How Are Such Men Made

Review of Biblical Standards for Ministry

0:04 I shall make an effort in the next few minutes to bring into focus the basic principles of Scripture to which we addressed ourselves this morning. Those of you who are with us will remember that I read three portions of Scripture, Matthew 9, 37 to 39, 1 Timothy 3, 1 to 7, and Titus 1, 5 to 9. I made some reference to it, though I didn't read it. And 2 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2.

0:33 And the basic summary of the principles of those passages is that all of the people of God are responsible to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers into His harvest, that is, men who will be able to give themselves, without the encumbrance of normal means of employment, to the preaching of the gospel and to the accomplishment of that which our Lord, gives under the figure of reaping a harvest. However, the people of God are not only responsible to pray the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers,

1:10 in the light of 1 Timothy 3 and 2 Timothy 2, they are also responsible to seek to discern those in their ranks who are qualified for the office of the ministry, or to be teaching ruling elders in a full-time sense. And so then, in the light of those principles of scripture, we addressed ourselves to this whole subject of the biblical principles relative to a call to the ministry, or perhaps we should say more generally, biblical standards for the Christian ministry.

1:47 And we introduced then our formal study with those passages as a broad background by considering the principles illustrated in the mimeograph diagram which you have before you. And I made four propositions. I made four propositions, each one, as it were, lying beneath and behind the other. And I'll only give you the propositions by way of review.

2:09 I will not support them from scripture as I did this morning. If you have questions about the scripturalness of any of them, please see me afterward and I will be glad to demonstrate the same. But the propositions were these. Nothing is a more significant factor in determining the state of the churches at any point in their history Nothing is a more significant factor in determining the state of the churches at any point in their history than the quality of their ministers.

2:32 Now behind that, proposition two, nothing is a more significant factor in determining the quality of the ministers than the kind of mental training to which they are subjected. And behind that is the third proposition, that nothing is a more significant factor in determining the kind of training to which they are subjected than the basic concepts of what a true minister is, concepts held by those who do the training. And then the fourth proposition, nothing is a more significant factor in determining those concepts in the minds of teachers who train others

3:10 than the closeness with which they adhere to the biblical standards concerning the qualifications for the Christian ministry. And this responsibility, then, of understanding the qualifications for the Christian ministry becomes part of the responsibility of the church. Church is task. Truth to faithful men is not able to teach others.

3:40 And so it must be of deep concern to know with reference to standards for the Christian ministry and to pray and labor to the end that God will bless His church with such men. Then we addressed ourselves to the scriptural teaching concerning those irreducible, those minimal requirements for the office of the ministry. And I suggested that if we take 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, we can summarize those lists of requirements for the office of a bishop, an overseer, an elder, under four distinct heads.

4:20 First of all, the individual in consideration must have a life which meets the standard of scripture. And that life is a life that is eminent in genuine godliness. A life characterized by unfeigned and consistent godliness. The second requirement is, he must have a mind which meets the standard of scripture.

4:45 A mind which reflects unreserved subjection to the word of God. A basic grasp upon the content of the word of God. A basic acquaintance with the interrelatedness of that content so that he's not just filled with a bunch of Bible facts, but he has spiritual wisdom in the light of those facts and the teaching of Holy Scripture. And then we sought to, to demonstrate that he must also have a mind which reflects some measure of sound, practical judgment.

5:20 He must have a mind that is not purely the academic mind that can grasp the interrelatedness of scripture and be a keen theological mind. It must be a mind possessed of sound judgment. The requirement that he be sober-minded. And then he must have a mind which reflects a deep acquaintance with the centrality of the local church, in the purpose of God.

5:44 So it must be a life of piety, a mind which reflects the biblical standard in these areas. Thirdly, a spirit which meets the standard of scripture. And we consider two things. A spirit which manifests an experimental acquaintance with the great realities of sin and of grace.

6:05 A preacher is not a word machine. Something far more than a word machine. And a man may speak true words, but unless they come from a spirit, a spirit that experiences that truth, they will be the letter that kills, rather than the spirit which gives life. And then he must manifest a spirit which shows a love to and a sensitivity to people.

6:30 The servant of God must love people. That's why it's required that he be given to hospitality. And then the fourth thing, he must demonstrate possession of gifts which meet the standard of scripture. Not enough that he have a godly life, a submissive mind to the authority of scripture, an informed mind about the content of scripture, a deep, sensitive, spiritual acquaintance with truth.

