Necessary Spiritual Gifts

Introduction: The Ordinary Call and Necessary Gifts

0:00 we're considering some basic issues relative to the office of a leading teaching ruling elder, which has commonly been called the office of the ministry or the function of a pastor. Now, under that general heading, we are saying things that would relate in a secondary sense to any teaching office in the church, and I believe Scripture, as well as the history of God's people, confirm that there is a place for duly qualified teachers functioning within the church who do not necessarily bear the responsibility of the office of an elder. And I think you have indications of that, of course, in Romans 12 and again in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. So what we are doing is considering this matter of the call to the ministry, and this

0:51 is how we've approached it. I spent the first session dealing with six things that do not constitute a call to the ministry, but which play very heavily in the minds of many young men as they think of the ministry. And I won't even repeat those things. I'll just tell you that's what we covered. Then we spent in the second session our time dealing with four things that are the irreducible minimum of what constitutes an ordinary call to this ordinary office of a teaching elder. John Owen makes a very helpful distinction when treating of the subject of the call to the ministry between extraordinary offices such as apostles and prophets which demand

1:37 extraordinary call. However, when treating the office of the ministry of a teaching elder, we're dealing with an ordinary office, and hence the way into that office is by means of an ordinary call. And there are at least four things which constitute the irreducible elements of an ordinary call. Let me just give them to you. We spent the whole time seeking to enlarge upon them and will not do that now. There must, first of all, be desire born of right motives, 1 Timothy 3 and verse 1. If any man desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth or seeketh a good work.

2:15 Secondly, there must be graces indicative of genuine Christian experience, and 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are a description of those graces. Then thirdly, there must be gifts indicative of divine provision apt to teach, able to convince the gainsayers. And fourthly, there must be an opportunity indicative of providential favor. Now, what I've done after going over those four things that constitute the irreducible elements of an ordinary call to the ministry, I've gone back to enlarge upon mostly number three, but as you'll see today, there is some overlapping into this matter of number two. You cannot deal with gifts

3:03 indicative of divine provision without touching the matter of graces, though the primary focus has been upon this subject of the gifts. And as I've enlarged upon this, I've broken that down into three categories. First of all, the mental gifts. And we spent our entire time last month dealing with those mental gifts necessary for the office of the ministry. And I gave you five lines of thought. I will only give the heads without amplifying. First of all, there must be a mind reverentially submissive to the authority of Holy Scripture. Secondly, there must be a mind furnished with a grasp of the basic content of Scripture. Thirdly, a mind furnished with a basic

3:50 understanding of the meaning and interrelatedness of Scripture. This is, of course, systematic theology, biblical theology, historical theology, experimental theology. There must be some very basic elements of this. And the fourth requisite mentally is a mind furnished with the necessary tools to discover and to make plain the meaning of Scripture. And fifthly, there must be a mind furnished with sound practical judgment. And so we covered then those five things that fall under the mental qualifications under the general heading of gifts, which indicate divine provision.

The Importance of Spiritual Gifts for Edification

4:34 Now, as we move on into our study today into what I'm calling the spiritual gifts, that is, gifts related to a man's own spirit, not capital S, but small s, I would remind you of John Owen's perceptive statements with reference to the importance of gifts. He follows out a line of argument in which he says that if the ministry exists for the edification of the church, and two, if the ministry is Christ's gift to the church for edification, the only proof any man has that God has given him as a pastor-teacher, and hence a gift to the church, is that he has furnished him unto the task of edification. If the ministry exists for edification, then the

5:24 proof that I am Christ's gift to the church is that I am equipped to edify that church. And you say, well, that's simple. Well, it's simple. But that simple principle overlooked time after time has left the door open for all kinds of reasons for entering the ministry which falls short of solid biblical reasons. Now we would come today to this second great area under the matter of the necessary gifts indicating divine provision and equipage, the spiritual gifts. And as we do, I want to quote a writer of many years ago who, contemplating some of these very things, said the following, it is not to be supposed, therefore, that such an office can be easily filled. It demands

6:15 not merely some, but many, nay all excellences in happy combination. A person may, in a general way, be said to be qualified for the ministry who has talents for preaching, though not fitted for profitable private discussion or the affairs of church government. But this is evidently not a complete adaptation to the work. It is, on the contrary, a very imperfect one, and one with which no man should be content, for all the aspects of ministerial labor are, if not equally, yet highly important. Every one of them far too important to be trifled with. The right performance of each affords facilities for the rest and gives additional beauty and efficacy unto all. To be

7:03 fit only for one department cannot but greatly impede our activity and diminish our success. To fill the ministerial office with a degree of satisfaction and benefit commensurate with its capabilities, or with the desire of a heart awake to its importance, we must be all that it demands, men of God, perfect, completely furnished, unto every good work. This is an elevated standard. He that aims highest will most approximate to it. So may God help us to aim high as we come to a consideration this afternoon of the spiritual gifts necessary for the work of the ministry.

Spiritual Gift 1: Deep Experimental Knowledge of and Devotion to Christ

7:48 And I would like to suggest four lines of thought today. First of all, there must be a deep experimental knowledge of and devotion to the person of Jesus Christ our Lord.

8:10 As we contemplate what it means to be equipped by Christ unto the edification of the church in the realm of spiritual gifts, this is fundamental to every other gift and grace. A deep experimental, or if you like the other word, experiential knowledge of and devotion to the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. Now our Lord, in dealing with the twelve, made clear that deep attachment to his person was the soul of all service in his name. Two passages of Scripture which indicate this very clearly, the first in Mark chapter one and verse 17.

