Providential Opportunity, Proper Recognition

Recap of Previous Elements and Introduction to the Third Element: External Confirmation

0:02 The following lecture is part of the Pastoral Theology course given at the Trinity Ministerial Academy in Montville, New Jersey. We come this morning, brethren, to our final two hours of Pastoral Theology for this semester, and throughout the entire unit, Unit 7 of our study together, we've been wrestling with this most vital and yet in many ways very vexing concern, namely the essential elements of a biblical call to the pastoral office. And after addressing the matters of the foundational principles that must regulate our thinking on this subject, secondly, the fundamental categories of errors as to what constitutes a biblical call, and thirdly, the common false reasons for assuming that one is called, the bulk of our time has been taken up with seeking to address the four, elements which comprise a biblical call to the pastoral office. We have covered two of them. First, a spiritual desire for the work of the pastoral office, 1 Timothy 3.1, and 1 Peter 5.2 being the two pivotal texts,

1:20 and then, secondly, a proven fitness to do the work associated with the pastoral office. And I sought to arrange the various categories, the fitness under the three headings of spiritual character, spiritual experience, and spiritual gifts. Now, in our remaining sessions, I wish to take up the final two elements, which constitute a biblical call to this sacred office, and we'll take them up under the headings that are in the outline that I gave you somewhere near the beginning of the semester, and I'm going to all...

2:01 ...to the language of large letter D.

2:04 The third element, large letter C, is an adequate external confirmation of fitness for the work of the pastoral office, and the fourth, large letter D, a providential opportunity and proper ecclesiastical recognition for the work, not of the pastoral office, but of a specific pastoral charge.

2:31 My... ...brought me to stronger convictions in this area, and I didn't like the wording, generic pastoral office, but we cannot believe we are called until there is a providential opportunity and proper ecclesiastical recognition for the work of a specific pastoral charge. In other words, we don't have shepherds running around who have no sheep.

3:01 We may have a bunch of reverends, with no churches, but God recognizes no shepherds who don't have sheep. And so I felt that wording more accurately expressed it. All right? Let's take up then in this first hour large letter C, or the third element in the four elements that comprise a biblical call to the pastoral office, namely an adequate external confirmation of fitness for the work of the pastoral office, and at the very outset, let me state an axiom, and then seek to open up that axiom and demonstrate its scriptural basis.

Axiom: External Confirmation is Essential

3:44 The axiom is this.

3:47 While sober self-assessment, while sober self-assessment of our desire,

4:01 graces, and gifts, while sober self-assessment of our desire, grace, and gifts, is a personal responsibility which no man can righteously evade, a personal responsibility which no man can righteously evade, comma, an external confirmation of that assessment,

4:37 an external confirmation of that assessment,

4:43 by a cross-section, hyphenated word, cross, section, of spiritually-minded people,

4:57 an external confirmation of that assessment by a cross-section of spiritually-minded people is essential to a valid call to the pastoral office.

5:17 Now there's the axiom. You can check it as I run it by one more time. While sober self-assessment of our desires, graces, and gifts is a personal, personal responsibility which no man can righteously evade, comma, an external confirmation of that assessment by a cross-section of spiritually-minded people is essential to a valid call to the pastoral office. Now, for the proof and demonstration as well as explanation of the axiom, we go to the word of God.

Biblical Basis for Sober Self-Assessment

5:52 I have stated in the front end of the axiom that sober self-assessment of our desire, whether it is indeed a spiritual desire, our graces and gifts is a personal responsibility which no man can righteously evade. I am obviously thinking of two pivotal passages of Scripture, Romans 12 and verse 3, in which the Apostle is very explicit, unequivocal in his language. I say through the grace that was given to me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but so to think as to think soberly according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. Now, a man cannot walk righteously before God and evade this personal responsibility of sober self-assessment. The text is too clear, it is too broad, it is too all-encompassing for us to evade its pressure and still be considered men walking in the path of righteousness. And the second text that underscores the same principle,

7:17 not with quite as much force, but it's a close second, is 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11. 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11. 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11. According as each, here the emphasis you see upon each and every individual, according as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, if any man speaks, speaking as it were oracles of God, if any man ministers, ministering 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.

8:00 Amen. Now here again, the emphasis is very clear that this is an individual, personal responsibility, according as each hath received a gift, he is to minister it among the people of God, recognizing he is a steward of one of the facets of the grace of God coming to light, in the endowment of specific gifts. Now God has given us the two things essential for sober self-assessment. He has given us the Holy Spirit and the objective standard of the Word of God.

8:40 And the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a spirit of illumination, a spirit of knowledge and understanding, in a text such as 1 John 2, 27, the anointing you have received, teaches you all things. And then we have the objective standard of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. So for anyone to claim to be walking in the path of righteousness while deliberately evading sober self-assessment is to be self-deluded. However, self-assessment alone is neither safe, nor biblical.

The Danger of Self-Deception and the Need for External Confirmation

9:24 And I want to introduce the proof of that statement by reading from the article on the call to the ministry with which Thornwell interacts in his essay on the call to the ministry. And the gentleman who oversees the rare book section in Princeton Library was kind enough to have this xeroxed and sent to me, and I have found it to be of inestimable value. It is the article for brevity. You can call it the Christian Pastor by Breckenridge.

10:02 And this is what Breckenridge says with reference to the necessity of having the external confirmation of our own sense of fitness for the work of the ministry. I quote from page 22 and over to the top of page 23 of his article. It cannot be denied that we are liable to be deceived in this matter as well as that of our personal interest in Christ and indeed in every other which concerns our inward state and exercises. Remember one of our fundamental principles we're in the realm of experimental divinity, therefore there is not the same objectivity as there is when contemplating soteriology proper in terms of justification, identification, adoption, sanctification, etc. So he says in all of these areas we are liable to deception and why the testimony of our conscience cannot be sufficient evidence to others and why it needs to be enforced even to ourselves by other and concurring proofs. The human heart is not only desperately wicked, but it is deceitful above all things. And the most difficult part of knowledge is to know ourselves.

