Last week I mentioned when we were talking about deacons and managing their children and their households well, that when you got your kids in church, you gotta teach them how to behave, right? Talked a little bit about some of our examples in our family that way. The title of this sermon is Behave in Church, but it's not talking about that. We're not talking about getting your kids to sit still. We're talking about how the church functions, how as we come to church, we need to understand how we should behave in church, what the church should look like. Obviously, Paul is writing to Timothy, he's giving him instruction, this is how he was supposed to behave in church, as a man who was probably pretty much a church planter. It's hard, I've mentioned before, it's hard to identify what Timothy, exactly what he was. He was not an apostle. He was not an elder. He was not a deacon. But he was someone who was apparently involved in identifying qualifications and that sort of thing. So he traveled with the apostle Paul, and I think the best way to understand him is as a missionary church planter. So with that understanding, Paul's speaking to them and says, this is how the church needs to function. This is how the church ought to behave. And so that's what we're looking at here tonight. And what we're gonna look at, we'll hopefully get through at least verse 15, we might get further, but there are three lessons in verses 14 through 16 regarding how we behave in church. The first lesson that we have here regards the purpose of the book. Every now and then when you're reading a book of the Bible, the author will come out and help you immensely by telling you exactly what the purpose of the book is. It doesn't happen all the time, but this is an example here in verses 14 and 15. Paul's coming right out, and he's saying, this is why I'm writing. This is the purpose. And he states it very clearly. And I want to present to you a couple of reasons from verse 14 and 15, and also from the context of the book, why I believe that this is the purpose statement for the book. So verse 14 says, I hope to come to see you soon, but I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave. in the household of God. So, he has a desire, and you see this sometimes in the other letters, like the letter to the Romans, the epistle to the Romans, he wants to come and see Timothy. He says, but I'm writing this, very practically, this is a letter, I am writing it, so that And that word that is dealing with purpose. When you're talking about the English use of this word in this context, doesn't always mean that. But right here in this context, it does mean purpose. And so very clearly in the immediate context here, if you consider the context, just the word that in verse 14 tells you that in verse 15, you've got the purpose statement for the entire book. So there's, from the language in the immediate context, You get that. And then he says, if I delay, if I can't get there right away, he says, I want to tell you all this stuff, but I'm going to write you a letter and tell you all of it, right? And so that's what he's doing here with the entire book. And so the next context that you look at, beyond the immediate context, is the context of the entire book. So think for a minute about what we've covered so far in 1 Timothy, right? And let's see, back there in chapter 2, In verses one through eight, you had instructions on public prayer. And that was specific to the men of the church. This is how you're gonna lead in prayer. And then you get down to verse nine, down to verse 15 in chapter two, and it's talking about the role of women in the church, right? So he's talking about how things are conducted in the church, how you behave in the church. In chapter three, we just got through all the qualifications for elder and deacon. Another very important series of instructions on how you behave in the Church, what your leadership ought to look like in the Church. And then you have this section, verses 14-16, which is really dealing with the character of the Church. And then in Chapter 4, what's going to come after, in verses 1-6, he's going to talk about threats to the Church and how you respond to those threats. And so even right here in this of all we're dealing with right in these first four chapters, you're seeing there that you're dealing with regulations for worship and order in the church all the way to chapter 4, verse 16. And so there's very specific instruction, and all dealing with how Timothy ought to be conducting church, how he ought to lead these elders and deacons and teach them, how they ought to be conducting the church. And so it has to do with all these contexts. That's one reason why we say that this verse 15 is the purpose for the book. The other reason, I would say, is consider the planter. Consider the church planter for a minute. Because, you know, you've got this delay that's going on. Paul's desire is to teach him and to instruct him. And some Bible scholars have suggested if you look at the language that Paul uses in his commands to Timothy throughout the entire book, it's possible that he was neglecting some of his duties. It's possible that he needed a little bit of a swift kick in the pants to say, look, man, you need to be reminded of these things. These might've been things he's already said, but he words a lot of these things in the ESV. It's translated, this charge I give you, right? This command I give you. Let's look at some examples. So go back to chapter one, verse 18. We all, by the way, we all need that once in a while, don't we? Don't we all need to be reminded, you know, things like, you know, like how it works with the tithe versus the love offering. We all need that. And so here you're seeing the same thing. Chapter 1, verse 18. