Title: Life in God's Household
Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:14-15
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, it is always a blessed day when our church is able to install a new pastor, and that is our blessing this morning as we call Mike Ratten as a pastor here at Harvest Bible Church. As I considered the right text to preach today, it occurred to me that the Lord has already predetermined our text by what we see very next in our study of First Timothy, which is First Timothy three fifteen, and it becomes all the more fitting when we consider that Pastor Mike has dedicated the better part of the last 50 years of his life to the service of the church in some form or another. And so it begs the question.
Why would any man give his life to serve and shepherd the church? It's not for fame. Mike isn't famous, maybe here, but not anywhere else. It's not for riches.
Mike is certainly not rich. It's not for success. Mike has experienced setbacks in ministry.
No, the call to serve the church is a different call than with other things. It is a heavenly call, not an earthly one. It is spiritual, not fleshly.
It is God focused and not man centered. What draws any Christian to selflessly serve the church is the understanding and apprehension of three things, what it is, what it does and who it belongs to. And rightly understood that the church is the assembly of the redeemed, purchased and possessed by the God of creation, appointed to carry forward the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when this glorious reality is grasped, it causes God's servants to utter the words of Isaiah, here I am, Lord, send me. And so the church is not a social organization. It is not merely a nonprofit entity.
It's not a political machine. It's not just the building. It's not a religious cult.
It's not a holy huddle or a program for moral self-improvement. Rather, our text this morning tells us that the church is the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. So how do we understand these things? How do we find our place in it? And how do we stir our affections for both the people of God and for God himself? And so it is my hope to look into that today.
And so if you haven't already turned there, please turn to First Timothy chapter three in your copy of scripture. As we have heard about in the book of Acts, the apostle Paul spent several years ministering in Ephesus and Acts 20 records the tearful departure from that Ephesian church as well as her elders. However, even though he was gone, the Ephesian church was far from forgotten.
His young disciple Timothy was left in his place to shepherd the church as pastor. And upon hearing that the church was in need of guidance, Paul fires off a letter to help encourage and instruct them. And Paul reminds Timothy in chapter one, verse three of his letter that he was called to remain there in order that he may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines.
There was a serious problem of matters of doctrine at stake. And then we see in chapter two, there were matters of public worship and prayer and even instructions on the role of the women in the church. In chapter three, Paul addresses the officers of the church, the elders and the deacons.
And then in the coming chapters, he's going to deal with the issues of false doctrine, personal discipline, public order of worship, the treatment of widows in the church, the working relationships, money and contentment, as well as generosity. He's going to cover a wide range of topics pertaining to the local assembly, the local church. Yet when we consider all that Paul has to say about the church, we find that he summarizes the heart behind the letter here in chapter three, verses 14 and 15.
Look with me. First Timothy three, 14 and 15. Again, summarizing his work here, he says, I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long.
But in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. One thing becomes very apparent from this letter, as well as many other places in Paul's letters, is he has this ardent love for the church and a desire to be with them. His desire is almost palpable.
As he's writing the letter, he's thinking of his dear friend Timothy, who he longs to see. But he's also thinking about the ministry there in Ephesus. Again, a good church.
His desire, his hope, he says, is that he'll be able, he says, to come to you before long. I don't want to be where I am. I want to be where you are.
I want to come back to you. There's a desire to dwell with the people of God. See, he wasn't ministering out of a joyless obligation or sheer duty.
Rather, the sentiment here is that which is shared to what he tells the Romans in Romans 1.11 of that letter. He says, for I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you that you may be established. I want to be with you.
He's drawn to the church. He's drawn to the gathering of the saints. To him, as Charles Spurgeon has said, the church is the dearest place on earth.
Dwelling together in unity with God's people. But again, Paul does have a job to do. He does have work.
There are issues to address in the church. Not as many as there were, for example, in Corinth, but still enough to warrant a letter here. And at the heart of it all, there was one prevailing concern.
