Necessary Mental Gifts

Review of the Call to Ministry and Invalid Aspirations

0:00 Now, for the sake of those who are with us, who have not been here on the previous two sessions, or during the two previous sessions, I will take just a couple of minutes to review the basic material that we have thus far covered. In these first few sessions, we're considering some basic issues relative to this very delicate matter of a call to the pastoral office, and though some of the things have reference to those who may simply aspire to an occasional teaching responsibility, the main thrust of what we're considering is directed to those who have aspirations for a work, a sphere of usefulness in the kingdom of Christ that would generally be described as the office

0:48 of the ministry or the pastoral office. And though we often think of the tragedy of a man being a Jonah, and running away from the call of God, I think too seldom do we think of the terrible tragedy that came to pass in Jeremiah's day when God had to say, they have run, but I have not sent them, and the terrible tragedy of unsent men running into the work of the ministry. So I've been plotting very slowly in a consideration of the biblical principles relative to the subject of what constitutes a call to the pastoral office. In our first session, we looked at six major reasons why men aspire to this office which are not valid scriptural reasons, and I will only mention them without any comment.

1:37 Some have an inaccurate assessment of their own gifts and graces. Secondly, others have uncrucified lusts for authority and the attention which the office brings. Others have an unbalanced idea of what constitutes spirituality, and they think because the office of the ministry is a high calling, to be found in it must of necessity mean that they've attained a higher degree of grace. Fourthly, others have an inadequate view of the breadth of ministerial qualifications.

2:08 Fifth, some have unmet psychological needs for identity, and they like the insulation of the pulpit and the being called reverend. And others, it's the pressure of unsanctified ambition of others. You've got a mother or a pastor or some friend who has urged a young man to pursue the course of the ministry with this kind of unsanctified ambition. Then in our last session, we looked at the four factors which must always be present in a scripturally valid call to the office of the ministry.

The Four Factors of a Scripturally Valid Ordinary Call

2:45 And I introduced the subject by looking at some thoughts from John Owen who makes a distinction and a scriptural one between an extraordinary office, such as an apostle or a prophet, which needs an extraordinary call, and the ordinary office of the pastor-teacher, which needs an ordinary call. And so we must be careful that when we tell people, well, we don't go around looking for miracle workers and tongue speakers because those were gifts for an extraordinary office, that we do not reverse it and say, well, we're called to the ministry because of an extraordinary call. God spoke directly to us, and we know we're called. Well, God doesn't call that way.

3:27 And there are these four factors involved in an ordinary biblical call to the office of the ministry, and we looked at them in a broad overview last time. There must be a desire born of right motives if any man desire the office of a bishop, 1 Timothy 3.1. Secondly, there must be graces indicating genuine Christian experience.

3:50 The bishop must be, and then you have the graces listed. Thirdly, there must be gifts indicative of divine provision. He must be an apt teacher. First Timothy 3, he must be able to convince the gainsayer, Titus 1 and verse 9.

4:06 And then fourthly, there will be an opportunity indicative of a providential opening. And so these four factors will, in some proportion or another, and the degree of that proportion is different in every case, but they will always meet in a valid call to the office of the ministry. Now, in my desire last week or last time, last month, to give this broad overview a comprehensive picture of the whole spectrum of what constitutes a call, I did not go into any great detail with any one facet. And what I wish to do in the session today, and I had hoped to do all of this today, but when I got working on it and studying and preparing, I found that it was more than I could handle in one session, so we'll be another couple of sessions probably in this.

Focus on Necessary Gifts for Ministry

4:55 Now, what we've done in the broad overview, we've looked at the factors which constitute an ordinary call to the ordinary office of a pastor, teacher, or a teaching-ruling elder. And in that, we saw there were four factors—desire, graces, gifts, and a providential opening. Now, this matter of the desire is dealt with quite thoroughly in the standard works dealing with the call to the ministry. In Bridges, the Christian ministry, in Charles Spurgeon's lectures to his students in the section on the call to the ministry, this matter is dealt with quite clearly, and also

5:43 the commentators deal with it in expounding 1 Timothy 3.1. This matter of the graces that are necessary also dealt with very clearly in Scripture, and any good commentary on Titus 1.5-9 or 1 Timothy 3.1-7 will stand you in good stead.

6:04 But it's in this area, in the matter of what are the gifts necessary for this ordinary call to this ordinary office, that I feel there's the greatest lack as far as being able to say, well, you go to such and such a book, such and such a chapter, and it's laid out. So what I wish to do, and what I intend to do today, and possibly at least one, maybe two more sessions, is to take this aspect and to enlarge upon it. Now, in so doing, I do not mean to demean the others. I am not intending whatsoever to put them into a lesser place of importance.

6:44 But because you can get help in these areas, if you have the desire to do so, and anyone who's worth his weight in salt, as far as his ambitions for the work of the ministry are concerned, will search these out, I feel that I can make some contribution here that you normally would not get in the general run-of-the-mill literature. And then, of course, this thing here is a matter that can't be predicted. Just how that providential opening will come, there's nothing more or much you can say about it except that it will come in God's time. So this is what I intend to do today.

