Mechanical / Leadership Gifts

Opening Prayer and Review of Previous Sessions

0:00 Let's look to the Lord in prayer for his blessing.

0:05 Father, we do thank you again that we are privileged to meet with an open Bible before us, and in the confidence that there is one who even now intercedes for us, and on the basis of his own death, entreats you, the Heavenly Father, that we may have all necessary grace for life and for godliness. Give us then, we pray, that measure of grace needed to be subjected in our thinking to the authority of your word in this hour. May the Holy Spirit assist both speaker and hearer to our mutual profit and to the glory of Christ our Savior. Hear us then, our Father, as we come

0:51 seeking divine aid in his worthy name. Amen. Now just briefly, particularly for those of you who have not been with us in previous sessions, I'll give a broad overview of what we've covered thus far. This is the fifth session we've had, all of which have focused on the basic subject of the call to the Christian ministry, what constitutes a biblical call. What I've tried to do is lean upon no human author. I've tried to expose myself to all the human authors that I know who have spoken on the subject with any degree of clarity, and in so doing, I think I'm in safe territory

1:36 and not leaping the boundaries of what the Holy Ghost has said to others in the history of the church in the past, but I've tried to mix in some originality in terms of the form and structure of treating this subject of the call. I suggested in our first lecture six reasons why men aspire to the work of the ministry, which are not biblical reasons. And then in the second lecture, I dealt with the theme of what constitutes a biblical call in a broad overview of desire born out of right motives. There must be graces, indicative of genuine experience, gifts, indicative of divine provision and opportunity, indicative of a divine opening. And these four things are to be judged

2:25 not only by us individually and subjectively, but they are to be judged by the church, objectively and externally. And whenever there is a valid, ordinary call to the ministry—for this is what we're talking about. We're not living in apostolic days, nor are we living in the days of the prophets when the call came supernaturally and came in an extraordinary way because these were extraordinary offices. But we live in the days of the ordinary call to the ordinary office, and that involves both the inward subjective evaluation of the person aspiring to the work of the ministry and the external objective indication of the church and of the discerning people of God. There was a beautiful paragraph that I have not previously quoted that wonderfully

3:14 summarizes these aspects of the external and the internal, the objective, the subjective in this matter of the call. And it's found in Bridges' Christian ministry in which Bridges quotes a Dr. Leland. And this is what he says, and I'll use this as a summary of these things.

3:35 God has been graciously pleased to give me some talents which seem capable of being improved to the edification of the church. He hath disposed and inclined my heart to a willingness to take upon me the sacred ministry, and that not from worldly carnal ends and views, but from a sincere intention and desire of employing the talents he has given me in promoting the salvation of souls and serving the interests of truth, piety, and righteousness in the world. So notice what you have so far, indication of gifts, a willingness of heart born out of right motives. And I have been encouraged by the judgment and approbation of several learned and pious

4:23 ministers who, after a diligent course of trials carried on for a considerable time, judged me to be properly qualified for that sacred office and animated me to undertake it. Here was the confirmation of the people of God, you see, joining to his own individual desire. Upon seriously weighing all these things, I cannot but think I have a clear call to the work of the ministry, and I verily believe that if I rejected it, I should sin against God, grieve many of his people, counteract the designs of divine providence towards me, and alienate the talents he has given me to other purposes than those for which they have been intended. Isn't that a beautiful statement?

5:08 Comprehending all of these basic factors, that's on page 101 of Bridges Christian Ministry. Now what I've done since the whole area of desire born of right motives is quite adequately treated in any of the treatises on the subject of the call to the ministry, and since the matter of the graces indicative of genuine experience are very clearly and systematically treated in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus 1, and since the matter of opportunity, an open door of providence, is such a variable factor that one can say little except to say it ought to be there, I have felt it necessary to spend the majority of my time amplifying this third of the four requirements of a biblical call, namely gifts indicative of divine provision. And I've done so

5:59 along the lines of the basic argument of Owen extracted from Ephesians 4, in which he says, if the ministry is Christ's gift to the church, and Ephesians 4 says that, the ascended Christ has given gifts to the church, and if one of those gifts is pastor-teachers for the edification of the church unto the work of ministry, then the evidence that Christ is giving any man as a gift to the church is that he is equipping that man with the gifts necessary to edify the church. And where there are no gifts to edify, Owen rightly argues, there is no gift of Christ to the church. And I can't tell you, young men, how that simple little principle has

6:46 just cleared away so many of the cobwebs in my own thinking, and I believe has given me a very practical working tool to phase young men such as yourself with. What indications do you have that Jesus Christ is equipping you to be a means of edification to his church? You see, immediately it takes it all out of this realm of, well, I just feel called to preach, and it puts it into the realm of an objective assessment of whether or not he, the head of the church, is endowing you with the requisite gifts. Well then, we've broken down that subject of gifts into three areas, two of which we've already covered, and I want to cover the third this afternoon. The first was, there must be indications of those mental gifts, those gifts which relate primarily to the

7:34 activity of the mind, and we dealt with those things. Then last time, we dealt with those gifts which relate to a man's spirit, and though I'm separating these things for the sake of teaching, they all interpenetrate one another. They're not separate in experience, but you can't teach this way. You've got to teach one, two, three, even though the thing may be all overlapping.

