Eroded Bodily Health, Part 2

Introduction: The Eighth Warning Against Ministerial Backsliding and Burnout

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 brethren, I will say just a couple of things for the sake of those who in the future get this in tape form and often sets get broken up and someone just gets the last tape and wonder where in the world the preacher's been and where he's going, that we come now to consider the last installment of the 8th warning with reference to the avoidance of ministerial backsliding and ministerial burnout. And that warning has been couched as follows.

0:45 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 having explained, what I mean by the words contained in that admonition, we have been considering the biblical antidote. And I have stated that with the first four points of the antidote, I'm attempting to bind your conscience because I believe the teaching of the word of God is clear with respect to your duty and only on point number five

Biblical Antidote: Remembering Obligations to Physical Health

1:28 am I giving urgent counsel, which I hope to get as close to your conscience as possible that it just may sneak over the wall and find its way within that theater. And the admonitions considered thus far are these. Remember your obligations to render evangelical obedience to the Sixth Commandment. Two, remember your obligations to glorify God in your body.

1:59 And three, remember your obligations, to be examples to the flock in all things now the fourth element of the biblical antidote i have couched in these words remember the directives of paul to his younger companion in ministry timothy perhaps better constructed remember the directives of paul to timothy his younger companion in the ministry and i'm thinking particularly of two directives found in paul's first letter to this younger companion in first timothy chapter four

Exposition of 1 Timothy 4:8: The Profit of Bodily Exercise

2:39 we read in verse eight a verse that came up in the discussion time yesterday afternoon having exhorted timothy to exercise himself unto godliness using that verb of and then further on in verse eight the noun from which we get our english words gymnasium or our english word gymnasium having told timothy to exercise himself unto godliness

3:12 he then makes this statement for bodily exercise is profitable for a little but godliness is profitable for all things having promise of the life which now is and of that which is to come so the apostle issues the general command to timothy namely verse 7b exercise yourself unto godliness and in typical pauline fashion he then digs down into the rationale or the motivational complex which ought to be used to exercise oneself unto godliness and in typical

3:56 fashion he uses the general command to influence timothy in the obedience to that command for the child of god is continually spurred to fulfill his clearly revealed duties by the dynamics of the various motives that are set before him so after the general command comes the rationale for the command and in that rationale paul makes two positive statements and they are these bodily exercise is profitable for a little godliness is profitable for all things

4:34 now both of them are positive statements bodily exercise is profitable and there's a debate among philologists and exegetes as to whether or not we should understand the modifying word for a little that is a little measure or for a little time but regardless of the modifying word the positive statement stands bodily exercise is he doesn't say sinful he doesn't say is unnecessary

5:09 but he says it is profitable just as surely as godliness is profitable but then when he comes to make his comparative statement between the extent and duration of the worth of both kinds of exercise that are profitable godliness wins the field for it has promise even as physical or bodily exercise has promise but its promise extends beyond this present life and beyond the grave and beyond the worms you

5:50 it has promise with reference not only of the life which now is and there it stands with bodily exercise as to its duration bodily exercise is profitable for a little and what is that little for the life that now is but godliness is profitable not only for the life that now is but of that which is to come now i ask you brethren isn't that the self-evident meaning of the text whether you know a word of greek or not isn't that the meaning of the text well if so then timothy would never have put down the parchment with the notion oh well i can just

6:33 forget bodily exercise because there's no profit to it whatsoever in this world or in the world to come he would have totally misconstrued the meaning of the apostle's words and the apostle assumes that timothy wouldn't know that which in his own mind was self-evident and he would have been self-evident that bodily exercise is profitable for the life which now is and that's why the framers of the catechism say that the sins forbidden are the neglect of both the knowledge and the disciplines essential to maintain optimum physical health and vigor

Exposition of 1 Timothy 5:23: Practical Care for Physical Infirmities

7:16 and then there is a second text that brings us into the same orbit of concern in chapter five in the midst of what we would call very solemn sobering weighty ministerial responsibilities some with reference to elders some with reference to the concerns that follow in terms of timothy's ecclesiastical associations and his recognition of additional elders in the midst of all of these weighty ministerial responsibilities our responsibilities we read in verse uh... twenty three

