In "Spiritual and Mental Gifts #1," Pastor Albert N. Martin begins a series on the gifts essential for the pastoral office, focusing on the second element of a biblical call: proven fitness. He argues for the necessity of these gifts based on explicit biblical demands (1 Timothy 3:2b, 4-5; Titus 1:9; 2 Timothy 2:2), the inferred demands of pastoral tasks (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Timothy 5:17), and the inescapable logic that Christ, who gives ministers, also endows them with gifts (drawing heavily on John Owen). Martin then explores the ultimate source of these gifts as God himself, while also acknowledging secondary sources such as prenatal formation, ordinary acquisition, direct Spirit endowment, and diligent personal effort. He concludes by introducing the first category of specific gifts: those expressed in the mind's disposition, capabilities, and acquisitions, emphasizing a reverent submission to Scripture.
Primary Texts
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1 Timothy 3:2-5These verses are expounded as foundational texts explicitly detailing the requirements for the pastoral office, particularly the gift of teaching and the ability to rule one's household.
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Titus 1:9This passage is thoroughly examined for its demands on an elder to be able to exhort in sound doctrine and convict gainsayers, highlighting essential communication and discernment gifts.
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1 Corinthians 12:1-11This chapter is presented as a primary text for understanding the nature, diversity, and divine source of spiritual gifts, particularly as they relate to service within the body of Christ.
Opening Prayer and Introduction to the Call to Ministry0:02
Review of the First Two Elements of a Biblical Call1:38
Introduction to the Third Aspect of Proven Fitness: Essential Gifts6:00
Necessity and Importance of Requisite Gifts: Explicit Demands of Scripture9:37
Necessity and Importance of Requisite Gifts: Inferred Demands of Pastoral Tasks16:30
Necessity and Importance of Requisite Gifts: Inescapable Logic of Christ's Intention20:16
Source of Essential Gifts: Ultimate and Immediate27:41
Source of Essential Gifts: Secondary or Immediate32:39
Identity of Specific Gifts: Mental Gifts (Disposition, Capabilities, Acquisitions)40:14
Key Quotes
“Believing in the sufficiency of Scripture with respect to the issue of what constitutes a biblical call to the pastoral office and labor, I'm very conscious of seeking neither to add to nor subtract from the total witness of the word of God as we wrestle with this question.”
“And as surely as no amount of gifts can substitute for the presence of the grace of proven trustworthy character, so likewise no measure of trustworthy character can substitute for the ability to teach others also.”
“Gifts make no man a minister, but all the world cannot make a minister of Christ without gifts.”
“A ministry without gifts is no ministry of Christ giving. Nor is it of any other use in the church but to deceive the souls of men.”
“If the first and great commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul and strength where the Holy Ghost is present the mind will be most active not passive.”
“And any view of gifts that does not have this broad expansive perspective is doomed at some point to fail and perhaps to leave some of us assuming we've not been called when through dint of prayerful effort the area of lack could be supplied or there could be something that would be given in direct answer to prayer by divine endowment.”
“a mind which is reverently lovingly submissive to the absolute authority of the scriptures”
Applications
All listeners
Be conscious of seeking neither to add to nor subtract from the total witness of the word of God as we wrestle with the question of a biblical call to the pastoral office.
Do not lower your standards for discerning gifts, but recognize that God may be fitting a man in the academy, and these gifts must be discernibly evident when a man is officially set apart for office.
No one has any right to believe he is called of God to this office who has not manifested that which could be called skillful in teaching.
There must be a manifest ability to govern and rule in the domestic sphere which will give us a favorable prejudice to believe that this ability will enable him to take care of the church of God.
The elder must be able to bring the word of God to bear in such a clear and convincing way upon the consciences of those who speak against the truth as to bring them to the point of being convinced and convicted.
Recognize the broad spectrum of biblical answers to the question of where gifts come from, understanding that areas of lack can be supplied through prayerful effort or divine endowment, preventing premature assumptions about one's call.