Categorizing Ministerial Gifts and the Importance of Mental Gifts

7:16 Now, in this area of the gifts that are requisite for the ministry, I want to divide those gifts into three areas. Now, there is some overlapping, but when you teach, please don't be an overlapping teacher, or people won't learn anything. Just teach things with some structure and tell them it's not quite as cut and dried in reality as it is in your teaching, but don't try to teach it like it is, or they'll sit there wondering which end is up and where's in and where's out. Now, some of these things overlap.

7:45 They interpenetrate, maybe a better term, one another, but I do think you'll see as we begin to develop them that this is at least a valid distinction. First of all, there are the gifts that relate to the mind of the aspirant to the office of the ministry, certain mental gifts. Second are those that relate to a man's spirit, that is, his inner life, or we may use the term spiritual. And then the third are matters that relate to the mechanics, certain things relative to his ability to speak and to communicate divine truth, and also to rule and to lead.

8:25 So there would be speaking ability and leadership ability, which are necessary if a man is to be a teaching, ruling elder, which in biblical terminology is an apt description of the office of the ministry. Now today, we're just going to focus here. What are the mental gifts necessary for this office concerning which we're exercised? Now in thinking our way through that subject, we say, boy, you're really bound by your threes today, aren't you?

8:58 Well, it just happens to be a coincidence. Those of you who know me know that I'm not bound to threes. It just happens that's the way things broke down. As we flesh this out today, we're going to consider three things, the importance of gifts, the necessary mental gifts, and then thirdly, some qualifying statements that I hope will help to balance out the whole perspective.

9:20 All right, first of all, just a word about the importance of this matter of gifts. Why should we spend two or three sessions on it? Why should I have spent what constitutes probably at least a day or two of work in getting this lecture together? Well, for the simple reason that if the ministry exists for the edification of the saints, then Christ, who has given the ministry for the edification of the saints, will furnish every minister whom he gives with enough tools to edify the people of God.

9:53 It's unthinkable that the ministry exists for edification and then that Christ would give ministers who can't edify. Now, there's the whole argument, the beginning, middle, and end of it. Ephesians chapter 4 makes very clear that the ascended Christ has given gifts unto men for the edification of the church. Now, if Christ is giving you as a gift to the church to edify it, then He's going to give you everything necessary to make you an instrument of edification.

10:27 And where there are no gifts unto edification, there is no gift to the church as far as you are concerned. Now, that's the hard-nosed, ugly fact of the whole matter, and it sweeps away all sentimental notions, all subjectivism, and it brings us into that gutsy realm where we just face the fact if Christ has not endowed me with the necessary mental, spiritual, and mechanical gifts, then the best thing I can do is either wait until He does or face the fact that He's not pleased to and find the sphere of usefulness in the body of Christ other than the office of the ministry. Now, John Owen, who's been a great help to me, and as you can see, I've brought half my volumes on Owen, and I've been like a bee flitting from flower to flower this week in

11:17 the shelf where John Owen sits, all sixteen ponderous volumes of him. But Owen has some tremendous thoughts on this whole subject. Let me just quote from him very briefly with reference to the importance of this whole subject of gifts. And I'm going to give you a little bibliography at the end of sections in Owen that will be very helpful, I trust, in this matter of the call to the ministry.

11:43 The first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the Word. It is a promise relating to the New Testament that God would give unto His church, quote, pastors according to His own heart, which should feed them with knowledge and understanding in Jeremiah 3.15. This is by teaching or preaching the Word and no otherwise.

12:07 The feeding is of the essence of the office of a pastor as unto the exercise of it, so that he who doth not or cannot or will not feed the flock is no pastor, whatever outward call or work he may have in the church. The care of preaching the gospel was committed to Peter and in him to all true pastors of the church under the name of feeding, John 21.15-17. So then he goes on to amplify this from the book of Acts, and then he concludes by saying, A man is a pastor unto them whom he feeds by pastoral teaching and no more.

12:50 And he that doth not so feed is no pastor. And then in another place, Owen takes up that thread of thought and says, all right, if this principle be true, that the office of the ministry or the office of a pastor is that of feeding, then the only indication one can have that God is making him a gift to the church is that He's endowed him with those abilities to feed the flock of God. So you see, this matter of gifts is so tremendously important if we're to maintain a biblical view of the whole purpose for which the ministry exists. All right, so much for a word on the importance of gifts.

Mental Gift 1: A Mind Reverently Submissive to Scripture

13:31 Now let's move to what will be the heart of our study. What are the necessary gifts indicative of a divine provision? First of all, gifts of a mental nature, gifts that relate to a man's basic spiritual intellectual nature. I'm going to put that with a hyphen, faculties.

13:49 And I want to suggest five lines of thought under this general heading. First of all, the first and most fundamental gift of the mind must be a mind reverently submissive to the absolute authority of the Scriptures. In Titus one in verse nine, in this list of the requirements for an elder, we find this word, holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching or which is according to the doctrine. And there's the picture of a man who has received the body of truth, and he holds to it.

14:29 He does not pry himself in being a manipulator of it, a judge over it, but rather he's one who has received it and clings to it with a view to communicating it to others. Just as the apostle Paul was submissive in being an instrument to give us the word of God, 1 Corinthians 2.13, which things we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but in words which the Holy Ghost teaches. And here the apostle says he was conscious of conveying divine truth with divinely chosen words, so then you and I must be submissive in the receiving of those words of God.

