Eroded Devotions

Introduction to the Trinity Pastors Conference and Course Update

0:02 The following address was delivered at the 7th Annual Trinity Pastors Conference held at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, in coming this morning, brethren, to the first of the six sessions assigned to me, I do want to say by way of introduction several things that I trust will be helpful in both giving a rationale for the approach I have taken in addressing these matters and also indicate that hopefully we are giving what was promised in the brochure outlining these six sessions.

0:45 And first of all, I want to update you with reference to the pastoral theology course itself. In the brochure that you received, it was stated that the pastoral theology course is comprised of six units. And that was true for a number of years when we were on a three-year program in the academy. But now that we've moved to an eight-semester or four-year program, I added two units of pastoral theology last year, Units 7 and 8.

1:22 Unit 7 really belongs as Unit 1. There are eight one-and-a-half-hour lectures on the subject of the call of the man of God to the pastoral theology. There are eight-and-a-half-hour lectures on the subject of the call of the man of God to the pastoral office. And eventually, as the course is structured, that will appear as Unit 1, for, of course, it is fundamental to every other facet of the work of the ministry.

1:46 And those tapes, God willing, before too long, will be available as the rest of the course is available. And then Unit 8 was in the area of major principles of pastoral counseling, or what we might call aspects. of individual pastoral care. So that is the present structure of the pastoral theology course as it is now taught in the academy and eventually will be reflected in those lectures as they are made available through the Trinity pulpit.

Rationale for Sermon-Lecture Approach at the Conference

2:24 Now, having given that word concerning an update of information relative to the course itself, I now, secondly, want to point you to precisely what was promised. In the brochure, I read from the second paragraph, the 1990 Trinity Pastors Conference is intended to help supply that need. That's the need that was addressed in paragraph one for help in the area of pastoral theology. The major subject for these four days is pastoral theology.

3:02 The theological subject is pastoral theology. The theological subject is pastoral theology. The theological discipline concerned to apply the witness of Scripture to the actual work of shepherding the flock of God. Now, here's the key sentence.

3:14 An attempt will be made to provide an overview of this vital subject as it is taught in the Trinity Ministerial Academy. An attempt will be made to provide an overview of this subject as it is taught in the Trinity Ministerial Academy. Now, as I wrestled with how to deliver what was promised, Now, as I wrestled with how to deliver what was promised, how should I make that attempt, how should I make that attempt, I saw three options open to me. One was to extract sample lectures from these various units and simply deliver them to you as specimens and simply deliver them to you as specimens of what the men get in the academy and, And thereby, I trust, giving some specific help in the specific issue addressed in that reproduced lecture. That was one option open to me. The second option was to make an attempt to distill the material of the various major units and categories of concern in the overall outline of the pastoral theology course. And then just to run through that outline with you, occasionally expanding a principle or a text and giving some specific application to it.

4:40 But then there was a third option, and that was to construct lectures-sermons especially designed for this situation at this time, which in substance are not reproductions. They are not reproductions of academy lectures, but fulfill the promise in that they will reflect an attempt to provide an overview of the subject as it is taught in the academy. Now, obviously, to take the first course of simply taking out select lectures, which I am presently giving for the fifth time, constantly revising them, that would have been the easiest course. That would have been the easiest course of action for me. Well, I've rejected that course. The second one would have been a little more difficult, but still easy, in that I have a printed outline of the entire course.

5:42 And I simply could have had that reproduced, put in your hands, and have you follow. But I do not believe that that would have been unto optimum edification. I believe it would have smelled musty with classroom odors. And you didn't come all the way from wherever you've come and paid the price for your air ticket just to go home smelling musty.

6:09 And the third course, obviously, would lay the greatest burden upon me, and in the midst of the responsibilities I have here in my own labors as an elder, coming off the busiest summer of outside ministry I've ever known. It would mean some labor. It would mean some labor. It would mean some labor.

