Desire for the Office, Spiritual Character

Introduction: Four Elements of a Biblical Call

0:01 The following lecture is part of the Pastoral Theology course given at the Trinity Ministerial Academy in Montville, New Jersey. Now we return this morning, brethren, to this very vital theme of the essential elements of a biblical call to the pastoral office. And in our first two sessions, I attempted to demonstrate the biblical warrant for addressing the subject, as well as some of my own personal fears in addressing it. And we then proceeded to cover the first three Roman numerals under this subject.

0:41 Roman numeral I, the foundational principles which ought to regulate our thinking and judgment in this matter. Secondly, the fundamental errors regarding what constitutes a call, considered particularly from a historical standpoint, and then in our last time together, Roman numeral III, the false reasons for assuming or aspiring after a call to the pastoral office. Now today, we begin to consider those things which comprise a biblical call to the pastoral office and ministry. And in terms of my present understanding of these things, and the teaching of the word of God on the subject, it seems to me, that there are four major elements that comprise a biblical call to the pastoral office.

1:42 And let me just name them in brief, and then we'll take them up, getting God willing to the first two, or getting through the first two this morning. Desire, graces, gifts, and then I'm not sure what word I'm going to use for number four yet, recognition, or validation, or I may end up using both. So let's stick with recognition for now. Desire, graces, gifts, and recognition.

2:14 So the four elements will be Roman numeral number four. We dealt with our introductory principles, and we dealt very briefly with the wrong perspective on this, and we dealt with false motives. And now number four, the elements of, a true biblical call, and the first of these is a desire for the work. A desire for the work, large B will be graces, large C will be gifts, large D will be recognition or validation.

The Necessity and Legitimacy of Desire for the Work

2:56 Now, as we take up the subject of a desire for the work, I want to say four things. We'll have four headings under A. Number one, the necessity and legitimacy of this desire. The necessity and legitimacy of this desire.

3:17 And some of this material ought to be fresh in your minds, though I want to amplify what was said on Academy Night two weeks ago, as well as perhaps say some other things to supplement what was set before us. In 1 Timothy 3.1, we have one of those five faithful sayings found in the pastoral epistles. And 1 Timothy 3.1 reads in our old ASV, faithful is the saying, if a man seeks the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. And I'm going to use as a more accurate translation, the one given by Lenski, if anyone desires overseership, for you have a noun, if anyone desires overseership, he desires an excellent task. And I believe that translation most accurately represents the thought of the original. If anyone desires overseership,

4:29 he desires an excellent task. Now, it is clear that several things are assumed in this trustworthy saying. And I want us to look at some of them. The first is that desire ordinarily precedes and attends recognition for the work of the ministry.

4:59 Desire ordinarily precedes and attends recognition for the work of the ministry. This faithful saying would never have come into being as one of those sanctified verbal cliches in the early church had not most of those who ended up in the office of oversight found themselves possessed of a desire that paved the way into that office and attended their assumption of the office. And so as we seek to flesh out this matter of the necessity and legitimacy of the desire, we learn from this text that in the apostolic period and under the guidance of apostolic thought, thought, and influence desire ordinarily preceded and attended recognition to the work. Furthermore, we can say based upon this text that the desire is to be strong and prevailing as opposed to weak and intermittent.

6:22 The desire is to be strong and prevailing as opposed to weak. And I say that based upon two things, the meaning of the two verbs and the tenses of the two verbs. You have a present indicative of oregomai, which means to be eager for, to stretch after, to long for, and a present indicative of epithumeo, to lust or to long for. And I say that based upon two things, the meaning of the two verbs and the tenses of the two verbs.

7:03 And it is often translated that way throughout the New Testament. So both of these words, oregomai and epithumeo, are words which speak of a strong as opposed to a weak desire.

7:23 A man stretching out after something and lusting and longing for something is possessed of strong desires, whether legitimate or illegitimate. Whether the objects are virtuous or vicious, the disposition of heart described by oregomai and epithumeo are strong dispositions and desires. And the fact that they are both present tense verbs, faithful is the saying, if a man is seeking overseership, he is lustful. If a man is seeking overseership, he is lusting and coveting an excellent task.

8:13 And so as we seek to examine our own hearts and we deal with others, we must seek to help them as well as seek to know our own hearts in this matter with respect to whether or not this desire has become a strong and a prevailing desire as opposed to a weak and illegitimate desire. A weak and intermittent desire. And often I've found it helpful in asking people when you are in your most healthy spiritual state, when you are being most consistent in your devotional life, most consistent in keeping a good conscience before God, in the fulfilling of your God-given duties, do you find the desire increasing or decreasing increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state?

9:07 increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state?

9:11 increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state?

9:15 increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state?

9:19 increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state?

