Gifts of Utterance, Part 1

Introduction: The Call to Pastoral Office and Proven Fitness

0:02 The following lecture is part of the Pastoral Theology course given at the Trinity Ministerial Academy in Montville, New Jersey. Now we take up once again, brethren, the crucial issue of what constitutes a biblical call to the pastoral office. And as you further your reading in this area, I would like you to take chapter 14 of Spurgeon's lectures to my students, a chapter on the work of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the ministry. And I give you the chapter and the name of it because there are different editions of Spurgeon's lectures floating around and page numbers often are more confusing than helpful.

0:47 Now as we take up our subject again, I want to remind you that in using the term pastoral office, I'm referring to one whose functions as an elder, find him in the category of one who labors in the word and in teaching as 1 Timothy 5.17 describes that unique function of some of the elders, not a distinct or separate office of a different kind. And I've asserted that there are four elements which comprise a biblical call to this office. The first we have covered, namely a spiritual desire, a desire for the work of the pastoral office.

1:32 That is a desire that is born of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the truth of God and it is a desire for the work of that office. And then the second element that comprises part of the whole of a biblical call to the office is what I have chosen to call a proven fitness for the work of the pastoral office. No amount of desire, however sanctified, is adequate if there is not proven fitness for the work of the pastoral office. And it is under this second major heading that we are considering

2:14 those specific components of this fitness. Having demonstrated from the word of God the necessity of spiritual character, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, and then the necessity of a heightened life, level of spiritual experience, by which I mean that which Owen describes in volume 4, pages 5.10 through 5.12.

2:42 And I would ask you to put that section in your notes. Now we are focusing our attention upon the requisite spiritual gifts. So there must be spiritual desire, then there must be proven fitness, and under provenness, we have dealt with spiritual character, spiritual experience, and now we are considering spiritual gifts essential to the pastoral office. I have laid before you the biblical basis for the necessity and importance of gifts.

3:19 I directed you to those scriptures which underscore the source of those gifts. And now we are opening up the specific identity of the gifts requisite for the pastoral office. And eventually we will identify four categories of gift. Last week we took up the first.

Review: Gifts of a Sanctified Mind (Owen's Perspective)

3:39 Namely, those gifts which come to expression in the disposition, capabilities, and acquisitions of a sanctified mind. And I had five dimensions of such a sanctified mind. One, a mind reverently and lovingly, seemingly submissive to the absolute authority of scripture. Two, a mind furnished with a grasp upon the basic contents of scripture.

4:08 Three, a mind furnished with a basic understanding and love for the meaning, interrelatedness, and self-consistency of the scriptures. Four, a mind furnished with the basic tools and spiritual dexterity to discover and make plain to others the meaning, and valid application of scripture. And then five, a mind disposed and furnished with sound practical judgment. Now I confess to you when I gave you the quote that some are admitted to the ministry who would hardly be admitted into a well-ordered gospel church that I couldn't find that quote from Owen.

4:51 Well, alas, in my digging around this week I found it. And this is perhaps the best conclusion to our review. I quote from Owen, from volume four of Owen, page 509. Under the general heading of the gifts of the spirit necessary unto doctrine, worship, rule, how attained and improved, Owen says on page 509, the first, that is, the first gift needed for a pastor is wisdom or knowledge or understanding in the mysteries of the gospel, the revelation of the mystery of God in Christ with his mind and will towards us therein.

5:35 And then after going on to indicate that this is no small thing, this is what he says. But the cursory perusal of a few books is thought sufficient to make any man wise enough to be a minister. And not a few undertake ordinarily to be teachers of others who would scarcely be admitted as tolerable disciples in a well-ordered church. That's the quote I was fishing for.