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare. He says it's a battle get in it. You know, get into that battle. I'm going to give this charge to you. Very firm language, very direct. In chapter 4, verse 11, there's several of these in chapter 4. In chapter 4, verse 11, he says, command and teach these things. Saying to Timothy, you need to command them. Don't just suggest them. Command them. Teach these things. Chapter 4, verse 14. Do not neglect the gift you have which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers." You've got all these words. I've got these things. I don't know if Pastor Randall preached this. Somebody preached this along the way, and I've got them circled in the section. Verse 10, you've got the word toil and strive, right? And verse 12, set the believers an example. In verse 13, devote yourself. In 14, do not neglect. 15, practice, immerse. 16, persist. Right, these are all action words, right? You got verbs going on here, and they're commands. Pressing, he's just saying, press on, brother. Keep pressing on in this. And then you get to chapter 5. In chapter 5, verse 3, another command. Honor widows who are truly widows. But then in verse 11, he says, He's doing some controversial stuff here. And then you get down to chapter 6, and there's a whole series of commands dealing with a wide range of things. from verse 3 down to verse 16, one of the main themes in there is the love of money. He says, look, understand that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And so, you know, there's that, there's a lot of other commands there, but all along it's very possible that You know, some people suggest, like, Timothy's, it's not this way. Timothy is timid or whatever, and he needs a little bit of encouragement. Whether that's true or not, we don't exactly know, but there sure are a lot of commands in here on how the church needs to function. And so, as we consider it, where do we go? Like, when a church leadership team is thinking about, where do we go to find out how the church ought to operate? Let me tell you, it's not Rick Warren, right? It's not Purpose Driven Church, right? It's not any of these things that just come as fads. American Christianity every so often they make their way through seminaries Well, they make their way through the bestseller list and then they make their way through the seminaries, right? And then that's sort these are the experts quote-unquote. Uh-uh No, we had the Word of God on this and so don't you know? evaluate all this stuff all these fads that pop up not by whether or not they quote-unquote work and evaluate them based upon whether or not they measure up to the Word of God, you've got really no better place to look than the pastoral epistles for these things. So, we need to have that conviction and not move off of it. So, consider the planter in this case. You've got all these things going on. Now, the second lesson in verse 15, and we're dealing with the character of the church, and we've got some characteristics of the church in verse 15 laid out for us. I'll read what I read again. So on one hand, The church is a household, right? We've already saw in chapter 3, in verse 4, and in verse 12, that with both the elder and the deacon, they gotta be someone who manages his own household well. If he can't manage his own household well, then how can he manage the church? Because it functions that way. And you know this. I don't know how many times I've heard it here and in other churches, but I've heard it here quite a lot, that I'm closer to my brothers and sisters in Christ than I am to my own family. Right? Why is that? It's not just some kind of weird psychological trick, right? Some Jedi mind trick that God's playing on you. These are really your brothers and sisters, right? And in a very real way, more so than our own families. We all have unbelievers in our families that we just, like, cannot connect with. But there are people here, we're not related at all. And we're very different from each other, and yet we're closer to the people here than we are to people in our own family. Isn't that the way that Jesus promised it would be? you know, he said, you know, fathers and brothers, mothers and your wife and children and everybody, you know, they'll hate you. They could even hate you for following Christ. And so that's something that, praise God, we have that family atmosphere. We ought to have it, and if the church doesn't have it, there's a problem, honestly. There's a problem. But this household also suggests organization of some kind or the other. And so every household has, or should have, some organization. There's somebody in charge, right? The dad's in charge, but really he's under the authority of King Jesus. And so Christ is the head of the home, and then after that you've got the father and the husband who's the head of the home, and then the wife submits to the husband, and the children obey the parents, right? This is all, as the Scripture says, it's right. It's right to have that order and structure and flowchart within the home. And this is all being laid out, it's already in the context of chapter 3, leadership. being defined here by its qualifications. And so you've got, it's a family on one hand, it's organized on the other hand, and that's why he's saying this is how you ought to behave in the household of God. There can't be any of that really rightly unless unless there's some order and structure. Now let's go back to the word behave for a minute because I did skip this for some reason. Another way to translate it is, New American Standard translates it, how you conduct yourself. How you conduct yourself. There's, this word's interesting in Greek because it's