15:15 In other words, a man who does not have a deep, pervasive, religious subjection of his mind to the authority of Scripture has never been called of Christ to the office of the ministry. And he sinfully intrudes upon that office who thinks he must maintain an independence of mind that will cause him to be anything other than reverently submissive to the authority of the word of God. How is a minister made adequate for all the demands upon him? To use the biblical terminology, how is he truly furnished unto every good work?

15:57 So Paul tells us, 2 Timothy 3.16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. What furnishes him unto those good works? It's that word which he receives in a reverently submissive mind.

16:22 So then when you read the letters to Timothy, which of course are most, the most pregnant with concepts relative to the ministry, you find words like these, 1 Timothy 4 and verse 6. If thou put the brethren in mind of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed. You see the whole concept? Timothy is a man whose whole life and thinking is under the directive of the authoritative word of God.

16:58 Paul says in verse 11 of that same chapter, these things command and teach. Timothy, you've got to be willing when people say, well, what in the world are you telling us? You say, I'm just telling you what apostolic authority said I'm supposed to tell you. Oh, you mean this isn't original with you?

17:15 Uh-uh. Oh, you mean this didn't come out of your own clever momentum? No, no, no. I'm just a voice declaring what God Himself has said.

17:24 And so there must be the evidence of this grace of reverent submission to the Word. Unless this fleshly itch for originality and cleverness and cuteness has been put to death, a man does not assume the posture necessary for a true expositor of the Word. And let me say, by way of application, do you know something of what I'm talking about in your own dealings with the Scriptures? Do your dealings with the Scriptures evidence that you have a mind that has been brought into that posture of reverent submission to the absolute authority of Scripture?

18:01 If so, you will never be found using Scripture as an occasion for punning and for joking. Never using Scripture as an occasion to create laughs or giggles, and if you ever do it, your heart will be so smitten you'll feel like you've fallen into a cesspool until you confess it to the Lord and make it right with those around you. As far as I'm concerned, I've cleared the average Bible school and seminary three-quarters of the young men who are there, who can sit around in dorm bowl sessions and make jokes on the Scripture. And then they think they're going to get up behind the pulpit and have that Word come as a living fire and burn into the hearts of men.

18:36 It's a prostitution of the very concept of the ministry, and it's an abomination in the sight of God. And I hope you fellows, wherever you are, if your life has earned any respect, will openly rebuke it in whatever Bible school or seminary you find yourself. And you just tell a fellow, look, you say that you're going to be a minister, and that Word which you've just used as an occasion of punning is the Word by which men are going to be begotten again unto a living hope, the Word by which they're to be sanctified, and you rebuke them in Christ's name for such a terrible, terrible evidence. Say the least of backsliding in heart, if not an evidence that there's never been any regeneration.

Mental Gift 2: A Mind Furnished with Basic Scriptural Content

19:19 You find it hard to treat that Word by which you were born from above with such lightness. At least I find it very difficult to do so. Well then, what is the second mental requirement? It's what I'm calling a mind furnished with a grasp of the basic content of Holy Scripture.

19:39 We go back to 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 again. If it is by the Scriptures that a man is made thoroughly furnished unto all good words, then unless he has some acquaintance with the basic content of Scripture, he is not in any way furnished unto every good word. I shall never forget the occasion of sitting in on an ordination council, and the gentleman was asked to name the 66 spokes of the Bible, and he couldn't do it. We didn't ask him, will you give us, please, the basic thrust of the prophecy of Haggai, the basic contents of chapters 1 and 2, or how many chapters are there in Haggai.

20:19 All we said is, will you please name the 66 spokes of the Bible, and he couldn't do it. And yet he was going to take the awesome task of being an instructor of others, if he couldn't even name the books, it's obvious he was ignorant of the content of those books. And yet he had the audacity to aspire to the office of a leading, teaching, ruling, elder. By what means would he accomplish his work?

20:51 Well, apparently, by the force of his own personality, by his own natural judges, he couldn't do it by the authority of the Word, when he was ignorant of great sections of that Word. The main task we have, as we've seen in our quote from Owen, is to preach the Word. And this cannot be done unless there's a basic grasp on that Word, since the right interpretation and application of any one part of the Word, in great measure, depends upon the setting of the entirety of Holy Scripture. The tragedy of the ministry in our day, one of the tragedies, is that our Lord would have to say to so many who stand in pulpits, ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures.

21:37 John Owen had reason to complain that in his day, men were admitted to the ministry whose knowledge of Scripture was so meager as to make their admittance into what he called a well-ordered church a questionable matter. Do you see what he's saying? Saying men are entering the ministry, whose admission into a well-ordered church would even be questionable, they were so ignorant of the basic content of Scripture. Now, I'm not talking about theology at this point, understanding the interrelatedness of one portion of another.

22:07 I'm just talking about an acquaintance with the basic contents of those sixty-six books that were given to us by divine inspiration, which are the sum and substance of the tools of a man's ministry. And I think, again, it's one of the tragedies I shall never forget in my senior year at Bible school. We had a course in general epistles. It started with Peter and went through 1 and 2 Peter, James, 1 and 2, John, and Jude.

