THIS is one of the Epistles known as Pastoral Epistles. There are four of them, two to Timothy, one to Titus and one to Philemon. They were written by Paul under the inspiration of the Spirit to these ministers as a directory as to how they were to rule the house of God. They are, therefore, the inspired directory to the end of time as to how the house of God should be ruled. Paul by this time had left the city of Ephesus and had gone to Macedonia, after the tumult caused by Demetrius, the silversmith, but he left Timothy at Ephesus that he “might charge some that they teach no other doctrine.” Paul knew from his past experience that emissaries of Satan would appear with their false teaching in an endeavour to undo all the beneficial effects of the gospel. He sends, therefore, this epistle to Timothy to exhort him how he ought to behave himself in the house of God.
In considering this passage of God’s Word we shall notice:
I. The description given of the Church: “The house of God, etc.”
II. The place assigned to her: “The pillar and ground of the truth.”
III. The purpose for which the exhortation was given: “That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself, etc.”
I. The description given of the Church: “The house of God.”
1. What are we to understand by “the Church of the living God.”
Some might be inclined to say we all understand what is meant by the “Church.” In my opinion there are very few things which have been so much confused and misunderstood in these days as what is really meant by the “Church of God.” Some have taken it to mean a certain denomination called by a particular name. Others, again, think that it consists of stone and lime. These erroneous ideas which prevailed in many quarters and especially in the Highlands led many astray. Many were obsessed with the idea that if they worshipped in a denomination under a certain name and in a particular building that they were in the Church of their fathers. They never seriously inquired as to whether that body held intact the Word of God and its original constitution or not but blindly followed the dictates of men. This was the case particularly when the Free Church so grievously departed from the doctrines of God’s Word and her subordinate standards by passing the Declaratory Act of 1892 into a binding law and constitution of the Church. Now the Church of God does not consist of any particular name or buildings. For instance if we take the early Christian Church they had no material buildings to meet in. They usually met in private houses or in the open field and they prospered there better than we do in our comfortable buildings. We find Paul sending greetings “to Priscilla and Aquila and to the Church which was in their house.” Not to the house but to those who were worshipping there. They were the Church. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.”
2. The word “Church” is a translation of the word “Ecclesia” which means “called out” or “separated.”
We use the word in a double sense. The visible and the invisible Church.
(1) The “visible Church” includes all who are baptised with water in the name of the Trinity.
Such are members of the visible Church and are called Christians. This is what we are to understand by the question in the Shorter Catechism. “To whom is baptism to be administered?” . . . “The infants of such as are members of the visible Church are to be baptised.” Baptism separates or distinguishes us from Jews and Mohammedans, etc. At the same time to be members of the visible Church will not save our souls. There is no such thing revealed in the Word of God as baptismal regeneration. We are called Christians and we enjoy the outward privileges of the Church but alas! how true that the majority are utter strangers to the saving operations of the Spirit.
(2) We use the word in the sense of the “invisible church.”
The word in this sense takes in the whole election for whom Christ died. They were “called out” or “separated” in the past eternity and they are called out in the day of their effectual calling. “They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.” This separation ought to be manifested by them in a life and conversation becoming the gospel. The cause of Christ to-day is low and despised but may we not ascribe the reason at least to a large extent to the loose and inconsistent conduct of professing men and women and no less to ministers.
The invisible church is not confined to one generation. They were in every age down from the days of Adam. They are not of one age, there are babes and sucklings, young men and old. They are not in one country or of one colour. There are black, white and yellow among them. “He gathered them out of the lands from north, south, east and west.” They were not of the same social standing. Among them were kings and beggars. Neither had they the same moral character while in their natural state. Some lived moral lives while others of them were thieves and murderers. That was God’s purpose in building His house in the world that they should be gathered from all parts of the earth. Free Presbyterians have been often accused of holding that there are no godly people in any denomination but their own. The charge is false and should be treated with the contempt it deserves. At the same time we endeavour to hold and hope we shall hold by the infallibility and inerrancy of God’s Word and a distinct testimony as a Church.
3. The Church is here spoken of as a house. “The house of God.” How may the Church be compared to a house?
(1) A house does not grow of itself.
It is not like a tree which one would plant. A house must be built by some one. “Every house is builded by some man, but he who built all things is God” (Heb. iii. 4). It is God who builds this house. Whatever efforts men may make unless He builds, all will be useless. “Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it” (Ps. cxxvii. 1).
(2) When a house is to be built, plans and specifications are drawn out and the builder must go according to these plans.
If he does not keep to these his work is condemned and he is liable to a penalty. Now God, whose house the Church is, gave a plan and specification as to how His house is to be built and ruled and if builders go not according to these their work will be condemned and they themselves punished. As He said to Moses: “See that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount” (Heb. viii. 5). There are many in these days of blasphemy and rebuke, who are professed builders, but who have cast aside God’s plan which He has given in His Word and who build according to their own carnal fancies. But when the Chief Inspector will come to examine their work He will condemn it; however, beautiful these erections may appear in their own eyes.
