Three Words of Consolation

Introduction: The Sufficiency of Scripture in Crisis

0:03 Now again, lest any mind be unnecessarily distracted, I'm only wearing this because the doctor's orders were very strict to me. Right now, everything's being held together in there by tenuous sutures, and until all the tissues bind to one another, I must not do anything that would undo two and a half hours of surgery. And so I treat doctor's orders in matters like that as the revelation of the will of God, and for me not to obey it would be sin, for therefore to him who knows to do good does it not, it is sin. So just bear with me, it's enough distraction for me being left-handed and doing so many things awkwardly with the right hand, and there'll be many times, I'm sure, when instinctively, when I'm saying something, the brain is going to be telling that left hand to go this way and that way, and it's going to be saying, no you don't, buddy, and stay there. And I'm trusting God that it will not be a mental. It will not be a mental distraction to me, nor a visual distraction to you. Now hear with me the word of God as it is found in Paul's second letter to Timothy in chapter 3.

1:15 Chapter 3, and I want to read the familiar words of verses 14 to 17. 2 Timothy chapter 3 at verse 14. Writing to Timothy, his son in the faith, to whom the baton of Christian leadership at Ephesus, has been passed on by the apostle. Paul writes, But abide in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them, and that from a babe you have known the sacred writings or the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

2:00 All scripture is inspired of God, and is, is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, or training which is in righteousness, in order that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. Let us again seek the face of God for the blessing of his Holy Spirit in the preaching of the word. Our Father, we thank you for the privilege we have had in the past, at moments to worship you together, to seek your face, to sit under your authoritative, inspired word as it was read to us. And now as we come to the opening up and the application of that word to our minds and hearts as your people, we pray that the Holy Spirit will come in abundant and even surprising measures to ever build a way of life for us, every one of our hearts, to the heart of the one who seeks to open that word to every listener. Lord, do not leave us at the mercy of ourselves, but come to us in our need. To the praise of the glory of your grace we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

3:25 It was in July of 1962 that I traveled here to New Jersey with my wife and one child at the time. To begin my ministry among the people of God, now organized and identified by the name Trinity Baptist Church. And from the beginning days of that ministry, close to 45 years ago until now, I sought to make it evident that I believe the words of the text read in your hearing. That scripture is indeed God-breathed ministry. That when we pick up this book, we pick up the out-breathing of the mind and the heart and the will of the living God. And that that being the nature of scripture, objectively, whether we believe it, understand it, obey it, that it is that very scripture that is profitable for teaching. That is to instruct us about God, himself, about ourselves.

4:43 His ways, for reproof, that is, for pointing out erroneous thinking and living. For correction, to show us, after having put its finger upon the wrong, what is the right way. And then also profitable for training in righteousness. That is, to give us what parents give to their children in seeking to train them up into responsible, mature adulthood.

5:10 Scripture is profitable. Scripture is profitable for that training in the way of righteousness resulting in spiritual maturity. And it is that God-breathed scripture, profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction, that the man of God must believe is indeed a sufficient revelation of the mind and will of God to make him confident for every task that he faces. In the way of God.

5:43 In the way of God. In the way of God. In the will of God as a preacher of the word of God. All of this, Paul says, in order that the man of God, a peculiar term for Timothy as a preacher, that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

6:03 That is, every work that necessarily attaches itself to his ministerial responsibility. Scripture is sufficient. He does not need to go to the latest psychobabble. He doesn't need to go to the sociological experts and all of the gurus who are constantly foisting their notions upon us as though they've discovered absolute truth.

6:30 And believing that, I have sought in these 44 years of ministry that the ministry would be marked by consecutive exposition of large portions. Sequential, logical development of biblical themes taking us through the total witness of the word of God. And that has been the backbone of the ministry all these years. However, when there have been international events, national crises, or particularly critical issues in the life of our own assembly, I have broken off whatever series I was in.

7:12 And brought an individual message or a brief series of messages in order to show the adequacy of Scripture for us as the people of God to relate to that crisis, whether it was international, national, or internal in our life as the people of God. I think the first time I did it was with the assassination of President Kennedy in 1964. And many of you will remember the messages on the Challenger disaster 20 years ago. Magic Johnson's announcement that he had was HIV positive, the recent hurricane, et cetera.

7:49 But that's also been true with respect to our church life. When we stood on the threshold of a major building program, I brought a series of messages on a God-honoring building program. When there have been other needs, I have sought to address them. The opening and then the closing of Trinity Ministerial Academy in the midst of what we now call the mutiny of some years ago.

Context: Recent Leadership Transitions and the Nature of Crisis

8:12 Well, I stand before you this morning, on the one hand, very desirous of getting back into and completing the series I began several months ago on repentance and faith, issuing then, hopefully, in a series on justification, adoption, and sanctification, the fruits of that faith. However, it is my judgment, and I have sought counsel on the matter at the grassroots as recently as even yesterday with one of the members of the Church of the United States. With one of the sheep, that in the light of our present congregational circumstance, it would be helpful to bring a couple of messages in which our minds are directed to the Word of God and what it has to say to us in our present circumstances. Three weeks ago today, the voluntary resignation of one of your pastors was announced. And I simply underscore again, unless there is deliberate duplicity on the part of the Church of the United States, I would not be able to do that. I would not be able to do that.