7:59 no longer drinker of water but he leaves of little wine for life stomach saik and line of in infirmities now in the midst of all of these other responsibilities why in the world is paul become on the line licensed physician giving timothy a prescription of a single glass of wine on the other hand and for a home remedy for his gastrointestinal disorders. Because it seems to me that's exactly what he's doing. In the midst of all of these awesome, weighty ministerial tasks, he says, oh, by the way, Timothy, be no longer a drinker of water,

8:43 but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine oft infirmities. Well, if the text teaches us anything, it's teaching us that Paul is reminding Timothy he does not carry out all these weighty, solemn ministerial tasks as a disembodied spirit. He's got a gastrointestinal system, which in his case seems to come under periodic distress. And he's saying, Timothy, don't ignore the reality of your gastrointestinal problems.

9:18 And furthermore, Timothy, I want you to take the practical steps within the orbit of what is there available to you in order to improve your condition that you might serve God with greater strength and greater vigor. For the tasks I've laid upon you cannot be fulfilled by a man who's chronically sick, and especially if his sickness is advanced in its stage through want of due care and attention to a practical, physical, remedy. As is so often the case, because he was primarily a pastor,

9:59 Calvin's commentaries are so helpful for anyone doing regular, consecutive, expository ministry. I commend them to you. If you have them and don't use them, begin to use them. And in Jeffrey Wilson's little compendium of Reformed commentary on the various epistles of the New Testament, he quotes Calvin on this verse.

10:22 Perhaps a desire to clarify the preceding exhortation, keep thyself pure, verse 22, prompted the apostle to warn Timothy against practicing self-discipline at the expense of his health. Apparently, Timothy drank only water in case others should think he was addicted to wine. And that would be contrary to the standard of chapter 3 and verse 2. But in view of Timothy's...

10:52 frequent ailments, Paul urges him to take a little wine as a remedy for these infirmities. How few there are today who need to be forbidden water, how many rather that need to be restricted to drinking wine soberly. You see, Calvin knew how this could be abused. And my purpose here is not to say that if you have gastrointestinal problems, the answer is to begin to be a moderate user of wine.

11:20 I'm seeking to extrapolate the principle that in the midst of the most serious commitment to the full spectrum of solemn ministerial duties, it is not according to the apostolic mind to neglect a conscious effort to improve our native physical condition. That's the principle. And for us, the answer, for most of us, will not be a little wine. The answer will be a little walk, or a long walk, a little pumping iron, a little jogging, a little this, a little that, but something that will address itself to bringing us to a greater level of physical health and vigor and strength.

12:04 To what end? That we might fulfill the full spectrum of ministerial duty with as much vigor as prayer and proper care of the body can give us for as long as God will keep us in this life. And keep us bound to His service. So remembering these directives to Paul, his younger companion, you must have your conscience bound by the principles which they contain.

Counsel from Proven Guides: The Necessity of Physical Preparation for Preaching

12:39 And those principles are negatively stated. There is never any excuse to say I'm too busy in the ministry to care for my ailing stomach. God says, if you are, stop and do something about your ailing stomach. On the positive side, it is not being caught up in the cult of body worship.

13:04 And there is indeed a cult of body worship in our day to have a due, balanced, moderate concern and regimen of physical discipline that will enable me to operate at optimum efficiency. Now, I come to my fifth word of counsel in here. I do not bind your conscience because I cannot do that with a good conscience. But it is a word of exhortation, counsel, entreaty.

13:33 And it is this. Soberly consider the wise counsel and the general consensus of the proven guides on the matter of what is necessary to be an effective preacher. Soberly consider the wise counsel and general consensus of the proven guides on the matter of what is necessary to be an effective preacher. to be an effective preacher.

13:55 on what is necessary to be an effective preacher.

14:02 Very interesting that one can read whole books on preaching and the work of the ministry in our day and find little if nothing that makes reference to the physical condition of the preacher. And I am convinced one of the reasons is we suffer in our day or lack of men who understand the rigors involved in real preaching. We've got a host of bible talkers who don't need to be in any kind of sustained good physical condition to preach even if they were to preach 10 times a week it wouldn't demand it of them but the old masters understood that preaching was not just a mental exercise joined to the speech faculties but that

14:44 it engaged the whole of a man's redeemed humanity and the whole of that humanity brought to its most intense and vigorous exercise and therefore they knew the necessity of physical conditioning listen to blakey in his wonderful work that i trust will see a reprint in our day called for the work of the ministry by wg blakey and on page 83 this is the blakey this is the council of blakey now it remains to say a few words on physical preparation for preaching the present generation is much more disposed