Satisfy your own conscience that you are called of God to this office only if these four categories of gifts are present and proven, and expect a biblically enlightened congregation to recognize these gifts.
A full transcript is available on the
tab. 46 paragraphs, roughly 44 minutes.
Machine transcription
Opening Prayer and Introduction to the Call to Ministry
And for our time together this morning. Our Father, we thank you for giving us a fresh sight of our triumphant Savior. We thank you for the grace and mercy that are in him. And we thank you that he would ever deem us to be the objects of that love that would cause him to pour out his soul unto death in order to secure our salvation.
And why he would ever deign to make us the fruit of his sufferings, we do not know, but in this truth we glory. And we therefore would apply ourselves with fresh zeal and confidence and the expectation of faith to the labors of the coming hours, believing that these too are part of the purchased fruition of the death of Christ. Our Lord Jesus, that he would see of the travail of his soul in terms of the issues that we wrestle with today and that he would be satisfied. Bless us then with the aid of the Holy Spirit.
May we know his guidance and direction, his blessing, enabling us rightly to understand and rightly to apply your truth to our own consciences. Hear us and help us. We plead in Jesus' name. Amen.
Review of the First Two Elements of a Biblical Call
Now I'm sure that all of you men are acquainted with those very sobering words with which the New Testament canon closes, where in Revelation 22, 18 we read, I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto them, God shall, add unto him the plagues that are written in this book, and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and out of the holy city which are written in this book. Believing in the sufficiency of Scripture with respect to the issue of what constitutes a biblical call to the pastoral office and labor, I'm very conscious of seeking neither to add to nor subtract from the total witness of the word of God as we wrestle with this question. I've asserted that there are four elements which constitute a biblical call to the pastoral office. The first, an enlightened and sanctified desire for the work of the pastoral office.
The second, I've designated as a proven fitness for the work of the pastoral office. And it's under this second major category of the four elements that constitute a biblical call that we've addressed thus far two things. First, the manifested graces indicative of genuine, matured, balanced, and proven Christian character. And secondly, the clear, clear indications of an enlarged, balanced, and tested Christian experience.
And by way of just a little P.S., one of the books I took along with me in the five-day break I had after the pastor's conference is the excellent work entitled The Christian Pastor's Manual edited by John Brown. And I found a very clear confirmation of this principle that I tried to describe under that second category of requirements, the clear indications of an enlarged, balanced, and tested Christian experience.
On page 111 in an essay entitled Qualifications for Teachers by John Erskine, Mr. Erskine wrote as follows, but above all, inward piety assists in underlining, understanding, and explaining experimental religion. These can best unveil the pangs of the new birth and the nature of union and communion with Christ and describe conversion, progressive sanctification, a life of faith, the struggles of the flesh and spirit, and such like subjects who can speak of them from their own experience. Those are best suited to speak a word in season to weary souls who can comfort them in their spiritual distresses with those consolations wherewith they themselves have been comforted of God. Their experience of the influence of truths which have been most useful to their own souls, leads them to insist much upon these in their public ministrations,
and determines them to know nothing in comparison of Christ and Him crucified. And that in an essay on qualifications for teachers. So I give you that little P.S. as well as highly commend this.
Introduction to the Third Aspect of Proven Fitness: Essential Gifts
A couple of the essays I've read two and three times, and this is one of my lifetime, lifetime companions. But now we begin to address today the third aspect of proven fitness for the work of the pastoral office. Now keep your outline in mind. The first of the four elements is the enlightened and sanctified desire, the second proven fitness and under proven fitness we come now to the third aspect of proven fitnesses.
Fitness. We move from graces, to experience, and now to the presence of the gifts essential for fulfilling the purposes of the pastoral office. And you will find that listed as number three at the top of page 12 in your printed notes. Now in taking up this aspect of our subject, I want to say two things by way of introduction. First, I am not prepared to say that the order in which I present these things pertaining to gifts, or the precise terminology used to present them, has divine sanction. As I grow in grace and understanding, I may be able to state them more clearly. I may be able to treat them as a gift. I may be able to treat them as a gift.