got a literal meaning and then it's got a figurative. interpretation. What we're talking about here with behave is sort of the figurative interpretation of the word. But the literal interpretation, this is the same word that's used to describe when Jesus flipped over the tables in the temple. So the literal meaning of the Greek word was to flip something over. Isn't that interesting, right? you're talking about turning over a new leaf, something like that, right? So, what you've got here is that when we are behaving ourselves rightly in the church, it's because the Lord has turned us upside down, in a sense. There's been repentance, right? A turning from sin, a turning to Christ, a changing our mind about sin and the facts of the gospel, and a turning to Christ, and away from those things. And if we're turned upside down, we're gonna behave rightly when it comes to the church, if there's really been repentance, if there's really been a change. Let's look at 1 Peter 1, 17 to 19 to see another figurative use of the term, not the literal. It's in verse 17, but I'm reading down to verse 19 to keep it in context. 1 Peter 1.17, That word conduct yourselves, that's the same term. conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you are ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." Man, you're supposed to conduct yourselves differently because you come in contact with the gospel. Right? And then if you look at 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 12, you have another example like this. 2nd Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 12. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity. There you are, the word behaved. It's that same Greek term. Behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you." You behave rightly. You might have before used earthly wisdom in the way that you conducted everything. But now you're behaving rightly. You're doing something differently, in verse 12. and conducting, you're operating in the area of the grace of God, and the grace that you've received. And so, the reason why we behave rightly in this world isn't because, just because we're good people, it's because God's grace has done something in our lives. And so, that is what's going on there with the word behave. Now, R.C.H. Lenski, talking about the household of God, he says, this is where God dwells with his gracious presence, where everything must be as God wants it to be, and not as various foolish men may wish to have things. This is not Timothy's own house, nor the house of the church members. It belongs to God, the household of God. And if we understand that, I think there'd be a lot more humility amongst the average church leadership team, and the average church in the United States, we would have some humility knowing it's not our house to mess with. It's the household of God. We must do things God's way, right? So there's that on household. But that's not all that's said here in the text, because coming back to 1 Timothy 3, verse 15, it says, which is the church of the living God. The household of God is the church of the living God. You know that church is ecclesia. You're talking about a called out assembly. two radical things to say about the church. Number one, it assembles. Number two, it does it regularly. You're a radical now if you believe that. You're a radical since the pandemic if you believe that the way that you do church is you actually meet and not just have a Zoom call, right? Or a Facebook stream or something of that nature. I'll be radical. Because the scriptures say to be radical. They tell us in the book of Hebrews that we are to assemble ourselves together, to not neglect that as a matter of some is, right? We're not supposed to do that. I was taught from the time I was a kid from just about everybody that that verse meant you had to go to church on Sunday and actually show up, right? And then the pandemic comes along and suddenly that verse doesn't mean what I always thought it meant before. And we all just gotta fall over backwards and do whatever the government says about it. We follow one king. There's no king but Christ. And so we follow him in this regard. We assemble, we do it, and we do it regularly. Why? Because he's a living God. is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And we dare not mess with Him. He's a lot more to be feared than anyone with a mandate. Because He's given a mandate. And so that's, that's, it's an assembly. And my mind's simple. It works on these simple frames of, lines of thinking, I guess. But there it is. It's the church, the, the, the called-out assembly of the living God. Praise God for the church. That's not all that the church is, it's not just a household, it's not just an assembly. Here is really the kicker in verse 15. A pillar and buttress of the truth. A pillar and buttress of the truth, the third characteristic, it supports the truth. In Greek times, Greco-Roman times, you look at the architecture, you've got these beautiful, ornate pillars that hold the roofs, these colonnades. But you also have the foundation, the buttress. This is the foundation and pillar that's holding up what? The truth. So, a couple of questions just for your consideration. If you were looking at the average American Bible Belt church, just from the outside, just observing what they do, what would you conclude churches are about by observation in most cases? Pardon me? Numbers, right? Numbers. Anything else? Entertainment. Buildings. Money. Nickels and noses. We got numbers and nickels, right? Pardon? Programs. Programs are a big deal. If you go on Facebook, you know, if you go on Facebook, they have the Azle Residence page. And every so often, somebody will post a question. It's a right question, but a wrong angle to it. The question is, I'm looking for a church. Now, if they just stop there, it'd be no problem. But usually, I'm looking for a church with fill in the blank. And it's never, I don't, I've been here now close to three years, I've never seen anyone post on Azle Residence page, I'm looking for a church that preaches the word of God. It's always, I'm looking for a church that has a great youth program. I'm looking for a church that does ministry to the community. You name it, that will show up. But very, I mean, I don't think I've ever seen it. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe somebody has. But I haven't seen it, where they say, I'm looking for a church that's holding fast to the word of God, that is seeking to be the pillar and foundation for the church. So, it can be about a lot of different things. A lot of times, it's like a country club. we got a membership, but we all are each other's friends, and we don't ever push each other too much, get in each other's business too much, and we sure have a good time, our music's really good, we talk about some religious stuff here and there, but man, we're just really, we're about doing all these other things. But the church really must be about the truth, and so, what does this say about the teaching ministry of the church? What place According to verse 15, does the teaching ministry of the church have, or what place should it have? It's major. I mean, that's an understatement, right? If it's supposed to be the pillar and foundation of the truth, what you should look for, if you ever leave this church because you have to move out of the area, or something happens in your life and you have to go, when you go to the next place, I tell you, even before you get there, you better look for a church that's seeking to be the pillar and foundation of the truth. Because there's a lot of other ones out there that are about a hundred different things. It needs to be primarily about that in the church. And if it's supposed to be that way for the church, by the way, shouldn't it be that way for us as individuals? I mean, if the church is really gonna be the pillar and foundation of the truth, what it means is, is that all of us who are part of it are really consumed with that. and consumed with reading the Word of God, memorizing the Word of God, preaching, teaching the Word of God. It will only really be that way if all of us together are like that. It's good to have a pastor that's about that, but you'll know in a hurry whether or not the people are, too. And so, yeah, there's all that. Calvin said this. He said, accordingly, in reference to men, The church maintains the truth. Because by preaching, the church proclaims it. Because she keeps it pure and entire. Because she transmits it to posterity. We're preaching this. We're not just preaching to ourselves. In the context of the church, you're preaching to future generations. My granddaughter is here, right? And so you're preaching to posterity. And if the instruction of the gospel be not proclaimed, if there are no godly ministers who by their preaching rescue truth from darkness and forgetfulness, instantly falsehoods, errors, impostures, superstitions, and every kind of corruption will reign. In short, silence in the church is the banishment and crushing of the truth. You can't be silent about it. There are people that will say, oh yeah, there's pastors that will say, I'm a Calvinist, I just don't preach it. That's a good way to kill that doctrine within your church and to the posterity, right? They're not hearing it. So preach the word of God. Preach it whether or not they like it, right? Preach the truth as it stands and let the word do the work. And so the last thing I'll say about this, it's the church that's the pillar and foundation of the truth and it's not the seminary. It's not the seminary. Right now it's backwards. Right now it's backwards. In the seminary, they're teaching all these men how to pastor, but they're neglecting some of these very basic things we're talking about right now. Right? And so they come out from the seminary, they go out into the churches, and you get the distinct impression that the pillar and the ground of the truth is the seminary. when really it ought to be the church of the living God. The church of the living God. The pastors, the leadership, the elders in that church ought to be putting it forward, teaching their men, like we're trying to do here, striving to do that, and let this place primarily be the place where the truth is being taught. And we not just assume that we're gonna hand it off to an academic. Because these academics like to play around with stuff. That's why we have all this stuff that's going on right now in so many different churches. So, let the church be the pillar and foundation of the truth. Well, let's close in prayer. Next, well, I do want to say this about next week. Verse 16. Verse 16 is one of those verses that Jonathan Edwards called the excellencies of Christ. We're gonna be talking about the excellencies of Christ in verse 16. Some people think it might have been even a hymn that they used to sing. Or it was at least like a creed that they believed about who Jesus is. So I'm really excited about next week. Let's close in prayer. Lord, thank you that you have reminded us tonight that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Lord, help us not to move off of that. Help us to be a household, help us to be a called-out assembly, but help us to be the pillar and the ground of truth. Thank you that the Apostle Paul reminded Timothy about that. We need to be reminded as well. Lord, help us to know that that's how we behave in the household of God. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.