11:27 And sin itself is not only infinitely deceitful, but it is also most deceivable. And therefore to the extent that it reigns in us, it subjects us to the risk of being deceived and of deceiving ourselves. What I have before said plainly shows that the danger of being deceived by others into a conviction that we ought to preach the gospel is by no means imaginary. And all who have endeavored to fathom the wiles of Satan and who've wrestled earnestly with the plague of their own hearts well know that the danger of self-delusion is real and constant.

12:12 It is for this reason, amongst others, that kindness to those who are seeking the pastoral office as well as fidelity to the church of Christ demands a degree of faithfulness on the part of teachers and church courts far beyond what is commonly exercised. It is upon this ground, in part, that ordinations and then he uses two Latin words which as best I could track down their meaning means without an actual charge which have been such a curse to our church are always so dangerous seeing they proceed in the absence of one of the main evidences of any call at all to the work namely, the testimony of God's people. You see, he was fighting against the practice that was beginning to snowball in the Presbyterian church in the mid-1800s of clerics forming a presbytery and ordaining people to quote the ministry generically. While not being scrutinized by a specific body of God's sheep. And he was crying out against that practice and he was taking it on the chin by Hodge and others but he stood with tremendous fidelity to the word of God.

13:36 He says it is from a deep conviction of this truth that I have earnestly but without success labored to have some provision made in our discipline whereby persons who have been unfaithful and unfortunately deceived in this matter and of whom it has been discovered by themselves or others after they were ordained that they were never called of God might be relieved from the dreadful temptation to continual hypocrisy and from the degrading sentence of deposition for what was perhaps as much their misfortune as their sin and in which whether one or the other the church herself was an accessory before the fact. Now those are sagacious words from Breckenridge stating that in the light of the heart's propensity to self-deception we must have the testimony of the people of God as to our fitness. Now it is clear from the scriptures that earned credibility by a cross section of spiritually minded people is crucial. Now by the words cross section I mean presently recognized leaders in the church and ordinary church members

Scriptural Undergirding for External Confirmation

15:02 of proven discernment and wisdom. Now that's why I've used the word cross section involving not only the recognized leaders of Christ's church but also non-office bearers men and women of proven discernment and wisdom. Now what scriptures undergird that part of the axiom? Well take the text that lies at the foundation of this endeavor in the academy 2 Timothy 2.2 Speaking to Timothy in second person singular he says the things that you Timothy have heard of me among many witnesses the same do you Timothy commit to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. You Timothy must make a judgment as to character and fitness in those to whom you will commit in a concentrated and more formal way the body of apostolic truth. So no man could claim a right to be part of that group of those who were the recipients

16:23 of a concentrated exposure to that deposit of truth who had not come through the sieve not only of honest sober prayerful self assessment but Timothy's assessment as well there at Ephesus. And as it is clear in Timothy's own case there must be what we would call the groundswell of the discerning people of God. We often concentrate on Timothy's recognition in terms of the descriptions given in the pastoral epistles. They focus more primarily upon his formal ordination and installation into his specific office whatever it was as an apostolic representative. And we tend to overlook what led to those things described in the pastoral epistles. And what led to it is found in Acts chapter 16. And he came to Derbe and to Lystra and behold a certain disciple he's just described as a certain disciple was there named Timothy the son of a Jewish that believed but his father was a Greek.

17:38 The same was reported of by the elders at Lystra and Iconium? No. Well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him.

17:59 So that there was first of all before there were any prophecies leading the way as Paul says to Timothy before there was any peculiar endowment of gift and grace and spiritual anointing accompanying the laying on of the hands of the presbytery there was a cross section of the discerning people of God who formed the initial groundswell to recognize in Timothy a gift of Christ to his church. Now when we turn back just a few verses to Acts 15 we see the same principle is operative. Paul had to make a judgment about John Mark in the light of not the the information he had prior to the first missionary journey but in the light of the most current information he had about John Mark. And in the light of that Paul verse 38 Paul thought not good to take with them him who withdrew from them from Pamphylia and went not with them to the work and then there was this contention between Paul and Barnabas and I think the overwhelming pressure of the whole passage indicates that Paul's judgment was right and he is therefore commended along with his new companion Silas by the brethren.

19:28 No indication that Barnabas taking John Mark with him had the approbation of the church though we are sure it was all under the sovereign will and decree of God but God's decrees do not form the basis of our duty his precepts do and here we see the principle again of the provenness the objective assessment by those competent to make that assessment and now we can add to that the texts in the book of Proverbs and one of the most crucial is Proverbs 18 verses 1 and 2 and then I will quote a number of others that are very familiar to us in the old American standard it is rendered he that separates himself seeks his own desire and rages against all sound wisdom Kyle and Eilish commenting on this passage tell us that the main excuse me Hebrew word denotes one who willingly and indeed obstinately withdraws himself from others the effort of the separatist goes out after a pleasure that is the enjoyment and realization of such instead of seeking to conform himself to the law and ordinance of the community he seeks to carry out

20:57 a separate view and to accomplish some darling plan of his own and then he says this further records with other parallel texts this putting his subjectivity in the room of the common weal and common weal means good of the commonwealth or the group we're associated with this putting his subjectivity in the room of the common good he shows his teeth places himself in fanatical opposition against all that is useful and profitable in the principles and aims the praxis of the community from which he separates himself the figure is true to nature the polemic of the schismatic and sectary against the existing state of things is for the most part measureless and hostile and then he shows that verse two is connected with that the fool has no delight in understanding but only that his heart may reveal itself therein you see he's only concerned to reveal his own internal convictions he has no delight in an accurate understanding that would come by some subjecting his own self-assessment to the objective external assessment of a cross-section of the people of God and I commend

22:26 the further comments on that and of course we add to that the familiar words of proverbs 11 and verse 14 proverbs 11 and verse 14 where no wise guidance is the people's fall but in the multitude of counsellors of the people there is safety and by the multitude it certainly does not mean heaping to ourselves people whom we have preselected as those whom we are confident will agree with us but the multitude of counsellors is a broad spectrum of counsel in which people will look at our situation from various perspectives and in that there is safety proverbs 15 and verse 22 where there is no counsel purposes are disappointed but in the multitude of counsellors they are established and then proverbs 24 and verse 6 for by wise guidance thou shalt make thy war and in the multitude of counsellors there is safety and speaking with one of our brethren just this week he said how thankful I am that I am being eased into the office of an elder for I know that when the heat gets intense and the pressures overwhelming