In such a way as to leave them less vulnerable to misunderstanding. Furthermore, time and experience may lead me to change their order. However, the substance of what I will attempt to lay before you in the coming lectures, relative to that which I have called the presence of the gifts essential for the fulfilling of the purposes of the pastoral office, is not the product of a moment, of a year, of a decade, but reflects the most settled convictions of my own judgment over many decades of wrestling with the issue. And the second thing I would say by way of introduction, and this is a reminder, that I am addressing these things which must be evidently present to some of you. And I am addressing these things which must be evidently present to some discernible degree when a man is officially set apart for the office and function of an overseer laboring in the word and in doctrine. I am not saying that these things must be seen as clearly as the sun on a cloudless day while you are here
in the academy, or while God may be fitting a man in the academy. I am not saying that the Lord Pa is calling on you to lower yourści and bring you into the classes, but to me you record these small presences as the purpose for fulfilling the will of God and the mission of the apostle. And after me I amround these things which must be evidently present to some of you. And the without these gifts being discernibly evident in the particular man.
Necessity and Importance of Requisite Gifts: Explicit Demands of Scripture
Now, with that introduction behind us, we come now to address the matter of the gifts essential for the fulfilling of the purposes of the pastoral office, and our first concern is to address the necessity for and importance of the requisite gifts for the pastoral office. The necessity for and the importance of the requisite gifts for the pastoral office, and I have three lines of argument. First of all, the clear demands of the most relevant texts. And the first text is 1 Timothy 3, 2b. Here in this passage, where the apostle has underscored the necessity for the fulfillment of the purposes of the pastoral office, the enlightened and sanctified desire in that faithful saying, and has underscored that the requirements are non-negotiable. Verse 2, The bishop, therefore, must be, without reproach, husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach, didactikos, here in the accusative, didactikon,
and apt to teach, is rendered by Arndt and Gingrich, skillful in teaching, Reinecker and Rogers, able to teach. So here, in the most relevant passage of the requirements for the office, we are told that the bishop must be, not just desirous of teaching, in love with the idea of teaching, filled with romance, full of romantic notions of the fulfillment that can come in a teaching capacity, but he must be skillful in teaching. He must be able to teach. There is no one who has any right to believe he is called of God to this office who has not manifested that which could be called in the judgment of sober thinking, that which is identified, that which is identified as skillful in teaching. And then in 1 Timothy 3, 4, and 5, he must be one that rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. Why? But if a man knows not how to rule his own house, how shall he, epimole, oh my,
how shall he take care of the church of God? Here, there must be a manifest ability to govern and rule in the domestic sphere which will give us a favorable prejudice to believe that this ability will enable him to take care of the church of God. So the gifts requisite for good care of God's church must be proven, and must be manifested. And then in the third of the most relevant passages, Titus chapter 1, in verse 9, we are told that the one whom Titus should, with apostolic blessing, help the churches in Crete to recognize as an elder, a bishop, is described as the one holding to the faithful word, which is according to the teaching, that, that he may be able both to exhort in the sound doctrine and to convict the gainsayers. There must be a manifested, proven ability to exhort. And as you know, the word exhort,
whether in its noun or in its verbal form, speaks of comforting, inspiring, impelling, motivating, to action. But since it is Christian exhortation, it is always accomplishing these ends by means of convincing the mind and the judgment with God's truth. All biblical exhortation is that which is rooted in the truth. And therefore, the elder must be able to exhort.
He must have proven gifts, and gifts to handle God's truth in such a way as to so to convince the judgment as to move men into godly action. Furthermore, he must be able to convict the gainsayers. He must be able to bring the word of God to bear in such a clear and convincing way upon the consciences of those who speak against the truth as to bring them to the point of being convinced. He must be able to bring them to the point of being convicted, standing condemned of their error, before the full clear display of the truth of God.
