Ministry of the Word of God, Part 2

Driving home: The public and private ministry of the Word of God is comprised of the faithful proclamation, explanation and application of the contents, the God-breathed contents, of the Old and the New Testaments by biblically qualif…

Martin describes his sermon series as a 'fabric' with connected parts, justifying his review for new attendees by likening their experience to 'coming cold turkey into a series of studies'.

Sometime, and I don't know in what forum I'll do it, I'd like to just talk to you on all the struggles that a preacher has in trying to fulfill Matthew 7, 12 when he preaches. As you would that others do unto you, even so do ye also unto them, for this is the law and the prophets. And when you've prepared a message with about a three-minute introduction, and then you look out and see faces that you know were not there this morning, some who, as far as I know, have not been here for any part of this series, and you say, well, if I were them, and coming as a stranger, would I want the preacher t...

0:15 - 1:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The Word of God makes it clear that while every believer at all times is to be subject to the scriptures there are certain believers who are set apart in terms of their gift and calling and the recognition of the church …

Martin uses the phrase 'clergy-laity distinction' to jar listeners into mental alertness, acknowledging he dislikes the terminology but uses it to highlight the biblical distinction of office.

Now I don't like that terminology but in case you were starting to go to sleep on me that might jar you into mental alertness. If ever there were a distinction here it is. Greet all them that have the rule over you and all the saints. So those who have the rule in this particular context are not acquainted as part of all the saints.

15:52 - 16:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: To be biblically qualified for the public and private and private ministry of the word a man must be marked by a mature and consistent godliness. A mature and consistent godliness of life.

He refers to the 'faithful sayings' in the pastoral epistles as 'sanctified cliches that floated around the churches,' explaining their common recognition.

But let's look at this passage briefly. Faithful is the same. This was one of the sayings of the five so-called faithful sayings in the pastoral epistles. They were kind of sanctified cliches that floated around the churches.

22:44 - 22:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And no amount of consistent godliness can make up for the absence of a manifested aptitude to communicate the word unto edification any more than tons of ability to communicate the word unto edification can be a substitu…

Martin uses the metaphor of a runner 'stretching out to break the tape' in a 100-meter race to describe the vigorous desire for overseership mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:1.

Both are included in the 1 Timothy 3 passage and in the Titus 1 passage and certainly clearly inferred in the 1 Peter 5 and the Acts 20 passages but then there's a fourth element that a man must have if he's to be biblically qualified not only mature and consistent godliness of life mature and conscientious Please turn this cassette over to continue the message. that a man must have if he's to be biblically qualified not only mature and consistent godliness of life mature and conscientious grasp upon the truth a manifested aptitude to communicate the word unto edification there must be a reali...

31:25 - 32:53 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And no amount of consistent godliness can make up for the absence of a manifested aptitude to communicate the word unto edification any more than tons of ability to communicate the word unto edification can be a substitu…

He uses the analogy of 'symmetry of truth' to describe the need for a minister to understand how different truths fit together without undermining each other, illustrating with his own need to qualify his statements.

see the symmetry of truth. When he's establishing one truth, he undermines another. Doesn't see the necessity of qualifying, as I've done tonight. I know the devil could take what I'm preaching tonight. There are people who go out and say they don't believe and the believers should minister to one another. All he talked about was the preacher teaching the preacher. So I had to say, no, in establishing this, we're not undermining this. But in believing this, we don't knock this fellow off either. Holding to the faithful word, the faithful teaching. You wouldn't want those who minister the word ...

35:36 - 36:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And no amount of consistent godliness can make up for the absence of a manifested aptitude to communicate the word unto edification any more than tons of ability to communicate the word unto edification can be a substitu…

Martin uses the idiom 'can't tell the head from the tail' to describe the confusion caused by a minister who lacks aptitude in communicating the Word, making it a 'torturous thing' for hearers.

