Pillar and Buttress of the Truth

Well, there's sort of a cyclical pattern, if you will, that happens in history, if you pay attention. I think you could probably put which phase that we're in, but I'm going to give you a bit of an oversimplification.

So, the cyclical pattern that happens, seems to repeat itself, is you have one generation who fights for some sort of cause. Maybe a cause for truth. They own the cause, they understand the cause, they fight for the cause, and then that first generation wins the battle.

And then what happens is the next generation comes along, and they reap the benefits from it. They don't maybe understand the cause, but they don't really ask many questions, they don't really care, they just live in light of that generation that went ahead of them, and so they enjoy the benefits of the battle that has been already won.

Okay, but then what happens? Then you have another generation that comes along, and what do they do? This generation is the one that begins to question things. They don't just accept it, they say, okay, why is this done this way?

Do we have to do it this way? Can it be done perhaps another way? Can we do it better? And sometimes these questions lead to good things. Sometimes they lead to terrible things, as we talked about last week, and what we're dealing with now, and the redefinition of marriage in our nation today.

What I want to tell you this morning is that we shouldn't be afraid of questions. In fact, questions can help us sharpen our faith and strengthen our resolve. So I ask that you turn to 1 Timothy 3 this morning.

And as you turn to 1 Timothy chapter three, I have a good question to ask us this morning. And that question is this, so what?

So what?

We've spent eight weeks now, this is our eighth week, talking about Christ's vision for the church and the question today is, so what, right? Is this the only way that we can do it? Is there perhaps a better way?

So what?

If we don't do it this way, what does it really matter? And that's what we want to answer in today's sermon. We really are concluding this series on Christ's vision of the church. And then next week, Dr. Askew will be here, and then the next week we'll be back in that book called Ephesians.

So I hope to show you today why having Christ's vision for the church is the only way for any local church to operate. And we find ourselves this morning in 1 Timothy chapter three, and we're gonna read verses 14, 15, and 16.

I ask that you stand as we honor the reading of God's word. 1 Timothy chapter three, verses 14, 15, and 16. Paul says, I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the truth of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

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.

Let's pray.

Father, would you help us to understand this text? God, we don't wanna play games. We look at our nation today, and it seems like year after year and decade after decade, you are so gracious. You give us warning after warning after warning as the nation seems to drift further and further and further and further away from the truth.

Lord, I pray that your church would wake up all over the nation today. I pray for gospel preaching, Bible believing, Christ exalting churches, that we would wake up. We wouldn't stay in our nice, warm, comfy beds and see the nation deteriorate around us, see the foolishness, the lies and deceptions of the evil ones stop trusting our heart or the culture that's decaying, but we would seek Christ's vision for the church.

I pray Big Eva would topple and fall, and that we would hear again from the scriptures. We would just do what they say. We believe what they say. God grant us the faith this morning. In and of ourselves, we don't have it.

In and of ourselves, we don't have the intellectual capacity. We don't have the trust in you, but we need your spirit to grant us that faith, and even as Christians, we need the Holy Spirit to embolden our faith and to strengthen our faith.

Lord, may our faith today not be in what some man stands up here and says. May it be in what the scriptures say. Would you help me to articulate the Bible rightly? And I need the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, be in this place.

Our triune God, we know that you're omnipresent, that you are all places, that you're everywhere, that if we were able to Zoom to Pluto right now, you'd already be there. If we could go galaxies away, you would already be there.

If we could go to the depths of Sheol, you would already be there. In the hottest places of hell, even your wrath is there. But we pray for a special manifestation of your presence in this place today.

We know that your Word promises it. And Lord Jesus, we know that you have promised in the text that was read at the beginning of the service today, that you have promised to build your church. And we say to you, Lord Jesus, here we are, build us.

Here we are, build us. May we respond appropriately by faith in what your truth has for us today. And we pray it all in the name of Christ our King, amen. You may be seated. I wanna start this morning's message with four preliminary matters.