9:23 increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? increasing or decreasing in your highest spiritual state? to a man's place and function in his church so ordinarily the desire precedes and attends recognition the second thing we say about that desire is it is to be strong and prevailing as opposed to weak and intermittent and then thirdly we see that this desire is to focus upon the work if anyone desires overseership and that noun refers to a particular task he desires an excellent task so you see the focus then is not upon any attendance to the work that may bring apparent glory or may bring prominence or may form a platform upon which to parade oneself in a carnal way the desire is to focus upon the work if anyone desires overseership he desires an excellent task now that means of course and

10:45 I will say more about this later under another heading that one's exposure to the work of the Lord is to be strong and prevailing as opposed to weak and intermittent and then that noun refers to a particular task he desires an excellent task now that means of course and I may form a platform upon which to parade oneself in a carnal way the desire is to focus upon the work of the ministry must to some degree be realistic as opposed to romantic for how can a man know if he's desiring the work if he has no proper conception of the work you cannot desire an unknown commodity or if you do your desire is ill-founded and then the fourth thing we see with respect to this desire such a desire is both discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and discerning and

12:00 Concerning in himself a growing desire for the task was not made to feel that he was guilty of carnal ambition, that he was a budding gaiotrophies. He was made to feel that that which was beginning to be born within his breast was a noble and an excellent thing in the sight of God. And the final thing I want to say about this necessity and legitimacy of this desire is that without this desire leading a man's way into the ministry, one of the specific characteristics of exercising oversight will be missing.

12:50 One of the specific characteristics of exercising oversight will be missing. And, of course, I'm referring to 1 Peter 5. And verse 2, where Peter charges the elders to shepherd the flock of God among them, exercising the oversight. And then we have those three negative and positive, not of constraint but willingly according to the will of God, nor yet for filthy lucre but of a ready mind.

13:22 Neither is lording it over the charge but making yourself examples. The first one addressed is not of constraint. Not of constraint but willingly, as one has said, not like a man who is drafted into the army, but one who freely and joyfully volunteers for military service. Now, I don't see how it is possible to read a passage like that, to be in the office of an elder, and come away with a good conscience if desire has not been present.

14:01 Leading into the position of a pastor. Shepherd the flock, not of constraint. Whatever that constraint may be, whether it was the voice of well-meaning people, whether it was the consensus of one's church, all of those things that may contribute. Yet, if there is not an internal desire within the breast of a man.

14:30 When I say I do not know how, he can fulfill this requirement of exercising biblical oversight. So under the desire for the work, the first thing we've addressed is the necessity and legitimacy of this desire. Now, I have deliberately tried to keep from using adjectives with the word desire. Maybe you've noticed that.

15:02 I didn't say strong desire. I didn't say overwhelming desire. I didn't say consuming desire. Because once you start using words like that, then you put people on the subjective treadmill.

15:15 And I'm going to go as far as the Bible goes. And it uses words which in themselves can only be defined in terms of a desire raised to some level of intensity and intensity. In consciousness, but to go beyond an attempt to give an accurate conveyance of the meaning of the original words, I will not embellish this thing with other adjectives or other descriptions. I'll let the word of God stand on its own two feet, underscoring the necessity and legitimacy of desire.

The Focus of the Desire: Self-Denying Service, Evangelism, and Stewardship

15:54 And I have simply tried to describe and define that desire. And it's a concept. It's a concept of accompaniments as it is found in the text of Scripture before us. But then, secondly, we're going to look at the focus of this desire.

16:13 The focus of this desire. Since the desire and sanctified lusting is for the good work or the excellent task of overseership, or, to put it in the verbal form, of overseeing and shepherding, or, to use the language of 1 Timothy 3.5, taking care of the church of God, what should its focus be?

16:47 Well, let me suggest that it ought to have three foci. That's the plural of focus. Not focuses, but foci.

16:57 If you don't want to use the plural in the Latin, you can put three points of focus. All right?

17:04 There's always a way out. There's always a way out of those things if you think hard enough.

17:09 All right, number one. A longing to be used in self-denying service to edify the people of God. A longing to be used in self-denying service to edify the people of God.

17:39 Now, why are pastors and teachers given by the ascended Christ? Well, according to Ephesians 4, Acts 20, 1 Peter 5, 2, is it not for the equipping of the saints unto the work of service, Ephesians 4, to see the saints stabilized, Ephesians 4, 14, to see them come to maturation? Is it not in the language of Acts 20 that they may be cared for, particularly protected from wolves and perverse men? Is it not in the language of Hebrews 13, 17 to have people that will consciously watch for their souls with a sense of divine accountability?

18:31 Well, if that is the very essence of the work of a divinely equipped and divinely given gift of a pastor-teacher to the church, then surely the focus, if it is a spirit-wrought desire, and the spirit always works by and with the truth, it will have as one of its points of focus a longing to be used to edify the people of God. I will have a longing for the very end for which the ministry was instituted. And I've used the term a longing to be used in self-denying service to edify the people of God because there is no Christ-like biblical path to edifying God's people but that of self-denying service.

19:33 The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many.

19:46 We come back to that whole emphasis that I tried to give you today. I try to underscore when we deal with the task of oversight in a very focused way that in a very real sense the work of the ministry is a perpetual diaconal service.

20:04 We are to follow the path of our Lord Himself who takes the place of the servant in ministering to the needs of His people. And when you find your heart more and more possessed with the thought that I would count it a privilege in biblical language to spend and be spent that God's people might be more like Christ, might be more and more stable in their understanding of His truth and of His ways and come to greater maturation individually and corporately. And you have reason to believe your desire is a noble, spirit-wrought desire. When you find yourself on the one hand wanting to run from the thought of peculiar accountability for any one soul but your own, it seems as though that is enough for any one man to be accountable for his own soul. And yet in spite of the dread and the fear, you find yourself more and more possessed of a longing to be used to edify God's people even with that added dimension of awesome responsibility that will cause you to watch for their souls as one that shall give an account. Then you have reason to believe that that desire is born

21:34 of God's Spirit working in your heart. But then the focus of desire will also be, secondly, a longing to be used in Spirit-filled ministry to call out, God's elect.