9:11 Of all of your leaders, it was a voluntary resignation in which the one who resigned and the other leadership concurred that that resignation was the part of wisdom and righteousness. And then, this past Wednesday, I announced my intention that during the next two to three years, I will be relinquishing my role among you with a view to relocating to Michigan in order not to retire, but to concentrate on the work of the Church of the United States. I will be relinquishing my role among you with a view to relocating to Michigan in order not to retire, but to concentrate on the work of the Church of the United States. My remaining days and whatever energy and strength God gives me on other facets of what I believe are God-given stewardships, a conclusion that I have not come to independent of much counsel from many, many wise and godly and trusted men, so that it's not a matter of my sitting out on the porch and looking at the moon and one day coming to this conclusion, but over many months, as I've wrestled before God with this matter, I believe it is the will of God as best I can discern it. Now, in the light of these two events in our life together, events that we do not ordinarily face this close together in this set of circumstances, that it's crucial for us to think and to act biblically.

10:34 So, in the light of that, I want to preach at least two messages to you on what I am entitling crucial words of the Bible. Two words of consolation and of admonition at this time in our life together. Crucial words, important words of both consolation and of admonition or exhortation at this time in our life together. And as I do, I want to remind you of a vital principle of the Christian life, and it's this.

11:10 Ordinarily, a crisis. A crisis creates nothing new in the life of an individual believer or in the life of a church.

11:20 A crisis creates nothing new in the life of an individual believer or in the life of a church. Now, granted, sometimes a crisis becomes a catalyst for a believer to press into a whole new dimension of spiritual vitality and experience. The crisis...

11:43 A crisis can be a catalyst to shove a man or a woman into a new dimension of dealings with God. On the other hand, a crisis may be the occasion of a child of God, through the weakness of the flesh, acting or speaking in such a way in a crisis that is contrary to the ordinary substructure of the pattern of his life. I understand that. But with those two exceptions, it is true.

12:14 That a crisis creates nothing in your life, nothing in the life of this church. What a crisis is, is a powerful hand that lays hold of all the blankets by which we cover who and what we really are. And it lays bare the real...

12:36 That's what a crisis does. You see, when Job is told in one day, you've lost your kids, you've lost all your goods, everything's gone. What did that crisis do? It laid bare who Job really was.

12:54 He wasn't this fat cat who was being coddled by God and who loved God and served God because God was doing nothing but good to him. You wouldn't have known that from the circumstances. The sun of providence shone brightly all over Job. And God says, I'm going to bring him into a crisis in which I strip all of his stuff away.

13:21 You see what he really is. And where is he? He's on his face, worshiping, saying, the Lord gave, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And the mouth of the devil is shut when he says, oh, Job does not serve God for nothing.

13:40 Job serves God for what he can get. And God says, I'll show you. He serves me for who I am. And we can go, go right through the scriptures and demonstrate that principle that a crisis creates nothing.

13:52 It simply is a powerful hand to pull off the blanket and show what we really are individually and as a church.

14:02 Now, that being so, if we want to call the present circumstances a crisis of leadership, this crisis of leadership is going to lay bare who you are, who I am, what we are as a church. And in the light of that, I want this morning to give you some crucial words of consolation. And next week, God willing, some crucial words of exhortation and admonition.

The Call to Remember and Believe

14:33 Now, to show what you really are, let me ask you before I even get into the subject, what's been the response of your mind and heart thus far?

14:45 Can you be honest with God? Are you sitting there cynical, saying, ah, here comes Pastor Martin, he's going to pull a head job on us.

14:54 God help you if that's what you think. If that's all I've earned in 44 years giving my life to you,

15:07 I'm a pathetic man.

15:12 And I'm not so naive to think that some of you have already thought that. And your defenses have gone up and said, I'm going to think what I want to think.

15:22 And nobody's going to change it. If so, this crisis is showing you've got some fundamental defect in your soul that needs to be addressed in the presence of God. Amen. But if your disposition is what I believe the vast majority of you reflect, Lord, thank you.

15:42 Lord, I pray, guide Pastor to bring things from the Word that will help me to get my bearings. And you wait in the expectation of dependence upon the Holy Spirit. And I do believe with all my heart that that's the disposition of the vast majority. So we come now with that introduction behind us.

16:01 Some crucial words of consolation. I have three this morning. And they all begin with the words remember and believe.

16:11 Why do I begin each word of consolation with the imperatives remember and believe? Well, for the simple reason you're not going to hear anything new. Oh, yes, the opening up of it may have some new nuances and some fresh side lights and highlights. But the fundamental issues I'm going to articulate, they're not new.

16:33 They have formed the very substructure of our life together. Since I arrived among you in 1962.

16:44 So I'm calling on you to remember something. But not just remember, but to mix faith with it here and now in the present circumstances. For it's said of the Israelites, the word preached did not profit them. Why?

17:00 Not being mixed with faith in them that heard. And so I'm calling upon you both to remember and to believe. These three words of consolation. Number one, remember and believe that God our Father remains on His throne of unrivaled and undisturbed sovereignty.