15:28 than some of its predecessors to believe in a certain connection between good health and good preaching although to many persons it may seem that there is no such connection while a smaller number may think that a preacher's delicate health actually aids to a right impression of the truths he is conveying now no doubt there is a certain class of truths which are taught more impressively by a man who bears the seal of death on his wasted face but on the other hand such a man's influence in other respects is feeble if not injurious a little bit of tongue in cheek he says you know if you look like you're looking up out of a coffin

16:10 you might sober people about the reality of death but you certainly won't be a good advertisement of the joy and the health to the bones and life to the flesh that godliness brings in its train it is impossible says mr beecher for an invalid to sustain a cheerful and hopeful ministry among his people an invalid looks with a sad eye upon human life he may be sympathetic but is almost always with the shadows that are in the world he will give out moaning and drowsy hymns he will make prayers that are almost piteous it may not be a minister's fault if he be afflicted and ill and it may not be a minister's fault if he be afflicted and ill and it may not be a minister's fault

16:52 it may not be a minister's fault if he be afflicted and ill and it may not be a minister's fault they so readily associate with their play times under any circumstance the solemnity of divine worship constitutes something of a trial for the buoyant playful tendencies of youth but infinitely

17:36 the more on that account is it a matter of regret if that trial is aggravated by the repulsiveness of a countenance on which nothing bright and radiant ever appears to settle but even where there is no positive disease there may be a physical languor that reflects itself in feebleness of voice dullness of tone stiffness of manner and a general lack of lively and attractive power it may be difficult to persuade some preachers that physical causes have to do with this but the connection is beyond

18:15 all reasonable doubt and the fact that such symptoms are the effect of some transgression of the laws of health makes it incumbent on the student to attend to the condition of his outer man and then he gets specific he talks about the stomach he talks about the lungs about the boys and then he goes on to say it is very certain that do attention to physical exercise is any sensual condition now listen to that

18:52 Listen to his words of sustained, vigorous preaching, sustained, vigorous preaching. The command to be strong in the Lord includes strength of body as well as strength of soul. A whole Saturday spent in the study and particularly a whole Saturday night is not favorable to that physical vigor, which usually underlies good preaching. The speakers that move the crowd, says Beecher, men after the pattern of Whitefield,

19:31 are usually men of large physical development, men of a strong digestive power, and whose lungs have great aerating capacity. They are men of great vitality and recuperative force. They are catapults, and men go down before them, end quote.

19:53 Now you see, these are no children, these are no novices speaking these things. Some men may affect to despise these things, but it's a foolish affectation. Subordinate though their place may be, it is a real place notwithstanding. At least in every case where, quote, the bow abides in strength and the arms of the hands are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.

Further Counsel from Masters: Porter, Spurgeon, and Wesley on Physical Culture

20:23 Genesis 49 and verse 24. And then when we turn to a man like Porter, who taught pastoral theology and homiletics at Andover Newton back when it had something worth teaching, he also addresses this issue, and this is just a sampling, brethren, of dozens of quotes I could have marshaled from the old masters. He has a section on suggestion for the preservation of the, and he said, Now I'm not a novice in human affairs as to expect that any counsels I give by way of premonition that is trying to warn you ahead of time

21:04 will be seasonably and seriously regarded by more than one of ten of those to whom they are addressed. One who had the very best opportunity for observation on this subject and who was much distinguished also for discrimination of judgment remarked to me, and it was Timothy Dwight who remarked to him, President of Yale College, the student must break down himself before he will listen to anyone else's warning. For very few men will learn anything as to the preservation of health from the experience of others. End quote.

21:42 Timothy Dwight lived to see that men simply would not listen to others. Oh, may God grant that you men rewrite that kind of statement, that you will listen. If you've not listened until now.

21:58 And spare yourself and your people and the people of God in general the grief of seeing you cut off from usefulness because you're bullheaded about taking proper care of your physical faculties. So it has been, and so it will probably continue to be. Yet even in this unpromising aspect of the case, I shall proceed and admonish you anyway. And then he goes on to give a chapter on physical culture, especially as it will find expression in the ongoing full use of a man's voice in the work of the ministry.