(3) A house must have a foundation and the larger the house the stronger the foundation must be for if the foundation gives way the whole building will collapse.
We may notice that there was another house which God built or rather created and that was Adam and all the human race dwelt in him as their first covenant head. The covenant was made with Adam not only for himself but for his posterity. The foundation on which that house rested was man’s obedience but when man sinned that foundation gave way and the building fell and all the occupants died—”As in Adam all die.”
Now God purposed to build another house, the one spoken of here which is the whole election of grace. But what was to be the foundation of this great magnificent building “the house of God.” Every stone to be laid on this foundation was so heavy, “a people laden with iniquity,” that it “would break the axle of the universe” as Mr. Lachlan Mackenzie said. But God the Father laid help on One who was mighty—His own Eternal Son. “Behold,” He says, “I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation.” (Isa. xxviii. 16). On this Rock He is to build His Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Unless we build for eternity on this the only foundation our house will fall and great shall be the fall thereof.
(4) In building a house a site must be chosen.
Now the foundation of the first house, Adam, was laid on the site of God’s law and the foundation of the second, “the house of the living God,” was laid on the very same site but the foundation was different. The first foundation was man’s obedience, the second is the obedience of a Divine Person—God in our nature. He was made under the law, obeyed all its precepts, exalted it and made it honourable. There can be no salvation for a guilty sinner apart from the claims of law and justice being satisfied.
(5) A foundation laid and no building erected on it would be meaningless, but God laid this foundation in Zion for the very purpose of building His house on it.
But whence were the stones to be got? We notice in the case of Zerubbabel in building the second temple that he took all the stones from the ruins of the first. He did not take all the stones in that ruin but selected those whom he thought fit. Now when God purposed to build His house He chose the stones from the ruined race of Adam. He did not choose all men but “Out of His mere good pleasure from all eternity He elected some unto everlasting life.” They were buried in the ruined heap like others, under the wrath of God, “dead in trespasses and sins,” but the Holy Spirit in a day of His power awakened them to a sense of their lost condition, and enabled them to accept of Christ as their only foundation for eternity. He made them “lively stones built up a spiritual house” (I. Peter ii. 5). However base and unsightly they may appear in their own eyes and in the eyes of the world yet they are fair and beautiful in the sight of the Builder. He will carve and polish them and make them fit for the temple above where there will be “neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard” (I. Kings vi. 7).
All the stones on the foundation have not the same prominence. There are pinnings in the inner wall and larger stones in the outer but each occupies the place assigned to it by the Builder. Such is the case with the house of God, each stone large or small has its place and function according to God’s purpose. “For the body is not one member but many.”
(6) We may notice that many attempts have been made and are still being made by enemies to destroy both the foundation and the building, but “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
The nations, kings and rulers may take counsel together against the Lord and His Anointed, but He that sits in heaven shall laugh at them and will go on building His Church as if they were not there. He laid the foundation of the house and He shall also finish it. “He shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying: Grace, grace unto it.” All the living stones that day will acknowledge that their whole salvation from beginning to end was of His free and sovereign grace; and they will ascribe to Him the glory.
II. The place assigned to the Church—she is “the pillar and ground of the truth.” What are we to understand by her being “the pillar, etc.?”
1. God uses weak instruments to uphold and defend His truth.
While the salvation of sinners and the prosperity of the cause of Christ in the world depend entirely on Him and not on the strength or efforts of any man, yet God saw proper to use weak instruments to uphold and defend His truth and cause in the world. He often took men who were very insignificant in the eyes of the great men of the world, “God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty” (I. Cor. i. 2-6). This was very clearly seen in the beginning of the history of the Christian Church. Christ did not choose as His disciples great men such as kings, Rabbis and lawyers, etc., but He took a few fishermen and sent them forth as lambs among wolves to set up His Church among the nations. “Go,” He said, “and teach all nations” and “lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world.” They were to teach them to observe whatsoever He commanded them. They were to be “the pillar and ground of the truth.” They had no social standing among men and all the powers, Church and State were against them and though they could do nothing in their own strength yet because Christ, in the power of His Spirit, went with them they turned the world upside down. Their weakness only proved that the excellency of the power was of God and not of man. This was also seen in the history of the Free Presbyterian Church. During the controversy which took place at the time of the passing of the Declaratory Act of 1892 into law there were many who boasted that should that Act be passed they would suffer the loss of their manses and salaries rather than remain under it. But when the day of trial came like the children of Ephraim “they turned back in the day of battle” (Ps. lxxviii. 9), God did not honour these men to be “the pillar and ground of the truth” in upholding and defending it when it was fallen in the street. He took two humble, gracious men, Revs. Donald Macfarlane and Donald Macdonald who never aspired to be leaders, nor did they sound their trumpets as to what they would do but when they saw the interests of God’s truth, which was dearer to them than life, at stake, they fearlessly stepped forward and raised a testimony on its behalf in face of much persecution and the loss of all their earthly comforts but “they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods.” They became “the pillar and ground of the truth” in this land. Now, many are of the opinion that unless the cause of Christ has great men as leaders and plenty of money that it cannot prosper. Well, the Free Presbyterian Church could not boast of any of these things. There were many who prophesied that because we had no leaders nor money we could not exist more than two years but these proved to be false prophets for we are now nearly forty-three years in existence and there are no signs of us dying out.