21:56 Not only a longing to be used in self-denying service to edify God's people, but a longing to be used in Spirit-filled ministry, public and private, to call out God's elect.

22:15 You are convinced, I trust, even though you may not have covered those sections where the biblical data which underpin that conviction have been highlighted I trust you are convinced that God's main instrument for the calling out of His elect is the proclamation of the gospel by those who are sent, duly recognized, duly commissioned servants of Christ. How shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? How shall they believe without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?

22:56 And two times, two texts that ought to loom large in the thinking of anyone seeking to assess the purity, the validity of his desire for the work of the ministry are 2 Timothy 2 and verse 10 is the first. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. With eternal glory. And in the context what he was enduring was the humiliation of being in chains.

23:36 He was bound as a common malefactor as he says in verse 9 wherein I suffer hardship unto bonds as a malefactor but the word of God is not bound but he's not having a pity party. He says I endure all things for the elect's sake that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. With eternal glory. And here we see that beautiful balance in the apostle convinced that God had a fixed number of his elect.

24:08 He was also equally convinced that they would be called out by human instrumentality and human instrumentality prepared to endure all things on their behalf.

24:25 And when your desire for the ministry has as its focus not only a life of self-denying service that will edify and stabilize and make useful the people of God but will be an instrument to call out God's elect then you have reason to believe that that desire is indeed of God. And then the second text is in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 1 Corinthians 9 chapter 9 where the apostle says in verses 17 and following for if I do this of my own will I have a reward but if not of my own will I have a stewardship entrusted to me. What then is my reward that when I preach the gospel I may make the gospel without charge so as not to use to the full my right in the gospel for though I was free from all men I do not have the right I brought myself under bondage to all that I might gain the more to the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain Jews to them that are under the law as under the law not being myself under the law that I might gain them that are under the law to them that are without law as without law

25:53 not being without law to God but under law to Christ that I might gain them that are without law to the weak I became weak that I might gain them the weak, I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some, and I do all things for the gospel's sake, that I may be a joint partaker thereof. And here is the passion of the great apostle, that he might not only be God's instrument in the stabilizing and the maturation and equipping of the saints, and that surely was one of his great ministerial burdens, Colossians chapter 1, that he was concerned to present every man perfect in Christ. He didn't have this mentality, I just want to see the people saved, that's my task, I'm just an evangelist, I'm just a missionary, I bring them to birth, someone else brings them to maturity. No, the apostle did not have that perspective. He had all of the pastoral passions.

27:00 Of a passage like Ephesians 4, to see the saints brought to full stature in Jesus Christ, to be stable, mature, and equipped for service, and yet he never had this notion, well, my task is just to feed the sheep. Someone else is to be the one who seeks out the wandering sheep. No, we can't make that kind of a hard, fast distinction, while recognizing there are peculiar gifts given themselves. To address with greater grip and power and passion the conscience of the unconverted, I question anyone's call to the ministry that does not have woven into the very fabric of that desire for the ministry, a longing to be used by the Holy Spirit in the calling out of God's elect. And you see, it is that longing implanted by the Holy Spirit that is used in the calling out of God's elect. the Spirit of God that will continually pump into a man's pastoral ministry that element of evangelistic passion and fervor that will cause him to seize opportunities in public and private

28:17 to present the gospel to those who need it, and in the language of 2 Corinthians 5, to beg men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. And one of the most deadening kinds of ministry is a ministry that grows out of the defective understanding of this whole matter of the place of evangelistic passion and concern in the heart of one called to shepherd the sheep of Christ. He is also a sent one called to be an instrument in the hands of God to see God's elect. Brought out of darkness and into marvelous light. I'm sure you were struck with this, at least I hope you were in reading Spurgeon's essay on this whole matter of the call to the ministry. When he writes on page 32, it's a marvel to me how men continue at ease in preaching year after year without conversions. Have they no bowels of compassion for others, no sense of responsibility upon themselves? Dare they by a vain misrepresentation of divine sovereignty cast

29:35 the blame on their master? Or is it their belief that Paul plants and Apollos waters and that God gives no increase? Vain are their talents, their philosophy, their rhetoric, and even their orthodoxy without the signs following. How are they sent of God who bring no men to God?

29:56 Prophets whose words are powerless, sowers whose seed all withers, fishers who take no fish, soldiers who give no wounds. Are these God's men? Surely it were better to be a mud raker or a chimney sweep than to stand in the ministry as an utterly barren tree. And then he balances it out.

30:20 Times of drought there may be, aye, and years of leanness may consume, the former years of usefulness. But still there will be fruit in the main and fruit to the glory of God. And meanwhile, the transient barrenness will fill the soul with unutterable anguish. Brethren, if the Lord gives you no zeal for souls, keep to the lapstone or to the trowel, but avoid the pulpit as you value your heart's peace and your future salvation.