7:58 You've got to break it down. So we've dealt then with the mental gifts, the spiritual gifts, and now we want to deal today with what I'm going to call the mechanical gifts. And in doing so, I'm only trying to put the spotlight, as it were, upon this aspect of those requisite gifts in the area of speaking and of ruling. Now, as I approach the subject, I want to do so with three texts of Scripture as the basis of our perspective. The first one is 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 2. We're done with review. I've told you what we hope to cover in this hour, and now let's roll up our sleeves and attempt to cover it. 1 Timothy chapter 3

Proven Ability to Speak: Heard Without Torture to Ears

8:47 verse 2. The bishop, therefore, must be, without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, act to teach, or an act teacher, an able, willing teacher. So immediately, Paul gives us to understand that one of the necessary gifts is that of a teaching ability. This has to do with the mechanics of communicating divine truth.

9:20 Assuming that there is a mind furnished with that truth, utterly subject to the Word of God, a mind which has been furnished with some ability to penetrate the meaning of the Word of God, there must be nonetheless, with that submissive mind and that sensitive Christ-like spirit, some indication that Christ, in His sovereign will, has given a man ability to teach, act to teach. 1st Titus chapter 1. Titus expresses it a little differently. Titus 1.9b, holding to the faithful Word which is according to the teaching, that He may be, and here's the key word, able both to exhort in the sound doctrine and to convict the gainsafe, able to exhort and to

10:15 convict. Now, that has to do with ability, teaching ability, exhorting ability, convicting ability, none of which, of course, are a means of edification without the blessing of the Spirit, but no amount of the Spirit's blessing will make up for the absence of the ability to exhort and to convict, or better translated, to convince. Then there is a third text that I would direct your attention to in 1 Peter 5 and verse 2. Not only must there be ability to teach as a mechanical or technical requirement, but since the office of the ministry is also a ruling office, there must be some ability to rule and to govern in spiritual matters.

11:04 Hence Peter says, 1 Peter 5.2, tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight. Tend the flock, exercising oversight. So there must not only be ability to teach, but ability to oversee, ability to shepherd or to tend the flock of God. Hence, as we break down the specific mechanical or technical requirements for the office of the ministry, we'll look at them in those two categories. There must be a proven ability to speak, and I'll say three things about that, and then a proven ability to rule, and I'll say two things about that. All right.

11:51 First of all now, a proven ability to speak. Now let me remind you as I say this, I am not saying that until this ability has been demonstrated to one's own personal satisfaction and to the full satisfaction of the church, no one should aspire to the ministry. No one should take any formal steps of preparation to the ministry. What I am saying is this, no one has any grounds to assume the office of the ministry until this is proven. See the difference now? It's one thing for a kid who's able to knock the ball out of the park in the American Legion circles playing ball when he's 17 and 18 to aspire to the major leagues, but the Mets don't call him up from the AA or AAA

12:41 club until that guy can do it with some degree of consistency. Now his aspirations while he's playing little league ball and playing American Legion ball are perfectly legitimate, but he doesn't expect the sheffing of the Mets to handle the contract until he's proven himself, and this is the point I'm making. I am not saying that if any of you men right here cannot demonstrate to the satisfaction of the people of God a proven ability to speak now, speak so as to edify consistently week in and week out, you ought to give up the idea of the ministry. No, I'm not saying that at all. There may be some very, very limited ability to speak at present, but I am saying you have no right whatsoever to allow any group of elders to lay their hands upon you

13:29 and set you apart formally to the work of the ministry as a teaching elder in any assembly until there is this proven ability to speak. Now, to what extent? Well, I said I had three points and here they are. Number one, an ability to be heard without torture to men's ears, an ability to be heard without torture to men's ears.

14:02 Now, you know what it is to have your ears tortured? Just listen to some of that cacophony, cacophonous music called Hard Rock, run up to about 150 decibels, and you know what torture to the ears is. Well, I'm saying that if Christ is making a man a gift to his church to edify by teaching and in the exercise of oversight, there will be indication that he's endowed in with ability to be heard without torture to the ears. Now, I did not say he must speak so as to be as pleasant music to the ears. That can be a great snare. A man who has a sonorous voice with a lot of timber and all resonance, you know, once in a while I meet some men like that and I secretly for a minute, I covet their voices. Those kind of men that when they talk, you can feel the vibration

