Life and Ministry of TMA (1992)

Introduction to Trinity Ministerial Academy and New Student Mark Snyderick

0:03 This cassette contains excerpts from the 1992 Academy Introduction Service held on Sunday evening, September 20th, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now we have announced that tonight would be our Trinity Ministerial Academy night, that one Lord's Day service in the fall of each year, when our worship is centered around this particular concern of our church life and ministry. And for those of you who are new among us, or visitors, just a brief word of explanation as to what the Academy is,

0:45 perhaps will enable you to enter in more fully to the worship and to the ministry of the Word of God. Trinity Ministerial Academy is a framework of formal ministerial training which operates within the confines, of the life and ministry as well as the facilities of Trinity Baptist Church. It is a four-year rigorous academic curriculum with the core courses being Systematic Theology, Biblical Theology Systematic Theology, Historical Theology, Pastoral Theology, Biblical Languages and Exegesis Courses in the major species of biblical literature.

1:30 Students must be commended to us by local churches as men who are truly prospective elders, both with respect to graces of life and to gifts of utterance. And they normally attend classes four days a week for eight 13-week semesters. So when we say a four-year rigorous academic curriculum, we are not overstating the reality. They attend the classes, as I say, four days a week, but what makes the academy different from most institutions is that they do so as those who have become members with us in this assembly,

2:12 expected to enter into the life and ministry of the assembly, so that during this crucial time of their development they are not cut off from the church, which is God's ordained classroom for maturation in Christ. And if you'd like a fuller explanation of the biblical basis of the academy and more details about the instructors and the curriculum, the prospectus is on the little podium at the rear of the auditorium. And for those of you who've never had one of those and read it, let me urge you to take one as you leave, and that will give you a fuller picture of the life and ministry of students in the academy.

2:55 Now, as Pastor Lamar Martin comes to lead us, in our worship, may I encourage the ushers to let the folk in the upper lobby come in as he comes to lead us in our worship of the living God.

3:11 Now, as we have been reminded, this evening is Academy Night. And we as a church thank God for the privilege of having a part in preparing men to go out into the harvest fields of our Lord Jesus. In fact, we consider it a sacred trust. And we thank God.

3:31 And we thank God that he continues to raise up men and to send them to us. And this evening we would like to introduce to you one such man whom God has sent to us all the way from England. Many of you have already met our newest academy student. His name is Mark Snyderick.

3:51 And we've asked him to come and tell us in five or ten minutes a little about himself. Now, as he comes, you will have to listen very carefully in order to understand him. He's just beginning to use proper English, but we hope that by the end of four years, then he'll get it straight. So at this point, we'll ask our brother to come and say what is on his heart.

4:20 Well, good evening, my brothers and sisters. I was going to say my name is Mark Snyderick, and I come from England, as you may be able to tell from my accent, but that's already been said, so I won't say it. I come from Crawley, Reformed England. I'm from the United States.

4:54 I'm from the Reformed Baptist Church, and I come with my wife, Sally, and my 14-month-old little boy, Tom. Now, Crawley is located near Gatwick Airport, which is one of the airports serving London. So if you've ever been to the UK through Gatwick, then you would have been only about 20 minutes from our church building. And I spoke to Pastor Austin Walker just a few days ago.

5:25 He's now at this Academy night, and perhaps many of you either know him or know of him, because he studied at Westminster some 25 years ago under men like John Murray. And he has known this church from, I believe, its very inception. And he asked me to bring you the greetings of the church in Crawley, and of the elders in particular, and of himself. And I'd just like to assure you that you are welcome.

5:54 Thank you. Thank you. The leaders of the church as a congregation and the elders are in the prayers, the regular prayers of our church back in England. Sally and I came to Crawley about five-and-a-half years ago.

6:09 We were both already Christians. We'd newly graduated from university. We were newly wed, but we'd never been members of a church. And as we look back upon the, where do we commence, thinking about how we got to Trinity, we have to say that we are grateful to God that he was gracious to us to make us members of a church where the elders are seeking to implement the biblical pattern of rule by elders and pastoral oversight and also the biblical pattern of the centrality of the church the local church in the work of the gospel

6:50 and I know that that is a lonely furrow to plough for anyone but it is lonely back home in England and I know that particularly Pastor Walker feels that and I was very struck by what Pastor Bozzino said that he was encouraged just by knowing that God has raised you up and that you are here and I think I can say that on Pastor Walker's behalf it's been a wonderful experience for us me and for Sally to go through this process of seeking the Lord's will it hasn't been by signs written in the sky or by voices in our minds

7:32 but it's been through the slow and painstaking process of consideration by the elders by the congregation by other wise men such as our dear Pastor Blaze and it has been a great thing to have been part of as we've been trying to see whether the Lord has been granting to me in some measure the gifts and graces that are necessary for the ministry of the word of God and it's been a comfort to me when perhaps I've been frustrated at the slowness of the process or perhaps at the uncertainty of the outcome of this process which is still going on

8:17 that this is God's way and that is my conviction as I speak to you tonight that this is the way that God has set out in the scriptures and we are grateful that as a result of what we have done in coming to this place that behind us we are not just on our own but behind us we have the considered and sacrificial support of our church back in Crawley and that gives us a great measure of stability and comfort as we look to the challenges of the coming months and years and we have the support of other churches that you probably will know Boston Lake for example and Louisville whom God has enabled us to visit enabled us to fellowship with and they are now supporting us

