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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/eric-mccullough/the-house-of-god/
First Timothy, please, in chapter one. When my brother Wells was speaking, I was reminded of an incident that happened at the Toronto Conference years ago. Mr. Wark was there and he told me, there used to be about 30 or 35 evangelists on the platform and a brother got up, Mr. Chivas, and he said, I've come of age.
I'm 21 years in the Lord's work. You see, in those days, younger men didn't get opportunities to speak. And there was an older brother. He said, I want to read about David and his five smooth stones. And an older brother spoke up and said, brother, David only used one stone.
And that kind of flustered him. Yes, he said, what my brother says is right, but David had four, the giant had four big brothers, so here goes for all five. Well, read with me in First Timothy, chapter one, and you'll appreciate that I'm still recovering from a heart attack five months or so ago, so I won't be running around or waving my arms.
No offense to my brother, but I'll try to have a bit more control. Verse one of First Timothy one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus, really, according to the commandment of God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
As I exhorted thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some, that they teach no other doctrine. Now, look over again, please, to chapter two. Verse one, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
Now, look again to verse 11 of chapter two. Let the women learn in silence with all subjection that I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Now, chapter three, verse 14, these things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly.
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. Chapter four and verse seven, but refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness, for bodily exercise profiteth little, or for a little time, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Now, over again a little further, verse 13 of chapter four, till I come, well, we should read verse 12. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of believers in word and conversation and charity and spirit and faith in purity.
Till I come, give attendance to reading. That's the public reading of the word of God. Verse 15, meditate wholly upon these things, give thyself wholly to them. That's the private reading of the word of God.
Take ye unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Now, chapter five, rebuke not an elder, but treat him as a father, the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity.
Chapter six, verse one, let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor. Verse six, but godliness with contentment is great gain. Now, there's other verses that I may refer to, but that's all that we'll read together.
I want to try, if the Lord would help, to speak a little word about the house of God. We read those words that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God. If we would think of God, the awesomeness of who he is, there's no other subject that we may contemplate that will humble us and cause us to praise and worship.
If we would think about God, who being, eternally existent, he had no beginning. Before time began, he was. He's eternal in his character. He's invisible, and yet in spite of that, the word of God teaches us that he's touchable, he's tangible.
We've been reminded of the trials of the life of the believer, and the writer to the Hebrews tells us that we can come to a touchable, tangible man who has tried in every way such as ourselves, apart from sin, his omniscience, his omnipotence, his omnipresence, he always was God.
Now, what's the house of God? That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God. Now, I'm going to say, brethren, that the local assembly is not the house of God, or is it the church of God?
But it does bear some character of the house of God, the great mystical property that belongs to heaven, composed of all believers, the house of God. I want simply to look at a number of features of that assembly in its local character.
You see, God has always had a dwelling place. My brother referred this morning to the tabernacle. You remember God said to Moses, see that thou make all things according to the pattern that was shown me on the mount.
And for about 500 years, the Shekinah glory dwelt inside that place, the holiest of all, between a cherubim over the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant for 500 years. Then for about 400 years, after Solomon was allowed to build the temple, David was told he could not build it because he was a man of war.
But Solomon was enabled, his son, to construct that beautiful edifice, the temple. And again, the Shekinah glory filled the presence. And when the Lord Jesus was here, we beheld his glory. On three occasions, at least, we know the heavens opened, and we hear that annunciation from heaven, this is my beloved son in whom I have found all my delight.
A display of glory in the person of the Lord Jesus. Well, where is God seen today? Somebody asked us, I think it was last night. I'm getting older, you know, like a number of us. Our brother referred to young believers.
Well, most of them think that Mr. Lavery and Mr. Wells and Mr. Steers, myself, we're getting to be dinosaurs. They're the new generation. Well, somebody asked, will we see God when we get to heaven? And I simply said, the Bible says, no man has seen God at any time.
But then Paul tells us when he writes, he that has seen me has seen the Father. So we'll know God in the person of the Lord Jesus. If we thought we would see God, my next question would be, what about the Holy Spirit?
He's God, will we see him? We'll see the Lord himself, the only man in the glory, a glorified man. You and I'll be there, but we'll have a changed form, like unto his image. That's just by the way, he dwells in the midst of his people.
This chapter that I read from tells us about him, the one that came from heaven. Paul says he was manifest in the flesh. That's his incarnation, justified in the Spirit. The Spirit was there when he came.
He lived by the Spirit. He was subject to the guidance of the Spirit in his life, seen of angels. At his birth, they ministered to him in his life. Even at the garden tomb, there were angels that were there, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
But the first thing I note, we read about a local expression of the house of God that I would call the local church, the local assembly. They were characterized by sound doctrine. Verse three of chapter one, Paul says to Timothy, you see, he charges them that they teach no other doctrine.
Now, unscriptural practice will color a man's ministry. All you have to do is listen to someone for a few times, and you know what they believe. We thank God for brethren that move among us and that minister the truth of God, sound doctrine.
You remember when Paul was at Ephesus, he warned them, after my departure, grievous wolves will enter in, not sparing the flock. And my brother alluded to a number of happenings this morning. What we see, women's meetings, sisters taking this book and ministering publicly.
It's wrong. There's no room in this book for separating young people from older believers. It's wrong. All you have to do is look at some of the countries that we know of, in the UK, for instance, look at Scotland, look at England.
A number of years ago, they introduced youth conferences. And what has happened? The young people have scattered, and the assemblies are dying out. You see, the word of God teaches what is good for the young is good for the old.
And what Paul warned against when he was at Ephesus, actually took place, John writes in the revelation to the church at Ephesus, and he says, "'I have against thee, thou hast left thy first love.'". They didn't lose it, but they left it.