8:59 Many of us learned this verse when we learned a little ditty in Sunday school many years ago, I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men, I will make you fishers of men if you follow, follow me. Well, let's look at it in its more accurate biblical setting. Mark chapter one and verse 17. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. Here they were tending their nets, and our Lord calls them to a very radical and all pervasive relationship, a new relationship. You've attached yourself to your nets. Now attach yourself to me, and out of that crucible of attachment to my person, come ye

9:51 after me, I will begin to do something in you. I will make you to become fishers of men. And there's a very real sense in which our efficiency as fishers of men is in direct proportion to the thoroughness of our attachment to the one who calls us into loving relationship with himself. You find the same perspective in the 21st chapter of the Gospel of John. John chapter

10:25 21. In those well-known words of our Lord to Peter, John 21 verse 15, so when they had broken their fast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lands. He saith unto him again a second time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Tend my sheep? He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was

11:12 grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? He said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things? Thou knowest that I love thee? Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep. Now, there are many things in this passage, and my purpose is not to expound it, it's simply to quote it as an illustration of this principle, that all that Peter was to do in his official ministry as a feeder and a tender of sheep and lambs, he is to do out of the motivation of his love to the person of Jesus Christ his Lord. What is true in our Lord's treatment with the Twelve is most clearly exemplified in that greatest of all the saints in the Scriptures, the apostle Paul himself.

12:04 When Paul describes himself in Romans 1-1, he describes himself in these terms, Paul, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, called apostle has to do with office, separated unto the gospel has to do with ministry, but behind office and ministry is relationship to this person. Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, and he says the same thing, of course, in Philippians 1 and verse 1. So his own experimental acquaintance with Christ was the heart and soul of his ministry, and God indicated that this was

12:57 to be true of him in the very commission by which he set him apart. Look at the record of that commission in the 26th chapter of Acts, verses 14-17. We were all fallen to the earth, and I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why persecutus thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the gold. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest, but arise and stand upon thy feet. For to this end have I appeared unto thee to appoint thee a minister and a witness of what? Both of the things wherein thou hast seen me,

13:45 and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee. Paul, you are not to be a minister of anything that bypasses your own experience. You are to be a minister and a witness of that wherein I have appeared unto you and that in which I will yet appear unto you. And the soul of that very appearance and revelation was, of course, the knowledge of Christ Jesus himself. So Paul, describing his conversion, says in Galatians 1, 15, and 16, but when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb to reveal his son in me, not to reveal a set of doctrines about him, not to reveal a set of duties with reference to him, but to reveal his son in me.

14:34 And all the doctrines and the duties flow out from and adhere in the revelation of that person. He describes it in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, in these words, but God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul could say in 2 Corinthians 3, but we all with open face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are transformed into that same image from one stage of glory to another, even by the Lord the Spirit. Now someone asks, well, why is this the fundamental and essential prerequisite in the realm of the spiritual

15:19 gifts and graces? Well, for the simple reason, my brothers, that proclaiming Jesus Christ is the great task of preaching. I determine not to know anything among you, say, Jesus Christ, the great lodestone to which all of our preaching moves is the proclamation of this person. Well, what will that proclamation be if it doesn't flow out of an experimental attachment to him in knowledge and in devotion? It'll be hollow thing. It'll be most tedious to us to have our consciences strapped by the thought that we must preach Christ and to have a heart that does not naturally run out after that thing. It's a terrible thing to be employed by a company in which I was

16:07 paid to do something for which I had no heart. And miserable is the man who on the one hand sees that the theme of his preaching must be Christ, but who has a heart devoid of experimental acquaintance with Christ. Just the mention of Jesus in his preaching doesn't meet the biblical standard. It must be a speaking of him that is the overflow of that where unto the Lord has appeared unto him and is yet appearing to him. Let me quote some very confirming words on this theme from this excellent little book by James Stewart. I do not put my imprimatur upon James Stewart's theology nor many of his views about many things, but he has some great insights on preaching. And I quote now from page 50, in the last resort, everything depends on the inner

16:56 certainty of our own soul. Two hundred years ago, George Whitfield preached a sermon in Glasgow on the duty of a gospel minister. And this is what he said, you will never preach with power feelingly while you deal in a false commerce with truths unfelt. It will be but poor, dry, sapless stuff. Your people will go away out of the church as cold as they came in.

17:23 For my own part, Whitfield cried, I would not preach an unknown Christ for ten thousand worlds. Such offer God strange fire, and their sermons will but increase their own damnation. I would not preach an unknown Christ for ten thousand worlds. And one of the great themes of Whitfield's preaching was one in which he castigated ministers for preaching not only an unknown Christ, but an unfelt Christ. And he was not afraid of the word felt. Now, he was no wild-eyed Pentecostals. He was a thoroughgoing, unembarrassed, holy-committed Calvinist with both feet on the ground. But he said he would not dare preach an unfelt Christ. What is he talking about?

18:14 Well, he's just using other terminology to describe what I'm saying. That this great requisite in the realm of the spiritual qualifications is a deep experimental knowledge of and devotion to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Stuart goes on to say now in his own language, we want something better than secondhand religion and borrowed theology and stolid, unkindled churches which are merely efficient and competent machines dealing with reality at a distance and sending earnest seekers away with an aching, disappointed sense that something vital is lacking. We want that thrilling sense of immediacy, that directness of touch, that spiritual drive and momentum which only a personal encounter

19:05 with God can ever impart. I came into the town, wrote John Wesley in his journal, and offered them Christ, to spend your days doing that, not just describing Christianity or arguing for a creed, not apologizing for the faith or debating fine shades of religious meaning, but actually offering and giving men Christ. Could any life work be more thrilling or more momentous? Thus ended the quote from Mr. Stuart. I say to you, my young brethren, aspiring to the work of the ministry, if this requirement be lacking, what can make up for it?