30:54 And here I commend to you, that excellent little treatise by Horatius Bonar on words to winners of souls. I don't know if anybody has it in print now. Well, that's one we're going to have to talk to David about, because I know of no book that more powerfully convinces the judgment that if the heart is set upon the salvation of souls, even though we do not see a converting work going on under our ministry, the main thesis of Bonar is, whatever the heart is set upon, it cannot relinquish without pain. And if the heart is set upon conversions, and there are no conversions, there will be pain and constant pain. And that not only is logically an inescapable deduction, it's biblical. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I testify, he said, the Holy Ghost bearing witness to the validity of my life. I testify, he said, the Holy Ghost bearing witness to the validity of my testimony. I have continual sorrow and heaviness of heart. And no little measure of that sorrow was

32:04 the relative lack of fruit among his own fellow Jews. You see it illustrated in any human relationship. Let a man really love and let the object of his love be ungained. And he doesn't say, oh, well, you'll win some and lose some and get over it in three days. Whenever I find a guy that supposedly was in love, I say, oh, well, you'll win some and lose some and get over it in three days. And he can get over the end of the relationship in three days or three weeks. I tell him, you've never loved. A man that's truly loved or a woman that's truly loved and has the relationship for one reason or another terminated experiences pain. And that pain sometimes can go on for weeks, months, or even years. And sometimes they carry it as a wound to their grave that never heals. And so the focus of this desire is not nebulous. It's not nebulous. It's not nebulous. It's not nebulous. It's not

32:56 nebulous. I've got this great overwhelming desire for the work of the ministry. It will have these points of focus, a longing to be used with self-denying service to edify God's people. Secondly, a longing to be used in spirit-filled ministry to call out God's elect. And then thirdly, a longing to discharge a God-given stewardship. And here we go back to the 1 Corinthians 9 verses 16 and 17, a longing to discharge a God-given stewardship. For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. Necessity is laid upon me. For woe is me if I preach not the

33:49 gospel. For if I do this of mine own will, I have a reward. But if not of mine own will, I have a stewardship. I have a stewardship entrusted to me. And there are times when that desire will, particularly once a man begins to get some idea of the awesomeness of the task, the one thing that will keep him from running is the growing conviction that Almighty God is laying a stewardship upon him. And woe be unto him if he does not fulfill that stewardship. And so I say a third point of focus in this desire is a longing to discharge a divine-given stewardship. And that will touch a man at all points in his ministry. There are certain parts

34:46 of the ministry which at times will be done with delight. Other times will be done with everything in your own psyche, dragging its feet. And the one thing that will drive you to do it is I have a stewardship. I often have people ask me, you enjoy traveling? I say, no. Don't you enjoy preaching to groups of preachers? I said, no. I said, if I could be my own man and make my own choices, apart from taking a holiday once in a while, I'd never leave the precincts of the ministries directly connected with Trinity Baptist Church. I believe, as best I know my heart, I could be perfectly content to do nothing but the many things growing out of the demands of the in-house ministries of this assembly.

35:31 But it's the consensus of people whose judgment I trust and of my own sober times with God that a stewardship is laid upon me which demands this wretched travel. And the only thing that keeps me involved in it is that sense of stewardship. I have a stewardship. And a steward has no right to alter the terms of his trust.

36:02 The steward is to keep the trust intact, to discharge the terms of that trust according to the will of the householder and of the master. He's not to alter it. And so this desire for the ministry then will have at least this threefold focus. And I would ask you men to perhaps even take some of your time on the Lord's Day and go back over these things and with judgment day honesty asking God to search you and know you and to try your heart. Say, Lord, is my desire in any way focused on these three things? A longing to be used in self-denying service to see God's people built up and made stable and useful, to see Christ formed in them? Is it a longing to be used in a spirit-filled ministry to call out God's elect and see sinners saved? And is it a longing to discharge?

The Ideal Context for Maturation of Desire: A Healthy Church

37:03 Is it a longing to discharge a divine given stewardship? Now, the third thing I want to say about the desire, we've looked at the necessity and legitimacy of the desire. That was number one. Number two, the focus of the desire. Now, number three, the ideal context for the maturation of this desire. The ideal context for the maturation of this desire.

37:34 When this faithful saying began to circulate, where was it circulating? Among the churches. And when Paul writes to Timothy, where was Timothy working? In the church at Ephesus. So that as people would begin to break open their hearts to Timothy, expressing some desire and inclination for overseership, the context was a viable biblically functioning church.

38:17 Now, that's crucial. So they were not aspiring to a romantic notion or to an unknown commodity.

38:31 There were already elders there in the church at Ephesus,

38:37 functioning in their role as overseers, so that others coming up in age and spiritual maturity, whom the Lord was forming, into pastors and teachers, and one of the indications of that was beginning to cause this holy desire to be born in their hearts. The context for that desire was a healthy, biblically functioning church,

39:09 where they could see what was involved in the work of oversight. It's in this very epistle that the church is called the pillar and the ground of the truth.

39:26 And this is why some of you sitting here, when you first made known your desires for the work of the ministry, the counsel you received, and it was wise counsel, was first of all get yourself into a viable, biblically functioning church. Not only that you might have your life and your gifts assessed, but that you might have a realistic perspective of what this noble task is all about. Not a romantic one drawn from Christian biography. Because in its very nature, Christian biography generally records the ministries of those few mighty, noble, and great ones whom God calls and sets apart. One or two in a generation. But most of His work is done with the rest of us nobody. Not many mighty, not many noble, but the weak and the foolish and the zeros and the despised.

40:40 Those are the ones God uses. And Christian biography, for the most part, is the record of those whom God has singularly and unusually gifted and blessed with unusual measures of usefulness and, usually, the biographer is blinded by his subject so that he doesn't see him in realistic perspective.