6:56 He must have gifts which meet the standard of scripture. God says he must be an apt teacher. He must be able to exhort and to convict. And so then, there must be these God-given, personally cultivated, visibly manifested gifts, which are the application of the word of God, the portrayed or declared accurate clarity, discriminating application, and with heavenly unction.

The Necessity of Upholding Biblical Standards

7:29 So much, then, for these few minutes of review. This is the area we covered this morning. Now, we address ourselves tonight to this all-important question. How are such men to be made?

7:42 For when we see the biblical standard of the ministry, we may be tempted to say, well, boy, if we held to that standard, we'd empty half our churches of preachers. Well, we well might do that. We might do that. But I would say, as one old servant of God said, who is quoted in Bridges Christian Ministry, that if none were to be admitted into holy orders, that is, to the ministry, except those who are possessed of every necessary qualification, there could not possibly be procured a sufficient number of pastors for the supply of our churches.

8:14 To which I answer that a small number of chosen pastors is preferable to a multitude of unqualified teachers. At all hazards, we must adhere to the command of God and leave the result to Providence. But in reality, now get this principle, the dearth of pastors is not so generally to be apprehended. To reject those candidates for the ministry whose labors in the church would be wholly fruitless is undoubtedly a work of piety.

8:48 He says, I'm sorry, this man does not possess a life that meets, or he may have a life and have the gifts. The writer says this is a work of piety for its obedience to God, is it not? Just as much as it's incumbent upon the church to recognize those whom God has qualified and to admit them to the office of the ministry, it is the responsibility of the church to exclude from that office those whom she deems unfit. And this is a work of piety.

9:25 On the contrary, who are qualified to fulfill the duties of the sacred office would take encouragement from this exactness of heresy and the ministry would enter more respect. You see, it's a vicious cycle. Lower the biblical standard and then you lower respect for the office of the ministry and when you lower respect for the office of the ministry, you lower respect for obedience to the word of God and obedience to the word of piety. When we say here's the biblical standard

10:10 and by God's grace we will hold to it, even if it means empty pulpits for a while, God honors that obedience for He gives His Spirit to those who obey Him. And when biblically qualified men speak from a position where those qualifications have been insisted upon and recognized, they speak with authority, the word is received with openness and submission, the standard of piety and godliness is elevated and the church flourishes. And so, responsible before God never to lower that standard for any pragmatic reasons whatsoever. But the question is, are such men made?

Three Formative Influences in Making Ministers

10:54 Ultimately, of course, the answer is only God can make such men. Paul says, He, God, has made us ministers of the new covenant. And so, the answer to this question is very simple and we could leave it there and send you home and say the whole second point, how are such men made? God makes them.

11:16 God makes them go home and pray. The answer is not quite that simple in its outworking for God is the...

11:23 And there are not only the immediate influences of the Holy Spirit upon a potential candidate for the ministry, but there are the mediated influences of the Holy Spirit. Those influences which come not directly from heaven to the ascended Christ by the Holy Spirit into our hearts, but those influences which come from God through Christ through various channels that God has chosen to bring them into the life of a servant of Christ. As I see the thing in my present understanding, I believe scripture and human experience both concur

12:07 that there are these three main formative influences by which such God-qualified, God-equipped ministers are made. There is the domestic, the domestic influence. Secondly, the ecclesiastical or the church influence. And thirdly, the institution.

The Domestic Influence: Raising Godly Children

12:28 First of all, then, there is the domestic real sense that begins with the very act. Remember in the 139th Psalm that David confesses what all men should confess though only few do. God's hand was a ribbon when he was nipped again in his mother's womb. 139, verse 13.

12:58 For thou didst form my inward for me in my mother's womb. My frame was not hidden from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance, and in thy book they were all written, even the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was none of them. He sees God's providence at work in the very activity of gestation within his mother's womb.

13:34 What was being foreshadowed of God's providential care and control. And so there is a sense in which God begins to make ministers when he conceives them in a certain way or when at conception God so orders the arrangement of all that which will make them a certain type of man that they are either qualified or disqualified for the ministry. One of the qualifications for the Christian ministry is some measure of the gift of utterance. Some men are disqualified in their mother's womb.

14:10 God did not put them together in such a way that they could ever give their lives to a task which involves verbalizing the gospel and the truth of God. Some men physically are born with such limitations perhaps severe impediments of speech that disqualify them no matter how much they may love Christ and disqualify God. And this is what God has done for them. God has indicated that this is not the place that He has for them.