Four preliminary matters before we get into the sermon. Maybe in another setting, we would take a whole sermon to go through these, but I'm just going to go through them succinctly. And honestly, it's kind of a preacher trick to get in more points, but let's go to four preliminary matters.

I'm gonna go through these quickly though. Preliminary matter number one, verse 14, Paul says, I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things. So preliminary matter number one, this is Paul's writing.

Okay, but this is written under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit. So preliminary matter number one, this is what God says to the church. This is Christ's vision for the church. So if someone were to say to you, well, what does Jesus say about the church?

And they say, you can only read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and you can only read the red letters. And that's all that Jesus has to say about the church. And you say, you give them that great theological term that I love so much, baloney.

No, this is what Jesus says. Because though Paul is writing this, he's writing it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so this is God's word. Preliminary matter number two, God's word is clear.

Okay, this is God's word. Preliminary matter number two, God's word is clear. Verse 15 says this way, if I delay, so Paul's saying, I'm writing to you so that if I delay, verse 15, you may, what? Not guess, not wonder, not try to figure out,.

But what?

You may know. So this is God's word. Number two, God's word is clear. We don't have to guess what our Lord wants for His churches. Thirdly, third preliminary matter, there is an ought to our responsibility to the local church.

Look at verse 15. If I delay, you may know how one, what? Ought to behave in the local church. This word for ought, it's used in the Gospels when it says things like Jesus must go to Jerusalem to die.

So this is not an option or a suggestion for us. There is an ought here, it is our responsibility. Verse 14, I hope to come to you soon, but I'm writing these things, these things, okay, that Paul is writing about.

That is, for example, just a quick review. Worship in 1 Timothy 2, church officers in 1 Timothy 3, public scripture reading in 1 Timothy 4, how to take care of the elders in 1 Timothy 5,.

And on and on and on.

These things are to be known, they're to be understood by God's people, and they ought to be, they must be implemented rightly in the local church. This is God's word, God's word is clear. There is an ought to this.

And then fourth preliminary matter is, and maybe this one's a little bit out of order, but knowledge produces change in the believer. As we absorb the truth of scripture, we are changed. So Paul says, I hope to come to you soon, but I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave.

In other words, knowledge affects behavior in the life of the Christian. Make sense? So it's God's word, God's word is clear, there's an ought, and knowledge produces change in the believer. Now, there is more that we could say, but these are the presuppositions, if you will, that we come to the text with, okay?

And what we are attempting to do today in this message, this final message on Christ's vision for the church, we are trying to answer the question, why does Christ's vision for the church matter? Why does it matter?

Like, why are you willing, Brother Quacho, to die over these truths? You may have some places today that seem not to be concerned about Christ's vision at all. You may have other places today that articulate that they care about Christ's vision for the church, but really, all that is just in the abstract, it's not really, it's not actually being applied in the day-to-day life of the church and in the worship of the church.

And so what happens is, you can look at those, I caught myself, I gotta be careful. Alex says I can't step out of here or I'm outside the frame. So if you ever see me go this and then just come right back, I'm trying to stay in the camera because we're live streaming again.

So, but the point is, you look at other churches and you say, well, they don't have Christ's vision of the church, and it seems that God is working there, right, they're growing, they seem to be baptizing folks, they're doing ministry, they seem to be flourishing.

And so then you ask, then why does it matter so much? Why are we going to care so much here about Christ's vision for the church? Why are we willing to stake everything on Christ's vision? I'm gonna give you three reasons from the text today.

Why Christ's vision of the church matters, why it is of paramount importance. Number one, Christ's vision for the church matters, number one, because biblical Christianity is lived within the context of the local church.

That's a lot to say. What I thought I would do this week, instead of alliterating these points, is to try to make them very, very tangible. I want you to grab onto them, I want to be very, very practical for you.

And that is, Christ's vision for the church matters because biblical Christianity is lived within the context of the local church. I know that you live in Arkansas, I know that you live in the Bible Belt, I know that you're running into people all the time that say, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian, and they just kind of live their life and they've made Christianity into just only this individual aspect.

