The Bride of Christ: The House of God
There’s something unnerving about preaching to preachers; and part of that is, I think there’s a bit of us that always wants to tell people something—or we’re hoping that, when we preach, we’re going to tell people something they don’t know; and I don’t ever get that feeling when I’m preaching to preachers; but I’m thankful that there are texts in the Bible like Second Peter chapter 1, where he says, “I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.”
So, I’m not going to tell you anything new: I’m going to remind you of things that you already know, and I trust that the Lord will help us to delight in these things afresh.
First Timothy, chapter 3.
I’m going to read verses 14 through 16; and this will be our text for both hours this morning. I’m reading out of the New King James.
“These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but, if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the 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. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.”
Well, let’s pray and ask God’s help and blessing, as we look into His Word now.
Father in heaven, we thank You for this time to be together; and we pray, Father, that this will be a season of refreshment to some of Your servants who may be weary.
We pray, Father, that it will be a time in which the bonds between our churches are strengthened, a time in which we are renewed to face afresh the work that we have been called to do; and, Father, we pray that we would do that work with a sense of privilege and of joy.
We ask these things in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Now, there are certain facts that, depending upon their nature, call forth for different responses or, in some cases, no response at all.
If I stood up here today and I gave the assertion that the second world war ended in 1945, I wouldn’t say to you, “and, men, what should we do about that?”
Well, you—”Uhh, nothing?”
We just say it’s a fact; it’s a reality of history.
If I told you that, if you’re over fifty, you ought to have a prostate exam regularly, and you say, “Yeah, I know,” you may or may not do anything about that; but, if we were standing by a campfire, and I said, “Hey, Steve, your sleeve’s on fire,” you probably would do something about that relatively quickly.
You understand the difference in category between, a statement of fact, one that hinges on duty, and the other that calls forth for immediate action.
Well, in the text in Fist Timothy chapter 3 we’re given three essential facts about the church. We’re told it’s the house of God. We’re told it’s the church of the living God. It’s the pillar and ground of the truth.
Now, into what category do those statements fall?
Is it World War II ended in 1945?
Is it, you’re over fifty: you oughta have a prostate exam?
Or is it something a little bit more like, your sleeve’s on fire or your car is rolling down a hill or is that your house that those guys are carrying a TV out of?—and you just say, “Well, in light of those realities, in light of those facts, I ought to do something about it”?
Well, what I want to do in this hour is to open up the reality that the church is God’s house, and what that means; and then strive to give a little bit of how we ought to respond to it.
I’ll touch briefly upon the phrase, the church of the living God; but then, in the second hour, we’ll look at the reality that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth.
This is what God says the church is; and how are we to respond? How ought that to affect us in regard to our life and ministry? How ought it to affect the people of God? What urgency ought it to bring? What duty ought to flow from it?
So, let’s consider, first of all—we’ll just call it the doctrine of God’s house explained and then, secondly, the doctrine of God’s house applied.
So, first of all, the doctrine of God’s house explained.
Paul’s describing, in these couple of chapters especially (chapter 2 and chapter 3), something of the life and gathering of the church, something of the prayer life of the church, something about gender roles in the church and leadership in the church, offices of the church, qualifications for the church; and he’s saying, now (as we know, we’ve probably all expounded this text at one time or another), there’s things I wanted to bring—recognize I may not be able to do it, so I wanted to write these things down so that your behavior would be shaped by the the things I have laid out; and it ought to be shaped by it because of what the church is.
The church is, first of all, the house of God; and I want to bring out at least four things by way of explanation (and I cleverly have four P’s, you know, so I have some alliteration here). I want to consider parallelism, presence, property, and then, people.
What does it mean that the church is God’s house?
Well, the first thing I think we all would recognize is that there’s parallelism here. The Bible is meant to be read as a whole. All sixty-six books of the Bible tell one story. The Bible doesn’t begin (for a lot of people, I think their thinking about theology and Christian life begins with Matthew)—the Bible doesn’t begin with Matthew.
