Our Duty Toward the Rising Generation (4)

Introduction: The Conclusion of the Manifesto and the Tenth Affirmation

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, June 5, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. The writer to the Hebrews said in the familiar words of chapter 11 and verse 6, But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. Let us come afresh in the confidence that God is and that He does indeed reward not those who say prayers, not those who simply bow their heads and shift into neutral and wait for the sickness, not those who signal that the prayer is over, but He rewards those who seek Him diligently. And let us in these moments seek Him together for His blessing, believing that He is the living God whose ear is open to the cry of His children. Let us pray.

1:24 Holy Father, we confess that we believe You are. And all this...

1:31 that You have ever been from eternity, You are in this hour. And in that confidence we draw near to You and pray now with our words as we have in the language of the hymn, fix our wandering thoughts. By the enablement of the Holy Spirit, may Your servants speak words of truth and may we receive them, not as a result of our own faith, but as a result of our own faith. And may we receive them, not as a result of our own faith, but as a result of our own faith.

2:02 And may we receive them, not as a result of our own faith, not as the word of men, but as Your word. Come by Your Spirit, O God, and write upon our hearts the crucial issues that we will consider from Your word in this place today. And by Your grace, O God, we do believe that You will reward us as we have sought You diligently for Your blessing, without which, our time together is vain. Hear us and answer us, we plead, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

2:43 Amen. On the Lord's Day morning of March the 10th, 1991, I began a series of sermons entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. Today, the 6th of June, 1994, will mark the conclusion of that particular series of sermons, all 111 of them to be exact. And in this manifesto, or public declaration, of what our objectives are as a church, and what we believe from the word of God they ought to be in the days to come, we have considered ten major affirmations, or tenets, which have comprised this manifesto. Today, we take up our final consideration of the tenth affirmation, or tenet, in the manifesto, and I have expressed it this way, that we are determined to establish, maintain, and transmit an understanding and practice of our duty to the rising, generations.

4:10 In our initial study of this vital concern, we focused our attention upon our duty as it relates to the rising generations of our natural children. And therefore, had primary reference to the sphere of the home and of the schools. And that duty is succinctly stated in such passages as Deuteronomy 6, verse 9, verses 6 and 7, or its New Testament counterpart, Ephesians 6, 4, in which God calls the existing generation of his people to a life of universal obedience to his word, and then to impart by way of instruction and command the pattern of universal obedience to the rising generations. And then for the last two Lord's Days, we have shifted the focus of our concern with respect to our duty to the rising generations from the home or the domestic sphere to that of the church or the ecclesiastical sphere. And I have declared to you that the greatest legacy that we can leave to our spiritual children is a church.

5:36 A church where Christ is powerfully present in the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. A church that is such that because by the grace of God, these five things characterize that congregation. Not perfectly, not with unbroken evenness, but these things constitute the genuine spiritual life, the spiritual identifying marks of such a congregation. It is a congregation that maintains the unquenched passion of love to the person of Christ, that maintains an uncompromising attachment to the word of Christ, that maintains an unfeigned love to the disciples of Christ, that maintains... that maintains an unfractured unity as the body of Christ, and that maintains an unyielding commitment to corporate holiness according to the standards of Christ.

The Origin of Human Leadership in the Church

6:50 And in this, our closing study in the manifesto, I want to take up with you the sixth and the seventh elements of the kind of church that by the grace of God, we must leave to the next generation, leave as a legacy to the rising generations, if we are to fulfill our God-given duty to them. In addition to these five characteristics, I add the sixth and the seventh. The sixth is this. We must seek to maintain an unbroken continuity of godly leadership to guide us in implementing the rule of Christ. We must seek to maintain an unbroken continuity of godly leadership to guide us in implementing the rule of Christ. Now in opening up this characteristic of the kind of church that we ought to seek by the grace of God to leave as a legacy to the rising generations, I will do so under four subheadings. First, I want to say a word very briefly

8:15 concerning the origin of human leadership in the church of Christ. This statement I have made that we must seek to maintain an unbroken continuity of godly leadership assumes that human leadership is a necessary element in the life and ministry of the church. And we must be clear in our minds as to the origin of human leadership in the church of Christ. While scripture makes it abundantly clear that Christ himself and Christ alone is the supreme and unrivaled head of his church, that he alone is the chief shepherd of his flock, scripture is equally clear that Christ himself has instituted a rule and government to be exercised by men within his church. To use the language of shepherd, the chief shepherd, 1 Peter 5, 4, has appointed under shepherds to shepherd his people in his name and by the rule of his word. In such passages as Ephesians chapter 4,

