The Pillar and Ground of the truth
I Tim. 3:15 - But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
The church is what holds up all of the truth for all the world to see.
Give a definition of the church - local church, or local churches.
1. The most important thing outside of salvation is the truth about the local church.
2. I Tim. 3:15 - The church is the pillar and ground of the truth.
3. Church truth is so important that we will spend three or four lectures on the fallacies of the universal church.
Definitions:
1. Pillar - A column which holds up a building, (the building is the truth).
Ground - Upon which the pillar rests. So the church is that which holds up the truth to the world. (Set light on a candlestick - Matt. 5:15, Rev. 1:20.)
The foundation of the church is Jesus Christ. There is no other foundation than Christ.
4. The church is a container (bucket) which holds the truth. But if the bucket has a hole in it, it will leak water. If the church doesn't teach all the truth then the church has a hole in the bucket and therefore many truths have been compromised.
There is no such thing as an universal church, visible or invisible. Universal visible church theory started by what would become the Roman Catholic Church way back in the early 300’s. It is the belief that the “church” is world wide - a leg being in one country, an arm in another country, the head in another country, and so forth.
The universal invisible church theory started during the reformation by John Calvin, Martin Luther, and other reformers. They were all Roman Catholic to begin with, but left that organization because of corruption. They couldn’t retain the universal visible theory of the church, so they started their own - the universal, invisible church theory. This theory teaches that the world wide “church” is invisible instead of visible. All of the church is located in all of the world.
Many churches today are in competition with other churches, which is not what God wants.
Some churches have gyms, saunas, weight rooms, ceramic rooms, photography rooms, flower rooms, you name it rooms. The thought is to have the entire life of the members of the church centered around the church building. The problem is that the lives should be centered around Christ, and this Christ centered life will automatically be centered around the body of Christ, which is the local church.
Note the following misuse of words:
Why is a package sent by land carrier called a shipment, while a package sent by ship is called cargo?
Why do we call them a-part-ments when they are attached to one another?
Why are builders afraid to have a 13th floor, but book publishers aren’t afraid to have a Chapter 11?
Why do we call it a TV set when we only get one?
Why isn’t phonetics spelled the way it sounds?
The above things are very interesting and show the use of words that we accept that is wrong. The use of the word “church” has come to mean almost anything but a local, visible assembly. People continue their misuse of the English language by saying that a church (which is always a local, visible assembly) is also a universal, invisible assembly.
It is interesting that Paul writes these words to Timothy. Paul writes other words about the local church to churches.
See Ephesians 2:11-22 - These verses speak about the foundation of the church (which is Jesus Christ) bring salvation before He puts anybody into the church.
Ephesians 3 speaks about the mystery of the church, which was not revealed in ages past.
Ephesians 4 speaks about how God has provided everything we need in His church, not in any other organization or any other place.