How church members are conducting themselves. It's a matter for them. It's a matter for us.
He says in verse 15, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. The Greek word that's used here by Paul is anastrepho. There's several uses of this word, but in the context here, he's referring to a pattern of one's life.
It's how you live, how you conduct yourself. We understand the idea of that, you know, how you interact with people, how you carry yourself, how you speak, how you act, your courtesies, your kindnesses, the way that you live your life in front of other people. And obviously we're talking about the church, so how you live your life before God, but that's your Christian conduct.
How are we to conduct ourselves as believers? In 2 Corinthians 1.12, Paul emphasized the importance of conducting ourselves, he says, in holiness and godly sincerity. In holiness and godly sincerity. Hebrews 13.18 invites the church to, he says, pray for us so that we are sure that we have a good conscience desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.
Peter exhorted the church to conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay here on earth. He's referring to the fear of the Lord. To fear the Lord.
Philippians 1.27 says to conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Colossians 4.5, conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders making the most of the opportunity. This is just a small handful of texts here, but we're to conduct ourselves wisely, faithfully, fearfully, honorably, sincerely.
Again, all of these refer to holy conduct, not just within the church, but with the way that we live our lives outside the church as well. But Paul here in verse 15 is specifically addressing Christian conduct within the household of God. It's one thing to live your life as a Christian outside of the body of Christ in the world, and certainly we must, but there is a mandate for us to conduct ourselves in a godly way with one another.
How do we deal with one another? We are no doubt to deal with one another in love, in unity, in grace, in kindness, in forbearance, in patience, in gentleness, in service. And the Bible, the New Testament is loaded with verses that speak to those realities, the one another's of Scripture. I think if you were, last time I remember checking the number of this, there are 34 or something like that, 34 one another kinds of phrases in the New Testament.
I don't know, I don't remember the exact number, but it's something in that vicinity. We are called to deal with one another, to bear with one another, to love one another in all godliness. That's our Christian conduct.
But I would submit to you that the what, the what is not nearly as important as the why. In other words, what we do is only secondary to why we do it. Because if our motivations are wrong, then our actions will invariably become hypocritical or selfish.
Frankly, I believe there are three key truths found in this verse here, this morning's verse, that will give us the nature of ministry of the church and also inform and even motivate our Christian conduct. I think the realities here are going to drive us forward toward faithfulness to our calling as believers. And so for the time that we have remaining this morning, I want to look at these three realities that will guide and direct our thinking and our living, particularly within the local church.
And so number one, we're going to go right now. One, two, three, three realities here. The first one has to do with what I'm calling the makeup of the church, the makeup of the church.
Paul addresses Christian conduct within the confines, he says, of the household of God, the household of God. He uses this Greek word oikos, oikos, which refers to a person's dwelling place, but also their family. Just to give some background, ancient households would often consist of multiple connected buildings.
So it wasn't just your house. A lot of times if you had a family estate, there were multiple buildings that could be connected. And those buildings would house your immediate family, your spouse and your kids.
But it could also house your in-laws, your extended family, as well as any servants or staff that you had. I mean, an ancient household could be a very grand and involved thing. But again, even in the context here, he's not specifically talking about the physical house.
He's rather talking about the family, the family, all who are surrounding you that you regard as yours. In fact, God's people are often collectively seen as the household, his household in Scripture. In Hebrews 3, 6, we are told that Christ, Christ, who is the faithful owner over his household, he gives us cause for hope and confidence.
Hebrews 10, 21, Christ is seen as the great high priest over, he says, over the house of God. Elsewhere, 1 Peter 2, 5 says of the church, you believers, you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And so we see here we are his household, his family.
But the question is, well, how do we become so? I don't remember being born into such a family, at least in terms of my earthly recollection. How do we become part of God's family? The answer is through adoption. Adoption.
See, before salvation, all of us were strangers of God. But more than that, worse than that, Romans 5, 10 says that before Christ, before salvation, we're actually enemies of God. Every single one of us were God's enemies.
