89a) Spiritual and Mental Gifts #1

The point: Be conscious of seeking neither to add to nor subtract from the total witness of the word of God as we wrestle with the question of a biblical call to the pastoral office.

Martin quotes John Erskine from 'The Christian Pastor's Manual' to confirm the principle that inward piety and personal experience are crucial qualifications for teachers, enabling them to speak effectively about experimental religion and comfort weary souls.

And by way of just a little P.S., one of the books I took along with me in the five-day break I had after the pastor's conference is the excellent work entitled The Christian Pastor's Manual edited by John Brown. And I found a very clear confirmation of this principle that I tried to describe under that second category of requirements, the clear indications of an enlarged, balanced, and tested Christian experience.

3:46 - 4:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Gifts make no man a minister, but all the world cannot make a minister of Christ without gifts.

Martin quotes John Owen from Volume 9 of his works, specifically a sermon on Ephesians 4:8, to argue that Christ gives spiritual gifts to enable ministry, and that while gifts don't make a minister, no minister can exist without them.

And here I commend to you brethren a careful reading of these relevant sections in Owen Volume 9 and Owen Volume 4. The page numbers are listed there. Let me give you just a sampling out of both of those sections. The first time I read these things, I found them so compelling that I said to myself, you dummy, how could you have missed something so obvious for so long that is stated so clearly by Owen?

21:44 - 22:18 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Gifts make no man a minister, but all the world cannot make a minister of Christ without gifts.

Martin humorously notes that Owen had no word processor, emphasizing that Owen's deep convictions and consistent arguments across his writings came from his profound understanding, not just copy-pasting.

referring to Ephesians 4.8 and this is one of the interesting things when you read more widely in Owen you find Owen quoting Owen. You find deep convictions in Owen coming out in various places and remember he had no word processor to pull it up and just stick it in. It was in his head and not on a floppy disk.

24:35 - 24:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A ministry without gifts is no ministry of Christ giving. Nor is it of any other use in the church but to deceive the souls of men.

Martin quotes John Owen from Volume 4, page 491, to reinforce the argument that ministry is a gift of Christ not only because it's freely given, but because spiritual gifts are essential to its life and being, and a ministry without gifts is no ministry of Christ.

There is an active giving expressed. He gave and then the thing given that is gifts. Wherefore the ministry is a gift of Christ not only because freely and bountifully given by him to the church but also because spiritual gifts do essentially belong unto it and indeed its life and inseparable from its being. A ministry without gifts is no ministry of Christ giving.

25:05 - 25:38 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If the first and great commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul and strength where the Holy Ghost is present the mind will be most active not passive.

Martin contrasts the passive experience in paganism and some charismatic thinking (being 'slain in the spirit') with true Christian experience, arguing that where the Holy Spirit is present, the mind is most active, not passive, aligning with the first and great commandment to love God with all one's mind.

the ultimate or immediate source and secondly the secondary or the immediate sources. The ultimate or immediate source of these gifts it goes without saying I've listed again Owen Volume 9 pages 441 to 450 it is Christ who gives gifts unto men. And in a passage such as 1 Corinthians 12 and this is only a sampling but it's one of the most explicit passages as Paul begins to treat the subject of spiritual gifts saying to the Corinthians I do not want you to be ignorant with respect to these matters after establishing several fundamental principles and I want to just allude to them briefly. The f...

27:41 - 29:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the broad spectrum of biblical answers to the question of where gifts come from, understanding that areas of lack can be supplied through prayerful effort or divine endowment, preventing premature assumptions a…

David's description of his mother's womb in Psalm 139 as a 'subterranean cavern' where he was 'curiously wrought' is used to illustrate that some essential gifts are established by God in principle and seed form at conception.

with the gifts essential for the pastoral office are matters that God gave him in principle and in seed form when he knit them together in his mother's womb. Certain things were established at conception and you remember the whole emphasis of Psalm 139 particularly the section where David is referring to his prenatal development in his mother's womb and he likens it to the activity of a weaver weaving him together. Verse 15 My frame was not hidden from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. He here likens his mother's womb to a subterranean caver...

32:39 - 33:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the broad spectrum of biblical answers to the question of where gifts come from, understanding that areas of lack can be supplied through prayerful effort or divine endowment, preventing premature assumptions a…

The example of Christ growing in wisdom and stature while subject to Mary and Joseph in Nazareth is used to illustrate that some gifts are acquired gradually through ordinary nurture and development.

God was the ultimate and immediate source but the secondary or immediate source was the gene pool out of which God took the stuff that constituted us what we are in our humanity. Furthermore, some of these things will come gradually in the process of ordinary acquisition. It is said of our blessed Lord that he grew in wisdom in stature in favor with God and man but that comes immediately upon the heels of the statement that he went down unto Nazareth and was subject unto them that is to Mary and Joseph. And the clear indication is that in the context of the ordinary nurture of that home our Lo...

34:28 - 35:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the broad spectrum of biblical answers to the question of where gifts come from, understanding that areas of lack can be supplied through prayerful effort or divine endowment, preventing premature assumptions a…

The account of Solomon's prayer for an understanding heart in 1 Kings 3 is used as an example of gifts given by the Spirit's direct action in answer to prayer, demonstrating a concentrated deposit of wisdom.

You remember when it's clear that he is coming to the position of leadership and influence and God says ask now what do you want? In verse 5 of 1 Kings 3 In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said ask what I shall give you. Solomon said you showed unto your servant David my father great loving kindness you've kept your covenant word now I feel I'm but a little child I don't know how to go out how to come in the thing I ask verse 9 give unto your servant an understanding heart to judge your people that I may discern between good and evil for who is able to judge thi...

35:46 - 37:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the broad spectrum of biblical answers to the question of where gifts come from, understanding that areas of lack can be supplied through prayerful effort or divine endowment, preventing premature assumptions a…

The anointing of Christ by the Spirit at the Jordan, bringing with it specific gifts like the power to open the eyes of the blind, is cited as another example of gifts given by specific divine endowment.

upon the occasion of his assumption of his role as king and surely in the case of even our Lord himself that when the spirit came upon him as he stood there in the waters of Jordan the spirit of the Lord God is now upon him and with that endowment came certain gifts the power to open the eyes of the blind, etc. This day, this day hath this prophecy the Lord says been fulfilled in your presence and so there are some of those gifts that are given by a specific endowment of the Holy Spirit some are inlaid from our mother's wombs some come by dint of conscious deliberate effort and ongoing acquisi...

37:15 - 38:44 Read in full sermon