It begins with Genesis; and it doesn’t begin with the coming of Christ into the world and the spread of the Gospel, but creation and fall and the promise of redemption; and, because the New Testament doesn’t hang out there in isolation—it’s not a new thing, but rather, Part II or the continuing story of the Old Testament, the New Testament writers quote or allude to the Old Testament Scriptures hundreds and hundreds of times)—and among the allusions in the New Testament regarding church life, this parallelism between something that was called the house of God in the Old Testament.
So, what I’m saying here, that, when Paul wrote to Timothy and said, “The church is the house of God,” he wasn’t thinking that that’s a new phrase that Paul made up: he recognized that this is somewhere in the Bible and that Paul’s drawing a connection or parallel between what the Old Testament said about the house of God and what the church is.
So, the first time we encounter the term, house of God (many of you will know it), it’s in the Old Testament book of Genesis, chapter 28, where there is the record of Jacob’s dream involving the ladder, and the angels ascending and descending; and we read in Genesis 28:16 and 17,
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it”; and he was afraid; and he said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; and this is the gate of heaven.”
All right, so, he says the Lord is in this place; this is an awesome place; and this place is the house of God.
Now, when we think about a house, we generally think about four walls and windows and doors. There’s no structure here: He wasn’t in a house and then said, “This house is the house of God.” He’s out there in the wilderness. The house here in this case is where the Person was; and, because God’s Person was there, he was able to say, “This is God’s house.”
“The Lord is in this place: this is none other than the house of God”; and, where God’s presence was, there’s a degree of fear; there’s a degree of awe; there’s reverence; and he recognizes, where it is that I meet with God—that is God’s house.
So, that’s something of the idea.
The second major reference to God’s house is the old tabernacle. The term house of God, or house of the Lord, is used repeatedly to describe the tabernacle, that tent which was constructed according to divine design, and that functioned according to revealed will. We read, for instance, in Judges 20 and verse 18, “Then the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God.”
There was a place that they went to now, a place where God had pledged to meet with His people. That was called the house of God. So, they went to the tabernacle. In Exodus chapter 40 we read about the construction of the tabernacle and its relationship with the presence of God in these words.
Exodus 40, verse 33.
“…and he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar and hung up the screen of the court gate.
So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting; and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle; and Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Whenever the cloud was taken up above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys; but, if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up, for the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day and fire was above it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all of their journeyings.”
Well, what was the Lord doing? He was making a connection (wasn’t He?) between His presence and that tent. So, where God’s tent was, God’s presence was; where God’s presence was, that tent was. There was in the mind of the people, When I go to that tabernacle, I’m going where God’s presence is; therefore, I’m going to God’s house. That’s where God lives. That’s the idea; and that’s why (and we’ll get back to this text, I hope, if time permits here)….
Psalm 84, verses 1 and 2,
“How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts!”
(Your tabernacle.)
“My soul longs—yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”
Well, where was he satisfying that desire of his whole humanity? It was in that place: it was in that tent.
“Even the sparrow has found a home and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even Your altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.
Blest are those who dwell in Your house. They will still be praising You. Blest is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.”
Pilgrimage to where? Well, to going up to God’s house.
Verse 10.
“For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
Thirdly, there is a reference in the Old Testament to the temple; and this is the most oft recognition of house of God. You had that very unique situation with Jacob; you have the temporary dwelling that was mobile with the tabernacle and now the fixed dwelling of the temple, the house of God at Jerusalem.
Listen to the words of First Kings, chapter 8, verses 10 through 13.
“And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud.”
Does that sound familiar? Sounds like the dedication of the tabernacle, doesn’t it?
“For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.”
God moved in. Build a house; house is done—you move in.
The Lord moved in; and Solomon spoke.
“The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud. I have surely built You an exalted house and a place for You to dwell in forever”
—and, again, note the similarity of the presence, and the language here between tabernacle and temple. This was the place of God’s special dwelling.
Now, Paul, as an Old Testament scholar, brings forth these precious truths. He’s obviously highlighting this in the minds of God’s people when he says—of the church now—that this church where we gather together is God’s house.
I think a lot of people, when they read about the tabernacle and the temple, we think, “Cool! Wouldn’t it be cool to go to those places where the presence of God dwells?”
“You want to go to church?”
“Ah, I don’t know; there’s a ballgame on.”
