Identifies the church as the house of the living God, a spiritual dwelling built upon Christ, not a material structure. It contrasts the church with historical and pagan temples, emphasizing that God's presence is what defines it. The sermon traces the concept of God's dwelling place from Eden through the Tabernacle and Temple, culminating in the New Testament church, which is composed of believers as living stones. The core message is that believers, individually and corporately, are the temple of the Holy Spirit and are called to be a pillar and ground of truth, manifesting Christ to the world through their lives. The sermon concludes by urging believers to live out the truth of Christ, who was God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received into glory.
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epistle of Timothy where we have been studying we come to the great central teaching of this wonderful epistle in these three verses the most important facts that we need to know Paul writing by the Holy Spirit beginning in verse fourteen writing to Timothy but let us not forget He is writing by the Spirit to us even today. These things write unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou order'st to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground, or the support of the truth.
And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angel, priest unto the Gentile, believed on in the world, received up into glory. May God add his blessing to the reading of this section from his precious words. and relation to the precious subject that we have been following where in these verses alone in verse fifteen particularly we have noted the central truth of the epistle and this key verse telling us the truth weaved around it or woven around it relates to the divine testimony upon the earth which is called today the house of God and the church of the living God.
After many of the details that have preceded, and I'm sure we must confess chapters one and two, and even so far swarmed into chapter three, there has been certain details of importance of the beloved apostle as brought before us by the Holy Spirit. But he turns from these details to bring us into the great object of truth that we find in verse fifteen. Relative to the divine testimony which is called, and will you please note it, right in the verse, the house of God and the church of the living God.
May I first of all give you the contrast that needs to be understood when Paul was writing. And even today, as we read these words, not every place, not every movement in the world, not every religious movement in the world can be called what is called here, the House of God and the Church of the Living God. We may well remember that in the days of the Apostle, heathenism abounded in every nation. There were many gods, there were many false gods, but in contrast to all those even gods and those even practices and those even customs, here is the character of the testimony that is in Christianity whereby it is called the Church of the Living God.
And may I emphasize The most important fact that we should realize in relation to the church testimony, not only universally, but even corporately in our local testimony, it is the presence of the living God that makes the testimony. It is not your presence, my beloved brother and sister. It is called the house of God, the church, or the assembly of the living God.
And Paul, by the Spirit, very, very definitely magnifies the testimony of Christianity in contrast to all other testimonies. Now may I first of all first briefly reveal, when you go at the beginning of your Old Testament in the days of the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve were there before they sinned, God did not ever house where he could dwell upon the earth. Follow the days after the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
preceding the great flood, according to the biblical chronology that we often follow, a period of sixteen hundred and fifty-six years transpired in the days preceding the flood before that great judgment came upon and over all the earth. During all that period, God did not have a dwelling place. upon the earth. Following the flood, in the days of Noah, in the days of the Patriarch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, God did not have an earthly dwelling place upon the earth.
For the very first occasion that you ever read concerning a dwelling place upon the earth. Historically, in the events of human history, you have to go to the book of Exodus, where you find in that great book of Exodus the first insinuation that God would permit his people upon the earth to build him a house. The book of Exodus And may I particularly emphasize, for the great theme of it has for it been redemption.
And the first chapters in the book of Exodus tell us that the need of redemption, meaning deliverance, that's the meaning of redemption. And God delivered his earthly people Israel out of Egypt. And then followed... the marvelous manifestation of His guidance through the wilderness of that company of people, approximately two and a half million to three million in number, through the wilderness, to accomplish the finality of His redemptive purposes for them. And when you come to the end of the book of Exodus, you find the ultimate purpose that God had in mind and fulfilled.
the building of the tabernacle, the structure that he permitted them to build. For after their great deliverance, as you may read in chapter fourteen, and their song of deliverance in chapter fifteen, it was in that song that they sang, they said they would build him a house. And I'm sure that you're very familiar with the fact he told them how to do it. He gave them the pattern through Moses. on the Mount of Sinai again and again, as he instructed him. And you follow the chapter through, as under God by the Spirit-directed, Spirit-given and Spirit-filled men, the tabernacle was constructed.
And you come to the end of the book, it's completed. And God takes up his presence, and the Shekinah glory of his presence, cover the tabernacle. That was the ultimate purpose of his redemption. He had a house in which he could dwell, his presence being in their midst. One of the greatest miracles indeed in human history. But then on the other hand, think of that earthly people and the sad fact that they departed from their living God.
