Eroded Bodily Health, Part 1

Introduction: The Conference Focus and Warning #8

0:00 The following address was delivered at the 7th Annual Trinity Pastors' Conference held at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. As we come to this final morning together, I do wish to express to you, my brethren in the Lord and fellow servants of Christ, my thanks to you for your prayers on my behalf, not only during the days of this conference, in which I personally have been very conscious of being upheld in an unusual degree by God's grace and enablement, but I know there are many of you who periodically assure me that God causes you to pray for me in the secret place and in your churches, and I want you to know that those expressions of fellowship in the cause of God are deeply appreciated. Now, little did I know, as I sought to map out the various sessions and how I would handle them, that this series on the subject of ministerial backsliding and ministerial burnout would in fact become the major, if not the exclusive, focus of our treatment of pastoral theology during this conference. But I believe...

1:26 I believe that you with me have been conscious that a hand other than our own has been charting our path and that God has indeed, according to His promise, been leading us in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. It has been most encouraging to have many of you say to me that this or that particular point of emphasis has met you at a very critical place of need in your own life, either in terms of timely encouragement, comfort, conviction, and several have said they felt like they had been liberated. And I trust that that has been true of far more than those with whom I have been able to speak personally. And while fully cognizant of the fact that the categories related to backsliding and those related to ministerialness, ministerial burnout indeed overlap and interpenetrate at many points, generally speaking, we've regarded ministerial backsliding as that state into which we come by neglect of the fundamental spiritual disciplines ordained of God, while ministerial burnout generally occurs in the midst of fundamental neglect

2:50 of the mental, psychological, and physical disciplines ordained of God for our well-being. And in our studies together thus far, we have considered six or seven of these warnings. I believe my number is correct if I say seven. Yes.

3:16 And I'll not go over the list of them. You men have been here. Some of our brethren have had to leave, but I don't believe we have anyone in just for this morning. And so what I propose to do is to take up the eighth of these warnings this morning, go as far as I can with it to the break time, and I assume, and this is what I had in my own mind, though I didn't consult with any of the other brethren, that however far I get to the coffee break time, I would then stop at that point, pick up and complete this eighth admonition, and then conclude, and then conclude that second hour with a season of prayer and pleading with God for His blessing, thereby enabling us to leave as soon as we're done our lunch. And from what I picked up as I came in, that was the plan. Good. Well, we come then, brethren, to warning number eight.

4:14 And it is this. Beware of seeking to serve God in the office and functions of the ministry.

The Danger of Serving as a Disembodied Spirit

4:25 Beware of seeking to serve God in the office and functions of the ministry. Beware of seeking to serve God in the office and functions of the ministry. Beware of seeking to serve God in the office and functions of the ministry. serve God in the office and functions of the ministry as though you were a disembodied spirit rather than a man of flesh and blood as though you were a disembodied spirit rather than a man of flesh and blood and I will follow the basic outline I've used right along in opening up these warnings I will explain the significance of the words in the warning and then give the biblical antidote to that particular danger many men experience the signs of backsliding such as prolonged dullness in prayer lack of mental and spiritual vigor in personal bible reading and they immediately assume that the cause must be a fundamentally spiritual cause and often in seeking to give counsel to such men when they have called upon me for that counsel upon some examination of their patterns of life it has

5:47 become very evident that the fundamental cause for what seemed to be symptoms of spiritual declension were in reality symptoms of men who were seeking to serve God in the ministry as though they were men who did not have flesh and blood existence in which to carry on their ministry they were guilty rather of a neglect of those means ordained of God for physical resilience and the neglect of those means was now taking its toll upon the closet and in the studio although his experience the signs of ministerial burn out in terms of the absence of figure at the desk chronic willingness info filling ordinary ministerial tasks and even getting into ill i had to like depression in which though they would not contemplate suicide they wish that God would do the job for them a YAMBält agency company forkopagoa so I that siege nobody and put on dignity any social água hobby а Folk Museum I work with plants that have survived World War two am no better than my father's i have no desire to go on lord take me and when they had sought

