Gifts of Leadership #1

The point: If God's providence has withheld a discernible proving ground for a man to manifest gifts to govern, the office of eldership is shut to him until such an opportunity arises.

Paul's reasoning from lesser to greater (ruling a house to ruling the church) is compared to a man unable to command a battalion being unfit to command an army, emphasizing the need for proven leadership in a smaller sphere before a larger one.

That's the non-negotiable principle. Only those with a proven ability to exercise sanctified leadership of others are to bear rule in the church of God. Since in most cases the presence or the absence of this gift will be most accurately discovered in a man's domestic government of his family, Paul focuses upon that framework for proving one's ability to rule. If a man is to rule, and knows not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Arguing from the lesser to the greater. If he does not show competence in that lesser sphere, what grounds do we have to believe t...

9:27 - 10:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But every gift given to the individual is to the end that the whole body might be edified. Gifts are not given to be a form of spiritual thumb-sucking, or as one more crassly stated, a form of spiritual masturbation.

Spiritual gifts are not for selfish indulgence, but for the edification of the body, contrasting with self-centered spiritual experiences like 'spiritual thumb-sucking' or 'spiritual masturbation'.

But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit with all. And the great emphasis is that God gives gifts to His Church, not that the person who possesses the gift can, like a little selfish kid, go off in the corner and eat his bag of candy and be wonderfully and personally, selfishly indulged. But every gift given to the individual is to the end that the whole body might be edified. Gifts are not given to be a form of spiritual thumb-sucking, or as one more crassly stated, a form of spiritual masturbation.

19:02 - 19:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But every gift given to the individual is to the end that the whole body might be edified. Gifts are not given to be a form of spiritual thumb-sucking, or as one more crassly stated, a form of spiritual masturbation.

The example of charismatic individuals claiming 'glorious hours of praying in tongues' without understanding what they are saying is used to critique self-induced emotional experiences over cognitive communion with God.

People talk about their glorious, glorious hours of praying in tongues. They don't know what they're saying, but it's glorious. Well, if you don't know what you're saying, how can it be glorious? How do you know God is pleased with your gibberish?

19:42 - 19:55 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the timeless principles of spiritual gifts from 1 Corinthians 12, emphasizing that gifts are for the edification of the whole body, not selfish indulgence. He…

The Greek word for 'governments' (kubernesis) is linked to a ship's pilot or steersman, illustrating the gift as providing wise and safe guidance through turbulent waters for the church.

Now, this particular word, kubernesis, is used in the plural. The plural indicates proofs, of ability to hold a position of leadership or of power. I thought I brought my Reinecker and Rogers with me, but apparently I did not, but I commend to you the excellent little expanded significance of the word. Its sister word, kubernesis, is used in Acts 27.11 and in Revelation 18.17 to refer to the pilot of a ship, the steersman. So, gifts of government are manifested divine endowments to be a helmsman, to give wise and safe guidance to the ship of a given assembly of God's people making its way thro...

21:38 - 22:53 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But, the nature of it being as we have declared, that is, rule in Christ's church, it is impossible that it should be exercised aright without a special assistance of the Holy Ghost.

An extended quotation from John Owen argues that church rule requires a special gift of the Holy Ghost, not merely legal or civil knowledge, because it involves knowing the mind of Christ and administering His authority.

After opening up the concept that the rule of the church belongs to the ministers of it, and then he establishes from these texts that God has established rule in the church, Romans 12.8, 1 Corinthians 12.28, 1 Thessalonians 5.12, Hebrews 13.7 and 17, this he then says, from these things it may appear what is the nature in general of that skill in the rule of the church which we assert to be a peculiar gift of the Holy Ghost. If it were only an ability or skill in the canon or civil law or the rules of men, if only an acquaintance with the nature and course of some courts proceeding litigiousl...

23:34 - 24:37 Read in full sermon

The point: When someone claims they don't need teachers because of the anointing, humbly ask them to sit down and let the anointing teach everyone directly.

A father's ability to discern between a child's cry of pain and a cry of petulant brattishness is used to illustrate the necessity of spiritual discernment in ruling one's household and, by extension, the church.

So the anointing gives to every believer a modicum of discernment that will keep him from falling into damning apostatizing error. However however the man who is going to lead to govern to guide the flock of God as an overseer as an elder as a ruler as a bishop surely he must have more than an ordinary degree of spiritual discernment. He must be able to distinguish things that differ. For example what would you think of the father coming back to the biblical paradigm if a man know not how to rule his own house there the emphasis falls upon ignorance not if a man has not the moral courage to ru...

42:17 - 43:46 Read in full sermon

The point: When someone claims they don't need teachers because of the anointing, humbly ask them to sit down and let the anointing teach everyone directly.

A father's discernment between a teenager's intentional act of anger (kicking a refrigerator) and an accidental clumsiness is used to further illustrate the need for discernment in leadership.