And then another of the explicit texts, 2 Timothy 2 and verse 2. Here Paul, speaking to Timothy, concerned with the perpetuation of the teaching function and ministry of the church, says, The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful, trustworthy men, who shall be able to teach others also. Timothy is under solemn obligation not only to find trustworthy men, men of solid, proven, tested, stable Christian character, but men who in addition to that character have a manifested, proven ability to teach others also. And as surely as no amount of gifts can substitute for the presence of the grace of proven trustworthy character, so likewise no measure of trustworthy character can substitute for the ability to teach others also. So in these four pivotal, relevant texts,
Necessity and Importance of Requisite Gifts: Inferred Demands of Pastoral Tasks
the necessity for and the importance of the requisite gifts for the pastoral office are explicitly demanded, both with reference of gifts to teach and gifts to rule or to govern. But then secondly, I rest the case upon the inferred demands of the revealed tasks of the pastoral office. Why must there be the presence of gifts? Well, the inferred demands of the revealed tasks of the pastoral office establish this.
Now what are those demands? Well, Acts 20 and verse 28 tells us in the language of the Apostle charging the Ephesian elders that they are to shepherd. An imperative of the verb poimaino, they are to perform the manifold functions and duties of shepherds to sheep. They are to shepherd the flock of God which he has purchased with his own blood.
And among the many tasks of shepherding is obviously feeding them with adequate food. There's the gift of teaching, implicit in that charge. There is the protection of the flock from predators. Implicit in that is the gift of discernment and the gift of being able to expose error for what it is.
The task of the shepherd is to keep the flock together in a healthy, coordinated life as a flock. Implicit in that are gifts to rule, and to govern in such a way that the flock is not scattered and fragmented. In this injunction of the pastoral office of shepherding the flock of God, there is a strong inference that the gifts to shepherd must be present. And likewise with the Ephesians 4, 11 passage.
If the ascended Christ gives as one of his prerogatives as head of the church, if he gives pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of service, unto the building up of the body of Christ, if he gives them to the end that the people of God may no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, then surely it is inferred that those whom Christ gives for that purpose will be endowed with the gifts to accomplish the purpose. If he gives them that they might mend the saints, that they might perfect the saints unto their God-given sphere and responsibilities of service, then surely those whom Christ gives he endows with the requisite gifts to fulfill that function. If they are given that God's people will no longer be unstable and vulnerable to every wind of doctrine, then surely it is inferred that he will endow them with the understanding and the ability to convey the understanding of God's truth that will result in the stability of the people of God.
Necessity and Importance of Requisite Gifts: Inescapable Logic of Christ's Intention
And likewise 1 Timothy 5, 17 The elders that rule well are worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard, who labor in the word and in teaching. Obviously, if there is to be double honor given to those who labor in the word and in teaching, it is requisite that they have gifts that warrant that they be set apart from the ordinary means of employment, and in that sense, to use the language of 1 Corinthians 9, live of the gospel. So the necessity for and importance of the requisite gifts rests not only upon the clear demands of the most relevant text, but also upon the inferred demands of the revealed tasks of the pastoral office. And thirdly, what I've called the inescapable gift is the inescapable logic which exists between the pastoral office and the intention of Christ who gives men to fill it. The inescapable logic which exists between the pastoral office and the intention of Christ who gives men to fill it. Please correct the spelling on intention, alright?
And here I commend to you brethren a careful reading of these relevant sections in Owen Volume 9 and Owen Volume 4. The page numbers are listed there. Let me give you just a sampling out of both of those sections. The first time I read these things, I found them so compelling that I said to myself, you dummy, how could you have missed something so obvious for so long that is stated so clearly by Owen?
Here reading from page 432 of Volume 9. The second thing he does, it's on the ministry of the ascended Christ, it's his sermon on Ephesians 4.8. The second thing he does is the giving of spiritual gifts unto men whereby they may be enabled unto the discharge of the office of the ministry as to the edification of the church in all the ends of it.
Gifts make no man a minister, but all the world cannot make a minister of Christ without gifts. Profound statement. Gifts make no man a minister. The presence of gifts is no proof that Christ is giving a man to his church.