41:06 And furthermore, it would simply generally not be unto edification to give a fully realistic view and fill up pages with such things as what happens when a great man of God who preaches to thousands and you'd think people were converted every time he preached, does no good to fill up pages with weeks when his own soul was barren, his ministry was barren, when perhaps he was unusually sick and all he did was spend his time in bed and running to the john with dysentery and the rest. That'll all be passed over in a paragraph.

41:51 But you need to see real worn-out elders with circles under their eyes and find them occasionally and that's not happened more than probably half a dozen times in 27 years of ministry, so tired they can't even come to a prayer meeting for fear of falling out of favor with their wife and fellow elders. But you need to see that. But usually, you see, you don't see that in Christian biography. Sometimes you do.

42:22 But we have a tendency in getting our perspectives on the ministry from Christian biography to have something of a distorted view. So the ideal context for this desire is the setting in which that very statement comes. It comes to Timothy as one who's left behind in the church at Ephesus, the church which God has constituted the pillar and the ground of the truth. And that's why God has been very kind to you men, as you well know, not that he's put you in an ideal church, but he's put you in an ideal context that is a real viable church with its sins and its failures and its faults and its shortcomings but with its desire to be what god wants it to be and christ died to make it and you're taught by men who are not drawing upon the memory of what they did for five or ten years early in their lives which long since has this been distorted by the passing of time and overshadowed by the ivory towered sequestered life of the professional scholar but your lectures in all of your classes are coming from men who are involved in the work

43:46 of the ministry so that if anything you probably get more scares to wonder if indeed you ought to desire it than much encouragement to desire it you as we try to give you an accurate and balanced views of the joys and the triumphs the disappointments as well as the glorious encouragements that come from the work of the ministry so the ideal context for the maturation of that desire is a viable healthy biblically functioning church now when you have people come to you seeking counsel about the ministry that's one of the first questions you want to ask them what is your church situation have you been part of a viable healthy biblically functioning church and if not you will find yourself i trust counseling them to get into such a setting and now the fourth thing i want to say about the desire is what i'm calling the proper channels for expressing this desire looked at the legitimacy of the desire and the legitimacy of the desire focus despair context of this desire and now forcefully the proper channels for expressing

Proper Channels for Expressing Desire: To God and Overseers

45:13 this desire man reads this text and he says all right good so all right for me to have this desire there's growing desire now how do i express it will block expressive 10 what way in what theater do i get expression to it god's not going to give direct revelation to some white lady or constant to her party I'm going to stand here and to someone that this desire is being born and nurtured and increasing in my heart. So what are the channels for expressing this desire? Well, there are two. First of all, to God first, foremost, and continually. To God first, foremost, and continually. And we need to encourage people who may have this desire beginning to be born in their hearts, unknown to us, and somewhere in our teaching and preaching, say, and if there are among you to whom I am ministering the beginnings of a desire for overseership, take that to God and ask

46:31 God if it is of him that he will cause it to deepen, that he will give the light of his word to show there is a rational basis for it. If it is not of God that he will blow upon it, cause it to die, bring the light of his truth upon it, and bring it to naught. We must encourage people to go to God first and foremost, because remember one of our foundational principles. The call is as really a call of God as a call to the prophetic office. Overseers in the church in which the Holy Ghost has made you such, but the manner, the method in which God makes that call known, is not of God. It is of God. It is of God. It is of God. It is of God. It is of God.

47:17 It is ordinary, and one of the elements of the ordinariness is that the desire that precedes and attends entrance into the office is one that must be nurtured in the ordinary means of prayer and waiting upon God. We come back to the text many of us memorized as one of the first verses after we got converted, when we took the old topical memory system of the navigators, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not upon thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths. But then secondly, in due course, we must make known to our appointed overseers and to other wise and godly men and women our desire. Make known to our overseers and other.

48:22 Wise and godly men and women. Bear our hearts. Tell them what's going on. I had the joy just a few weeks ago. One of the men in the church came and for about an hour and a half just poured out his heart and told me how God, he believes, has been dealing with him, and I just let him talk and I listened. And he said, now that I've told you, I said, I leave it there. He said, the ball is in your court, and if it doesn't get knocked back for a month, two months, I'll leave it there. And he said, if it doesn't get knocked back for a month, two months, two years, or a decade, I'm content to leave it there. But he didn't bring it to me the first time he felt it. Unknown to me for about two years, that desire has been growing and growing and growing, and he's been putting it to the test before God, putting it to the test in the workplace, putting it to the test in a number of areas, till the pressure was such that he felt, if I don't bear my heart to one of my overseers now, I'm not being a true sheep. And now that's been made known to the entire eldership, and the entire eldership is praying with him, for him, that we might discern the mind of God. Make it known to God, then make it known to one's overseers, and to other spiritually minded men or women, trusted spiritual confidants,

49:48 to whom one can go and say, this is where I'm at, will you pray with me that God will help me to know his mind and his will in this matter. And you need to seek to guide your people, not to go shooting off at the mouth, saying, I believe the Lord has called me, I've got this burning desire. No, make it known to God, then make it known to one's overseers, let all things be done decently and in order. Well, our first hour is gone, brethren, let's take a break there, and then we'll come back in the next hour.

