“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, and I hope 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 1

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 teaching ministry of the

Church, and so much more. 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 might ought to conduct yourself in the house of God.

Now, let's make it very clear, Paul's talking about the local Church, he's not talking about a universal

Church. 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, it 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 I just encouraged you a few minutes ago about 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. And, he says, the importance of the local church is that it is the pillar and the ground or the buttress of the truth.

Christ did not save you to be a Lone Ranger Christian. 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've 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.

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. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Get with God's people, and worship the