House of God

1st Timothy chapter 3, a well-known verse, verse number 14. Now of course Paul is writing to Timothy in Ephesians, Ephesus, city of Ephesus and here's what he says 1st Timothy 3 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, notice, in the house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now I'm thinking of that last expression house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.

I believe the understanding there, great is the mystery that produces godliness. Here it is, God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Now what I have upon my heart is just it seems like today we had a lot of practical ministry and very very good and just some words of incentive, why we should try to do all of these things that we've been encouraged to do today and yes my brother is just finished, there's there's a tremendous incentive when we look off into the future and what lies out before us but I'm thinking of something that we have right now.

Now we spent the last four days, we had a week of Bible studies here between Stout and Cedar Falls Waterloo Conference and we've been on the local assembly and my mind is centered around the local assembly and it's this expression that we have here in 1st Timothy chapter 3, it is the house of God but that's not really where my mind is, my mind is on the next expression, the church of the living God. It could easily have been the church of God, why is that little word living brought in there? Okay, the church of the living God and I think if we get a hold of that, I don't mind telling you that I I love God's assembly, I love the New Testament Church, I think it's tremendous that where I gather I am in the house of God, I am in the church of the living God. I'm not gathered to some creed of men, I'm not gathered to some some traditions that have been passed down, I have Christ, I've got the living God, that's tremendous, that's an incentive to me, that makes me want to come and worship, when that gets a hold of me, that makes me to want to really try to be transparent, that makes me want to try to work with my brothers and my sisters because I'm now getting focused upon the ultimate, I'm gathered to where the living God is.

Do we believe that? I want to challenge my young ones, I want to challenge middle-aged, I want to challenge older saints. We can get used to coming and going from meetings, can't we? Ho-hum, right? Just a door on its hinges, right? We can get used to a small assembly, so-and-so prays, oh he's boring, another full of praise, oh he's giving ministry this time, we almost can get so used to just the just the rut of routine, right? Are you with me? Let's all be honest, but do we ever stop and just consider what I'm in, what I'm a part of? We all know that lovely word church, it means ecclesia, it's made up of two words, an outcalling, and I think it's tremendous, I love looking around the the assembly, the circle, so to speak, and I love thinking, Spirit of God called that person, wasn't me. The Spirit of God called that person, it wasn't me.

That person's different than me, but for some reason the Spirit of God has drawn us together, put us in a fellowship together, it's tremendous. You see, what I'm really thinking of is this, I'm thinking of the backdrop of where Timothy is, I'm thinking of this city of Ephesus, and you know this, the city of Ephesus housed one of the seven wonders of the world, it was the temple that was built to the goddess of Diana. I mean the little local assembly, okay, I don't know how large the little assembly was here in Ephesus, I know when I go back to Acts 19, which we're gonna do in a minute, I know that when Paul came preaching the gospel, he found disciples baptized under John's baptism, and he introduces them to the Lord Jesus, and they're baptized believer of baptism, and it tells us 12, there were 12 disciples.

What a little group, but I'll tell you, very precious to God, and precious to them, and really, as the Word of God started to grow and multiply, that little group grew. But you know, there was something in that city, as I said, the great temple to Diana, and it was so massive, it literally, the little assembly was just resting hidden in the shadows of this monumental marble structure. It was tremendous, it had all kinds of gold in it, all kinds of images, it had all kinds of things structurally that just arrested the eye.

I couldn't help as I was sitting here thinking of my message, and I'm looking at these, well, they're quarter pillars, they're fake. If I went over there and kicked it, I'd probably put a hole through it. I mean, what would that be? Well, that pillar might be, what, 25 feet? This temple of Diana had a hundred and seventeen sixty foot marble pillars, a diameter of six feet.

This was the temple. People came from all over the world to see this wonder. They weren't interested in the little assembly gathered to the Lord's name in Ephesus.

No, it wasn't even on the map. It was on God's map. They were believers in that city that it was on their map, and they appreciated it, and they had a hold of something.

Where they met, they had the living God in their presence. That's what they had. And what this massive temple had was a dead idol.

What a contrast! A dead idol! The living God. You see, that's why I think that little expression comes right in here, where I am as a believer gathered to the Lord's name in a New Testament church. Yes, I'm in the house of God.

Tremendous to think of a place where God can habitate and where he can rest. It's the church, the called-out company of the living God. Now, where would you rather be? That massive structure of marble? My land, it pleased the eye, and they had developed tremendous systems and rituals, and they were very detailed and very, oh, they just consumed a person.

Tremendous to think. Where would you rather be? You ever sometimes get bored where you meet? I want you to remember, where I meet, I have the living God. He's living.

Now, let's take a minute and go back to Acts 19 for a second. I want you to read that. This is what I... Anyway, I'll get there in a second.

Sometimes my mind gets ahead of my mouth, or my mouth gets ahead of my mind, whichever comes first. We're not too sure. Acts 19, coming.

Just want to read a few verses, just to sort of get the backdrop. And there's something that we're going to read here in a minute that I find to be just so, so sad, and then we'll bring it back to 1 Timothy chapter 3. Look what we read in verse Acts 19. This is, of course, Paul with the spear brought here, and he discovers these believers, as I said.

Verse number 8, just kind of the start of the work, and he went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. And then there's some opposition. Verse 10, and this continued by the space of two years.

And then there's more opposition. Verse number 17, and this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus, and fear fell on them all in the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Now, the devil is not going to sit back and just let this go unhindered.