6:28 Late nights and short hours of sleep and early mornings. But as I prayerfully weighed what would be unto optimum edification, I believed that course number three would secure the most amount of work for me. But I trust, under the blessing of God, the optimum edification for you. And I say this without anything of a saccharine spirit, that I love you men enough, to count it a privilege to spend and be spent for your well-being, and have chosen this third avenue.

7:07 And my reasons are not only that there would be optimum edification, but I'm conscious that all of the graduates who are here have already heard the lectures, and they could go home and re-read them, and they would feel cheated. A number of others of you have worked your way through, if not the entire course, many sections of it, on the tapes, and in a sense, you would be cheated. And hopefully then, for those of you who have been through that material, this will be a fresh approach at review and overview, that will lock in, in your own memory bank, to the greater substance of that to which you've been exposed, and make it fresh in your own thinking, and its pressure intensified upon your own conscience, is, and then also, I hope, for those of you who have not worked through the series of the lectures, and feel a need in this area, that the items handled in this different way will whet your appetite. And then, as you get the lectures, you need not fear that you're just going to get the same thing, in the same way in which you received it here at the conference. So, in this lengthy introduction, I, first of all, I've updated you on the information in the brochure relative to the structure of the course.

Overview of Conference Topics and Focus on the Man of God

8:35 I've tried to point precisely to what I am doing to try to deliver what was promised. And my third concern in this introduction is to underscore the major categories of pastoral work covered in the Pastoral Theology course that will be highlighted in these six sessions. Obviously, I cannot highlight the whole spectrum of the course content. I will not even touch upon this matter of the call to the pastoral office at all.

9:14 I'm assuming your call has been cleared on biblical grounds, and you are here as a man called of God. You can obtain the tapes from that particular unit. You can obtain the tapes from that particular unit. If you desire, I'm not even going to touch upon it.

9:31 However, this morning, I will be focusing upon the first part of what is listed in your brochure as unit number one, in which we consider the man of God himself, believing that a man's ministry will rise no higher than the spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional health of the man. And who ministers, this is one of the most crucial aspects in the work of the ministry, and therefore, I shall be addressing it in whatever time remains after my introduction in this hour and throughout the entirety of the next hour. Now, the next major concern in the Pastoral Theology course has to do with our major task in the work of the ministry, that of preaching the Word of God. And so, tomorrow, God willing, both sessions will be taken up with aspects of preaching. The first one will focus upon the content and form of our preaching, and the second on the delivery of the message. And then, on Thursday morning, we will take up aspects of the tasks of oversight or government, which God has entrusted to every elder,

10:57 and we must be very careful that, though we may use the terms teaching and ruling elder as convenient verbal tools to identify diversity of function, we must never use them in such a way or to such an extent as imperceptibly to begin to think that our work is done with our preaching, or that our rule is fulfilled, or that our rule is fulfilled, or that our rule is fully dispensed by means of the public ministry of the Word. The more generic task of oversight and shepherding the flock of God is as much the responsibility of the man who has the highest profile, or the men who have the highest profiles in public teaching, as it is upon those whose profile is more usually identified with rule, and government in the church.

12:01 Now then, with that introduction behind us, and I hope setting the field before us, I want to come this morning and take up with you a subject which focuses our attention upon the man of God himself.

Defining Ministerial Backsliding and Burnout

12:23 And what I want to do is to speak to you in the remainder of this hour, and in the next hour, on the subject of warnings against ministerial backsliding and ministerial burnout. Warnings against ministerial backsliding and ministerial burnout. Now first of all, I want to define these terms. What do I mean by ministerial backsliding?

12:58 Well, I am referring... I am referring to that creeping, gradual erosion of spiritual reality, vigor, and growth, which so often overtakes us in the midst of the most active and even externally faithful ministerial labors.