9:44 it is made very clear in verse 3 that as one of the foundation blocks upon which the unity of the people of God is established, is the reality that the church as one body indwelt by one spirit called in one hope of its calling, verse 4, is a church that has, verse 5, one Lord. The church has but one Lord, one supreme and sovereign master. That truth is underscored again in chapter 5 in the passage relative to the roles of husbands and wives, mirroring the relationship of Christ and his church, where we read in Ephesians 5, 23, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church. Not one head among many, but he is the soul, the singular head of his church. However, in this very epistle, where in chapter 1 we could establish it he is head over all things to the church,

11:09 chapter 4 he is the one Lord of his church, he is the one to whom the church is subject, chapter 5 it's in this very epistle that Christ from his posture and position of headship is said in chapter 4 and verse 11, to give unto his church human leaders, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, so that Christ feels no sense of rivalry between his own unique headship over his people and giving to his church men called shepherds, and teachers, who are to function in his name to institute his rule according to his word among his people. And so the origin of human leadership in the church is not to be viewed as something that came to pass because there were sinful men who wanted to rival the crown rights of Christ, but the origin of human leadership is in itself a manifestation of the crown rights of Christ.

12:37 He did not judge it sufficient to bring all of his people into vital union with himself as the head, to impart to them his Holy Spirit and even to give to them his word. In addition to all of those realities he gives them human leaders. He gives to his church pastors and teachers. And this should not surprise us, for this has always been the way of God.

13:10 It was God's way under the old covenant. And you have a beautiful statement that distills this biblical principle in one verse at the end of Psalm 77. Remember now we're seeking simply to establish in a very cursory way the origin of human leadership. And here in Psalm 77 and verse 20 we read, You led your people like a flock.

13:43 Who led God's ancient people? It was God. Who led them like a flock of sheep? It was God who led them.

13:55 But now look at the last part of the verse. By the hand of Moses and Aaron. Well were they led by Moses and Aaron or were they led by God? Well they were led by God.

14:11 They were led by Moses and Aaron. The one does not exclude the other. The one does not negate the other. It was God who was the leader of his people.

14:23 It was God who chose to lead them. Through the human instrumentality of Moses and of Aaron. And then as God anticipates the glory of gospel days under the new covenant in a passage such as Jeremiah chapter 3 one of the things God says that he will do under that glorious dispensation of the new covenant Jeremiah chapter 3 God says in a section that points to such a day a day in which the people of God will no longer remember the ark of the covenant they shall not miss it it shall not be constructed again the nations will flow into God's special place of dwelling the passages obviously pointing in Old Testament language to the richness and the universality of spiritual blessings under the new covenant and in the midst of such promises notice verse 15 of Jeremiah 3 and I will give you shepherds according to my heart he does not say and there will arise upon the crest of the waves

15:50 of human ambition and human ingenuity and human contrivance men who will call themselves shepherds no it is Jehovah the God who has designed the rich blessings of the new covenant with its greater promises with its greater and better sacrifices with its better provisions of the indwelling of the spirit amongst all the members of that community its better spiritual experience of each one knowing the Lord as one of the key blessings of that covenant and yet this God says I will give you shepherds according to my heart who shall feed you with knowledge and with understanding in a covenant in which God will complete special revelation in which the scriptures will be the complete verbally inspired authoritative word of God yet God does not say I will merely give you a completed book he says I'll give you shepherds I'll give you human leaders to guide you and to direct you even amidst the profuse blessings of the new covenant and so the pattern of the old testament is clear the promise of God

17:19 for his provisions under the new covenant is equally clear and the pattern of apostolic practice is equally clear in Acts 14 and verse 23 after the apostle and his companions had established churches in various parts of what would then be considered in our day the uttermost parts of the earth they go back and they visit these fledgling congregations and in verse 23 of Acts 14 we read and when they had appointed for them elders that is fellow human beings imperfectly sanctified saints who had come to maturity of understanding and grace and manifestation of gift to teach and rule when they had appointed for them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting now notice the last part of the verse they commended them to the Lord on whom they had believed though I've used this text many many times in establishing aspects of the biblical doctrine of eldership I never saw so clearly the conjunction between these two things when they went back and saw these fledgling congregations remember congregations brought to birth

18:46 amidst the full blown blessings of the new covenant each one had received the spirit each one had come to the personal knowledge of God through Jesus Christ each one was united to Christ the head surely it was enough simply to commend them to the Lord on whom they had believed not according to the apostles they were convinced that in the wisdom of God those who had believed upon the Lord those who had been taught in the language of Acts 11 to cleave with purpose of heart to the Lord to abide in Christ as the branch abides in the vine nonetheless they were instructed through the unique authority given to the apostles that human leadership was an essential element for the well being of these churches when they had appointed for them elders then they commended them unto the Lord on whom they had believed so there is this beautiful confluence of human leadership and the sufficiency of the grace of the Lord who was the object of their faith so you and I if we are thinking biblically must never think of the origin of human leadership as some kind of a carnal expedient

