Wrong Reasons for Seeking Pastoral Office, Part 1

Introduction: Foundational Principles and the Problem of False Reasons

0:01 The following lecture is part of the Pastoral Theology course given at the Trinity Ministerial Academy in Montville, New Jersey.

0:11 Well, we return today to the crucial concern which we began to address last Friday, namely, the essential elements of a biblical call to the pastoral office. And in our initial study, I underscored by way of introduction two things. First of all, what I regard as the explicit biblical warrant for addressing this concern, and then my own deep fears in taking up this concern. We then proceeded to focus our attention upon Roman numeral number one, foundational principles which must regulate our thinking and our judgment in this matter.

0:51 And those principles I gave you were three. One, we must be very conscious that we're in the realm, of experimental divinity or the theology of Christian experience. And because of this, temperament and background and diversity of perspective will be present. And we dare not take all of our counsel from one source, but apply the biblical principles with reference to the fact that in a multitude of counselors, there is safety.

1:21 And then the second foundational principle is to recognize that we are considering the call to worship. To an ordinary as opposed to an extraordinary office and therefore the call will come in the realm of the ordinary channels and means as opposed to extraordinary channels and means. And then thirdly, if we're going to think clearly on this matter, we must place the call to the pastoral office in the category of the biblical teaching of a man who labors as an elder. In the word and in doctrine.

1:59 And then we will have first Timothy three and Titus one as our primary guidelines in wrestling with the issue. And then we concluded by just touching briefly on what Breckenridge isolated and identified as three major categories or fundamental errors regarding what constitutes a call to the pastoral office. Uh, the fanatical perspective, the apostolic succession, and then what I call crass individualism or subjectivism. Now, we move from our foundational principles, number one, and from that very brief section on false or not false, but, uh, uh, common, uh, fundamental errors with regard to the, uh, call to the ministry into what I am calling common false reasons. This would be Roman numeral nine. This would be Roman numeral nine. Number three, common false reasons for desiring or assuming common false reasons for desiring or assuming a call to the pastoral office.

3:19 And I use the word false in one of the senses in which it appears in any standard English dictionary, incorrect, mistaken, or based on wrong or mistaken ideas, we speak of a man. His pride is rooted in a total misconception of reality. It's real pride based upon real conceptions, but they are erroneous, mistaken conceptions. So we are speaking of common false reasons.

God Alone Knows the Heart: The Example of Matthias's Selection

3:55 Reasons based on mistaken ideas for one assuming or desiring desiring or assuming a call to the pastoral office. office. Now, as I have sought to observe, discuss this matter with others, read, and have wrestled with men who were agitated by the issue, it appears to me that there are at least seven categories which comprise the spectrum of false or wrong reasons why men either aspire to the office or actually believe themselves called to the office. And brethren, as we go over these, I trust we will do so with this earnest prayer familiar to all of us. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139, 23, and 24. And as I was

4:59 meditating on these matters and preparing the lecture, it struck me how it was that very fact of the knowledge that God alone knows the heart with reference to a man's call that was brought forward and focused upon in that situation in Acts chapter 1. When convinced from the scriptures that a replacement to Judas ought to be secured, and there is debate over whether or not Peter's action here was impulsive, whether Paul was to be that natural and God-ordained substitute for Judas, and that's a moot question, one open to ongoing debate, one thing is clear, that knowing the requirements and where would we be without this, that's why I'm inclined to believe that Peter was acting under the guidance of the Spirit, although God brings good out of men's sins and errors. Verse 21 of Acts 1. Of the men, therefore, that have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John unto the day that he was received up from us, of these must one become a witness with us of his resurrection. Here are

6:23 some of the non-negotiable prerequisites for the apostleship. This is just as inflexible as 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are with reference to the requirements for one who's to be an elder. Of the men, therefore, that have accompanied with us from the beginning of John until the Lord Jesus was received up, one is to be a witness, an eyewitness of his resurrection. And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsibas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias, and they prayed and said, Now isn't it interesting? Thou, Lord, not who most accurately knows the gifts and the graces and the qualifications, but thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show of these two the one whom thou hast chosen. And then they cast the lot. It was their concern that the choice be made based upon God's accurate knowledge of the heart.