22:40 And one of the facets of that test was about a hundred and fifty questions that just had phrases, or seventy-five, maybe it was seventy-fives, and probably it was seventy-five, the older you get, the bigger those things look in your mind. So let's say it was seventy-five quotations, such as this, having been born again, not a corruptible seed. And you were to tell him what book it was and in what chapter. And these were seniors in a Bible school, going out to mission fields, going out into pastures.

23:06 And there were only, I think, two people in the class who got more than fifty percent. Only two who got more than fifty percent, that were that location. Now, they weren't asked to expound what it meant, having been begotten again by the word, just to say where it was, basic content of Scripture, wasn't there? And I say to you young men, if you claim that God's hand is upon you for the ministry, and you spend more time in front of the TV, reading Life and Time magazine, and Popular Science and Sports Illustrated, you're kiddin' yourself.

23:46 Either you're being grossly disobedient to your call, or God has never begun to lay His hand upon you. Now, tell it like it is. I'm talkin' straight to you, but I feel this thing so deeply. Who wants to hear the mouthing of your own ideas?

24:03 Give a Scripture sixteen ounces to the pound, the Bible interpreted by the Bible, illustrated by the Bible, enforced by the Bible, then you'll feed our hearts. Otherwise, go on out and sell bananas. Show how clever you can be in getting up your own little spiel to sell bananas. And sell all the bananas you want, but don't take the office of the ministry and feed the people of God upon the husks of your own ideas.

24:31 Give them Scripture, interpreted by Scripture, illustrated by Scripture, applied with Scripture, sixteen ounces to the pound Scripture. That's your task. And you can't do that unless you're furnished with a basic grasp upon the content of Scripture, and then you must continually give yourselves to keeping a sensitivity to that content. Does the pastor take the lead in counseling and directing as an elder?

25:01 Well, what will the lines of his direction be unless his thinking is disciplined by the content of the Word of God? One of the ambitions of every single aspirant to the office of the ministry should be to have it said of him, as was said of Apollos, Acts 18, 24, he was mighty in the Scriptures. That greater thinking is said of a servant of Christ, mighty in the Scriptures. Not just prior to, but all through the entirety of one's ministry.

25:42 You become a safe guide in holy things, only so far as your directives are rooted in and flow out of a deep experimental acquaintance with the Word of God. And I think, again, the whole thrust in so many of our seminaries today on course after course on pastoral counseling and the pastor as administrator and all this is reflective of the fact that we've drifted from this perspective. What gives real thrust and authority to some of those sermons written three hundred years ago of our Puritan forefathers? What makes them so relevant that you'd think these guys had their degrees in advanced psychology?

26:27 They had such knowledge of the human heart. Where did they get this? They got it in that book, this book right here. They believed that this book was sufficient to furnish them completely to every good work of the ministry.

Mental Gift 3: A Mind Understanding Scripture's Meaning and Interrelatedness (Theology)

26:39 We don't believe it in our day and our unbelief is written in the area of our deflective emphases, quoting the emphasis here and there, but this one thing we must do become mighty in the Scriptures. And so, I for one will have no part in laying hands upon any man, no matter how well he may speak, he may have the gift of God, he could sell bananas very well. But unless there's evidence that he has a grasp on the basic content of Scripture, he has no business yet assuming that awesome role of a leading, teaching, ruling elder. Then thirdly, there must be a mind not only reverently submissive to the authority of Scripture, a mind having a grasp upon the basic content of Scripture, but a mind furnished

27:29 with a basic understanding of the meaning and the interrelatedness of Scripture. Now this is necessary because we read in 2 Peter 3 that there are men described by Peter as the ignorant and the unstable who rest, and that word rest has as its root meaning to put on a rack and to stretch out of shape. They rest the Scriptures to their own destruction. Now they're handling Scripture, but they're not handling it right.

28:00 Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4.1, not handling the word of God deceitfully. There are not only sound words, but there's a pattern of sound words. And Paul says in 2 Timothy 1.13, hold the pattern, the form, the structure of sound words.

28:19 Now in a very practical way, this means, as I would understand it in our contemporary situation, that a man must have a working knowledge of four lines of theology. That is, some understanding of the interrelatedness of truth in these areas. First of all, systematic theology. The basic doctrines of God in the entrance of sin and creation, in the covenant of grace, Christ the mediator, in the uniqueness of His person, in His substitutionary work on behalf of His people, the work of the Spirit in regeneration and in sanctification.

28:57 If a man does not have a basic grasp upon that essential structure of the interrelatedness of those fundamental truths, he cannot be an accurate expositor of the word. He'll always be sticking his foot in his ear and his finger in his toe, and though he'll have a semblance of Scripture about his ministry, there will not be that beautiful symmetry in the opening up of the truth of God. So a man to be an accurate expositor of the word must be a theologian, to some degree show that his mind is furnished with this understanding of the interrelatedness of Scripture. Secondly, he must have some understanding of biblical theology, and by that I mean the progression of divine revelation, the distinction of long gospel, the ordinary and extraordinary

29:48 gifts to the church. A man who does not have some understanding of how God's truth has come to light in historical epochs is a man who's going to be leading his people into one labyrinth of confusion after another. Then thirdly, he must have some acquaintance with historical theology. The main heresies that have plagued the church and how the church faced them and hammered out the consensus of the mind of the people of God and their understanding of the truth of Scripture, the main victories that were won, the crucial issues of the early period and the doctrine of Christ person, and then the doctrine of sin in the Augustinian and Pelagian controversy, and then the great doctrine of justification by faith and the doctrines

30:38 of grace as they came to light in the Reformation period and then in the post-Reformation period. There must be some grasp upon historical theology, or a man cannot do what Paul says an elder must do. He must be able, Paul says, to convict and to convince the game-sayers. Why, you be praying, your people will be praying to every heretic who floats along, unless you recognize the face of heresy, even though it has a little different paint on it.