9:01 and we are grateful to God we've come here on trust because we haven't been able to visit personally either before or after making our application and we've come here on the recommendation of our elders and of our own knowledge of the ministry here and of other men like Pastor Sebastian and we rejoice to be able to say to you that we are not disappointed in the least with what we have found and in fact it is dawning on us and it has been so since we arrived at the beginning of August week by week Lord's Day by Lord's Day why it was that the only place that our elders could tell us to come to was Trinity Baptist Church and I speak for Sally

9:46 as well as myself that we have found here a home from home truly it is good to be with the Lord's people wherever they meet and yet we believe also that it is different from our home and it is good to be with the Lord's people it is right for us to be away but we want to go back and may the Lord be gracious to us that we could return in four years to serve our church back home in whatever way that the Lord gives us to serve we look to this time then as a testing of what we believe the Lord is giving to us and that he would give us those graces to me those graces and the gifts to serve him I would also like to

10:30 specifically now thank you as a congregation for your prayers we know you've been praying for us and that's been wonderful we thank you for your warm reception of us and I can see already even after only about seven weeks many friendly faces in the congregation we thank you for your practical help and for the gifts that you've given us we thank you for opening your homes to us we thank you for the God's grace for the God's grace for the God's grace for the God's grace for the God's grace for the God's grace and for the godly example that we've seen among you of raising your children of relating husband to wife of submission to the elders and we are also thankful to you and to God

11:13 that there are links of friendship already occurring between us and we look forward to that and as far as to finish prayer requests that we would like to ask you to pray for us we would say that we are very conscious and I am very conscious of the privilege that we have to pray for us that God has given to me and to Sally to come here and we are conscious of the responsibility that we therefore have before God and before the people of God for the good stewardship of these wonderful privileges I say these things are better than silver and gold these things are better than lands and houses what I am learning now in the academy and in the church and I am conscious of our Lord saying

The Foundational Goal: Able Ministers of the New Covenant

11:58 that to whom much has been given much will be required and I can say quite honestly that my knees are weak not just because I am standing before you now but because I am anxious for the responsibilities that maybe the Lord willing will give to me and so I pray that you would pray I ask that you would pray for us that we would be faithful stewards of all that he gives us well thank you very much for listening as we come to the ministry of the word of God tonight I want to lead into that ministry by a prayer of prayer by a prayer of prayer affirming something that Pastor Lamar said earlier

12:40 and that is that God has given to us as a church both a wonderful privilege as well as a solemn responsibility by setting within the context of our life as a church the Trinity Ministerial Academy and if you and I would understand the privilege and appreciate it and feel the weight of the responsibility it will only be as we come back again and again to our foundational principles the scripture asks the question if the foundations be destroyed

13:23 what shall or what can the righteous do and foundations can be destroyed in two basic ways they can be destroyed by a violent sudden disruption someone can plant dynamite in the foundation someone can cause a stream to be diverted and to hurl its fury against the foundation or it can be destroyed by a slow erosion it can be destroyed by an almost imperceptible loss of the strength in the concrete blocks or if it is of some other material

14:05 and it is only as the people of God in this place by the grace of God continually come back to our foundational principles and check the foundations that this ministry will continue to be owned of God the day these principles are merely assumed but are no longer clearly and passionately preached and no longer clearly and passionately embraced by the church in its rank and file membership that day is the beginning of the end concerning the real usefulness of the academy

14:48 and therefore tonight I will seek to articulate some of the foundational principles concerning the life and ministry of the Trinity Ministerial Academy and what is in my heart to lay out to you from the scriptures will find itself reigning in the name of the Lord and I will begin with a very simple question the first and its answer will take the bulk of our time the second will conclude in the final minutes our message and the first question is this what is our goal for the men who are involved in the training program of the academy what is our goal

15:33 by what standard do we evaluate whether or not we are doing what the academy under God's blessing is supposed to do perhaps you have heard it said that he who aims at nothing will always most surely hit his target he who aims at nothing will most surely always hit his target if you were to go to a camp where men are being trained to be duly commissioned green beret military soldiers and you were to ask one of the instructors what are you seeking to produce in this camp

16:17 where you train green berets well after he had set out the goals of all involved in every facet of the instruction and equipping of a green beret military soldier you would boil it down and that goal would be to turn out a lean mean fighting machine in beautiful popular parlance? Well, we in the academy must have a clearly articulated goal, and we must ever keep that goal before us, and we must constantly evaluate and fine-tune that goal as God gives us

16:58 further light from the scriptures. Well, if you were to ask us in the most general terms what our goal is, we would answer that our goal is to see the men who come into the academy further formed into able ministers of the new covenant, to be fashioned into the kind of a man that God describes in Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, where he tells us that it is this kind of a servant of God whom he gives to his people under the new covenant.