7:32 And brethren, that is crucial, not only for yourselves as you bring your present disposition of varying levels of conviction with respect to your own call to the pastoral office, but whenever you are dealing with others, should God eventually clear and make plain your call by that capstone of all elements, namely a church, thinking biblically and evaluating you biblically, actually recognizing you as Christ's gift, then no little part of your pastoral ministry will be to help others who have some inclination in this direction and are going to come to you for counsel. Well, be sure that in all of your dealings with them, you have prominent in your thinking and make prominent in their thinking the element that I'm emphasizing on the threshold of taking up these common false reasons for desiring, for assuming a call to the pastoral office, namely that God alone knows the heart and God alone can help us to know our own hearts. Now, as I reworked this material from things that I gave many, many years ago, I sought to see if I could put them in categories, and I labored on categories. I said, well, some of them are more rooted errors in the heart

False Reason 1: The Pressure of a Wrongly Instructed Conscience

8:59 and some of them in the head, some of them in external pressure, and as I tried to organize them, I said, no, some of them don't fit in either category, they overlap. I said, well, maybe I can put them in the category of ignorance, bad teaching, and an unsound heart. Those are good categories, but I couldn't make them fit, and so I finally gave up, and I said, I'm just going to call them the spectrum of the seven most common false reasons for desiring or assuming a call to the pastoral office, and the only real significance in the order is that I put the most base one at the end, the most culpable one at the end, and that's the only significance in the order. I could not organize them any other way without feeling that the organization was artificial, and therefore I jettisoned the attempt. All right, number one, the first of these false reasons, the pressure. The pressure of a wrongly instructed conscience. The pressure of a wrongly instructed conscience.

10:18 If you've only been with us a short time, you've already been made aware that in this place, in the general ministry of the Word, and in the specific and specialized ministries of the academy, great emphasis is placed on this matter of a good or a non-good. A non-accusing conscience. If there's one thing that I hope we are remembered for, it is not only our commitment to the centrality of Christ in the proclamation of the Word, our commitment to the regulative principle in worship, etc., but with our view of the Christian life, that the maintenance of a good conscience lies at the very nerve centers of healthy, vigorous, biblical piety. Acts 24.16 is one of our most frequently quoted texts. Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense to God and man. And you've been told more than once in this place,

11:27 in my classes, and I'm sure in others, that the first step into mental errors is never a mental lapse. It is a lapse in the realm of conscience. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man.

11:40 That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man.

11:40 That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man.

11:40 That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man. That is, in obeying the dictates of God and man.

12:10 that emphasis. However, the Bible does make it clear that sin has so affected the totality of what we are, and that remaining sin is so active in all the departments of our redeemed humanity, that though the claims of conscience are always supreme, they are not always accurate, let alone infallible. So, if you're writing down anything, put down the claims of conscience are always supreme, but the voice of conscience is not always accurate, let alone infallible.

12:57 Now, if this were not so, you could make no sense of such passages as these that are dealing with the matter of the conscience of the people of God. Romans 14.23, He that doubts not of the conscience of the people of God. This is condemned if he eat, because he eats not of faith. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

13:20 And he's referring to someone doing something that is not sin in itself, but in the theater of his own weak conscience it is sin. Therefore, if he does not recognize that the claims of conscience are supreme, I must not violate conscience. At the same time, Paul is indicating in his text that sin is not a sin. He's referring to someone doing something that is not sin. He's referring to someone doing something that is not sin. He's referring to someone who eats.

13:43 In this very section, that the voice of conscience is not always accurate, let alone infallible, though its claims are supreme. 1 Corinthians 8, verses 4 to 7 and verse 12.