Owen's Perspective on Essential Elements of a Call

23:54 my confidence will be that I did not intrude myself into this office hastily or upon the basis of mere subjective personal assessment I am being encouraged and validated in my own assessment by the objective external confirmation of a multitude of counsellors and in that sense he is learning the truth of proverbs 24 6 that in the multitude of counsellors there is safety no surprise then that Owen would write as he does in volume 16 pages 73 and 74 as follows and notice I have an unusual number of quotes today and I have done this purposely taking them from Owen classic Puritan theologian from the 19th century Presbyterian Breckenridge we will see some from John Newton converted slave trader and one or two other sources to show that this is no novel position that we are taking I read now from Owen and this may at present suffice as unto the call of meet or fit persons unto the pastoral office and consequently any other office in the church he is summarizing the things following are essentially necessary unto it

25:20 now when Owen brings those two words together you better take note essentially necessary unto it so as that authority and right to feed and rule in the church in the name of Christ as an officer in his house may be given unto anyone thereby by virtue of his law and the charter granted by him unto the church itself and then he lists four things essential in his summary to a valid biblical call that we can truly regard as an activity of the ascended Christ giving a gift of a pastor teacher to his church and here are the first two the first is that antecedently unto any actings of the church towards such a person with respect unto office that he be furnished by the Lord Christ himself with graces and gifts and abilities for the discharge of the office where unto he is called this divine designation of the person to be called rests on the kingly office and care of Christ toward his church where this is wholly lacking it is not in the power of any church under heaven by virtue of any outward order or act to communicate pastoral or ministerial acts to the church of any church under heaven by virtue of any outward order or act to communicate pastoral or ministerial power unto any person whatever where no gifts

26:49 furnishing a man to do the work are present let church courts and councils and ordination committees do what they will Christ is not acting men are acting without his warrant or blessing but then he says secondly there is to be an exploration and trial of those gifts and abilities as unto their accommodation to the church to the edification of that church where unto any person is to be ordained a pastor or minister but although the right of judging herein doth belong unto and reside in the church itself for who else is able to judge for them or is entrusted to do so marvelous parenthesis for who else is able to judge for them to desire the assistance and guidance of those who are approved in the discharge of their office in other churches so you see what he is saying any wise church will call in wise proven pastors and elders from other assemblies to help them in validating a man's own subjective assessment as they make in Owen's words exploration or trial of his gifts he is convinced he has them he says let's explore this and make trial of them and let the church do this

Application: Countering Individualism and Misuse of Scripture

28:19 with the assistance of discerning brethren now by way of application my brethren let me say this in a day of crass individualism and existential subjectivism to insist on the quality control of this external validation is to go against the whole mood of the hour join crass individualism to existential subjectivism what I feel is supreme what I judge to be right and good must be that's what I mean by existential subjectivism and we are talking about something that is antithetical to the prevailing mood of the hour add to this the wrong use of principles operative in the recorded examples of men called to an extraordinary office in an extraordinary way such as prophet or apostle and the problem is compounded you take crass individualism existentialism now join to that a flavor of biblicism in which there is a wrong use of Jeremiah's call and Paul's call and then the problem is

29:48 compounded because men are case hardened in their crass individualism and existential subjectivism by the semblance of scripture and it's only the semblance we do well to listen now I come right into the twentieth century to Dr. Edmund Clowney who in his book writes on pages eighty four to six as follows your church's calling nothing can concern you more personally or intimately than your own calling of Christ he has called you by name not by number or classification for no selective service draft is so selective as Christ's your own name is written on that white stone in his hand he knows it and one day he will show it to you in the book Galatians two seventeen can your calling then be the business of anyone else when you are assured of the Lord's call doesn't that settle the matter why not present yourself to a church of your choice and inform the congregation that the Lord has called you to be their pastor Paul certainly insisted he had not been he had been called directly by Christ must not that be your insistence

31:17 too not in the same sense you see he's properly using Paul's account of his call and saying you don't make a flat one to one equation the calling of an apostle as a foundation stone in the church of Christ was more direct than the calling of other ministers every apostle Paul included heard the voice of Jesus Christ called him by name Christ has not appeared from heaven to you if you think he has I'll check into what you were eating the night it happened that's not Dr. Clowney that's me Christ has not appeared from heaven to you and his call to you has come through men in fact through the apostles that is the apostolic teaching yet your calling while it may have been the source and authority of your ministry how then can the calling of men be related to the calling of Christ then he uses Paul himself and shows that in Galatians 2 9 though Paul was called directly from heaven by Christ Paul's calling was recognized by the pillars of the church James and Cephas and his call to be a special

32:46 minister to the circumcision while they went I mean to the uncircumcision while he went to the circumcision it was a proper recognition in harmony with the order of the church the key to this action is described by Paul in these words Galatians 2 9 when they perceived the grace of the power of God they were foolish because they didn't know what was their calling and the spirit of God was the power of God and the power of the The apostleship of the circumcision wrought for me also unto the Gentiles, writes Paul in Galatians 2.8. The ascended Lord calls men by the gifts of His Spirit. The man called is steward of these gifts.

33:58 He dare not quench the Spirit. But the stewardship is not His only, however. His gifts are for use in the body of Christ, ministering for the upbuilding of the body, Ephesians 4. The church must claim these gifts and provide channels for their use.

34:18 It must also respect and honor them as gifts of Christ. We have seen that gifts of authority require public recognition for their proper exercise. A man may love or pray secretly, but he cannot govern or admonish but openly. The recognition of the church does not bestow the authority.