17:35 Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, and I will give you shepherds according to my heart who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And in the broadest terms, this is our goal, to do our part in the providence and will of God to contribute to these men the things we are able to contribute both in the classroom and in the life of this church. That will, with the blessing of God, further mold them into shepherds after God's own heart. Shepherds

18:17 who will be able in the strength of the Spirit over the long haul to feed, to shepherd the people of God with knowledge and with understanding. To use a New Testament term, it is our goal to see God furnish men with knowledge and understanding. And in the broadest terms, this is our goal, to do our part in the providence and in the life of this church. To use a New Testament term, it is our goal to see God furnish men with knowledge and with understanding.

18:36 To use a New Testament term, it is our goal to see God furnish men with knowledge and with understanding. For the grace is in gifts essential to their becoming able ministers or sufficient ministers of the new covenant. That's the language of Paul in 2nd Corinthians. But, that's altogether too generic and it floats by us without any hooks in it. And I want to break

Characteristic 1: Men of Real and Exemplary Godliness

18:57 that down into at least four categories of concern without which that generic description of the New of able ministers of the new covenant in the language of Paul or in the language of Jeremiah, shepherds who shall feed with knowledge and understanding without these specifics, I say there will be no concreteness to our goal, no basis of evaluating whether or not we are attaining that goal. And the first of these four major characteristics of such men is this,

19:35 they will become increasingly men of real and exemplary godliness. They will become increasingly men of real and exemplary godliness. Now what do I mean by the term real godliness? Is there such a thing as unreal godliness?

20:01 Well, yes, there is. For the scripture says that in the last days, one of the kings of the kingdom of God was a man of real godliness. One of the kings of the kingdom of God was a man of real godliness. Characteristics of men will be that they hold to the form of godliness, having denied its power.

20:16 And the Pharisees in the New Testament are the classic yet sickening example of an external godliness that is not real godliness. For you remember the indictment of our Lord Jesus against those official religious leaders and teachers of the Jews. He said of them, and I read now from Matthew chapter 23, With respect to these Pharisees, that they say, verse 3, but they do not. Verse 5, all their works they do to be seen of men.

21:00 They are taken up in the external forms and activities of godliness. But then he goes on in speaking to these, and he says to them, and now I direct your attention to verse 25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Ye cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess.

21:29 Yes. Yes. Yes. And then he describes them in verse 27, like whitewashed sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautifully.

21:39 Beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men. But inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy. And when I say it is our goal that under God we would see these men increasingly become men of real godliness, we mean a godliness that goes beyond external patterns of life.

22:17 A godliness that goes beyond officious ministerial correctness. A godliness that grows out of a state of the heart. A godliness. A godliness that permeates all the inner chambers of the soul.

22:33 A godliness that grows out of an inner heart of session with Jesus Christ and with conformity to Christ and with a passion to please Christ. But not only do I use the term real godliness in contrast to the external godliness of the Pharisees, which alas marks many who hold official, official office in the church of Christ. But I say it to contrast what I would call pietistic godliness that really neuters a man's manhood.

23:12 In pietistic godliness there is an artificial and a feigned attempt to appear spiritual which in reality destroys true manliness. A godliness inconsistent with laughter and with tears, A godliness inconsistent with laughter and with tears, and with feeling. A godliness that makes men into plastic men that you can cut off their arms and they don't bleed. We have no sympathy for pietistic godliness that would neuter a man's manhood and make him something half man and half angel.

23:52 One whom we may stand in awe of but one to whom we'd never feel we could bare our hearts in an hour of grief, One whom we may stand in awe of but one to whom we'd never feel we could bare our hearts in an hour of grief, or of pain. One who seems to live so above our struggles and our weaknesses that we would never feel confidence to come and to know that we would have a sympathetic heart and a sympathetic ear. We are committed brethren to seeing God so work in these men that they will be increasingly marked by real godliness. But not only real godliness, I said exemplary godliness.

24:30 Godliness as well. Men who have advanced beyond the measure of that Christian character demanded of anyone who would remain a member in good standing in the church of Christ. And here I ask you to take your Bible in hand as I will not merely quote the text but ask you to look at them with me. But when we turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1, where the requirements for the office of an elder are set, are set forth in explicit terms, notice the dominant emphasis upon exemplary godliness.

25:10 Faithful is the same. If a man seeks the office of bishop, better rendered if a man seeks overseership, he desires a good work. The overseer therefore must be. He must be without reproach.

25:32 No just cause to fault him for gross inconsistencies in his practical manifestation of a life of balanced and matured godliness. He must be without reproach. And then he goes into the specifics. Without reproach domestically, the husband of one wife, a one woman man, self-controlled, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach, no brawler, no striker, but gentle, not contentious, no lover of money, one that rules well his own house,

26:16 having his children in subjection with all gravity. But if a man knows not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a recent convert, lest being puffed up, he fall. Into the condemnation of the devil.

26:32 Moreover, he must have a good testimony from them that are without. And you see, apart from the little phrase, apt to teach, which translates one Greek word, all of the requirements here focus upon exemplary godliness. A man who is under the scrutiny and assessment of the church at large, and under the assessment of its leadership in particular, is to come off as a man of exemplary godliness, of balanced, matured Christian character.