13:59 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verses 4 to 7. Concerning, therefore, the eating of things, sacrifice to idols, we know, this is reality, that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no God but one. though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are gods many and lords many in terms of the name and the titles being given, yet to us, those of us in touch with reality, there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him. How be it? There is not in all men that knowledge, but some, being accustomed until now to the idol, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. You see, they have not yet learned that an idol is nothing, and therefore meat that was dedicated to an idol is meat dedicated to nothing, so the meat is still just plain meat. It has no organic, living, spiritual affinity with the idol, because the idol is nothing. Join something to nothing, and you've still got just something, not something plus, something else.

15:17 Ten plus zero equals ten. Seventeen million seven hundred and seventy-seven thousand one hundred and twenty-three plus nothing equals the same number. So Paul is saying, now this is reality. In God's mathematics, that's reality. However, here's a man who, in his mind, his whole lifetime, he was taught that once the meat was dedicated to the idol, he fellowshiped with that idol when he partook of that meat. And though he's now a Christian, his conscience is imperfectly sanctified by the light of reality. So what happens? Against the dictates of conscience, he partakes of that meat, and he now has a defiled conscience. He's made a moral judgment that according to his present

16:06 light is thin. Now he goes on to say, but food will not commend us to God, and neither, if we eat, are we the worst, nor if we eat, are we the better. But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak. For if a man see you who have knowledge sitting at meat in an idol's temple, will his, not his, conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? And then he goes on to show the horrible consequences. Now he says their conscience is weak. It's not speaking accurately. It's not speaking according to reality. But if your actions, cause a man to act contrary to those claims of conscience that are supreme, even when the voice of conscience is inaccurate and fallible, you're not walking in love. You should be willing to

16:59 forego what your knowledge of reality tells you in order that you might not cause your weaker brother to offend. Now what's the great principle in all of that as it applies to this subject? Well, the principle is, that a conscience, just as surely as it can be inadequately instructed with reference to meat having been offered to an idol, so likewise the conscience of a man, young or old, can be falsely instructed with reference to, quote, full-time Christian service in general, or the call to the pastoral office in particular. And there are literally thousands, if not millions, reared in the orbit of evangelical Bible-believing churches where there is a wrong and an erroneous teaching with reference to this whole matter of, quote, call to full-time service. And so just as the conscience of a little bit of a little child growing up in such a church which also teaches that certain things are intrinsically

18:23 and inherently evil, and as the conscience of that child could not think of ever darkening the door of any kind of a commercial motion picture theater to see something that even the Lord Jesus would see publicly, their conscience tells them, I cannot, and it would be a sin for them ever to plunk down whatever it costs to go to a motion picture theater. I don't know, it's been so long since I've been to one. So likewise, they were brought up in a context where all the preaching and the annual missionary conferences and all the youth ministries set forth this standard that if you really come to love the Lord and follow Him fully, you'll present yourself as a candidate for full-time service. And if you still maintain that dedication you made in your early teens when you walked the aisle at one of the missionary conferences, or you threw your faggot into the fire at a campsite service and dedicated yourself to full-time Christian service, then you will eventually go off to Bible school, and while you're at Bible school, you have the missionaries coming into chapel and saying that you must go, because the

19:48 mission is generic, and if you don't go, then you are sinning against God, the burden of proof rests upon you to prove you should not go, and then all the statistics are paraded of every 100 candidates of people who submit to the call for the ministry and missions, only 5% actually end up in the ministry, and after so many years, and all of this is doing what? It is wrongly conditioning the conscience of a pliable, sensitive young man or woman. But it is conditioning the conscience. And what happens then?

20:24 Well, without any perverse or unmortified carnal ambition at work, that young man or woman feels the pressure of this wrongly instructed conscience predisposing him or her to do anything possible to convince himself or herself that there ought to be an avenue into full-time Christian ministry, and if it's in our circles, then, of course, it would be young men seeking the pastoral office, or if they were convinced, alas, as so often is true, that they just couldn't make it in the pastoral office, then they'll take second best in terms of gifts and apply to the mission field. You see, it sort of balances itself out. For sacrifice and love to Christ, going to the mission field is number one, and the pastorate's number two. But for gifts, pastorate's number one and mission field's number two.