Consolation 1: God the Father's Undisturbed Sovereignty

17:28 Remember and believe that God our Father remains on His throne of unrivaled and undisturbed sovereignty. Remember and believe that God our Father remains on His throne of unrivaled and undisturbed sovereignty. Many of us can remember in our Christian pilgrimage the thrill of discovery when by various means, a book written, some tapes heard, some sermons heard, and for the first time in our lives we saw this truth that is just battered throughout Scripture that God is utterly, absolutely, unqualifiedly sovereign in all of His ways, in all of His works, and why it was like getting saved all over again. That the universe that God birthed, He controls down to every single atom and every quark and everything that constitutes His world, His universe. When texts like Romans 11.36 were opened up to us, for of Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all things to whom be glory, for ever and ever.

18:43 And our hearts sang with joy to know God was doing a good job controlling His world. Or we came to an understanding of Ephesians 1.11, that marvelous statement of the Apostle God who works all things after the counsel of His own will. His will determines His power effects.

19:08 He works all things according to the counsel of His own will. Or Psalm 115 in verse 3. Our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever He has pleased.

19:25 And we began to understand that reality and it entered into the substructure of our entire perspective about life both outside of us and within us and around us. And brought such tremendous liberty because not only could we see in all that providence unfolded this is the hand of God, but it made prayer a whole new exercise. We are praying to the God who governs and controls everything and therefore there is nothing concerning which we cannot approach Him and pour out our hearts in His presence. However, as our faith in that God who is utterly, absolutely, unswervingly sovereign in all of His ways began to be tested, we found ourselves tempted to begin to put parentheses. Our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever He has pleased except in this situation. That circumstance.

20:31 Or we began to put an asterisk with a footnote. He works all things after the counsel of His own will. Asterisk, footnote. Except when my boss calls me into the office and terminates my job.

20:45 Asterisk, footnote. Except when the doctor tells me a positive diagnosis for incurable cancer. Or in my case, not incurable, but you've got carcinoma of the prostate. The temptation to put an asterisk in a footnote.

21:08 And we had to struggle to come back again and have that needle of the sword, the soul pointing fixedly northward. Our God is utterly, unquestionably sovereign in all His ways and in all of His works. We find ourselves coming back to those words that God had in a very difficult classroom to wring out of the mouth and heart of old Nebuchadnezzar, to make him like a beast of the field until when his sanity returned he cried out in Daniel 4, 35, that this is the God. None can withstand His will.

21:48 He does according to His will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. And then, when we open up our Bibles and come to a passage such as Revelation 4, John has said this letter going to the seven churches is a revelation of Jesus Christ to comfort afflicted saints. And after speaking to each of the churches one by one, the first thing that is done when God is going to, as it were, comfort the saints troubled and persecuted in the first century, what does God do? He says, I saw chapter 4 heaven opened and I saw a throne and one seated upon it.

22:32 Does it still give you the goosebumps? I hope it does. I hope the thrill of it has not left you because that is indeed the substructure of stability in the Christian life. Alright?

22:45 What consolation is there to be in all of this? To me, this is a crucial word of consolation. Three weeks ago, we had the announcement of a voluntary resignation. Wednesday night, the announcement that the man who has been with you from the beginning intends in the next two to three years to conclude his hands-on, day-by-day pastoral ministry, relocate to Michigan, and live out the remainder of his days, as far as he knows, in other forms of concentrated ministry.

23:17 What do we say with all of this? Of him, through him, unto him, are all things, no parentheses, no asterisks with a footnote. Are you there, my brothers? Are you there, my sisters?

23:40 If I were a black preacher, I'd say, if I got a witness. Are you there? You say, I'm a Calvinist. I believe in reformed theology.

23:54 And someone asks, what's the cornerstone of reformed theology? The absolute sovereignty of God. Are you there? Not in terms of pointing your finger to a confession, but in terms of where your heart is, right now, this morning, in the set of these circumstances that have unfolded in the last three weeks.

24:16 Oh, what consolation comes, what consolation comes when we are able to say, in the language of the book of Proverbs, though man purposes, God disposes and directs his ways. A number of texts, Proverbs 16.1, 16.9, 19.21, 20.24, but in the interest of time, I press on. Second crucial word of consolation, and my message is framed in a Trinitarian way. The first is, remember and believe that God our Father remains on his throne with unrivaled, unremitting sovereignty. Secondly, remember and believe that Jesus Christ abides with his people in the unfailing sufficiency of his grace.

Consolation 2: Jesus Christ's Unfailing Sufficiency

25:11 That Jesus Christ abides with his people in the unfailing sufficiency of his grace. And here, there was so much. I just had to pray, Lord, what token passages do I refer to? Because this is not something new.

25:29 I'm calling upon you to remember and presently to believe what you already know. But my mind went to Mark chapter 6. That incident, you children know it. The disciples are in a boat.

25:47 Jesus remains on the shore. And when evening comes, the boat is in the midst of the sea. Christ is on the land. Mark chapter 6.

25:57 There's a great storm, verse 48, seeing them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary to them about the fourth watch of the night. He comes to them walking on the sea, and would have passed by them. But they, when they saw him walking on the sea, suppose it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw him and were troubled. But he straightway spoke to them and said, Be of good cheer, it is I.