22:38 There was a man who attended our conference a couple of years ago who is now part of an outfit called Cardiokinetics. And it's been my joy to work with Mr. Hollinger in trying to come up with a statement of a biblical theology of the care of the body, of the care of the body, of the care of the body, and this whole outfit operates with a view to helping men in the ministry and executives and others who are breaking down physically or fear they may if they don't do something. And he has some wonderful material and I am not here to promote their outfit, but I'll leave this down on the table if any of you would like to take the phone number and ask for their materials.

23:19 And this statement in here on a synopsis of the biblical view of the care of the body, has some excellent material in terms of the wise counsel of the proven guides. Listen briefly to these two quotes from Spurgeon. In his lectures to his students, Spurgeon said, Don't you...

23:40 Let me get the right beginning of the quote. Yes, here. There can be little doubt that sedentary habits have a tendency to create despondency in some constitutions. Students are negligent of their bodies.

23:55 Other men look to their tools. Only scholars neglect that instrument, that is, their brains and spirits, which they daily use. To sit long in one posture, poring over a book or driving a quill, is in itself taxing of nature. But add to this a badly ventilated chamber, a body which has long been without muscular exercise, and a heart burdened with many cares, and we have all the elements for preparing, a seething cauldron of despair, a day's breathing of fresh air upon the hills, or a few hours' ramble in the beechwoods calm, would sweep the cobwebs out of the brain, and scores of our toiling ministers,

24:40 who are now but half alive, a mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk into the face of the wind, would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is the next best. That's what I love about Spurgeon. He had this element of coming to grips with the fact that grace doesn't war with nature. Next to grace in the soul, fresh oxygen in the lungs is the best thing for preaching.

25:13 Spurgeon quotes an American preacher who said the best preparation for preaching is a good night's rest and a good breakfast on the Lord's day morning. In his lectures to my students, when he spoke to me, he said, speaking on the use of the voice, he says, to you men of narrower chests, the reason we have the dumbbells in the basement of the college is that you might use them and expand your lung capacity. He said, pump iron.

25:40 Only one iron is wood. They were wooden dumbbells, but he recognized back then, long before there was any scientific study of these matters, that a man could increase his lung capacity by stretching his sternum, by doing exercise, that would expand his capacity for the use of his lungs. And I could go on and quote Wesley, who himself, this will be my last quote, Wesley said, today I entered my 82nd year and I find myself as strong to labor and as fit for any exercise of body or mind as I was 40 years ago. To what did he attribute this?

26:20 In his entry of his diary, June 28, 1788, at age 85, he wrote, quote, first doubtless the power of God and next to the prayers of God's children, not least to my constant exercise and change of air. Thus Wesley. And then Martin Luther, and we could quote a host of others, brethren, please listen to the counsel of these sagacious men, wise men who lived long enough and observed with a strong, astute perception that the preacher that neglects proper physical culture

Counsel from Medicine and Nutrition: General Revelation and Responsible Action

27:02 will eventually pay for it. Soberly consider then this counsel of the masters in Israel and then soberly consider the counsel of the masters in medicine and nutrition. In the realm of general revelation, God has allowed us to witness a wonderful establishment of certain fundamental issues relative to physical care. And I need not, I trust, convince you men that just as there is no question now of the direct connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, there is a direct connection between the absence of regular sustained

27:46 cardiovascular exercise and premature cardiac degeneracy. It is too clearly established to be discounted. And if we believe this is true, God's world and that God speaks in general revelation and when he speaks and his voice does not in any way contradict the dictums of special revelation, we are not being spiritual by stuffing our ears. And so I urge upon you, if you've not done any reading in a responsible journal or popular book on nutrition and cardiovascular exercise, I urge you to do so.

28:28 And my... My concluding word of direction is if you've not had a complete physical recently, get one.

28:35 Don't leave this conference, go out and start to run ten miles tomorrow and drop dead of a heart attack and then it'll be said that's what happens when you go to that Trinity Ministerial conference, you end up having heart attacks. No, don't be irresponsible. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And if you've not had a physical, get one with an EKG, if necessary a stress test, find out the present condition of your heart, seek out the counsel of a competent nutritionist and someone, the likes of the cardiokinetics outfit, that can give you a realistic, reasonable program with which to start some regular exercise.

29:20 If you are not in an exercise program, likewise, if you have weight to lose and patterns of eating to change, don't... don't go on a slim-fast thing and just chop off the pounds without thinking through the biblical doctrine of eating.