The Essence of the Task of Human Leadership

20:14 some kind of a merely human way to respond to needs we must see it as embedded in the wisdom and will of the Lord Jesus Christ the great head of the church but then secondly let me say a word about the essence of the task of human leadership established by Christ for his church what is the essence of the task of human leadership established by Christ for his church well in such passages as Hebrews 13 7 the answer is given at least in summary form remember them that had the rule over you that is your human leaders men that spoke unto you the word of God and considering the issue of their life or their manner of life imitate their faith the men who exercised the rule were godly men men worthy of imitation but in their position of leadership as godly men worthy of being imitated what was the essence of the task

21:42 it was this they spoke the word of God they were human leaders placed within the church of Christ in order to assist the church in pursuing the revealed will of Christ as embodied in his word that's why I chose to state the principle this way we must seek to maintain an unbroken continuity of godly leadership to guide us in implementing the rule of Christ that very rule that is embodied in his word and so these leaders who had the rule over them were men who in essence had one central task to speak the word of God to seek to guide the church in understanding the mind of Christ her head and to implement the will of Christ the head in 1st Timothy 3 gives us another slant on the essence of the task of those human leaders that are given to the church here in 1st Timothy 3 where the biblical standard of the moral and spiritual and gift requirements

23:11 for elders are listed we read in 1st Timothy 3 4 and it says that if a man rules well his own house having his children in subjection with all gravity but if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the church of God here the essence of the task of human leaders is said to be taking care of the church of God taking care of the church the same way the father takes care of the administration of his domestic sphere he has broad and oft times intricate and demanding responsibilities to care for the government of his household it is called earlier in the verse ruling his own house well but that ruling you see is more than just barking out orders like the chief Ancho it is a rule that is intimately involved with seeking to care for the needs of all within that household now by what standard is he to take care of the church of God well Paul had previously or subsequently would say in this very chapter in verse 15 but if I

24:40 tarry long Timothy that you may know how men behave themselves in the house of God he said I am writing these things that you may know the kind of behavior that is pleasing to God in his house so if elders then are to take care of the house of God by what standard is their care to be exercised not according to their whims not according to the revealed will of God through Christ and his apostles so that's why I said in stating this principle that we must seek to maintain a continuity of Godly leadership to what end that there may be men given by Christ equipped by Christ to assist us in implementing that is the very essence of their task this is why in the great commission the Lord Jesus said make disciples of all the nations baptizing them and when disciples have been gathered into baptized communities teaching them

26:09 to observe whatsoever I have commanded you you are to implement them and that that directive does not go to the graves the grave with the last apostle is evident for Jesus says in lo I am with you always even unto the consummation of the age that task originally given to the apostles has now merged into and has become the great task is the task of guiding the people of God in implementing the rule of Christ it is not to replace the rule of Christ certainly it is not to rival or contravene the rule of Christ but it is to guide the people in implementing the rule of Christ it is from Christ the essence of the task of human leadership is to guide the people of God in implementing the will of Christ but now let me speak thirdly a word about the necessity for seeking to maintain this unbroken continuity

The Necessity of Maintaining Unbroken Continuity of Godly Leadership

27:37 of Godly leadership is this a matter that we should not have or should we as men and women of faith simply leave it in the hands of Christ for have you and the other elders not taught us pastor that ultimately it is Christ who gives pastors and teachers is it not the Lord of the harvest who laid his hand upon Moses to prepare him for 80 years and then in his own appointed time appeared to him by a burning bush and sent him to be the leader of his people so that if God leads his people like a flock by the hand up unto them a Savior or a Deliverer? Should we not then just leave this with God? Well, my friends, I'd like to think we could do that, but if we're thinking biblically, that is not the pattern in the mind of Christ, and in particular, as the mind of Christ is manifested in the activity of the apostles, and the apostle Paul in particular, and I

29:07 want to demonstrate from several passages that the great apostle, as much as he loved Christ as none of us loves him, saw the glory and the majesty of Christ as none of us has ever seen it, had confidence in the absolute power of Christ to care for his own cause with a faith that none of us has, yet he had a holy anxiety for the continuity of godly leadership in order to implement the rule of Christ among the churches. He had a conscious anxiety, and an anxiety that drove him not only to pray, but to do all within his power to secure a succession of godly leaders in the church. Acts chapter 20, Acts 14, and now we find that according to verse 14, he met some of his companions at Assos, Acts 20, 14, we took him in and came to Mytilene, and sailing from thence we came the following