13:24 I am referring to that declension which occurs, not so perceptibly in the pulpit, but rather in the closet. That declension that may not be discerned in the substance of our teaching, but in the chambers of our hearts, and finds an echo in our consciences. I am referring to that declension, which may actually come to expression in the outcry, croppings of certain patterns of carnality, such as laziness, self-indulgence, peevishness, and a host of other sins which, while being short of sins that we could call scandalous, are nonetheless shameful and deeply affect our usefulness as we live and labor among ourselves. By course氤 Our people by ministerial backsliding, in short, I mean, that condition in which we reflect the opposite of 1st Timothy 4.15.

14:47 Give thyself wholly to these things that the progress may be manifested unto all. Ministerial backsliding, then, is that gradual process of erosion of spiritual reality, vigor, and growth in grace, which so often overtakes us, even in the midst of arduous labors and an externally faithful ministry. Now, what do I mean by ministerial burnout? Surely you say I've read my Bible through 40 times and never found the term ministerial burnout, and not being a biblical term, it's incumbent upon me to give a definition to it. Well, I am referring here to that gradual creeping erosion of our mental, emotional, psychological, and physical resiliency and buoyancy. Which, again, can overtake us in the context of a very active and faithful ministry.

16:10 I'm referring to that condition in which the mental activities are not occasionally dull and sluggish, but perpetually and overwhelmingly dull and sluggish.

16:29 In which study is primarily a crushing and a galling burden. When the appointed hour in the schedule comes to do the labor of exegetical spade work, instead of coming to it with mental alacrity and spiritual excitement, we have, as it were, to whip ourselves to the desk to perform the task, to whip ourselves while at the task, and we leave whipped by our consciences when we finish the task, because we feel what miserable wretches we are, that such a privilege of rooting around in the Word of God, and even getting paid for it, should be such a gruesome burden to our minds. That's what I'm talking about when I refer to ministerial burnout. I'm referring to that mental condition, in which, particularly, the inventive and the creative elements of sermon preparation, such as organization, illustration, and imagery, seem to elude us. When we attempt to fix our minds upon a mass of material that needs to be sorted out, it seems we cannot tell one brick from another, and which pile in which to place it, and how to build it into a sermon,

17:57 until, at times, we come perilously close to taking our hand, and taking all the fruit of our labors, and sweeping it off our decks, and say, there must be an easier way to make a living. Brethren, I didn't read that in books. There's an awful lot of biography in these descriptions. When I speak of ministerial burnout, I'm referring to that condition in which we seem to have lost most of our ability to feel deeply concerning the great reality and the great realities in which we constantly traffic.

18:36 The emotions which ought naturally to accompany us in the secret place and in our public and private ministries seem almost to have been neutered. We can't remember when we have felt the thrill of the contemplation of the being of God. We can't remember that a conscious sense of delight and exaltation of spirit in the contemplation of God's free, sovereign, electing love to us. The ability to have felt emotional pressure brought to bear upon our own emotional fabric by the things in which we traffic seems to have been neutered. That's what I mean by ministerial burnout. I'm speaking of that condition, when physical energy and resiliency have left us and when one additional or unusual demand upon us leaves us in a heap for days or we avoid an opportunity to do good for sheer dread of the subsequent weariness and weakness that we feel will come on the heels of taking that additional burden. Now, in defining ministerial backsliding and ministerial burnout,

The Biblical Norm for Ministerial Vitality (Psalm 92)

20:05 have I said anything with which you can relate? Now, in defining these things by way of summary and qualification, I am not in any way inferring that there are not divinely appointed seasons in which there will be a differing range of spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical vigor as part of the ebb and flow of any normal Christian life. And while freely acknowledging both the realities of sovereignly imposed periods of spiritual desertion and sovereignly imposed seasons of spiritual discipline that may find expression in physical weakness, what I am saying is that as an ordinary rule, we as the servants of God ought not to be carrying on our ministries in a prevailing state of ministerial backsliding as I have described it and ministerial burnout

21:31 as I have also sought to describe it. Rather, the norm should be as beautifully expressed in Psalm 92, from the beginning clean on through to the end of our ministerial course. Psalm 92, 12, The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

22:00 They are planted in the house of Jehovah. They shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be full of sap and green to show that Jehovah is upright.