31:07 All right, some of you remember, who may have been here a couple of years ago, when I think, was it Mr. Starrett who was teaching the class? I sat right there, and Mr. Starrett sat here, and we opened up for discussion, and some man said about three sentences.

31:23 I had never seen him before, I never heard him, and I turned around, I said, sir, you're an Arian. I don't know who you are, I don't know where you're from, you're probably a Jehovah's Witness, but I said, you're spouting Arian heresy, and it will not be tolerated in this church. It's a Christian church, discussion is within a framework of a fixed theological perspective of historic Christianity, and if you want to peddle your heresy, go out in the street and get your own crowd, if you want to sit and listen, you sit here. Now, it was very subtle, Arius was no dope, he was no dope, you don't bring half the visible church onto your side, by being a dope, he was brilliant, and that brilliant mind was given over to a deflection of the truth concerning Christ.

32:04 But a man who's not acquainted with these basic things, he cannot be a shepherd to protect the sheep from the wolves, as Paul says in Acts chapter 20, wolves will come from without, men shall rise up from within, speaking perverse things, and it's an understanding of the basic factors of historical theology which help a man to be a protector of the flock and a defender of the faith, once were all delivered to the saints, and then I'm going to add to this, and this is where I would usually part company with the esteemed professors who generally work, and I don't say that with tongue in cheek, in training men for the ministry, but I believe this is just as essential as systematic, biblical, and historical theology it's experimental theology.

32:52 For you're not dealing just with ideas in the work of the ministry, you're dealing with people. You're going to have that dear soul come to you who hasn't made the distinction between the grounds of his acceptance before God, on the basis of the merits of Christ, and the grounds of his assurance that he is accepted, and if you don't know the difference between those two questions, what must I do to be saved, and how may I know that I am saved, you're going to leave that for fell in the terrible mess. He won't know which ends up, and what is that but experimental theology. Understanding the difference between those two basic things.

33:31 What do you do with the person who hasn't yet learned the distinction? Between genuine grief, overlaps in sanctification, and always feels, well that means there must be something now defective in my justification. This is experimental theology. You can understand the systematics and the difference between justification, sanctification, but now apply that to a troubled soul who comes to you and says, pastor, I'm in bad shape.

33:57 What do I do? Well, God help you. You just tell him to go home and pray, and give him a verse, and chuck him under the chin. You're being a Job's comforter to them.

34:06 You need to be able to do as Paul says, cut a straight course in the word of truth. And I say then that this applies to the realm of experimental theology. And now I quote Owen, volume 16, page 86. That's for my benefit, not yours.

34:27 Now the troubles, disconsolations, dejections, and fears that arise in the minds of persons in these exercises and temptations are various, oft times urged and fortified with subtle arguings and fair pretenses perplexing the souls of men almost to despair and death. It belongs to the office and duty of pastors, one, to be able rightly to understand the various cases that will occur of this kind. And from such principles and grounds of truth and experiences will bear a just confidence in a prudent application unto the relief of them concerned to have the tongue of the learned

35:12 to know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. Then he goes on to say that the minister who does not have some experimental acquaintance with the struggles, with the devil, with his own flesh, and the work of the Spirit in the application of redemption, he says that man is not fit. Let me quote him, without these things all pretenses unto this ability and duty of the pastoral office are vain whence it is that the whole work of it is much neglected. He says in volume three in his great treatise on regeneration that if a man does not know something of the struggles of his own soul as God brought him out of darkness into light,

36:01 he said how can he be a minister? He says this is the principal end of our ministry, to be instrument in the regeneration of others. Now certainly it's the duty of ministers to understand the work about which they are employed as far as they are able that they may not work in the dark and fight uncertainly as men beating the air. To be spiritually skilled therein is one of the principal furnishments for the work of the ministry without which they will never be able to divide the word of right or show themselves workmen that need not to be ashamed.

36:39 That's pretty straight talk, isn't it? And what is the great tragedy of so many ministries in our day? It's right here. You let a soul come under some real conflict for sin, begin to wonder, am I in or am I out?

36:52 And the average minister look at him and say, look, doubts the second cousin to the sin against the Holy Ghost, just tell your doubts, pull by, and quote a verse to them, and all will be well. The butchering of the souls of men and the great need in this area of experimental theology. Some of you may yet sit on an ordination council where I may be privileged to have a part, and one of the questions that you no doubt will get from me or someone who's been primed by me is, what do you tell a man who comes to you and says, I believe I'm a Christian, but I'm not sure, how can I come to some settled grounds of assurance? If you can't answer that question, my hand will never be on your fair hand.

37:36 What's more vital than that? Another question, what do you tell me? I come to you conscious that I'm not in a state of grace. I know I'm lost, and I know I need to be saved, and I say I know enough of my Bible to know I can't save myself.

