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You may turn in your Bibles to 
1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. Our focus 
this evening will be on verses 14 to 16, but I want to read 
beginning in verse 1. This is a faithful saying. If 
a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, 
the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, 
hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not 
greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous. 
One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission 
with all reverence. For if a man does not know how 
to rule his own house, how will he take care of the Church of 
God? Not a novice, lest, being puffed up with pride, he fall 
into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must 
have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall 
into reproach in the snare of the devil. Likewise, deacons 
must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy 
for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested. 
then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. Likewise, 
their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful 
in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of 
one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For 
those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves 
a good standing. and great boldness in the faith 
which is in Christ Jesus. 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. Amen. Let us pray. Father, thank 
you for your word and for this epistle to Timothy. for the instruction 
it affords to the Church of Jesus Christ. We pray that you'd help 
us as a local body to be well-ordered, to be obedient to Scripture. 
Give us grace, Father, to seek those things which are written 
for us, for our admonition, for our encouragement and our instruction. Give us grace to resist to temptations, 
to worldliness, to pragmatism, or anything that would take us 
from our chief desire and our chief pursuit here. Grant us 
help and strength and the power of your Spirit, and may He even 
guide us now and illumine our hearts and minds as we study 
Holy Scripture. And we pray through Christ our 
Lord. Amen. Well, as I said, we're going 
to look at verses 14 to 16 this afternoon or this evening, and 
what the Apostle does here is he gives us two things in verses 
14 to 16. He highlights the identity of 
the Church, and then he indicates the confession of the Church. 
The identity of the Church he specifies for us in very clear 
language in verses 14 and 15, and then he gives us what the 
Church confesses in verse 16. What we have And the New King 
James says, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. 
The NASB is probably better here. It says, by common confession, 
great is the mystery of godliness. The ESV, though I ripped on it 
this morning, for its lack of including verse 47, the ESV says, 
great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness. That's 
what's in view. It is the common confession of 
the churches of Christ that is here spelled out, which indicates 
to us that early on in the history of the church, the church confessed 
a body of doctrine. It wasn't as if they were ignorant. 
It wasn't as if they didn't have a rallying point. It wasn't as 
if they didn't have a theological conviction. The church has had 
a conviction and the church has confessed that. And we see that 
it centers in on the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Verse 16 serves as a great hinge to highlight the things or the 
reasons for what precedes, but also what follows in the remainder 
in chapters 4, 5, and 6. here in First Timothy. So we'll 
look at these two broad categories this evening. First, the identity 
of the church. Secondly, the confession of the 
church. Notice verses 14 and 15. There are three particulars I 
want us to see. the Apostle's plan for ministry. Notice in verse 14, these things 
I write to you, everything that has preceded and obviously everything 
that follows. The instructions, the letter 
that he has written to Timothy he has written for a very specific 
purpose. These things I write to you though 
I hope to come to you shortly. Paul had a great affection for 
this church in Ephesus. Remember it was Paul the Apostle 
and his companions that went in to Ephesus in Acts chapter 
19. It was a city given over to idolatry. In fact it was the location, 
it was the seat of the cult for Diana. In fact the confession 
at the city at the time was great is Diana of the Ephesians. Notice how the Apostle here says 
Great is the mystery of godliness. Probably a dig at what the city 
of Ephesus at one point held to. But in Acts 19, the apostle 
goes there, he preaches the gospel and people get saved. People 
start to turn from their useless idols. They start to turn from 
Diana to the living and true God. So much so that the people 
that manufactured these idols, there was a trade, a union of 
men. that were banded together to 
produce these idols for the city's consumption. And they realized 
that if this Paul keeps preaching Jesus and people stop worshipping 
Diana, well then we're going to be out. Because nobody's going 
to buy our little trinkets in order to put them on their mantles 
or put them in their closets or put them in their places of 
worship so that they can confess great is Diana of the Ephesians 
and bow down to her. It was through the proclamation 
of the truth of the gospel that Paul and his companions effectively 
put an idol business out of business according to Acts 19. Well it 
was that church that the Apostle said in Acts 20 that for from 
within your own numbers men will rise up. savage wolves not sparing 
the flock. It is the Ephesian elders that 
he's addressing in Acts chapter 20 and of course in 1st Timothy 
chapter 1.3 Paul tells Timothy he stations him here in Ephesus 
so that he may refute the false teachers. In 1st Timothy 1.3 
as I urged you when I went into Macedonia remain in Ephesus that 
you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine So the 
Apostle had an affinity, he had an affection for this particular 
local church and it says that I hope to come to you shortly. At this particular juncture, 
at this particular instance, Paul has been released from his 
first imprisonment and he is moving about the empire and his 
desire is to go to Ephesus and then he wants to assist Timothy. 