However, all the world cannot make a minister of Christ without gifts if the Lord Jesus Christ should cease to give out spiritual gifts unto men for the work of the ministry, he need do no more to take away the ministry itself. It must cease also, and it is the very way the ministry ceases in apostatizing churches. Christ no more giving out unto them of the gifts of his spirit and all their outward forms and order which they can continue are of no signification in his sight. And then he goes on to amplify that in a way that as far as I'm concerned is inescapable in its logic but more so in its biblical basis. Similarly in volume four and here again I'll give just a sampling page 491 in his chapter on the institution of the ministry that begins of ordinary gifts of the spirit, the grant, institution, use, benefit, end and continuance of the ministry. He states on page 491
referring to Ephesians 4.8 and this is one of the interesting things when you read more widely in Owen you find Owen quoting Owen. You find deep convictions in Owen coming out in various places and remember he had no word processor to pull it up and just stick it in. It was in his head and not on a floppy disk.
Now that says nothing against floppy disk. It just says something about Owen's head and Owen's heart. Quoting Ephesians 4.8 He gave gifts.
There is an active giving expressed. He gave and then the thing given that is gifts. Wherefore the ministry is a gift of Christ not only because freely and bountifully given by him to the church but also because spiritual gifts do essentially belong unto it and indeed its life and inseparable from its being. A ministry without gifts is no ministry of Christ giving.
Nor is it of any other use in the church but to deceive the souls of men. To set up such a ministry is both to despise Christ and utterly to frustrate the ends of the ministry. Those for which Christ gave it and which are here expressed. For one, ministerial gifts and graces are the great evidence that the Lord Christ takes care of his church and provides for it as called into the order and unto the duties of a church.
To set up a ministry which may be continued by outward forms and orders of men without any communication of gifts from Christ is to despise his authority and his care. And then Owen goes on to argue very powerfully in the remainder of this particular chapter and in other places this very simple principle that if Christ gives no gifts he is giving no ministers. Just that simple. We must insist on the presence of the gifts essential for the fulfilling of the purposes of the pastoral office. Not only because of the clear demands of the most relevant texts the inferred demands of the revealed tasks but the inescapable logic that exists between the pastoral office and the intention of Christ who gives men to fill it. This brings us then to the second consideration small letter B having considered the necessity for and importance of the requisite gifts we must say a word about the source of these gifts. And I've broken down that source into two categories
Source of Essential Gifts: Ultimate and Immediate
the ultimate or immediate source and secondly the secondary or the immediate sources. The ultimate or immediate source of these gifts it goes without saying I've listed again Owen Volume 9 pages 441 to 450 it is Christ who gives gifts unto men. And in a passage such as 1 Corinthians 12 and this is only a sampling but it's one of the most explicit passages as Paul begins to treat the subject of spiritual gifts saying to the Corinthians I do not want you to be ignorant with respect to these matters after establishing several fundamental principles and I want to just allude to them briefly. The first one is he contrasts the nature of the conferral of the gifts of Christ with the nature of the operation of spirits in the demonic and in the pagan realm. You know that when you were Gentiles you were led away unto those dumb idols howsoever you might be led. The one who had the so-called became passive under its influence and this is one of the curses of charismatic thinking.
You let your faculties go you get slain in the spirit caught up in the spirit. Paul says that he operates in the realm of paganism not in the realm of true and vital Christianity. If the first and great commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul and strength where the Holy Ghost is present the mind will be most active not passive. So he says I want you to know anybody there claiming they're in the spirit and they're mindless no, no, no it doesn't operate that way and also he said there's a confessional standard.