He never left them. They left him. And still he dwelt amongst them. Until at last. And you read Second Chronicles chapter thirty-six to near the end of it. Their condition was such that there was no remedy after all that he sought to do to restore them. And he had to visit in judgment. Then when the Lord Jesus came upon the earth, You may remember in the Gospels how he acknowledged, this is my father's house, the temple that had been rebuilt. The acknowledgement that the purpose of God was to dwell amongst his redeemed people.
And you may well remember at the end of Luke chapter twenty-three, as well as in Matthew's Gospel, the Lord Jesus had to stay with great sorrow. He left that house, staying your house is left unto you desolate. you'll never see me again until you say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord but God was not yet to be without a house by the coming of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection glory and glorification of the Lord in heaven he began a new work a new house and may I suggest very frankly and carefully The house is not materially constructed with materials that can be seen.
It is a spiritual house, as Peter well stated in First Peter chapter two. Ye are built upon Christ the living stones, and ye as living stones are built upon him, a spiritual house. He has a house It's called the house of God. Please note with me, how precious it is to realize God's house, as we say, as in the book of Exodus, is based upon redemption. And it's based upon the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ and his character today. For me, I hope you do remember in chapter one and verse three and four, we mentioned particularly the true genealogy of the membership of this true house.
born again. On the basis of having been redeemed, we are in the house of God. We are the house of God. He dwells in our midst. And may I refer again to the fact, I'll repeat it, with no apology for the repetition if I do it again. My brother and my sister, though you and I are so privileged, and I speak to your heart, to mine, to your conscience also, and also to mine. You and I who are saved, we constitute the house of God. Whatever may be your spiritual condition, I don't know it, God knows it better than I do.
And I know I can't understand it perfectly. No, you might. But each one of us who are saved We are the church of the living God. He lives in us. Do you know this Christian very well? Has the Lord Jesus said of the promise of the Holy Spirit to be given? He shall dwell with you, and he shall beware in you. To the Corinthians, may I suggest something? The Corinthian testimony was the sad one. The commentary of the spiritual conditions was very unfortunate.
And I had been particularly grateful, not because they were that, but because God didn't leave them. God didn't leave them. They were still the church at times. There were immoral conditions among them. There were other moral conditions beside immorality. There was envy. There was strife. There was division. There was still the church of the living God. And I would like to impress upon my fellow believers, regardless of your spiritual condition, it may be good, it may be bad.
And the condition of the assembly, whether good or bad, Even if it's dead. You know, very far, I'm not going to be blunt. I have people tell me that, speaking of certain assemblies, that assembly is dead. Some will say God isn't there. That's a lie. While you're a believer in the Lord Jesus, the Spirit that God dwells in you. And in me. And as Paul writes to the Ephesians, ye are the habitation of God by the Spirit. And the most important fact, for this is something to realize, is not who's here concerning your brethren or your sisters, not even your elders or your deacons, who have been taken up in our proceedings, done it.
But the living God, the living God, we had an old hymn in my early days. I remember it very well, but I never hear it again. I don't believe I heard it for Sunday years. We sang it. God is here. And that's a blessing. Three of the verses began with that refrain. God is here. And may I give you the suggestion? You may not like it. Most of the time we're thinking, who's going to be there for God? Somebody else? Some brother? Some sister? Some speaker?
Wait a minute. It's the church of the living God. God is here. I know the joy of realizing it. That Paul wrote of the Corinthians. Lacks as they were. Ye are the temple of God. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Which ye have of God. You're not your own. Fearful glorify God in your body. Now, beloved, please let me say this. You may not like it, but I hope you'll lump it. Listen, the most important fact for this assembly to realize, and every drummer and sister personally to realize, when you come here, you come to meet God.
We're the temple of God. We're the house of God. We're the church of the living God. Oh, may I repeat it? I know it's contrary to what lots of times I hear. No matter how dead an assembly seems to be in its spiritual condition before God or before others, it's still the assembly. It's when God is there. And will you tell me something? When does God leave you? If God leaves a cooperative family, then he must leave an individual believer sometimes.