34:41 Only the gift of Christ can do that. It does accept the authority and relate the gifts of one man of God to the gifts of the people of God so that the mutual sharing and fellowship of gifts may minister to the growth of Christ's body. And he goes on to develop that in a most helpful and perceptive way. Now, for those who are nurtured in a well-ordered church, this explains, external confirmation of fitness will generally come in a gradual and almost imperceptible way, much as the conversion of a child born in a context of godly example and nurture is the emergence into life rather than an earth-shaking experience of passing from death unto life in which the child can mark the day, the hour, and the place. And this external validation in a well-ordered church will be something that a man will in a sense look back over his shoulder and simply recognize that it has been happening. And when a formal proposal is made that such a man should be encouraged either to pursue actively

36:04 a congregation that will recognize in him a gift of Christ or be given to some concentrated period of acquiring tools and means of worship. And additional skills for the work of the ministry, why there's no debate, there's no discussion, the people of God have seen it, and all they need to do is to hear it verbalized and articulated in their hearts say, yes, that's so, that's obvious, it's clear, God's hand is upon our brother. And there'll be nothing dramatic about it. However, with others, it may well be that in terms of God's dealings with them, they've already been pursuing a given career, they are saved perhaps later in life or in the threshold of their prime years, and God's dealings with them may be a bit more dramatic. There may be more crises of wrestling through at what point should I, do I, ought I to give up my legitimate career, etc. And this is where there will be latitude in how that external confirmation comes. But we must settle in our hearts that however it comes, it must come.

37:23 And furthermore, we must seek by God's grace to dismantle this wretched system in which a man's subjective sense of call and his own assessment of fitness is all that is necessary to put him on a course which, unless God intervenes in an unusual manner, may not be fulfilled. And so I think, by God's grace, we must be able to dismantle this wretched system in which a man's subjective sense of call and his own assessment of fitness is all that is necessary to put him on a course, way will land him in the pastoral office. Even his elders don't dare question when he says, I feel called of God. They feel like that's touching the burning bush. That's hands off. And so they write their letter of commendation, and off to seminary he goes, and he's on a course which, unless God sovereignly intervenes, will land him in the ministry. And there's been no objective external assessment by a cross-section of the people of God as to his fitness to do the work. And brethren, we need to go after that system, and under God's seat to dismantle it root and branch, and right down to every last blossom. Well,

Introduction to the Fourth Element: Providential Opportunity and Ecclesiastical Recognition

38:29 that's what I want to say to you about large letter C. This whole matter of having, by God's grace, an adequate external confirmation of fitness for the work of the pastoral office. So I think this will be the...

38:46 the best place to break, and then we'll take up large letter D, and hopefully we'll even have a little time for discussion at the end.

38:56 All right, now brethren, let's pick up at large letter D in the outline, and you may have it numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, that's your business, but just so you know where we are, we come to the fourth and final element in a biblical call to the pastoral office, and as I indicated in the previous hour, I've changed the wording a bit from the way it appears in your outline, and this is the way I'd like you to record it. A providential opportunity, a providential opportunity and proper ecclesiastical recognition for the work of a specific pastoral charge. A providential opportunity and proper...

39:51 proper ecclesiastical recognition for the work of a specific pastoral charge, and then you'll notice in the parentheses in your notes, printed notes, or as in the case of a missionary, a similar recognition for the work of church planting, and I've given no name to it. I'm not fully satisfied that evangelist is the right category. I am fully satisfied that apostle, with a small letter A, is not the right category. I am fully satisfied that apostle, with a small letter B, is not the right category. So what it is, I'm not quite sure. I know more what it ain't and what I think it's not, but nonetheless the principles are the same, that in the case of a missionary, there must be a providential opportunity and proper ecclesiastical recognition for that work to which a man is being sent. Now as I wrestled with these issues for a while, I was undecided as to whether this was but a further expression. Of letter C, an adequate external confirmation, but the more I wrestled with it and the more I read, the more I became convinced that these are indeed two separate things, that a man

41:06 may have both a settled, sober self-assessment of his fitness, and have external confirmation from a cross-section of the people of God, and yet there exists a rather lengthy period of time. An example of this is in the scripture of the book of Livingoss, where a man is created in the form of a cross-sectional and a left-hand side of his right hand that can be the cross-section of the person who is God. And as I wrestled with these issues, I found that David, being a man, had a proficient recitative power of his own, and he appeared before the people of God in complete character and knowledge and self-awareness. He was a prophet of Israel, had a puerperal and perfect mission and was one that he appreciated even when he did not maintain his original status.

41:30 In the text of chapter 1, this is thezzat injector saying, And by way of analogy, not strict parallel, remember David's being marked out by Samuel, for the kingship in Israel preceded by many years his ascendancy to the throne, which increased the rank and rank of the king. By way of analogy, Paul's direct commission at his conversion, according to Acts 26, was some years before the Holy Ghost actually said in Acts 13, separate Paul and Barnabas unto the work whereunto I have called them. So I do believe it is a separate category, and I'm content at this present level of light on the subject to keep it as a fourth category, a providential opportunity and proper ecclesiastical recognition for the work of a specific pastoral charge. Now then, let me again state an axiom and then demonstrate its biblical basis. Here's the axiom.

42:37 The crowning validation of a man's call to the pastoral office is, the crowning validation of a man's call to the pastoral office is the recognition of a specific congregation, is the recognition of a specific congregation judging and acting by the rule of Christ,

43:19 leading to his formal ordination to, leading to his formal ordination to,

43:34 and installation in that office.

43:40 Leading to his formal ordination to, and installation in that office. So here's the axiom. The crowning validation, and remember, a crown can't be hung on a sky hook. It's got to have a head that's joined to a neck that's joined to some shoulders, and all this other leads to it.

Explanation of the Axiom and Biblical Principles

43:57 But the crowning validation, validation of a man's call to the pastoral office, is the recognition of a specific congregation, judging and acting by the rule of Christ, leading to his formal ordination to, and installation in that office. Now let me just explain briefly the various elements, and then we'll go to the scriptures. A specific congregation, a congregation must see in a specific man a gift of the ascended Christ.

44:40 In other words, there must be some act of suffrage, expression of corporate will by a congregation for a man's call to be a valid biblical call.

44:57 We see no evidence in scripture that a pastor is ever imposed, from outside of the congregation in which he serves. An apostle may be imposed, and an apostolic representative imposed. For this cause, I, Paul, left you, Titus, in Crete.

45:20 I, Paul, told you, Timothy, stay behind at Ephesus. In the Ephesian church, if they rejected Timothy, we're rejecting apostolic authority. But there is no indication whatsoever, not a shred of it, in the New Testament, that a pastor, a resident elder, a shepherd, an overseer, is ever imposed from without. And that's why I've said the crowning validation of a man's call is the recognition of a specific congregation, but a congregation judging, that is, assessing this man's fitness, and acting by the rule of Christ.