30:36 day over against Chios, and the next day we touched at Samos, and the day after we came to Miletus. For Paul had determined to sail past the city of Mytilene, and to go to the city of Pentecost, and to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. So here the apostle is committed to an overall structure of his itinerary, and he doesn't want to pause in Ephesus, even though the door of opportunity would be great, he knows a congregation that loves him dearly would receive him, he would have a wide open door of ministry and influence, but he was on his way to Jerusalem, his heart was set upon reaching there at a certain time, yet in spite of all that, he does take a slight pause in that itinerary, verse 17, to do something. From Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to him the human leaders given by Christ to the Ephesian church. Called to him the presbyters, the elders of the church. And what did he

31:55 call them to himself for? To have a prayer meeting? No. To have a little time to chit chat about how things were, to have what we would call a pastoral oversight meeting, to see how they're all doing? No, that is not why he called them according to the record.

32:15 He called the elders of the church, and he called them to the church, and he called them to him, and when they were come to him, he said unto them, and then beginning at the middle of verse 18 through to verse 27, he reviews both the spirit and the doctrinal and methodological substance of his own period of ministry among them. Those verses are a review and overview of the apostles' time in Jerusalem. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, at Ephesus, he starts with his inner disposition. You know what manner I was with you all the time, serving the Lord with loneliness of mind, with tears, with trials. I shrank not from declaring anything that was profitable, etc. And when he is done reviewing his own ministry, and turns to these elders, the deep burden of his heart snaps into focus immediately. Verse 27.

33:18 Take heed unto yourselves. He uses a present imperative of a verb that means to pay close and constant, intense attention unto yourselves, and to all of the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood. My swan song to you elders is not reminiscing about the good old days. It's not even primarily to pray with you. It is to solemnly charge you. And I'm charging you with this responsibility to pay close and constant attention to yourselves and to the flock, that flock in which the Spirit has made you overseers. Verse 28.

34:18 To shepherd that flock which is so precious to the Lord that he bought it with his own blood. And almost anticipating the question of these elders, Paul, why so solicitous? Why do you interrupt your rather pressured journey to Jerusalem to call us here to this little spot out in the Mediterranean in order to charge us? He says, I'll tell you why. I know that after my departing grief is won. I saw great stars in the rain and lukewarm and thunder and dust. I saw stars in Despair and такие borneceğiz, andployee and not sheared roomy, the planting of noble yours in myself willateria, the manna throwing his ballot. That is ever more to give.

35:14 Speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Where for? Be continually watchful. Remembering that by the space of three years I did not cease to admonish everyone day and night with tears, I set the pattern of spiritual watchfulness.

35:18 lightly watchful is an Sit. I advise you to keep a single mind always by the anything you want. I have not assumed that because I'm the Apostle Paul, and I have been given a unique commission from the exalted Christ, that all the imps of hell and all the demons that spawn doctrines that damn will suddenly just scatter and flee because I'm there at Ephesus. Oh no. While I was there, I knew I was grappling for the souls of men. I admonished, I warned, I pointed out error and sin, and I did it passionately day and night. I did it compassionately and earnestly. I did it with tears.

35:56 There are times when people say, who's that slobbering idiot acting like the things he's talking about are issues of heaven and hell, life and death. I did it, he says. Death. Day and night with tears. But he had no silly notion that his tears had immunized the congregation against further attacks of the devil. He had no silly notion that his passionate, earnest, incessant admonitions immunized the church for a month.

36:29 He said, I know that after my giving to Jerusalem, but the imps of hell will be stirring up wolves and perverse men. Therefore, you elders, listen. As I set the pattern of godly, responsible, human leadership in the church at Ephesus, here's the baton, men. I'm passing it on to you.

37:05 Take heed to the flock. Be continually and constantly watchful. And then Acts 14.23 comes back again to us.

37:20 Look at verse... Look at verse 32.

37:21 And now, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all them that are sanctified. You see, Paul was not charging these elders because suddenly he had forgotten God's power to keep his own, the grace of God to preserve his own. No, those were realities. Those were realities that constantly throbbed through the apostles' prayers and all of his perspectives.

37:57 But I say it reverently, Paul had no notion of a God or of grace that would keep a church, regardless of whether or not it had a continuity of godly, human leadership.

38:16 Now, friends, if you can show me that I'm twisting the passage, I'm prepared to retract my statement. But it seems to me...

38:24 That stands right on the face of the passage.

38:28 He knows that God is able to keep these men. And if he can keep them, he can keep the rank and file of God's people. God's grace is sufficient for them and all of their needs. And certainly for the rank and file of the Ephesian people.

38:42 But he has no silly notion that God's grace does not work by means of his own institution. A continuity of godly, human...

38:56 ...leadership as vital to the preservation of the congregation at Ephesus.