37:49 What do I do? Tell me, what do I do? Can you answer that simple question? I'm not asking, can you give me a lecture on conversion, systematic theology, and tell me that conversion involves repentance and faith, and describes from man's perspective what man does in coming out of darkness and delight.

38:07 It is always rooted in the work of God in regeneration. No, I'm not interested in giving you a lecture on the whole thing. I want to tell you, what do I do? I'm coming to you saying, look, I'm in bad shape.

38:16 The wrath of God's over my head. The law of God and the thunders of Sinai are tracking me down, and I know I'm not in the city of refuge. Where is the path to the city of refuge? Tell me, how do I find it?

38:28 What will you tell me? That's experimental theology at the most basic level, and you must be able to give some clear biblical answers. Well then, I submit then that this third mental requisite is a fundamental one, a mind furnished with a basic understanding of the meaning and interrelatedness of Scripture. If a man doesn't have this, he cannot do what he's charged to do in 2 Timothy 2, 15, as we already have seen.

38:57 He must show himself a workman approved unto God that needeth not to be ashamed, cutting a straight course in the word of truth. And with all the rich heritage in confessional and standard theological works, there's no excuse for a man not becoming somewhat articulate in these four lines of theological discipline. And I don't mean that you've got to read 30 books. There are men who were masters in these areas who had probably only read three or four other books in any one of these areas outside of their Bibles.

39:32 I read something the other day that struck me. Chalmers, that great Scottish preacher, when he wrote his commentary on the whole Bible or on the New Testament, I've forgotten which it was, you know what he said were his only helps? And this is considered in the history of Scottish theology a masterpiece. He had Matthew Poole and Matthew Henry for exposition.

39:52 He had one of the old books on the land in the book had to do with the background of Israel and Palestine, and one other very technical book that would be like a Halley's Bible handbook. And he had mastered the contents of those books. You read George Whitfield's sermons, and I'm amazed at the theological balance for most of the ones that you get are just shorthand reports, and they were preached before he was 25. And yet I'm amazed at the theological balance.

40:25 You know where he got it? On his knees, reading through Matthew Henry, month in and month out. I believe it's said that he went through what, three times in his lifetime, the entire set of Matthew Henry on his knees. That's where he got his instruction.

40:37 So I'm not talking about a man having to have a breadth of mind that can devour ten books in an hour. I'm talking about that. But when you have the Westminster Confession and Calvin's Institutes and Berkoff's systematic theology, and Shedd and Edwards and Dabney and Luther thrown in to help you in a few areas, there's no excuse for a man not being a systematic theologian. No excuse whatsoever.

41:02 And when you've got Gerhard Isvoss to guide you in biblical theology, no excuse for not being a biblical theologian. Just read that thing through once and digest it, and read it through again and digest some more. Every fourth time you'll get what he's driving at, and bells will begin to ring. When you've got Cunningham and Shedd in historical theology, and when you've got Flabel and Bunyan and Owen in experimental theology, there is no excuse for being ignorant in those four theological lines.

41:30 None whatsoever. And frankly, I suspect the call of a young man who's got time to watch TV and time to chase around with women in a nice way. I don't mean the bad way. And he's got time to do everything under the sun, but no time to plow to Owen, Volume Six.

41:48 As far as I'm concerned, the richest goldmine of experimental theology in the realm of sanctification that God has ever given to his church. Got no time for that type of thing. Oh, brethren, may God help us if we see the magnitude of our task and apply ourselves to it. Let me say a little something along the lines that Spurgeon said of people who despise experimental theology.

Mental Gift 4: A Mind Equipped to Discover and Make Plain Scripture's Meaning

42:16 Listen to what he says. When a, quote, thinking man has reached so sublime a condition of self-conceit that he can sneer at such giants in mind and learning as Owen, Goodwin, Charnock, and Manton, and talk of them as teaching mere common places in a heavy manner, not at all adapted to the advanced thought of the twentieth century, we may safely leave that man and his thinking to the oblivion which surely awaits all his windy nothings. And to that I say amen and amen. Well, we must hurry on now to the fourth area.

42:55 A mind reverently submissive to the Scriptures. A mind furnished with the basic content of Scripture. A mind furnished with an understanding of the meaning and interrelatedness of Scripture. Fourthly, a mind furnished with the necessary tools to discover and to make plain the right meaning of Scripture.

43:21 Again I go back to 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. That text assumes that the man of God will be able to discover the meaning of the doctrine in Scripture. He is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, but what about the poor man that tries to take for his doctrine what is meant for his reproof? And for his reproof what is meant for his doctrine?

43:42 You see, he's in bad shape, and yet I've met some dear saints of God and some men who said they were called to the ministry or were aspiring to the ministry who somehow were not furnished with the necessary mental tools and it's sort of an intuitive thing. Something that's difficult to create in the man of God isn't put it there so that he recognized this is intended primarily to teach doctrine. This is intended primarily to reprove, to correct, or to instruct in righteousness. It comes back again to 2 Timothy 2, 15, this cutting of straight course in the word of truth.