46:06 Where Christ's rule is totally disregarded, then Christ's authority is not present in the action. And that recognition of Christ's rule must lead to a man's formal ordination to and installation in that office. In other words, by some rubric of ecclesiastical ritual, there must be a man's call to be a man of God. There must be a formalizing of that which has taken place in the heart of a man and in the heart of a congregation.

46:46 And the Bible describes it in these terms, that they ordained for them elders in every city. The Bible says, stir up the gift of God which is in thee with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. There is an indication of something that at least looks like a man's call to be a man of God. It looks somewhat like a present service of ordination.

47:12 So, some clear external act by which the church acts to acknowledge and receive and submit to Christ's gift, and by which a man formally, openly avows to accept the task, the office, and its functions. All right? So, that's what's bound up in the axiom. Now, what biblical principles, precepts, or precedents, frame such an axiom?

47:38 Well, I cannot commend too highly the section in Owen, Volume 16, Volume 16, pages 51 to 74,

47:51 for a thorough and convincing biblical and historical defense of this axiom. And I re-read that section of Owen after I'd made my axiom. And I said, well, whether Owen is so buried in my head that when I started thinking, it came to me, it came out martinized Owenese, or whether indeed I had been driven to the position and found it validated by Owen, I confess I cannot tell. I don't know.

48:19 But all I know is that I felt a tremendous sense of safety when toward the end of seeking to formulate that axiom, I re-read that section in Volume 16 of Owen and found a thorough and, to my judgment, convincing, biblical, that is, exegetical, and historical defense of this axiom. Now, all I can hope to do is to capture the major biblical materials and lay them before you. On what basis do we say that a man's call is not validated until a specific congregation, judging and acting by the rule of Christ, recognizes him as a gift of Christ? Well, the very book of Acts opens in chapter 1, with indications that even in this matter of the recognition of a replacement for Judas, there was to be congregational consensus.

49:23 Congregational consensus. There were 120 gathered in the upper chamber, verse 15, and in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren. He didn't stand up to announce, I am now going to tell you what Jesus meant when he said, Thou art Peter. He meant that I am the Pope and I will now begin my papal reign here in the upper room and it's time you people recognized it.

49:49 Now, that isn't what he did. He said, Brethren. Brethren. He stood as a brother amongst his brethren.

49:58 It was needful that the Scriptures be fulfilled with reference to Judas. And now he says in verse 21, in the light then of the Scripture, which says, Let his office, another take 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 to the day that he was received up, of these must one become a witness with us of his resurrection. Now notice, and they put forward to. It didn't say Peter pointed out or marked out or selected to.

50:38 It says they, the brethren, by corporate faith, by consensus put forward to whom they believed met those requirements and who perhaps manifested additional qualities. We do not know, but they put forward to. And in dependence upon the Lord, then they said, God, you know the hearts of all men. Show which of the two whom you have chosen.

51:03 You see that marvelous, delicate interplay in this, what we might call seminal passage of congregational activity, recognizing previous divine choice and will and activity. Show which of the two whom you have chosen that we may then make this appointment or recognition. So I say here in Acts chapter 1, there are some seminal principles pointing to the fact that the community of the people of God are to be active in the recognition of those set apart unto special office. This is further unfolded in Acts chapter 6 in what I believe most of us regard as the, at least the seedbed out of which the New Testament office of deacon grew. If we do not actually have the appointment and recognition of seven deacons, we do have at least the germ form of the diaconate. And you remember when the need arose and the apostles in response, no doubt, to seeking the face of God for wisdom came up with a sanctified expedient. And that was that men should be chosen to take this matter of caring for the widows.

52:30 And we read in verse 2, and the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, that is the whole church. It is not fit, that we should forsake the word of God and serve tables. Look ye out, therefore, brethren, from among you. You do the looking out.

52:52 Here are the requirements. Men of good report, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we, as the special office bearers, they were both apostles and the only elders and shepherds in the church of Jerusalem at that time, whom we may appoint over this business. Yes. You look them out that we may appoint them.

53:14 And if you do this, then we'll be able to continue to give ourselves to our distinctive ministry. Verse 5, and the saying, please the whole multitude and they, the whole multitude, that's the immediate antecedent, they chose Stephen and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor, whom they set before the apostles and when they had prayed, they laid their hands upon them. So here we have, we have again the principles of congregational discernment being exercised in the recognition of men according to a divinely given standard and then when those men have been recognized, a formal ritual, an ecclesiastical ritual, not all rituals are sinful, a ritual by which the congregation recognized those men as deposits of gift within the church. The congregation to function according to their designated role and if we may use the term with inverted commas, office. Then in Acts 14.23, we have what is the watershed text in the book of Acts and we're quite familiar with this in the light of our recent studies of our missions policy, the major activities of these missionaries on their first missionary journey are all summarized here in Acts 14.23.

54:42 Acts 14 and verse 21 and 22 and 3. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch confirming, literally strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and if they will simply believe hard enough, they'll have health, wealth, and prosperity till the second coming. That's the way Kenneth Hagin in his ilk would have exhorted them but not these men. And that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.

55:22 And when they had appointed for them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they had believed. Now I commend to you Owen's exegetical arguments on the use of kairatoneo, the verb that is used in a participial form here as indicative of common congregational suffrage. We read the text, they appointed, you would get the impression that the apostles or the apostle and his companions took the initiative and marked out men and appointed them unilaterally. But Owen's arguments, five pages of argument that I believe is absolutely unanswerable or are unanswerable, those pages of argument, and conclusive, the very, not only the etymology of the word, kairos, hand, and the way the word is put together, not only its use in secular literature, but its use in scripture of that brother whose praise is throughout all the churches. It says, who was chosen for this task. That is, there was common suffrage by the people of God recognizing that particular, brother. So in this situation then, we have the guidance of the spiritual overseers

56:50 who at this time were the apostles leading the church to a common suffrage with reference to men who will function as elders than their formal installation into that office and function when they had prayed with fasting. In other words, this was a peculiarly solemn occasion and they had this recognition of it by a concentrated season of prayer and of fasting. And then the result was that in each of these individual churches, elders were established and set in place. When they had appointed for them elders in every church, you didn't have the apostles forming a general ordaining council, saying, now when churches proliferate, you guys are elders waiting in the wings and then you can drop down in as proper reverends with all of your ordination certificates and parchments all in hand. No. Churches came to birth first. Churches came to some measure of maturity and then out of the ranks came those who were set over them by common suffrage under the guidance of apostolic, directives.