We were objects of God's wrath because of sin. The Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So all of us were dead in our trespasses and sins.
Let me just give you an analogy or an imagery here. Imagine being a vagrant who breaks into the king's palace and vandalizes the whole place, breaking all the windows, smashing all the furniture, abusing his children, dishonoring his throne room. How would you expect him to respond to you? Well, he would respond with swift and definitive judgment.
And yet the Bible teaches that's all of us. Spiritual vagrants, moral anarchists, again, enemies of God. But at salvation, the Bible teaches us that we were forgiven of all of our trespasses, all of our sins.
Forgiven of sins, saved from God's judgment, regenerated to new life. He gives a new heart and a new spirit into every single believer. More than that, we're justified before God.
We're declared righteous. We're pardoned by God legally in his own courtroom. But the Bible also teaches that in addition to forgiveness of sins, regeneration, justification, in addition to all of that, the Bible also says that he adopts us as children.
Romans 8, 15, wherever before, we possessed only a spirit of slavery leading to fear. That's what unregenerate life is. It's spiritual slavery to sin and fear.
But he says, in Christ, we have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we look to God the Father and we cry out, Abba, Father. We go from enemies of the throne, strangers, aliens, those, the objects of his wrath and hatred. He goes, we go from enemies of God to now adopted, beloved, blessed children.
I can't even imagine such a thing. It's as if the judge in a courtroom sees a mass murderer come in and forgives him and then brings him home with him and says, you're going to be a son of mine. I'm going to make you new.
That's all of us. Adoption is a remarkable doctrine. See, the world is full of spiritual orphans who have no home.
It's very easy to look on the world with this disdain and say, oh, these are rotten, awful people. Well, yes, and such were some of you, right? The Bible teaches us that. But we're not to look on the world simply because of the sin and the shame, but we're to look on them with a sense of pity as well, because God looked on us with pity.
Spiritual orphans who have no home, they live their life, as Titus 3.3 says, as foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending their lives in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. That's the world. But that was also us.
That used to be us. But then Titus 3.4, when the kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, He saved us. At some point in your life, God took pity and in His kindness, He grabbed you out of darkness, out of death, out of degeneracy, and saved you and adopted you as His own.
In adopting us as His own, He brings us into His home. He brings us into His family. He seats us at His table and feeds us and clothes us and puts a impenetrable roof over our heads and loves us and He treats us as sons and daughters.
That's why Paul says in Ephesians 2.19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. He was talking to Jews and Gentiles. He says all of the household of God, you now belong to God.
You're His family. He loves you. You belong here.
And so the church is the family of God, comprised of adopted children who've been redeemed and rescued and loved and cared for by God. Let me ask you the question, is that how you view the church? Do you see the bride of Christ? Do you see the church as family? After all, the Bible tells us that God is our Father and we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Just a point of application, when you quarrel with each other, when you have problems with each other, you're not just taking issue with people at church.
You're taking issue with your eternal family members, brothers and sisters who the Lord has redeemed. And so when we talk about church unity, we have to figure out how to be unified because we're going to be stuck together for eternity. But in eternity, that will actually be a good thing.
But we have to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. It's not always easy, brothers and sisters, but we must do so. Again, this reality changes our thinking.
You're my family. We love each other. In fact, there is no other earthly entity or institution that produces this spiritual family that we have in the Lord.
I can join a club, I can join a team, I can go to my job if I have a secular job, and you go anywhere else. There's no other institution, organization, gathering of any kind that is spiritual family like this. This is utterly unique.
But more than that, the household of God is such that it is ordered. It is ordered. Yes, we are family, but remember, this is God's house, not ours.
And God determines how He wants things to run in His family. And remember, Paul is speaking specifically to the gathered assembly of the redeemed. He's specifically speaking to the saints in Ephesus, but it's application is to every church everywhere.
