Providential Opportunity, Proper Recognition

The point: Exercise faithfulness in scrutinizing those seeking pastoral office, recognizing the danger of self-delusion and the need for external confirmation.

Martin quotes Breckenridge's 'The Christian Pastor' to illustrate the human heart's liability to deception regarding one's inward state and fitness for ministry, underscoring the need for external confirmation.

And I want to introduce the proof of that statement by reading from the article on the call to the ministry with which Thornwell interacts in his essay on the call to the ministry. And the gentleman who oversees the rare book section in Princeton Library was kind enough to have this xeroxed and sent to me, and I have found it to be of inestimable value. It is the article for brevity. You can call it the Christian Pastor by Breckenridge.

9:24 - 10:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Exercise faithfulness in scrutinizing those seeking pastoral office, recognizing the danger of self-delusion and the need for external confirmation.

Martin recounts Breckenridge's fight against the practice of ordaining men generically 'to the ministry' without scrutiny by a specific body of God's sheep, highlighting the historical context of the need for specific church recognition.

It is for this reason, amongst others, that kindness to those who are seeking the pastoral office as well as fidelity to the church of Christ demands a degree of faithfulness on the part of teachers and church courts far beyond what is commonly exercised. It is upon this ground, in part, that ordinations and then he uses two Latin words which as best I could track down their meaning means without an actual charge which have been such a curse to our church are always so dangerous seeing they proceed in the absence of one of the main evidences of any call at all to the work namely, the testimony...

12:12 - 13:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He supports the need for external confirmation with 2 Timothy 2:2 (Timothy's assessment of others), Acts 16 (Timothy's good report from the brethren), Acts 15 (Paul's judgment of…

A brother's thankfulness for being 'eased into the office of an elder' and validated by a multitude of counselors illustrates the safety and confidence derived from objective external confirmation, especially when pressures arise.

the further comments on that and of course we add to that the familiar words of proverbs 11 and verse 14 proverbs 11 and verse 14 where no wise guidance is the people's fall but in the multitude of counsellors of the people there is safety and by the multitude it certainly does not mean heaping to ourselves people whom we have preselected as those whom we are confident will agree with us but the multitude of counsellors is a broad spectrum of counsel in which people will look at our situation from various perspectives and in that there is safety proverbs 15 and verse 22 where there is no couns...

22:26 - 23:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin quotes John Owen, who lists four essential elements for a valid call, emphasizing the antecedent furnishing of gifts by Christ and the church's exploration and trial of…

Martin quotes John Owen's 'Volume 16' to show that the position on the essential elements of a call (gifts from Christ, exploration by the church) is not novel but rooted in classic Puritan theology.

my confidence will be that I did not intrude myself into this office hastily or upon the basis of mere subjective personal assessment I am being encouraged and validated in my own assessment by the objective external confirmation of a multitude of counsellors and in that sense he is learning the truth of proverbs 24 6 that in the multitude of counsellors there is safety no surprise then that Owen would write as he does in volume 16 pages 73 and 74 as follows and notice I have an unusual number of quotes today and I have done this purposely taking them from Owen classic Puritan theologian from ...

23:54 - 25:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Resist crass individualism and existential subjectivism in discerning a call, and avoid misusing biblical examples of extraordinary calls.

Martin quotes Dr. Edmund Clowney's book to challenge the idea that a personal sense of call settles the matter, arguing that even Paul's direct call was recognized by the church, and ordinary calls come through men and apostolic teaching.

compounded because men are case hardened in their crass individualism and existential subjectivism by the semblance of scripture and it's only the semblance we do well to listen now I come right into the twentieth century to Dr. Edmund Clowney who in his book writes on pages eighty four to six as follows your church's calling nothing can concern you more personally or intimately than your own calling of Christ he has called you by name not by number or classification for no selective service draft is so selective as Christ's your own name is written on that white stone in his hand he knows it ...

29:48 - 31:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Resist crass individualism and existential subjectivism in discerning a call, and avoid misusing biblical examples of extraordinary calls.