22:24 He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Once you hit your 50th birthday, this will become one of your most precious passages that you'll plead before God. If you have any knowledge of the ordinary course of what happens to so many men with advancing years, they become brittle and sapless and rather than being the epitome of ripened godliness and of spiritual vigor and ministerial energy, they become like dried trees half dead and autumn leaves hanging upon them but very little fruitfulness. Brethren, with a promise like this to encourage us, why should we accept that as the norm? And so I want to speak to you this morning on warnings against this ministerial backsliding and ministerial burn out that would keep you from being a living expression of the faithfulness of God as described in Psalm 92. Now I have eight warnings and the first three focus primarily upon ministerial backsliding. The fourth is a transition

Warning 1: Do Not Let Duties Erode Devotional Disciplines

23:52 that moves in both directions and then the last three focus primarily or the last four got eight in there yes, upon ministerial burn out. And while there is overlapping and some of these things interpenetrate the other, that's at least a rough outline but I'm just going to give them to you one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And I'll take as many as I can take until ten minutes until the hour this morning in this session and then we'll pick up precisely at the point where we left off in the second hour. Now warning number one is this.

24:34 If you would avoid ministerial backsliding and ministerial burn out beware of allowing the demands of official ministerial duties. Beware of allowing the demands of official ministerial duties to erode the disciplines of the devotional nurture of your own soul. Beware of allowing the demands of official ministerial duties to erode the disciplines of the devotional nurture of your own soul. I would imagine that each of you at one time or another has heard the old dictum the life of the minister is the life of his ministry. And that is simply a man a man's way of attempting to express what the Holy Ghost says to us in two of the most pivotal passages in scripture with reference to primary ministerial duties. The first is found in the familiar text in Acts 20 and verse 28 when Paul turns

26:01 to the Ephesian elders to charge them with their solemn responsibilities as he is about to leave them. And the care of the church will be entirely upon their shoulders under Christ. His words are these take heed or pay close attention to yourselves to all of the flock in the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. As they would reflect upon and discuss together Paul's admonition to them I wonder what their thinking and the channels their conversation might have taken when Paul as it were surprised them by saying your first your fundamental your primary responsibility is to take heed unto yourselves. You are to jealously guard the totality of your own redeemed humanity for you are God's instruments for the work of caring for the flock of God and as is the instrument so will be the work and therefore you must above all else take heed unto yourselves

27:31 and then to all of the flock in the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers and in the parallel passage in first Timothy four and verse sixteen after Paul has laid upon Timothy a vast array of ministerial duties in conjunction with behavior in the house of God he turns the attention to Timothy beginning in verse six of that fourth chapter and his exhortations to Timothy culminate in the last verse of that chapter take heed unto yourself and to the teaching continue in these things what things the constant care and nurture of yourself and the constant care and nurture of your teaching continue in these things for in doing so you will what both save yourself hear you Timothy the care of yourself and your own salvation are your primary and fundamental responsibility in the midst of all of the other duties that I've laid upon you brethren how can God

28:59 make it more clear to us and yet and yet the great battle that each one of us faces in the midst of all the other duties outlined in first Timothy duties laid upon us by Christ in his word not options duties and allowing the performance of those official ministerial duties by degrees and I've chosen the word erode carefully I doubt we could find one preacher in a thousand who moved on a Monday from a rich flourishing devotional nurture of his own soul as his primary ministerial exercise to a total abandonment by Tuesday morning of all devotional reading of the word all self examination all prayer for increased communion of the Lord Jesus I doubt you could find one in a thousand no it is a subtle process of erosion just a few grains here and a few