But I'm going to show you here from the text, from the Bible, why that's wrong. Look at verse 15. Paul says, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave, and then here's a very important word, in, in.

You may know how one ought to behave in the household of God. We'll come back to that in just a moment. Which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. First, let me just mention here, there are three glorious titles for the church.

The household of God, the church of the living God, and a pillar and buttress of the truth. You will not find these three titles applicable to any other institution on the planet. They are not applicable, okay?

As important as the home is, and as important as godly homes are, these realities together are not applicable to the home. As helpful as parachurch ministries may be and can be, these realities are not applicable to missions organizations or seminaries.

They're not applicable, they're sure not applicable to the government, right? They're not applicable to the state or nations or even local magistrates. They're not even applicable really to denominations.

It is only the local church that is truly the household of God, the church of the living God, and a pillar and buttress of the truth together. Now I said that biblical Christianity is lived within the context of the local church, and so now let's go back to verse 15 and let's flesh that out.

Paul is addressing Timothy here, but the implication of the text, of course, is that Timothy is to instruct the local church at Ephesus in these realities. So let's do the work, let's do the hard work.

Let's put our minds on and let's do the hard work of looking at the text and studying it. If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God. Now here's what you might expect in evangelicalism today or in Bible Belt Christianity today.

You might expect an as there and not an in. In other words, you might expect if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave as, as the household of God. Why might you expect that? Because this is what you hear all around.

You don't have to go to church, you need to what? Be the church. Don't go to church, be the church. Friends, these two realities are not at odds with one another. Are you to be the church? Yes, but you can't be the church without also being in church, right?

You must be the church and you are to be in church. These two truths go together and that's why Paul doesn't say that he's trying to tell you how to behave as a church, but in the church, okay? Theologically true.

We are the church. Believers do need to know how to behave as the church. There is much instruction in the Bible that teaches us how to behave as the church. Christians are the church. We're to be the church in this world.

I'm not denying any of that, but let me reiterate. We don't pit these truths against each other. They are both true of the Christian life. We are to live as the church and we are, verse 15, to be in the local church.

So we see that Paul is talking about in the church. He's saying the Christians need to know, why would he say this? Why would Paul say Christians need to know how to behave in the church, in the household of God?

Because there's no understanding, there's no New Testament Christianity apart from being in the local church. This Greek word translated household. Some of your translations, it may just say, it may say house of God or it may say household.

That's because the word can mean either one of those. It can mean like a physical house or it can mean like a family. And I think it's best understood that we don't exclude either definition actually.

So remember this, the early church, they would gather in these physical houses, right? And it is as though that Paul is reminding the church here that when the church gathers, it's no longer that person's house, right?

So let's say that something terrible happened or let's not use something, let's say something wonderful happened. Something wonderful happened and we're in a building project and there's something that happened and we just couldn't meet in this building one Sunday.

And so we said, okay, we're just gonna pack in like sardines and we're gonna meet at the Nelson house. And when we did that, when we gathered as a church, the reminder would be, this is no longer the Nelson house.

It's God's house. And we have to conduct ourselves in God's house the way that God has commanded us in his word. And then of course we have the family aspect, not denying that when the family assembles, that is the local church, when the family assembles, God is there in a special way.

The local church is not ultimately then a building, certainly it is an assembled body. That's why we could meet here, we could meet in the parking lot, we could meet in somebody's home and we're still Perryville Second Baptist Church and God is with us in a special way when we assemble for the worship of God.

Brian Chapel notes this, the Sunday gathering is an assembly of the living God. That's what the text says. If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God.

God's presence, friends, in the local church is a special way like no other place on this earth. Therefore, believers need to know how to behave in the church, not just as the church, but in the church.

There's no understanding of Christianity in the New Testament that does not involve believers participating in the church. I feel like I just wanna hammer that. There's a quattro, you're beating a dead horse.