27:13 And this is why Peter, in charging the elders in 1 Peter 5, 3, having told them that their main task is to shepherd the flock of God, he tells them that in this work of shepherding, they are not to try to pull off their oversight by a carnal, gentile-like oppressive rule, not lording it down upon the flock of God, for the people of God, but making yourselves examples to the flock. And while with Paul we say in 2 Corinthians 4, 5, we preach not ourselves,

27:57 but Christ Jesus the Lord, we must be able to say with the apostle, in the language of 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 2, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. There must not only be real godliness, it must be cultivated to the level of exemplary godliness. Those graces must not merely be present in unborn form. They must have come to some degree of flowering that all the people of God can see what it is

28:39 to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. And this is why in speaking to Timothy, who was a relatively young man, as we heard in the Sunday school hour this morning, Paul exhorts Timothy to neutralize the liabilities of his youthfulness, Paul exhorts Timothy to neutralize the liabilities of his youthfulness, Paul exhorts Timothy to neutralize the liabilities of his youthfulness, how? Not by mesmerizing people with his oratory, not by impressing them with his scholarship by getting several doctor's degrees, but in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 12, he tells Timothy the one sure way

29:21 to neutralize the liabilities of his youth before the true people of God is this, let no man, 1 Timothy 4, 12 despise or think lightly of you because of your youth. But Timothy, would you neutralize the liabilities of your relative youthfulness? Here's the way to do it. Be thou an example to them that believe, young and old alike, in word, in manner of love, in the manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity.

29:57 Timothy, let any older man who is tempted, to take out the arrows of your exhortation, because they were placed in the bow held by a young man, when he's about to pull out the arrow, let him look at your life and say, I cannot do it. Because the man who sent the arrow into my heart, sets the standard in the very area in which he has pierced me. That's what he's saying to him. Let no man think lightly of you, your person, your functions as a minister.

30:28 And here's the antidote to the liability of youth. It is exemplary piety in the full corpus of your life, Timothy. You are to be an example of those who believe in word, in manner of life, everything, Timothy, from your social graces to your demeanor and bearing. That's why he later on says, don't rebuke an older man, but entreat him as a father.

30:58 Let your awareness of social decorum, even in your most intense ministerial duties, be such that no older man can ever take just defense at your manner, and thereby seek to escape the pressure of your matter. Be an example of the believers, in the totality of your manner of life, in your demeanor, your social graces, your physical appearance. Don't become a fat, out of shape swab, that anyone, who has an appreciation for true manhood, will look at you, Timothy, and say,

31:37 how in the world can that man preach to me self-control and self-restraint, when his fifty pounds of blubber hanging over the pulpit, are the contradiction of what he's urging me to do. Timothy, you cannot afford the luxury of any chinks in your armor. You can't afford the luxury, Timothy, of any area of your life. Put outside the disciplines of true godliness.

32:06 Be an example to them that believe in word, in manner of life, in love. In love. Not carnal sentiment, but true love. Love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, love that seeks not its own, love that acts and reacts, as described in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

32:32 And then Paul's word to Titus, his other assistant, is equally emphatic, though not as extensive. In Titus chapter 2, Paul's representative in the Isle of Crete, carrying out the ongoing maturation of the churches, he has given to Titus many specific instructions regarding specific segments of the church. Young men, older women, younger women. But he says, when you've done all of this, Timothy, look at Titus, look at verse 7.

33:07 In all things showing thyself an example of good works. In all things. What has he been touching upon? He's been touching upon very practical matters of how the older men are to be self-controlled, sober-minded, sound in the faith, in love, and in patience.

33:37 Older women to be reverent, in their demeanor, not slanderers, not tellers, spending too much time by their wine glass. How the younger women are to be chaste, and workers at home, submissive to their own husbands. How the younger men are to be sober-minded. And he said, in all of these things, Timothy, though you do not occupy the same place of an older woman, a woman, a younger woman in the home, in all things, in the counterpart, your assigned place.

34:10 Timothy, you go before. Titus, you go before and set the example. Titus, in all things, showing thyself an example. Dear people, once it grips the heart of any potential elder, particularly an elder who will be set apart for that unusually intense public scrutiny that comes with laboring in the word and in doctrine, though, there is no double standard.

34:41 It is an intensified standard. It's an awesome thing to know that we are under solemn obligation to show ourselves an example of good works in everything.

34:56 You can't afford the luxury of allowing any area to be put outside the scrutiny of the eye of God, and outside the parameters of the law of God, and outside of the scope, of our concern to be blamelessly godly. And such real and exemplary godliness will be marked by humility as its subsoil out of which it grows. For God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Isaiah 57, 15, Thus saith the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy,

35:41 I dwell in the high and holy, the holy place with him also that is of a humble and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite. Where do the Beatitudes begin? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom. And all the other graces described in the Beatitudes grow out of the subsoil of the grace of humility.

36:15 Only a man walking with God, dwelling in the presence of God, will have this real and exemplary godliness, and God only dwells with the humble. Such godliness will be marked not only by humility as its subsoil, but love to Christ as its driving passion. 2 Corinthians 5, 14, The love of Christ constrains me, Christ's love to me, has fanned the fuel of my love to Him, and it's His love to me that has so gripped me and drawn out my love to Him, that if you ask me for the driving motivation for my life,

36:58 I can tell you in the brief words expounded in this pulpit several Lord's days ago, Philippians 1, 21, For to me to live is Christ. Where there is a godliness with true growing humility as its subsoil, with love to Christ, to Christ as its driving passion and motivation, then accompanied by a sensitive and a clean conscience as its barometer. A sensitive and a clean conscience as its barometer. Acts 24, 16, Herein do I exercise myself, said the great apostle,

37:40 to have always a conscience void of offense to God and to men. Like Mr. Christ, will be its practical expression. 1 John 2, 6, He that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk, even as he walked.