Clowney's argument, quoted by Martin, distinguishes Paul's direct, foundational apostolic call from the call of other ministers, emphasizing that Christ's call to ordinary ministers comes through men and apostolic teaching, requiring church recognition.

too not in the same sense you see he's properly using Paul's account of his call and saying you don't make a flat one to one equation the calling of an apostle as a foundation stone in the church of Christ was more direct than the calling of other ministers every apostle Paul included heard the voice of Jesus Christ called him by name Christ has not appeared from heaven to you if you think he has I'll check into what you were eating the night it happened that's not Dr. Clowney that's me Christ has not appeared from heaven to you and his call to you has come through men in fact through the apos...

31:17 - 32:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Dismantle the wretched system where a man's subjective sense of call and self-assessment of fitness is all that is necessary to pursue ministry without objective external assessment.

The analogy of a child's conversion in a godly home, emerging into life rather than a dramatic, date-stamped experience, illustrates how external validation in a well-ordered church can be gradual and almost imperceptible.

Only the gift of Christ can do that. It does accept the authority and relate the gifts of one man of God to the gifts of the people of God so that the mutual sharing and fellowship of gifts may minister to the growth of Christ's body. And he goes on to develop that in a most helpful and perceptive way. Now, for those who are nurtured in a well-ordered church, this explains, external confirmation of fitness will generally come in a gradual and almost imperceptible way, much as the conversion of a child born in a context of godly example and nurture is the emergence into life rather than an eart...

34:41 - 36:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the fourth element: a providential opportunity and proper ecclesiastical recognition for a specific pastoral charge. He states the axiom that this…

The examples of David being marked out for kingship years before ascending the throne, and Paul's direct commission preceding his separation by the Holy Ghost, serve as analogies to show that a call can precede a providential opportunity and ecclesiastical recognition.

may have both a settled, sober self-assessment of his fitness, and have external confirmation from a cross-section of the people of God, and yet there exists a rather lengthy period of time. An example of this is in the scripture of the book of Livingoss, where a man is created in the form of a cross-sectional and a left-hand side of his right hand that can be the cross-section of the person who is God. And as I wrestled with these issues, I found that David, being a man, had a proficient recitative power of his own, and he appeared before the people of God in complete character and knowledge ...

41:06 - 41:30 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the fourth element: a providential opportunity and proper ecclesiastical recognition for a specific pastoral charge. He states the axiom that this…

The metaphor of a crown needing a head, neck, and shoulders illustrates that the 'crowning validation' of a call (congregational recognition) is the culmination of prior essential elements, not an isolated event.

Leading to his formal ordination to, and installation in that office. So here's the axiom. The crowning validation, and remember, a crown can't be hung on a sky hook. It's got to have a head that's joined to a neck that's joined to some shoulders, and all this other leads to it.

43:40 - 43:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He explains the elements of the axiom (specific congregation, judging by Christ's rule, formal ordination/installation) and provides biblical principles from Acts 1 (Matthias)…

Peter's address to the brethren in Acts 1, standing 'as a brother amongst his brethren' rather than announcing papal authority, illustrates the principle of congregational consensus in the early church's decision-making.

Congregational consensus. There were 120 gathered in the upper chamber, verse 15, and in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren. He didn't stand up to announce, I am now going to tell you what Jesus meant when he said, Thou art Peter. He meant that I am the Pope and I will now begin my papal reign here in the upper room and it's time you people recognized it.

49:23 - 49:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not call or choose anyone to office who is not known to the church, or of whose frame of spirit and walking they have not had some experience.

Martin's personal refusal to be a vicar in an Anglican church, due to the Queen of England being recognized as head of the church, illustrates his conviction that no human being should hold that title, reinforcing the church's sole headship by Christ.

The call of persons unto the pastoral office is an act and duty of the church. It is not just not an act of the political magistrate and that's what you have in Erastianism where church and state are linked. Ultimately you have the political authority making appointments. This is one reason why if you invited me to be the vicar of the most spiritually minded Anglican church in all the world, I wouldn't go because I would have to acknowledge the Queen of England as the head of that church.

60:38 - 61:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not call or choose anyone to office who is not known to the church, or of whose frame of spirit and walking they have not had some experience.

Martin quotes Owen's strong condemnation of churches calling or choosing unknown persons to office, especially those with only 'three weekend visits and a four hour meeting with the pulpit committee,' to highlight the need for deep knowledge and experience of a man's character.