Balancing Perspectives on Desire: Spurgeon, Dabney, and Clowney

50:25 Brethren, before we leave this subject of what I have called the first essential element of a biblical call to the pastoral office, namely, the desire for the work, I want to comment on my own assessment of the place given to this first of four elements of the biblical call, as you've already encountered in Spurgeon, and are encountering in Dabney, you can see how they are on both ends of the spectrum with regard to this. Spurgeon saying, in essence, if the desire is not so consuming that you could do anything else, then you're not called. And I think that's an accurate representation of Spurgeon, whereas Thornwell says, I don't mean Thornwell, I mean Dabney, Dabney says, in essence, to claim some overpowering desire for this thing. No, not what it is, is bordering on fanaticism, and basically, you need to assess in cold blood whether or not you could serve God effectively in the ministry, and if so, pursue it until God shuts the door in your face. And I believe both of them err in pressing an element of truth too far,

51:49 and as so often happens in matters of this nature, the imbalance when a dimension of biblical truth is taken and pressed to an unwarranted extreme. And I think Dr. Clowney's treatment of this matter of desire is far more biblical, and I hope our treatment of the text itself that focuses upon desire, the major text being 1 Timothy 3 and the subsidiary text, 1 Peter 5, 2, have put the thing into a proper biblical balance. And I just wanted to underscore that and hope that if you have occasion to have men read on this subject, you would never give them Dabney without Spurgeon or Spurgeon without Dabney, but make sure that you expose their minds to both ends of the spectrum, and then hopefully they will not carelessly and irresponsibly throw in their lot with just the perspectives of one of those men. All right. So much for that little P.S.

The Presence of Graces: Genuine, Balanced, Mature Christian Experience

52:57 Now we move in the second place to consider large letter B, as we are concerned with the four elements that comprise a biblical, well-ordered call to the pastoral office. A was a desire for the work, and now B is the presence of those graces of character indicative of genuine. Comma, balanced, comma, and mature Christian experience. The presence of those graces of character indicative of genuine, balanced, and mature Christian experience.

54:02 Now again, in God's kind providence, you have been not only reminded of this, but been given what I regard as the most important and the most important and the most important and the most important and the most important and the most important and the most important and the most important and the most important and the most important and the most important and key moments in your lives can leave you struck home with what this penultimate text is supposed to. One good will is to have that gratefully permitted defense of denying the Bible ever onceacred its abi-minesism. How the Domaeows included the dominion 06. Is now within the order of chapter 4.

54:34 Behind it can always be said no, so to that very instance where the autor himself is seen, that is, by remark, as the most helpful one-shot exposition of 1 Timothy 3-2-7 on your similarhat this fall, that I have every heard in one message. And 1 Timothy 3-2 and following is so clear in its emphasis upon the necessity of the graces the desire is present, as we have already seen, and that desire is focused upon the work of oversight, then the following matters must be present along with the desire, and it all hinges upon that particle of necessity, day. The bishop, therefore, must be. And that particle has tremendous strength because it's the very one used when our Lord prophesies his coming death. The Son of Man must be betrayed, must suffer, must be crucified. It's used in such passages as Matthew 16, 21. It's found again in Luke chapter 24, 45 and following.

55:41 It speaks of compulsion of God. Necessity of the strongest kind. And while it is not my purpose to go back over the ground that was opened up so ably and helpfully by Pastor Bob, I do want to highlight several parts in this section of 1 Timothy 3. The bishop or the overseer, therefore, must be, and the generic requirement is, without reproach.

56:16 Which means, literally, not to be taken hold of. That is, the character of the aspiring elder is such that no one can rightfully take hold of the person with a charge of unfitness.

56:38 No one can rightfully take hold of the person with a charge of unfitness. That statement is a direct quote from Lenski. And Lenski goes on further to say, on page 580 of his commentary on 1 Timothy, It has been remarked that of all these save the ability to teach, and that of not being a novice or a beginner in Christianity, are requirements that apply to all Christians, which is quite, quite true, and shows that as far as morals are concerned, the New Testament has only one statement. standard for both clergy and laity and not two. Yet we may note in the case of the congregation, faults may be born with which cannot be tolerated in ministers, for they are to be examples of the flock. A man who aspires to the ministry must be of proven character, end quote. That is all

57:56 Lenski, and I refer you, and if you want to transfer that into your own notes, you can find it, Lenski, page 580. Now, when the list of requirements is summarized, it comes to what I have attempted to describe as genuine, balanced, and mature Christian experience, both before the church and before the world. The assumption is that the grandfathers and grandfathers-in-law, the great-grandfathers-in-law, the great-grandfathers-in-law, and the great-grandfathers-in-law, the great-grandfathers-in-law, the great-grandfathers-in-law, the great-grandfathers-in-law, the great-grandfathers-in-law, the great-grandfathers-in-law, the great-grandfathers-in-law, the great-grandfathers-in-law, the great-grandfathers-in-law, described in verses 2 through 6 will be known primarily to the people of God, and verse 7, moreover he must have good testimony from them that are without, that's his general demeanor and bearing and impression upon the world. Now, it's obvious that the dominant area of balanced, mature, Christian experience is the domestic. The only requirement that is amplified, commented upon, appended with a rhetorical question, is the domestic, one that rules well his own house,

59:23 having his children in subjection with all gravity or with proper respect, but if a man knows not how to rule his own house, how shall he epimonize? Same word used of the man in the inn, take care of him. When the poor, battered, mugged traveler was deposited at the inn, the innkeeper was told by the compassionate Samaritan, take care of him, see what his needs are, take appropriate measures to meet them. How shall a man take care of the church of God if he is incompetent?