58:13 Which directives we have embodied in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. So we do have the apostles with us in the appointment of overseers. We just don't have their bodies. But thank God we have their inspired standard.

58:30 Then in Acts 20, 28,

58:34 Acts 20 and verse 28,

58:40 another pivotal text,

58:43 when Paul charges the Ephesian elders, that is the group to whom he is speaking according to verse 17. He says, Take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock in the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed the church of the Lord. These elders are described as those who are in the midst of the flock. They're not something external to the flock, but they are in the midst of the flock and the Holy Spirit has constituted them the looker-overs, the overseers, the shepherds of the church of the Lord. But again, there is no concept that they were imposed from without, but they are first of all in their essential identity members of the flock, the very flock in the which the Holy Spirit is constituted them overseers. And then of course the emphasis of Titus 1.5 where Paul says, For this cause I left you at Crete to do what?

59:56 That you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I gave you charge. And then he gives to Titus a standard by which he may guide the churches in the appointment and recognition of their elders. Now let me just give you a sampling of some of this cream from Owen on this matter of why the church must act a specific local church in the recognition and calling of a man to the office. This is from volume 16 pages 54 and 5.

Owen's Defense of Congregational Call and Critique of Generic Ordination

60:38 The call of persons unto the pastoral office is an act and duty of the church. It is not just not an act of the political magistrate and that's what you have in Erastianism where church and state are linked. Ultimately you have the political authority making appointments. This is one reason why if you invited me to be the vicar of the most spiritually minded Anglican church in all the world, I wouldn't go because I would have to acknowledge the Queen of England as the head of that church.

61:15 My face flushes. I can feel it when I just think of it. Any human being daring to take to himself or herself the title head of Christ's church. And if you're a loyal Anglican, you recognize the Queen and her crown set in Christ's church.

61:36 That's why the covenanters were willing to spill their blood. They said there's no crown in Christ's church but Christ's crown. Not an act of the political magistrate. Not of the Pope. Nor of any single prelate, a bishop. But of the whole church unto whom the Lord Christ has committed the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And indeed, although there be great differences about the nature and the manner of the call of men to this office, yet none who understands aught of these things can deny that it is an act and duty of the church which the church alone is empowered by Christ to put forth and exert. But this will more fully appear in the consideration of the nature and manner of this call of men unto the pastoral office and the actings of the church therein. The call

62:30 of persons unto the pastoral office in the church consists of two parts. First, election. Secondly, ordination. And then he goes on to open up what is requisite to these things.

62:42 It can never be the duty of the church to call or choose an unmeet and unqualified and unprepared person to this office. Now listen to Owen. The church is not to call or choose anyone to office who is not known unto them, of whose frame of spirit and walking they have not had some experience. Not an office or one lately come unto them. Three weekend visits and a four hour meeting with the pulpit committee. Owen says, a plague on your house. So when we say dismantle that system, and that's iconoclastic radicalism, then I hide behind Owen. He went before me and paved the way.

63:25 And I just put my little size four shoes and his size twelve footprints and say, take on Owen. He must be one who by his ways and walking has obtained a good report, even among them that are without, so far as is known, unless they be enemies or scoffers. One who hath in some good measure evidenced his faith, love, and obedience unto Jesus Christ in the church. This is the chief trust that the Lord Christ has committed unto his churches. And if they are negligent herein, or if at all adventures they will impose an officer in his house upon him without satisfaction of his meekness upon due inquiry, it is a great dishonor unto him and a provocation of him. Here in principally are churches made the overseers of their own purity and edification.

64:25 Churches are the overseers of their own purity and edification when they act by the rule of Christ in the recognizing of their office bearers. To deny them that is the church an ability of a right judgmentarian or a liberty for the use and exercise of it is error and tyranny. But that flock which Christ purchased and purified with his own blood is thought by some to be little better than a herd of brute beasts.

64:56 We reverends, we presbyters, we alone can examine a man's fitness. This multitude that knoweth not the law. What ability do they have? Well, in God's name, what's the men been doing? The men been doing is standing in the pulpit if they haven't taught them what to look for, to recognize the gift of Christ. The answer is not to perpetuate their ignorance, but to instruct them that they may act biblically for their own purity and edification. And he says, secondly, if that's to be so, there must be a trial of his gifts for edification. And then he goes on to amplify and to expand.

Implications: No 'Pastor at Large' and Waiting on God's Providence

65:36 Well, I say I'm in good company when I assert this axiom that the crowning validation of a man's call to the pastoral office comes when under God, there is the recognition of a specific congregation judging and acting by the rule of Christ, leading to his formal ordination and installation to that office. Now, I've sought to give you the biblical materials. I've buttressed it with this quote from Owen. Now, this has some very crucial implications.

66:11 It has some very crucial implications.

66:16 And the first is one articulated by my friend, Breckinridge. I'll read the quote and then I'll state the essence of the implication.

66:29 Quoting from the footnote on page 22 of Breckinridge. There's a very great difficulty in proving that any ordinary office bearer in the Church of Christ can be lawfully or even validly ordained at all without he is ordained, we would say, except he is ordained to a determinate office. That is, to a specific office in a specific church. And the only ground upon which the ordination of evangelists can be justified is that their office is an extraordinary one. But it is clear that the getting of this office as extraordinary, and then using it not at all, but in place of it, using the ordinary office of a minister of the Word, is either a piece of rash, inconsiderate ignorance, or is a mere fraud and covenant breaking. And so is the law, and punishable besides as an immorality. See, he saw this going on in his day. People circumventing the biblical material that pastors should be ordained only by churches in existence that call them.

67:39 So they got around it by ordaining a man to an evangelist, and then let him go out and doing his own thing. And Breckinridge says, wait a minute, don't you play games with God's offices. If you say here's an extraordinary office and with an extraordinary office, ordination, then let him do the extraordinary work of taking the gospel into areas where it's never penetrated and doing the work of an evangelist. Not end up president of a college. They were sending ordained men to function as presidents of colleges and other things. And he says, no, no, no, this cannot be. It is the church that calls a man to function as an overseer. Or the church may commission men and send them out, and if they call them evangelists, let them do that distinctive work.