14:52 on the chairs, you know, and there's just a beautiful radio voice. And there are times when I visit where chafed against my nasality and my allergies and my deviated septum and the fact that I have no resonance chambers and I've had to labor at pronouncing my M's and my N's, and yet the Lord has reminded me that a voice that just naturally sounds like music on the ear can be a great snare to people. And so I'm not saying that there must be a beautiful voice anymore that I'm saying there must be great eloquence, but there must be an ability to be heard without torturing men's ears. And that will involve at least three factors. The ability to speak with distinctness so as to be understood. The Spurgeon said some men have the perpetual problem that their words

15:42 play leapfrog with one another. And one word is jumping on the other and you can't understand them. Well, you see, no amount of Holy Ghost unction will make up for the fact that the poor people sit there scratching their heads saying, what in the world is the poor man's aim? So distinctness enters in. Secondly, volume enters in. Now, much of this can be corrected because of the mechanical means that we have in our day with amplifiers. And then, of course, not only distinctness and volume, but some measure of fluency of utterance. Do you want to have your ears tortured?

16:19 Get around the fellow who when you ask him a question, he says, well, it was, well, you know, I was kind of, well, you know how it is. And I was trying and I was, oh, brother, you know what I'm talking about? It's torture, torture. It's a form of torture not to be endured in the house of God.

16:41 And yet I've actually had to sit beneath men who felt they were called to preach, who had absolutely no fluency of utterance. And to hear them speak was torture to one's ears. I say again that if the head of the church is equipping any man to speak in Christ's name, he will give him ability to be heard without this torture. He will give him ability, some of which may be natural, some of which may be cultivated in great pains to speak distinctly, to speak with sufficient volumes who has to be heard, and to speak with sufficient fluency. Let me read from the uncomfortable Spurgeon speaking on this subject. And if you really want to improve your voice,

17:27 read his chapter on the voice, but I'm not talking about improving the voice to its maximum, I'm just talking about the minimum necessary for a valid call to the ministry. Physical infirmities raise questions about the call of some excellent men. I would not, like Eusthenes, judge men by their features, but their general physique is no small criterion. That narrow chest does not indicate a man formed for public speech. You may think it odd, but I still feel very well assured that when a man has a contracted chest with no distance between his shoulders, the all-wise Creator did not intend him habitually to preach. Now, some of this has become invalid since the invention of the microphone and the amplifier, and granted, we'll say,

18:13 all right, that's dated. But the principle nonetheless abides. When the Lord means a creature to run, he gives it nimble legs, and if he means another creature to preach, he will give it suitable lungs. A brother who has to pause in the middle of a sentence to work his air pump should ask himself whether there is not some other occupation for which he is better adapted. A man who can scarcely get through a sentence without pain can hardly be called upon to cry aloud and spare not. Now, there may be exceptions, but there is weight in the general rule. Brethren with defective mouths and imperfect articulation are not usually called to preach the gospel. The same applies to brethren with no palate or an imperfect one. Application was received some

18:59 time ago from a young man who had a sort of rotary action of his jaw of the most painful sort to the beholder. His pastor commended him as a very holy young man who had been the means of bringing some to Christ, and he expressed the hope that I'd receive him into the college. But I could not see the propriety of it. I could not have looked at him while preaching without laughter if all the gold and tarsus had been my reward. And in all probability, nine out of ten of his hearers would have been more sensitive than myself. A man with a big tongue which filled up his mouth and caused indistinctness, another without teeth, another who stammered, another who could not pronounce all the alphabet. I've had the pain of declining on the ground that God had not given them those physical appliances which are, as the prayer book would put it, generally necessary.

19:49 Now, you see, this is good, sagacious advice, and this is not a matter of somebody's better than somebody else because he has ability to speak without pain to the ears of men. It is simply acknowledging whether or not Christ has endowed a man with the gifts necessary for the work of edification. And I don't care how penetrating a man's insight is to the meaning of Scripture. I care not how godly his life is if he cannot speak with sufficient distinctness, volume, and fluency so as to be heard without pain to men's ears. He cannot be a means of continual edification in the work of teaching and preaching. He may have a great ministry as a writer,

20:34 he may have a great ministry as an absorter, he may have a great ministry as a visiting minister in the church who's able to have a peculiar ministry to people on a one-to-one basis. We're not saying he has no ministry, but what we're asserting is if public teaching and preaching is the backbone of his responsibility, there will be evidence that he's furnished. Now, having said that, let me put this qualifying statement. Some men have all the other requirements, but there are decided inabilities to speak. What should they do with these things? Here's a young man sitting in this place today. I don't know, I have no one in mind in particular, but perhaps this fits the case with some. And there seem to be these other gifts that Christ is giving you,

21:24 and you're humbled by it. You don't strut around, but you're humbled by the thought that God may be equipping you for special service in his church. And though in the flesh you'd run, there's the sense that constraint is being laid upon you, but you're conscious of some painful inadequacies in this matter of either being able to speak distinctly over sufficient volume or fluency so that you could not cause torture to the ears of God's people. How are you to look upon this inadequacy? Well, with some, that very inadequacy is an indication that the Lord has a different ministry. However, with others, that very inadequacy at this present stage is there as

22:11 a trial of your faith to see if you are really determined at any cost to equip yourself to be a workman who needs not be ashamed in his workmanship. Now, which is? I don't know. I don't know. And this is why we cannot absoluteize and why I would be dreadfully afraid of absolutizing.

