Basic Theology of the Eldership, Part 2

In this part of the sermon: Martin warns against a rigid, literalistic interpretation of elder qualifications (e.g., requiring children, or perfect manifestation of every grace), arguing that such an…

Martin illustrates a 'wooden, idealistic' interpretation by showing how someone might exclude unmarried or childless men from eldership based on a literal reading of 'having children in subjection'.

Someone no sooner hears the exhortation to make sure that there is due regard to the biblical standard or in a sense you nullify the validity of the office, when they come to the passage and they say, all right, look what it says. One that rules well his own house, having children in subjection with all gravity. If a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? How can a man who's not married have children and be respectable?

0:56 - 1:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What he's driving at is that the bishop must be, in his character, a man of balanced, proven godliness who has developed sufficiently in the full spectrum of graces, though not equally in all areas, that he can lead with…

Martin uses the example of misinterpreting 'pistos' in Titus 1 to mean 'believing children' rather than 'trustworthy' or 'governed' children, leading to an overly strict standard.

from the office all unmarried men. They would exclude from the office all childless married men. Furthermore, they come to the Titus 1 passage, and they say, the passage says, having blameless children who believe. And by pressing an unwarranted meaning upon the use of the word pistos, they say, you've got to have believing children.

2:10 - 2:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't use the biblical standard in a wooden, idealistic way.

Martin illustrates the idealistic expectation that an elder must manifest a perfect '10' in every grace, leading to either no elders or feigned godliness.

They expect on a scale of 1 to 10 that a man will manifest a development of grace in every area on a scale of 10.

3:10 - 3:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Maximize the strengths within the presbytery/eldership for the maximum edification of the people.

Martin uses the analogy of a baseball coach sending up the best 'stick man' as a pinch hitter in a crucial moment to illustrate that maximizing edification means utilizing the strongest gifts, not proving equal honor by sending up the weakest.

Now, we're not saying that all the members of the team don't have a significant place if they're bona fide members of the team. But if you've got a pinch hitter to go up in the last of the ninth with two men on base and you're behind them, you're behind one run, you don't try to prove you regard all the team members as equally worthy of honor by sending up your worst stick man, you know, the guy that, you know, he couldn't punch the ball beyond the pitcher of his life depended on it. I mean, the coach has got more sense. He's out there to win games.

10:14 - 10:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Have shoulders big enough to bear criticism from hypercritical people who misunderstand parity, and disregard their sniping.

Martin quotes Spurgeon's advice to 'put it in your pocket with a hole in it, turn the deaf ear to it and the blind, stand by and forget it' when dealing with hypercritical people who snipe about parity.

And we can afford to relax. And if people who are hypercritical come into the congregation one or two times and then want to go out and snipe and say, well, they talk about parity but it's evident that so-and-so's got it. My friends, my dear brethren, I hope you've got shoulders big enough to bear that kind of business and I'd say with Spurgeon, put it in your pocket with a hole in it, turn the deaf ear to it and the blind, stand by and forget it. All right?

12:04 - 12:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Submit one to another joyfully and freely, recognizing other elders as overseers.

Martin shares his personal experience of people having a 'bigger-than-life' image of him as a high-profiled semi-autocrat due to his preaching, which he is grateful cannot stick where he lives and labors, illustrating the importance of actual mutual submission.

And as I've told men again and again whose only image of me is what they have in preaching as a preacher to preachers in conferences, or in the tape ministry, it's usually a bigger-than-life image and they attach to it all kinds of false connotations that I must be some kind of a high-profiled semi-autocrat in the way things are run here at Trinity. And many have that image and it's just something I have to live with. But thankfully, no one can make stick that accusation here where I live and labor. And for that, I'm grateful.

18:37 - 19:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Be glad to disappoint people who have an idolatrous attachment to a particular preacher, as the real work is Christ's framework for the well-being of His people.

Martin recounts the story of Pastor Nichols extending his preaching series on election and reprobation due to mutual trust and commitment to edification, demonstrating the practical outworking of Spirit-enabled parity and submission.

Maybe some of you have wondered how is it that we decided that Pastor Nichols should bring this brief series on election and reprobation. Well, as you know, I had to be away a couple of weeks ago preaching and the elders decreed for my best interest a couple of years ago when I almost had a complete collapse in terms of just physical exhaustion that when I was away in such ministries and came back I was not to preach the Lord's Prayer. On Lord's Day I came back. So he had to preach for another Lord's Day.

22:56 - 23:26 Read in full sermon