a fuddy duddy. I like to have fun as much as anyone, but the CHURCH is or at least should be so much more than that! The church is intended to be so much more than any of the three perspectives I presented in this introduction.

This morning, we are going to walk through three verses from the end 1 Timothy 3 and it is my hope that by the end of this sermon this morning, we will see just how incredible it is, what an honor it is, what a privilege it is that God would allow us to come together in this assembly we call church and in particular to us, Durbin Memorial Baptist Church. Just about every Sunday in some form I express my thankfulness for bringing the Word of God to this church, and we should all be thankful for being enabled to gather together in such a way. May we not take this in vain! May we cherish and steward the local church for the glory of God.

With that in mind, if you have not already open in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 3. This morning we will be finishing out this chapter. Over the last 7 weeks we have be walking through this letter written by the Apostle Paul to Timothy who has been entrusted with cleaning up the church in Ephesus. We have seen that Christ is the center of the church, that everything in the church begins with prayer, the created order reflecting in the structure of the church, as well as the qualifications of Pastors, Elders, and Deacons in the church. This morning we come to a curious seemingly curious interlude. At roughly the middle of the letter, Paul goes away from direct instruction and reiterates the necessity of the book. Let’s begin in verse 14.

1 Timothy 3:14–15 ESV

14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

As we begin our dissection of these verses, I want to zoom in on verse 14 and the beginning of verse 15. “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know…” And pause right there for a moment. In these verses, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of theological meat going on. This is more of an announcement than anything. Paul is telling Timothy that he wants to come to him, to be there at the church at Ephesus, to help out with all of the correction that needs to take place, but until that can happen he’s writing this letter.

Now I don’t want to overstretch the point here, but this simple little section of verses tells us something important! It tell us that all of the things we have been reading about thus far and will continue to learn about as we finish out the book of 1 Timothy, they matter! Paul is telling Timothy that this is too important to wait on his arrival to implement. If you’re taking notes, here is what we must understand from this section:

Doctrine, Practice, and Leadership in the Church MATTER!

Doctrine matters because in Chapter one we were shown the great error in false teaching and were pointed to the truth of Christ Jesus to be our only hope and salvation. Practice matters because in chapter two we’re shown the great duty of the church is to pray for the ability to share Christ with others and shown the complementary roles for gender in the functioning of the church. Leadership matters because thus far in chapter three, we are shown the God-given standards for leadership in the church, both leadership in teaching by the elders and leadership in service by the deacons.

Church, all of this matters. We must resist the temptation to deconstruct the church into something unfamiliar to the Word of God. We have to be careful to approve what we are and what we do by the Word of God.

Despite our individual inclinations, there is a proper manner in which we are to BEHAVE in life and in particular to our discussion this morning in the church, as it says in verse 15.

In just a moment, we are going to see proper conduct in the church supported by and three pronged definition of the church. Before we get there, I just want to note that even within our individualistic, American society, we already implicitly understand modifying behavior based upon reverence or location.

For example, I recently took Aiden-Rey to his first collegiate basketball game at EKU. That is a loud and crazy environment. Fans cheering all over the place. He wasn’t quite sure how to take it all in, but man he loved hooting and hollering with everybody. However, just before the game started there was a moment in which a hush fell upon everyone in the arena. Everyone in unison stood to their feet, most of the men in the room took their hats off. Then someone in the middle of the court began to sing while the rest of the crowd waited with baited breath. It was time for the national anthem. Just about everyone in the room understood there was a proper way to conduct themselves in that time. Even Aiden-Rey was able to catch on and follow with how someone is supposed to act during that time.

So why is it that for some folks, suggesting there is a proper way to gather for worship and conduct oneself in the church seems so crazy? I have a few theories, one is that the pastoral epistles like this letter to Timothy are overlooked and thus not thought about when assembling. But a more sinister theory is that people simply like to do what brings them immediate satisfaction even if it goes directly against God’s Word! In Paul’s next letter to Timothy he will warn Timothy that in time people will no longer endure sound doctrine, but will follow the lusts of their hearts and find teachers that will itch their wandering minds with fables and fancies. In our sinful flesh, we seek to run away from God’s Word and at times that creeps into our practice as a church.

It is my prayer that every Sunday we gather together with joy. I want people to want to be here. But I also pray that we come together in submission to God’s Word with reverence for His character and holiness. We need to understand that there is a “wrong way” to church, not so that we slip into spiritual superiority comparing ourselves to the “other churches”, but instead so that we honor God out or reverence for who He has called us to be. Let’s look now at who he has called us to be. Look again at the back half of verse 15:

1 Timothy 3:15 “15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.”

Here the church is given a three pronged definition, it is the household of God, the church of the living God, and a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Let’s break down each of the categories beginning with the Household of God. It’s here where we get into the title question of our sermon this morning: Is this God’s House?