38:00 An eminent prayerfulness will be its conduit of life and of vigor. Eminent prayerfulness will be its conduit of life and vigor. Luke 11, 13, He gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Philippians 1, 19, This shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit.

38:26 Ephesians 6, 19, With all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. When we speak of real and exemplary godliness, this is at least in a sketchy way what we're talking about. And it is this that forms the foundation of any value, as well as any truly effective ministry that will do anything other than condemn us in the day of judgment. God can use a donkey to speak a word that effectually turns aside the madness of the prophet.

39:08 Are you prepared to say the donkey shall receive a reward in the day of judgment? God can use a Judas to cast out demons, to raise the dead, but there'll be of no account to him in the day of judgment. That's why I have said that this real exemplary godliness is the foundation of any ministerial usefulness that will count in the last day. What God may do with an unclean vessel is His business, but what I have a right to expect God to do with me is my business.

39:49 My business to be ordered by the light of Holy Spirit, is to be ordered by the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, the light of the Holy Spirit, is the strength of all human beings. When Christ gives his presence to us in this world, it is the voice of God. The presence of God is the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the presence of God is the voice of Jesus, the presence of Jesus Christ.

40:18 When Christ gives His presence to us, it is the voice of God. It is the voice of God. in the brain, in that part of the brain that affects the motor coordination of the speech, such a man, were he rendered inoperative with his vocal faculties overnight, you would still count it a benediction to have him live among you, for the sheer weight of his conscience is marking out the path and making likeness to Christ both desirable and something to

40:55 be sought earnestly. That's what we're committed to in the academy. That's why there is such a process of scrutiny before men come into this academy, to see if indeed they are other than the multitudes that have been bit with the preacher's bug, who've got some silly notion that some bent and twisted need in their psyche will be met by public leadership, or who have some distorted view of their almighty gifts, but who have never come to grips with the fact that if Christ is forming them to able ministers of the new covenant,

41:39 it will be evident in their greatest passion being not to be great preachers, but to know great likeness to Christ. Robert Murray McShane's words are well known, but they deserve repetition. A holy man is an awesome instrument in the hands of the living God. It is this that we are committed to. It is this that we are determined by the grace of God to see

42:15 in the men whom God brings among us. And this is why these men become church members. This is why we expect them to immerse themselves into the life of the church while they are here, to put themselves under the oversight and care of the elders. Why? Because the church

42:37 is God's ordained. It is God's ordained classroom to bring us to greater degrees of holiness. Along with the personal disciplines of private prayer and private meditation, God has deposited the major means of grace within the boundaries of His church. It is within His church that He has placed the official ministry of the Word, the oversight of proven shepherds and guides of our faith. It is within the church that He has placed His family, so that we

43:08 take the honor of the gospel of faith as well. This is why I've already mentioned the preliminary steps and échanges to get down in the上 of the trinity, the finalらい, and we've seen the surging in its this scene of revelation, that you are working,if God wants, for which I see in the 복. It is an honest attempt to be consistent with the teaching of the Bible that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. And according to Ephesians 4, it is within the interaction of the body of Christ

43:53 that the body makes increase of itself in love through that which every joint supplies.

44:01 Well, that's the first characteristic. That's what we are committed to see in these men. And that's why, as I so often tell them, there are two classrooms that they enter every day. The classroom downstairs in this building with the visible instructor, one of the five men who do the major work of instruction.

44:24 But then there is that classroom in which God continually has them. That classroom made up of a sick child, a lonely wife, a recalcitrant child, an unusually hardworking man. High emergency expenditure with a blown transmission in the car. And all of the things common to the rest of us mortals.

44:50 These men experience, why? Because God is committed not to insulate them from those things we heard about this morning. For it is the manifold trials in their life while students that work in them. Those graces which will bring them to a place of real and existence.

Characteristic 2: Able to Expound and Apply Scripture Accurately, Clearly, and Powerfully

45:10 That's what we call the exemplary godliness, by the blessing of God, the Holy Spirit. Now, I've spent a good bit of time on that because we can't emphasize it too much. We cannot underscore it too much for the weight of Scripture falls upon that emphasis. But you see, the most godly, exemplary men in all the world may not necessarily be competent to be shepherds who will feed the people of God with knowledge and understanding.

45:41 So our goal is, in the second place, to see men who are increasingly able to expound and apply the Scriptures accurately, clearly, and powerfully. That's our goal. To see men who are increasingly able to expound and apply the Scriptures accurately, clearly, and powerfully. The shepherd.

46:12 Shepherds after God's heart, as we read in Jeremiah 3.15, are men who can feed their fellow men with what? Not with the spun sugar of anecdotes and the fluff of their own notions, but God says who will feed you with knowledge and with understanding. And where is true knowledge and understanding found but in this blessed book?

46:43 It is in Scripture, according to 2 Timothy 3.16, all of the God-breathed Scripture that is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. And therefore, Paul says in the fourth chapter of that epistle to Timothy, preach the word. Be urgent in season and out of season.