No, I talk to people almost on a weekly basis that don't understand Christianity this way. Church is good, church is fine, but church is optional. What's important is my relationship with God. Amen, your relationship with God is important.

However, you don't express that relationship with God according to the Bible.

If the Bible means anything,.

You don't express that relationship with God only individually, but within the context of the local church. Paul says, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God.

So let me put it this way. I'm not being snarky, I'm not being rude. Let me just put it this way. You can have any idea of Christianity that you want in the sense that no one's forcing you to have a certain view of Christianity.

You can have an idea of Christianity that rejects the local church. Of course, you're here Sunday, so probably not many of you like that, though there may be some. So you can have a understanding of Christianity that rejects the local church.

You can have an understanding of Christianity that says the local church, it's optional,.

It's no big deal.

You can see the local church if you want to. You can see the local church as a decent idea or something that you'll try to be connected with and involved with when you can and if you want to. And if you want, you can even dismiss the local church altogether, and you can just say the local church, it's just full of a bunch of self-righteous, Pharisaical hypocrites.

You can have any of those visions about the local church that you want. You have the ability. No one is stopping, no one is stopping you from saying whatever you want about the local church. But you need to hear me.

You can downplay the church. You can tell everyone else that what you are practicing is Christianity. But I'm just gonna tell you, if you're practicing Christianity separate from the local church, you're not practicing Christianity.

You're practicing a religion that you just made up. It may look like biblical Christianity. You may use the same language. You may talk about justification. You may talk about Christ. You may talk about salvation and regeneration and maybe even election.

You may talk about all these things. But if what you are practicing is separated from the local church, the Bible doesn't know what you're talking about. This is the truth of the Scriptures. Do you see why Christ's vision for the church matters so much?

Because biblical Christianity is lived within the context of the local church. You don't define Christianity and neither do I. It's the Bible alone. Not your mind, not your feelings, not your experiences, not cultural preferences, not what your aunt says, not what your cousin says, not what your next door neighbor says.

If you count the local church as optional or insignificant, then whatever it is you're practicing, it's not New Testament Christianity. And I would hope that you would be greatly alarmed to have a divergent view of Christianity than does the Holy Spirit, right?

Like we can all agree on that, can't we? That if your view of Christianity and the Holy Spirit's view of Christianity are two different views, then your view is wrong. If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God.

That's the Spirit of God says this to the churches, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Can you say whatever you want about the church? You can come, you can not come, you can dismiss it altogether.

You can play around with the church. You can even say what you're practicing is Christianity, but let me be clear, biblical Christianity is lived within the context of the local church. All persons and things outside of biblical Christianity will perish eternally in the lake of fire.

Will you take a moment right now to assess your life? This is why Christ's vision for the church matters, because biblical Christianity is lived within the context of the local church. This is the church of the living God.

Think about that for just a minute, the living God. That is, there's life nowhere else, only in the living God. Are you a Christian according to the standards of the book? And if not, you must be warned.

You may have the same language, you may do some of the same things, but you're in a very dangerous situation because you defy the living God. But at the same time, this warning this morning comes with an offer of mercy.

If you'll lay hold of Christ today by faith, you will be saved. Will you make your calling and election sure? Now to our second point, I think I've beat that horse sufficiently. Why does Christ's vision for the local church matter?

One, because biblical Christianity is lived within the context of the local church. Number two, because the local church is the promoter of truth to the world. Because the local church is the promoter of truth to the world.

Now we get on these fun words. If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is a church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. We were doing family worship one night, I won't call out the child, it's just a funny story.

So I gotta say, we were doing family worship one night, we said, what is a buttress, right? I mean, like, come on, y 'all, I mean, when's the last time you used buttress and everything? You have a cup of coffee and you just, the word buttress flowed out of your mouth.

It probably didn't happen. I was like, what is a buttress? Kids are looking, looking, looking. One bright young child says to me, it's like a butler, but a girl. Oh, so you have a butler and you have a buttress, right?