60:07 In domestic piety, and that is the dominant requirement. The secondary of emphasis, our emphasis focuses on graces which make for a healthy relationship to people. No brawler, no striker, given to hospitality. The common denominator of those requirements is that the man in a true sense is appeased, person. And how in the world can a man shepherd people who's not a people person? Now, it doesn't say he must have a gregarious, natively, ebullient, contagious personality, but it does say no brawler, no striker given to hospitality. In other words, he must be someone who does not merely love truth and love to preach truth. And I've met men like that. They love truth, and they love to preach truth. Problem is, they don't have any love for people. It's like the guy who says, you know,

61:21 I love humanity. The problem is, I just can't get along with people.

61:26 I love humanity. See that big, generic glob out there called humanity. My only problem is, I can't get along with people. That's the individuals that come into my life.

61:38 And we must... Must be certain under God that in the development of what I have described as genuine, balanced, mature Christian experience, there is not only exemplary domestic piety, but clearly discernible evidences of being a sanctified people person. No brawler, no striker given to hospitality, gentle, not contentious. All of those things have to do primarily with having healthy relationships to people. And then I would say, if there is another category, it is those graces which make a man a wise leader, both in his public teaching and preaching, and also in his general oversight. Sober-minded, orderly, self-controlled.

62:39 Those are the graces which, though we would not arbitrarily put them in airtight categories, are peculiarly needed to give wise leadership. So the call to holiness extended to all men as saints and servants of Christ must be the predominant call in a man's mind and heart, for that alone marks him as a true saint. Follow after the holiness without which no man will see the Lord. So if a man is not pursuing universal holiness as an ordinary saint, what in the world makes him think that he should be set apart for leadership in the church of Jesus Christ? And that's an emphasis that Dabney makes that is very wholesome. He says, if you're opting out of the ministry by saying, I'm not holy enough. He says, you may not be holy enough, but if you're not, he says, you may not be holy enough to be saved. If you're not pursuing holiness for

63:48 holiness' sake and seeking to be as holy as a redeemed sinner can be, then you have reason to question whether you're in a state of grace. And the issue is not your call to the ministry, but whether you've been effectually called into fellowship with Christ. And so the call to holiness extended to all men as saints and servants of Christ must always be the base line of holiness. The Holy Spirit is the base line on which you operate. What you are to be as a holy Christian man underpins, undergirds, and validates anything you may be called to be and to do as a Christian minister. And this is why the Scripture places the emphasis where it does on genuine, balanced, mature Christian experience. This alone will validate your identity as a saint. This alone will fit you for the office of an elder.

Dominant Areas of Graces: Domestic Piety and People Skills

64:55 And how was Timothy to overcome the disadvantages of his youth? Not by pulling ecclesiastical rank, not by strutting his learning, but by convincing people through exemplary piety that he was indeed mature in Christ. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:16 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:18 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:20 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:22 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:24 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:26 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:28 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:30 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:32 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:35 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:37 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:39 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:41 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

65:43 1 Timothy 4.12. 1 Timothy 4.12.

Overcoming Youthful Liabilities Through Godliness

65:45 At least I trust you feel very keenly the liabilities of your relative youth in your early days. And you say, how am I going to have a grip upon the consciences and gain the confidence of men and women old enough to be my earthly father and mother when I am so relatively young? Here's the answer. Let your own consistent, mature, growing, vital godliness negate the liabilities of your relative youthfulness, even as in the case of Timothy.

The Harm of Shoddy Piety in Ministry

66:19 And this requirement, constituting the second strand of a biblical call to the ministry, a well-ordered call to the pastoral office, must never, never be put into any other category than that which God has put it in 1 Timothy 3, and in Titus chapter 1. How much harm has come in extending a spirit of incipient cynicism when men traffic in a gospel and in a ministry which is calculated to make men holy when they themselves are not holy men. How much indifference is spawned in the pew by shoddiness in the lives of those who are in the pulpit. And few things, few things do greater harm to the ministry than a life of this kind of just merely acceptable modicum of piety. Someone doesn't go into gross and horrible and scandalous sin, but neither does he have the kind of walk with God that is a burr under the saddle

67:47 of someone living in a church. And that's the kind of walk that God does. And that's the kind of walk that God does. Not living carelessly and not making progress in grace.

67:54 Not only does it create an incipient cynicism among the people, it takes the edge off a man's ability to dive into people's consciences. It takes away the ability, it cuts the locks of any Samson-like ability to take the lion of a stubborn conscience and tear it to pieces. People know. People know, for the most part, people know whether or not you are living out the standard you are setting for them.

68:30 And they know whether your life manifests that you're diving into your own conscience with the word of God before you make efforts to dive into theirs.

Cultivating Faithfulness and Accountability Among Brethren

68:44 And if people can begin to feel comfortable in their own areas of known patterns of carnality and take comfort from the fact that we are living out the standard you are setting for them, well, we see chronic patterns in our elders and in particular in the elder or elders who are publicly before us in the ministry of the word. Only God knows how much harm is done to the overall witness and testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ. And so, brethren, though you have heard it in other categories of concern, this is the proper place to emphasize it once again that if you have a desire to be a Christian, if you have a desire for the work of the ministry, that desire must be, they must be joined to what I have called genuine, balanced, mature Christian experience. And this is why, if I may now bring a word of exhortation, we must cultivate in this context faithfulness to one another. You men get to know one another in this context at a level of intimacy second to the level of intimacy. Not only to the level that your wife and your children know you.