Is the church lesser than the tabernacle and temple?
Listen to the language Paul uses in Ephesians chapter 2. He’s talking about the inclusion of the Gentiles in with the people of God, and the wonder of what God is doing in the breaking down of the middle wall, and all of the rest, in this broader context:
“Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building”
(building made up of people, not of stones or fabric),
“being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in Whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Dwelling place of God, tabernacle; dwelling place of God, temple; dwelling place of God, the church.
In fact the word that Paul uses, that you grow into a holy temple is the particular word, not for the temple as a whole, but for the Holy of Holies.
When you would go into God’s house, it’s like, if you went into my house, uh, and I wasn’t in the hall and I wasn’t in the living room but I was in….
I don’t really have a study in my house; I have an area where I do study. Well, let’s say for the sake of illustration that I had a study, and that’s where people meet with me.
Well, in the, in the hall you’re in my house; in the living room you’re in my house; but, if you want to go where I am, you go into the study. Well, you go into the temple, you’re in the outer court, you’re at God’s house. You go into the doors, you’re in God’s house; but there, behind the veil, that’s where God is; and what he’s saying is, that’s what the church is.
The church isn’t just the outer court. The court isn’t just entering through the door. The court’s going into God’s study. It’s going into God’s bedroom (can we say?): it’s going into that place most fully associated with His presence.
Peter does the same thing in Fist Peter chapter 2, verses 4 and 5.
“Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
So, where did the Old Testament priests offer their sacrifices? Tabernacle, temple.
Where do New Testament priests offer their sacrifices? Well, in God’s spiritual house, in the church.
So, that’s the idea of parallelism.
Secondly, is presence; and I’ve already really dealt with this.
What made where Jacob was special?
What made the tent in the wilderness different from all other tents?
What made the building in Jerusalem different from all other buildings in the world?
It was God’s presence. God was there.
Now, what happens on the day of Pentecost?
I see some parallelism here to what happens on Pentecost, what happened in the tabernacle, and what happened in the temple on moving-in day.
“When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all in one accord in one place; and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind; and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire; and one set upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
What was happening in the church? The Spirit of God was coming down upon them and there was phenomena in, that place—this little glory, this flames, or this thing that looked like tongues of fire resting, not on the building, but upon the stones that would make up this New Covenant building.
In First Corinthians, chapter 14, Paul is addressing the importance of prophecy; and he speaks about the effect of it on an unbeliever in these words (First Corinthians 14:25).
“…and thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he’ll worship God and report that God is truly among you.”
Now, God’s glory fills the earth. God’s everywhere. He’s omnipresent; but among you, when I’m in your church, God is there.
That’s the idea.
What do we read about the seven churches of Asia Minor in the Book of Revelation? Who’s walking among them?
I might give a little aside here. I understand the heart; and I understand where people are getting at, when they say stuff like, Well, I know where Jesus wouldn’t be on Sunday. He wouldn’t be in church among a bunch of religious people. He’d be out in the bars.
Well, where is Jesus on Sunday according to Revelation 2 and 3? He’s at church.
Where is Jesus on Saturday, when He was walking among—what was His habit? He was in the synagogue. He was a regular, faithful worshipper.
Again, I understand what people are saying. I get the heart. I appreciate the heart. It’s just wrong. I hope we all have a problem with that.
He walks among His people. What did He promise His gathered people as He prepared to leave the world?
Behold, I am with you always.
What did He promise them in times of distress and discipline?
Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I—God—Jehovah Jesus in the midst of them.
The language of our text here, the church which is the house of God, the church of the living God.
One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. That’s where Timothy pastors; and there’s a man named Antipater, who wrote about the wonders of the world; and he said they all paled in insignificance when he laid his eyes upon the temple of Artemis with its columns reaching into heaven.
So, if you went to Ephesus, and the tourist guide is saying, “Now, at twelve o’clock we can either go over to the temple of Artemis; or there’s a group of Christians meeting. Which one do you want to see?”
“I want to go to see the temple of Artemis!”
Well, you know what the difference was between the temple of Artemis and the temple of God that gathered together? Artemis was dead and God was alive.