7:09 counsel as to how to get out of that situation assuming that it was primarily unbelief lack of zeal for the glory of god in the advancement of this kingdom alas the problem did not have its roots in fundamental spiritual defects except insofar that a refusal to recognize what they were as men of flesh and blood has spiritual implications the real cause lay in the failure to recognize that they were men of flesh and blood and yet they were seeking to serve god as though they were angels an angel only gives thought to doing the will of god with spontaneous joyful alacrity and never has to give one thought to sleep nutrition or physical exercise they surround the throne of god waiting for the first intimation of his will for them and upon the unfolding of that will they go forth to do service to the heirs of salvation and no angel ever came back to the throne waiting for his next assignment

8:31 with his eyes drooping out of breath and needing a rest you see angels as disembodied spirits have no problem in the service of god compared to the problems that we have arising from the reality of our flesh and blood existence but when a man of god serious about his calling before god operates as though he were in fact an angel well indeed he's going to sooner or later see the signs that to him may appear as the signs of backsliding when in reality they are the signs of burnout if a man is ignorant of and indifferent to such science as wholesome eating habits, realistic sleep patterns, monitored weight status, necessary exercise and recreation habits, such a man is being set up for an extreme case of ministerial burnout.

Antidote 1: Evangelical Obedience to the Sixth Commandment

9:50 And therefore, my warning, beware of seeking to serve God in the office and functions of the ministry as though you were a disembodied spirit rather than a man of flesh and blood. And if you are guilty of seeking to do this, it will be manifested by an ignorance of and ignorance of God. indifference to such things as i have mentioned ranging from eating habits to exercise and recreation now having explained the words of the warning we come to that which will be the bulk of our study through the remainder of this time and into the next hour what is the biblical antidote to this horrible pitfall into which many men in the past have fallen and alas into which ministers continue to fall to the present hour well let me give to you five lines of exhortation which i believe under the blessing of god when they become matters of conscience will be used of god to keep us from the ministerial burnout you

11:14 that will inevitably come serious about doing his manifold tasks in the ministry if he attempts to do them as though he had no flesh and blood existence so the biblical antidote number one remember your obligations to render evangelical obedience to the sixth commandment remember your obligations obligations to render evangelical obedience to the sixth commandment these first four exhortations are ones in which i without shame am attempting to bind your conscience number five i'll only try to influence your judgment i'll try to do it very strongly and get it as close to conscience as i can but with these first four i am not at all ashamed to say i'm attempting to bind your conscience that realm where when reflecting upon right and wrong virtue and vice righteousness or

12:32 sin your conscience will speak according to the word of god and i'm not at all ashamed or reluctant to attempt to bind your conscience in these events and in the first area i am asking you to remember your obligations to render evangelical obedience to the sixth commandment in this group i believe there is a unanimous consensus that god's salvation provided by him and applied to us all in the orbit of grace is to lead in everything poeple and we and and and and

13:42 and and and and of the law or obligation to keep the law what grace does is to give us a heart to love what we once hated and ability to keep albeit imperfectly yet evangelically and truly that law as the guide for our life romans 8 in verse 3 for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh god sending sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the ordinance or requirement or righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit the avenue of a walk after the spirit is that marked out by the righteous standard of the law and if this text does not say that then i don't know what it is saying well then we come to god's law epitomized in the ten commandments and in the sixth commandment

15:02 we are told thou shall do no murder and what does that mean well obviously it means you shouldn't go out and take your pistol and put it to your neighbor's head and blow his brains out because he happens to be a man of the law and he's not a man of the law and he's not a man of the law to run his car over your newly seeded lawn but it means of course far more than that and in the larger catechism there is some very helpful material on this commandment question 135 what are the duties required in the sixth commandment now listen carefully to the selective segments that i will read in your hearing the duties required in the sixth commandment are all careful studies and lawful endeavors to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes subduing all passions and avoiding tierra. all occasions temptations and practices which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any