You may have heard the church referred to as God’s House. Now often, this is done by folks who want to yell at children for running indoors , but it also comes from this verse here 1 Timothy 3:15. In fact the KJV translates this verse as saying “thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave in the house of God.” So is this building here at 8650 Durbin Lane God’s House? It depends on what you mean by house. We know from Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 that the Most High God does not limit his dwelling to just one particular location made by human hands. Hebrews 3:6 tells us that we, believers are the house of God, also supported by 1 Corinthians 3 which says the Holy Spirit lives in believers and makes our bodies temples of the Holy Spirit. So in that sense, the church building itself is not the house of God. In that sense it is correct to say that the church is not a building.

I am thankful that we have this piece of land here in our corner of Clay’s Ferry to gather together and grow in knowledge and affection of the Lord. It is a grace of God that Trustees have been put in place that have well maintained our property since the building was put here in 1963. We should be respectful of the property and good stewards because having this place is a great gift. But the house of God is not limited to stones and mortar. If by some means of natural disaster, the church was swept away tomorrow, so long as we gather together we would remain the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church. When we meet together at the park in the warm Sunday Evenings of the Summer, we are no less a household of God then we are on the Sunday mornings we gather in this place.

In 1 Timothy 3 :15 when Paul calls the church the household of God, the word for household is oikos. It means family. It’s the same word used in the elder and deacon qualifications just a few verses before this. The church is a family in which God is the Father, believers are His children, elders and deacons help the family carry out the Father’s purposes. The church, our church is a family! When we get past our cultural familiarity with this truth and really dwell upon it, it is a glorious reality! If we are a family, that means we are brothers and sisters in Christ. If that relationship exists IN CHRIST than it exists FOR ETERNITY. Church, look around the room and try to get comfortable, if these folks share in the same foundation, then you’re going to be seeing them for a whole lot longer than an hour on Sunday Mornings! Now, I know in our flesh that sometimes rifts come up between us and the idea of spending eternity next to one another may not seem so bright, but when sin is no more we will enjoy together the unmitigated presence of the Lord and the fellowship of one another. That means that as we long for glory and look forward to the ultimate day of redemption, we are to hold fast to our brothers and sisters in the Lord knowing that they will be with us for eternity! The church is the household of God, just as the family household is ordered by God, so is His Church, we operate within the roles He has designed for His Family for His glory.

Then Paul calls the church the CHURCH of the LIVING GOD. there are two points of note in this second description of the church. First of all don’t overlook that the church is called the church. The ekklessia. You may have head me speak on this before, but the word for church, ekklessia, means the gathering. Those who are members of the family of God GATHER together. All throughout the New Testament, you will see commands given in the form of “one anothers”. Love one another, do good to one another, admonish one another, encourage one another, and so on throughout at least 59 similar exhortations. You cannot practice the one another’s alone. Believers meet together. Listening to God’s Word alone is a good thing. Singing God’s Word alone is a good thing. Listening and singing the Word of God together with the saints is even better! Now, I recognize that there are seasons in which our health prevents us from being able to gather together. I am thankful to be able to keep distant folks providentially hindered from gathering connected by digital means, but I believe they will tell you that digital attendance is not the same thing as gathering together. While we want to do our best in all things, the primary focus of our ministry here at Durbin Memorial Baptist Church is in gathering together. As R Kent Hughes says, “TV church wont do! Neither will cyber-church. People indwelt by the living God need the real thing—they need to regularly assemble with fellow temples of the living God. The Sunday gathering is an assembly of the Living God.”

Living God is the second point we need to note in this description of the church. Paul points out that we belong to the living God. This title “Living God” is intended to separate the One True God of Christianity from the “dead” little g gods of the various false religions. Here in Ephesus it is a direct shot at the greek goddess Artemis. But the same term is used in the Old Testament to contrast our God from various idols. When the church gets together it is not doing so as a rote performance. It is not gathering to manipulate the cosmos to try to ascertain favor. When the true church gathers, it does so to honor and praise the One True God following the plan, order, and direction He has given to His people. Our God is real! Which leads us to the third description of the church at the end of verse 15:

The church is a pillar and buttress of the truth. David Murray wrote, “the third name “pillar and buttress of the truth,” pictures the reality that God founded the church to establish, support, and promote the truth.” Pillar and buttress are architectural terms. Paul is saying that a building is only as good as its foundation. When a church is founded upon and in congruence with the Word of God, it is a beautiful thing, a beacon of God’s light to the world. Now we must be careful here. The church being “a pillar and buttress of the truth” does not mean that everything the church says is true! We must remember that Timothy has already been warned about false teachers creeping into the church in the beginning of this same letter. Truth isn’t truth simply because the church says so. Truth is truth when it is congruent the Truth of God’s inerrant, infallible Word. There have been many heresies produced by organizations in the name of the church. Those responsible for such will be held accountable by our Just God. The church doesn’t make up the truth, but the [true] church does keep up the truth. To put it succinctly the God-honoring church approves all that it does by the Word of God and removes or reforms anything happening in its midst that is incongruent with the Word of God.