47:11 Reprove, rebuke. You are to...

47:13 Give yourself to this task, Timothy, of proclaiming the word. And this is why we do not allow any man into the academy unless his elders and our ears, they have to send us some tapes of recent sermon disciplines to see if there is some evidence of a gift of utterance given to them by the head of the church. For though by the blessing of God we can stoke, as it were, the fires and give them the tools to learn how to stoke their own hearts and minds with the truth of God, we cannot give the gift of utterance. God must give it initially and continually.

47:58 That's why when Paul solicited the prayers of the saints of Colossae and in Ephesus, and when we find the church gathered to pray in Acts chapter 4, in all three instances, the thing they sought from God was the grace of utterance. And they were already...

48:14 They were already experienced preachers. Paul says, Pray for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly and speak as I ought to speak. And when we receive men into the academy, we do so because we believe in the judgment of charity that there is already evidence that God has given them a modicum of the gifts essential to expound...

48:45 to expound the scriptures and apply them accurately, clearly and powerfully. And what our goal is, to see these men become increasingly able and to furnish them with the tools that they may, under the blessing of God, for a lifetime be able to expound and apply the scriptures accurately, clearly and powerfully. Why is accuracy so important? Well, turn to 2 Timothy 2.

49:15 2 Timothy 2.15 for the answer.

49:20 Why is accuracy so important? Listen to God's word to Timothy. Give diligence. 2 Timothy 2.15.

49:29 Read in our hearing tonight. Give diligence to present yourself approved unto God. A workman that need not to be ashamed. Timothy, would you have God's approbation now and in the day of judgment when the day shall try...

49:47 every man's work of what sort it is? Timothy, are you something more than a man-pleaser? Are you a man who says, if the whole world smiles and God frowns, I don't want the wicked, witching influence of a smiling world. I must have the smile of my God.

50:07 I must have the approbation of my God. Timothy, to be approved unto God. That will mean you are a workman who has no just cause to be ashamed, now before God or in the day of judgment when you give an account to God. Now, Timothy, that's the kind of man I'm charging you to be.

50:28 Give diligence to be such a workman. And what constitutes such a workman? Look at the last part of the verse. Handling aright.

50:39 Cutting a straight course in the word of truth. Timothy, if you are to be a workman approved to God with no just grounds for shame in the presence of God now or in the day of judgment, you must accurately handle the word of God. Which is just the opposite of that which Peter condemns in 2 Peter 3 and verse 16. With reference to these false teachers, he says, as also in all his epistles, speaking of Paul, speaking in them of these things, wherein are some things hard to behold, to be understood,

51:22 which the ignorant and unsteadfast, and the word rest, W-R-E-S-T, is a translation of a Greek word that you would use if you were trying to describe what someone did when they put a man on a torture rack and then began to tighten the ratchets that held the ropes to his arms and legs and then you'd hear his shoulder sockets pop and hear his thighs, joints pop, and the screech and the scream of the torture rack. That's the word used. He said the ignorant and the unstable rest. What do they rest?

52:03 They rest the word of God coming through the apostle Paul as they also do the other scriptures. You see, they traffic in the Bible and in biblical language and in biblical text, but they do not accurately let the text speak its message. They put it on, they put it on a torture rack and they stretch it out of joint and they do so to their own destruction and to the destruction of those who listen to them. It is of utmost importance that if we are thinking biblically, we are passionately committed under God to see men in the academy increasingly able to expound and apply the scriptures accurately,

52:47 but not only accurately, but with clarity. You see, 1 Timothy 3 says, a man must be an apt teacher. He must have a facility to teach. And you see, a man cannot be an effective teacher whatever his style or method or his own God-given personality is if he cannot present concepts with a degree of clarity so that you know the head from the body and the tail of the development of thought.

53:18 If he's laying out an argument, you can see the premise with which he starts and the one that he begins with. He builds upon it and the one upon that and the structure stands out vividly in your mind and convinces your judgment because the man is an apt teacher. Titus 1 in verse 9, if you turn there, says that the elder must be able in his public ministry to do two things. He must be able both to exhort, comfort, to encourage.

53:49 All of that is bound up in the word exhort. Holding to the power of God, the faithful word which is according to the teaching that he may be able both to exhort in the sound doctrine. He must speak with sufficient clarity to comfort, to encourage, to impel, to action the people of God. But he must be able to do something else and to convict.

54:17 And that's the strong word to convict. It means to bring to the bar of the jury and have the sentence in a man's own breath. He must come back guilty. Convince the gainsayers, those who speak against the truth, would be a paraphrase of the Greek verb antilego.

54:36 And so a man must be able, he must have a cultivated ability to speak the word of God not only accurately, but clearly. That's why Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 14, 9, except ye utter by the speech words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? And that involves not only the choice of vocabulary and the use of illustration and of incidents that touch people where they live. Again, as we heard this morning with reference to the missionary, so would the pastor in his own native sphere.

55:16 He must speak words easy to be understood. But alas, there are men who expound the word with accuracy and with clarity, but they do not do so with power or with unction. And this is an indispensable element of an effective ministry, for Paul was very conscious that his own ministry could be true to the letter of the gospel. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, he says in this introductory word to this infant church, affirming his gratitude to God, for what God has wrought among them.