22:34 Some people, it's obvious they've got the gift of gab. I'd like to split half their tongue off for a while to shut them up because their gift of gab is a curse. And there are others who lack this natural ability, but who by pains and prayer and diligent effort will be able to overcome those deficiencies until they are able to speak with sufficient fluency, volume, distinctness to the blessing of the people of God. So on the one hand, let me not discourage any who have other clear evidences that God's hand is upon you, and yet you feel painfully inadequate in this area. It would seem scripturally that some of the men whom God has called and equipped did not have native gifts

23:23 to speak. I think of Moses and I think of Jeremiah. And I think most of you are acquainted with those passages. When the Lord came to these men, one of the things that caused them to recoil from a public ministry of preaching and teaching was their inadequacy in the area of speech.

Proven Ability to Speak: Understood Without Torture to Minds

23:40 Jeremiah said, I know not how to speak. I'm a child. And Moses was conscious of some kind of speech inadequacy. And so God said, well, I'll make Aaron then to be your mother. Well, in the second place, under this general heading of ability to speak, not only ability to speak so as not to torture men's ears, but ability to be understood without torture to men's minds.

24:08 Some men don't torture your ears, but why do they torture your minds if you try to understand what they're saying? It's coming across beautifully as to how. But when you ask yourself, what are they saying? It causes all forms of mental torture. And I put this heading in the, again, the general context of the whole end of teaching is to do what? To impart truth, to impart truth unto edification.

24:37 But it is truth intelligibly conveyed, which brings the edification. Isn't that the whole argument of 1 Corinthians 14? Paul says, he who prophesies is better than he who speaks in tongues. Why? Because he speaks unto what? Unto edification. And here's old Harry over there getting all blessed, babbling away in tongues, and having his own little hallelujah meeting. And Paul says, shut up. Nobody else is getting helped. And you're having a great time with your little thumb sucking spiritual gift over there. But he said, look at the poor people of God. They sit there scratching your head, saying, what's he saying? Doesn't edify me. And the unbeliever comes in and he goes like this. And he says, is it crazy? So Paul says, I had rather speak five words in a known language

25:24 in the assembly. Why? Because this is how edification comes. Now, I only spend that time to establish the principle. If God is making a man a gift to his church unto edification, he will equip him to speak so as to be understood. Now, what will that involve? Well, again, three things. One gift of orderly arrangement. A man will know how to put one thought on top of another and have it land somewhere near the previous one. Now, he may not have it absolutely dead center. It may be a little off here, but he doesn't have it hanging out here on a sky book somewhere. And I, again, I don't mean to caricature, but I've met some dear brethren

26:09 who have a heart that beats with love to Christ, but God has not furnished them with the ability to hang thoughts together in any kind of logical arrangement and to listen to them speak in Christ's name is to go through all kinds of mental torture, trying to find where in the world you put the tail on that cow. He's got the tail hung up there on Venus and he's got the hoof down there in the grand canyon. And he just, it just doesn't have the thing together and they just can't put it together. It seems they lack that ability. Now, again, I put the caution. This is a gift like all gifts that may be in seed forming some in the beginning and must be developed by pains.

26:53 Others may have the gift rather naturally. As I try to assess my own gifts and have other people help me to know my weaknesses and my strengths, it just seems that naturally this has never been a problem to me. The orderly arrangement of materials. There are other aspects of my teaching and preaching that I must expend great pains upon. And though this is one of my strengths, I still labor at it in order to try to cultivate it. But there must be some gift of orderly arrangement. Secondly, some gift of perspicuity in presentation. And perspicuity simply means clarity. Clarity. So that the truth comes through and people sit there and say, oh, I see it. I use the classic illustration. Some of you men that heard my series of lectures

27:45 down at Westminster last fall will remember this. Dr. Joseph Parker was a great preacher. I don't say his theology was to be followed, but he was a pulpitier anyway. He had mastered the art of communication. And a young man came to him one time and said, Dr. Parker, I'm having great problems. I just don't seem to be coming through to my people. I don't seem to be edifying.

28:07 I wonder if you can help me. See what's wrong with my preaching. So Dr. Parker said, all right, young man, I want you to preach to me the sermon you preached to them on Sunday. So the young man was quite taken aback. All right, Dr. Parker. So for a half hour he dispersed. The new is done.