And depart from it. Thank God that's not the case. That's not the case. May I read a verse again, this fifteen verse, and change the pronoun, which can be properly done according to the Greek text. Verse fifteen, but if I tarry long, that we may know how we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of truth. Now look, we've had the responsibilities of the elders. We've taken up the responsibilities of the deacons in detail. Now God says to every one of us, whether elder or deacon or whatever, each one of us need to know how to behave ourselves.
in the house of God. I say it lovingly, there's no question without the leadership gets criticized. But let us realize what David the psalmist wrote. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my heart, and see if there be any way of pain, way of grief, or wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of the land. But may I say very frankly, look, Whether elders or deacons or not, every brother and sister is responsible to behave and conduct himself and herself according to the book in the house of God.
Paul leaves it there. He says, Timothy, I told you how it ought to be done according to the scripture qualifications in its leadership. But he says, every one of us are responsible. And Timothy, you too. But Timothy was not an elder at Ephesus. He was one who was sent by God and the Apostle to teach. But he said, Timothy, you've got to behave yourself too. And everyone. And why? Please know at the end of the verse what he calls this. The Church of the Living God. Which is the pillar and ground or groundwork of the truth. A pillar.
A monument. A monument is to be seen. And upon that monument, the truth of God is written. Go back with me to Genesis chapter twenty-eight for a moment, will you please? Chapter twenty-eight in the book of Genesis, the very first, in Genesis chapter twenty-eight, the very first mention of the house of God in the Bible. Some of you may be very familiar with the incident in the life of Jacob. Let me go down to chapter, particularly verse sixteen to begin. When Jacob was fleeing away from the wrath of his brother Esau, having said farewell to his father Isaac and his mother Rebecca.
And given that dream by God, as he pillowed his head that night, as he ran away toward Heron. And verse sixteen Jacob awakes out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place? This is none other but the house of God. God, dear. He had known it. And he didn't feel happy about it either. How dreadful is this? Why? He had a bad conscience. That's why he said it was dreadful. He had deceived his brothers, he thought.
He deceived his father, Jesus. And... His conscience was bad, he mirrored as he was. But he goes on to say, this is the gate of heaven. Let me stop for just a moment there before I read further. See what he calls the house of God, the dwelling of God, the habitation of God, and also the gate of heaven. Would you have thought if Jacob had found the gate of heaven, he would want to stay there? No, no, not Jacob. That was too dreadful a place because his conscience was bad. He wasn't right with God. But don't you see the character of God's house? In the first mention of it, in the Bible, the first mention of this blessed doctrine, you find the testimony of Bethel, meaning the house of God.
It's the gate of heaven. And don't you see what it means for the assembly? It's not only its dwelling in your midst and in your heart. It's the place where you have a ladder between earth and heaven, if you please. To get the ministry of the heavenly man in the glory. And what a joy to realize. Excuse me, the Lord Jesus. Our connection with heaven and us. And Jacob in his dream. God spoke to him from that dwelling place above. Though he was above me. And my beloved, let me say very frankly.
The assembly is the place, the house of God, where God from heaven, the Lord from heaven, can speak to the hearts of his people through his precious will. But let's read down in the chapter. Know what he did. In verse eighteen. He rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows. And I never could understand how that dear fellow could enjoy sleeping and putting his head. It must have been I had a hard head to sleep on a stone. I'm never going to try it myself. But he took the stone that he had put for his pillows. And no, he set it up for us to be a pillow. Now, it may seem facetious, but sometimes saints, they are P-I-L-O-O-W in the meaning.
Instead of a P-I-L-L-O-A-R. Meaning... Jacob put the stone to be a pillar. He set it up as a monument. Why did he set it up? For everybody to see. Share with everybody to know what he meant. This is God's dwelling place. God is here. This is the gate of heaven. And he set it up for a pillar. And he poured oil upon it. And one can well recognize. Let me connect him with our verse. We'll go to it later. The church, the local assembly, is to be up hill. In other words, my fellow believer, you and I as an assembled company of believers in this chapel are to be a monument for the people to read in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So typified by the oil which Jacob poured out. And go on to the end of the chapter. He called the name of that place Bethel, meaning... God's house, the house of God. But the name of that city was called Lazarus I. Now you notice, go to verse twenty-two. Never mind what he says between. But notice what he says in verse twenty-two. This stone which I have set, I put it up for a pillar, shall be God's house. He set it up. Now my beloved, let me be very faithful to say, when God made this testimony to be set up here, he set it up to be a pillar.