I can't tell the head from the tail, the ear from the planks. I can't. You spend all your time trying to sort it out, publicly or privately. That's a torturous thing. Is that what you want? You say, no. Well, what about some who are simply in it because others thought they ought to be? You never get the sense that their deepest soul position before God is, woe is me if I preach not. Woe is me if I shepherd.

36:23 - 36:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin delves into the first qualification: ministers must be biblically qualified men. He directs listeners to 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, and 1 Peter 5, outlining four key aspects…

He contrasts his understanding of the church's constitution with 'historical reconstruction,' emphasizing that his interpretation is based on the original intent and reality from the church's inception.

You're not in God's people. A realistic desire. And I say, brethren, that the ministry of the word envisioned in our constitution, because I happen to be there from the very beginning, so I'm not reading something in. This is not historical reconstruction. You kids know what that is, what people do. Read back into history and reconstruct it to prove what they want to prove in the present. This is reality. And from the very inception of the Trinity Church, our understanding has varied.

36:56 - 37:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No man can impose himself upon the people of God as their minister of the word publicly and privately. Nor can any other man impose a man upon God's people.

Martin provides examples of Amos, Isaiah, and the apostles to illustrate that the call to prophetic and apostolic office was immediate from God and not mediated through human instrumentality or consent.

And you've got to understand this fundamental difference in the calling to the prophetic and apostolic office and the call to the pastoral office, a prophet received his call immediately from the living God. Amos is out powering one day and God speaks and says, you're to be my mouthpiece. Isaiah goes into the temple one day and God speaks to him and commissions him. Jesus looked among his many disciples and out of them.

41:53 - 42:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No man can impose himself upon the people of God as their minister of the word publicly and privately. Nor can any other man impose a man upon God's people.

He uses the metaphor 'get bit with the heavenly bug' to describe those who wrongly assume their call to preach is like a prophetic call, leading them to 'clutter pulpits' without proper recognition.

And when they get bit with the heavenly bug, they're called to preach and woe be unto anyone who doesn't step aside and make way for them. And they clutter pulpits all over our country. Their people never fall into that nonsense and into that crooked avenue of thought. The scriptures are clear.

43:07 - 43:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third qualification is that ministers must be 'servant-oriented men.' This involves being bond slaves of Christ first and foremost (Galatians 1:10), and then bond slaves of…

Martin describes the public and private ministry of the Word as a 'constant foot-washing task,' emphasizing the humility and service required of ministers.

In a very real sense. The work of public and private ministry of the word is a constant foot-washing task. You've got to be ready to gird your towel in order to be an instrument of the ongoing work of grace in the hearts of God's people, and in those whom the Lord Jesus will call by your instrumentality. Now, just a brief word of application to the people of God in general, and it's this.

49:05 - 49:33 Read in full sermon

The point: You have no authorization to recognize as a gift of God, to function as your teachers and leaders, any but those who are biblically qualified.

Martin recounts a personal story from the early 1960s where a mature Christian advised him not to take 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 'word for word' because it would be impossible to find elders, highlighting the temptation to lower biblical expectations.

They must be men of mature Christian character, mature and conscientious grasp on the truth, manifested aptitude to communicate the word unto edification, a realistic desire for the work. And God have mercy on a people who cannot or will not do what God has clearly charged them to do. In this stewardship that he gives to you, the people of God, he says, here is the portrait, here is the picture of those whom I give. When you think that I may be giving you John or Harry or Pete, then look at the picture and see if all of the contours that I have drawn in my word are present. We must not go beyo...

50:15 - 51:40 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Briefly, Martin addresses the 'sphere' of ministry: public and private. Citing Acts 20:20 and 1 Thessalonians 2:9-11, he emphasizes that a minister of the Word is consistently a…

He uses the term 'occupational schizophrenic' to describe a minister who is inconsistent, being a minister of the Word publicly but a 'panderer of pop psychology' privately, stressing the need for consistent identity.

In other words, Paul engaged in the public and the private ministry of the word. And the emphasis in our constitution and in the scriptures is this. The man set apart to minister the word of God privately and publicly. He is not an occupational schizophrenic.

57:16 - 57:33 Read in full sermon