19:51 What can make up for it? If Christ in the glory of His person is the central son of the universe of all truth, and is the central son in the universe of the experience of the people of God, all the other planets and satellites are in their proper orbit, but he is missing. There's no light, there's no warmth, there's no life.

20:20 Rip the sun out of its central place in our universe, and couldn't you keep every other planet in its proper orbit? There'd be no light, no warmth, and no life. Hence I say to you from the depths of my heart, prize above all other things, prize above a working knowledge of your Greek and Hebrew, though I hope you have it. We dealt with that last time, I'm not minimizing.

20:48 Prize above an increasing accuracy of perception of all the areas in the disciplines of theology, systematic, biblical, experimental, historical prize above all things, my brethren, a deep experimental acquaintance with Him as He's revealed in the Scriptures. Then the second, and this could subsist almost as a subheading under the first, but I felt it worth augmenting it to a separate head, and so I've done that. There must be a deep, constant, experimental acquaintance with the great issues of sin and grace. A deep, constant, experimental, or experiential, whichever word you prefer,

Spiritual Gift 2: Deep Experimental Acquaintance with Sin and Grace

21:41 acquaintance with the great issues of sin and grace.

21:48 The great pattern of the apostolic ministry is found in these simple words. I quote John now, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto. Of His fullness have we all received and grace for grace. Again, the apostles, we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. I'm convinced in my own mind that that standard of balanced godliness indicated in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 is of such a nature that no man comes to that total integration of graces by nature, but only by struggles, by wrestlings, by tears, and at times possibly by

22:40 fastings. Let me explain what I mean. You have in that picture of what it means to be blameless, that balanced interplay of active and passive graces that must come to some maturity before a man can be recognized as a teaching elder. He must be blameless, husband of one wife, ruling well his own house well, sober, temperate, given to hospitality, all of these things. Now, by nature, temperament, genes, chromosomes, training, all the rest, we may find it relatively easy to cultivate, say, this particular requirement, or we may find it relatively easy to cultivate this one due to temperament, training, etc. But there's no person who by nature

23:31 finds himself just drifting into the expression of all of these things. The man who may be given to hospitality because he's sort of gregarious and outgoing may have a constitutional softness he could never convict a gainsayer, you see. He would never be willing to let blood for truth, and God says until a man's ready to let blood for truth is, or somebody else's, he's not fit for the office of the ministry. So my contention is that if we hold to the biblical standard of the total integration of these graces, then there must be deep experimental acquaintance with the great issues of sin and grace for a man ever to come down the path to where those things are evidenced.

24:16 So that he is no stranger to what it is to struggle with sin, to wrestle with doubts, to sweat over the great problems of the windings of his own heart, and finding how and at what point and by what means the grace of God meets him in those areas of his need. And brethren of ministry devoid of practical instruction in these areas will leave the people of God barren and dry week after week and month after month. And all over this country, people sit in churches and they're shriveling. Orthodox reform churches, because preachers are not dwelling deeply with God in the area of experimental acquaintance with the issues of sin and grace. They speak as though

25:03 they never had a moment's doubt about their own acceptance in the beloved. Hence, they can't help the doubting saints who are struggling with the issues of assurance. They never speak as though they had a day when they just felt mean as the devil and just wanted to go spit on everybody and kick benches. And so the people who feel that way think, he's got nothing to say for me. They would never, never let it be known that they don't feel like praying half the time. And maybe a quarter of the time they don't pray. They would never, never indicate what it was to struggle through some lecherous temptation or some temptation to some foul kind of snow. No, that would be letting down their ministerial dignity. Oh, it might mean that they'd be a source of blessing to the people of God, but cardinal rule inflexible with the laws of the Medes and the Persians is we must maintain

25:54 our ministerial starch at any cost, even if it means shriveling up the people of God. Oh, may God deliver us from such abominable concepts of the ministry. I don't know where they're picked up. I think I know where they're spawned, but I don't know where they're contracted. May the Lord help us to see that this deep and constant experimental acquaintance with the great issues of sin and grace is an essential requisite of a truly God owned ministry. Now to show that this is not some idea that I've just picked up along the way and riding a hobby, I'm going to hide behind some books. All right. This is not a sermon. This is a lecture. So I don't mind quoting from books. And the first quote is from a sermon preached by someone in the free church of Scotland

26:44 years ago on the subject of ministerial guilt. And listen to what this brother says in the presence of his fellow ministers. Our themes, fathers and brethren in the ministry, the hinges of the ministry are sin and Christ. Well, how shall a man discover the sins of others solidly and tenderly, not harshly, but tenderly and lovingly, who is not seeing and weeping in secret places over his own sins? And as for Christ, the very idea of Christ, the beloved of the father, his elect in whom his soul delighteth, is one of the heart and of the soul. It is not to be taken up by mere intellectual apprehension. The love of Christ constraineth us, says Paul,