21:31 Now, that's not a caricature, is it? Those of you who've been in the circles I've been in, a lot of you are shaking your heads. That's the way it's presented. Now, you get the conscience of a pliable young person who's had that pressure put upon him, all during his formative years, and is it surprising that there are many people who, quote, feel that God is leading them into the ministry?

21:54 But that is an absolutely wrong foundation on which to build, the pressure of a wrongly instructed conscience. And when dealing with such people, we must seek to instruct the conscience by the light of God's truth. And how I've seen people set free, and seen before my eyes the fulfillment of the words of Jesus, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And to instruct their conscience that all that pressure they have felt was not the pressure of the word of God properly understood, but it was the pressure of a distorted view of this whole matter of what constitutes service, and who should serve in what capacity. All right? That's the first major, false, reason for aspiring or assuming a call to the pastoral office, the pressure of a falsely instructed conscience. Secondly, the pressure of the unwise and sometimes unsanctified ambition of other people.

False Reason 2: The Unwise or Unsanctified Ambition of Others

23:14 The pressure of the unwise and sometimes unsanctified ambition of other people. See, usually, one error begets another. Error is very, very fecund. That's an old word for fruitful.

23:37 F-E-C-U-N-D. I first came across it in reading Matthew Henry, on a commentary dealing with contentment. And he was applying, as he often does, and he says, the barren woman complains of her barren womb, and the woman blessed with great fecundity complains of her many children. she had a fruitful womb and he called it fecundity and i said what in the world is that and lo and behold i found the dictionary that contained it so what happens well this error often is the first child of the previous area there are mothers and fathers who were given a bad conscience regarding full-time service and all of their efforts to pursue it were frustrated until by god's providence they had to just be quote ordinary layman working in a good bible believing church but they feel inwardly guilty that they never did go into full-time work so you know what they did when god began to give them children from the womb they dedicated their children to the ministry and to god's service and in their minds you see the apex of that service was pastorate or the mission field i know you

24:58 a mother and so i'm not talking in abstractions i can think of the situation now and it grieves me every time i do because the horrible horrible scenario that continues to spill out of this false teaching where a mother reared her daughter with the very understanding that i'm rearing you to be a missionary not rearing you as i preached last week so that should it become evident that god's hand is upon you you are not inordinately tied to things that you cannot go and serve christ wherever he would have you serve him that's legitimate but taking that precious child and as the child is emerging into his own identity by the time he's 10 years old every time he looks in the mirror because the parent has a way of psychologically writing it backwards on the forehead every time the person looks in the mirror and sees himself he sees missionary written across his own forehead and it becomes part of the fabric of his own sense of his identity missionary preacher full-time service and he can no more think of his identity without that written across his forehead than he can think of his identity without

26:21 the color of his hair the shape of his nose or the width of his shoulders and what happens well this pressure of the unwise ambition of those parents is that which brings that person on the threshold of his manhood to feel i must pursue the ministry until such time as god makes it very plain that that's not his will for me now the unsanctified ambition comes through more not with parents but with pastors so the word unwise applies to that parental scenario the unsanctified applies to this ministerial scenario pastors who get a sense of triumphalistic accomplishment in talking about how many of their young people are in bible school or seminary how many young people under their ministry went into quote full-time service i've had them stand in my presence and brag you know with an air of humility well i'm not going to do that well god's been good to us 34 young people in bible school and seminary and in the past 15 years

27:42 17 of them were praised you almost feel them swelling this is the validation that their ministry is producing what really dedicated people you see how one error gives birth to another because they've set up a false standard in their own mind and the validation of their ministry is how many people make it to the top of pike's peak if pike's peak is going to be the top of pike's peak they couldn't make it to the ministry or the mission field then the proof that your ministry is carrying people to the apex of spirituality you've got 34 who were climbing pike's peak you don't have just little common peasants walking around down at the base just doing the will of god they're big heroes climbing pike's peak you see and it's part of that false conscience coming out now in another sick and horribly distorted way woe be unto the young man who grows up under such a ministry with bonds of genuine affection and respect for a man of god i'm not talking about a charlatan now i'm talking about someone who's been an instrument in god's hands in that young man's salvation and maybe in sparing him from tragic mistakes along the way he's been a real pastor and he wants to please him and that's a