So the Apostle's plan for ministry, notice secondly, the Apostle's 
purpose for Timothy. Verse 15, he says in verse 14, 
these things I write to you, though I hope to come to you 
shortly. But if I am delayed, the Apostle did not know, he 
had no crystal ball, he wasn't able to roll the dice to make 
sure that he'd go to Ephesus. He knew he was at the mercy and 
the hand of a gracious God. He says, but if I am delayed, 
I write. so that you may know how you 
ought to conduct yourself in the house of God." And then he 
goes on to identify it, which we'll look at in just a moment. 
But note his purpose for Timothy. I'm going to spend a little time 
here because this is important. Very often today what we find 
within the professing Church of Jesus Christ is this prevailing 
attitude that we don't do things necessarily because God commands 
it. We don't do things necessarily 
because it is written, but rather we do things because it works. 
Because we like to do it. Because it brings an emotional 
high. It brings an experience. It brings 
something that we are itching for. So it's important for us 
to understand the language that the Apostle Paul uses here with 
reference to his purpose for Timothy in verse 15. But if I 
am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct 
yourself in the house of God. The things that he has written 
up to this point certainly includes chapters 2 and 3. The necessity 
of corporate prayer. Chapter 2, verse 1. He says, 
I write these things so that you may be a praying church. 
The body of Christ must be a prayerful people. Secondly, there is conduct addressed 
concerning women. They are supposed to adorn themselves 
modestly when it comes to corporate worship. They're not to assume 
positions of leadership. Women are excluded from the office 
of elder and deacon. It's not because God is mean. 
It's not because He's a chauvinist. It's not because He's weird. 
It's because that's the way He's determined for it to be. And 
we as His people need to obey. We, to our peril, substitute 
women for men in leadership positions because God has commanded otherwise. And then he deals with qualified 
leadership in chapter 3. He deals with elders. He deals 
with deacons. So the apostle says to Timothy, 
I write these things so that you may know how to do these 
things within the context of the local church. You need to 
be a praying people. You need to make sure that gender 
distinction is respected and that male leadership is conspicuous 
within the context of the local church. And it mustn't just be 
any old male whatsoever. It's not just a breathing man 
that you need to have. He must fit this category, he 
must fit these qualifications spelled out in detail in chapter 
3 verses 1 to 7 with reference to eldership and with reference 
to deacons in chapter 3 verses 8 to 13. I write these things, 
he says, so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself 
in the house of God. The second thing we need to understand 
is that this was not optional for Timothy. This was not up 
in the air for Timothy. Notice that Paul does not write 
and say, Timothy, you're a creative fellow. You have a good mind. You have a good heart. You're 
an innovator. You connect well with people. 
You know how to motivate people. You know how to bring experience 
to people. Paul does not care one whit about 
those things. What Timothy is supposed to do 
is obey. What Timothy is supposed to do 
is conduct that is mandated and specified and required by the 
living and true God. The Church of the Lord Jesus 
Christ is regulated by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We call 
this, at least in our tradition, the regulative principle of worship. Our Confession of Faith says 
it this way. The acceptable way of worshiping 
the true God is instituted by Himself. It's not a stretch to 
apply that doctrine in our study of 1st Timothy 3.15, because 
the Apostle says, I want you to know how you ought to conduct 
yourself in the house of God. It's not optional, it's not a 
suggestion, it's not one possible way to do it among many, you 
just figure out which way is best for you, Timothy. Timothy 
would never think