“A Needful Pillar” – FBC Morning Light (12/20/2024)

Well good Friday morning to you. Here we are coming up on another weekend, aren't we? And as we're doing so we're looking forward to this Sunday before Christmas and trusting that our hearts will be centered on and directed toward a proper celebration of our Savior's birth.

The Lord’s Day and the Celebration of Christ’s Birth

And I hope you you're looking forward to the Lord's Day and gathering with God's people and all that will be involved in that worshiping of the newborn King who is our Savior. Well today in our Bible reading we're reading 1st Timothy chapters 1 through 3 and I want to focus on a part of a verse in chapter 3 verse 15 that I hope will encourage us to take advantage of one of God's great gifts to his people.

I'm speaking of the church. So Paul's writing to Timothy, Timothy is pastoring the church at Ephesus, and he's responsible for the leadership in the church, he's responsible for the preaching in the church, he's responsible for the the teaching ministry of the church, and so much more.

The Church as the House of God

But when you get to chapter 3 and verse 14 he says, I'm writing these things to you and I'm hoping to come to you shortly, but if I'm delayed, he says here's why I'm writing. I'm writing so that you might know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God.

Now again he's talking to the pastor, okay, to the elder Timothy, and he says, I'm writing so that you might know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. Now let's make it very clear, Paul is talking about the local church, he's not talking about a universal church.

You know, there's not a sensibility about it to say that I'm writing so that you might know how to conduct yourself in the church universal, because you're never going to rub shoulders with the vast majority of those who comprise the church universal.

No, he's talking about the local church there in Ephesus. And he goes on to say, this house of God, this local church assembly, is the house of God, the dwelling place of God. He said, it is the church, is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth.

Do you get the sense of importance that God places on the local church? He says that the local church that is faithful to the preaching of the Word, faithful to the doctrine of the truth, that local church is the house of God.

It's the dwelling place of God. That local church is the assembly of God's people, where the living God meets with them. You realize that? You see the significance of that? So, you know, I just encouraged you a few minutes ago about, you know, going to church this Sunday to worship the Lord together.

When you do that with God's people in a church that is a Christ-exalting, Word-centered, Bible-believing church, you are assembling with people who are assembling together with God, where the living God is actually there as well.

Why Christians Need the Local Church

And, he says, the importance of the local church is that it is the pillar and the ground, or the buttress, of the truth. You know, Christ did not save you to be a Lone Ranger Christian, and you know, if you're living that way, you're living in a way that is contrary to the intention of Christ in his saving you.

He saved you that you might be a part of a local assembly of believers, because you need that assembly. Why? Because that local church is the pillar and buttress of the truth. In other words, here's the thing.

I've known many, many people through the years who thought that it was okay to be Lone Ranger Christians, that they really didn't need the local church. In fact, it hasn't been too long ago, someone came to me and said, yeah, I see the value of the local church, I go to a lot of different churches, just, you know, duh-duh.

He says, but, you know, my spouse is a believer but doesn't see the importance of going to church. Well, that believer doesn't see what God's Word has to say, doesn't accept it, and is in error, and is harming themselves in that avoidance of the local church.

And what often happens, almost inevitably, the person who is a Lone Ranger Christian like that will be dragged away in all kinds of error. Maybe not, you know, like denying the virgin birth or something like that, but in errors of Christian life and errors of Christian doctrine, because they don't have the pillar and the buttress of the truth upon which to build their lives.

Listen, I want to encourage you to realize the importance of being a part of a good Bible-believing church, where God's people love each other, they love Christ, they love God's Word, and they want to obey it, and they want to live by it.

You need a church like that, and I hope you found one, and I hope you're faithful to it, and will be there this Lord's Day, to celebrate Christmas, and to fellowship with God's people, and not only this Lord's Day, but the next, and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that.

Prayer for the Gift of the Church

Well, our Father and our God, we thank you for the gift of the Church. We need it. We thank you for how beneficial it is to our own spiritual vitality, our understanding, our fidelity to the truth. Lord, I pray that we would prioritize that which you prioritize, and we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Friday, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, get with God's people, and worship the Lord on the Lord's Day. God bless.