Well we could carry that out in all kinds of errors. What about the father doesn't know the difference between the teenager who's mad that he can't go out with his buddies because he has to help his dad with a project at home and kicks the refrigerator as he walks by and the poor teenager who hasn't caught up with his appendages and he's always stumbling over his feet and his hands and knocking over glasses of water at the table and all the rest. What kind of father is it that has no discernment to distinguish between those things? Well likewise how can a man rule in Christ Church with the ful...

44:04 - 44:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Be sensitive to your own signals of your own particular mood, swings, etc., as an example of how we are to love our wives.

The diversity of characters in a congregation is compared to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Faithful, Mr. Ready to Halt, Feeble Mind), highlighting the need for discernment to wisely lead such varied individuals.

I don't care if it's a congregation of 25 people. There will be in principle the full spectrum of all the characters that Bunyan parades before us in Pilgrim's Progress. You'll have your faithfuls and you'll have your you'll have your Mr. Ready to Halt and you'll have Feeble Mind and you'll have them all.

44:43 - 45:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Be sensitive to your own signals of your own particular mood, swings, etc., as an example of how we are to love our wives.

The difference between sheep that yield to a slight tap of the crook and those that require the rod to break their will is used to illustrate the need for discernment in applying correction within the church.

You have some of those sheep that you just barely tap them with a crook of positive correction and I mean they just yield to the slightest pressure and they're in the way others you've practically got to break your rod over their back to get their attention. And if you don't know the difference how in the world do you going to wisely rule for remember Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2 as a father with his children so we exhorted you and we admonished you we instructed you as a father discerning what child breaks with the word and which one needs the rod until his behind is beet red before he brea...

45:17 - 45:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Be sensitive to your own signals of your own particular mood, swings, etc., as an example of how we are to love our wives.

A husband's discernment in dealing with his wife's irritability, distinguishing between hormonal vulnerability and other causes, is used to illustrate the sensitivity and discernment required in marriage and, by extension, pastoral care.

And that difference is seen within the human family. If a man know not how to rule his own house how should he take care of the church of God. If a man doesn't know the difference of how to deal with his wife's irritability at certain times of the month and make a difference the way he deals with it when her hormones are leaving her peculiarly vulnerable to irritability from a time of the month when hormones ain't in the picture at all. I wouldn't want to be that man's wife.

46:00 - 46:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second component is a 'more than ordinary measure of spiritual wisdom,' defined as using knowledge to make righteous judgments and secure right ends by the best means…

Solomon's judgment in the case of the two women claiming the same baby is presented as a prime example of spiritual wisdom: using knowledge to make righteous judgments and secure right ends by the best means.

Now, examples of this, of course, we are immediately reminded of the example of Solomon. First Kings chapter 3, when he comes to the place in his life where God is going to actually confer upon him the responsibility of administering the affairs of the nation of Israel as king, and tells him that he may ask for whatever he desires, and Solomon responds 1 Kings 3, 7-12, And now, O Lord my God, you've made your servant king instead of David my father, and I'm but a little child. I don't know how to go out or how to come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people, which you have chosen, ...

48:57 - 50:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Oh yeah, there was a mosquito on the forehead, but he split the skull wide open going after the mosquito. For lack of spiritual wisdom, for lack of this divine endowment, he did not choose the best means to secure the be…

A parent using a cricket bat to kill a mosquito on a child's forehead, fracturing the skull, illustrates a lack of spiritual wisdom – having good intentions but choosing inappropriate means, causing greater harm.

incarnate Son of God, was a divine endowment. There shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his root shall bear fruit, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and in resting upon him he shall function as the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of knowledge. So, brethren, there must be by the operation of the Holy Spirit as an essential component of this gift ...

52:40 - 54:06 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Oh yeah, there was a mosquito on the forehead, but he split the skull wide open going after the mosquito. For lack of spiritual wisdom, for lack of this divine endowment, he did not choose the best means to secure the be…

A situation where a new baby in a young couple's family reopens old wounds from divorces on both sides, creating tensions within the extended church fellowship, illustrates the complex issues requiring spiritual wisdom in pastoral care.

Wisdom. Now, if you're that's needed for the administration of the widow's tables, brethren, how much more for overseeing the flock of God in everything from the discipline and the outreach to building programs, to the resolution of conflicts. Just last night, in the issues brought forward for our season of prayer were enough to make me pray that God might raise Solomon from the dead and let us borrow his head for an hour. When we sat, as we were as an eldership, minus one of our brethren who's in Pakistan, and each man just share growing out of his pastoral involvement this week with this rel...

57:05 - 58:09 Read in full sermon

The point: If we are to have any degree of conviction that God has equipped us for the labor and office of overseership, we must have some degree of confidence that he has given us more than an ordinary degree of spiritual discernm…

A scenario involving a pastor's emotional adultery, its aftermath, and the wife's ongoing emotional struggle, which his leadership fails to understand, illustrates the profound need for spiritual wisdom in handling sensitive church discipline and pastoral resignation issues.

You want to hear what some of the others were? Got a pastor, not in our own assembly, thank God, involved in emotional adultery with a woman, going for a year and a half, no physical adultery, but real emotional adultery.

58:53 - 59:08 Read in full sermon