69:58 And you need to develop faithfulness to one another in this context. Not a Pharisaic disposition where you set yourself up above others, but if in the coffee room the conversation begins to drift into realms that aren't edifying and a pattern begins to emerge, you have a responsibility to take one another aside. Not in a crass, coarse, hypercritical way, but in a gentle, loving, Galatians 6-1 manner. And help one another.

70:33 Now, while you see these things, because your people are going to see them. And it may be that through your silence about areas that you see in your brethren here, that you will be undermining their optimum usefulness five years from now in the work of the ministry.

70:53 May God help us to be faithful to one another in these things. It's one of the things for which I bless God that is operative in our own eldership in this place. Just last night, and I don't even know what the issue was, but apparently two of the brethren who traveled to the elders' meeting, we no sooner finished our time of prayer than one of them said, excuse me, Mr. Chairman, and spoke to the other brethren and said, brother, and made reference to something the rest of us didn't even know what he was talking about, but apparently something was said in the car on the way to an elders' meeting that smote his own conscience, as we prayed.

71:26 He said, will you forgive me? And to see that elder look right across at him and say, most freely, fully, and joyfully, I forgive you. Don't you? To have one of my fellow instructors ask me this morning, such and such remark I made last night, did you sense a tinge of carnality in it?

71:43 I said, no, because usually I can feel the air immediately get tight if there is, and I didn't sense that. He said, well, it was in my heart. I've got to go see so-and-so and make it right. So this is what we're talking about, brethren.

71:55 I'm not telling, I'm telling you something that's theoretical.

71:58 And I'm thankful for men who have that love for me to point out those areas of fault. This is where you should begin to learn to do that graciously and wisely. And if any one of you gets the reputation for being prickly and not welcoming that, then we want to follow the pattern of Matthew 18. And you take a couple of other brethren with you.

72:20 And if the thing's not dealt with, then you get an instructor and an elder in on the matter. But we don't want to send anybody out of this place who is not determined to be as holy as he can be using every means that God has put at his disposal. And one of those means is the keen eye of the people of God who love us and often see things and discern things that we ourselves do not see or discern. Now, as I close this head, I want to read from Bridges.

Eminence in Godliness and the Standard for Ministry

72:51 Excellent statement in Bridges on the Christian ministry.

72:57 We're writing on this matter of the spiritual character required for the office of a pastor. On page 27, it is evident, however, that this ministerial standard presupposes a deep tone of experimental and devotional character habitually exercised in self-denial, prominently marked by love to the Savior and to the souls of sinners, and practically exhibited in a blameless, inconspicuous manner in the midst of the world. The apostle justly pronounces a novice to be disqualified for this holy work. The bare existence of true religion provides but slender materials for this important function. A babe in grace and knowledge is palpably incompetent to become a teacher of babes, much more a guide of the fathers. The school of adversity, of discipline, and of experience, united with study and heavenly influence, can alone give the tongue of the learned. Some measure of eminence and a habitual aim towards greater eminence are indispensable for ministerial completeness.

74:16 And he means eminence and godliness. Nor will they fail to be acquired in the diligent use of the means of divine appointment, the word of God, and, and prayer. And he had to answer the objection that is raised in our day. It was raised in him.

74:35 If we are intransigent, if we are utterly bullheaded and stubborn with regard to this matter of saying, no man's call is validated, if his life is not marked by genuine balance, mature piety, and Christian experience, he has no right to the ministry. The objection will be, well, if that's so, we'll have very few ministers. That objection was made in Bridges' day, and Bridges' answer is exactly the answer we give to that question. Far better to have ten men biblically qualified than the thousand who are not qualified.

75:17 Because ten men qualified by the grace of God will do more good to set a biblical standard and cause the people of God to pray and to cry to God to raise up others as they see the impact of such men upon the consciences of others. And this is why we don't put a lot of emphasis upon, quote, young men. We're glad to have someone here in his fifties and most of you in your thirties, though we don't despise those of you that may still be in your twenties. But we don't put that big emphasis and you find that Thornwell questions that, just lays the thing right on the table.

75:57 He says, I question this notion. I question this notion of primarily going after young men. He said, where do we find it in the scriptures? And Thornwell cried out in his own day.

76:08 And it's very, very interesting. We build tombs to tombstones to these men, but let someone begin to say what they were saying in their day and our day and then they end up getting put in their graves, just like Jesus said. You build sepulchers to the dead prophets, but you kill the living ones. Well, we're in good company when we take this posture that generally, speaking, the standard of 1 Timothy 3 is not seen or validated in a 22-year-old kid, generally speaking.

76:41 Now, thank God for the exceptions as we said last week, but the burden of proof is upon anyone to prove he is that exception. And so, brethren, let us, by the grace of God, be determined that we shall continually in our period of preparation and action and aspiration not only nurture and cherish a sanctified desire, which we have seen as the first element of a true biblical call, but also this matter of personal, mature godliness, likeness to Christ, and all of the means essential to the nurture and development of those qualities. God willing, we'll then take up next week, the third, which is the matter of gifts.