27:33 giving the spring of his whole labors. Lovest thou me, Peter? Then feed my sheep. You can never feed them otherwise. Or take this view of it. The word is our instrument, our sword. But the way to get into the very heart of the word is to get the word into our heart so as to have it in wrought to our very being is nothing else than our living on it in secret, praying over it, weeping, rejoicing over it. Now, who is this? Again, some wild-eyed Pentecostal? No. This is a door Scotsman preaching to fellow Scots ministers. Thus it becomes our own, and we come to use and wield it with facility. Otherwise, the word is to a man what Saul's armor was to David when he said,

28:24 I cannot go with these, for I've not proved them. It is a cumbersome, clumsy thing, hanging about a man which he can make no use of. The theme in short is endless. If we're not prospering in soul, living much in secret prayer, we're cut off from the fountain of all our strength for the ministry together. What guilt lies upon this whole matter? And then he goes on to enlarge upon it and says, we have spoken no doubt what we believed, but too little of what we said can we say of that we have spoken because we believed. And enlarges upon this theme that one of the gifts and grace is requisite for the office of the ministry is that of this deep, constant,

29:11 experimental acquaintance with the great issues of sin and of grace. Now I quote from Dr. John Owen, volume 16, pages 75 and 76, where he speaks to this very issue, experience of the power of the truth, second great requirement for the work of the ministry. Without this, they will themselves be lifeless and heartless in their own work, and their labor, for the most part, will be unprofitable towards others. It is to such men attended unto as a task for their advantage, or as that which carries some satisfaction in it from ostentation and supposed reputation, wherewith it is accompanied. But a man preacheth that sermon only well unto

30:00 others, which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savory unto them. Yea, he knows not that the food he hath provided may be poison unless he have really tasted of it himself. If the word do not dwell with power enough, it will not pass with power from us.

30:30 And no man lives in a more woeful condition than those who really believe not themselves what they persuade others to believe continually. The lack of this experience of the power of gospel truth on their own souls is that which gives us so many lifeless, sapless orations. What a description of much contemporary preaching! Lifeless, sapless orations, quaint in words, and dead as to power, instead of preaching the gospel in the demonstration of the Spirit, and let any man say what they please. It is evident that some men's preaching, as well as others not preaching, have lost the credit of their ministry.

31:16 So I say again to you young men aspiring to the office of the ministry, would you have those gifts necessary? Then you'd cry to God for and labor at a deep, constant experimental acquaintance with the great issues of sin and of grace. I quote again from Stuart, pages 29 and 30. You need not be eloquent, or clever, or sensational, or skilled in dialectic, but if you are to preach you must be real. To fail there is to fail abysmally and tragically. It is to damage incalculably the cause you represent. Anything savoring of unreality in the pulpit is a double offense. Let me urge upon you two considerations.

32:03 On the one hand, and all catch the wisdom in this, you'll be preaching to people who've been grappling all the week with stern realities. May I say the petrine authorship of 2 Peter's, not a stern reality with which your people have been grappling with. And the Lord bless you if you can defend that in the face of liberals. Great, wonderful, but you don't seed hungry sheep with your great, unanswerable, diatribe, proving the petrine authorship of 2 Peter?

32:35 That's not the issue of grim reality with which they've been wrestling. That poor young mother who's got two kids and a third one on the way, she's wrestling with the grim reality of how in the world she's going to make it through to Sunday. How does God's grace come to impinge with its blessed provisions upon her in her near state of distraction? And there's that fellow seeking to carry out a testimony in his shop, and he's beset and bombarded with lecherous thought and talk constantly. He needs to know, how does the grace of God meet him there?

33:09 And there's that other saint wrestling with doubts and with questions and perplexities. You see, your people are living, Mr. Stewart says, with stern realities behind a congregation assembling for worship, there are stories of heavy anxiety and fierce temptation, loneliness and heroism of overwork, lack of work, physical strain, mental wear and tear, and we wrong our people and we mock their struggles if we preach our gospel in abstraction from the hard facts of their experience. Isn't that a profound statement? We mock their struggles if we preach our gospel in abstraction from the hard facts of their experience. It is not only that they can

33:55 detect at once the hollowness of such a performance, though that is true, there is this, that to offer pedantic theorizing and academic irrelevances to souls wrestling in the dark is to sin against the Lord who died for them and yearns for their redeeming. There's a further indictment of unreality in preaching. This is rooted not so much in the hard problems men and women are facing, but what Whittier called this maddening maze of things, as in the very nature of the Christian faith itself. The gospel's quite shattering in its realism. It shirks nothing. It never seeks to gloss over the dark perplexities of life, frustration, sin and death, or to guild unpalatable facts with a coating of pious verbiage or facile consolation. It never sidetracks uncomfortable

34:44 questions with some naive and cheerful cliche about providence or progress. It gazes open-eyed at the most menacing and savage circumstances life can show. It is utterly courageous. Its strength is in the complete absence of its utopian illusions. It thrusts Golgotha upon men's vision and bids them, look at that. I say to you, my brethren, again, would you be

35:16 a workman who needs not to be ashamed, cutting a straight course in the word of truth, that word which comes to bear upon men in that context of grim realities, then you yourself must have a deep, constant experimental acquaintance with the great issues of sin and of grace. One more quote from John Owen, Volume 9, page 455.

35:44 Another thing required for the work of the ministry is experience of the power of the things we preach to others. I think truly that no man preaches that sermon well to others that doth not first preach it to his own heart. A man may preach every day in the week and not have his heart engaged once. And I know from bitter experience that Mr. Owen is not theorizing.

36:10 I've gone carnal and dry in the midst of preaching 10 or 12, 14 times a week.