55:58 Verse 4 of 1 Thessalonians 1, Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election, how that our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Similar words are found in 1 Corinthians 2. My speech and my preaching were not, not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And the meaning seems to be it was a demonstration of the Spirit's presence and activity,

56:42 the characteristic of which was power. You knew that when you looked at me with my despised appearance and my despised framework of speaking to you, not after the canons, your great orators and your rules of oratory. I did not come in the role of orator. I did not speak to you with what you regard persuasive words of men's understanding.

57:09 But when I spoke, he says, you know this much, that there was an attendant divine energy upon my preaching that caused you to know you weren't dealing with this little despised Jew who spat upon your rules of rhetoric, who took a theme that he knew was both a stumbling block and a defense to Jew and Gentile and hurled it into your midst and it became the power of God unto salvation. Someone asked the preacher one time, what is unction? He said, brother, I don't know what it is, but I know what it ain't. And I'm not here to explain what unction is. I'm simply here to quote the scripture which says, there is such

57:53 a thing as speaking in word only. There is such a thing as speaking in persuasive words of man's wisdom and that speech which is in demonstration of the spirit and of power. And if you'll study through the book of Acts, you see the great connection between men speaking with power and being filled with the spirit. And though the emphasis in Galatians and in Ephesians 5 and Galatians 5 is on the ministry of the spirit in sanctifying grace, throughout the book of Acts, the dominant emphasis in the ministry of the spirit is on the ministry of the spirit.

58:29 And so the emphasis in Galatians 5 and Galatians 5 is on the ministry of the spirit in sanctifying grace. And so the emphasis in Galatians 5 and Galatians 5 is on the ministry of the spirit in sanctifying grace. And so the emphasis in Galatians 5 and Galatians 5 is on the ministry of the spirit in sanctifying grace. And so the emphasis in Galatians 5 and Galatians 5 is on the ministry of the spirit in sanctifying grace. And so the emphasis in Galatians 5 and

58:33 Galatians 5 is on the ministry of the spirit in sanctifying grace. And so the emphasis in Galatians 5 and Galatians 5 is on the ministry of the spirit in sanctifying grace. And so the emphasis in Galatians 5 and Galatians 5 is on the ministry of the spirit in sanctifying grace. And so the emphasis in Galatians 5 and Galatians 5 is on the ministry of the spirit in sanctifying grace. And so the emphasis in Galatians 5 and Galatians 5 is on the ministry

58:38 being filled with the spirit and this is the emphasis throughout I say the book of Acts brethren this is what we're committed to in the academy we are committed under God to see this framework of theological study in the context of the local church become the God owned instrument that men may become increasingly men of real and exemplary godliness that they may become men who are increasingly able to expound and apply the scriptures accurately clearly and powerfully but then thirdly

Characteristic 3: Able to Lead with Wisdom, Winsomeness, and Fearlessness

59:22 our goal is comprised of this strand of vision we seek to see men who will be able to lead the people of God with wisdom winsomeness and fearlessness we are desirous of so many people laboring with these men that what they see in us and hear from us and learn from us and learn in their involvement in the life of this church will make them into men who will be able to lead the people of God with wisdom with winsomeness and fearlessness and why is that part of our goal?

60:07 well according to 1st Timothy 3 in verse 5 the task of an elder is summed up in this simple but oh profoundly pregnant phrase 1st Timothy 3 we read it earlier tonight in verse 5 if a man knows not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the church of God the task of an elder is to take care of the church of God you mean God's people can't take care of themselves? well apparently God didn't think they could you see

60:49 it is not a semi-romish concept to say that in the office of an elder God deposits the responsibility to govern the house of God it stands on the face of this text and Paul argues from the lesser sphere of influence and rule and government which demand wisdom winsomeness and fearlessness he reasons from the lesser to the greater and if a man cannot manage well his own house how shall he take care of the larger household of the people of God for take care of it is his task if he becomes an elder an elder is likened

61:33 unto a shepherd charged with taking heed to all the flock of God purchased with the blood of the Lord to shepherd that flock Acts 20.28 in 1st Peter 5.2 the task of an elder is to rule and govern amidst the people of God Hebrews 13.7.17 and 24

61:56 and whenever you see a well-ordered church this much you know it didn't become that nor does it remain that by itself somebody is laboring in responsible positions of leadership with divine wisdom divine winsomeness and divine fearlessness and this is what we long to see in our men that they will be like Solomon who when God brings him to his place of rule and government and says Solomon 1st Kings 3 ask of me anything you would ask and Solomon prays for one thing

62:39 and for one thing only he cries out to God and says verse 9 of 1st Kings 3 give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and evil for who is able to judge this thy great people he said oh God you brought me to a task for which I am utterly incompetent give me therefore an understanding heart grant me wisdom beyond my observation beyond my experience beyond the input of my counselors and confidants oh God give me wisdom

63:22 that in a sense is a chunk of your own infinite mind give me wisdom that is from above and God gave him that plus much more but that wisdom that we need in ordering the affairs of the people of God must be joined to winsomeness and when I say winsomeness what am I speaking about well I'm trying to capture in one word those qualities that Paul alludes to in his book that Paul alludes to in his book that Paul alludes to in his book that Paul alludes to in his book that Paul alludes to in his book that Paul alludes to in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 he could say to these young Christians among whom he had labored just a short time but he says in verse 7 of chapter 2 but we were gentle