29:04 perfectly legitimate thing this idea that people want to please their elders that's a carnal idolatry that's nonsense paul laid out that motive right on the table he says you want to fulfill my joy then be of the same mind in the lord make me happy please me make me happy that's a legitimate motive and it's legitimate to bring it forward in your preaching and it's right that a young man should want to please his pastor as well as please his mom and please his dad but what's happened he is now sacrificed upon the altar of that preacher's unsightly sanctified desire to cut another notch in his rifle and to put another star as it were on his sheet of how many people he got to pike's peak now beware of this brethren if you sat under such a ministry ask god to search into the depths of your being to make sure that none of that has pushed you into this academy these men will pursue a call or even try to convince themselves they are called based on succumbing to this pressure or in the case of their parents out of a desire to show love to their dear parents and not to break their heart and make them go to their grave feeling they

False Reason 3: An Unbalanced Concept of Spirituality

30:28 failed in the very purpose for which they labored in the molding of that son or daughter but then you beware of these things in your own ministry and when you're dealing with others probe in this area to make sure that it has not been the pressure of unwise or unsanctified ambition in other people that has brought them to aspire to or be convinced they are called to the pastoral office all right a third false reason for pursuing or assuming a call to the pastoral office is what i'm calling the presence of an unbalanced and unbiblical concept of spirituality the presence of an unbalanced and unbiblical concept of spirituality now as i've tried to analyze this i believe this is how it gets put together i don't claim infallibility in my judgment but i lay it out for you to consider as a possible explanation because the bible does speak of the relative worth of various gifts first Corinthians 14

31:55 seek the what greater gifts he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues except the interpreter there are in the scriptures a description of the relative worth of certain gifts for ministry exegetically i don't see anyone can get around that now because it is clear that in the exercise of certain public gifts, men and women are more visibly useful, the assumption is made that they must therefore be more spiritually minded. Who appears visibly most useful in the lives of others but those who are ministering the word of God, shepherding the flock of God? So an assumption is made that because of gift and usefulness there is more extensive influence for Christ

33:06 than the apex of spirituality must somehow be tied to the circumference of a certain kind of ministry and service, so that the most spiritually minded will naturally desire a certain kind of ministry and service. To be in the framework of the most spiritually useful. Now this notion has absolutely no footing in the word of God, and while it would not be in the best interest of the use of my time to give what I would call a thorough refutation of it, I rest my case on one passage alone, and this is only a specimen passage, or really two, and I refer you to Romans chapter 12, because there true spirituality and sober assessment of gifts are the subjects that are brought into the closest proximity. That's why I like the passage. Having fully expounded the full scope of the revelation of redemptive mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ, and even how that mercy will cut a channel dispensationally and nationally and ethically

34:33 with respect to Jew and Gentile, Paul closes that marvelous treatment in Romans with that great doxology of praise, oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, etc. Now having done that, he then turns to what is evidently going to be now what we would call the densely hortatory or the practical or applicatory section of the epistemology, and he says in chapter 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, the generic term for all of God's people, by the mercies of God, in the light of this great effusion of saving mercy in the Lord Jesus, to present your bodies, the totality of your redeemed humanity, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual or rational or reasonable, service, and be not fashioned according to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you, all of you as brethren, may prove, that is, work out and put to the test and validate

35:48 in your own experience what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Then he says, 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 is to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. And then he speaks of our having being one body, but different members, and then he isolates and identifies some of the gifts that will be discerned by sober self-assessment. Now, the point I want to make is this. Does he give the slightest hint? That the discovery in an orbit of sober self-assessment, of gifts, of prophecy, or of teaching, are in any way to be identified with a superior level of spirituality above the gift of giving, ruling, or showing mercy. There's absolutely no hint of it in the passage. True spirituality is found in the extent of the gift of giving, ruling, or showing mercy.