But here specifically, in terms of the context of the letter, when he's talking to an assembly of believers, he's not talking about the church universal. He's talking about a local church, individual assemblies. Well, how do we know this? Again, apply this to Harvest Bible Church, because this specific household, oikos of God, is expressed locally.
We're saved and redeemed and gathered universally. You meet a Christian in another country, they're your brother or sister in Christ, you're in the same family of God. But the way that we see and interact with each other and live our lives and carry out Christian conduct is here.
This is the assembly of the redeemed. This is the church of the living God. This is the household of God.
Well, how do we know that's what Paul's talking about? Well, because here in his letter there are identifiable, qualified elders and deacons. We have nothing to say to pastors and elders and deacons of other congregations. We love them, obviously, but their ministry has nothing to do with this assembly.
We're concerned with what happens in this assembly, and that's what Paul's talking about. Elders and deacons. There's also a commitment to sound doctrine, the doctrine of this church.
There's instructions for corporate worship and prayer in chapter 2. That affects us directly. Even elements of the public worship service in chapter 4 verse 13. He talks about the way that we engage with the Bible.
We read the Bible, we exhort with the Bible, we teach the Bible. Again, that's a local congregation. Church discipline of sinning elders in chapter 5 verses 19 to 22.
Care for widows. Again, another evidence. This is not talking about the church universal, because you can't care for widows in every church universal, but we can care for widows and orphans here.
All of these markers point up to the fact that we're talking about the local gathering of the household of God. All of these elements reflect the distinct makeup of the household of God. Why is this important? Because it teaches us that we're not permitted to run the church any which way we want.
Now, you could start a company, you could build a parachurch ministry, you could launch a non-profit, you can do any of those endeavors, and you're basically free to do whatever you want, to run it any which way you want. But the local church has house rules, so to speak. God is very specific about how He wants certain elements of our assembly to work, to function.
We're called to submit to how Christ works in and through His church. After all, Jesus says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus exerts ownership.
He exerts authority over this assembly, and we're called to submit to that authority. And so the makeup of the church is that of a family household. Family, emphasis on family, but also even just the way that our family operates and runs, dictated and commanded by the Lord Himself.
And so we are the household of God. Secondly, the number two key reality here in this verse that guides and directs our understanding of the body of Christ is to consider this. The master of the church.
The master of the church. After calling our assembly the household of God, Paul further elaborates that it is the church of the living God. The church of the living God.
This is the second time that Paul refers to the church. The Greek word here in this letter is ecclesia. Ecclesia refers to a gathered assembly or a congregation of the saints.
But our very nature as a family of God, there is something very special about Christians who assemble. You can't do this by yourself, and you can't really do this even watching online. There's something about gathering together in person, together flesh and blood with one another.
There's something special about this assembly. We're meant to be together in the same place assembling to worship God. This is more than a holy hangout.
This is more than a small group. This is the corporate body of Christ. But Paul elaborates a little bit further here.
He says it is the church, the ecclesia, the church of the living God. The living God. This is actually an oft-repeated theme in the Old Testament, that God is the living God over and against the dead gods of paganism.
Even when Paul is writing in this post-Greco-Roman age here, where there were a pantheon of Greek gods and Roman deities and things like that. They're all dead deities, but Paul emphasizes the living God. But even far back as the Old Testament here, before the Israelites crossed the Jordan River to enter the promised land, Joshua told them specifically.
He says, by this you shall know that the living God is among you, that he will assuredly dispossess before you the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite. Joshua 3.10. Why does he list off all of those cultures? Because all those cultures and all those peoples had gods. They had dead gods that were nothing.
But Joshua extols the power of the living God. And one of the ways that the living God is going to exert his authority is by overrunning those false peoples, their belief systems, and driving them out. Another example, even before slaying Goliath, David confronted the Israelite soldiers that were terrified of the Philistines.
And he says to them in 1 Samuel 17.26, he says, for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God? You're so afraid of this massive giant. You're so afraid of all these armies around you. You're shaking in your boots.