29:36 And I would commend to you several sermons that Pastor Nichols recently preached in dealing with some of the chronic vices of our generation. He was dealing with gluttony and anorexia, but he started with the biblical theology of eating. Eating in creation, eating in the fall, eating in the Noahic covenant, the old covenant and the new covenant. A biblical doctrine of eating.

29:58 A biblical theological study of eating. And when you think of it, the whole issue of standing or falling in Eden was whose menu were Adam and Eve going to follow.

30:09 God made the woe, the wheel of the human race stand or fall on whose menu Adam and Eve would follow. You think about it. God places this issue very prominent in his revelatory material. So seek out then the kind of information that will help you to think biblically and then to act responsibly from a medical standpoint and then, then program into your schedule as a matter of conscience before God those times to be given to physical exercise and physical culture and stick to them

Programming Physical Care into Your Schedule and the 'Club Fighter' Analogy

30:52 regardless of what you feel like the same way you stick to your times of prayer and preparation regardless of what you feel like. If I only exercise when I felt like it, I don't know what kind of shape I'd be in today. Almost every time there's an aversion of my remaining sin to the discipline of regular exercise. Now some of you may find that hard to believe but it's true.

31:17 I don't get a high when I run. I often get spiritual light and illumination and wonderful communion with the Lord but I don't get a quote runner's high. I don't get a high when I'm doing the other forms of exercise to keep myself in some kind of decent shape for the rigors of a Trinity Pastors Conference when I end up preaching all these hours and at age 56 don't collapse in a heap at the end of it. Now I don't go on this schedule week in, week out, month in, month out.

31:49 It would be sinning against God. My conscience wouldn't allow it. My fellow elders wouldn't allow it. But when the time comes and you need to do it you don't collapse in a heap.

32:00 I'll close with this analogy. When I've talked with ministers about this I say well you know I liken myself to a club fighter. Now you know what a club fighter is? He's a guy that he knows and everybody knows he's never, never, never going to be the immediate undercard in a title fight.

32:17 He's never going to do a ten rounder or even eight rounder. He's got just enough ability to be stuck in as one of the under under cards in the three or four round bout. And those club fighters never know when they're going to get called upon by their manager. Hey, somebody couldn't make it you're on this Saturday night.

32:35 So the club fighter doesn't have the luxury that the champion has. He can live high on the hog and let himself balloon up and not exercise but his fight is scheduled some six months, a year in advance and so then he has a schedule. At this point I start my running. At this point I start my intensive ring work and sparring so many rounds a day, etc.

32:58 So when it comes to the time of a title fight I'm in peak condition. The club fighter can't afford that luxury. He's got to have a regimen that keeps him in the kind of shape that on three days notice he can get in the ring and do a fairly decent job of taking care of himself or taking the other guy out. Well, I use that imagery.

33:18 I was never a prize fighter but I know enough about the thing to know that's the way it works. And I regard myself as a club fighter. I never know when I'm going to get called upon to have to do something unusually intense. I can't afford the luxury of a patch of just letting myself get out of shape.

33:36 And if we view ourselves that way I think we're getting close to what Paul says when he says, I buffet my body. I keep it under. It is a constant discipline to have a handle on my physical constitution and reigning in its aberrations, its love of ease, its native affinity to become a couch potato. And it's so easy to become one in the name of the work of the ministry.

34:06 Brethren, may God help us that in this generation when we have been privileged to see things that would make some of our fathers dance for joy, when there's been a return to the old paths and there's been a commitment to the centrality of preaching and the benefit and blessing of vigorous and lively and animated and urgent passionate preaching, we simply are not going to make it over the long haul if we are indifferent to our physical condition. So I lay before you then this eighth word of counsel with respect to the avoidance of ministerial burnout and of ministerial backsliding,

34:48 that which pertains to our physical culture. But someone says, ah, yes, but so-and-so who was a great preacher never exercised. All right, fair enough. Winston Churchill didn't exercise.

35:02 He drank a pint of brandy a day and smoked a dozen cigars. Go thou and do likewise. What might he have accomplished if he didn't drink his brandy and puff his cigars? Brethren, it's not what so-and-so did.

35:16 It's what the Bible says. And I challenge you to have your conscience influenced by the word of God and then to act accordingly.