36:18 A man may preach every day in the week and not have his heart engaged once. This hath lost us powerful preaching in the world and set up instead of it quaint orations for such men never seek after experience in their own hearts. And so it has come to pass that some men's preaching and some men's not preaching have lost us the power of what we call the ministry. Now this may all be swept aside as mere Puritan rant. Let it be done, my dear brothers, but God have mercy on you if you ever put your fingerprints on any pulpit anywhere unless you stand there as a man living in deep and constant experience of the power of divine grace coming to bear upon the great issues of sin and that world of reality.

37:12 One man has rightly said the only true expositor is experience. That's why I say you've got to put today's lecture in the context of last months where I said of the necessity of experimental theology, yes, but in the context of systematic theology historical, I do not negate any of that. I'm building upon it and I'm saying that the only true expositor of all that theological acumen is experience. Hence I close this section by exhorting you if you aspire to the ministry in a biblical sense. You want to minister unto the edification of God's people. The proof is this, that you aspire to constant experimental acquaintance with the great issues of sin

Spiritual Gift 3: Deep, Genuine, and Demonstrable Love for People

37:58 and of grace. Now I come to the third under the spiritual requirements, not only this experiential knowledge of and devotion to the person of Christ, experiential knowledge of the great issues of sin and grace, but thirdly a deep, genuine, and demonstrable, and I've chosen my words carefully, a deep, genuine, and demonstrable love for people. Again, we go back to Ephesians 4 in which the apostle says the ascended Christ has given gifts to his church for the edification of the church, indicating as we set over against one another these two concepts. Here is the church,

38:48 here is the ascended Christ, and he gives gifts to the church, and those gifts are in the form of ministries. Now there are many young men who've got this idea that the church exists as a framework within which they can exercise their gifts, so in reality the church exists for them. Hence they feel like they're little second-class heroes when it's known, I'm a ministerial student, I'm going seminary. You're all supposed to say, isn't that wonderful? Young men preparing for the Lord's work, and they've got this mentality that they're sort of little ecclesiastical heroes. Bully,

39:36 bully for them because they're going to seminary, and they're going to be preachers, and you see the church should look upon them in that light, you see, that the church exists for people like me, and so they evidence this mentality by, as it were, soaking in every little bit of this sort of demagoguery and little bit of hero worship because I'm a seminarian student, you see. Of course, none of you, that never enters your mind, and I'm just talking about something that's way, way out there on Mars, but since you might meet a margin someday, maybe it'd be helpful to know this, that you might point it out to him. But the scriptural perspective is,

40:16 you just might meet him in the mirror someday.

40:20 The biblical perspective is not that the church exists for us. No, no. If the Lord is equipping us with those gifts requisite to be pastors and teachers, we exist for the sake of the church. He has given gifts, what, for the edification of the church so that the whole concept is that I am servant to the people of God, that through me the purpose of God in their edification may be realized. Hence, when you turn to our blessed Lord, what do you find in his lips, words like these? I am among you as he that what? Servant. The Son of man came not to be what?

41:10 Ministered unto, but to minister and to give. John 13, he said, if I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, and that was all sacramental, as it were, emblematic of what his ministry was, Peter says, no, Lord, you can't stoop to wash my feet. That's taking the place of a servant. You're the master. You're not to stoop. I should be the one stooping, the Lord says, if I wash thee not, I shall no partner lot with me. This is the essence of my ministry. I serve. I serve. And he says, if I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another's feet, for I have left you an example that ye should do as I have done unto you. You're going out big shot of fossils, huh? Foundation stones in the church?

42:01 Ah, yes, but listen, don't you think like the Gentiles? You remember the argument they had on the eve of our Lord's crucifixion? Who's going to be prime minister in the coming kingdom? Remember what their argument was? Who's going to sit on the right side? The Lord says, amongst the Gentiles, those that weave the big shots throw their weight around, but he says, not so among you, whoever shall be great among you shall be what? Servant of all.

42:27 And brethren, that Gentile mentality didn't die with that much. It's as much with us as remaining corruption is a part of all of us. Now, it's in this area that I say there must be some demonstrable evidence that a young man is captured this perspective, or I have no ground scripturally to say that God is equipping him for the ministry. If the ministry is basically a life of service, taking the place of a common servant for the edification of the people of God, then there must be some deep, genuine, demonstrable love for people if he's to follow in the pattern of his Lord.

43:10 Look at the Apostle Paul, and all I'll do is turn you to one chapter, one chapter alone, to see some of these characteristics in him. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Look at verse 7. He said, we'll back up to verse 6, not seeking glory of men neither from you nor from others, when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ. But he says, we were gentle in the midst of you as when a nurse cherishes her own children. And the word nurse there means a wet nurse. As the picture of a woman

43:58 who loves kids so much, she hires herself out to nurse other people's children as a wet nurse. If she loves kids that much, what must she be like when she's got one of her own children in her arms? And that's the analogy he uses here. He said, we were gentle in the midst of you as when a nurse cherishes not somebody else's children, but when she has her own children and cherishes them, hurls them to her breast and to her bosom, even so being affectionately desirous of you.