Do you want to go to the church where there is a living God, the assembly of a living God? You can go to Artemis; and there is an assembly there—there is a church there that gathers regularly to gather around a dead god; or you can be in church where there’s the living God; and that’s the idea that we need to understand.
A few weeks ago my sister was in town. I’m from New York; and I live in Kentucky. So, Abe Lincoln was born in Kentucky; and you can go over to places called the Abraham Lincoln birthplace. So, you go over there; and there’s a kind of (looks like a) mausoleum that’s built around a cabin; and then it’s roped off (velvet rope).
Now, there’s a couple of little problems with it. One is, it’s not actually where Abraham Lincoln was born. He was born on that property somewhere; but his cabin is gone. Somebody built this cabin a few years later; so, there is that; but you go there; somebody says, “That’s Abe Lincoln’s house. You want to go visit Abe Lincoln’s house?”
You know what? You know who’s not there? Abe.
Well, if we say, “Let’s go to God’s house,” it’s very different. God’s church is not a museum. It’s not a memorial of a place where a great being once lived. It’s where He lives right now—not the birthplace, but His dwelling place, now.
Thirdly, property (or proprietorship, we could say).
I’ll say a little bit more about this when I get to application. Remember the language of Psalm 84? Your house, Your courts. God owned them.
Pastor Martin talked about some of that last night. When things are holy, they’re set apart, set apart from common use to God’s use. That’s what makes something holy; and what made that tabernacle or the temple so special is, it all belonged to God; and everything that went on there, when it was done right, was done according to God’s prescription.
Why do we do these sacrifices? Because God said so.
Why do we do them the way we do them? Because God said so.
Why do we gather at this time? Why do we sing these words and not those words? Why do we do all that we do?
Well, again, because of Whose house it is; and, as God’s people, and, as churches, if all of you involved to one degree or another in an ongoing work of reformation, we’re trying to make our churches look as much like what as possible?
Trinity Baptist Church? Bethlehem Baptist Church? Metropolitan Tabernacle?
We’re trying to make it look like God’s house; and, as much as men have understood and discovered and exegeted the truth, and borne the weight of our conscience, then, fine. Then we can do what they’re doing, not because they’re doing it, but because they’re doing what God says, and we’re doing what God says; but we don’t look just to the most successful churches, or the most useful or whatever it is; and, too often, today, there’s almost this Xerox mindset, when it comes to church revitalization or reformation.
Find the one out there doing it; and just do everything that they do, say everything they do, preach the series they’re preaching, and all of the rest; and then you can replicate it; but people aren’t like Xerox copies.
It doesn’t work out that way. You’re not that preacher. You don’t have his gifts. You don’t have his skills. People aren’t going to come hear you like they’re gonna come hear him. That’s not the issue. The issue is, we want to understand (I’m going to, again, say more about this in a moment) what is God saying? How is God directing it?
This is God’s house.
So, a very simple illustration—if you came to my house, I would say to you, “Make yourself at home.”
Now, please understand that comes in a context; and, if I came in the next morning, and all my pictures were down and your pictures were up, and you’d rearranged everything that my wife had carefully put into place, I might struggle with being angry at you; and you say, “Well you said, make yourself at….”
Yeah! Make yourself at home in my home!
It’s my house. It’s our house. We get to decide what goes on in God’s house. It belongs to Him. He’s the proprietor. He’s the director; and we look to Him and we look to His Word.
It’s God’s house, God’s worship, God’s Word.
Fourthly, Jesus described the temple, the old temple, as My Father’s house. Remember that, in John chapter 2? He made that whip of cords and He drove them out of the temple and He said, “My Father’s house.”
“You’ve made My Father’s house a house of merchandise.”
“Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”
Jesus was so zealous, because the people were treating the temple like it was their house; and He said, “Well, first of all, it’s My Father’s house.”
He’s bringing out there the idea, in a sense, of family. It’s My Father’s house. I’m His Son, I have a zeal for My Father. It’s My Father’s house.
One of the things Paul brings out in Ephesians 2, that I quoted, that we’re members of the household of God. Household—the idea there is not just that a man dwells there. Been a long time since I lived in a place by myself, but I have a very different sense of home, when there’s wife and kids there, when family.