16:21 a sober use of meat drink physic would be medication sleep labor and recreations a sober use of meat drink medication sleep labor and recreations question 136 what are the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment are the neglecting or the neglecting or withdrawing and necessary means the neglecting or withdrawing and necessary means of the preservation of life the neglect necessary means of preservation of life immoderate use of meat drink lane recreations and whatsoever ends to the destruction

17:39 of the life of any now brethren if you have not gone through the larger catechism on this commandment and others to do so look up the footnoted references and it's interesting that in the statement of the duties required they begin with all careful studies to preserve our lives and others not interesting in other words they are saying the sixth commandment demands that we not be ignorant to the basic principles of good nutrition of the place of recreation and of diet exercise in the maintenance of maximum physical well-being and therefore biblical antidote to the horrible condition of ministerial burnout which comes when men seek to serve God as though they were disembodied spirits is to remain Remember, we have an obligation to render evangelical obedience to the sixth commandment.

19:06 And therefore we cannot be willfully and perpetually ignorant of the fundamental principles concerning what we should eat, how much we should rest in the whole of some fundamental understanding available to us in the book of both special and general revelation concerning the means most calculated to contribute to the preservation of life. And so the first element in the biblical antidote is to remember your obligation to render evangelical, evangelical obedience to the sixth commandment. To state it as crassly as I know how, you are robbing the Lord Jesus of the intended end of his suffering if you are indifferent to your physical well-being. For he died to make you an evangelical law keeper. And one of the dimensions of his law is thou shall do no murder.

20:15 And involved in that commandment is the necessity of having an understanding of and a practical commitment to the means calculated for the preservation of our own lives. All right, number two.

Antidote 2: Glorify God in Your Body

20:34 Remember your solemn obligations to glorify God in your body. Remember your solemn obligations to glorify God in your body. And here of course, pivotal text is 1 Corinthians 6. Verses 19 and 20.

20:56 Though in the context the apostle is dealing with the subject of fornication, he deals with that specific subject and again and again introduces broader categories of spiritual reality, broader motivations, broader redemptive dynamics. And here in verse 19 we read, Know ye not that your body, your body, is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought with a price,

21:41 glorifier for,

21:47 and then the variant textual reading, and in your spirit which are his. But there is no question as to the textual validity of this part of the verse. Glory, glorifier, or soma, in your body. And that command,

22:12 my body,

22:16 reality, that my body is both the purchased possession of Jesus Christ, and the indwelling place of himself.

22:30 God purchased the temple, has made it his own dwelling. And with a body, in spite of all of its weaknesses, and the tag that is written upon it, marked for the grave, and for resurrection. God says that in all of the reality and concreteness of present bodily existence, I am to have conscience, bounty, to glorify, just glorify my body, in my, and therefore it can never, which out of supposed love for Christ, to purchase my redemption, and impulses of the Holy Spirit, who indwells me, to apply with power, to the benefits of that redemption, I have been incorporated into that redemptive activity.

23:46 And one of the most cursed, demonic doctrines that has plagued the ministry, is that because of the things Jesus did in his death, and because of the things the Holy Spirit, is effecting in my heart, I can be ignorant of, and abusive too. It is not of God. Yes, must deny my, it's inordinate, and irregulated, appetites. I keep it under, lest in preaching to others, I should be ad documus, reprobate. Scofield's notes notwithstanding, that means damned. Ad documus, in its eight usages in the New Testament, ad documus, in its eight usages in the New Testament, never means put on the shelf. ad documus, in its eight usages in the New Testament, never means put on the shelf.

24:52 That is Scofield's convenient note, to justify the carnal Christian theory. Paul said at any point that my bodily appetites, Paul said at any point that my bodily appetites, given the present state of indwelling sin, given the present state of indwelling sin, would seize upon a bodily appetite, would seize upon a bodily appetite, and lead me into a course of sin. I take hold of it. I restrain it.