28:23 He said, well, I'm done, Dr. Parker. What do you think of my problem? He says, young man, there's no question what your problem is. He said, here's your problem. You asked me to be frank with you, I'll be frank with you. For one half hour, you've been struggling to get something out of your head instead of laboring to get something into mine. That was it. He said, you've been struggling for half an hour to get something out of your head. And he still hadn't done it yet. There was that inability to be perspicuous, to make clear what was being laid out. And again, you see, it's not enough that a man has the spiritual ability to penetrate into the mind of God in Holy scripture. He must also have the ability then to translate that

29:09 into such form as to lead the people of God into the mind of God in that passage of scripture. It's one thing for a man to be thrilled in his study as he comes to the heart of the message of God in a text. It's another thing to be the instrument of God to thrill the hearts of God's people in the assembly by leading them into it. You see? And I can think of a very clear example, a dear young man, and he's not present with us here today. So I'm not speaking about any of you.

29:39 But I have no question about this man's sincerity or his genuine love or his insights in many areas. But after listening to him a couple of times, I just had to tell the fella, I said, my dear brother, I said, you just hopelessly confuse the people of God. Every five minutes you go on, you just confuse us. And I said, I consider myself a careful listener and sapped with undivided attention trying to grasp what you're driving at. And I said, you had me so hopelessly confused, I didn't know which end was up.

30:15 Now, you think that was pleasant to tell a fella that? Do you think I like that? You're going around with a hatchet. Well, some people do. They think maybe I take some kind of sadistic delight.

30:24 But I could just picture a poor assembly of God's people trying to listen to this fella week after week. They'd go out so frustrated to come expecting to hear the voice of God, to have the text opened up, to have the minister say, now I have a wonderful truth to convey to you and have your spiritual fangs all dripping and your spiritual juices all salivating. And then you'll sit there for half an hour torturing, saying, what in the world is he saying? Well, how can that be undivided? Now, again, granted, some men may have very little evidence of this at the first, but my brother, don't you let anybody lay hands upon you or any church call you to be a pastor until there's some evidence that you have some measure of this gift.

31:06 Don't you do it, or you'll torture the people of God. You'll torture them. And that's a torture not to be born more than necessary. So there must be some gift of orderly arrangement under this general heading of ability to be understood, persecuity of presentation, and some gift of simplicity of speech. Some men just cannot seem to cultivate. They have no native bent for simplicity. They cannot seem to cultivate it. They always must speak in an elevated style, in a vocabulary that's beyond their people. I say, don't come to the church of God.

31:43 And maybe God's calling you to be a Christian scholar and use, you know, 25 cent words one after another. But if you cannot cultivate some gift of simplicity, if you cannot be done with all this artificial clerical start so that your preaching is essentially conversation with the people of God in the name of God concerning the truth of God, then the ministry is not the place. Let me quote again from our good patron saint, Mr. Spurgeon.

32:15 And in an article called the ministry needed by the churches, this is what Spurgeon says, the next thing we need in the ministry now and in all time is men of plain speech. The preacher's language must be not of the classroom, but of all classes, not of the university, but of the universe. Men who've learned to speak from books are of small worth compared to those who learn from their mother's, their mother tongue. The language spoken by men around the fireside and in the workshop and in the parlor. I use market language, said Whitfield, and we know the result. I rejoice in the Latany and Germanic jargon of certain schools of pedantic

33:01 and pretentious intellectualism. See, Spurgeon knew how to use it. You know, it's clever here. He's turning the stuff on. He says, I know how to use this business. I know what that is.

33:12 Because their learned clatter renders them powerless with the masses. But I mourn when similar hideousness of speech are adopted by evangelical, evangelical divines for it assuredly weakens their testimony. Anglo-Saxon speech, plain, homely, borrowed, nervous, forcible, never fails to move the English heart. The most truly dignified language is, however, the simplest. Simplicity and sublimity are next of kin. The Reformation banned an unknown tongue from the reading desk. That is Latin. We need another to banish it from the pulpit. Isn't that great? We need to banish it from the pulpit. I speak for English people and demand English

33:58 preaching. If there be a mystery, let it be in the truth itself, not in the obscurity of the preacher. And now I condense and read his last three lines and they're classic. Now the devil does not care for your dialectics and eclectic homiletics or Germanic objectives and subjectives, but pelt him with Anglo-Saxon in the name of God and he'll shift his quarters.

34:22 Isn't that great? Pelt the devil with Anglo-Saxon in the name of God. And all I say to you, my young brethren, if you aspire to the work of the ministry and feel God's hand is upon you, be done with all effect and affectation and everything that is sure to true naturalness in the communication of divine truth. Now let me qualify as I leave this heading. There may be much lacking in the first movements toward the ministry. You may be doubtful at the outset, but if there are no gifts in this area, then you have reason to question whether or not God has indeed called you to the work of the ministry. So then, ability to be heard without torture to

Proven Ability to Speak: Received as a Messenger of God

35:09 men's ears, ability to be understood without torture to men's minds, and thirdly, ability to be received as a messenger of God without torture to the discernment of God's people.