My house—it’s our house. It’s where my family dwells. I own it: I bought it; I paid for it; but it’s our house.
It’s a family house, and our family gathering, the family gathering—when we gather together in God’s house, it’s not just “This is My Father’s house”; but, when I say, it’s My Father’s house it means I’m His child; and I’m part of the family that gathers together.
You get the idea? In our Father’s house, we live there together.
Psalm 42 and verse 4.
“When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me, for I used to go with the multitude. I went up with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise”—with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
“We long to see your churches full.” One of the reasons we love the church is not just that God is there, but the family’s there; and in God’s house God’s family gets together. I’m with my brothers and I am with my sisters. There are others there who have a heart like I have; and, among the many reasons why it is argued (and I believe correctly) that corporate worship is better than private worship, is due to being with other believers. It’s not the building, but it’s mingling our voices with theirs, sharing our praises with them, bearing burdens together in our Father’s house.
There are some sports stadiums. (I’m tempted to pick on one but I’ll leave it off right now.) There is a baseball team that often would have four hundred fans. Four hundred fans, and a building that was designed to house forty thousand. You can hear conversations in the stands. You’re a ball player; and you hear a guy saying, “What time is it?”
Something’s wrong with that: the game’s going on, professional athletes; but, where are the people? When we gather together, we want God’s people there.
Again, I’m not denigrating small churches; I’m just getting the idea of being with others, when it is in the house of God.
Well, that’s a little bit of the house of God described; now I want to say a few things about the house of God applied. First of all, the reality that the church is God’s house ought to affect our desire and our determination. It ought to affect our desire and our determination.
The typical professing Christian in our day is increasingly disinterested in the gatherings of God’s people on the Lord’s day; and, so, you’ll say, “I’m a Christian; but I’m not a churchman.”
That is the idea. We have individualized our faith, because we’re Americans, and we can do that; but we’ve done that to the neglect of the corporate reality of our faith, with all of it’s applications and implications.
We have a personal relationship with Jesus. I say sometimes to people, “I have a corporate relationship with Jesus. I’m part of His body. I’m part of His family. I’m part of His flock.”
You get the idea that some people think that heaven is going to be them and Jesus walking along the beach, you know, talking about the footprints, and that kind of a thing, instead of the reality that I’m going to join the throng. I’m going to be part of the myriads, I’m going to be part of the nations that are giving praise to God.
Church, if it is gone to at all, it’s gone to almost a kind of
—I know Christians, kind of like, I don’t even know why I do it. The Bible says to do it: it says not to forsake the assembly; but there’s no real idea, no felt reality, of what that place is.
Let me say, again, by way of aside, we do not so much go to church as we become church; and maybe we ought to say this to our families on Sunday morning—not Let’s go to church; Time to go to church; but Time to become church.
Let’s go! Let’s gather these stones from all these different locations around the town or around the city; and today I’m going to be part of this spiritual temple.
There’s a building in Chicago; it’s one of the, uh, newspaper buildings and one of the fascinating things they’ve done with it is, when they built it, they inquired of places all over the world that had special buildings; and, somehow or other, they got bricks from all these different buildings.
So, I don’t know if there was renovations; but there’s a section from the White House, and a little bit of Buckingham Palace, and something from France, and from all over the world. It’s all built into this building; and it makes that building so wonderful, as all these different things have come together to form this one structure.
It really stands out in a way that just uniform brick or uniform stone doesn’t.
From here and from here and from here and from here it all came together to form this special building; and you get together on the Lord’s day; and you look at this brick from over here, and this brick from over there, and this stone that was quarried out of this situation.
We baptized a, a teenager two weeks ago; and he joined the church the same day that another man joined the church. Their stories could not be more different. The young man grew up in the church. When this other man who was joining the church was the age of that man, of that young man, he had killed a man and was being sent to prison for the rest of his life.
That’s pretty different; and this guy spent the last twenty years (or more) of his life in prison, was converted in prison, had a Reformed Baptist church that ministered to him while he was in prison; and, when he was let out, he wanted to move to a city where there was a Reformed Baptist church, and joined our church together with—and again those are two different bricks. They’re both wonderful in their own way.
I love it when kids come to faith; and please don’t ever think to yourself, “Man, our church is only growing through our young people.”