14:42 That domestic influence which begins at conception is carried out through the entire formative period when those children are within our homes. Several of these qualifications for the office of overseer are the kind of qualities that generally are cultivated in the home for years or they are never cultivated in the home. Look at several of these and this is by no means an exhaustive consideration. First of all it is said one that rules well his own house.

15:20 Generally speaking the people who govern their homes according to the scriptures that is the husband takes his headship in love the wife takes her subjection as unto Christ. Together they implement firm communication of the rod of correction restructure and order to the home. Generally speaking people who have that kind of household absorb it up along the way but this matter of how to order one's house is generally more caught than taught

16:05 and I have seen some dear sincere men who wanted to rule well their own houses but they were brought up in situations where the father was a milk toast where the children were either let to run loose or there was harsh unloving discipline that caused an overreaction and they are just told as to how to go about ruling their own houses because they have never seen it and for them perhaps the best thing to do even though they may evidence something of a life of general godliness in other areas

16:49 of the world is to rule well their own homes and spend some time in those homes and just learn and observe and get the principles and study and read and work until in this area there is evidence that has been done but how much better now while those house that is

17:33 ruled where a child has had a parent two parents that when he has been tempted to give then to his own whims a parent has been there restraining and teaching and instructing that you can't go through life just following the whims of your passions and your desires and just doing what comes naturally there must be control of yourself granted the fruit of the spirit is self control yes by means of the kind of training that the requirement orderly sober minded this in great measure is acquired and learned so I say to you parents and this is my

18:17 exhortation would you have the church in this day and in the future generation blessed with God qualified ministers then raise every son as though he were going to have to meet every one of these standards and then if God has for him a job as a ditch digger he'll be the best of the fine Christ honoring ditch digger in the flock because there's not one of these requirements listed for the office of a teaching elder that is not elsewhere listed as a requirement for all Christians except apt to teach all of the others are in other

19:02 places listed as requirements of general godliness for all if you say I want my son to reflect all of those graces that I have in my training only God can put in him directly by the spirit but here are the others that under God I am to be the means by which he learns them oh that we had that goal before us oh that we had the goal that every one of our daughters would be qualified to stand by the side of a man of God and be an adornment to his ministry if he's to be

19:46 given to hospitality of giving that is required in hospitality and you've got to take care of all your own domestic situation and then take on the domestic task of so many others and at times you feel just like you're somebody's housemaid unless a person has learned to die to selfish interest and die to having their own schedule always like this and willing to have it upset for Christ's sake and many a man doesn't meet the requirement given to hospitality because he's got a wife yet ever trying to establish the principle of an open door and so I urge you parents rear every daughter as though she would have to meet those requisitions to stand by the side

20:30 of a man of God and it's this long range vision that must fill us so that we just don't irresponsibly say I don't care about unborn generation I just care about the now we had some spiritual forefathers who had us in their eyes and in their hearts long before we were born men and women who lived in the light of their responsibility to generations to come and you read that perspective in the 78th Psalm and it is our responsibility so then there is the domestic influence and I trust that that influence will be increasingly exerted within our own assembly and when you're tempted as a parent as I am it gets so wearying you go to some

21:15 of the same ground Monday Tuesday in the week call them what you want you have to go over every day and you'll find there is a lot of financial hard work in your hands and you'll find that a lot of money will flow to your family for all the things that you did in life and so you can go to your family and say I don't care about

21:58 the future me but She kept working at it. Kept working at it. Kept scrubbing a floor and just sloshing around, not really getting into the corners. And she'd drop whatever she was doing with a household of kids in the morning.

22:14 She'd say, look, son, put the scrub brush down. No mops in the house, scrub brushes. She'd say, you wrap the rag around your finger and you dig into the corner. A job worth doing is worth doing right.

22:25 I used to read a sermon sometimes and I could get away with glossing over something and the words come back, a job worth doing. And leave no corners unturned in the exposition of God's Word. Gloss over no words of God. They're all holy words.

22:48 Be honest with them. Is your son going to rise up and give that testimony to you?

22:59 Is he? You don't do it by just simply giving him $5,000 for his college education and saying, I've been a good parent. I hope you'll love me. No, sir.

23:11 This is the price you pay now. Painstaking application of all those holy influences that God has privileged you to have upon those precious children. Well, I must hurry on to the second strand of influence. It's the ecclesiastical influence.