35:26 Now again, this is something that I haven't seen the other writers touch on as such, but I feel it demands a separate heading. When a church calls a man to be its minister, its teaching and ruling elder, one of the elders, then they have the awesome task of submitting to that man as a Christ-appointed overseer. Now, if this is to be so, if they are to submit in a spiritual submission without torturing their sense of discernment, there must be evident in that man—I don't care if he's 20 or he's 60—some evidence of true spiritual authority and true ability to edify those people. You can't force the people of God to subject themselves to a

36:17 minister simply because he's got a reverend and a B.D. degree if there is no aura of divine authority about him when he speaks. You can't do it. Conversely, you find yourself instinctively submitting to a man who speaks with the divine authority whether or not anybody has laid their hands upon him. You let a man stand and speak in such a manner as you sense the voice of your heavenly shepherd through that man, and without knowing it, you've already submitted to him.

36:50 Right? There's that sense, this man speaks in Christ's name, not officially and clerically, but dynamically. And I don't mean dynamically in the world sense, but I mean because there is an operation of divine energy. And this is a subjective thing, but it's very real, my brethren, and I think any attempts to analyze the call of the ministry that omits it is defective at a very vital point. This is one of the things that I have to cry to God for, as I have the awesome responsibility of exercising some judgment with reference to young men. And I know the other elders share this with me, and I've been so pleased, and I can say it because they're not here today. One of the few Sundays the two of them have been away at all, let alone together. They say,

37:35 I feel kind of lonely here today without the supportive influence of my fellow elders. But if I've been away, and some of the young men have preached, and when I come back, and one of the first questions I'll ask is how did so and so do. One of the first things they'll say is something along this line, there's evidence of the authority of God in their speaking. Or it was good, it was nice, but it lacked authority. See, that sensitivity of this element, and you cannot, you cannot expect the people of God to yield biblical submission to you as an overseer and a teaching elder unless they're to utterly jettison their sense of discernment, unless there is this aspect of authority, and unless you are an instrument of edification. Their hearts must

38:25 be warmed, and their minds informed in the things of God under you. And it's amazing, when that's so, then you don't need ministerial starch. You see, this idea that I'm the Reverend, I'm the Dominay, and you see, I must keep a proper sense of aloofness from the... That's a lot of baloney, brethren. There's not an ounce of truth in it. There's no indication that when our Lord was amongst men, he was anything other than a true man. He played with little kids, and he sat on his knees. And when he went into the banquets and enjoyed his wine and his food and wicked his lips, the people say, yeah, look at him, a wine bibber in a glutton in a drunkard. He was a true man amidst bearing the weight of the world. A Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,

39:13 he was a true man amongst men, but when he stood to speak, they marveled, for he spake his one, having what? Authority. Not an authority built up by this artificial pompousness. That's what I'm driving at. That's the thing I'm going after. And if I had a knife and could stick it in the juggler vein to that, I would until every last drop of blood went out. You see, this idea that the way you establish your authority is by this artificial aloofness in your personal contacts and in your dealings, so that when you speak, the people respect you. No, no. If you can't be a man amongst men in your normal contacts and speak with authority when you stand behind that sacred desk, you're an intruder into the office of the ministry. You're an intruder. You're fake. You're not the real thing. You're not the real thing. And you can't force this. Either Christ gives it

40:03 or he doesn't. And I believe, personally, this is how he indicates to his church, those whom he's giving to his church. Christ, the head of the church, speaks to his church and gives that sense to his people. My voice is heard in this man. Brethren, I've heard it sometimes in fellows that, oh, they were raw. Man, were they raw. You could see so many areas they were going to have to work, but there was that element that was there. And you knew God's hands on them. God's hands on them. That's it. No question. And I had no problem on that shoe sitting there as a disciple.

40:38 And though I might be 20 years that person, senior, age-wise, and ministerial experience, and all the rest, I find I'm brought to their feet as a disciple to learn.

40:50 Why? Because he's a gift of Christ to his church, and I'm part of his church, and he's Christ's gift to me, and I must receive him as such. Age experience has nothing to do with it. Am I talking double-dutch? I can't read to them. Do you know what I'm talking about? Have you experienced that yourself? Brethren, without that, there is no indication of a true call to the ministry. Now, may I read from my good friend John Owen, who again has been such a help to me. By the way, if you have Daphne, you must read the first article in Volume 2 on the call to the ministry. He has some very perceptive insights, most helpful. But now I want to read Owen Volume 4, who at the end of Volume 4 also has a great section on the spiritual gifts

41:37 necessary for the work of the ministry. And John Owen says, reading now from Volume 4, page 512, the gift of utterance belongeth unto this part of ministerial duty in the dispensation of the doctrine of the gospel. Now, this utterance doth not consist in a natural volubility of speech, which taken alone by itself is so far from being a gift of the Spirit, or a thing to be earnestly prayed for, as that it is usually a snare to them that haven't, and a trouble to them that hear them, nor doth it consist in a rhetorical ability to set off discourses with a flourish of words, be they never so plausible or enticing, much less in a bold corrupting of the ordinance of preaching