68:26 Then he goes on to say, as to the validity of ordination to the ordinary office of a bishop, pastor, or minister of the word, without designation to any particular church, consider, number one, that the thing is utterly unwarranted by precept or example in the word of God, and is contrary to the constant practice of the apostles. And you know what text he gives? Acts 14 23, Acts 20 28, and Titus 1 5. So we must be reading the same Bible.

68:58 Secondly, it was absolutely forbidden in the ancient church, and this is where Owen will help you in that section. He quotes the decrees of various early church councils that abominated this practice. They saw the evils inherent in it. It was absolutely forbidden in the ancient church. The council of Chalcedon pronounced all such ordinations invalid, and the council of Ephesus even decreed, that a real bishop could be considered entitled to the name, title, and honor of one only by courtesy, but not at all any office power, except as he stood related to some particular congregation. So they said, all right, if a group of churches want to acknowledge a man of unusual gifts and stature and wisdom as a leader among his brethren and call him bishop, fine, but they said only, only bishop over many churches by way of counsel and influence if pastor and biblical bishop over a particular congregation of God's people. They had enough sense to see

70:03 that though the other might be an expedient, it could not negate what was clear in biblical revelation. Three, the election of the people is an absolute and indispensable element of collation to office power. Therefore, without this, an ordination to such power is strictly invalid. Four, every term, bishop, pastor, elder, by which the ordained person is designated is a relative term, and therefore to use them of one who has no church, people, or flock, implies, as John Owen well notes, has a real contradiction and impossibility as to make a man a father who has no child, or him a husband who has no wife.

70:50 Five, it is wholly inconsistent with the whole office, duty, and work of the ordinary ministry, of the word, every part of which, and especially the whole power of rule, supposes the state of a case the opposite of that supposed when a man is ordained without a charge to be a minister at large without any to rule over or amongst, or to care for, feed and edify. He says it's absurd and unscriptural to ordain men and then have them go off to professorships, etc., etc., etc. This man, had his heart and soul in this issue, and he had the issue by the juggler vein, and Hodge's attempts to discredit him I think are pathetic. Hodge should have stuck to writing theology and not gotten into ecclesiology with this man because when he's accused of taking novel views and there's a current reformed man who quotes Hodge's statement that this view is novel, he goes back and shows again some little tiny beany, beany, bitsy footnotes that Gillespie and other old Scottish divines saw this issue and addressed it, that it is no novel position. So, what is the implication of what we've considered? Well, the implication is that this notion, once a

72:09 pastor, always a pastor, has absolutely no foundation in scripture. It is a Romish notion. It is rooted in a carnal, clerical elitism. Once a reverend, always a reverend. When I see the title so-and-so, pastor without a charge, I say, what's that in the Bible?

72:32 Now, we're not talking about a man who may take a temporary leave of absence for back surgery or to have a head examined to see if you remember the definition we had of an airhead? You look in one ear and you see nothing but light through to the other. Someone gave that definition recently in our midst. But we're talking now about the whole idea of a man who is not recognized by a given congregation of God's people as the gift of Christ.

72:58 He's carrying on his name and his title while he has no sheep to shepherd. The implications are further that we must believe that the head of the church will in his time cause his own gift to be deposited and received in the place of his appointment.

73:24 It means we must believe that the head of the church will in his time cause his own gift to be deposited and received in the place of his appointment. Now here I quote from that lovely little article of John Newton's on the marks of a call to the ministry in the select letters of Newton published by the Banner of Truth on page 55 and just over onto page 56. He's writing to a young man who wrote to him about the whole matter of what do I do? I have an itch to preach.

74:04 I have a desire for the ministry. What counsel can you give me? And Owen's counsel breaks down into three categories and category number three is this. That which finally evidences a proper call is a corresponding opening in providence by a gradual train of circumstances pointing out the means the time, the place of actually entering upon the work.

74:31 Till this coincidence arise and here he means not a coincidence, happenstance but this coincidence this coming together of these various incidents you must not expect to be always clear from your hesitation in your own mind about your call. The principal caution under this head is not to be too hasty in catching at first appearances. If it be the Lord's will to bring you into his ministry he's already appointed your place and service and though you know it not at present you shall at a proper time. If you had the talents of an angel you could do no good with them till his hour is come and until he leads you to the people whom he has determined to bless by your means. Isn't that present? If you're called of God and equipped of God until you wait the place of God there'll be no usefulness by God. It's very difficult to restrain ourselves within the bounds of prudence here when our zeal is warm. A sense

75:35 of the love of Christ is upon our hearts and a tender compassion for poor sinners is ready to prompt us to break out too soon. But he that believeth shall not make haste. He quotes one of my favorite texts Isaiah 28 16 he that add to it Proverbs 19 2 he that makes haste with his feet sinneth. I was about five years under this constraint. Sometimes I thought I must preach though I had to do it in the streets. I listened to everything that seemed plausible and to many things that were not so. But the Lord graciously and as it were insensibly hedged up my way with thorns. Otherwise if I had been left to my own spirit I should have put it quite out of my power to have been brought into such a sphere of usefulness as he in his good time has been pleased to lead me to.

76:27 And now I can see clearly that at the time I would have first gone out though my intention was I hope good in the main yet I overrated myself and had not that spiritual judgment and experience which are requisite for so great a service. So he goes on then gently and lovingly to say to the young man keep your pants on. Hold your horses. Get rid of the itch to run ahead of God and wait for God's providential opening into the sphere of your usefulness.

Implications: Overhauling Ordination Practices and Final Exhortation

77:08 That's the second great implication. The first was no perpetual shepherd title and name. The second we must believe that in God's time God will lead us into his door. And the third implication is that the generally accepted practice with respect to this crowning validation must in most cases be radically overhauled. It must be restructured in order to reflect a greater sensitivity to biblical norms. I already alluded to this idea of two or three trial sermons, one or two interviews and then a call is issued.

77:54 Brethren, these things ought not so to be if we're thinking biblically. And while the Bible does not give us a detailed manual, surely much radical overhauling can be done in the language of our own confession respecting the general rules of scripture and the light of Christian prudence on this issue. Listen to Owen, again speaking so perceptively on this matter in volume four. This quote is taken from volume four, page 495.