The Ecclesiastical Influence: The Church's Role

23:26 That is, the influence of the church upon young men who would eventually aspire to the office of the ministry. You see, the kind of church in which a man has been reared is, for the most part, that which puts its stamp upon him for life. His views of God, of worship, of truth, of evangelism are the views that he has unconfirmed and consciously absorbed in the total life and ministry of the church.

24:00 And much of what he's absorbed doesn't come out until he's down the road a bit and comes to a state of maturity. This gives me great hope as a pastor. It ought to give you great hope as parents.

24:12 If I didn't believe that a lot more is getting into you than sometimes is obvious, it'd get pretty discouraging. Get pretty discouraging.

24:22 But there is this absorption of a climate and an atmosphere and it's my conviction and I believe it's my conviction that this influence of the church should not be suspended during the most crucial years of a man's development, namely the years of his formal training for the ministry. What so often happens is a fellow comes up to college age and he has some encouragement to pursue the ministry and he's completely uprooted out of the church, plunked down in the artificial atmosphere of a seminary with his peers, all just as cops sure they know everything about anything and laughing, hacking in the graces of humility and discernment and wisdom and they can just thunder out and pontificate a thousand things

25:06 that men with a little more sense would just speak very whisperingly about and they don't have the balancing influence of the total context of the church. My own conviction that the influence of the church should be sustained most intimately during those formative years when a man is absorbing his more formal training, whether it's at seminary, Bible school or whatever else. Now Spurgeon has some interesting comments on this. Some of you may know the history of Spurgeon's college is just a typical college now but when it began it had a unique thing unheard of in that day and the college was a little blister, a little bubble

25:50 on the side of the church as it were and these men who sat under the lectures of Spurgeon and his associates Monday through Friday were men involved to the hilt in the prayer meetings and the evangelism and in the total life of the church. the Metropolitan Tabernacle and Spurgeon says in volume 3 of his original complete biography that many a young man had been warned about losing his spiritual vigor when he was away at college but such men had come to Spurgeon and said Sir, though we were warned about losing our vision and our passion for souls we have found that being involved in this has augmented our vision has increased our passion and they went on to say that they thanked God

26:35 that their thoughts and the theological training was couched in the context of a warm Now this has great implications if God is to lead us into any kind of adventure with relationship to what we think of as a pastor's college or a seminary I believe its implications are such that all who come to such a thing will come under the discipline of a specific local church and be under the watchful care of a body of God's people and discerning elders as well. Well then there is the third influence and this is the institutional or educational influence

The Institutional Influence: Concentrated Theological Training

27:17 and it's here that young men who aspire to the office of an overseer should receive in concentrated doses a distillation of the learning with piety of more mature servants of Christ. It is here men should receive what is generally impractical to hope they can receive in the local church. In olden days a young man who aspired to the ministry would come as a single man and live in the parsonage with a man he would take a couple hours a day teach him Greek teach him Hebrew give him reading and church history he would carry on a relatively full-orbed seminary program on an individual basis

28:02 to a man. But remember that was in for the most part the context of a rural society. In the context not of the 20th century with jet aircraft and everything else that has made our life so complicated and so fast. And there is a valid difference in terms of our present situation.

28:23 And so it may be expedient in order for a man to grasp those necessary disciplines to make him an accurate expositor of the word to put him for a period of time in an institutional situation where he can receive a distillation of the wisdom and learning and piety of more mature and learned servants of Christ. Any man aspiring to the office of the ministry ought to aim at getting a workable grasp upon the original languages. I'm not saying a man can't be a God-qualified preacher if he doesn't know a minimum of Hebrew and Greek. What I am saying is that it is the most desirable thing that a man have some proficiency

29:08 in these languages. If we hold the biblical view of Scripture that God spoke in those original languages the man whose life is given to him is given to saying this is what God said can do so with the greatest confidence if he has a working acquaintance with the languages. And so there are men most proficient then in this and giving oneself to concentrated exposure to a language is the way to learn it. This is true of systematic theology.

29:38 If a man is expounding the word accurately he will have a respect to the whole and there's a sense in which then every Christian sitting under a sound ministry becomes a theologian in his own right. But if there are those who are going to instruct the assembly they must have a precision of understanding that goes beyond the average man in the pew. Not until you see the thing more clearly than the man you're seeking to teach and so in many situations to have an institution where there will be a presentation of theology in a systematic

30:21 interrelated way so that a man gets his mind stretched by this exposure to a systematic presentation of the whole counsel of God. Then there's the area of specific training with regard to preaching and all theology. Some of the wisdom needed to be a minister a pastor.