I make known to you that no man speaking in the spirit of God says Jesus is anathema and no man can say Jesus is Lord but in the Holy Spirit. So there is what we might call the psychological framework of the gifts given by God and there is the objective confessional framework. Now he begins to treat the subject. There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit diversities of ministration but the same Lord and there are diversities of workings but the same God who works all things in all 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, etc. and the whole concept of givenness culminating in verse 11 but all these work the one and the same spirit dividing to each one severally even as he will. So the emphasis falls upon the divine initiative upon the divine activity in the conferral of gifts of any nature that are of the intention of which is service within the body of Christ we must see that the ultimate or the immediate source is God himself. And you see this with regard
to the promise of God under the new covenant Jeremiah 3.15 that I will give them shepherds after my heart who shall feed them with knowledge and with understanding and here the emphasis falls upon the divine initiative it is God who has said I will give you shepherds according to my heart. Well if he gives them then he must prepare them they must be those who he has in the language of Ephesians chapter 4 prepared and then given to his church as pastors and as teachers so that in this matter of the source of the gifts whatever the gifts may be and we have seen that the gifts are absolutely essential and I have given you the threefold argument for that we must never never forget that ultimately the immediate source of those gifts is God himself but then in recognizing that we must not bypass this other biblical reality that there is a secondary or immediate sources and you will see that I have listed Psalm 139 and why have I done that? Well for the simple reason that some of the things that will constitute a man
Source of Essential Gifts: Secondary or Immediate
with the gifts essential for the pastoral office are matters that God gave him in principle and in seed form when he knit them together in his mother's womb. Certain things were established at conception and you remember the whole emphasis of Psalm 139 particularly the section where David is referring to his prenatal development in his mother's womb and he likens it to the activity of a weaver weaving him together. Verse 15 My frame was not hidden from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. He here likens his mother's womb to a subterranean cavern where he was being fashioned. Thine eyes did see my unformed substance and in thy book they were all written even the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was none of them. Back up to verse 13 For you did form my inward parts you did cover me marginal reading you knit me together in my mother's womb.
And there are certain things that are essential in the gifts for the pastoral office that God was pleased to give a man in his mother's womb. Certain elements that we'll see come to expression in the mental gifts. Certain things that come to expression in the physical gifts. Some of those things were established in our mother's wombs.
God was the ultimate and immediate source but the secondary or immediate source was the gene pool out of which God took the stuff that constituted us what we are in our humanity. Furthermore, some of these things will come gradually in the process of ordinary acquisition. It is said of our blessed Lord that he grew in wisdom in stature in favor with God and man but that comes immediately upon the heels of the statement that he went down unto Nazareth and was subject unto them that is to Mary and Joseph. And the clear indication is that in the context of the ordinary nurture of that home our Lord grew in these things that were constituting him to be the Messiah who was fitted for the task that he had been set apart to perform. Some of them will come by the Spirit's direct action in answer to prayer. Here I list Solomon's prayer for wisdom. It's found in 1 Kings.
You remember when it's clear that he is coming to the position of leadership and influence and God says ask now what do you want? In verse 5 of 1 Kings 3 In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said ask what I shall give you. Solomon said you showed unto your servant David my father great loving kindness you've kept your covenant word now I feel I'm but a little child I don't know how to go out how to come in the thing I ask verse 9 give unto your servant an understanding heart to judge your people that I may discern between good and evil for who is able to judge this thy great people and the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked for this thing and God said because you've asked for this thing he said I'm going to give this to you. Verse 12 I have done according to your word lo I have given you a wise and an understanding heart. Now granted there may have been much acquisition of wisdom through the developmental period of Solomon's life but if this passage teaches anything it teaches that there was an unusual concentrated deposit of wisdom given in answer to prayer
upon the occasion of his assumption of his role as king and surely in the case of even our Lord himself that when the spirit came upon him as he stood there in the waters of Jordan the spirit of the Lord God is now upon him and with that endowment came certain gifts the power to open the eyes of the blind, etc. This day, this day hath this prophecy the Lord says been fulfilled in your presence and so there are some of those gifts that are given by a specific endowment of the Holy Spirit some are inlaid from our mother's wombs some come by dint of conscious deliberate effort and ongoing acquisition and this is why I've listed 1 Timothy 4 and verse 15 give yourself wholly to these things that your progress may be manifest unto all and there we could bring in the text Timothy stir into flame the gift of God which is in you it's a gift but you must stir it into flame you must be active in its ongoing development and maturation so when we come to speak