44:28 We were well pleased to impart unto you not the gospel of God only. We weren't just word machines giving you divine truth and divine authority under the unction of divine power. No, no, he says we were pleased to give not the gospel of God only, but our own souls. Why? Because ye were become dear to us. And then he proved it. It was demonstrable love for ye remember, brethren, our labor, travail, working night and day, that we might not burden any of you. We preached unto you the gospel of God. Verse 11, and you know how we dealt with each one of you as a father with his own children, exhorting you, encouraging you. Verse 17, we brethren, being bereaved of you for

45:16 a short season, in presence not in heart, endeavor the more exceedingly to see your face with great desire. Verse 19, for what is our hope, for joy or crown of glory are not ye. Can you feel the pulse of this? He was no great inspired word machine. Is it word dipping down in the midst of the people and unloading all his great concept of truth and going, no, no. The minute he got near people, he found the tentacles of his own God-given affection going out and wrapping themselves around people. And he says, ye were become dear to us, not just your souls. That's why I said, a demonstrable love for people. This idea of a burden for souls detached from people is one of

46:03 the most abominable travesties in the Christian world today. That person, with all of his quirks and peculiarities and everything that in him that naturally grates against things in you, nonetheless, there must be this love for people. Hence, you see the apostle bearing with the folly of people. You see him weeping over the effects of heresy and error in the book of Philippians.

46:28 You see him loving, though he's not loved, 2 Corinthians 12, 15. You see him accommodating himself to the prejudices of the unsaved. He says, around these prejudice Jews, I submit myself to ceremonial trappings to the Jews. I become like a Jew. Why? That I might gain the Jews. He gives up lawful liberties. He said, don't I have a right to have a wife? Don't I have a right to live in the gospel? He said, I form all of those. Where does that come from, my young brethren? I'll tell you where it comes from. From a deep, genuine, demonstrable love for people. And when a man has this vision that the ministry is an office of service, you exist to serve the church. And as one old man said to a young preacher, and it's come back to me again and again, if you enter

47:16 the ministry expecting a fair deal, forget it. Forget it. You don't get a fair deal. Servants seldom do. You exist to serve. There aren't many modern gospel hymns and the rest that have much truth in them, but there's one that does. There are some, more than one, but one above all others that I think of has some great truth. Is that so, Send I You? One of the verses there speaks of laboring unloved, unwanted, unappreciated. That's the heart of the ministry sometimes.

47:52 When you've spent hours tracking down the meaning of a word because you want to feed the people of God, and you've burned the midnight oil, or some of us who can't burn midnight oil to find ourselves better able to burn pre-dawn oil, in order that you might have something to give the people of God that is clear and is structured and is bathed in prayer, and for all your labors, you don't even get a grunt at the door. If you forget this perspective that you exist to bless the people of God as a servant, who when he's done all, doesn't go around saying, oh, I want to feel the master's hand. No, when he's done all, what does he say? I've done only my duty. I am still an unprofitable servant. God, ask every one of you

48:40 young men aspiring to the ministry. Is that what you aspire to, the role of a servant? Has God the Holy Ghost burned this concept into your heart? If he hasn't, you better suspend the whole matter of any aspirations to the ministry until God the Holy Ghost brings you to the place where you're willing to be servant to men, and if necessary, to be walked over in the course of that service, for Christ's sake and for the sake of this church. And when does that start?

49:11 When a few dominees lay their hands on you and have a formal ordination service, no, sir. There better be evidence of it now.

49:22 Hence, if you're not right now in this church, or whatever church you're a part of, making efforts to get to know people, find out what their needs are, enter into their silly little concerns, find out what makes old people tick, and what interests them, and be willing to talk about things that are totally irrelevant as far as you're concerned, but they're important to somebody else. Listening to that young mother, describe all the silly little things about a little baby does, and you could care less, but it's important to her. And you have a love for her, and love gives you that ability to listen to all these things about her little child, goo goo gaga, and all the rest. Brethren, that's what the ministry's about. I've seen some men who could preach great sermons, but they had no great effect, simply because the people to whom they

50:10 preached them knew that they really didn't love them. Love that was demonstrable at the mundane level, as one wise old preacher said, he who puts the preacher who puts his hand upon the head of a little child, puts his hand upon the heart of its mother. You can't be a pastor if you don't love kids, because people will turn you off. You don't love their kids. You're telling them you don't love them. Oh, you should that part of all right, all right. You go out and see that, and clutter up the ministry with all those pious, pontifical pronouncements that will have no effect upon the hearts of men. If people know that you love them,

50:57 it's amazing what they'll take, and what they'll put up within you. It's amazing. I have gone home many a Sunday and said to my wife, honey, if nobody comes next week, I won't blame them. Either because I felt I hadn't produced, or I felt God enabled me to be bold and faithful beyond what anyone in his right mind would be. And lo and behold, there they are back again. And when I've had occasion to ask them even unsafe, I shall never forget one of the most humbling experience in this building. And after completing that series on the doctrine of hell, when I was deeply concerned about several unsafe people in our own assembly who come continually, I met one of the men at the door, and he looked me in the eye, and he said, you were preaching to me, weren't you pastor? I said, I sure was calling him by name, but I said, I want

51:45 to know one thing, looking him right in the eye. I said, do you know that I love you when I preached you that way? And he looked me right back to the retinas, and he said, pastor, there's no doubt in my mind what that you love. I thank God for that, with all my failures and all the rest. And I'm not the kind of person that comes on strong as being very loving. I was born with a wrinkled brow, and when I get excited, I look angry and all, I can't help it. That's the way God made me.

52:13 So, you see, this is not some artificial, stake-home standard of what it means to be loving, what first Tozer would call the soft-handed preacher with the saintly flush on his cheek, trying to get along with everybody. No, no, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about something that's far deeper than whether or not you've got a smile on your face and wrinkles or none on your brow. When God, the Holy Ghost, is generating in your heart a love to the people of God that makes you willing to serve them, for Christ's sake, no returns given. That comes through to them. That comes through to them, and God gives you their hearts. And then you have paved the way into their hearts by the message you preach. And you start now, you start now, with the simple little greetings,

53:01 the informal visit, the leading question with that teenager.