78:31 The church has no power to call unto any office of the ministry where the Lord Christ has not gone before in the giving of gifts. You see, here's that constant evidence. Now he says, the outward way and order whereby a church may call any person to the office of the ministry among them and over them is by their joint solemn submission unto him in the Lord as unto all the powers and duties of this office testified by their choice and election of him. It is concerning this outward order that all the world is filled with disputes about the call of men to the ministry which yet in truth is of the least concern therein. He says, don't get hung up on mechanical details. He says, that's where the dispute comes. Must you have the hands of just ordained men or should it be the hands of a group of presbyters or he says, this is where all the disputes come. He says, this is the least concern

79:32 for whatever manner or order be observed herein, if the things before mentioned be not premised there unto, it is of no validity or authority. If a man has not manifested grace and gift and provenness and been called by a biblically enlightened people, he says, I don't care what your ritual of ordination is, it imparts nothing. It is a nullity. As I said to the man whose wife was unconverted and she was a superstitious devout Roman Catholic and when they first born came along she wanted to have him done and he came and said, what shall I do, pastor?

80:14 I said, well, what happens when the priest does his mumbo-jumbo, back then they still did it in Latin, and puts the water on his head and the salt in his ear, what actually happens? He said, well, his forehead gets wet and if he had a cut in his ear he'd get stung a little with the salt. He said, nothing. I said, alright, then let the priest do nothing.

80:32 No, don't, don't set up, don't set up for this as a, you don't go and let her take the kid and let the priest do nothing. If nothing happens, then let the priest do nothing. Let's not draw the battle lines there. In other words, all of the Latin and mumbo-jumbo investments the priest had no power to take away the original sin of that child though he thinks he does, he doesn't.

80:53 So all he says, and people are all upset about this form, that form. He says, that's not the issue. No matter what the form if these other things be not premised and do not precede the control of gifts, the recognition by the church biblically enlightened and instructed then whatever your rubric of installation and ordination is it's a nullity. On the other hand, grant that the authority of the ministry depends on the law, ordinance and institution of Christ that he calls men unto this office by the collation of spiritual gifts and the actings of the church herein are but an instituted moral means of communicating office power from Christ himself unto any and let but such other things be observed as in the light and law of nature required in cases of an alight mind and the outward mode of the church's acting herein need not be too much contended about. He says, get hold of these principles of what really constitutes a call and then how you go about it he said, do whatever seems to be in keeping with the general principles of the light of nature. I'm not going to fuss at you. I'm not going to come and watch your ordination service and say, oh that was three degrees left and center and that was for what I want to know is has this man been possessed as to true desire, as to the

82:22 possession of true fitness has the church expressed its mind biblically? If so then I say it's in essence, I don't care how you go about recognizing it that's your business and the Bible doesn't give us a lot of details it may be proved to be a beam of truth from the light of nature that no man should be imposed on the church for their ministry against their wills or without their expressed consent, considering that his whole work is to be conversant about their understanding their judgment, their will and affection and how can a man do that where he's not been received by the people to function in the guiding of their judgment in the areas where he must have their hearts and their commitment then he goes on to amplify this whole matter, but then he concludes with this, lest we take a overly latitudinarian attitude he says, I would not much dispute with any though I approve only of that which makes the nearest approaches to the primitive pattern that the circumstances of things are capable of he says, though I'm not going to fuss about details I feel a lot more comfortable when I see people trying to come as close as they can to the primitive pattern, that is to what is revealed in scripture so that's why Owen insisted in his day, that with ordination there be a season of prayer and fasting and the laying

83:50 on of the hands of the existing elders because he felt that was as close to the primitive pattern as he could come if anyone will fall to man for that mentality, God have mercy on him, that's why I love Owen, he's got a catholic spirit and yet that catholicity never becomes a latitudinarian spirit, and he says alright, I give men their leave, but as for me and my house, we're going to come as close as we can to what we believe to be the primitive the biblical pattern and brethren, should not that be our passion because logic has a way of making its way out and dominating whatever it touches and the more we stick by the primitive pattern even though we may not understand all of the reasons for it the less likely we are to imbibe a false theology of ordination if we stick to the simplicity of the elements of ordination that are revealed in the scriptures well, there's much more that could be said, but I said I wanted to leave us some time, and this is the heart of what I wanted to lay before you and I would say to you men who, coming to an exam time, which is difficult and it represents in many ways the fruit of so many hours of arduous labor you say, what is all of this for? and I say, if you're prepared

85:18 to wait God's time until God brings you to his group of people and you can stand someday or kneel whatever your posture may be and the hands of men are laid upon you in formal recognition that Jesus Christ has given you to his church in an orderly and biblical way it will be worth all of the present pain and mental strain and labor it will be worth all of the frustrating waiting the raised eyebrows, the man's invested four or five years to quote go to seminary and now he's sitting around pounding nails or sweeping floors or punching information into a computer, what in the world's wrong with him? can't he get a church? and you've resisted all that pressure and you've waited until God has opened your door and I tell you brethren it's nothing nothing in all the world next to your wedding day to know that I'm here, not because I've heard any voices from heaven, but the head of the church has placed me here holy, the means revealed in his own word and I tell you then you can face all you face by saying, Lord, I didn't intrude myself into the ministry, you didn't put me into it this is your business to give me wisdom for this situation, grace for this situation, courage for

86:46 this situation, love for this situation, Lord, you don't send out a soldier and tell him to get his own K-rations and make his own rifles and his own bullets no man is sent out on service at his own charges Lord, I'm in your army, you conscripted me, you've got to give me my ammunition you've got to teach me how to shoot it Lord, I'm your soldier, you've got to equip me, Lord, I'm your shepherd you must give me wisdom and all that's needed, so may God grant that whatever it costs us, brethren we will never intrude ourselves into that office, but that we shall in obedience to these biblical principles, seek by God's grace to have those four elements that comprise a biblical call to the pastoral office, and I'd cover your prayers for me, this stuff has so gotten in my gut this semester that if I could, I'd like to take off two or three months right now and write, and get this stuff in print, it's desperately needed, but I don't see how I can do it, so you pray the Lord give us wisdom to know what the answer to that felt dilemma is