42:25 by a foolish affectation of words in supposed elegancies of speech, quaint expressions, and effects of wit. See what he's saying? This utterance is not what men call the gift of gab, but then he goes on to give four things in which this gift of utterance does consist. I'll mention only several of them. It is indicated by boldness and holy confidence. Secondly, gravity of expression, becoming the sacred majesty of Christ and His truth. And then he mentions that authority which accompanies the delivery of the word when preached in the demonstration of these spiritual abilities. Let me earnestly commend to you a careful,

43:12 prayerful reading and rereading of this section of John Owen, beginning with volume 4, page 486 on the institution of the ministry, and then the gifts necessary for the work of the Christian minister. Well, so much then for this matter of the ability to speak. We've looked at three aspects of it, ability to speak so as not to torture men's ears, ability to speak so as to be understood without torture to men's understanding or minds, and thirdly, ability to be received as a messenger of God without torture to men's discernment. Now, coupled with this, and this again is so essential,

Proven Ability to Rule: A Servant's Heart

44:00 the work of the ministry is not only preaching and teaching, but it is administrative in the oversight of shepherding the flock of God. And some men may meet all of the requirements up to now and ought to be duly recognized as teachers in the church who are totally unfit to be pastors because they have no proven ability to rule. So coupled with the proven ability to speak must be the proven ability to rule or to exercise spiritual oversight amongst the people of God.

44:48 Now, again, I'm amazed at how this aspect has just been apparently totally overlooked, even by some of the best writers I've read on the call to the minister.

44:58 And experience has shown to me that many of the great problems that arise in churches do not arise primarily from a young man's defective preaching, but they arise from his inability to effectively rule. He doesn't know how to get along with people. Let some man, 20 years his senior, question him, and immediately he's ticked off. On the river and the pasture.

45:32 Well, isn't that something? Maybe 20 years have taught that man something. He's knocked around the business world and kept himself out of the debtor's prison. Maybe he's learned a few things, raised kids in a crazy age like ours. But you see, it comes out that there's no proven ability to rule, and the most necessary ingredient of an ability to rule is a proper spirit of servitude to the people of God. Isn't that what Peter says? Take the oversight, not lording it over the heritage, not like the Gentiles. Jesus said, among the Gentiles, the rulers of the big shots who wield the biggest clog. But he said, it shall not be so amongst you. He that would be great among you shall be what? Servant of all. Servant of all. And if a man is going to rule in

46:18 the midst of the assembly, in peace and in harmony with his fellow elders and with his flock, he must have some proven ability to rule. And that will involve, first of all, what I've already hinted, a proven ability to serve. Again, the idea that the ministry is a lofty pedestal from which a man exerts his authority is an unscriptural concept and needs to be put off in some big dungeon somewhere and sealed over forever. No, it's a ministry of service. It's a ministry of service. You're given to the church to serve, to their edification, to spend and be spent,

47:03 to lose your life, for Christ's sake, in the Gospels, expecting no return. And unless you get that perspective, you will not be willing to back down, eat crow, feathers and all, my brethren. That's what I find the hardest. I don't mind eating crow, but when I choke on feathers going down, that's when it bothers. But you've got to do it for Christ's sake and the Gospels. Pour yourself out and have somebody completely miss everything, and then pick you up on a little technicality of a word you used wrong at the door in the morning. Well, if you aren't serving Christ, you're going to get red up the back of your neck, and you're going to find words coming out that shouldn't, unless you realize, I'm a servant of Christ. When you meet with your brethren, and when you share in the total life of

47:50 the ministry, there must be a spirit indicative of a true servant's heart. And may I say very frankly, and if you young men, members of this church, realizing that you're being observed while amongst us, I would not hesitate at all to state very explicitly, this is one of the things that I look for and our people look for, probably above most others, a spirit of service. Are you willing to serve Christ's people? Not be served by their admiring glances when you've preached a passable sermon. That's the people serving you, but serving them.

48:32 Searching, isn't it? I have to ask myself again and again, what would my attitude be to these people that I face week after week if I had a stroke and no longer could speak? What channels of service would I be determined to find simply because I have a servant's heart? Or would I be willing to leave them? I have to ask myself questions like that. You've got to. Is Christ giving you a servant's heart? A heart to serve His people? If He has, the evidence will be right now.

49:06 You're finding ways to serve His people now. You're finding ways to wash their feet now. You're not waiting for some big opening, you know, like all those two-bit actors floating around New York waiting for their big break, you see, living on welfare and unemployment. A bunch of no-goods, clean them off the streets, ship them out and give them a shovel somewhere and put them to work. But that's the mentality, you see. The world out there owes me my big break, and so let the hard-working people continue to put bread on my table and booze in my belly and grass in my cigarettes until my big break comes. That's an awful mentality, and yet I see it with young men in the ministry. Well, I'm waiting. We ain't waiting for something to open up for, you see. No evidence that they're serving the people of God where they are simply because they

Proven Ability to Rule: Natural Leadership and Authority

49:56 have a servant's heart. This proven ability to lead and rule will be indicated, first of all, by the ability to serve. Secondly, by, and I don't know how else to describe it, but this, by that something that makes it natural for people to follow you.