Spiritual Gift 4: A Measure of the Authority of Unction

53:06 Well, I must hurry on now to the fourth, because I do want to limit the lecture to just about an hour and have time for questions. And I wish I knew a better way to describe this fourth, but I don't, so I'll hide behind some of the masters again in fleshing it out. Under the spiritual gifts and graces, not only this deep experimental knowledge of and devotion to Christ, experimental knowledge of sin and grace, a deep, genuine, demonstrable love for people, but fourthly, there must be a measure of the authority of unction, a measure of the authority which comes with unction. Now, as I said, this is a difficult matter to treat,

53:56 because two things. It is subjective in nature, and secondly, there is tremendous confusion with anything regarding the work of the Holy Spirit. But I believe it can be demonstrated in the Word, both in our Lord's experience and that of the apostles, and in the abiding history of the church, that there is no such thing as a God-ordained ministry without the authority given by this peculiar something that I'm calling unction. Our Lord Himself, Isaiah 61, paralleled with Luke 4.18, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for He hath anointed me to preach. Hence, when He's done preaching that sermon, commonly called the Sermon on the Mount,

54:46 what was the source of amazement? Matthew 7, 28, and 29. When He was done preaching, what was the reflex response of that people? It was this very element of authority. It says, He spake as one having authority and not as the scribes and Pharisees. You see, they had official credentials, but when they opened their mouths, their credentials did not make up for the lack of the sense of divine authority. But our Lord, having no official credentials, had authority, and that authority was rooted in this divine unction. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, He hath anointed me to preach. You see this in the apostolic witnesses? Well, in Acts 5, Peter can say, I think it's verse 32, we are witnesses of these things, and so also is the

55:36 Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey Him. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, 3, my speech in preaching were not enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power there was that authority of unction. 1 Peter 1, 12, Peter speaks of those who preached unto you the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Now, this is not some peculiar doctrine. John Owen, the great theologian of the Holy Spirit, has a very penetrating, very profound paragraph on this very subject. I read now from Volume 9, page 454.

56:20 Authority is required for the work of the ministry. And what is authority in a preaching ministry? It is a consequent of unction, not of office. The scribes had an outward call to teach in the church, but they had no unction. No anointing. That could evidence that they had the Holy Ghost in His gifts and graces. Christ had no outward call, but He had an unction. He had a full unction of the Holy Ghost in His gifts and graces for the preaching of the gospel.

56:53 Herein there was a controversy about His authority. The scribes say to Him, by what authority doest thou these things? Who gave thee this authority? The Holy Ghost determined the matter. Matthew 7, 29, He preached His one having authority and not His describes.

57:09 They had the authority of office, not of unction. Christ only had that. And preaching in the demonstration of the Spirit, which men quarrel so much about, is nothing less. And listen to this statement. Nothing less than the evidence in preaching of unction, in the communication of gifts and grace unto them for the discharge of their office. For it is a vain thing for men to presume and personate authority. So much evidence as they have of unction from God in gifts and grace, so much authority they have and no more in preaching. And let everyone then keep

57:55 within His bonds. Spurgeon, again speaking on this very subject, page 186 in his lectures to his students. To us as ministers, the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential. Without Him our office is a mere name. We claim no priesthood over and above that which belongs to every child of God. But we are successors of those who in olden times were moved of God to declare His word, to testify against transgression, and to lead His cause. Unless we have the Spirit of the prophets resting upon us, the mantle which we wear is nothing but a rough garment to deceive. We ought to be driven

58:40 forth with abhorrence from the society of honest men for daring to speak in the name of the Lord if the Spirit of God rests not upon us. Again, that's in a wild eye Pentecostal. That's a thoroughly committed five-point Calvinist. He says we ought to be driven from the society of honest men for daring to speak in the name of the Lord if the Spirit of the Lord rests not upon us.

59:10 Now let me say by way of caution, this matter of unction has nothing to do necessarily with animation in preaching. Some people think if a man is animated and enthusiastic, that's unction. No, that's not. It just may be personality and training. I remember a man one time who was the classic example of this. I was preaching in a certain place, and he come up to me afterward, his eyes just all aglow, and he had that fanatic glow. You know, you learn to pick it up. People get that sort of a wild stare, and you know that there's something in balance. And he said, Father Martin, he said, I know the Holy Ghost was with you tonight. I said, oh, you do? How did you know that? Well, he said, I could tell. I could tell. I said, how could you tell? He said, I watched your feet. I said, you what? He was dead serious. He said, I watched your feet,

59:59 and he said, I noticed all the while you're preaching, your feet were moving. He said, I've noticed any man full of the Holy Ghost. He never preaches with his feet still. Now, you see, we laugh at that. And I think it bears laughter, but it's pathetic, because, you see, what this man had done in a more gross form is what many people have done.