Paul's Charge to Timothy: Passing the Baton of Leadership

39:03 You see the same burden in the apostle in 2 Timothy chapter 4?

39:11 2 Timothy chapter 4?

39:18 What some have called Paul's swan song. The last words that as far as we know he wrote prior to his martyrdom. He's conscious that his death is in a sense already in process. Verse 6.

39:36 I'm already being offered. That is poured out as a drink offering. He regarded his martyrdom as a drink offering unto Christ. I'm already being poured out.

39:48 The time of my departure is come. I have fought the good fight. My fighting days are over. I've finished my course.

39:58 My running days are over. I've kept the faith. My days of struggling against remaining sin. And the power...

40:06 The powers of darkness and evil men. Those days are over henceforth. There's laid up for me the crown of righteousness. He knows he's going home.

40:16 And as he's going home, what's the great burden of his heart?

40:21 I charge thee, verse 1, in the sight of God, speaking to Timothy and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom. Timothy, preach the word. Preach the word. Be urgent.

40:37 In season. Out of season. Reprove. Rebuke.

40:40 Exhort. With all longsuffering. That's the disposition with which you're to do it. The substance with which you do it is teaching, instruction.

40:50 For the time will come when they will not endure the healthy teaching. But having itching ears will heap to themselves teachers after their own lust. And turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to fables. But be sober in all things.

41:07 Suffer hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. Timothy, I'm on my way out.

41:17 The mantle falls upon you. The baton is now passed to you. I'll not be found at your side anymore, Timothy. I'm on my way home.

41:27 But Timothy, I'm deeply concerned for those within the orbit of your spiritual influence. And it's not enough that I commend them to God. And bend my knees unto the Father and pray for them even as he records his prayers in Ephesians 1 and 3. When he has the instrument who in God's hands is the appointed human leader, he solemnly charges him to continue that chain of godly, responsible human leadership within the church of Christ.

42:06 But he didn't stop there. For earlier in this same epistle, chapter 2, he said, Timothy, though the last words that ring in your ears are, I charge you in the light of the great coming day and in the light of the eye of God and of Christ Jesus, stick at your task even when I'm gone. Timothy, you must not be content only to discharge your responsibility as a divinely appointed human leader in the church of Christ. You have another responsibility, Timothy.

42:39 Thou, therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which you have learned from me among many witnesses, there is no secret esoteric truth that's been proclaimed wherever I go. Many will bear witness to the same things that you've heard from me, Timothy. The same commit thou to faithful men.

43:07 Faithful men. Faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Timothy, is the grace of God sufficient to strengthen you for every task he lays upon you? Well, then be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

43:29 But, Timothy, don't assume that that grace needed for the perpetuation of godly leadership will operate automatically. The same grace to which I commend you is the grace you will need to do the job that I now lay upon you, and that is to exercise discernment in selecting men who seem to manifest trustworthiness of character. Faithful men means men of trustworthy, proven character. And having exercised discernment and marked them out, do whatever you must do amidst all your other responsibilities to commit unto these men, unto these men, that which has been committed to you, that in turn, Timothy, while you live, you may multiply yourself through them, and when you're gone, they may carry the baton to their generation and pass it on to the next. You see, the great apostle who had the largest, most believing views of the glory of Christ that any human being has ever had, who had the most vigorous faith and confidence in the ultimate triumphs

44:54 of the cause of Christ that any man has ever had, he did not leave it to chance that there would be an unbroken continuity of godly leadership. He took it as a personal responsibility, a responsibility before God to do all within his power to secure it. And if these passages, Acts 20, 2 Timothy 4, and 2 Timothy 2.2 do not bear that conclusion, then I mean this sincerely, I don't mean it as a sarcastic challenge.

45:35 I want someone to be my instructor that I may publicly retract the principles that I have stated to you because they already are embedded in these passages. Now if we've established from the word of God the origin of human leadership, it is in the will and the wisdom of Christ that His church, endowed by His spirit, graced with His word, the word of prophets and apostles, yet, with all its new covenant privileges still needing, in the wisdom of Christ, human leaders, pastors and teachers, I will give them shepherds after my heart who shall feed them with knowledge and understanding. And if the task of human leadership is the task of assisting the people of God to implement the rule of Christ as contained in the word of Christ, and if there is a solemn responsibility of existing leaders to mirror the spirit of Paul without in any way taking upon themselves or arrogating to their own shoulders that which is on the shoulders of Christ,

46:54 the responsibility of doing all within their power to secure an unbroken continuity of godly leadership. In the fourth place, what does this say to you and to me sitting in this place this morning? What can you do? What can I do? What must you do? What must I do under God to seek, to maintain an unbroken continuity of godly leadership in this place in order to assist rising generations to implement the rule of Christ? It's crunch time now. You see, you've been looking at the picture being painted. Now out of the picture comes some fingers pointing at you. This is what you and I must do. Unless