To be a pillar. Go back to our chapter in Timothy then. Let's see what kind of a pillar it's supposed to be. We go to verse fifteen again at the end of it. Behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. The pillar and ground of what? the truth. My beloved, let me say this frankly. God has given to his people through his word by the Spirit the truth. Let me give you the thought. You only get through from God. Can I emphasize that again?
Let me give you this thought. The Roman Catholic Church advocates that the church must teach. The church does not teach. The responsibility of believers in the church is to teach what God has said, not teach what they think. The truth, God's truth. Now, please let me point out to you three things about the truth. The Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth. and the life and so on. Christ is the truth. Let me go a little further.
The Lord Jesus said in John Sancti, I think verse nineteen, that he prayed to the Father, Christ defied them by thy truth. Thy word is truth. In John chapter sixteen, when the Lord Jesus talked of the coming of the Holy Spirit, he called him the Spirit of Truth. Connect them together. Christ is the truth. The Word of God, the truth. The Spirit of God, the truth. And there you have the embodiment. Literally in the person of Christ, in the written Word of God, and in the power and blessing of the Holy Spirit, you've got the truth.
And the church is to be a pillar, a monument for people. who don't believe that Christ is the truth, who don't believe that this Bible is the truth, who don't believe the Holy Spirit is the truth, the church has a monument for them to read it. Go and read the Second Corinthians, if you please. Second Corinthians, if you please, I'd like to read that. Second Corinthians, chapter two, the second epistle of Paul written to the Corinthians. and note particularly as we cover it. Paul writing to the Corinthians, and what a message it was as he wrote these words in chapter two, verses two and chapter three, rather, chapter three, verses one, two, one and two.
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we as some others, epistles of commendation to you? Or letters of commendation from you? No, no. You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Here were the Corinthian believers living in the city of Corinth. The most licentious, immoral city of that day, possibly. known greatly because of this great immorality with their heathen gods and immoral practices connected with their even worship.
But here were some Christians, say by God's grace, the rest of the people care nothing about Christ, care nothing about the written word, care nothing about the Holy Spirit. But says the Apostle Paul, you Christians, You're known and read of all men. In other words, the world doesn't read the Bible. The world doesn't listen to Christ. The world will not listen to the Holy Spirit. But they're reading you and me. Our lives. Go back to our chapter in Timothy.
Let's see what should be written over us. For may I go... very faithfully to that sixteen verse. But you cannot disconnect it from the context. It often seems to be disconnected to many, but it's disconnected with the truth. And here we have the words when we read them. Without controversy, great is the mystery. And a mystery in the New Testament, wherever you read it, means some are secret that has never been revealed before. Can I repeat it? You'll find the word mystery again and again. I think you'll find it twelve times in the New Testament or more.
But you'll find it every time. It's something that means a secret never before revealed. And this is the secret. The mystery of godliness or piety. And this is how it was shown. God was manifest in the flesh. God was justified in the spirit. God was seen of angels. God was preached unto the Gentiles. God was believed on in the world. God was received up into glory. And you know, you could very well put the name and you should. Christ. Christ. I remember a lovely little chorus.
It was a favorite one of Jesse Smith, I recall, in my early days when I heard him as a young man. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. all of his passion and purity. O thou spirit divine, all my being refined, till the beauty of Jesus was seen in me. The whole secret of what Paul is saying, the purpose of the church, having written upon it as God's pillar, Jacob put the name on it, so nearly erected, God's house, God's dwelling place. And the whole purpose of the church is to write upon his character and testimony again Christ as he was when he was given the word.
Now please note some of the greatest truths are here. First he was God manifest in the flesh. He was God manifest in the flesh. Please may I say, please may I say it lovingly, earn it blessed. My driver, sister, whatever you do, wherever you see, wherever you seek to minister for the Lord. Take Christ through this. Show them Christ. Show them Christ. Show them Christ.
Very God manifesting the flesh. My beloved, look, never mind the great preachers, forget them all. Even the dear apostle Paul, he would have it so. Christ, the message of Christianity, no false God, no even God, no God that many worship, whether it's wood, stone, whatever, or even in spirit, that a living, loving person, the eternal Son of God, He was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, full of grace and full of truth.
Now, if you love it, please remember, we represent the living God. We represent the living Christ, the one who was manifest in the flesh. And then you have the next statement, regardless of He was justified in or by the Holy Spirit of God. His whole life from birth to death. Justified. Impeccable. Living to the glory of God the Father. You've got someone to talk about when you talk about Christ. Well, not greater than George Washington or Abraham Lincoln and name whom you will.