You see, the more we bow to what the word of God says, the better we'll be. Then quickly again, it was characterized by prayer. Paul says, I pray that intercession and prayers and giving of thanks will be made for all, for all that are in authority.
By the way, I hope you pray for Mr. Trump. I ask God every day to save him. That's what he needs, is God's salvation. He acknowledges God, we know that, but he needs our prayers. I'm not at all politically minded, but you can tell when a man speaks before he thinks, it marks him.
And when we listen to anyone speaking, if we listen long enough, we learn what's in their heart. We need to pray. When the Lord Jesus chose his disciples, he spent all night in prayer, ever do that? There was a brother in one of our Iowa assemblies, an able teacher of the word of God, a farmer.
I've heard him say more than once that after the day was finished and he had his supper, his dinner, whatever, he would sit down with the word of God. And before he knew, the sun was rising in the east and it was time to start the day again.
No wonder when he got up among the people of God, he had bread for them. My brother said there's no shortcut. It takes time, it takes exercise, the late Mr. A .M .S. Gooding that I love to listen to. When he was a young man about 16, he was quite a soccer player, they called it football, but he got saved and he promised God that as long as he was able to, he would give six hours a day to the study of the word of God.
And he would look out of his bedroom window and see the boys kicking the ball and just have a longing to be there and then he would remember what he had promised God. No wonder when he stood up to minister, he had food for the people of God.
He applied himself, we've been hearing of that. Even the Lord Jesus, you remember Psalm 16, he prayed, preserve me, oh God. That's the words of David, but that's what the Lord was, a dependent man, we need to pray.
The shortest prayer in the Bible is Jacob coming home from his years of servitude for his uncle Laban. You remember he wanted a bride and he was deceived and he got the older one instead of the younger one that he wanted to marry and he had to serve seven more years to get the next one.
You remember he prayed and when he's coming home, he thought, I'm going to have to reap what I've sown. The Bible teaches that the way of transgressors is hard and he knew that he would be facing his brother again, the one that he had got the birthright from, although it was God's mind that he got the birthright and he cried to God.
He realized as he lay that night on a stony pillow that he needed God and he prayed. We need to pray. You know, someone has said that prayer is the nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence. When you and I pray, we reach the throne of God.
Just an ejaculatory prayer, three words. I was telling them somewhere lately, a few years ago, my wife and I were down under in Australia and New Zealand for four months and when I got home the next day, there was a one-day conference at one of our assemblies and down under, you drive on the left side of the road.
They think that's right, but it's the left. And so I'm going along the Blacktop Highway, the Butler Center Road and I thought, that man is coming directly for me. I thought, the crazy fool, he's in the wrong side of the road and then just before the collision, I realized it was me and I went down into the ditch and up and out again and I remember I prayed three words, Lord, help me and he did.
I might have been in heaven. I'm soon going to be there. I'm looking forward to it. You know, there were 60 million of us in the forces in World War II. There are 16 million still living and there's 500 and some die every day.
So my number's coming up. You'll hear about it one of these days, but it's great to be ready. We need to pray and it's a place of instruction. You notice we read that in chapter two. There's to be teaching, to be given, not by sisters, but by men.
God has given public teaching ability to man. He tells us in chapter 12 of the Revelation that the gift is from God. He tells us again in Ephesians chapter four that it's the Lord Jesus that gives the gifts and then when Paul writes to the Corinthians in chapter 12, he tells us it's from a spirit.
So gift is God-given, not natural ability, but it's a God-given gift. Wonderful when those gifts are exercised. Then you remember we read about care. I didn't even read the verse. If he knows not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?
Verse five of chapter three, care. Will you say a man that's in leadership, what if he has unsaved children? What if they're out of his control? Until they come of age, perhaps 17 or 18, then he's accountable.
After that, they make their own choices. He can still function in the capacity of a leader in the house of God. I wanna finish two things I don't like as long praying and long preaching. We read about exercise.
The house of God is a place for exercise, caring for the body, caring for the home, caring for the assembly. Bodily exercise profiteth for a little time. There's a man wrote a book on walking, advocating how many miles we should walk every day.
You know what happened to him? He died walking. Well, exercise is all right. What Paul is saying, there's something that's more profitable. That's godliness. In the epistles, 15 times in the pastoral epistles, Paul talks about godliness.
What is godliness? It's an exercise that takes as much constraint and regulation as training for the Olympic games. Paul knew all about that. So he said, give thyself rather unto godliness. And then I'm gonna finish.
In the local company, there's honor given to the word of God. We've been reminded of that. Read it, meditate upon it, think about it. Wherever you are, let the word of God become the man of your counsel.
The scriptures, there's nothing like them. There's lots of other literature and I can read it. I'm as guilty as anyone, but we must take time individually to read this book. We can't survive on conferences.
We can't survive on local gatherings. We must devote ourselves personally to spending time in the presence of God. And if so, there'll be blessing for us and blessing for others. And so in God's house, there's much that can be praised.
We'll appreciate the savior more. When the late King George VI was coronated, I was living in Ireland at the time. And I can remember seeing he and his wife and two little girls, the present queen and her sister coming down the street and thousands of Union Jacks being waved.
Shortly after that, he made a visit to Vancouver and the Lord mayor of the city was there and thought it would be nice if he brought in an Indian chief, Chief Featherwood. And he had the chief get up to speak.
And before his chief said anything, he said, I'd like to sing. You know what he sang? He sang, I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather have Jesus than riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords to me.
And that King who was a born again believer appreciated what the Indian chief sang. The Lord help us that we may get to know him better. And the more we get to know him, the more we'll appreciate all that he has done for us.
The Lord bless what will follow for his name's sake.