6:02 But there belongs more unto this wisdom, knowledge, and understanding than most men are aware of. Were the nature of it duly considered, and with all the necessity of it, unto the work of the gospel, probably some would not so rush on that work as they do, which they have no provision of ability for the performance of. It is in brief such a comprehension of the scope and end of Scripture, of the revelation of God therein, such an acquaintance with the systems of particular doctrinal truths in their rise, tendency, and use,

6:45 such a habit of mind in judging of spiritual things and comparing them one with another, such a distinct insight into the springs and course of the mystery of the love, grace, and will of God in Christ, as enables them, in whom it is, to disclose the counsel of God, to make known the way of life, of faith, and of obedience unto others, and to instruct them in their whole duty to God and man thereon. I say that's a succinct summary of all that I've said about the kind of mind essential for the work of the ministry. And the Lord allows it. He alone knows how much my own thoughts,

Focus: Gifts of Sanctified Utterance – Introduction

7:30 as I worked them out at my desk, thinking they were come out of the struggles of my own head, were but following a track laid years ago in the reading several times of that section in Owen. Well, so much for that general review and introduction. We focus today upon the second of the spiritual gifts requisite for the pastoral office. And I've sought to identify this second category of gift in this way.

7:59 Those gifts which come to expression those gifts which come to expression through the various faculties connected with the facility of sanctified utterance. Those gifts which come to expression through the various faculties connected with the facility of sanctified utterance.

8:31 Now, in thinking our way through this crucial aspect of a valid call to the pastoral office as we concentrate upon the requisite spiritual gifts, I have two major categories under this heading of those gifts which come to expression through the various faculties connected with the facility of sanctified utterance.

9:03 The first major division is the biblical basis for asserting the necessity of such gifts of sanctified utterance, and then our second head will be the basic elements which comprise a gift of sanctified utterance. So those are our two heads. The biblical basis for asserting the necessity of these gifts of utterance, and then secondly the basic elements which comprise a gift of sanctified utterance.

Explicit Testimony: 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:9

9:37 Now, under this first head, the biblical basis for asserting the necessity of such gifts of sanctified utterance, I have several heads. The explicit testimony of the Word of God, the implicit testimony of the Word of God. Now, as far as the explicit testimony of the Word of God, there are three texts upon which I would rest the whole case. And then I would back them up with two good substitutes.

10:13 And the first is 1 Timothy 3 and verse 2. When I assert that one of the elements in the realm of spiritual gifts that is non-negotiable is those gifts which come to expression through the various faculties connected with the facility of sanctified utterance, here are the front-line texts. 1 Timothy 3 and verse 2.

10:43 You've been reminded many times that after the statement, Faithful is the saying, if a man seeks overseership, he desires a good work, the overseer therefore they must be. And under the must-be's, at the end of verse 2, we have the word didaktikos. Didaktikos. Now, this word is found only here and in 2 Timothy 2.24 in the New Testament.

11:21 In that setting, Paul writes to Timothy, saying, The Lord's servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all. Didaktikos. Apt to teach, as it is translated in the 1901. Now, while it may.

11:40 Didaktikos. They include the disposition and inclination to help others by instruction, the consensus of proven lexicography renders its meaning as an apt teacher. It is an adjective rendered by Vine, quote, skilled in teaching, end quote. Bauer Arndt in Gingrich, quote, Skillful.

12:12 Skillful in teaching. And as I have read the standard commentators, I am confident in asserting that the major emphasis of this word is upon the matter of a proven facility of sanctified utterance. Now, if this is required of all elders, regardless of their particular function, in shepherding the flock of God, how much more is it required in the one who labors in the word and in teaching?

12:54 In fact, it is an abundant measure of this gift, coupled with other factors, that makes it right that he should be distinguished from his fellow elders, not as to a different office, but as to a unique office. It is the evidence of an unusual measure of this aptitude to teach, this skillfulness in teaching that warrants his being the receiver of double honor.

13:33 And so the explicit testimony of the word of God is that one who labors in the word and in doctrine must have evidence. Evidence of those gifts that come to expression through the various faculties connected with the facility of sanctified utterance. And then the second major text is from the parallel passage in Titus chapter 1.