Christ. Christ. Christ? And you can say to any man, woman, boy, and girl, find any father in him if you can. Christ, God name man, and living as a man, impeccable, holy, harmless, and undefiled. And third, scene of angel? Oh, my beloved, what a joy to recognize. Seen of angels and without question. May I say this? May I give you the thoughts? I want to give you something to think about.
I need it too. You can follow the life of the Lord Jesus and see the appearance of angels in his life. It's a good study and an excellent study. He was seen of angels. And may I add, incidentally, one of the greatest privileges is to see a dear sister with a head covered. because the angels were looking to see if you like Christ and doing what he said had the covering but look right now they look at him tell me something did you ever stop to wonder what did the angels say when the Lord Jesus came back what did they do they knew who he was wondered at him being made flesh living on the earth And after his death, burial and resurrection, and the work of redemption does, they saw him come back.
Now I want to tell you one thing. The angels, all the angels of God, they worship him. I wish all the Christians did the same, as we should. If you have him in Hebrews one, the angels of God worship him. Who else can talk about a person? The angels worship. But a Christian. And what a joy to realize. It's the eternal Son of God. And then the next thing. There he goes unto them. Priest unto the Gentiles. And may I tell you something very precious. He came to Israel.
His old people. And they received him. Not. And yet through their rejection of them. The gospel goes out to the whole world of the Gentile nations. Jesus said, and gave the commandment to his disciples after his resurrection, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Say to all nations, tell them to believe on me. My beloved, the joy of realizing it, we've got a message for all the nations. You've got the same message you can give the other side of the world, as well as right here in Florence. Preach unto the Gentiles. My beloved one a message.
To present that Christ. To show him on the pillar. The testimony of our lives. And last of all. He was believed on him in the world. Thank God for all who believe on him. I sometimes wish the last one would get in the house. And get in the family. But. What a choice you know. He's believed on in the world. Sure. Did you do it? Did I do it? Believe? I banged off for that moment when I said, Lord, I believe. Believe not in the world. Napoleon Bonaparte even said he tried to conquer the world in his day.
He said, Jesus Christ has conquered more by the ministry of his love. on believer as he was. More have believed on the Lord Jesus. And thank God. Believed on in the world. And last of all, received up into glory. The man in the glory. Oh my beloved, what is written upon the pillar that the church, the local testimony, the local believer, should manifest? Christ. In all the story of his redemptive work.
And the eternal glory of his eternal person is the son of the living God. Vagulava, let me say again. Please, for your encouragement. Don't let anybody say, God's not with you. And don't you ever believe it yourself, he does. God is here. And he's in you and me. so that you and I can buy his grace through the Spirit. Make known to the world, Christ is the truth. The word of living, the written word of God is the truth. And we have the Spirit of truth. We have Christ in his person. We have the written word to follow.
And we have the power of the Holy Spirit. If I may suggest that there's not only truth, there's power by the Spirit. My beloved, let you and I indeed rest on the time. Tell me, what more do we need? Don't be discouraged. Rejoin. We're the church of the living God. And God help us to really live. Shall we pray? Oh, blessed Father. With thou in thy presence, then I condemn in our heart that we're not what we should be.
But, Lord, you've never changed. I am the Lord. I changed not, you said long ago. And, Lord, we confess readily a lot of failure, shortcomings, criticisms, many things about us, We ought to be ashamed of. And we get our eyes off the living God. And blessed Father, this is your house, the believing company of saints. We thank thee we have no other God. Oh how we thank thee, thou art the God of the living, and thou art the living God.
And we pray tonight. We pray for the pillar, the monument, the testimony. And after all, Father, all you want to see written upon the testimony is your own son, the Lord Jesus. And if we remember reading, Lord, one time, the Holy Church, many of them said of them in that day, they call them Christians. Christ wants. And oh, blessed Lord, we'd like to have that test of money. And we pray for it by the Holy Spirit.
We'll indeed be, according to thy word, pillars, supporting, upholding, maintaining, and living out the truth. We think of that old hymn as we close. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Help us to keep on that T and O trail, till we see thee face to face, and may it bring blessing to this testimony for thy glory. Amen. Thank you for putting up with this old man.