25:14 If necessary, I prove it. I am fully conscious of the imagery of mortification. I am fully conscious of the imagery of mortification. If thy hand offend thee, cut it off.

25:24 If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. I am not ignorant of the biblical doctrine that self-denial of legitimate bodily needs that self-denial of legitimate bodily needs may at times lead to fasting. may at times lead to fasting. Fasting, both of normal food and drink.

25:38 Even fasting from normal sexual intercourse by consent with one's wife. Brethren, I am not ignorant of those passages. Brethren, I am not ignorant of those passages. are the occasional exceptions to the generic demand glory in your body.

26:02 An exhortation based upon the reality of my body being the purchased property of God and dwelling of God himself. Now I ask you, is God glorified in this body? If I rob it of the necessary nutrients it needs by divine design in order to function at optimum usefulness, can I, though you admit that it needs the benefit of a balanced life, giving me the fulsome of vitamins and minerals and fiber, etc., in order to have the, receive the nutrition essential to have the internal, by remaining willfully ignorant of what the body needs and willfully give it what it needs. Now if you can say that to God, then go on and do it. But I can't.

27:24 Can I glorify God in my body if I rob it willfully? Not if providentially God puts me in a place where I starve to death for Christ's sake. That's different. We're talking about what we have the opportunity to do, in the realm of human responsibility.

27:47 Can I glorify God in my body if I put it under stress because of an excessive use of caffeine, alcohol, an excessive imbibing of white sugar? Can I glorify God in my body if I place it under stresses that come to it not in doing the work of Christ, but in terms of what I put into my mouth? Can I glorify God in my body if I place it under stress? Can I glorify God in my body if I overly burden my heart, making it labor to pump blood through vessels embedded in pounds of excessive fat, while all the while clogging up the arteries and setting me up for a cardiac arrest, and in the meanwhile causing me to be sluggish, unable to come to my labors with vigor, and to do those labors with a lot of effort, and to do those labors with energy? If you can glorify God in that course, then my brother, go ahead. But frankly, I don't see how you can. You have an obligation to glorify God in your body, and according to this text, it's not something that comes automatically.

29:02 You are to make conscience of how you can glorify God in your body.

Antidote 3: Be Examples to the Flock in All Things

29:09 So the antidote then to this seeking to serve God in the office and work of the ministry, as though we were disembodied spirits, which leads to burnout and to backsliding is, number one, remember your obligations to render evangelical obedience to the sixth commandment. Number two, remember your obligations to glorify God in your body. Number three, remember your obligations to be examples to the flock of God in all things. Remember your obligations to be examples to the flock, in all things.

29:50 And here I would lay these two texts upon your consciences. Paul says to Timothy, the prototype of the evangelical minister,

30:02 Let no man despise thy youth, 1 Timothy 4.12, but be thou an example to them that believe. Inward, now notice, in the center of life, a contemporary rendering would be, in your overall conversation, the old English word, in manner, in love, in faith, in purity. Now I don't know a minister who takes his Bible seriously, who would not say that he ought to aim at being a consistent example before the flock of what it means to walk in love, in faith, and in purity.

30:52 But that's not all the text addresses. It says, I must also be such an example in word and in my overall lifestyle. Now, what is one aspect of your lifestyle that is constantly before your people? Your physical appearance and your physical condition.

31:13 Like it or not, you do not hover before them as a disembodied spirit, and suddenly they know you're there because your voice speaks out of the vacant pulpit. And it speaks with such heavenly authority in such celestial tones that they are utterly wrapped up in what you have to say, and when you're done, they only know that you've floated back to the right hand of the Father because they hear you no more. No, what they see is what they have and what they get when they shake your hand at the door and when you come through their door to have a pastoral visit. And in the whole message,

31:59 they're saying, well, that you manifest in your bodily condition, you are to be an example. Ah, but you said that was directed to Timothy. You can only infer. You haven't got my conscience yet.