Is that right? Okay, no, that's not what a buttress is. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. Listen to James Bannerman, he says, the very object for which the church of Christ was established on the earth was to declare and uphold the truth with all its spiritual and saving blessings among mankind.

That truth which exhibits at once the glory of God and in harmony and connection with that, the salvation of the sinner. For this thing then the church was instituted. And this thing or the declaration of the truth must therefore be in its nature and importance paramount to the church itself.

Friends, every local church, look at the text, every local church, remember, this is written to Timothy, while Timothy is at Ephesus, he's instructing Timothy so the church at Ephesus will know. And he's saying here that every local church, not just Ephesus, every local church is a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Both words, let's talk about those for just a moment so that you don't go home and think that a buttress is a female butler. Both words have the idea of support. They're architectural words. They should bring to our minds the idea of holding up.

What does a pillar do? Holding up, holding up the truth for all to see. So a pillar holds it up and a buttress reinforces it. That's the idea. Some translations say support or ground or foundation. The idea is supporting what's going.

So a pillar holds it up, a buttress reinforces it. Now listen, the church, this is where Rome is wrong, Roman Catholicism. The church does not determine the truth. That's not what we're saying. That's not what Paul is saying, right?

So Roman Catholics, they place the church in authority over the Scriptures, wrong, no. Paul is saying here that the church upholds, doesn't determine the truth, but upholds the truth and supports the truth and reinforces the truth.

The truth birthed the church, similar to children and parents. Children don't birth their parents. Parents birth their children. And so it's not the responsibility of the child to determine who their parents are.

They can't do that. That's already happened. It's the parents who birth the children. It's the children's job to uphold and honor their parents,.

Similar to the church.

The church doesn't determine the truth. The truth determines the church. The truth birthed the church. And it's the church's job now to honor and uphold and uplift the truth to the nations. You need to ask yourself this question then, very important question.

Does Perryville and Perry County and Conway County and Yale County and Faulkner County and Saline County and Pulaski County, do these counties, does this area, does this town, does this place in Central Arkansas, does it need to see the truth?

Does it need, do we need the truth here? Is that just out there for LA, right? Is this just Los Angeles that needs truth? Or just Milwaukee, or just New York? It's just other parts, you know, we have a mission connections with churches in Mexico.

It's just Mexico that needs the truth, right? No, friends, we need the truth. We need to see the truth right here of the inerrant and infallible Scriptures and the truth of the coming judgment and the truth of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ and the truth that embracing Christ in repentance and faith actually brings about transformation for the sinner.

We need the truth here. That's why God has a church here. Because the healthier a church is, the more clearly it promotes the truth. The healthier a church is, the more prominent the truth is. Proverbs 23, 23, Proverbs 23, 23 says this, buy truth and do not sell it.

Buy truth and do not sell. What does that bring to your mind? Truth is costly. Let's put it in these terms. It does not take much work to gain weight, does it? Eating good, or others put it, no wait. By eating good, I was meaning like eating a lot of food, not eating healthy.

Eating poorly, let's put it this way. Eating poorly, it's easy. It's easy to eat poorly. It's easy to eat poorly because it's cheap. So too is purchasing lies. Purchasing lies is cheap and it's easy. It doesn't require much work.

It doesn't require mental work. Just eat whatever it is they're feeding you.

Just eat it up.

Whatever it is the media says, believe it. By the way, on either side, right? I mean like CNN or Fox. You don't wanna think, you just wanna, just whatever it is, whatever the media says, just believe it, that's easy.

Don't think critically. Don't think logically. Don't read. Don't study. Don't pray. Accept the candy of what passes for worship. Accept the watered down nominal Christianity. Don't question it. Stay asleep in your bed.

Nice warm blanket. Don't let those preaching the Bible make you uncomfortable. This is the state of Christianity today. But this is not the purpose of the church. The church is to buy the truth. It is to do the hard work of knowing the truth and publishing the truth to a lost and dying world.

It is to be a pillar and buttress of the truth. And then Paul says, look at verse 15. Little words are important sometimes. I'm understanding it this way from verse 15. He says, which is the church of the living God that is the church at Ephesus, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

A pillar.