30:45 And again you see if God has blessed a man through the years with experience that has given him insight it's only right that young men should receive the benefit of God's getting this distillation of wisdom and experience from more mature servants. We depart radically from many of the existing concepts reflected in present seminaries and let me say especially to you young men don't you go back to Westminster and Ari and other places saying please don't do that. More harm than good. Don't do that.

31:24 We're trying to set out the biblical ideal to which we under God are seeking to press and then we're thankful for everything that may be less than that ideal. Which is presently a help to us. Please don't use this as fuel to despise present seminaries that are seeking to do what they believe to be the will of God. But in the light of these would be my contention and I believe it's an application of the scriptures that these disciplines of the languages systematic theology homology church history should be taught in a context in which all the upon

32:07 first of all secondly practically exemplified by everyone who's teaching and thirdly forcefully emphasized by all who are teaching. So that as young men sit there learning Greek and Hebrew that Greek teacher is constantly reminding them by what he says and how he says it it's not enough to have a working acquaintance with the language. The Holy Spirit must open up the tructions with pure Hebrew and a man teaching Hebrew

32:52 and Greek who is himself reflecting a spirit that is acquainted experimentally with sin and grace then he won't be afraid if he comes into a class struggling with an inner conflict of his own to say to the class I can't move in to the next lesson as it struggles in my own heart can we look to God in prayer he won't be beneath him won't be beneath his dignity to let you know he's a sinner struggling on his way to heaven by the grace of God and so we must as we would pray that God would grant such a school of the prophets to provide it and adorn it with men who are qualified to give these disciplines

Illustrations of Godly Theological Education

33:37 that are not practical to give which it is not practical to give in the context of the local church but given by men who firmly believe these other requirements who exemplify them and who emphasize them. Let me give an illustration that I hope will help make clear what I'm driving at. There was a very interesting article about a Scotsman whose name was Rabbi Duncan and he was a they called him Rabbi because he was so acquainted with Semitic languages and learning and he taught in so wonderfully used of God the Free College in Edinburgh which we were privileged to visit

34:21 some months ago when we were there in that part of the world.

34:26 This tribute is being written about him in one of the editions of the Banner of Truth and quotations are gleaned from former students who looking back upon their days of theological training at the college were reflecting upon the men who made the lasting impression upon them the most lasting and powerful impressions upon them and one such was Rabbi Duncan and I read now this section that is most helpful in this area the study of theology was to him that is to Rabbi Duncan not merely abstract but something which captivated his whole being he believed that without a personal experience of sin and grace

35:10 Christian theology was unparalleled unintelligible and unreal that was one reason why he was so deeply concerned that his students should possess the first essential qualification for the ministry regeneration here was the starting point for any student of divinity but all along the way it was personal experience that really mattered exhorting one of his students to steadfast adherence to certain basic truths he said to him as means of establishment in these and in all truths cultivate a deep reverence and fear of God a deep sense of the infinite that was the advice not of a pastor but of a theological professor who was so learned that they called him

35:55 Rabbi that he exemplified this in his own life there is no doubt one student said he theologized with fresh and fervid feeling from a glowing person obtaining grand views of truth behind the veil he would bring them forth from the fullness of a soul inspired by its subject and a heart aglow with celestial fire flashes of the deepest intellectual insight were combined with the tenderest devotional spirit in the course of a theological discussion he would from time to time utter an exclamation of adoring wonder or a cry of aspiration then

36:38 the former students Dr. Moody Stewart recollects this incident which most vividly illustrates this principle this is what he said Professor Duncan was reading a part of Isaiah which dealt with the sufferings of the Messiah with his senior class when his mind became engrossed with the subject and bent nearly his snuff box in one hand a huge pinch of snuff occupying the fingers of the other so it's possible for a now get the picture pacing up and down

37:23 in front of the students snuff box handkerchief in one hand pinch of snuff occupying the fingers of the other but utterly forgotten in the absorbing interest of his subject our Lord's suffering for sinners which he was turning over and looking at now on this side now on that but all with a loving reverence as one who spoke in a half sleeping vision when suddenly a flash went through him as if heaven had opened he straightened himself up his hand went up and the snuff scattered itself from the unconscious fingers as he turned to the class more as it seemed for sympathy than to teach I I do you know what it was