37:05 To which the individual believer lives in the realm of verses 1 and 2. True spirituality is found to the extent that a person lives in the orbit of Romans 12, 1 and 2, constantly in loving gratitude and response to divine mercy, acknowledging, I'm not my own, I'm bought with a price. And under the increasing transformation of mind by means of the true truth of God, I am working out and proving in my sphere of divine appointment what is the good and the perfect will of God. That's true spirituality. Whether that is done as a woman cares for her little ones in the home, whether it's done as a man labors with his hands at a workbench, or whether he's bent over his Greek text preparing a sermon for Sunday morning in terms of spirituality, the measure of our spirituality is bounded by those generic principles of Romans 12, 1 and 2, not by where obedience to verse 3 may land us as to the assessment of our gifts

38:28 and our place in the body. It has nothing necessarily to do with true spirituality. To put it bluntly and by a graphically, some of the most truly spiritual people I have ever met, males and females,

38:51 never had one inkling of desire for and would evidence that they have no competence for any kind of special public ministry. And some of the most unspiritual people I've ever met are those who have a reverend in front of their name and are called pastor. But you see, if people have imbibed this false concept of spirituality, what happens? Well, they mix up this desire to be, in the language of McShane, as holy as a redeemed man can be this side of heaven with somehow ending up in the pastoral office. That is the apex of spirituality. And therefore, they can't do what verse 3 says. They can't make a sober assessment because their heads are all screwed up with this false concept of spirituality. Whereas, second passage, when true spirituality is commented upon in a passage that even uses the terminology, be ye being filled with the Holy Spirit, what are the channels that true spirituality cuts? Well, when you read Ephesians 5, the channels have nothing to do with our spirit.

40:16 five the channels have nothing to do with our sphere of service nothing whatsoever to do with our sphere of service be being filled with the holy spirit and then you have this string of participles speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing making melody with your heart to the lord those things have to do with the internal state of the heart that is truly spiritual it is essentially joyful and thankful rejoicing in god and his salvation able next participle giving thanks for all things in the name of the lord jesus christ and then interestingly the last one subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of christ true spirituality is found in the state of the heart in relationship to god to the circumstances in which my find myself and in how i relate to my brethren and then he goes on to amplify wives you want to be spiritual here's how you do it husbands you want to be spiritual here's how you do it not drop your tools and go into the ministry start learning to love your wife as christ loved the church slaves you want to be spiritual don't go begging your master to let you loose so you can go off to the third bible school of of antioch no you

41:45 just do your work is unto the lord with singleness of heart knowing that you receive the reward from that lord that's true spirituality so by way of application brethren i say do not in your ministries create a climate in which your people assume that spiritual vigor and stature and specific gifts and offices are co-extensive don't create a climate in which your people assume that spiritual vigor and stature and specific gifts and offices are co-extensive rather remind them that some of the most gifted and useful ministers will roast in hell matthew 7 21 and 22 not everyone who says unto me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven for i say unto you that many shall say in that day lord lord have we not preached in your name the prayer that you will you receive the law that you receive the words that you will now speak and prayer that will use your intentions which shall honour you and you shall be partners with God the empresa in heaven and Mars earth μας strongest pulpit surat Courtes customer official self-illary service structure name and in your name done many mighty works cast out demons and i will say unto them depart from me i never knew you you workers of iniquity tell your people that that some of the best and most

43:08 successful preachers are going to roast in hell and that some of the most godly spiritual people that ever lived their true worth will only be known when the lord gathers the nations before him and that's why i love matthew 25 and then he tells truly spiritually minded people what they did as they were full of the spirit and so self-forgetful were they they said lord when did we see you sick and visit you when did we see you in prison and come to you when were you naked and we clothed you lord your claims we want to don't want to be disrespectful to the judge of the universe but lord we don't know what you're talking about we were just so busy lord just respond into common ordinary needs of our brethren he says yes in as much as you've done it unto the least of these my little ones you've done it unto me so brethren if there are any seeds of this in your own mind and heart pray god to root them out and as you seek to enter into a loving pastoral ministry to your people as you seek to enter into a loving pastoral ministry with your people you may find some who come to you