26:24 Be not afraid. Jesus enters into the boat, and the wind ceases. And they are sore amazed. I imagine this passage came to me because in my regular devotional reading, this was the passage I had read the morning I got the positive diagnosis that I had cancer.

26:45 And can I ever forget, having soaked in this passage in the morning in my devotions, later on in the day, to hear the words, the carcinoma of the prostate. And the words of Jesus came to me. It is I, be not afraid. It is I, be not afraid.

27:09 It is I, be not afraid. I didn't vacate my universe. I have not abandoned my people because some aberrant cells have begun to multiply and threaten your life. No, no.

27:27 Christ abides with his people in the unfailing sufficiency of his grace. Remember what Paul experienced there at Corinth. And this was the truth again that the Lord Jesus brought home to him in Acts chapter 18. There is trouble as so often there was when Paul preached in the various cities.

27:48 And the apostle continues his ministry there at Corinth. And we read in verse 9 of Acts 18, And the Lord said unto Paul in the night by a vision, Don't be afraid, but speak, and hold not your peace. And the Lord could have said many things to comfort him. I am utterly sovereign, and men cannot hurt you if I don't let them.

28:09 But notice, his words are these, I am with you. With you. You see, it wouldn't have brought the same degree of comfort simply to have been told, No man will harm you. As though the Lord Jesus were controlling from afar.

28:26 But he said, I am with you. I am with you. And as a result of it, my grace, and my purposes for you, Paul, will not be frustrated, and no man shall set on you to harm you. For I have much people in this city.

28:44 And the same truth was given to Joshua. And I want us to turn now to Joshua chapter 1. You see, I'm calling on you to remember. I'm not giving you anything new, nothing profound.

28:54 Nobody's going to sit there and, Oh, I never saw that before. I never heard that before. No, this is old stuff, folks. But I'm calling on you, to remember, and to believe it in the present set of circumstances.

29:07 Joshua chapter 1. One of the strangest passages. Joshua 1, 1. Came to pass, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead.

29:27 Now therefore, arise and go over this Jordan. Oh, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Moses is dead. Therefore, go conquer the land.

29:37 But wait a minute, Lord. You've said there's nobody like your servant Moses. And there will be none until you raise up a prophet like unto him. Now you're telling me because the servant of God has died, I, upon whom the responsibility of leadership is come, I'm to go and conquer the land, something he didn't do.

29:50 Lord, you're telling me that I'm to go and conquer the land because the servant of God has died. I, upon whom the responsibility of leadership has come, I'm to go and conquer the land, something he didn't do. Lord, it doesn't make sense. My servant is dead.

30:05 Therefore, go over and conquer. Well, what was the key? Verse 5. There shall not any man be able to stand before you all the days of your life as I was with Moses.

30:21 So I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage. What does that mean?

30:31 What's the promise? The promise is of the unfailing sufficiency of the grace of the present God. I am with you. You will not fail in your mission.

30:45 And I can never forget when I read for the first time A.W. Tozer's comments on this passage. And he said these words, Nothing of God dies when a man of God dies.

31:01 Moses is dead. Go conquer. Why? Because I'm not dead.

31:10 I'm the living God. And if I'm with you, you will conquer and do what Moses did not do. Nothing of God dies when a man of God dies. May I give my own version of it?

31:26 Nothing of God leaves when a man of God leaves. Nothing of God leaves when a man of God is persuaded he ought to leave. Do you believe that? Well, remember it.

31:46 Believe it. Here, now, in this place, at this time, and any kind of carnal nervousness is a denial of what you say you believe. Only one person is indispensable to the life of Trinity Church, and he's not in this pulpit. And he never has stood in this pulpit.

32:07 He's at the right hand of the Father and by the Spirit he's with us. Did he not say as the capstone encouragement before the massive mission of the Church articulated to the Apostles, going therefore make disciples of the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you each and every one of the days, even to the consummation of the age. Dear folks, I'm calling on you to remember and to believe that Jesus Christ abides with His people in the unfailing sufficiency of His grace. And a crisis like this tests whether we really understand our true identity. You see, the fundamental identity of every Christian has nothing to do with what he does and what his function is. It has to do with his position in Jesus Christ.

33:20 My fundamental identity as a believer is what I am in Christ. I had occasion this week to comfort my dear brother Bob Carr with that truth. He called and we talked at length about his situation. For you visiting among us, a very useful, able pastor for some close to 20 years and through...

33:41 enigmatic illnesses is going to have to step aside from his role as a full-time pastor. And I said, Bob, it's crunch time. If you have thought your fundamental identity had to do with what you're doing, you'll be shattered because you're not going to be able to do it for the foreseeable future. But if you've come to grips with the fact that your fundamental identity is who you are in Christ, nothing has changed.

34:12 Nothing has changed. I tell myself that periodically. One little blood vessel in my brain with a mini-stroke and I could wake up the next day

34:26 and never be able to speak a coherent sentence again in my life. And I look myself in the mirror and I say, Albert N. Martin, would it make any real difference? And if I can't say, bless God, no!

34:43 Because my identity has nothing to do with what comes out of my mouth. It has to do with who I am in Jesus Christ. And that's true of a church. It has nothing to do, essentially, with who God sovereignly puts and removes from leadership.