What the Congregation Must Do: Cry Mightily to God

47:49 you're part of the generation that says you only go around once, grab all the gusto you can, and there's a kind of ecclesiastical hedonism that comes into a church and says I'm willing to take all I can get that is the fruit of the prayers, the tears, the vision, the passion, and the labors of others, and I don't give a hoot if there's anything left to pass on to anyone else when I die. God have mercy on any such sitting in this place. I have reason to believe there are many who sit here and say, oh God, when I'm rotting in my grave, may the things that have been your instruments in my life yet be abounding even more and more in that congregation that is called Trinity Church. But what can you do? And please don't let the familiarity of the words put you to sleep. What you and I can and must do, number one, and it is foundational to all else, we must cry mightily and incessantly to the God of heaven.

48:52 We must cry mightily and incessantly to the God of heaven. We must pray. It is Christ who gives pastors and teachers. If he does not cull them out of the mass of humanity and bring them to himself in saving grace, if he does not mold and fashion them by that tailor-made pattern which he has for every man of God, if he does not bring them through that crucible of experience in the closet and in life and interaction with men and women and boys and girls that will fit him to be a shepherd after his heart, all the king's horses and all the king's men cannot put together a true godly leader. In Christ's church, he must do it. Remember the words of John Newton, only the God who made the world can make a true minister of Christ. Only the God who made the world can make a godly elder to implement the rule of Christ in the church of Christ, in the grace and in the power of Christ.

50:10 Therefore, we must all mightily and incessantly cry to God, Therefore, we must all mightily and incessantly cry to God, Therefore, we must all mightily and incessantly cry to God, take his promise from Jeremiah 3.15, I will give them, Lord. Here is your promise. We pressed it before you.

50:26 You said you would give. You promised that you would give, O Lord. Fulfill your word of promise and grant us shepherds who will feed us with knowledge and with understanding, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, not clever, high-powered, sweet personalities who can rally the troops and bust the walls, Lord, give us men who can feed with knowledge and with understanding, who can open up the treasures of your word, who can lead us into the knowledge of Christ and into an understanding of the ways of Christ and our resources in Christ that we might be motivated by the desire to honor Christ. We must mightily cry mightily and incessantly to God. Lord, don't assume they're just going to appear on the scene.

51:33 Do you pray regularly and with earnestness? Oh, God, in mercy, give us a continuity of godly leadership in this congregation.

51:48 Our burden for the rising generation will all come to naught unless they have wise and godly shepherds. It's to guide them. When the Spirit of God records the distress of the soul of Jesus, when he looked out upon the multitudes, he says they were distressed and scattered. What's the imagery?

52:11 As sheep having no sheep without shepherds are scattered, distressed, vulnerable. That's why Paul had such a burden for those Ephesian elders. He said, I know. Oh, after my departure, wolves will pounce upon the flock.

52:38 Men shall rise up from within speaking perverse things. Watch ye, watch ye. Remember my example while I was still there. Day and night I admonished, I warned.

52:50 I did it with passion and compassion. I did it with tears.

52:57 Dear people of God, if this doesn't move us to pray,

53:02 we may be cursing unborn generations.

What Parents Must Do: Mold Children's Character and Impart Knowledge

53:10 Secondly,

53:13 must give themselves to their great task of molding the character of their children and imparting biblical knowledge by precept and example.

53:29 Parents, where are the leaders going to come from? Well, the Lord may bring them from some other place, yes. But we have no right to expect he will.

53:38 Generally speaking, men who are competent godly leaders have been becoming such from their mother's wombs. Generally speaking, there are exceptions.

53:50 But isn't it interesting that the primary leader upon whom Paul's apostolic vision and burden rested by way of the transfer not of apostolic office but of apostolic vision and apostolic concern for the churches was a Timothy who from a brephos, a nursing babe, had known the scriptures from his grandmother Lois and his mother Elisha. Listen to me, parents. What kind of kids are you raising? Are you raising men, young men and women who will be prepared for the self-denying burden of leadership in Christ's church? Not that the women will have official offices of leadership, but they will have their place of leadership by example of being godly mothers and godly wives and godly single women in their place. And if there are to be godly men who in self-denying service to the church can leave the church, you've got to have self-denying women who can enter in joyfully to the demands that such a labor bring upon their husbands.

55:13 You don't produce women like that by indulging little girls with everything their whims and fancies desire. You don't develop men of principle and right-angled convictions by plunking them in front of the VCR and the TV until they just wash over their brains inane and banal movies that do nothing to challenge them, that do nothing to develop character, that do nothing to discipline the mind.