So then we get pressures mounting. Verse 20, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. Verse number 23, and the same time there arose no small stir about that way, that way referring to Christianity, what Paul was preaching for a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith which made silver shrines.

He actually made little tiny images of the temple. How many people here have been to New York City? And you come home with a little plastic thing of the Empire State Building. Okay, that's the idea.

And they were taking a little, these visitors that would come from all over the world, they want to take back a little piece of this temple. And here was this little tiny thing that they made and sold in the marketplace. And then we have down to verse number 27.

He starts to explain to his other people, so that not only this our craft is in danger, he's threatened by the gospel, to beset it, not but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth. And when they heard these things, these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried out saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion.

And then they catch a hold of a number of people. Look at verse number 34. But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours, cried out, great is Diana of the Ephesians.

And when the towns clerk had appeased the people, he said, he met of Ephesus. Here comes what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of Ephesians is a worshiper of the great goddess Diana. And of the image which fell down from Jupiter.

Isn't that sad? You stand back and you think of all of the activity of this city, OK? You think of all of the money that was poured into this massive structure. They estimate that the pillar, remember I told you there was 117 of them, 60 feet in the air it went, solid marble and its base. They estimate that each one of these weighed a hundred and fifty ton of marble.

That's a lot of weight to move. That's a lot of effort. That's a lot of time.

This, this temple goes way back to like 550 BC when it was first constructed. And through time there were renovations and rebuilding done on it. And by the time Paul gets to the city of Ephesus, it had just finished over 200 years of remodeling.

Think of the effort. Think of the energy. Think of what these people were willing to do to stand up and defend what? A dead idol.

They will actually stand and chant for two hours. Great is Diana. What for? It's dead.

You've got nothing people. Can you, can you get where I'm at? The energy they poured into it, the money they poured into it, the willingness to defend it. What is it? Well, one day somebody was walking through a field way back in 500 and something BC.

And all of a sudden they discovered this little tiny image on the ground and he picked it up. It's Diana. She fell from Jupiter.

Jupiter's youth. That was their top God in all of their myriad of gods that they had. Jupiter has blessed us with an image.

And he ran into the city and he started to spread this story that look, it's come from Jupiter. Someone said, let's build a temple. Oh, it's got to be big.

It's got to be magnificent. This is, we are going to be the temple keepers. That's what you really, really what you get.

The town clerk says the city of Ephesus, no one around the world as the temple garter, they guard at the image. Too bad someone didn't pipe up and say it's dead. Oh man, you would have been shot.

You would have been run out of the city. He would have been stoned. Wait a second.

No, they say, no, no. We're going to pour our entire life into this thing. Wait a second, sir.

It's dead. It's dead. It will never come alive.

It doesn't matter what you spend on it. It doesn't matter how many restless nights you sit up trying to figure out how to build and design a building. That's so magnificent.

It's dead. You say you're getting worked up. Well, I was worked up long ago.

What I'm a part of is not dead. I have the living God. That's who I'm gathered to.

And with that knowledge, with God's help, you know what I want to do? I want to pour my all into it. I want to invest everything that I have, everything I can possibly muster up from this little heart and this little mind. I want to invest it in.

To that little local assembly. The church of the living God. Does that incent you, dear believer? Maybe you, as we heard Bible studies.

Yes, yes, I agree. Bible studies can be desperately boring because unfortunately, many of us are not investing time into preparing for it. And I'm part of the problem, right? How many of us? Brothers, come on.

How many of us, right from the youngest to the oldest, if you're in God's assembly, how many of us go and leave our home exercised to pray? Don't give me a frozen block. As Robert McPhee used to say, don't reach into your deep freeze and pull out the same prayer you prayed last week and bring it into this week's Bible study. And I'm supposed to sit there and go, amen.

And that's tremendous. Give me something fresh. Put your all into it.

I am amazed as I sit sometimes and I wonder as I look at the Bible study, get getting ready to start and you know what I see Christians doing. Where is it? Trying to find it. Not a wonder you're not getting anything out of it, dear child of God.

Put your all into it when it comes to preaching the gospel, as we heard, sewing. I don't care how small your number is. Put your all into it.

Why? It's connected to the living God. It's sad. It just shocks me to think of the amount of people.

And I don't say this in a critical sense. I say this with sadness in my heart. The amount of people in Christendom that will pour out their heart.

For something that's not of God. People that are not even saved. Sad to see individuals that will put a name tag on their chest and they will go door to door, not even saved.

Pouring two years of their life. This is what I will do for two years. I don't care if people laugh at me.

I will do this. They're no different. Then the great is the temple of Diana.

And that's sad. You know, I think the word of God captures it in first Corinthians 12. You know, the word of God brings it for us there.

He says, don't forget you were Gentiles. Led away onto dumb idols. Aren't you thankful that the spirit of God called you? Rescued you? Stopped you in your mad, crazy career of just, I think this is right.

And meanwhile, it's just nothing but a dead idol. Oh, may we value God's assembly. May we treasure it.

May we value as time has gone. I could have read it. It's very interesting in the context of this chapter three, verse nine.

Do you know what the Bible is called there? The mystery of the faith. You think of this temple in Ephesus. Think of the man-made system of theology that they developed for years just to bolster up this dead image.

Not only has God brought me to the place where he is, but you know what he's given me? He's given me doctrine from outside of the realm of mankind. So unique. Do I, do I put my all into it? Do I pour my waking hours into it to try to get a hold of, yes, this is what's important.

Nothing will change your life like just a little bit more time with the book. It'll make you value your savior and it'll help you to appreciate the assembly where you are because we are gathered to the living God.