35:05 The identity of a church is described in these epistles of Paul again and again. Paul, an apostle of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and in our Lord Jesus Christ to the saints in Christ at Philippi with the bishops and the deacons. Isn't that beautiful? All the difference in the two prepositions.

35:34 They are in Christ at Philippi with bishops and deacons. But their fundamental identity is not their bishops and their deacons. It's Christ. And dear people, if I've taught you anything, I hope I've taught you that.

35:52 And if I've taught you that, now is crunch time to remember it and to believe it with every fiber of your being. To confess it back to God in private prayer, in family prayers, in our prayer meetings. Lord Jesus, You are the only essential commodity to Trinity Baptist Church. And in that confidence we can trust You for the sufficiency of Your grace.

36:22 Why? You who are here in the adult class, what's the responsibility of a husband? How is it defined? What is its awesome, in the truest sense of the word, paradigm?

36:35 Love as Christ loved the church. No man ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it even as Christ the church. For we are His body. Christ is far more committed to nourish and cherish this church than any one of you are.

36:57 So don't nervously bite your nails and push your panic buttons and give vent to carnal perspectives and attitudes and dispositions and suspicions that grow out of unbelief, forgetting that Christ is the only essential commodity. Remember, my dear brothers and sisters, and believe with all of your heart that Jesus Christ abides with His people in the unfailing sufficiency of His grace. But then thirdly, and I said it's Trinitarian in its structure, I've asked you to remember and believe that God the Father remains sovereign on His throne, that Jesus Christ abides with His people in the sufficiency of His grace. Thirdly, remember and believe that the Holy Spirit is still active in equipping men with the graces and gifts essential for competent pastoral leadership. Remember and believe that the Holy Spirit is still active in equipping men with the graces and the gifts essential for competent pastoral leadership. And here I want you to turn to two pivotal passages with me.

Consolation 3: The Holy Spirit's Active Equipping of Leaders

38:20 First of all, Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Here in what many would describe as the practical or applicatory section of Paul's letter to the Romans, though much prior to chapter 12 is very practical and applicable, but this is more densely pastoral, more densely hortatory. That is, it's exhortation.

38:49 And after calling the people of God to respond to the display of the grace of God in Christ with utter resignation of all that they are, with a determination to be fixed in an ongoing pattern of nonconformity to the world, increasing conformity to the mind and will of God, then the first point of application, growing out of that disposition, are I, Paul, by the grace of God, I've been overwhelmed with His mercy? As best I know my disposition is, Lord, Lord Jesus, I'm not my own. I've been bought with a price. I want to serve You.

39:26 I want to know how best I fit in to the scheme of things. Lord Jesus, I'm Yours. What do I do? Verse 3.

39:33 For I say through the grace that was given me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but so to think as to think soberly according as God hath dealt to each man, a measure of faith. He says the first thing you do is you come to a sober assessment of what God has dealt to you. You have to come to a sober assessment of what God has given. And in the context, as we'll see, it's given in the way of aptitudes and competence for service.

40:14 And Paul, astute student of the human heart that he was, knew that the practical data and the danger in that self-assessment was not thinking too lowly of ourselves, but thinking too highly of ourselves. Do you see that in the passage? I say to every man among you not to think of himself more highly, he could have said, nor to think more lowly. But he figures there's enough in us to contradict and to constrain us that he didn't have to say that.

40:48 The thing he had to address was too high an assessment of what we think God has given us. Therefore, the quality control on your self-assessment is the assessment of the body of Christ. The context now, as we shall see, is the church functioning as a body. So when I am called to this matter of sober self-assessment, it's to be in relationship to the body.

41:16 Look at verse 4. For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another, having gifts differing according to grace given to us. You see, when this right hand is thinking soberly about its place in the body, the rest of the body agrees with it and cooperates. But if this right hand suddenly decided it was my brain, and it was going to organize my thoughts and send out the impulses to frame my words, I'd be in bad shape.

41:51 It don't got the stuff to organize thought and frame words. The body is the control, the quality control upon the assessment of all the members. This is why I said in these conclusions I have come to that I announced on Wednesday night, I didn't come to them sitting on a rock somewhere looking at the moon, sought the input of men, I call them my seven mighty men, and when I totaled up some months ago the investment of years, it's an investment of 215 years of intimate friendship with these seven men. My brother, help me, help me, here's where I think I should be going, what I should be, be honest with me. And only one of them expressed some tentative reservation about a certain aspect. The others, completely unanimous, laid the thing before my fellow elders, laid the matter before my deacons, why? I'm part of the body.

42:56 I have no right to say, I've got 44 years of seniority, this is what I believe I ought to do. You don't like it, lump it. What arrogance! What arrogance!

43:06 He said, no, no, don't think more highly than you ought to think. Think soberly. And sobriety is tested by the validation of the body. Not just a few people that want to stroke me and make me feel good.

43:20 A few people that have a disproportionate assessment of who I am. There are people out there like that. If I believed what they said about me, I wouldn't be able to walk. My head would be so big, it would drag me to the ground.

43:35 I've got sense enough not to believe them. Well, come back to the passage. There are differing gifts. Where do these gifts come from?

43:43 They are given. They are gifts that are given. Verse 6, having gifts differing according to the grace that was given. And then he enumerates various gifts.