60:17 They've equated unction with a certain kind of preaching. Animation in certain circles, it's a quiver in the voice. That's unction. Other people, they equated with eloquence, the ability to paint vivid pictures. Some people acquainted with volume, and they think that there's no more measure of the Holy Spirit than there is notches on the volume knob. And so up it goes, figuring full volume means full unction. Some people have other ideas. And let me say, brethren, unction has nothing necessarily to do with animation, eloquence, volume, or flow of words necessarily, I say. It may involve many of those things, or it may not. But if I were to describe unction, I would describe it this way. It is that

61:05 peculiar something which gives weight and power, hence authority, to the word preached, so that when you're sitting under a ministry upon which the unction of the Spirit rests, though you're conscious that the individual is there, you see him, you know him, you may have been talking with him a half an hour before. And though you know the words coming out of his mouth are his words in the exposition and application of the word, from the time the words leave his mouth and strike your heart, may I say it reverently? God has sat upon those words, and they're driven home with a weight and the authority that you know as an element that that man could never put in them. That's unction. I don't know any other way to describe it than that. Now, there may be but

61:54 little measures of it now, and that's why I said some measure of the authority of unction must be present if a man is to aspire to the office of the ministry and have reason to believe that God is equipping him. Both McShane and Whitfield followed in the train of Timothy's experience in that they expected and received a new measure of unction at the time of their ordination. McShane says in his own diary that he expected that when he was formally set apart for the work of the ministry, Christ, the head of the church, would give him a new measure of unction which he'd never known before. And subsequent history indicates that a number of people traced their conversion from the first sermon he preached after his ordination. Whitfield gives testimony to the same thing.

62:42 Now, I am not speaking of a distinct baptism of the spirit which every man must seek and must know when he had it and how and all the rest, and at this point I part company with some esteemed men of the past and of the present. But I am saying, however a man comes to it, whether by degrees or by some crisis experience, there is the evidence of the authority of unction upon the preached word. And without that, he has no grounds to believe that he is set apart by the head of the church to perform a task which only the Holy Ghost can accomplish. Now, let me say by way of application, you can't bluff unction. You can't imitate it. Maybe you know someone in whose ministry you

63:34 sense unction, and you say, well, if I preach the way he preaches, if he happens to use a lot of illustrations, well, if I use a lot, I'll have unction, or he may have a lot of volume or not so much volume. Whatever it is, you think, well, I'll imitate the framework that his unction takes. Well, you can do that, but you can't bring the unction upon it. The spirit blows where he wills, and either the head of the church grants that unction, or he does not. One man said of another man who had this unction, he said, that preacher speaks as if Jesus were at his elbow. Oh, brethren, to have that said of us, that we speak as though Jesus were at our elbow. Along this line, I would

64:23 recommend that you carefully and prayerfully read and reread Spurgeon's chapter on the Holy Spirit in connection with our ministry. I know of nothing more searching in this whole area. With some exceptions to certain statements, I recommend the last chapter of Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones' book on preaching, in which he deals with this matter of the work of the Spirit. Dr. Lloyd Jones takes the position that there is a definite baptism of the Spirit to be sought, and one knows when he has it. I take exception to him in that particular position. However, there is still much in that chapter that is most helpful. And I say to you, aspiring to the work of the ministry, as you labor in all these other areas, make one of your constant prayers to be Lord Jesus,

65:12 head of the church, if you're equipping me to be a means of edification. Give me now some measure of that authority of unction. May it be recognized by your people because a discerning people sense it. A man may have miles to go in his basic homiletical style.

65:31 He may have miles to go in his skills in exegesis. He may have 10,000 miles to go in fitting all his theology together. But oh, if there's something of unction upon him, he'll be a means of blessing to the people of God in spite of the great measure to which his gifts are underdeveloped. But without that unction, he can become a very polished preacher, and he'll just come to the church and never be a means of blessing to the people of God.

Conclusion: The Irreducible Elements of Spiritual Gifts

66:02 So I would conclude then by leaving with you these things that I feel are the four irreducible elements of the spiritual graces necessary for one to be equipped for the work of the ministry. Let me ask this question as I close. Which one of these would you omit from a man

66:27 and then call him to be your teaching elder?

66:33 May I repeat my question? Which one of these four things would you omit from a man? Which one would you tolerate as a legitimate omission and then call that man to be your teaching elder? Would you like to sit under a ministry that does not flow out of a deep, experiential knowledge of and devotion to the person of Christ? Would you like to come week after week with a heart longing to have a new sight of the Savior, only to go away with some new facet of doctrine, Christ absent, some new duty, Christ absent, some new outline, but Christ—is that what you'd want? Or do you want the ministry that is the overflow of a

67:19 teaching elder's relationship to Christ that is deep and warm? Would you omit the second? Would you want to come week after week with your struggles, with sin and grace, and never have a word from the pulpit that indicated he knew something of those troubles? Would you?

67:38 Nice. I wouldn't want that. Well, let's take the third one. Do you want a ministry in which you doubt and have questions as to whether or not you genuinely loved by a teaching elder? And where that love has been demonstrable, you felt that love in the tear upon that man's cheek as he's entered into your home and wept with you when you wept. You felt that love when his hand has been upon your shoulder standing with you in a crisis, just asking you silly little questions about how your car is running and all the rest. Would you like to have a ministry that was devoid of that? You say, no, I wouldn't want that. Well, what about the fourth one? Would you like a ministry that was exegetically accurate, lawless as to its content objectively, but there was no sense of

68:25 would you like that? I say to every one of you aspiring to the ministry, if you wouldn't want that kind of ministry, don't you force it upon someone else by running under the hands of some elders and taking on a reverend unless there's evidence that the head of the church is thus equipped you with these spiritual gifts and grace. May God help us to have a biblical and elevated concept of the great responsibility and all of the needs to be men of God thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Unless this seemed too high and beyond this, remember the Lord Jesus

69:11 has gone back to heaven laden with all the gifts and graces necessary to make able men of God, apply to him, look to him, cast yourself upon him, feed upon him, draw from his fullness every necessary gift and grace.