2. She is “the pillar and ground of the truth” because she is “exhorted to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
A pillar is for the purpose of supporting a thing. Now the Church of the living God is the pillar to uphold the truth and to earnestly contend for it in the world. She is not the truth, nor does the authority of Scripture depend on her as the Confession of Faith very clearly points out—”The Authority of Holy Scripture dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or Church but wholly upon God the Author thereof and, therefore, it is to be received because it is the Word of God.” She is to receive it wholly from Genesis to Revelation. She is not to sit and judge which part is to be accepted and to be refused. Many in this generation sit in judgment upon God’s Word to cut and carve it according to their own fancies. But what does the Author say: “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God, shall take away his part out of the book of life” (Rev. xxii. 18).
3. She is to be “the pillar and ground of the truth” in declaring the whole counsel of God to a perishing world.
She is to “say to the righteous that it shall be well with him, and to the wicked that it shall be ill with him.” It is sad to think that in our own day as in the days of Isaiah many who profess to be leaders of the people, cause them to err, and destroy the way of their paths. They cry: “peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jer. vi. 14). But it is the duty of the Church of God to declare the whole Word of God to fallen sinners whether they will hear or whether they will forbear. It is also her duty to do her utmost to have the Scriptures sent to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
4. She is to be “the pillar, etc.,” in transmitting the truth pure and entire to coming generations.
The oracles of God were committed to the Jewish Church and she carefully preserved them, for thousands of years. “His testimony and His law in Israel He did place, and charged their fathers it to show to their succeeding race” (Ps. lxxviii. 5). These oracles have now been committed to the Church under the gospel and woe betide her if she fails in this duty of transmitting them to future generations. We should, therefore, as a Church, however small and despised, seek in the strength of grace to hand down this inestimable blessing to our children which our fathers purchased for us with their blood.
5. As a “pillar” in upholding the truth the Church had recourse to framing a Confession of Faith in which she stated clearly what she believed to be the doctrines of God’s Word.
This was done by the godly Divines in framing the Westminster Confession of Faith. That precious book is founded on God’s Word and it also bears witness against prevailing errors and serves as a mutual bond between her faithful members. Much fault has been found with our Confession of Faith in these days. Many hold that its doctrines are antiquated and out of date in this so-called enlightened age, but what was truth 300 years ago is truth still. The Bible was completed about 2000 years ago but it is as true and valuable and unchangeable now as when written—”The word of the Lord endureth for ever.”
It is by contending faithfully even unto death for these doctrines that she can claim to be “the pillar and ground of the truth.” It is by adhering to them that we as a Church may expect His blessing, and may we have grace and wisdom to do so whatever it may cost us.
III. The purpose for which the exhortation was given “That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself.” I intend but to make a few remarks on this head.
The exhortation was in the first place addressed to Timothy as a servant in the house of God; but it is applicable, especially to ministers of the gospel, to the end of time. We see in the 4th chapter and last verse the Apostle giving a double exhortation to Timothy—“Take heed,” he says, “unto thyself, and unto the doctrine.”
(1) He was to take heed unto himself which we take to mean, that he was to take heed to his walk and conversation among the people.
There is no higher or more responsible office under the sun than the office of the ministry. “We are ambassadors for Christ” says Paul. We ought, therefore, as professing ambassadors to adorn our office with dignity in speech and behaviour. If our speech and conduct contradict our doctrine who will give us credit to be what we profess. It was the unbecoming conduct of professors that brought the cause of Christ so low in our day.
(2) He was to “take heed unto the doctrine.”
We see in II. Tim. iv. 2, what these doctrines were—“Preach the Word.” He was to preach the doctrines contained in God’s Word. He was to preach Christ crucified as the only Saviour for guilty, perishing sinners. But he was also to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort.” This was to be done “with all longsuffering and doctrine.” Sinners are to be reproved and rebuked but it must be done in all longsuffering and doctrine. There ought to be a certain dignity and solemnity in rebuking sin. I have found in my own experience that if I rebuked sin in a temper, as alas one is too ready to do, instead of the rebuke having a salutary effect on the person reproved it only stirred up a bad spirit. It ought to be done lovingly and in pity to the offender. I heard of two gracious men who quarrelled and one said to the other: “Let us stop; for, I find the devil in you stirring up the devil in me.”
The great and momentous question for us all is have we been called effectually to be members of the Church of the living God who shall be eternally with Him in glory? If not we shall perish forever.