43:54 And then he says, give yourself to that exercise. But now, who gives them? Here I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12.

44:05 Paul begins this section by saying, I don't want you ignorant concerning spiritual gifts. Now verse 4. There are diversities of gifts. And I want you to notice, within seven verses, between 4 and 11, there are seven references to the Holy Spirit.

44:22 Diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. Diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are diversities of workings, but the same God who works all things in all. There's your Trinitarianism again.

44:35 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit with all. For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings in one Spirit, and to another workings of miracles, to another prophecy, discerning of spirits, diverse tongues, interpretation of tongues, but all these working the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally, even as He will. And I am saying to you, my brothers and sisters, remember and believe that the Holy Spirit is still active in equipping men with the graces and gifts essential for competent pastoral life. He is still giving gifts and graces. And here I want to state something very, very plainly as we as a church will come into a more concentrated period of praying and pleading with God to help us to recognize those whom He may be raising up from within, those whom He may sovereignly choose to bring from without, to remember this fundamental fact, that the recognition of the Spirit's work with regard to competent pastoral leadership

46:02 starts with and is foundational with respect to Christian character, not to ministering gifts. Proven, balanced, stable, exemplary Christian character is foundational to the efficient exercise of gifts in pastoral ministry. 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1. Don't just take my word for it.

46:36 I'll quickly turn to that passage with you. A man must desire overseership that can't be imposed upon him from without. Faithful is the saying, if a man seeks the office of overseership, he desires a good work. The overseer therefore must be eloquent? No.

46:58 Must be clever? No. Must be able to give clear homiletical structure to his preaching? No.

47:08 He must be without reproach, character. No just cause to say in the light of what is preached that the Word is the instrument of sanctification and conformity to Christ. The man must be with no just ground to point the finger and say, if that's so, how come this is in your life? Not sinless, but blameless.

47:34 He must be without reproach. And then the apostle gets specific. Husband of one wife, a one woman man. It's evident in the totality of his, the ethos of his life.

47:46 He's got one woman in his eyes, one woman in his heart, one woman in his bed. Must be patient. He's a one woman man. He must be self-controlled, temperate.

48:00 Not just with regard to booze, but have a control over his emotions and his passions. Sober-minded, in touch with reality, about himself, about situations, about people, about circumstances. And you go down through, and only one issue touches gifts. All have to do with character.

48:21 We read at the end of verse 2, one Greek word translated with three English words, apt to teach. He must have an aptitude to teach. That is the only gift issue identified for an overseer. Now it's crucial.

48:40 The Lord have mercy on people who call someone to be a public instructor and he has no aptitude to teach. It's crucial. But in the requirement, it is not the focal point of emphasis. And the same is true in Titus.

48:58 So what does that say to us? It says we must believe with all of our hearts that the Holy Spirit is still active in equipping with the necessary graces those whom God will make competent pastoral leaders in this place as well as with the necessary gifts. And what are the graces? Well, there's no greater succinct, beautiful collage of the statement than, or statement of those graces than Galatians 5, 22 and 23.

49:33 The fruit of the Spirit is love. What is love? How does it manifest itself? Read 1 Corinthians 13.

49:41 That's all you need to do. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Joy. The prevailing tenor of a man's life is joy.

49:48 For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Joy when he must stand before his people, having left his wife on a deathbed, and doesn't come with the pallor of death on his face and in his voice and in his demeanor, but can stand before you, expressing joy in the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, peace, quietness of spirit, tumult in his family, perhaps tumult in the church, but you never sense he's nervously running around biting his nails. But you look at that man in the crisis and you say, ah, God can give grace. It's like old Jackson. You know when he got the name Stonewall? When he sat on his horse on the hill in the midst of all of the musket balls and cannon fire and the rest, and they said, there sits old Jack, like a stone wall.

50:50 That's the kind of leaders you want. And the Holy Ghost still makes men like that. Steady, emotionally stable, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness. Not ready to lop off heads.

51:07 Line people up in firing squads. Take advantage of the pulpit as a place to vent his spleen upon those that irritate him. No. Gentleness, meekness, self-control.

51:22 Control of himself. Acts 6-3, Look out among you, seven men, full of the Holy Spirit. How do you know they're full of the Spirit? God doesn't give you a full of the Spirit-o-meter.

51:34 You place it on their forehead or on their wrist, you see those character traits of the ministry of the Spirit in a man. And dear people, for your consolation, I'm pleading with you, remember and believe that the Holy Spirit is still active in equipping men with the graces and the gifts essential for competent pastoral leadership. Well, I've laid out these three lines of consolation. Now, what am I going to say in summarizing and bringing this home with more practical application?

Practical Application: Dispositions in Crisis

52:14 What should be the disposition of our minds and hearts at this time in our life together? Number one, it should be a disposition of quiet peace and confidence in the Triune God who is committed to our well-being as a Church of Jesus Christ. That should be our prevailing congregational disposition, quiet peace and confidence in the Triune God who is committed to our well-being as a Church of Christ. Isaiah 26, 3 and 4, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee because he trusts in Thee. And some of you, frankly, are going around altogether too nervous. Remember what happened when they didn't believe God could take care of the ark His way and in their nervous solicitation to preserve the ark they put forth their hand? God didn't like it.