38:08 dying on the cross forsaken by his father do you know what it was what what as if someone had given him half an answer which stimulated him but which he had to clear out of his way what what and damnation taken lovingly leaning a little to one side his head very straight and stiff his arms hanging down on either side beyond the arms of his chair with the light beaming from his face and the tears trickling down his cheeks he repeated in a low intense voice that broke into a half soft half laugh

38:49 in the most saying of the many I have heard from him nothing in all his manner and expression ever struck me what did that student learn he not only learned a vital principle concerning the doctrine of substitutionary atonement it was damnation and he took it lovingly but he learned that ever before he dealt with

39:23 learned it not because Mr. Duncan said I will now teach you that a preacher must put feeling into his message that's an abomination of the art of preaching

39:51 you stay with the message until it puts feeling into you then it flows out may I weary you with one more illustration from his life one student says there were many of us fresh from discussions in philosophy which had engrossed and fascinated us some groping their way through difficulties in the evidence of christianity difficulties in systematic theology while others perhaps were passing through deep spiritual struggles as to whether or not they themselves were even converted but whatever was the character of our difficulties when we looked at the rabbi we all felt and were forced

40:36 to say there and especially the best evidence that there is such a thing as living personal godliness a man who walks with God is what it is to enjoy the light of his countenance and the same time what it is to be without it even for a day there's a man who while brimful of all knowledge ancient and modern modern prizes most the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ who he has sent who can tell the influence of young men having a couple of years to sit at the feet of men like that something is stamped upon their spirit

41:20 which will never leave them conversely who can tell the hurtful shall I say sometimes damning influence when young men have been unconsciously taught that it's all right to traffic in divine truth without inward standing up reading their lecture notes the same notes they'd read with the same emphasis and inflection for the past 30 years never in ashes of glory never in

42:04 there you're serving in the study and you can get up and go through your outline and all your points and all your illustrations and all your sub-points and that's preaching that's not preaching not preaching at all it's a poor substitute and imitation that leaves the hearts of God's people empty and so I suggest that if God is pleased to give us vision for and aspirations after any kind of an institution it must not only be one that gives due place to these disciplines that will make men able ministers of the word but one that is graced with men who reflect these things in their own lives this is an interesting point of history if I may interject

42:49 a little history that back in the day when the lands of America and Great Britain were blessed with a great number of powerful preachers it was not uncommon that the pivotal and strategic chairs of theology and instruction were given to be taken out of their churches right at the prime of their ministry they didn't take young men who simply got a doctor's degree in theology they were given who'd been in school for the past ten years in the unnatural sterile world of academic attainment they took men who may have been in school for ten years but then had been there on the firing line

43:33 for another twenty and had proven God and the anointing of God was upon them and the fruits of their ministry were found everywhere and they said there's a man there's a man God's hand is on him God's wisdom is in him God's power is working through him there's the man to put the they didn't take the young men unproven they didn't take the old men who'd lost even the physical ability to give vent to their fire because there's a sense in which we're not like Moses Bush when the fire of God burns in a man it does consume him and virtue goes out of him without reason that the Whitfields and the Spurgeons

44:18 didn't even see their three score and ten Wesley he did others did but many a servant of God has burned himself out and so there's a sense in which a man who's passed over the hill lacks the ability even physically to give himself to the demands of such a teaching ministry well then if this is the scriptural application or the rightful application of the scriptural principles with relationship to the whole matter of ministerial training what should be our goal as Christians as a church as a fellowship of church with regard to any kind of a future ministry and training ministers in a formal way

Goals for Future Ministerial Training

45:02 well let me say negatively our goal should not be to give himself to produce evangelical scholars who'll defend and expound the faith at the intellectual front thank God for such schools that prepare men to do that we need people who are willing to subject themselves to disciplines of study that are dry as dust where the faith is being attacked and who are willing to write their books on science and the scripture and the genesis flood and all the rest thank God for such gifts to the church to produce such scholars to defend the faith at that front level but that should not be our goal I don't believe God is calling us to that nor secondly do I believe God will ever call us

45:47 to usurp the role of the churches in their part with regard to ministerial training it's not the work of the school or the training college or the seminary to discern men of gifts and grace that's the work of the church to the church to command commit these things to faithful men the church is to discern those amongst her sons who evidently eminence eminence of piety and the evidence of some gifts that they should be encouraged to pursue Spurgeon speaks so clearly on this he says our college can't make ministers if God hasn't shown that he's begun to make them no sense wasting our time trying to do something God hasn't started we can help finish the job we can help