Well, bless God that he’s hearing the prayers and blessing the efforts of our parents. Now, we also want to see the other being brought in and forming together this house.
Well, I’m getting a little bit off track there.
Brethren, let’s go become the house of God. This is the point I want to get: if God is there, as we come together, and, if we’re really a church, then the Bible says we’re the house of God; and that means God is there.
That’s the whole point of it; and, if God is there, as really and as truly—if not in a better way than He was in the tabernacle and at the temple, if this is God’s appointed place to meet with His people, and, if this is where the banquet of His Word is opened up week by week, if this is where His praises are sung and the praise of His people arise, if I am a priest committed to offering spiritual sacrifices, if this is where my brothers and sisters are, if this is where the family gathers around the Father’s table, then that ought to affect my desire; and I’ll never understand professing Christians who can hear that and say, “Naw, I got something I’d rather do.”
What’s better than that? What’s better for a child of God to say, “Hey, let’s go form God’s house; and, when we do that, God’s going to be there?”
Yeah, but soccer! Yeah, but baseball! Yeah, but vacation! Yeah, but—whatever it is that gives us a casual attitude toward God’s house.
I’ll just have my devotions. Well, David could have devotions when he was away from God; and it didn’t satisfy him in the way that corporate worship did.
Psalm 63.
“Oh God, You are my God. Early I will seek You. My soul thirsts for You. My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory.”
Where? “In Your house.”
There’s an experience of God that he could only have, and only did have, when he was in God’s house. Wasn’t that he wasn’t praying—talks of that (verse 6), about meditating on his bed—but he’s hungry and thirsty because he’s not in God’s house.
Other texts I could look at in that—but, again, I trust, brethren, that, when we understand, this is what we are: part of my life is, I’m a living stone.
Well, I thought of an illustration. I don’t mean to be irreverent with this; and this is just maybe helpful because of the reality of the object I want to talk about for a minute—but a lego block.
A lego block in isolation doesn’t have any purpose. It’s meant to be joined with others to make something; and, where there’s too many “Lego Christians” off by themselves, without thinking that “I am built to be joined with others. My whole purpose is to be built with others to make something. There is a design to the way I’m put together.”
Secondly, delight. This affects not only my desire but my delight. Go back to Psalm 84.
“How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. A day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
Now, how did he say that? Well, I don’t know, but you don’t get the idea of, “I was glad …How-lovely is-Your-tabernacle …I’d rather be a doorkeeper in God’s house….”
There is something of happiness. Is there not an exuding happiness in these words?
Psalm 100.
“Make a joyful shout to the Lord all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing.”
Now, when every Jew heard that, what came to their mind? Well, if I’m going to come into His presence with singing, then I’m going to have to go somewhere.
“Know the Lord is God. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates…”
(in case you couldn’t figure it out)
“…with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endures to all generations.”
I’m not going to give a tirade here today about the sharp distinction that some make at times between duty and delight. Duty is not a bad word. It seems sometimes the only four letter word that Christians don’t say anymore; but duty and delight go together.
Go to God’s house; and go there happily. It never says, “I was miserable when they said, ‘Let’s go to the house of the Lord.””
Now, again, I understand that sometimes you go and you’re tired, and all of the rest; and there’s times you’re distracted. I can remember years ago there were a couple of folks in the church fighting; and going to God’s house was tough for a few weeks, ’til they got that sorted out. You get there to preach and there’d be somebody frowning over here and frowning over there. It didn’t make it a delight; and I remember one time they were both gone on vacation, it was like, “Ohh!” I was so happy to be able to go to God’s house undistracted.
I understand that; but, again, if we think to ourselves, “Today is the day Jesus will walk among us. He’s going to be present when we gather in His name.”
“Lord Jesus Christ, be present now.”
“Today I’m going to sing His songs. Today I’m going to hear His words. Today I’m going to meet with His people”; and the response of the soul is, “What a happy place! I’m glad.”
Thirdly, reverent obedience.
I’m going to break this down into two sections, reverence and obedience.
Reverence.