55:47 If you're concerned about unborn, rising generations of Trinity Church parents, rear every child as though you had a revelation from God that there was going to be a special burden of leadership placed upon him or her. And then you'll just be rearing him the way you are from the first place. Go for the gold!

56:12 And the character of your children.

56:15 And then whatever God may have in their specific place, they will fulfill it far more nobly to the glory of God than if you just sat back and said, oh, my kid doesn't look like a leader. She doesn't look like a leader anyway, so I'll accept mediocrity. God have mercy on you, parent. Do you want to give account to God for that stewardship in the day of Christ?

What Men Must Do: Grow Up in Self-Denying Obedience

56:37 We must cry mightily and incessantly to God. Secondly, we must labor assiduously at the task of molding the character of our children and imparting biblical knowledge. Thirdly, and here I speak to the men of the church, particularly the younger generation. Hear me, men.

57:01 The men of this church, must give themselves to growing up into Christ in the path of self-denying,

57:14 sensitive conscience obedience to Christ. The younger men of this church must give themselves to growing up into Christ in the pattern of self-denying, conscious, sensitive obedience to Christ. Now, where did I get that kind? Where did I get that kind of convoluted terminology?

57:37 Well, I've gotten it trying to express what is stated in Hebrews, and I want you to turn there and just forget number seven, brethren. Remember, I haven't come down this road before, and I'm preaching out a burden that has been impregnating my own spirit for several years in a very concentrated way. In Hebrews chapter 5,

58:03 the writer to the Hebrews says, with respect to his desire, to open up facets of the identity and function of Christ that were mirrored in this strange person, Melchizedek. And he says in verse 11 of Hebrews 5, of whom we have many things to say and hard of interpretation, seeing you are become dull of hearing, lazy in your ears, for when by reason of the time, enough time is passed, that you ought, to be teachers, enough time is passed, that you ought to be in the place of being able, as a faithful man, to impart things to others, to take them upon, and carry it, and impart it to others. Enough time is passed.

58:55 And he said, you aren't in that position. You have need that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God, the time you ought to be teaching. Somebody's got to sit you, sit you down and say, A, A, cat, on how to write an A. I'll teach you the most elementary things.

59:17 Enough time is passed. You ought to be imparting to others. You have need that someone teach you your ABCs. And then he changes the imagery and it becomes such as at need of milk and not of solid food.

59:29 When you ought to be sitting down and cutting up your own steak, or if you've got a cholesterol problem, cutting up your skinned chicken, or the time that you ought to be eating solid food, you have need that someone stick the bottle in your mouth again.

59:50 You've got need that someone go warm the bottle for you, stick it in, put you on your shoulder and burp you. Not very flattering, is it? This is what he's telling them. He said, enough time is passed.

60:06 You've had enough exposure, plenty of time to absorb it, and yet we've got to go back. When you ought to be matriculating at grad school and have a, teaching fraternal given to you,

60:25 you've got to have the bottle stuck in your mouth and you ought to be eating your own meat. Well, what led to that condition? Well, read on.

60:33 For everyone that partakes of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, but solid food is for full-grown men. Full-grown men, even those who by reason of youth have their sense, sense is exercised to discern good and evil. He says spiritual maturity comes in the path not of hearing hundreds of sermons. It comes in the path of receiving the truth into a tender conscience, making moral judgments in the light of the truth that has impinged upon the conscience and thereby becoming strong as a self-denying, obedient disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. The senses are exercised to discern good and evil, not in a theoretical way, sitting around discussing abstract ethical issues, but in the day-by-day experience of the word of God pressing us and we leave and we go home and have dealings with God in the area in which God has spoken to us. If it means, we've got to walk over the belly of our lusts, says John Owen, if we've got to cut off a right hand

62:02 and pluck out a right eye. Listen to me, men. Godly leadership is never, never made with men sitting back on a couch of ease, indulging their flesh.

62:19 It isn't. The baseline of all discipleship is if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me, self-denying, and cross-bearing are the fundamental elements of just basic discipleship. But if we're to come to maturity in Christ, there must be this exercising of the senses in the practical demands of truth upon our consciences and upon our lives.

62:52 You want this place, if the Lord tarries, 20, 30 years from now, to have godly leaders who will not flinch, but who will be, determined to see the rule of Christ implemented in this place, then you better want it bad enough to start crushing some of your little toys, men. When I hear of grown men spending hours in front of their video games, I get sick.

63:21 Grown men in Trinity Church! Like little boys.

63:30 Let me ask you something.

63:34 Would you listen to me if you found out from my wife I was addicted to the little yo-yo, little joy, little twisted, little to my video game? What's your toy, man?