46:31 contribute to the task but that's all and so the goal of any school should not be to usurp the role of the church in discerning who have the gifts and graces or in commanding such men to start churches or go to existing churches I think it's an abominable thing when denominations write to seminaries and say give us a list of your graduating seniors what does a B.D. degree prove? not a thing in itself it may prove in some men to be the evidence of a diligent application to gain the necessary skills to be an able minister of the new covenant which along with other things put together

47:15 is part of the picture of a qualified servant of Christ but in some men the B.D. degrees prove nothing else but that they were able to do the studies and pass their exams it doesn't say a thing about grace or gifts or a spirit that is experimentally acquainted with God and truth it says nothing about that all it says is John Jones has completed the course of study requisite to the obtaining of the Bachelor of Divinity degree that's all it says that's all it says and nothing more and so whatever institution we would ever envision and pray for and labor towards it must never be with a thought that that institution would usurp the role of the church either in discerning

47:59 men of gifts and graces or in commending such to actual ministries third thing negatively that our goals should not be simply to follow the same present concepts of ministerial training just adding a little reformed Baptist distinct I believe this is that God is calling us to something that is more radical that is more radical more revolutionary to use the in terms something that starts not with what is and then adds a little flavor of our distinctives but something that breaks through all the rubble and says what are the biblical principles let us build upon them and let us seek to construct institution

48:40 well then positively what should be our goals with regard to this matter of an institution as it cooperates with the churches in preparing men for the ministry I believe an accurate answer is this not fully comprehensive our goal should be to cooperate with the churches in seeking to develop able ministers of the new covenant in close adherence to the biblical standards for teaching and ruling elders to see an institution that will cooperate with the churches in seeking to develop able ministers of the new covenant in close adherence

49:24 to the biblical standards for teaching and ruling elders I believe that we should That's why I think the very concept can be better stated in terms of a pastor's college. It's more defined, it's more limited than a theological seminary. A pastor's college, the vision being under God to promote true pastor-preachers.

49:49 A blessing and adornment to the church.

Embracing the Vision and Praying for Men

49:53 If that's a proper application of the biblical principles, then all of us who have any part in this should first of all be filled with the vision of the goal. And that's all I've tried to do today, is set a vision before you. That's where things begin. Young men shall see dreams, and your old men visions.

50:09 Or the other way around. I can never keep those two things straight there in Acts. Perhaps I haven't labored at a good mental crutch. Usually on that type thing, if I work out a mental crutch, it helps me.

50:20 But it says that he would pour out of his spirit, your young men shall see visions, and your old men dream dreams.

50:28 Things begin with vision. Some would call us dreamers. They called us dreamers a year ago when we said that we believed that the local church could be the sending agency for foreign missions. I had people look at us and shake their head and say, it can't be done.

50:42 The hawkers are on a plane this week, on their way to New Guinea. Now, I don't say that to be smart and say, no, I don't mean that at all.

50:52 Sometimes I may convey that attitude, but that's not my attitude. I trust before God. That's a sinful attitude.

50:59 But if we're convinced that our vision has been hammered out by Scripture, then isn't it time we say, Lord, this is your word. Give us to realize the fulfillment, the end of that vision, by your Spirit.

51:13 For this group and that group, and we're not going to throw stones at them to see it our way, but as for me and my house, so I hope the vision has at least in part been seen today. If we have anything to do in this regard, then it'll start as we're filled with the vision of this, and then as God is pleased in His providence to give us men who share this vision, who are theologically agreed, experimentally orientated in ministering, experientially experienced. Someone said, well, why don't you start a school like that tomorrow? Well, there's the problem.

51:50 Who's going to be the Rabbi Duncan's? Who are going to be the Professor Murray's? Who are going to be these men? We don't see them yet.

51:57 But God can bring them to us. God can bring them to us. And so I trust as a result of our consideration today that the vision has been in part implanted and that that vision will be turned into prayer and that this will be a matter of constant prayer as we meet together, as we pray privately, and then that God would be pleased to give us the joy of seeing such men formed and molded by God right here in our own midst. An awful responsibility is upon us, dear ones, for these 15 or so young men who have, to a greater or lesser degree, aspirations for the Christian ministry.