It can never be the duty of the church to call or choose an unmeet and unqualified and unprepared person to this office. Now listen to Owen. The church is not to call or choose anyone to office who is not known unto them, of whose frame of spirit and walking they have not had some experience. Not an office or one lately come unto them. Three weekend visits and a four hour meeting with the pulpit committee. Owen says, a plague on your house. So when we say dismantle that system, and that's iconoclastic radicalism, then I hide behind Owen. He went before me and paved the way.

62:42 - 63:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure that those called to office have obtained a good report, evidenced their faith, love, and obedience, and are not imposed upon the church without due inquiry.

Owen's statement that some consider Christ's flock 'little better than a herd of brute beasts' illustrates the elitist attitude of those who deny the church's ability to judge and choose its own office bearers.

Churches are the overseers of their own purity and edification when they act by the rule of Christ in the recognizing of their office bearers. To deny them that is the church an ability of a right judgmentarian or a liberty for the use and exercise of it is error and tyranny. But that flock which Christ purchased and purified with his own blood is thought by some to be little better than a herd of brute beasts.

64:25 - 64:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not play games with God's offices by ordaining men to extraordinary offices (like evangelist) and then having them function in ordinary roles without a specific charge.

Martin quotes Breckenridge's footnote arguing that an ordinary office bearer cannot be lawfully ordained without being designated to a determinate office in a specific church, critiquing the practice of ordaining 'evangelists' who then function as ordinary ministers without a charge.

Quoting from the footnote on page 22 of Breckinridge. There's a very great difficulty in proving that any ordinary office bearer in the Church of Christ can be lawfully or even validly ordained at all without he is ordained, we would say, except he is ordained to a determinate office. That is, to a specific office in a specific church. And the only ground upon which the ordination of evangelists can be justified is that their office is an extraordinary one. But it is clear that the getting of this office as extraordinary, and then using it not at all, but in place of it, using the ordinary off...

66:29 - 67:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject the Romish notion of 'once a pastor, always a pastor' and the idea of a 'pastor without a charge' as unscriptural.

Owen's analogy of making a man a father who has no child, or a husband who has no wife, illustrates the absurdity of designating someone as a 'bishop, pastor, or elder' when they have no specific church, people, or flock to oversee.

that though the other might be an expedient, it could not negate what was clear in biblical revelation. Three, the election of the people is an absolute and indispensable element of collation to office power. Therefore, without this, an ordination to such power is strictly invalid. Four, every term, bishop, pastor, elder, by which the ordained person is designated is a relative term, and therefore to use them of one who has no church, people, or flock, implies, as John Owen well notes, has a real contradiction and impossibility as to make a man a father who has no child, or him a husband who h...

70:03 - 70:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject the Romish notion of 'once a pastor, always a pastor' and the idea of a 'pastor without a charge' as unscriptural.

Martin defends Breckenridge against Hodge's accusation of holding 'novel views' on ecclesiology, noting that earlier Scottish divines also held similar positions, reinforcing the historical grounding of the argument against generic ordination.

Five, it is wholly inconsistent with the whole office, duty, and work of the ordinary ministry, of the word, every part of which, and especially the whole power of rule, supposes the state of a case the opposite of that supposed when a man is ordained without a charge to be a minister at large without any to rule over or amongst, or to care for, feed and edify. He says it's absurd and unscriptural to ordain men and then have them go off to professorships, etc., etc., etc. This man, had his heart and soul in this issue, and he had the issue by the juggler vein, and Hodge's attempts to discredit...

70:50 - 72:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Believe that the Head of the church will, in His time, cause His own gift to be deposited and received in the place of His appointment.

Martin quotes John Newton's 'Select Letters' to a young man, emphasizing that a proper call is finally evidenced by a 'corresponding opening in providence' and the need to wait patiently for God's appointed time and place of service.

It means we must believe that the head of the church will in his time cause his own gift to be deposited and received in the place of his appointment. Now here I quote from that lovely little article of John Newton's on the marks of a call to the ministry in the select letters of Newton published by the Banner of Truth on page 55 and just over onto page 56. He's writing to a young man who wrote to him about the whole matter of what do I do? I have an itch to preach.

