How Are Such Men Made

The point: Be responsible before God never to lower that standard for any pragmatic reasons whatsoever.

Martin quotes Bridges' 'Christian Ministry' to argue that a small number of chosen, qualified pastors is preferable to a multitude of unqualified teachers, reinforcing the need to uphold high standards.

For when we see the biblical standard of the ministry, we may be tempted to say, well, boy, if we held to that standard, we'd empty half our churches of preachers. Well, we well might do that. We might do that. But I would say, as one old servant of God said, who is quoted in Bridges Christian Ministry, that if none were to be admitted into holy orders, that is, to the ministry, except those who are possessed of every necessary qualification, there could not possibly be procured a sufficient number of pastors for the supply of our churches.

7:42 - 8:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Raise every son as though he were going to have to meet every one of these standards for ministry.

He illustrates how the ability to rule one's house is often 'caught more than taught,' describing men who struggle because they never saw proper headship or discipline modeled in their own homes.

Generally speaking the people who govern their homes according to the scriptures that is the husband takes his headship in love the wife takes her subjection as unto Christ. Together they implement firm communication of the rod of correction restructure and order to the home. Generally speaking people who have that kind of household absorb it up along the way but this matter of how to order one's house is generally more caught than taught

15:20 - 16:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Live in the light of your responsibility to generations to come.

Martin recounts his mother teaching him to scrub floors properly, emphasizing 'a job worth doing is worth doing right.' He applies this to the exposition of God's Word, urging thoroughness and honesty.

the future me but She kept working at it. Kept working at it. Kept scrubbing a floor and just sloshing around, not really getting into the corners. And she'd drop whatever she was doing with a household of kids in the morning.

21:58 - 22:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The church's influence is crucial, as a man's views of God, worship, and truth are absorbed from the church climate. Martin argues that this influence should be sustained…

He contrasts the artificial atmosphere of a seminary, where young men might become arrogant, with the balancing influence of the total context of the church, arguing for sustained church involvement during training.

But there is this absorption of a climate and an atmosphere and it's my conviction and I believe it's my conviction that this influence of the church should not be suspended during the most crucial years of a man's development, namely the years of his formal training for the ministry. What so often happens is a fellow comes up to college age and he has some encouragement to pursue the ministry and he's completely uprooted out of the church, plunked down in the artificial atmosphere of a seminary with his peers, all just as cops sure they know everything about anything and laughing, hacking in ...

24:22 - 25:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The church's influence is crucial, as a man's views of God, worship, and truth are absorbed from the church climate. Martin argues that this influence should be sustained…

Martin describes Spurgeon's College as a model where students were deeply involved in the Metropolitan Tabernacle's life, demonstrating how church involvement augmented their spiritual vigor and passion for souls during formal training.

that men with a little more sense would just speak very whisperingly about and they don't have the balancing influence of the total context of the church. My own conviction that the influence of the church should be sustained most intimately during those formative years when a man is absorbing his more formal training, whether it's at seminary, Bible school or whatever else. Now Spurgeon has some interesting comments on this. Some of you may know the history of Spurgeon's college is just a typical college now but when it began it had a unique thing unheard of in that day and the college was a ...

25:06 - 25:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin discusses the role of institutional education in providing concentrated learning in areas like original languages, systematic theology, and homiletics, which are…

He describes the old practice of young men living in a parsonage with a pastor for individual, full-orbed seminary training, contrasting it with the complexities of modern life to justify institutional training.

and it's here that young men who aspire to the office of an overseer should receive in concentrated doses a distillation of the learning with piety of more mature servants of Christ. It is here men should receive what is generally impractical to hope they can receive in the local church. In olden days a young man who aspired to the ministry would come as a single man and live in the parsonage with a man he would take a couple hours a day teach him Greek teach him Hebrew give him reading and church history he would carry on a relatively full-orbed seminary program on an individual basis

27:17 - 28:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: he believed that without a personal experience of sin and grace Christian theology was unparalleled unintelligible and unreal

Martin shares an extended anecdote about Rabbi Duncan, a professor at the Free College in Edinburgh, to illustrate how deep theological learning combined with fervent personal experience of sin and grace profoundly impacted his students.

that are not practical to give which it is not practical to give in the context of the local church but given by men who firmly believe these other requirements who exemplify them and who emphasize them. Let me give an illustration that I hope will help make clear what I'm driving at. There was a very interesting article about a Scotsman whose name was Rabbi Duncan and he was a they called him Rabbi because he was so acquainted with Semitic languages and learning and he taught in so wonderfully used of God the Free College in Edinburgh which we were privileged to visit

33:37 - 34:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: he believed that without a personal experience of sin and grace Christian theology was unparalleled unintelligible and unreal

He recounts Rabbi Duncan's emotional reaction while teaching on Christ's suffering, where he became so engrossed that he scattered snuff, demonstrating a professor who 'theologized with fresh and fervid feeling' and experienced the truth he taught.

the former students Dr. Moody Stewart recollects this incident which most vividly illustrates this principle this is what he said Professor Duncan was reading a part of Isaiah which dealt with the sufferings of the Messiah with his senior class when his mind became engrossed with the subject and bent nearly his snuff box in one hand a huge pinch of snuff occupying the fingers of the other so it's possible for a now get the picture pacing up and down

36:38 - 37:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Mr. Duncan said I will now teach you that a preacher must put feeling into his message that's an abomination of the art of preaching you stay with the message until it puts feeling into you then it flows out

Another student's testimony about Rabbi Duncan highlights how his life served as the 'best evidence that there is such a thing as living personal godliness,' showing the power of a teacher's character.

you stay with the message until it puts feeling into you then it flows out may I weary you with one more illustration from his life one student says there were many of us fresh from discussions in philosophy which had engrossed and fascinated us some groping their way through difficulties in the evidence of christianity difficulties in systematic theology while others perhaps were passing through deep spiritual struggles as to whether or not they themselves were even converted but whatever was the character of our difficulties when we looked at the rabbi we all felt and were forced

39:51 - 40:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Mr. Duncan said I will now teach you that a preacher must put feeling into his message that's an abomination of the art of preaching you stay with the message until it puts feeling into you then it flows out

Martin notes that historically, pivotal theological chairs were often filled by proven, experienced pastors in the prime of their ministry, not just academics, emphasizing the need for practical, anointed teachers.

a little history that back in the day when the lands of America and Great Britain were blessed with a great number of powerful preachers it was not uncommon that the pivotal and strategic chairs of theology and instruction were given to be taken out of their churches right at the prime of their ministry they didn't take young men who simply got a doctor's degree in theology they were given who'd been in school for the past ten years in the unnatural sterile world of academic attainment they took men who may have been in school for ten years but then had been there on the firing line

42:49 - 43:33 Read in full sermon