14:02 Again, we have the climate of non-negotiable imperatives, as Titus is given charge to guide the church in the recognition of its elders, verse 7, for the overseer must be, and then in that ongoing description, he must be one who is found holding to the faithful word, that's where we concentrated last week, a mind furnished with a knowledge and love of the truth, holding fast to the faithful word, not having it just resident there in the mind, to be pushed to the side, to be pushed to the side, to be pushed to the side,

14:47 when it is convenient, when it is in the interest of self-defense or self-seeking, but holding out of love and principle and religious conviction, not to his own novelties or someone else's novelties, but to the body of revealed truth, holding to the faithful word, which is according to the teaching, to what end? That he may be able both to exhort in the sound doctrine, which is according to the teaching, and to convict the gainsayers. Now, while the emphasis here is on what he holds, and the ends for which he uses what he holds,

15:30 we cannot avoid the words dunatas e. The word dunatas meaning able or capable of, and e being an eida with a yoda subscript, and a circumflex over the top, being a subjunctive of the to be verb, i.e., that he must be able, that he may be able or capable of doing what?

16:04 Of exhorting and convincing.

16:11 Able in exhorting and convincing. That is, he must have a proven capacity of a gift, a gift of utterance, which renders him capable of edifying the people of God by the sound doctrine that he holds, and silencing the gainsayers by the sound doctrine that he holds. Now again, I say, if this is true of all elders generically, how much more of those who claim that their gift and graces and opportunities warrant their laboring in the word and in doctrine? If all elders,

16:56 holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, must be able to some degree to comfort, to impel, to action, to console, all of that bound up in the verb to exhort, and to convict, to bring to the test, and take a man's conscience into the theater or into the courtroom of his own self-consciousness until he finds himself rendering a sentence of guilty upon himself. If all elders must have that ability to some degree, how much more must the one who labors in the word and in doctrine

Explicit Testimony: 2 Timothy 2:2 and Backup Texts

17:40 have it to a more than ordinary degree? And then my third front-ranked text is 2 Timothy 2, and I'm going to read it to you. 2 Timothy 2, and I'm going to read it to you. 2 Timothy 2, and I'm going to read it to you.

17:49 The text that forms the very exegetical framework of the academy,

18:01 2 Timothy 2, 2. And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. And the key words in this phrase are the first and last. Hikanoi and Didaxi.

18:29 Now, Hikanoi means sufficient, able, competent, or qualified. And Didaxi is an aorist infinitive of Didasco.

18:45 So those who are to receive the deposit of apostolic truth are those who shall be Hikanoi. A sufficient, able, competent, qualified to teach others also. Once again, the testimony of Scripture is clear and unequivocal. The rationale for specialized training assumes the God-given faculty of sanctified utterance in those being trained.

19:25 Now, while it may be a proper application of other biblical principles to commit this specialized training to a mute who has no facility of utterance, but is evidenced unusual spiritual and theological perception coupled with a gift of writing, and there may be a time when we may have a mute in the academy, and his presence would be, as it were, a specialized application of our general principles. And while that may be perfectly proper, the ordinary framework of this task of giving to any man whose character is described as trustworthy,

20:09 the privilege of specialized training in order to be a recipient of the body of the apostolic tradition is that he shall be Hikanoi Didaxi, that is, competent, qualified, sufficient, to teach. And that involves not merely all of the dispositions and acquisitions of the mind that we dealt with last week, but those gifts which come to expression through the various faculties connected with the facility of sanctified utterance. And so, brethren, I would rest my case

20:52 upon these three texts alone, and I think they would bear all the weight of the assertion that there must be in any bona fide call to the pastoral office evidence of those gifts which come to expression in the facility of sanctified utterance. Then I would add, as my two backup men, Romans 12, 6-8, Romans 12, 6-8, and having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith, or ministry, or service,

21:37 let us give ourselves to our service, or he that teacheth to his teaching, or he that exhorteth to his exhortation, or his exhorting, he that giveth, let him do it with liberality, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Now what is assumed, and the very surface of the passage is that it would be utterly incongruous for one who in the sober self-assessment mandated by verse 3 in this chapter, with the quality control of his own self-assessment coming under, or I should say,

22:21 with his own self-assessment coming under the quality control of the assessment of the church, utterly incongruous that sober self-assessment that a man's gift is a gift of giving should give himself to exhorting. It's ludicrous. The whole assumption is that the only one who manifests an unusual facility of utterance in a manner that conveys a body of truth to others in a way that instructs them should give himself to teaching. One can only assume he has a gift to teach if he's able to teach and to exhort

23:06 if he has the ability to exhort. The assumption is that you don't have someone intransigent in his conviction of sober self-assessment that he has a gift to teach who can't teach. And the only one who's convinced he can teach is himself. Everyone else every time they hear him is convinced whatever he can do he sure can't do that.