of the gifts essential to ones being recognized as a gift of Christ to serve in the pastoral office we must recognize that the source of these gifts is ultimately God himself but the secondary or immediate sources will be a combination of factors all the way from a man's being structured in his mother's womb to acquisitions that have come in the course of his development to specific gifts that have come by divine endowment to gifts that have come or been further cultivated by conscious and deliberate effort and endeavor and any view of gifts that does not have this broad expansive perspective is doomed at some point to fail and perhaps to leave some of us assuming we've not been called when through dint of prayerful effort the area of lack could be supplied or there could be something that would be given in direct answer to prayer by divine endowment and so brethren it's vital that we recognize as we consider the source of these gifts the broad spectrum of the biblical's answer to the question where do the gifts come from all of them ultimately
Identity of Specific Gifts: Mental Gifts (Disposition, Capabilities, Acquisitions)
from God himself but in their actual conferral they come in manifold ways now then we come to letter C having sought to underscore the absolute necessity of gifts and then the source of the gifts letter C the identity of the specific gifts requisite for the pastoral office and seeking to open up this area of our subject I hope to set before you the four categories of gifts which to some degree must be present and proven before any one of us should satisfy his own conscience that he is called of God to this office and any biblically enlightened congregation will not recognize a man as a gift of Christ unless they see these four categories of gifts manifested in his own life and labors and all we'll have time to touch upon this morning if we're able to get through it I hope we will is the first category I've listed one with the half parenthesis those gifts which come to expression
in the disposition capabilities and acquisitions of the mind those gifts which come to expression in the disposition capabilities and acquisitions of the mind and here you're going to have five subheadings A B C D E and that should take us through your notes on page 14 alright first of all then before we take up the specifics when I use the word disposition I'm speaking of the prevailing attitude of the mind when I use the word ability I'm speaking particularly of a God given God given capacity and acquisition of course I'm referring to that which we have consciously acquired and what are those things that are indicative of the disposition and capabilities and acquisitions of the mind the first is this a mind which is reverently lovingly submissive to the absolute authority of the scriptures a mind which is reverently lovingly submissive to the absolute authority
of the scriptures in Titus 1 in verse 9 one of the requirements for an elder is that he be discerned as a man who holds fast to the faithful word that he has been taught and you have a middle participle of the verb antechomai which means to hold on to something to cling to and what is he to cling to with mind and heart well to cling
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Passages Expounded
1 Timothy 3:2-5
These verses are expounded as foundational texts explicitly detailing the requirements for the pastoral office, particularly the gift of teaching and the ability to rule one's household.
Titus 1:9
This passage is thoroughly examined for its demands on an elder to be able to exhort in sound doctrine and convict gainsayers, highlighting essential communication and discernment gifts.
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
This chapter is presented as a primary text for understanding the nature, diversity, and divine source of spiritual gifts, particularly as they relate to service within the body of Christ.
Texts Expounded
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This verse is presented as a clear demand for the pastoral office, specifically highlighting the requirement for a bishop to be 'apt to teach' (didactikos), meaning skillful and able to teach.
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These verses are used to demonstrate the necessity of a manifest ability to govern and rule one's own household as a prerequisite for caring for the church of God.
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This passage explicitly demands that an elder be able to 'exhort in sound doctrine and to convict the gainsayers,' emphasizing the need for proven gifts in handling God's truth effectively.
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Paul's instruction to Timothy to commit the truth to 'faithful, trustworthy men, who shall be able to teach others also' is cited as a direct demand for the gift of teaching in those called to ministry.
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This chapter is presented as a key passage on spiritual gifts, emphasizing their diversity, the unity of the Spirit as their source, and their purpose for profit within the body of Christ.
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This psalm is used to illustrate that some gifts essential for ministry are given by God in principle and seed form during prenatal development, as God knits individuals together in the womb.