The Church's Responsibility in Discerning and Encouraging

52:37 Woe, woe be unto us if we should in any way break a bruised reed. There may be someone whose gifts are in such seedling form that only God can see them. Woe be unto us if we overly discourage such a one by setting the standard too high. But woe, woe be unto us if out of personal love for some of these young men we encourage them to pursue a course for which they are not scripturally qualified.

53:05 The sense of that awful woe of discouraging those whom we should encourage and encouraging whom we should discourage should cause us to pray for the grace of honesty. Some of you know in times past when we've had other young men here who've preached from time to time, I ask you, will you bless them in the ministry of the Word? Were you helped? What was your honest reaction?

53:30 Well, I hope you respect all. How can I know if the young man says, does God use my ministry to bless His people? How can he know unless you're honest with me and the other elders and leaders who try to feel your reaction? It's not accurate for us to just say how it affected us.

53:46 We might have had a bad night's sleep the night before the fellow preached and the problems with our dull head, not his cold heart or thick tongue. The problem may be with us. And so we want to sense, what is the consensus of the people of God? And so you must be honest.

54:01 And that individual must be a faceless individual when you're evaluating his gifts and his grace. I trust you'll be open with me and with Mr. Dixon and any others who may assume the role of the eldership as these young men who aspire to the ministry, as they interact with you and you with them and they're in your homes. If you see areas of weakness, don't criticize them to one another.

54:22 Come to us. I've already had the joy of talking with one or two of you. I've already had the joy of talking with one or two of you. I've already had the joy of talking with one or two of you.

54:26 I've already had the joy of talking with one or two of you. I've already had the joy of talking with one or two of them and pointing out some very sensitive areas of specific character weakness. And in neither case have they turned me off. They thanked me and said,

54:37 so I plead with you, come to us. Go around with a magnifying glass, scrutinize.

54:45 Who could stand under that kind of scrutiny? But I'm talking about these things that...

54:49 So, Gloria, you may have them at your table and you find the poor fellow doesn't know how to use his fork and knife.

54:55 Well, maybe he didn't have a mother and dad who taught him these things. So I'll go to him and say, if you're going to be blameless in the eyes of your people, you've got to be blameless. You've got to adapt to our cultural pattern of decent eating. And maybe give him a couple of lessons in etiquette.

55:09 You know, that has a lot to do with the ministry. A fellow who can't sit at the table and eat decently may completely turn off many sets of ears to what he has to say. Now, those are the kind of things I trust you will feed back to us, that we may be of help to these young men. And then as we give them opportunities to take a prayer meeting, to speak in a Sunday school class, that you'll feed that information back to us, that we may work with them, this is an awesome responsibility God has thrust upon us, but He's put it upon us.

55:39 And now it's a matter of discharging that responsibility. It's too late to say whether or not we'll take it. We've got it. Now it's a matter of giving an answer for our stewardship.

A Charge to Young Men and Parents

55:49 May God help us to be good stewards of this responsibility. And I say to you, dear young men, whom I love as deeply as my own children in the flesh, I believe I can say that. By God's grace, I want to be true to you, even if it hurts me. As I said this morning, some of the deepest pain in the ministry I've had is when I've had to tell young men, I don't believe God's equipped you.

56:12 That hurts, right there.

56:16 But I must be faithful to God, and I want to be faithful to you by God's grace. And so you pray for me and for us, because I'm not beyond being sentimentally moved. Some of you, I just love you so much as fellows. It'd be easy for me to just look over things that ought not to be glossed over.

56:34 So you pray that I shall love you with a love that will be faithful to you in this area. And then to God, let us pray for our own young men. I tell you, young men, if you end up pitch-diggers to the glory of God, I'll never think you're a flunky. But when I pray for you, I pray, oh God, if it please you, put your hand on them and make preaching.

56:56 The scripture says, covet earnestly the best gifts. I believe that scripture.

57:02 May you as parents make that prayer for your children. May you labor with them to train them that the threefold pressure of the domestic, and the church, and the institution of the church in the days ahead, an army of young, men full of the spirit, full of the scriptures, endued with the power of God to shape the bastions of sin and evil, and give to the Lord Jesus the reward of His suffering. This, then, I subject as a humble attempt to lay before you some of the basic principles of scripture relative to the qualifications for the Christian ministry and how those qualifications may be realized

57:45 in the will and under the power and providence of God. Let us bow to you. Let us bow together. Let us bow together.

57:51 Let us bow together.