23:32 Don't know what he can do but I know what he can't do. And then the final text my second backup text is 1 Peter 4 verses 10 and 11. 1 Peter 4 verses 10 and 11.

23:50 According as each hath received a gift and here the whole concept of the church being as Donald McLeod so aptly demonstrates in his book on the promise of the spirit or the promised spirit where he shows that every church is charismatic in a truly biblical sense according as each hath received a gift a charism ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Now notice it's according as we receive that we minister. And then he gives several examples. If a man speaks the assumption being he's received a gift of utterance

24:34 therefore he speaks as it were oracles of God. Another has received a gift of ministering or serving he ministers as of the strength which God supplies that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ whose is the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. The assumption again you see is our exercise of gift is to be according to our reception not our imagination of what we would like to have received or even a sanctified desire of what we wish we had received but according as each

25:19 hath actually received a gift minister that which has been given. And it's givenness must be a proven reality. Surely then brethren the explicit testimony of scripture is clear and to my judgment and I trust to yours convincing. If one is to labor in the word and in teaching he must possess those gifts which come to expression in the various faculties connected with the facility of sanctified life.

Implicit Testimony: Apostolic Model of Pastoral Labor

25:57 But now add to this explicit testimony the implicit testimony of the word of God that which is implied. So the second major subheading under our first main heading the biblical basis for asserting the necessity of such gifts of sanctified utterance we've looked at the explicit testimony of the word of God now we look at the implicit testimony of the word of God and I've organized the implicit testimony under three subheadings. Number one the apostolic model of pastoral labor. Number two the apostolic injunctions concerning pastoral labor.

26:39 And number three the apostolic description of one sent by Christ. Alright, first then by implicit testimony the apostolic model of pastoral labor.

26:51 When we consider that the apostles were elders of the universal church and when they were in any place for any length of time and functioned as elders until Christ the head of the church equipped the church with its own resident eldership how did they function as elders in conjunction with this matter of the facility of public utterance? Well, let's take several passages from the experience of the apostle Paul. Acts chapter 20 and beginning with verse well, let's back up to verse 18 but verse 20 is the key text. Having gathered the elders

27:36 of the church at Ephesus to him at Miletus when they were come to him he said unto them you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia after what manner I was with you all the time serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind and with tears and with trials which befell me by the plots of the Jews. Now notice the emphasis upon Acts. Activities of utterance. How I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house testifying solemnly testifying both to Jews and Greeks

28:20 repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And then verse 24 I hold not my life of any account as dear to myself so that I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God and now behold I know that ye all among whom I went about preaching the kingdom. So in this short compass we have these different words used declaring teaching testifying twice and preaching and every single one of them is a description of a form

29:03 of utterance a form of verbal declaration of the word of the living God and Paul marshals these words into the description of what lay at the very heart and substance of his ministry there at Ephesus. Colossians chapter 1 is another pivotal text showing the apostolic model of pastoral labor in conjunction with sanctified utterance. Colossians chapter 1 in a passage that was made familiar to many of us I think about two years ago when Pastor Nichols expounded it

29:47 Paul is giving us this short summary of his views on the work of the ministry and in the midst of it he says that he preaches Christ the hope of glory verse 2 verse 28 whom we proclaim admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ where unto I labor also striving agonizing according to his working which works in me mightily and how did the mighty in working of God find expression in the outward