I’m going to be very careful here, because, as I say some of this, some will have in your mind, “Oh, he’s talking about—this is not the blest tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; but for some of us, we do wear this out of reverence; but, if somebody doesn’t, I’m not going to make a judgment in their heart. So, please understand what I’m saying. However, tie or no tie, reverence is not a matter of indifference; and it’s not simply a matter of culture.
There are some churches—in fact many churches, who decided at some point that reverence had no place in God’s house, and, in fact, that reverence was an obstacle to evangelism; and I can only put the best face on it. I’m going to try to explain this in the sweetest way that I can—most non-judgmental way.
I think for some there is the idea, again, that for too long churches have proclaimed a transcendent God and have not enjoyed the immanence of God. They have had too much of God as King and not enough of God as Father, and God is near us, and God loves us, and God accepts us, and it is a family gathering. Therefore it should be natural, and the idea is, even casual.
The other motivation, as I mentioned, is evangelistic. The thought is that unbelievers coming out of the world should not be expected to come to our God with an understanding of His majesty. We want our churches to be open and friendly and welcoming.
I agree with all that; but that’s not the whole truth of what God says.
Let me give you Old and New Testament.
Psalm 5 and verse 7.
“But as for me, I will come into Your house…”
Now, notice. Note that there’s no contradiction between these realities.
“…I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy.”
I’ll come knowing I’m forgiven; I’m loved; I’m welcome; God’s reconciled me; He’s adopted me; He’s my Father; and then He says,
“In fear of You I will worship toward Your temple.”
“Your holy temple,” says. That’s balance.
I was just talking to a brother from church the other night. He was talking about the first time he heard a Reformed preacher; and it was Maurice Roberts, at this somewhat charismatic church in Kentucky, Southern Baptist church.
How all that came about, I don’t know; but this man in our church, simple, blue-collar worker said, “It’s the first time in my life I heard a man in awe of God. He was in awe of God.”
Brethren, there ought to be something of that in our worship that comes through. Now, does that mean that, in regard to what we’re singing and how recently it was written…?
I’m just saying this. The transcendent power of an awesome God ought to be recognizable in what we say and what we do. Now, you figure that out and you understand your own heart and your own attitude. I’ll leave that to you.
Someone else may come up here and say I’m being a chicken with that (Cluck, cluck, or whatever). I’m not trying to be; I’m really not trying to be. I’m trying to be gracious in this; and I’m trying to be as open and as understanding as I can be with this; but I am saying this is what the Bible says.
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom…”
(Hebrews 12:28)
“…which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire”; and that’s Who’s there.
That’s Who’s there. Our Father’s house—the God Whose house we go to is the God Who sends people to hell. He’s the God before Whom sinless angels veil their faces. He’s a consuming fire.
The words reverence and godly fear, again, speak of awe, casting down the eyes in the face of One Who is vastly superior. It speaks of being careful with what you do in the presence of One Who is great; and so he says, “Timothy, I’m writing these things so that you may know how you ought to behave when you go to God’s house. Don’t just do anything you want to do, because it’s God’s house.”
I give an illustration; but it gives the idea. There’s a story about Babe Ruth (baseball player, some of you who don’t know, outside of our country); and Babe Ruth was visiting England and had the opportunity to meet the King and he was told (now he’s an American—Americans—Ah, we’re all alike!), “There’s a way you talk to the king; and you say these words to him”; and they were serious.
Wherever he was in, where he met the King, he said, “Hiya, King”; and people where mortified, not just because of what was prim and proper, because, the idea is, you don’t talk to majesty that way.
You don’t talk to majesty that way; and, brethren, if the most sensitive, open-hearted soul would come in among you, would they recognize, would they put together by your prayers and preaching and how you sing together, and, yes—to some degree, yes—how you dress, that you recognize you’re in the presence of someone great?
If you would show more honor to an earthly person, if their presence among you would more alter your behavior than the reality that God is there, then something’s wrong.
Let’s consider then, finally, holy anticipation.
Some of you may have thought (and you’d be correct), as I went through the idea of the house of God in the Old Testament, that I left something out.
You say, “All right, you got Jacob (good); you got tabernacle (good); and you got temple; but there’s another house of God that you forgot, and what hath that to do with the church?