Even your king won't stand up. But David, this little shepherd boy with a sling and a couple of stones, why was he so confident? It wasn't in his own abilities. He understood that the living God was working on their side.
So often God's people tremble and fear the powers of the world. It's very easy to look at the state, the government, other leaders, other armies, other movements, and to tremble with fear and to worry about what they're going to do. And yes, they can rage against the church.
They can rage against the people of God. But you need to remember, beloved, that we are not the church of some dead deity or some long gone past hero. We are the church of the living God, who is all powerful, all wise, completely able to do anything and everything that He wants to do.
We are not to doubt the plan and provision of God. So oftentimes when we do such things and we're afraid, when we're worried, when we doubt, we're forgetting that we belong to the living God, the same living God that delivered the Israelites through the Red Sea. The living God who defeated Israel's enemies.
The living God who quenched the spiritual thirst of David in Psalm 42. The living God who, as Jeremiah 10.10 declares, is the true God and the everlasting King whose wrath shakes the earth and erases against the nations. He is the living God who grants eternal life, revives the soul, and raises the dead.
As Daniel 6.26 says, He is the living God and enduring forever, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and His dominion will be forever. Such a powerful theme in the Old Testament scriptures, but carried forward into the new because even when Peter ascertained the identity of Jesus Christ, Jesus said, who do you say that I am? And what did Peter declare in Matthew 16.16? He says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's who you are, Lord.
You are one. You belong with the living Almighty God. And so yet as we minister, we recognize that we do not do so on our own strength.
None of us does anything in our own abilities and power and strength. We don't own this church. We don't build it.
We can't even sustain it. We don't protect it. We're not the defender of the church.
The elders are not the defenders of this church. It doesn't matter what governor, ruler, king, president, movement, army, nation. It doesn't matter what anybody opposes.
We are upheld and sustained by the love, grace, and power of the living God. Remember that next time an entity, a government, a leader opposes this church. We experienced that in 2020.
Every church did. The tyranny of unrighteous leaders trying to shut the church down. But ultimately, it's the Lord, the living God who sustains and defends us.
He is the master of the church. And to this Paul says in chapter 4 verse 10, for it is for this that we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God who is our Savior. Paul says that's why I work.
Paul doesn't even cite the people of God as the reason why he works. He's not doing it for pride, prestige, money. He's not even doing it because he loves God's people even though he does.
He's doing so because he's fixed his hope on the living God. We get ourselves all turned around sometimes because we're focusing too far down. We're either looking at our shoes, feeling bad for ourselves.
We're looking at other people either being jealous or discontented or at war with other people. But the truth is we need to be fixing our hope vertically looking at the living God. To minister with hearts that are aflame for the living God.
To keep our eyes up as Colossians 3 says. And so we see that the makeup of this church is the household of God. Our master is the living God.
And then finally number three, the mission of the church. The church has a function, a purpose. We don't create that function or purpose.
We don't just make it up and we don't even have a members meeting to vote on what we're going to do. We have a mission already given to us and it is multifaceted. Yes, we are called to make disciples of all nations, Matthew 28.
Yes, we're called Acts 1-8 to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. Yes, Mark 16-15, we are called to preach the gospel to every creature. Yes, but there is a more fundamental truth that undergirds all of this.
A foundational reality that undergirds the mission of this church. And it is this, that the church of Jesus Christ is the pillar and support of the truth. It's interesting in the Old Testament we are presented with the description of Solomon's temple.
It was a grand and ornate beautiful structure that was built and dedicated to the worship of the Lord. At the entrance to Solomon's temple, and you'll find this in, it's actually both in 1 Kings and 2 Kings, but the entrance to the temple there were two huge pillars about 27 feet high and massive around. These two pillars had names.
They were called Jachin and Boaz. Jachin means he establishes, Boaz means in his strength. So God establishes in his strength the two pillars of the temple of God.