30:32 working of this apostolic pastoral passion to present every man perfect in Christ it was found in the energizing work of the spirit of God enabling Paul to proclaim Christ to admonish every man in conjunction with the wisdom that is in Christ and teaching proclaiming admonishing teaching he knew of no passion but of pastoral efficiency apart from this constant exercise of these gifts of sanctified utterance

31:15 and then another specimen passage 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 again describing his pastoral labors with the infant church at Thessalonica he says in verse 11 of chapter 2 as you know how we do dealt with each one of you as a father with his own children exhorting you and encouraging you and testifying to the end that you should walk worthily of God who called you to his own kingdom and glory now it's not my purpose to show the subtle distinctions in the use of these words but to see them

32:00 under this one major heading that they are words that have no meaning apart from the activity of sanctified utterance exhorting encouraging and testifying these are the activities by which he sought to bring them into a lifestyle worthily of the God who called them into his own kingdom and unto the sharing of his glory so I say the implicit testimony of the word of God is equally clear the apostolic model of pastoral labor demonstrates that one must have gifts that find expression

Implicit Testimony: Apostolic Injunctions for Pastoral Labor

32:45 in the facility of sanctified utterance but then the apostolic injunctions concerning pastoral labor point in the same direction and what I did was make a brief survey of the pastoral epistles to see how central is this matter of utterance in fulfillment of pastoral labors and it's quite clear that by the time at least 2nd Timothy is written Timothy for all intents and purposes is fulfilling what we would call the standing job description of a resident pastor

33:27 though he was an apostolic representative the things he's called upon to do would be for the most part what we would call the steady state job description of a resident pastor functioning as an elder laboring in the word and in doctrine and the same is true in the book of Titus well just look with me very quickly at the tremendous emphasis upon the exercise of proven gifts of utterance 1st Timothy 1 verse 3 as I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus while I was going into Macedonia that you

34:36 and suggest and mildly insinuate that perhaps sooner or later they ought to consider whether or not there are some all of that gobbledygook charge certain men there's a time Timothy to get rid of your native timidity and your native disposition of self-distrust God's truth is at stake charge certain men and he assumes that Timothy would do it or he wouldn't call him his faithful son who brought him great joy then verse 18 this charge I commit unto thee my child Timothy and then in chapter 4 in verse 11

35:20 these things command and teach assuming that Timothy would know and would be able to implement in terms of his proven gifts of sanctified utterance the difference between commanding and teaching these things command and teach and then verse 13 till I come give heed to the reading to exhortation to teaching assuming that Timothy would know and be able to exercise the difference between exhortation and a more heavily didactic exercise chapter 5 verse 1 rebuke not an elder

36:05 but exhort him as a father that he would know the difference in the verbal expression in the manner in which he expressed himself likewise chapter 6 in verse 17 charge them that are rich in this present world that they be not high-minded he assumes you see that Timothy can go from the gentleness of a son in treating a father and a son in treating his mothers in the Lord and mothers in the faith to charging errorist and to charge brethren who are not guilty of error but are in the precarious place that only rich people are in same thing is true of 2nd Timothy 2nd Timothy

36:49 chapter 2 our familiar verse verse 2 he assumes that when he says to Timothy the things you've heard from me among many witnesses the same commit to faithful men that when the apostolic tradition passed through Timothy it would be the same thing not all distorted and twisted and twisted and pushed out of shape because Timothy had no gifts of public utterance to make clear what that testimony was implicit in that whole charge is the understanding that Timothy had these gifts of public and sanctified utterance verse 15 what is the thing that makes a man unashamed as a workman give diligence to present yourself approved unto God

37:34 a workman that needs not to be ashamed handling a right holding a right holding a straight course in the word of truth being able to convey the truth in such a way that what people receive is not a caricature of the truth but it is the truth itself and in no little measure that rests upon the God-given combination of faculties and abilities essential to sanctified utterance chapter 4 in verse 2 praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord preach the word be urgent in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort again he assumes

38:19 that Timothy has a command upon these various categories of public utterance and he'll know when he's reproving he'll know when he's exhorting or comforting he knows the difference and he has command of the difference and can exercise that knowledge and that command and that command and that command and that command to the edification of his hearers we turn to the book of Titus and we find the same thing after describing one of the cardinal sins or a group of the cardinal sins of Cretans Paul then says to Titus verse 13 this testimony is true for which cause reprove them