53:20 God doesn't need the putting forth of carnal hands driven by carnal nervousness at our present state of affairs. If we believe this truth that I've sought to expound, remember and believe with all of our hearts the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit committed to the well-being of this Church, then a disposition of quiet peace and confidence will mark us. Secondly, a fresh impetus to praise in prayer will mark us. The Triune God, in all the fullness of who He is and in all the integrity of what He has promised, is our God. I got shouting happy sitting at my desk contemplating these things. If I just think what it's going to mean to preach my last sermon as your pastor in this place, I'll be a mess, slobbering and bawling and carrying on like an idiot. But when I say, Lord Jesus, they're Your people, Holy Father, You're on Your throne, You've ordered the circumstances that have brought me to this place in my life, then I find myself shouting happy and then I praise Him.

54:45 Worship Him. Wait upon Him. You see, a lot of you don't know the histories of the beginning of Trinity Baptist Church. In a nutshell, it was this.

54:59 That church in North Caldwell to which I came in 62, it had a pastor for eight years. God had blessed this ministry. They saw increase. They had building plans.

55:09 Then they had a big internal fuss and he left. They called another man and in 11 months he was gone. And there was a people having lost two full-time pastors and in that setting, the pastor is the pastor. It's a de facto three-office setting.

55:27 They had elders, but they weren't regarded in parity with the pastor. And they lost two pastors in 11 months. And they were desperate and didn't know, what in the world is God going to do for us? And God's got a 28-year-old itinerant preacher who's over here in Chester, New Jersey, shoveling manure.

55:48 Literally, folks, a pastor friend of mine was in a church planning endeavor and they bought a Catholic retreat center that had a barn and they wanted to turn the basement into a youth center and they had a bullpen. I mean the real kind, not the kind of Yankee Stadium where you throw baseballs, where the bulls were kept. And there was dried dung on the floor an inch and a half to two inches thick. And you can't put tile over dried dung.

56:13 So my preacher friend said, Al, you got a little time between meetings? Yes. You ready to do some work? Yes.

56:20 Well, we need to have that dung activated and shoveled out of here. We'll give you 15 bucks a day back in 1962. I said, well, thank you, Lord. Next month's rent money's going to come from the cow dung.

56:32 And I was literally in Chester, New Jersey shoveling dung when the preacher who asked me to do that for him said, my home church in North Caldwell is without a preacher. They've lost two preachers in 11 months. Sometimes they can't get pulpit supply. If they don't have one for Sunday, would you be willing to go up and preach to them?

56:50 I said, sure. See why I can't doubt God? I told David, I took you from following the sheep. The Lord says, son, I took you from shoveling dung.

57:05 And I've never forgotten it. And all that God has done, that's been like a sacrament of humility. Remember, son, you were shoveling dung when I put you here. And anything that's been done that's been worth anything, I've done it.

57:22 Don't touch my glory. Dear people of God, you're not in that state. What a shame. After all the life you've had, should you be going about dejected, dispirited, unbelieving?

The Call to Mutual Exhortation and Belief

57:40 No, the disposition should not only be one of quiet peace and confidence in the triune God, committed to the well-being of Trinity Church, but a fresh impetus to praise and to prayer. And then thirdly, these things are a call to mutual exhortation regarding these very things. You see, in times of disruption, we can do one of two things. And here I want you to turn to Luke 24 for the paradigm.

58:06 This is a call to intense, mutual encouragement and exhortation. Luke 24. You remember the story. These two men are on the way to Emmaus, having a walk together.

58:23 And we read in Luke 24, 15, it came to pass while they communed and questioned together, in other words, they're talking, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, that their eyes were held that they should know him. He said unto them, What communications are these you have one with another as you walk? They stood still, looking sad. And one of them, named Cleopas, answering said to him, Do you alone sojourn in Jerusalem and don't know the things that are come to pass in these days?

58:52 Some people say there's no humor in the Bible. If you can read that without a chuckle, imagine, they're asking the very one who was the center of everything that happened, are you the only one in Jerusalem? You don't know what's going on? What's wrong with you, man?

59:04 And I marveled that the Lord didn't laugh in their face, that he restrained himself. And he said, What things? And they said, The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified.

59:22 But we hoped that it was he who would redeem Israel. Besides all this, it's now the third day that these things have come to pass. Moreover, certain women of our age in our company amazed us, having been early at the tomb. And when they found out his body, they came saying they'd seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

59:39 Certain of them that were with us went to the tomb and found it, as the woman had said, but they didn't see him. What's going on here? Here's what's going on. They are a mutual discouragement party.

59:54 They're talking one to another, and the result of their talking was, We had hoped this, it didn't happen. Well, we wished this had happened and the rest. No wonder they were looking sad. However, they had received information that ought to have made them glad.

60:09 But they chose not to believe it. And what did the Lord do? The Lord didn't kowtow to this as though unbelief was some kind of an innocent little pathology that if you got it, you got it, and you're not to be blamed. Look at the Scripture.

60:22 And he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart! You're acting like fools. And in the Hebrew context, a fool is not someone who's stupid. It's moral perversity.

60:36 Fools, slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. You're groveling in unbelief. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer, etc.?