And they served as reminders of all who would enter in that it was built and established by God himself. 1 Timothy 3-15, Paul uses two synonyms for the function of the church. He calls them the pillar and support of the truth.
The pillar and support of the truth. This word pillar is stylos in the Greek, refers to a column that would hold up the roof. But the columns in ancient temples, even in the Greco-Roman temples, they didn't just support the roof, they also stood as fixtures to demonstrate the grandeur of this temple, this structure.
You could oftentimes see the Parthenon, for example, you can see it from miles away and it's designated by these massive pillars. It's a substantial declaration when you see large pillars of any structure. And so there's the pillar, but there's also the support here.
And the Greek word here is hedreoma, which is referring to a basis or a foundation. John Stott speaking about the church's function, he describes both things. That which holds up and supports and makes glorious, but also that is the firm and the foundation and the basis of something.
And so he connects this back to our mission to support the truth. He says that the church's responsibility is to hold firm the truth and hold high the truth. We are the pillar and support of the truth.
What truth are we talking about here that we're holding firm and holding high? Well, we're talking about divine truth, God's truth, biblical truth. We're not built on opinions, we're not built on fads, we're not built on programs, we're built on truth. There's a reason this pulpit is as big as it is.
We wanted this this way because it sends a message that the core point in this church underneath the cross is the truth of the word of God. Every pulpit is a theological statement. When I walk into a church and I see a tiny little music stand, I'm not talking about a church point that can't afford a pulpit yet, but when I see, when I go in and the whole center is something else, maybe the worship band is the focal point, or something else is the focal point and there's like a little tiny stand over here for where they read a couple of verses of the Bible, it's a theological statement.
Again, this is not just optics here, what do we hold true to? What is the core, the central word of the name of our church? It's the word of God, it's the Bible. And so we are built, we are the pillar and support of the truth of the word of God. But we could even delineate a little bit further here.
There's at least three expressions of the truth that we uphold. Three expressions of the truth that this church participates in upholding. Number one, we uphold saving truth.
Saving truth. That is the message of the gospel. Paul mentions this in Ephesians 1.13. He says, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
Paul connects gospel and truth right there in that same verse. It is the job of the church, our church, every church, to receive, to proclaim, to guard, to uphold the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why do I preach the gospel every single week, either explicitly toward the end or woven in throughout the course of the scriptures, my message itself? Because the gospel is foundational.
I never assume that everybody knows and understands the gospel, even if you've heard it a hundred times. You might not be a believer and then that 99th or 100th time you hear it, it happens and you believe. But more than that, I don't just do it for evangelistic purposes.
I preach the gospel and we proclaim the gospel because we want to remember and uphold it. It's good for us to hear the message that we're charged with upholding and defending. It's good that we understand it.
It's important we understand it. It's important that you hear it spoken so you can then turn around and say the same thing to other people, that you can share this gospel and uphold it. In fact, that's our primary responsibility.
If we get busy, we can be busy doing other things, but we must never forget our stewardship to proclaim the gospel. And if we aren't doing that, we are disobedient to our charge. In 1 Corinthians 15 verses 3 and 4, Paul calls the gospel message that which is of first importance.
Paul says in chapter 2 verse 2, he says, I profess to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Does that mean Paul knew nothing else? No, Paul knew a lot of stuff. But he says all of that is meaningless if I don't have Christ and him crucified.
If I don't have the gospel, everything else is periphery. We are to support and uphold the saving truth of the gospel. Number two, we uphold the sanctifying truth.
Jesus prayed in John 17, 17, Father, he's speaking to the heavenly Father on behalf of the church. He says, Father, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.
The church stewards the doctrine of the scriptures. That which can sanctify and grow believers. How do you grow believers? You can't muscle them in.
You can't pray them in. You can't abuse them or beat them in. No, we have to exhort with sound doctrine.
We have to exhort with the word of God. So many times, even in counseling situations, and I'm going to get a little bit autobiographical here, but people will come in to my office for counseling and they want to talk about something. They email me, they'll call me, they'll text me, whatever it is.