The house of God in the Old Testament spoke not only of the tabernacle and the temple, but of heaven. In fact, you find, as Solomon’s wrestling with this idea that, how can I say that this house is Your house, when the heaven and heavens cannot contain You?
Heaven is Your house and heaven is Your footstool; and that’s where Your throne is. Why should the nations say, “Where now is Your God?” Our God is in heaven and He does whatever He pleases.
I think this is the idea of Psalm 23.
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
See, there is a time David talks about, he wishes he could live in the tabernacle (Psalm 27); but He’s confident that the day is coming: I am going to dwell in God’s house—not the earthly representation of God’s house, but the eternal glory of God’s house.
Psalm 16, verse 11.
“You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Psalm 17:15.
“As for me, I will see Your face and righteousness. I will be satisfied, when I awake, in Your likeness.”
You know what the biggest problem with the Lord’s day is? The Lord’s day has a major problem. It’s Monday. It’s that it ends. Sunday becomes Monday.
You know what the big problem with our church is? We gotta say goodbye. It ends.
“That was the best Lord’s day I ever had.” Have you ever said to yourself, “I wish it could have kept on going?”
“We were so enjoying one another. There was such a sense of God’s presence. There was so much delight in worship”; but Monday came.
The time comes on the Lord’s Day that the living stones disperse; and they go into the world to face another week. The last Amen sounds; and our thoughts begin to turn away from what we heard to what must be done; and before long sometimes the courts of God and the remembrances of the power of God’s Word can begin to grow dim, until the next week comes; and we’re refreshed and we’re reminded.
The tabernacle and the temple and the church’s gatherings are a reminder that one day I’m going to be away from my labors forever; and one day I’m gonna be with God’s people forever; and one day I’m gonna be in the special presence of God forever.
In fact, we’re going to be able to see the Shepherd and follow Him wherever He goes; and we’re going to (as our brother said) forever be with the Lord.
Revelation 21:22 says of the glory of the world to come,
“I saw no temple in it.”
You’re gonna get to heaven and think, Where’s First Baptist? Where’s the Reformed Baptist, or the Reformed Presbyterian church of—? Where is it?
It’s not going to be there, because it doesn’t need to be there, because there’s no more Monday. No more Mondays! No more being taken away!
“I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple,”
because that’s the whole reality, isn’t it? It’s where they are; and the reason we go there is because it’s where He is; and, so, if He’s there, the Father’s there and the Lamb are there: well, they’re the temple.
That’s the idea. The writer of the Hebrews says, “There yet remains a Sabbath for the people of God.”
Part of that is speaking to us of glory. In that sense, there does remain a tabernacle, a temple, or a church—the gathering of God’s people in God’s house, enjoying God’s presence perfected forever; and the Lord’s day, the Lord’s house are tokens. They’re down payments. They’re sneak peeks. They’re trailers of what’s to come; and one of the things that ought to happen when we get together in the Lord’s House—I say this; and I preach all of this; and we’re all going to go back to our real ordinary churches on Sunday, with their blots and blemishes and spots and wrinkles; and we’re thinking, “I know that’s what the Bible says; and it’s going to be enough to give you a taste of There’s gotta be a better….
There is.
I tell people, sometimes; and they say, “Well, I’m not so sure about our church.” I say, “I know about a perfect church.”
“You do?”
I say, “I have to kill you to get there, though.”
They’re not so excited anymore.
There is a better church. There’s a beautiful day coming; and to know that we will be there in that house and be there on that day for something far, far more—our soul will be met, satisfied with far more than marrow and fatness that David spoke of.
We will awake in His likeness and we will find pleasures forevermore in His presence. Again, may the Lord hasten the day; and may we enjoy the previews, because that’s all we got until the day comes when the fullness arrives.
Let’s pray and ask God’s blessing.
Father, thank You for this time to be together and to be reminded of truths about Your house, about the temple of the living God; and thank You, Father, that we do not come and serve in an empty house, or look upon the remains of a dead God, but, Father, we can enjoy the presence of One Who lives forever; and, so, Father we pray that our own sense of anticipation and determination and of delight and of reverence and holy anticipation will increase in our own soul and in the souls of Your people.
We pray these things in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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