False Reason 4: Inaccurate Assessment of Self and Gifts (Part 1: Pride)

44:29 uninfluenced by this error all right now we come to number four the fourth false reason for aspiring to or assuming one's call into the pastoral office is what i'm calling an inaccurate assessment of ourselves and of our gifts an inaccurate assessment of ourselves and of our gifts and now of course we come back to romans 12 and verse 3 responsibility laid upon every one of us not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but so to think as to think soberly according as god has dealt to each man the measure of faith one has written in commenting upon this text and i quote sober thinking neither exaggerates nor depreciates depreciates such as the measure of faith which is the measure of faith which is the as god has bestowed sober thinking neither exaggerates nor depreciates such gifts as god

45:50 has bestowed and therefore an accurate or sober assessment of ourselves and of our gifts will result in neither exaggerating nor depreciating the gifts god has bestowed the assessment will be according to the reality of what god has done doesn't come in too high doesn't come in too low now the inaccurate assessment of men is generally rooted in these three major things or these are the three major reasons why people make inaccurate assessments of themselves and of their gifts number one is the horrible devilish sin of pride pride distorts a man's judgment about himself like those crazy mirrors in the fun house distort your physical image to yourself you've been in front of the crazy mirrors you look in and you say that's me colored trousers

47:13 and shirt but to me you're looking at maybe about four feet wide in the middle maybe shaped like a figure s or maybe ten feet tall and skinny as a rail and you say that's me i mean it's got all the marks of me but it's you totally distorted from reality and if you attempt to look at yourself with sober judgment in a context of unmortified pride pride will take all of the judgmental faculty and the judgmental faculty and the judgmental faculty and the judgmental of the soul and turn them into a house of mirrors so that everywhere you look what you see is you but it's not you it's you distorted by the mirrors of your own unmortified pride that's why you remember dabney said i would say to every aspirant that he pray that the holy spirit will mortify pride in his heart and then come to first timothy and say i would say to every aspirant that he pray that the holy spirit will mortify pride in his heart and then come to first timothy three and titus one

48:31 with judgment day honesty brethren what can i say but to beg of you to cry to god if there is any of that that has woven itself into the texture of your own assessment that god by his spirit will localize it and cauterize it consume it tear it out from the fabric of your soul that you may do what romans 12 3 says and in the ministry you won't be in the ministry long before you'll have someone coming expressing his conviction that he's being called to the ministry and he has not yet been marked as one who is evidently excelling in the grace of humility until he does you better discourage him remember the reason why a novice a recent convert is not to be recognized because of all the reasons that could be given he hasn't walked with god long enough to be recognized he hasn't walked with god long enough and known his own heart deeply enough to be humbled and therefore he's puffed up with pride and falls to the condemnation of the devil the second reason for inaccurate assessment of ourselves and our gifts is ignorance ignorance and in our day in our day because there is so

False Reason 4: Inaccurate Assessment of Self and Gifts (Part 2: Ignorance and Unwillingness to Seek Counsel)

49:54 little real preaching so little wise oversight so little men who exemplify a biblical standard of ministry men are simply ignorant of what a modicum of teaching gift involves what a modicum of the gift of utterance involves what a modicum of a blameless godly mature christian life involves and they're ignorant ignorant of their bibles and ignorant of viable models that express the standard of the bible not perfect models i said viable models and while i trust that by the grace of god that is not true in this place that with all of our frequently confessed sins and failures and all of our frequently acknowledged areas where we want to be better men better teachers better preachers better shepherds in this context here such ignorance can only be willful ignorance culpable ignorance but there are many who really have never heard real preaching they've never heard responses of a well-structured, solid biblical teaching. They've never been close to someone walking in