44:19 Now I fully acknowledge that this involves the work of the Spirit in illumination of the mind, that there is the activity of a man's own spirit in the study of the word, as one man has said, the only true expositor is experience, but giving due allowance for the work of the Spirit in opening up a text, giving due allowance for the interaction of a man's own experience in opening up a text, no amount of spiritual taste and perception and no amount of experience can make up for that lack of mental order which can receive and then convey accurately the mind of God in any given passage of the word of God. Now I'm sticking close to my notes because I've tried to sweat these things out and write

45:05 them down in a way that would say exactly what I want to say. No amount of spiritual taste and perception, no amount of experience can make up for that lack of mental order which can receive and then convey with accuracy the mind of God as given in any portion of the word of God. Now part of this is bound up in that phrase and apt teacher, 1 Timothy 3. One cannot teach what he does not clearly perceive.

45:39 Oftentimes we flatter ourselves that, well, what I have is so profound I can't get it across to you. What you mean is it's so muddy in your own thinking that you can't get it across. That's just a convenient out, just a convenient out. One cannot teach what he does not clearly perceive.

45:55 One cannot teach what he does not have the ability to lay out with clarity. So then, unless there is some evidence that God is furnishing a man, and notice I put it in the present tense, that God is furnishing a man with a mind able to discover and make plain the right meaning of Scripture, I find it difficult to believe God is giving him as a gift to the church to feed the flock of God. Well, all he serves up is this mixed mound of mush that nobody can make. Hide their tails of what he's saying.

46:29 Earn is sincere, but it just does not come across as a well-ordered diet of divine truth. May I say at this point, this is why we must not despise study of the original languages? For they are a help in opening up the mind of the Spirit. Here's the place of true, godly scholarship that helps us to penetrate the meaning of the Word of God, and we must never despise it.

Mental Gift 5: A Mind Furnished with Sound Practical Judgment

46:57 Well then, in the fifth place, and I must hurry because I do want to bring some qualifying principles. Get down to number three here that will help lift some of you out of what I hope has become at this point almost hopeless discouragement. There must be a mind furnished with sound practical judgment. One of the aspects of ministerial requirement is 1 Timothy 3.

47:23 This word, sober-minded. Hendrickson, in his commentary on that passage, says, quote, This is the self-controlled or sensible man, the man of sound mind. He is discreet and sane, hence not swayed by sudden impulses over which he exercises no mastery. Now again, I've met some fellows who have a good grasp on systematic theology, historical theology, biblical theology, and even some experimental theology, but they don't have this sound practical judgment to give the right food to the right people at the right time.

48:01 They're giving out good food, but it is incongruous as serving up a beautiful one-inch, that-sized T-bone steak, to a three-week-old child. You're going to waste the steak on that poor kid. He won't even appreciate it. He touches to his lips, give me this, give me a bottle, that's what he wants.

48:22 And conversely, they get some aspect of real biblical milk. It's the word, but it's the milk of the word, and they try to stick that to the lips of a 30-year-old man, and they wonder why he goes, says, give me some steak. And the problem, the problem is they lack this sound practical judgment. You see Paul's example in 1 Corinthians 3, and then whoever wrote the book of Hebrews in chapter 5, here was an exercise of sound practical judgment.

48:56 Without it, you won't give the right food to the right people at the right time. You'll be inflexible where you ought to exercise sanctified flexibility. You'll be flexible where you ought to be adamant. And as I was preparing, I thought of it with the apostle Paul.

49:10 Can you imagine what would have happened if when he goes out to preach with Timothy, he said, no, sirree, I'm not going to let any Jew think that circumcision has any merit whatsoever. No circumcision for Timothy. So everywhere he'd go, people would be prejudiced against the gospel. No, he didn't do that.

49:28 He says, all right, let's go out, Timothy, and people get circumcised. Then wherever we go, and if anyone says, oh, you've got a Gentile, oh, look, my body's circumcised. All right, so we got that thing out of the way. Now let's get on with the business of preaching.

49:39 See? But now, when the situation arises with Titus, where it was an issue of the truth of the gospel, he says, no, sirree, Titus remains uncircumcised. Now, Paul knew when to say, I plant my flag here and I stand, shoot me if you want, but I'm not budging. Then he knew when to pick his flag up and say, all right, we'll move the lines back a little bit, or we'll move them out a little bit.

50:01 Now, what is that? That's sound practical judgment. And without that, a man will split the average church six times every year, and he doesn't need to have a high IQ or a lot of ability to do it. Not at all, not at all, because there are issues upon issue to come up in any church, which if a man does not have this sound practical judgment, he'll become intransigent and he'll become inflexible on an issue over here that he ought not to be inflexible about.

50:31 We almost saw one of our one young churches blown sky high over this very tight thing. Upon planting his flag on a hill, it wasn't worth losing a flea over, and he was ready to lose blood over it. Brethren, pray, if you pray for anything, that God will endow you with that sound practical judgment as you aspire to the work of the ministry. Well then, I submit to you then these five indispensable mental requirements.

Qualifying Principles for Aspiring Ministers

51:06 Now, having looked at them, the importance of gifts, the nature of these mental gifts, now let me give some qualifying principles. And these sort of come, first of all, in a balancing couplet. First of all, these things need not all the evidence before a man begins to aspire to the office. There is a sense in which this standard will guide a man in his aspirations and ever be before him.