63:53 Get honest. What's your toy? Get honest. What's your toy?

64:03 Spent with your toys.

64:06 And you could grab 10 minutes here to read a few pages of a book that would stir up your conscience. 20 minutes here of a book that would expand your understanding of God and of His ways and of sound, historic, biblical theology. A half hour, there, spent in prayer, wrestling with God over needs in your own heart, in your family and people in the church. That's the stuff of which men are made!

64:36 And if you don't want that for yourself, you don't want it for Trinity Church because everybody's job is nobody's job.

What Existing Leadership Must Do: Discover and Nurture Future Leaders

64:46 May God speak to some of you, men. And then finally, what can we do? We must cry mightily and incessantly to God. We must give ourselves as should you do.

64:58 Continuously to our parental tasks. Men must give themselves to growing up into Christ in the way of self-denial and sensitive conscience in response to the demands of God's law. But the existing leadership, and this is where God has been dealing with some of us, must actively seek to discover and nurture the future leaders of this church.

65:25 Taking the principles of 2 Timothy 2.2 that lie above us, that lie above us, that lie above us, that lie above us, that lie above us, that lie above us. At the base of the academy, we have seen its application primarily to the church universal. But surely it had its original context, a local application to Timothy at Ephesus.

65:42 The things you've heard of me, Timothy, commit to faithful men who shall be able to teach others. Timothy, you're not going to live forever. Well, suppose Timothy judged one man to be faithful and not another. Wouldn't that cause hard feelings?

65:57 Yes, it might. But that's all right. And by the grace of God, we spent a whole morning in our recent elders' retreat going over the names of the men of this church, seeking to identify faithful men to whom we may have a special responsibility to give special time and effort to pass on the truths of God that they in turn might teach others.

66:30 And we, as your leaders, are determined by the grace of God, to be more faithful to the implementation of this vision. So why haven't you done it sooner? Probably our own dullness. Probably misplaced priorities.

66:46 But the issue is, I stand before you to say God's made it a matter of conscience with us now. And we're determined by the grace of God to get our act together.

66:58 So rather than sit there and throw stones at us that we didn't do it till now, will you pray with us that God will help us? As we commit ourselves to do it in the days to come as the Lord spares us.

Conclusion: A Call to Action for the Rising Generation

67:14 What kind of church do you want the rising generation to have? Surely it must be, and you know that it would have to be a church that's maintained the unquenched passion of its love for Christ lest it have the condemnation of Revelation 2-5. Surely it must be a church with an uncompromising attachment to the gospel. The word of Christ must be a church that has unfeigned love for the disciples of Christ and unfractured unity in the body of Christ and that uncompromising commitment to the standards of Christ for corporate holiness.

67:58 But dear people of God, it must be a church that has a continuity of godly leadership to help you implement the word of Christ.

68:11 What can we do? What can we do? What can we do? What can we do?

68:12 Cry to God. Give ourselves to our parental task. Men of the church, get your act together by the grace of God and pray for us who are in leadership that we'll get our act together and begin actively in a new way. It's not that we haven't done it at all, but in a new and focused way.

68:36 Seek to identify the faithful men to whom we are obligated to commit to the gospel. Seek to identify the faithful men to whom we are obligated to commit the principles of godly leadership that there may be a wonderful overlapping of leadership that when it comes time to pass on the baton it's not put into the hands of people who don't know how to take it and don't know where to run and how to run but may be men who've run alongside others who've run well and have been able to say as Paul could to Timothy you have fully known my doctrine, my manner of life, the things you have seen and heard in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you. Is it too much to believe, dear people, that if God by his word and spirit has pressed these things upon our hearts that he would be pleased to enable us to see them brought to pass for his glory and for the good of his own cause until the Lord Jesus returns. Let us pray.

69:48 Our Father, we thank you for your presence with us this morning we are sobered as we have contemplated these portions of your word and yet we are encouraged that as Timothy was given this awesome responsibility he was pointed not to resources in himself but to those that are in the grace of Christ and therefore we look to you as a church that as we think of the rising generations we may with all of our hearts be committed to doing all that we can to you. to doing all that we can to you. to doing all that we can to you. We pray all within our power that there shall be a continuity of godly leadership in this place to implement the will and the word of Jesus Christ. Oh our God have mercy upon us we pray. Help us to smash our toys. Help parents who are playing at their parenting.

70:51 Strengthen those who are committed to being this kind of parent. May they be encouraged by what they heard this morning that while the world looks upon them and says they're fools pouring all of their time and energy into their kids may the day of judgment reveal that they were the wise ones who built for generations to come. Hear then our cry. Dismiss us with your blessing we plead in Jesus' worthy name.

71:21 Amen.