30:28 handfuls here and a few here and a few there until alas sometimes I could fall before such a horrible thing and he looks back and sees there was a subtle almost imperceptible process of erosion in the disciplines of the nurture of his own soul you see my brethren the means ordained of God for the nurture for you than for the ordinary child of God simply because you're in the ministry and those disciplines which God has ordained are the devotional assimilation of the word of God an assimilation that is structured and regular that is comprehensive that is prayerful and meditative in which we come to the word of God not as disciples to be taught of our Lord not as ministers to receive material with which to teach others

31:57 we come to sit at the feet of our Savior not primarily to learn what we should speak in his name to others but what he speaks in his own words and in his words in his own words it is also to speak in his word of the Son and in the words of the Son and in the words of the Lord which were the word of the Son who and the more generic promise of the blessed man described in Psalm 1. It is the man who, what, manipulates the word of God into sermons three times a week? No, the one who meditates upon the law of God day and night. The law of God is his own internal delight, the meat upon which he feeds his own soul, the drink by which he refreshes his own inner life.

33:14 And then, of course, there is the maintenance of the habit and the spirit of secret prayer. Men ought always to pray and not to faint. Luke 18.1 With all prayer and supplication in the spirit,

33:34 maintaining the habit and the spirit of secret prayer, praying until we have prayed, as the old writers said, not contented. We have spent so much time in an activity that we've called prayer, but restless if in prayer there has been no conscious enlargement of soul, no conscious enlargement of desires after God, no conscious communion with Christ, no conscious breaking up of the fallow ground of our own hearts, no conscious drawing out by the enablement of the soul, no conscious of the spirit in soul travail for our own and the needs of others. Our privilege being set apart from the ordinary means of employment, that we should not only engage in those two disciplines which can be demonstrated from the word of God or the duties of all men,

34:59 but I would urge upon you, though I cannot bind your conscience to it from the scriptures, the constant exposure of your mind and heart to the masters of the inner life. If you would have the devotional nurture of your own soul, soul kept fresh one of the means that god has used in the lives of his most eminent servants and to which they point whenever the legacy of their biographies have been left to us is that they found constant help by drawing near to the masters of the inner life listen to the words of alexander in his book thoughts on preaching paragraph 161 writing to those who would be and are ministers of the gospel i hope you will let no kind of reading keep you from looking daily if only for five minutes into a class of writers who are not attractive in regard to letters but who unite great talent great bible knowledge and great unction at the head of these stands owen my father used to say

36:21 one should read owen's spiritual mindedness once a year i add his forgiveness of sin his indwelling sin and his mortification of sin how often have god's servants testified to the blessing that has come when they have set it's it's to put themselves down in the presence of god and taken up one of the masters of the inner life with the prayer oh lord this man was your gift to your church you gave unusual insights in the area of the inner life the cultivation of communion with the triune god the deep honest dealings with sin the pursuit of holiness the cultivation of real acquaintance with god you be and then prayerfully to assimilate the sauce from these masters of the the inner life how often dot issue is them in my own heart and i'm sure there are many of you here who can testify to the same in another treasures of official ministerial duty we find it by degrees will be also treating

37:43 We greatly suffer when we do. And then I would also commend that for which there is at least biblical example, if not explicit precept. That is periodic seasons of protracted waiting upon God. Seasons of intense self-examination. Seasons, if necessary, of fasting joined to prayer.

38:10 Because even though there may be the maintenance in the ordinary disciplines of the devotional nurture of the soul, keeping the soul in a state of general health and vigor. So powerful are the actings of indwelling sin. So subtle are the motions. And seductions of the world.

38:33 And so insidious are the machinations of the devil. That unless we give ourselves periodically to protracted seasons of waiting upon God. We can like a ship that has no leak in its hull. Pick up a barnacle here and a barnacle there.