The preface of the Geneva Bible summarizes the importance of the Bible very well. It reads the Bible is, “the light to our paths, the key of the kingdom of heaven, our comfort in affliction, our shield and sword against Satan, the school of all wisdom, the glass wherein we behold God’s face, the testimony of his favor, and the only food and nourishment of our souls.” Light, ket, comfort, shield, sword, school, mirror, testimony, food, and nourishment. The Bible is an extension of God’s grace to His people and His church. That He would give us His Word should warm our hearts and encourage our obedience to it.

So the church is not an option, a ritual, or a source of self-serving entertainment. No, the church is much more than that. The church is a family of believers united for eternity by the blood of Christ, the church is a gathering of believers serving the real and living God, and the church is both found upon and professor of the Word of God. The church is a good gift of God.

The church matters and the greater context of this book discussing the order and conduct therein matters. Why? Because we have been entrusted by God to be the mouthpiece of His Word and the foot soldiers in His plan of redemption. Look at our last verse this morning:

1 Timothy 3:16 ESV

16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

I once heard a preacher do a series called the 3:16’s. In it he walked through a lot of the New Testament and pointed out the major theological truths contained in chapter 3 verse 16 contained throughout. Now, the chapter and verse divisions aren’t in the original letters so I don’t want to suggest there’s any magic in the numbers 3:16, but it makes an interesting study nonetheless.

Here in 1 Timothy 3:16 we learn that the message of the church is too important, too great, too lofty to not take this church business seriously. We might miss on some things in our practice, but we must not miss on the mystery of godliness. Mystery, as we saw last week, when used by Paul in the New Testament letters refers to something that was previously hidden but now has been revealed. Here he is writing about the mystery of godliness. The ESV commentary puts it like this, “The mystery of godliness, therefore, is the revelation of the duty that man owes God. This duty is perfectly revealed by none other than Jesus himself in his life, ministry, and work is summarized in the confession that follows.” To take that out of Commentary language, we can say that the mystery of godliness is that Man must be made right before God which only occurs through faith in Christ. Christ is the only means that godliness is possible in our lives.

We must confess this same message along with Paul, Timothy, and the saints of Ephesus. What’s interesting about the structure of the latter half of verse 16 is that its like a song or a poem. This would have been repeated and learned by the early church and should be engrained in our hearts and minds as well. This song speaks to the glory of Christ it says:

He was manifested in the flesh - that is a reference to the incarnation. The architect of creation stepped therein.

Vindicated by the Spirit - This refers to Christ’s resurrection, like in Romans 8:11 “11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Seen by angels - Angelic beyond beyond our comprehension witnessed all of Christ’s great work. They sang praises at His birth. They ministered to Him on the mountain. They comforted the disciples at Christ’s ascension. And they currently sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and honor and glory and blessing!” They will be at Christ’s side when He returns to earth once more as well! He has been seen by angels indeed!

Proclaimed among the nations - as the gospel has continued to spread from jerusalem to judea to samaria and to all the ends of the earth!

Believed on in the world - John 1:10–12“10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” John 3:16 “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

taken up in Glory - Christ ascended into heaven after His resurrection and now sits at the right had of the Father awaiting the perfect fullness of time to return again.

Church, the church matters, order in the church matters, and the message of the church matters. This is our message: Christ was revealed to the world in His incarnation and resurrection. Christ’s validity as our Savior has been witnessed by Heaven and Earth. and Christ has received in heaven and earth.

Christ is the proof that we are sinners in need of salvation. If we did not need to be righteous, Christ would not have had to live a perfectly righteous life. If we did not need to be reconciled to a Holy God, Christ would not have had to be the sacrifice to cover our sins. Jesus lived and died and rose again to pay for the sins of all those who believe in Him and assure us of our hope for eternity. We come to faith in Him by repenting of our sins believing in Him as the sole hope of our salvation. Church, may we be joyous and reverential professors of this message. And dear soul in our midst this morning, it is my sincere prayer that you have received it. Turn from your sin and turn to Christ today. Come forward in this hymn of response.