73:24 - 74:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Restrain yourself from rushing ahead of God; hold your horses and wait for God's providential opening into the sphere of your usefulness.

Newton's personal testimony of being under constraint for five years, resisting the urge to preach too soon, illustrates the wisdom of patience and waiting for God's providential leading, which ultimately led him to a greater sphere of usefulness.

of the love of Christ is upon our hearts and a tender compassion for poor sinners is ready to prompt us to break out too soon. But he that believeth shall not make haste. He quotes one of my favorite texts Isaiah 28 16 he that add to it Proverbs 19 2 he that makes haste with his feet sinneth. I was about five years under this constraint. Sometimes I thought I must preach though I had to do it in the streets. I listened to everything that seemed plausible and to many things that were not so. But the Lord graciously and as it were insensibly hedged up my way with thorns. Otherwise if I had been ...

75:35 - 76:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Radically overhaul generally accepted practices for crowning validation (e.g., trial sermons, brief interviews) to reflect greater sensitivity to biblical norms.

Martin quotes Owen on the 'outward way and order' of a church calling a minister, emphasizing that while disputes often focus on mechanical details, these are of 'least concern' if the prior conditions of gifts and church recognition are not met.

The church has no power to call unto any office of the ministry where the Lord Christ has not gone before in the giving of gifts. You see, here's that constant evidence. Now he says, the outward way and order whereby a church may call any person to the office of the ministry among them and over them is by their joint solemn submission unto him in the Lord as unto all the powers and duties of this office testified by their choice and election of him. It is concerning this outward order that all the world is filled with disputes about the call of men to the ministry which yet in truth is of the ...

78:31 - 79:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Radically overhaul generally accepted practices for crowning validation (e.g., trial sermons, brief interviews) to reflect greater sensitivity to biblical norms.

Martin recounts advising a man whose Roman Catholic wife wanted their child 'done' by a priest. He told the man that if 'nothing happens' from the ritual, then 'let the priest do nothing,' illustrating that ritual without substance is a nullity and not worth fighting over.

for whatever manner or order be observed herein, if the things before mentioned be not premised there unto, it is of no validity or authority. If a man has not manifested grace and gift and provenness and been called by a biblically enlightened people, he says, I don't care what your ritual of ordination is, it imparts nothing. It is a nullity. As I said to the man whose wife was unconverted and she was a superstitious devout Roman Catholic and when they first born came along she wanted to have him done and he came and said, what shall I do, pastor?

79:32 - 80:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Strive to come as close as possible to the primitive, biblical pattern for ordination, even in details, to avoid imbibing false theology.

Owen's conclusion that he would not 'much dispute with any' about the outward mode of ordination but 'approve only of that which makes the nearest approaches to the primitive pattern' illustrates a catholic spirit combined with a commitment to biblical fidelity.

possession of true fitness has the church expressed its mind biblically? If so then I say it's in essence, I don't care how you go about recognizing it that's your business and the Bible doesn't give us a lot of details it may be proved to be a beam of truth from the light of nature that no man should be imposed on the church for their ministry against their wills or without their expressed consent, considering that his whole work is to be conversant about their understanding their judgment, their will and affection and how can a man do that where he's not been received by the people to functi...

82:22 - 83:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Never intrude yourself into the pastoral office, but seek to have all four elements of a biblical call in obedience to scriptural principles.

The analogy of a soldier not being sent out to get his own K-rations, rifles, and bullets illustrates that God, who conscripts His soldiers (ministers), is responsible for equipping them with wisdom, grace, courage, and love for their service.

this situation, love for this situation, Lord, you don't send out a soldier and tell him to get his own K-rations and make his own rifles and his own bullets no man is sent out on service at his own charges Lord, I'm in your army, you conscripted me, you've got to give me my ammunition you've got to teach me how to shoot it Lord, I'm your soldier, you've got to equip me, Lord, I'm your shepherd you must give me wisdom and all that's needed, so may God grant that whatever it costs us, brethren we will never intrude ourselves into that office, but that we shall in obedience to these biblical pri...

86:46 - 87:52 Read in full sermon