38:54 And a barnacle here and a barnacle there. And though the sails are hoisted and trimmed. The mariner somehow. Senses that the ship is not plowing through the waters as it's in its ordinary speed.

39:07 And he checks the bilge pumps and they're not even working. It's not drawing any water. There's no holes in the sails. And what does he need to do?

39:16 He needs to put his boat in dry dock and scrape off the barnacles. Well, it's a homey illustration, but I hope you get the point. There are times we need to go into spiritual dry dock. Lamentations 340.

39:32 Let us search and try our ways. Daniel said, I set myself to seek the Lord by prayer and by fasting. The call that comes to the ministers of God in the book of Joel along these very lines. Brethren, if we are not concerned enough about this matter of keeping spirit.

40:00 Spiritual vigor occasionally to block out everything from our schedules. But intense, serious dealings with God sooner or later. It is most likely that the patterns of imperceptible but very real backsliding will set in. And it will only be a matter of time before it will be evident to all.

40:30 And so as we bring this first hour to a close. I give you this first warning and trust that the spirit of God will write it upon your heart. Beware, my dear brethren, of allowing the demands of official ministerial duties. To erode the disciplines of the devotional nurture of your own soul.

Practical Counsel for Maintaining Devotional Disciplines

40:54 And the human heart is so deceitful. And we so willingly and quickly deceive ourselves. That if you do not keep some kind of a record of what you have read in the word of God. And where you have read.

41:08 And how long it's taken you to get from Genesis to Revelation. You will kid yourself continually. Don't allow yourself the luxury of vague notions. As to whether or not you're going through the whole compass of the word of God.

41:25 At least once a year or two years. Whatever the pattern is. That you know you are soaking your soul in the word of the living God. Don't kid yourself that you're maintaining the habit and spirit of secret prayer.

41:41 Without keeping some account upon yourself. Some of you might be shocked if this next week upon returning home. You said I'm going to take the exhortation seriously. I'm going to spend half an hour in prayer for the needs of my own soul.

41:56 That God would search me and try me. That Christ would become more precious to me. And you may find you have so atrophied in the spiritual muscles. Essential to a half hour of concentrated prayer.

42:10 That you're all done after 17 minutes. And it'll shock you. But God can use the clock to bring you into reality. Now I know in saying that.

42:20 I know the abuse of that. The Phariseeism that would measure devotion in terms of time. I know it brethren. But that is not my problem.

42:29 My practical danger. And it isn't yours either. My practical danger is not praying for an hour. And then thinking I've got a brownie point.

42:39 It's getting so pressured by the work of the ministry. That I've lost the spiritual vigor that would keep me on my knees for an hour. Clock or no clock.

42:49 Oh brethren. How many times we encase ourselves in self-deception. By the supposed abuse of the very principle. Which if embraced would be under God.

43:04 The means of our preservation. So I beg you my brethren. If you would avoid ministerial backsliding. Then do not allow the demands of official ministerial duties.

43:17 To erode the disciplines. Of the nurture of your own soul. Well let us pray. And then we'll take our 10 minute break.

43:26 And reconvene just 2 minutes after 11. I've gone 2 minutes. Over the hour. Let us pray.

43:33 Our father as we bow in your holy presence. We confess with shame. How often we have willfully deceived ourselves. How often we have allowed ourselves.

43:53 That eroding effect. Of neglecting these disciplines. By which you have ordained to nurture. The inner life of your servants.

44:05 We confess with shame. That we have dishonored you. We have injected a chill. And a barrenness into our ministries.

44:16 A lack of discernment into our pastoral dealings. And oh God the horrible fruits. That go out from such neglect. We stand ashamed before the sight of them.

44:28 Wash us afresh in the blood of your son. Put into our hearts holy resolution. To do whatever must be done. That whatever else we are.

44:40 We may be men. Who know you. In the secret place. Seal then these exhortations to our hearts.

44:48 We plead in Jesus name. Amen.