51:39 The word says covet earnestly the best gifts. Well, here they are, young man. Here are the best gifts if you want a ministry that will be a means of edification to the saints of God. And so I'm not saying that if you have any aspirations for the ministry and do not see all of these things in some degree presently developed, you're out of order.

52:02 Not at all. No, no, these things need not all be evident before a man begins to aspire to the office of the ministry, but, and here's the second principle, these things must all be evident to some degree before a man is formally set apart for the ministry. What is the ordination of the church but the recognition of the work of Christ as the head of the church in giving the gift of an edifying servant of Christ to the church? The church can't make ministers by pointing hands on their head.

52:41 All the church can do is recognize that the head of the church has made a ministry. And how can the church recognize if he's made one? Well, if you see what's necessary to edify. And which one of these would you exclude?

52:56 Let me ask you this way. When you exclude one of these five things, let me ask you, would you want that man to be your pastor who didn't have a grasp on systematic theology, would you? Would you like that man to be your pastor who had no knowledge of historical theology and couldn't defend you from subtle errors, would you? Would you like that man to be your pastor who had no sound practical judgment, who had no acquaintance with experimental theology, so you went to him with the struggles of the soul, he looked at you like you were some kind of a goony bird from Mars?

53:29 Which one of these would you exclude from the man that you would want to be your pastor? As you would that others do unto you, even so do ye also unto them, for this is the law of the prophets. Now that puts it right down where you can't obey the tremendous implication of this second statement I've made. These things need not all be evident when a man aspires to the office, but they must all be evident to some degree before he's formally set apart for the office.

54:07 The church is not warranted to go ahead in an action which cannot produce edification. No man should press ahead to the office of the ministry unless he has reason to believe he can be a means of edifying the church of Jesus Christ. And if I sound like I'm on a kick and I'm just running this thing into the ground, it's because I am made so painfully aware of this problem wherever I go in our country and other parts of the world that the office of the ministry is clogged up with men who cannot edify the people of God.

54:52 If God would be pleased to give to the church in the next five years a thousand men in this very area of the vineyard who met those qualifications, nothing would make my heart rejoice more, but I'd rather see five men than a hundred who don't meet these qualifications. Then the third thing I would say is these things will not necessarily be evident in equal proportion in any one man. Some have by nature an inquisitive, questioning mind. They have an orderly mind.

55:32 Systematics? Why they couldn't stand not to read systematic theology. There's just something in them that cries out to see the truth of God in this interrelated. Some men don't have an orderly mind, but they have this historical bet.

55:47 They'll find the history of a falling leaf if they could. They just got that—they're just in it. They want to know where it came from, who was his grandmother, and how did she get there. Well, then, historical theology would be rather natural for them in tracing out the various heresies.

56:03 Well, you see, that type person would not naturally be inclined in this direction. Some people are of a very sensitive, introspective type. Experimental theology is native to them, is breathing. But systematics?

56:17 Not so. These things will not necessarily be evident in equal proportion in any one man, but it is the wisdom of every man to find the area of his natural weakness and there seek to fortify his mind and put the effort in the area where you wouldn't naturally do it if left to yourself.

56:39 Why? Because the ministry exists for edification, and if you want to be a means of edification, you'll work on the areas where you will be most weak in your edification. And then the fourth principle—I've already said it—all ministers and aspirants to the office of the ministry should seek to improve and work on the areas of imbalance as much as possible. We should seek to be thoroughly furnished unto every good work.

57:13 And then, fifthly, a man having some of these gifts in eminence, but obviously lacking others, may serve as a teacher under the oversight of other elders, but he should not be a leading teaching elder.

57:31 I believe there are men who are endowed with gifts to teach, but who are not endowed with the necessary balance of these mental gifts to become a leading teaching elder. That is, to find themselves useful in the office of the ministry. And I think a failure to make that distinction has again brought great harm in the church. The moment a man displays some mental acumen in his grasp upon the truth and some of the mechanical ability to communicate it, immediately everybody wants to push him into the ministry.

58:09 He may not show an ounce of sound practical judgment.

58:15 He's not fit for the office of the ministry. For the ministry is something more than teaching. Now, there are ministries within the church that are exclusively teaching. He that teaches gives himself to his teaching, and he should seek to serve Christ in that capacity for which Christ has most suitably fit him.

58:37 Well, I leave these principles with you to try to balance out and to keep from undue discouragement, but at the same time to keep anyone from sneaking away from some of the very obvious implications of what we've covered. Now, let me just give you briefly this bibliography from Owen. I was going to quote a lot more, but in the interest of time I chose not to. Owen, volume 9, pages 431 to 462.

59:11 Volume 9, 431, 462. Volume 13, pages 29 to 49. And then volume 16, two sections, pages 42 to 55, pages 74 to 90.

59:33 Volume 16, 42 to 55, pages 74 to 90. And then a most perceptive article by Spurgeon in volume 2 of the Bound Banner of Truth, issues 17 to 32, volume number 2. And then within the book itself, it's volume 20, or we could say a number 20. They just have them by numbers.

59:57 Number 20, page 5, the ministry needed by the churches and measures for providing it by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. And this is a great distillation of typical Spurgeonic wisdom and insight, and the man who had a hand in training over 800 ministers ought to know whereof he speaks.