50:17 Though it's a serving rule, it is nonetheless a rule in which the shepherd must shepherd. He must lead and tend the flock of God. And there must be indication that the Lord has constituted you a leader amongst his people, that they do not find it torturous to follow the directives you give, both in your precepts and in your example. And again, you can't categorize this. The idea that a leader is always the guy that comes on strong, you know, how's everybody doing, outgoing gregarious, that's a lot of, that's baloney too. We got a real big delicatessen here this afternoon.

50:56 All these hunks of baloney hang out, but that's not that I'm driving at. Some of the most low key people I have ever known are some of the most powerful leaders. There's that peculiar something that God has constituted them with leadership authority, and you recognize it when you're in their presence. And you find yourself able to follow, feeling their safe guide. And then thirdly,

51:23 that ability to be honored and respected in your office. If the people of God are called upon 1 Thessalonians 5 to know them that are over you, and admonish you, and to steam them highly in love for their work's sake, if they're called upon Hebrews 1317 to obey them that have the rule over you, then there must be some indication that the head of the church has constituted you such a man as can be honored and respected in that role. Certainly it won't be the honor and the respect which are earned with years of faithful service, granted, but there will be sufficient spiritual stature as to commend you to the people of God. Along this line, this is why more and more

52:10 we're advising young men even when a door of ministry opens, and they feel they ought to go into it, you go on a trial basis if it's your first pastorate for six months to a year, and let the people know that you feel you're called, others have given you encouragement, but rather than just saying, all right, I'm your pastor now, yield to me all, do submission, etc., you call me on a trial basis. And at the end of the year, if I've commended myself to you by life, and by doctrine, and by authority, and by my God-given abilities to communicate His Word, to lead and to rule, then you issue me a call. Now, I'm not making a new legalism, saying we must do this, but I'm only saying that it's something in this direction that I feel will facilitate bringing some of these

52:59 biblical perspectives into sharper focus. You see, there's a sense in which if people call a man, knowing so little about him, and he's not proven himself in a previous ministry, and they say, well, we've called him, and now we've got to live with him, come what may. So there is not the yielding of respect, and honor, and the following born out of the magnetism of spiritual authority. You follow me? And I wouldn't want that. That'd be almost like a woman saying, well, I'm marrying you because I have to. I don't want to marry because she has to. I want to marry because she wants to. And we found this in a couple of situations recently, and it's worked out very well, and so I just throw it out for what it's worth as a practical suggestion.

Summary and Closing Exhortation

53:44 Now then, as we summarize and close, because we've just about gone through our first hour, and we do want to leave time for discussion, let me say that this has not been an exhaustive treatment of this third area of the gifts with which Christ will furnish all those whom he's giving to his church, but I do suggest that it forms at least a framework within which we can seek to assess our own gifts, seek to work in the cultivation of our gifts, and certainly that aspect of cultivation must not be overlooked. It's deeply embedded in the book of Timothy. Though Timothy had an unusual call, the laying on of the hands of the presbytery and prophetic utterances, Paul nonetheless had to say what? Stir up the gift of God that is in thee. Neglect not the gift that is in thee. Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to

54:35 be ashamed. So if that's true, when there is an extraordinary call, how much less in these days of ordinary call? So I would not on the one hand discourage any of you who have biblical reasons to believe the Lord may be putting his hand upon you, but on the other hand, I would discourage any who would forge ahead without any indication that the Lord, the head of the church, is furnishing you with those gifts, both of ability to speak and ability to rule, by which alone you can be a means of edification to his church. Now, I'm sure some of you have misconstrued.

55:11 Some of the emphases are, I would be very surprised if some of you had not misconstrued. That's more positive. The emphases of past weeks into thinking, well, I guess Pastor Martin wants to see anybody go into the ministry. No, my brethren, nothing would thrill me more than if God would raise up a thousand lights that burn so brightly and so powerfully that some of us who have places of leadership would be totally eclipsed. Nothing would thrill me more.

55:38 But it is my concern that they be men whom God has made burning in shining lights, who are not just lighting their own little candle and sticking in the pocket and say, look, you lucky people, here I come. That's my concern. And I believe it's the concern of the great head of the church, and it's for this that we should pray and labor. One man whom I greatly esteem told me, he said, well, my brother, if God will use you to help train six young preachers in your lifetime who are true biblical ministers, you haven't lived in vain.

56:14 That's what I'm talking about, to leave a legacy of true servants of Christ, means of edification to the church, equipped to speak, equipped to rule by the Lord himself.