32:19 Okay, now let me get it then in 1 Peter chapter 5. If the reasoning from Timothy as the prototype of the evangelical minister does not seize your conscience, then tell me, if you're an elder, how you can get beyond the word of Peter? 1 Peter chapter 5. The elders, therefore, among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.

32:58 Shepherd, the verbal form of poimain, or sheep or shepherd, I'm sorry, and here you have poimaino, fulfill the functions of a shepherd, shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, not because mama stroked your head growing up and saying, Sonny boy, I gave you to God to be a preacher, and so you're in the ministry by the constraint of pleasing mama, pleasing daddy, pleasing, no, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God, nor yet for filthy lucre, and that isn't much of a temptation in most of the churches, where you men labor, but of a ready mind, neither as kata kurieo, neither as lord people, that is, exercising a rule as the Gentiles do, they throw their weight around, regardless of whether their character holds your conscience as leaders. They simply flash their badges and their titles, and say, snap into line, because of who I am. Jesus said, among the Gentiles, that's the mark of their leadership, same verb is used. The great ones, exercise lordship, kata kurieo, he says,

34:26 this must not be your pattern, not as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but, now notice, here's where some people do a real flip in exegesis, they say the only way we lead is by example, no, no, no, no, he's already said, lead as a shepherd, exercise oversight, as a bishop. Now he's talking about the spirit, and the disposition, and the context in which we fulfill the previous imperatives. So when anyone comes to you and says, well, you know, elders have no place in leadership but leading by example, what a bunch of nonsense. How in the world people can claim to believe the Bible and talk like that?

35:08 Shepherd the flock of God, of aggressive, definiting, assert leadership, as a shepherd does with his sheep. Exercise oversight, be a constant looker of the flock, and don't do it because mama stroked your head, or your preacher wanted a notch in his rifle to brag that he had seven of his young men in the ministry, but because constraint has been laid upon you by the head of the church, and he's formed you into an able minister of the new covenant, and as you're committed to do that work, this is the manner in which you do it, not like the Gentiles where you flash your badge, and your title, and your stripes, and pull rank. No, but do all of those things in a context in which you yourself exemplify everything you're trying to see your people become. Every time you call them to an attainment,

36:33 under God seek to be in least to some degree, the embodiment of the very thing to which you call them. Making yourselves examples to the flock. Now brethren, you have an obligation to be an example to the flock in all things. Now is not the matter of the bodily existence and the physical condition of the members of your flock something that either magnifies and glorifies the power of the gospel, or casts aspersions upon it.

37:16 Think of all the verses in the book of Proverbs that connect a walk of integrity before God with health to the navel, marrow to the bones, life to all thy flesh. There is an intimate connection in the ordinary overall course of redemptive activity, that as people pursue genuine balanced biblical godliness, one of the blessed fruits of it will be a measure of physical health and resilience that they would not know were they pursuing a course of sin. Now that's a general principle. Within that are all the other dimensions of the biblical doctrine. Sickness and affliction being disciplines, being the theater of showing the grace of God, keeping a man humble, sometimes the fruit of the previous life. I'm fully aware of all of the nuances that fill in a full doctrine of what we would call physical health and well-being. But brethren, we must not negate the overarching principles.

38:29 And then add to that, that if the gospel produces self-denying, disciplined followers of the Lord Jesus, then should not our bodily existence reflect what such a life of self-denial and disciplined obedience to God produces where it can be seen in a man's bodily existence and physical condition? I'm trying to bind your conscience with this text. Making yourselves examples to the flock. What does it mean to render evangelical obedience to the sixth commandment?

39:12 Your people ought to be able to look at you and say, that's what it means at least in principle and in seed form, though not unto perfection. And you ought to be able to say, be followers of me as I am of Christ. I don't often take illustrations from my own pastoral experience. I try carefully to avoid that.

39:40 Though my own pastoral experience is the only pastoral experience I've had. I have not come back the second time from being someone else. And I remember one of our young black men came among us and he looked like someone had just taken him out of the locker room of one of the local colleges. And he looked like probably either, probably didn't look fast enough to be an offensive pulling guard.