39:03 sharply Titus I'm convinced you have the knowledge and the moral courage and the moral courage and the command of the faculties of utterance that will enable you to let these people know that you are not mildly suggesting that they reconsider certain of their patterns of life and thinking there to know they've been reproved reprove them sharply that they may be sound or healthy in the faith chapter 2 and verse 8 he is to be a man marked by what verse 7 in all things showing yourself an example of good works

39:48 in your doctrine showing uncorruptness

39:54 dignified sound speech that cannot be condemned he holds to the healthy doctrine but he's able so to articulate it that no one questions that he holds to the sound doctrine doctrine. There are good men who hold good truth, but when they open their mouths, one puts a question mark over what they really do believe, because they do not express it in sound speech that cannot be condemned. They do not hold the pattern of sound words. Verse 15 of chapter 2,

40:33 these things speak, and exhort, and reprove with all authority, the assumption being that Titus would be able to speak them. He would know how to buttress them with motivations to action and comfort, the two major concepts bound up in parakaleo, in exhortation, and then reprove with all authority. Well, I say, the apostolic injunctions concerning pastoral labor are the second major implicit testimony

Implicit Testimony: Apostolic Description of One Sent by Christ

41:10 which support my thesis, the thesis that there must be those gifts which come to expression through the various faculties connected with the facility of sanctified utterance. And then, thirdly, under the implicit testimony, the apostolic description of one sent by Christ.

41:35 When, we have a description of those whom Christ sends, how do the apostles describe them? Well, in the well-known passage in Acts, in Romans chapter 10, they describe this way, verse 14, How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they call on him in whom they have not heard? And how shall

42:08 they hear without a creature? And how shall they preach except they be sent, even as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things. Those whom Christ sends to be, may I say it reverently, his altar mouth, through whom he calls his own to himself, they are described in these words, preacher and preach. They are described as those to whom God has given

42:48 the facility of sanctified utterance. Likewise, in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 19 to 21, where the whole concept of the Christian ministry being that of an ambassador, the same emphasis comes through.

43:09 Verse 18, 2 Corinthians 5, But all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word, or the message of reconciliation. We are ambassadors, therefore, on the behalf of Christ, as though God were to entreat us. We beseech on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. And the whole concept of an

43:51 ambassador is that he is a duly designated representative of his monarch to go to another country and there to announce the mind of his monarch in the place, in the room, and in the stead of his monarch. And the emphasis here, falls upon these phrases, committed to us the word of reconciliation, by which word it is as though God were entreating by us. And therefore, the faculty of sanctified utterance is essential,

44:32 for we beseech on the behalf of Christ, as though God were beseeching. Through us, God is beseeching, through us. And then, of course, the familiar words of 1 Corinthians 1, in verse 17, Paul in his own identity, in sentness, for Christ sent me, not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void, and then 1 Corinthians,

45:16 9, 14, even so the Lord has ordained that those that proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel. Well, brethren, I don't want to wear you with texts, but I want to give you enough so that there will be no doubt in your own mind that the testimony of scripture is both manifold and conclusive on this point. And the tragedy is that as I heard a man say in my presence at a preaching conference in a certain place, I said, I don't want to wear you with texts, but I want to give you the gospel. And I said, I don't want to wear you with texts, but I want to give you the gospel.

45:47 In a certain seminary a few years ago, he asserted this, that the curse of many churches is that their pulpits are filled with nice guys who can't. The curse of many churches is they are filled with pulpits, or they have pulpits are filled with nice guys who can't preach. And I would add to that sincere God-fearing people. And I would add to that sincere God-fearing people. And I would add to

46:23 that sincere God-fearing people. And I would add to that sincere God-fearing people. And he said, well-instructed guys can't, and if they can't preach, they are not Christ's gifts to his church to serve as elders laboring in the word and in doctrine. And I trust you find that block of scripture convincing. All right, so let's take a break.