60:48 What's that have to do with us? In this call to mutual exhortation, dear people, we can do one of two things. We can either feed the nervousness and the unbelief and the resultant sadness of our brothers and sisters, and they'll just reside. The pastor's been with us all these years.

61:08 They're going to leave us. We had hoped. We had hoped! Stop it.

61:13 Stop it! Stop it! That's wretched unbelief. Has Jesus Christ committed Himself to be with us all the days to the consummation of the age?

61:27 Does the Scripture say, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? Do the Scriptures say, My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory? Is that Bible or is it not? If it is, stop your groveling in sad unbelief.

61:47 Stop it! It's not morally neutral. It's wicked. It's evil.

61:53 God has given us His Word, and there's nothing about God that justifies not believing His Word. That's why Paul could say, when there were some at Thessalonica, having believed the negative perspectives of others that people that die before the Lord comes, they're second-class citizens, Paul straightens them all out in 1 Thessalonians 4, 14 to following. And what does he say in verse 18? He says, Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.

62:27 When you draw near to a brother and he looks sad, and you say, Why are you sad? Well, my uncle George died. Well, why are you sad? Well, he's going to miss out on when Jesus comes.

62:37 That's going to be the real party. Paul says, You take my words, and you get that sadness out of him. Preach it out of him! One to another!

62:45 Comfort one another with these words! Dear people in this season, we ought to be doing this with one another. Someone comes up to you and says, Oh, it's terrible, isn't it? I mean, my elders resigned.

63:02 Don't just enter into that. That's evil, folks. That's what this passage is teaching us. You've had another report brought to your ears.

63:12 That God is committed to the care of His church. And we need, by the grace of God, to encourage one another. You see, if I did anything else, I'd not only be denying all my experience as a Christian for 54 years, but as usual, I can find a way to get my Dorothy in, legitimately. Eight months ago, when God began to heal the wound of my heart, my grief at the loss of my dear Marilyn, enough to begin to come to grips with the fact I was not meant to live alone, and I began to say, Oh, God, help me to get clear in my mind what I must look for in a wife before there's any twitching of my affections toward anyone.

63:57 Lord, help me, give me the white light of my Bible and good sense and honest self-assessment of what will have to be present for me to feel before You, Lord, I can let my heart go. When I had a shopping list, when I shared it with some people, they almost looked at me, You're crazy. You know, such women exist on the face of the earth like that. You know what I told God day after day?

64:19 When I'd rehearsed my list, I'd say, Now, Lord, I don't have a clue where a woman that meets that list exists. But I believe with all my heart, somewhere in this universe, there is such a woman. You began to form her into that woman, that woman into her mother's womb. All her experiences as a child and through her development as a woman and into her maturity have all shaped and formed her.

64:44 And when I see her, I'll say, There's the answer to my prayers. And Lord, I'm not going looking for her. You're going to have to dump her in my lap. Tell me that's weird and wild.

64:57 Five weeks from yesterday, she's going to say, I do to this man, my wife, God willing. You see why I can't be unbelieving in the face of these things? You have God do something like that for you at age 71. And it's part of your present life, folks.

65:15 Don't tell me, well, that's Pollyannish and we've got to be realistic. You mean believing God is not realistic? Having your thoughts shaped by the Bible is not realistic? Believing that your Heavenly Father knows your needs better than you do is not realistic?

65:35 That Jesus Christ, who poured out His life under the wrath of God for you, it's not realistic to trust He'll supply? Whatever needs we have in leadership? You get real, friend. Get out of the orbit of your unbelief and believe that the living God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, who indwells this assembly, who formed it, fashioned it, sustained it, is going to continue His purposes of grace.

66:10 But if through unbelief you join the wilderness generation, the book of Hebrews, promises were given to them, they failed of the promise what? Through unbelief. This crisis is not creating anything. It's pulling the blanket off the soul of some of you and what you're seeing isn't pleasant.

66:38 But God's helping you to see it that by His grace you might deal with it. Until you come to that posture of utter confidence in the love of your Heavenly Father, of the presence and sufficient grace of your loving Savior, and the presence and power and operation of the Holy Spirit within us as a people. If you're sitting here and you're not a Christian, I hope, if you've got nothing else, you say, you know, maybe being a Christian ain't so bad after all. The devil's really spooked me into believing, oh, you'll be a Christian, you'll lose your fun, lose your excitement.

67:18 What can be more exciting than looking to the living God to bear His arm and to glorify His Son and to manifest His grace to ill-deserving, hell-deserving sinners? Well, my dear brothers and sisters, that's my word of consolation. And God willing, God sparing me, I want to preach to you next week a three-fold word of exhortation and admonition. And may God be pleased to use His Word to guide us in these days to conduct ourselves in such a way that the Lord Jesus will look down from heaven and say, ah, that's what I've died to have in that bunch of people.

67:59 Look at them. They're not reacting and acting according to the flesh and according to carnal perspectives. They're conducting themselves like people who both remember and believe all they've been taught. Let's pray.

68:16 Our Father, how we praise You. We worship You for the perennial relevance of Your Word that indeed it is not only God-breathed stuff but is also profitable to teach us, to reprove us, to correct us, to instruct us. And we pray that that Word will do its work today in every single heart to the praise and glory of Your name we pray. Amen.