40:05 So he looked more like a nose tackle. Or he could have been a defensive end though if he were a little taller, about six feet, 240 pounds. And I wouldn't want to mess with him on a ball field, let alone in a back alley. I mean it wasn't 240 pounds of blubbers, 240 pounds of real solid black man.

40:28 But I began to see, Joe was no longer playing football, I began to see him shedding weight. And after a period of some months I said, Joe, what's happened? And he said, well pastor, looking at you as a man in your mid-fifties put me under conviction of sin. I have no reason to weigh 240.

40:49 I'm not playing football anymore and I'm carrying around all that weight. It doesn't glorify God. And God convicted me by your example. And I've lost 30 pounds.

41:00 And I intend to keep it off. Be thou an example. I say, well you've never had a problem. What do you know?

41:09 There are many of you men that can exist on far more calories a day and not gain weight than I can. My metabolism is such, if I eat more than 1,800, 2,000 calories a day in spite of regular exercise, everyone in the congregation would know it in three months. My son-in-law who's a tailor would know it. I'd be dumping a bunch of trousers and jackets saying, Vinnie, let them out a bit.

41:36 But I tell you brethren, here's the text. That when I'm sitting at the table and everything in me wants that next piece of food. Be thou an example. To the believers.

41:52 Shepherd the flock. Make yourself an example. And I've emphasized this so pointedly at pastors' conferences around the world that when men haven't seen me for three, four, five years it's interesting when our eyes catch at a distance and we begin to walk to one another. I find that often their eyes don't meet my eyes.

42:12 They drop to my waistline. They'd feel so good if they saw the evidences that I had backslidden in this area because it would take the barb out of their own conscience. And I know that to be true. Because I talked with a young man some years ago at a conference and I said in what I felt was a gracious way, Brother, it's good to see you and to see about, I would estimate, 30, 40 pounds less of you than when I saw you last.

42:40 He said, that's right. I said, would you mind sharing me what brought you to the place where you're willing to subject yourself to that discipline? He said, well, you remember such and such a conference? I said, yes.

42:51 He said, do you remember how many years ago there was? I said, yes, four or five. He said, that's right. He said, at that conference you addressed this whole issue of men who are overweight because they simply have not taken seriously the word of God with reference to their physical condition particularly in the matter of being examples to the flock and God sent an arrow into my heart and for four years I lived with a bloodied conscience.

43:24 And then I came to the place where I said, Oh, God, I can't do it anymore. And I committed myself to a responsible course of weight loss and that's why I am where I am today. Now, brethren, what do you think would have happened if in that interim I looked like he had looked? The nicing of stuff going over your taste buds and down your throat.

Conclusion and Prayer

44:05 What a horrible price to pay. Remember, brethren, your obligation to be examples of the flock in all so that your bodily physical existence in so much as moderation in meat and drink and exercise and recreation in the language of the catechism are God's instruments to keep you in a place where your presence bespeaks a life of disciplined self-control and where necessary, self-denial. Well, I'll stop there. God willing, we'll take our break now and when we come back, I'll take up numbers four and five. Yes, I mean it. Yes, four and five and then we'll have our devotional time if any of you do indeed want to go in and eat all that because I have a counseling session. So let's pray seriously now and ask God to bless this time as we fellowship together and enjoy the good things at God's hand

45:34 and seek to take to heart what his word has spoken to us. Our Father, we are so thankful again for the absolute sufficiency of the word of God that there is nothing touching us as men and as your servants concerning which we must be led at the whims of the opinions of other men. And we pray that insofar as your word has been properly handled in this hour, you will write it upon our hearts. Whatever has had the mixture of the chaff of man's thought, blow upon it and derive it from us.

46:15 But whatever has been your truth, Lord, we pray, weld it to our consciences and help us to do whatever we must do to have a good conscience in the face of those precepts. Bless our time together in this break and the things you have provided for refreshment and nourishment, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.