51:18 the fear of God, walking with a blameless conscience that's real, genuine, earnest, honest, vulnerable. And you'll get such people coming to you thinking that they are indeed being called to the work of the ministry, but their thinking grows out of ignorance, which unfits them to make an accurate assessment of themselves and of their gifts. And it's going to be your very unpleasant but responsible task to help replace their ignorance with biblical knowledge. But then the third, and some might put this under pride, but there could be other reasons for it. So I want to put it as a third major reason for this inaccurate assessment of ourselves and our gifts, an unwillingness to seek and heed wise, godly counsel. An unwillingness to seek and heed wise, godly counsel. Now, if Solomon did not see a lot

52:42 of strong-willed, bull-headed people in his day, why in the world did he say so much in the book of Proverbs about the person who would not listen to counsel and would not heed reproof and would not receive correction? I mean, one can hardly read a chapter in Proverbs, particularly from chapter 10 onward, without being struck with it. I've been, obviously, these past days reading a proverb in terms of the day of the month, chapter 12. Whoso loves correction loves knowledge, but he that hates reproof is brutish. That's pretty straight language, isn't it? Verse 15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. I am called. I've gone through Romans 12, 3, and I'm convinced. That's the beginning, middle, and end of it. The

53:38 sun of reality and accurate assessment rises and sets on my fair head, and there's no sunlight left to rest upon the heavens. head of any other person. The way of a fool is right in his own wise, but he that is wise hearkens unto counsel. Chapter 13, a wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer hears not rebuke. I mean, you just go on through and you find it on chapter after chapter after chapter. Spurgeon obviously witnessed this in his own day, and you read, if you read the chapter on his call to the ministry, these words, but I think we do well to hear them again, or having read them to hear them on page 29. We must, however, do much more than put it to our own conscience in judgment, for we are poor judges. A certain class of brethren have a great facility for discovering the truth.

54:46 They have been very wonderfully and divinely helped in their declamations. I should envy them for their glorious liberty and self-complacency, if there were any ground for it. For alas, I very frequently have to bemoan and mourn over my non-success and shortcomings as a preacher. There's not much dependence to be placed upon our own opinions, but much may be learned from judicious, spiritually-minded people. It is by my own conscience that I have been able to understand the truth. I have been able to understand the truth. I have been able to understand the truth. By no means a law which ought to bind all persons, but it is still a good old custom in many of our country churches for the young man who aspires to the ministry to preach before the church. It can hardly ever be a very pleasant ordeal for the youthful aspirant, and in many

55:32 cases it will scarcely be a very edifying exercise for the people. But still it may prove a most salutary piece of discipline and save the public exposure of rampant ignorance. save the public exposure of rampant ignorance and then he goes on to give a quote from the church records of one of the churches there in england in his day considerable weight is to be given to the judgment of men and women who live near to god and in most instances their verdict will not be a mistaken one yet this appeal is not final nor infallible and is only to be estimated in proportion to the intelligence and piety of those consulted so what terms did i use seeking the counsel of wise and godly people some people are wise but not godly some are godly and not wise in their godliness they're all gush and they see anyone aspiring to the ministry they're just so happy that someone would even want to be a preacher they just would get behind you that dear old saint and she'd be ready to empty out her widow's mite to help get you through the academy you , she's godly but she's not wise in this matter so seeking out the counsel of wise and godly people and you will have people that come not to really seek your counsel you will have the

56:59 unpleasant task of telling them at the end of your session well dear john henry pete whatever his name is you really didn't come to seek my counsel you came to get confirmation of your own previous conclusions and i'll be a prophet and tell you that since i have not confirmed your previous conclusions you're going to run somewhere else and find someone who will and then i will be a naughty person in your books because i haven't gone with the flow and you've got to tell some people that all you'll get for it is slander and disaffection that's all right you're going to the day of judgment when you're going to answer to god for anyone you encourage to pursue the work of the ministry and if you pursued someone in a context in which it was evident that they were guilty of the ministry of god and they were guilty of gross inaccurate assessment of themselves god will hold you partly responsible for the plague of such a person entering the ministry so we must cry to god to remove these things from our own hearts and then seek graciously to help others who are wrestling with this question well the hour has gone let's break here and then we'll take up five six and seven