You know why I think he says a pillar and not the pillar? Because the idea is that all local churches are a pillar and they are to be doing their part together. It's not one local church that upholds the truth all on its own, but it's all of Christ's local churches are pillars together.

And when these pillars come together, think about the temple of Diana that was in Ephesus and all the pillars that would be holding that.

Giant building up.

Think about all these local churches that are pillars of the truth. And when they're all doing their job together, the truth is shining beautifully. And you tell me right now, if in this nation, that's what local churches have been doing.

Have they been shining and holding for the truth or have they been overcome and enamored.

By what the world holds out?

I was at the Southern Baptist Convention in 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee. And the people on the platform, they kept saying we would disagree about something. No, that's not right. We don't need to have, we need truth.

We need truth. We need truth.

And they say things like this.

The world's watching.

No, no, no.

No, the world's watching.

Friends, what we have to keep in our mind more than anything else is that God is watching. And we want to uphold the truth to a world, not because we want to offend the world. Like if that's your deal, repent.

If you're like, man,.

I can't wait to offend the world today, woo. That's not our attitude. No, no, our attitude is we want to uphold the truth because we love God and we love those in the world. So let me say this. I'll go through these quickly, but it's our job as a local church to make sure that our little pillar here in Perryville is shining beautifully so as to shine forth the glory of Christ.

So let me walk through these five ways when it comes to the truth, five ways that we need to do, five things that we need to do. I've borrowed these from, really I borrowed and adapted and added here from William Hendrickson.

But first, the church must digest the truth. That is, if we're gonna be a pillar and buttress of the truth, we have to eat it. We have to believe it. We have to buy it. We have to embrace it. We see the scriptures not as a game.

The Bible's not a game. It's just full of nice little stories for children or not full of mythology. But we see it as the ironclad truth of God. We see the Gospel as the truth that Christ is King and He came to give His life a ransom for sinners.

That He was our sin bearer on Calvary. That He fulfilled all righteousness and that we are sinners deserving only of wrath and only of hell, but that Christ has paid our pardon and that He has brought us back to God satisfying the demands of the law by His work.

We must embrace this truth by faith. We must digest it. We must repent and believe the Gospel. Secondly, we must distribute the truth. We digest the truth. We distribute the truth. You guys know I couldn't get fully away from alliteration in the whole sermon.

That is, we must teach it to one another. We teach it. We sit under qualified pastors. We teach it in our homes. We must distribute the Word of God to one another. We teach the Word of God. We digest it.

We distribute it. Thirdly, we demonstrate the truth. Our lives show forth the truth of God to one another to a lost and dying world. I remind you again of the text, verse 15. If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave, how one ought to behave in the household of God.

In other words, listen very carefully then. The truth does not just affect our minds and it does not just affect our hearts. It affects what? Our behavior. We no longer say, that's just the way God made me, right?

Well, God just made me a serial adulterer. That's just how I am. No, the truth comes in and it changes us. It affects our behavior. We don't merely digest it. We don't merely distribute it, but we demonstrate it.

Our holy lives show forth the glory of God and the power of God in the gospel and the grace of God in the gospel for transforming sinners. Fourthly, we defend the truth. How is a church to be the pillar and buttress of the truth?

We digest it, we distribute it, we demonstrate it. Fourthly, we defend it. The church has been stewarded with the most precious of gifts. Not a wonderful building. Not even people in the seats. Not a stage, not a piano, not a guitar.

The church has been stewarded with the most precious gift of all, and that is the gift of the truth. And we stake our lives here. Friends, I'm gonna tell you, there are certain things in our world today that are not worth your giving your time to, but this ain't one of them.

This is worth giving our lives to and giving our lives for, the truth. In verse 15, the word buttress is a noun. Pillar and buttress of the truth. In 1 Corinthians 15, 58, we won't turn there, but it's used as an adjective, and that's where Paul says, be steadfast.