And it's almost as if there are times when you think I have some information that you don't have. I don't have any other wisdom or knowledge on how to solve a problem, work something out. There are times when I literally just say, read the Bible.
I have nothing else to offer you but the application of God's word. It's the same resources that you have. I guess my only job is just to remind you, hey, read your Bible.
It's in here. Now, maybe you don't know where to go for that specific circumstance. Don't get me wrong.
I'm always here to help. But we think that there is some other knowledge. If I can just read this book or jump onto that program or listen to that podcast or check out that YouTuber or whatever it is that something else or someone else is going to give you what you need, it's here already.
Our job is to uphold the sanctifying truth of God's word. Churches that have sidestepped God's word to give us moralistic TED talks or lifestyle advice, they've abdicated their God-given responsibility. Why do we focus on expository preaching here at this church? It's not because it's more fun than other kinds of preaching.
It's actually harder than other kinds of preaching. Why do we do it? Because it's so important that you and I understand and can communicate the word of God, line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse, pericope by pericope, paragraph by paragraph, one book at a time. We would just live and marinate and be baptized into God's word.
That's so important to us. Paul told Timothy, 2 Timothy 4-2, preach the word. Preach the word, Timothy.
Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. It is not the pastor's advice.
It is not a ministry's curriculum or a friend's prayers that will give you the growth and the change that you need. It is the Spirit of God working through the word of God to change and to grow your heart to sanctify the people of God. That's how he does it.
It's no different for you than anyone else in the kingdom of God. We all come to Christ and are grown in Christ the same way, but we are the pillar and support even of sanctifying truth. And then number three, we uphold what I'm calling stabilizing truth.
Stabilizing truth. See, we live in a world that has been swept away by Satan, by the father of lies. But God has charged the church with the ministry of truth.
Because when a society starts to believe in lies about identity, sexuality, marriage, family, government, morality, money, religion, when they start to deny and believe lies about all those realms, chaos invariably ensues. We're seeing it even now in different realms of our society. When a nation rejects the principles of the word of God, even if they're not quote-unquote Christian, but when they reject these principles, they collapse.
But God's word addresses these timeless truths that touch all of reality. And so when the church is revered and we're listened to, society actually begins to be stabilized. Why was this country, why has this country been such a great nation? People argue about, oh, what does it mean for our nation to be great? Well, there's something about the greatness of our nation.
Well, what is it? Well, the foundation of our nation, it wasn't with the Declaration of Independence. It was all the Christians that came across the ocean and planted churches here and launched missionary movements from here. New England was the hub of the modern missions movement.
Our seminaries, our schools trained missionaries that went all around the world. We were the beacon of light, the beacon of hope because of the word of God and the people of God for centuries. And we stabilized and founded a nation, again, on these principles.
Not every single person was a Christian, but the principles undergirding us have been from the word of God. But when a church is marginalized and persecuted, society begins to become destabilized again, which is what we're seeing. But here's the thing, regardless of the situation, we are still called to be the pillar and support of the truth.
And the key component to a church's ability to stand for truth is the preaching and teaching ministry of the pastorate. So important. As the family of God, again, we are called to be his household, his oikos.
But interestingly, pastors are referred to in several places as God's stewards, literally house managers, oikonomos from oikos. We are called the church of the living God, but pastors are called ministers of the church in Colossians 125. Furthermore, elders are charged in 1st Timothy 3.5 with taking care of the church of God.
We're called to be pillars in support of the truth, yet pastors must be preachers of the truth. 1st Timothy 2.7. We must be diligent to present ourselves approved to God as workmen who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. 2nd Timothy 2.15. And so when a church calls a pastor, it is to take this blessing and this responsibility to shepherd the flock.
And that's what a pastor does. They must shepherd the flock through love, teaching, correcting, praying, counseling, and serving. And so that is our charge today, to call a man of God to shepherd the church of God for the worship and service of God alone.
And that is our great joy today.