64:07 in the midst of you as when a wet nurse cherishes her own children oh the winsomeness the tenderness of a woman who so loves children that she's willing to give her breasts to another woman's child to nurse it what must the bonds of tenderness be when she holds the fruit of her own womb to her breasts that's the imagery but then he is not only a nursing mother in that gracious pastoral winsomeness but look at verses 10 and 11 you are witnesses in God also how holily and righteously and unblameably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe well did that put him on some

64:51 pedestal of untouchable dimensions no as you know how we dealt with each one of you as a father with his own children while living a blameless life you see it's evident that they love the pattern of his holiness mark this I have seen it over the years the only people that complain about an otherwise winsome man in the eyes of many and say he's detached and distant when multitudes say he's warm and winsome is because they're threatened by his blameless walk with God it's not that the man is unapproachable

65:35 it's that they don't want to get too close because it shows up the shoddy areas of their life and they'd give anything if only he would spatter his blameless walk so they could feel comfortable in their own carnality then they'd be buddies a man of God must be winsome with grace of a nursing mother but of an assertive loving father we dealt with each one of you as a father exhorting encouraging and testifying there must be wisdom joined to winsomeness

66:20 but both of these must be rooted in a God given fearlessness for if you go to the earlier part of this chapter Paul could say in verse 4 but even as we've been approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel so we speak not as pleasing men but God who tries who proves who tests our hearts we do not have our eyes upon men seeking their applause but our eyes fixed upon God you say that's inconsistent a man who has the right angles of utter disregard of his fellow mortals he'll be harsh he'll be censorious is that right? Paul says

67:05 while utterly disregarding pleasing men but only God I was like a gentle wet nurse and a loving considerate father are you going to say Paul was lying? or are you going to bend your preconceptions to the word of God? this same Paul could say to the Corinthians to whom he opened his heart and said oh Corinthians our heart is enlarged our heart is open to you our heart is not compressed we are compressed to you we are compressed in your hearts open your hearts to us how winsome how pleading how pathetic in the truest sense full of pathos and yet this same man could say

67:50 in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3 it is a very little thing if I be judged of you or of man's judgment for though I know nothing against myself he that judges me is the Lord therefore judge nothing before the time come until the Lord come who will judge me bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of men's hearts then shall every man have his praise of God any man who is not prepared to take his stand there in holy fearlessness is not fit to lead God's people for there are times when the thing they most need is what they least want and you've got to have the moral courage

68:34 to implement the precepts of the word of God and then have the people of God hurl all the flags at you just like the children of Israel did every time they got in a pinch they didn't blame God they blamed Moses but when God dealt with them he said you haven't complained against my servant you've complained against me read it I challenge you to read the wilderness wanderings and all ten instances of their murmuring and it's always focused upon the leadership and if a man doesn't have the moral courage of God given fearlessness he doesn't have the courage of God given fearlessness he doesn't have the moral courage he doesn't belong in leadership in the house of God

69:18 he doesn't belong there how in the world can you put these things together in the same part wisdom where a man is not impetuous he doesn't act before he gets all the facts he doesn't make judgments based upon sparse input he withholds judgment judge righteous judgment judge not according to appearance and he suspends judgment with its attendant emotional prejudices until all the facts are in and he doesn't act and then he seeks to weigh the facts not only in terms of the present situation but the total context of all the lives involved the church of Christ and the wider spheres of the universal church

70:03 weighing, praying pleading for wisdom and then he needs with that winsomeness that in his dealings with the people of God they will know that when he says we seek not yours but you we were willing to impart to you as Paul could say not the gospel of God on me but our very lives because you were become dear to us that he can say it and make it stick with the mind of every true hearted child of God and then coupled with that wisdom and winsomeness fearlessness prepared to say it's a little thing if I be judged of you such men are a mystery

Characteristic 4: Consumed with Zeal for God's Glory and Selfless Love for Men

70:48 not only to the world but to many within the church because they don't live by those principles they can't live by those principles they can't perceive them in another but that's where we're committed under God to see God work in these men the fourth strand of our vision and I'll just state it is to see men consumed increasingly consumed with burning zeal for the glory of God and selfless love for the good of men to see men increasingly consumed with burning zeal for the glory of God and selfless love

71:31 for the good of men what is the first and great commandment Jesus was asked in Matthew 22 and he answered in verses 37 to 40 this is the first commandment thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart mind, soul and strength and the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets and that's why I have stated that we must by the grace of God see through our efforts and the blessing of the spirit men increasingly consumed first of all with a burning zeal for God's glory out of supreme unrivaled

72:16 religious love to God and then a selfless love for the good of men without both of these he will be an ineffective minister for a man who is not consumed with burning zeal for the glory of God will never be able to do what his Lord did who in John chapter 2 when he saw all of the things that had been imported into his father's house he drove them out and the disciples remembered subsequent to that act the text that said zeal for thy house hath eaten thee up that's why Paul went at Athens seeing the city given over to idolatry

73:01 it says he was stirred within him here were people made to worship the unseen immense God who fills the earth and they're bowing down to little objects made with their hands he can't look at that and say oh well idolatry is part of life in this world he's willing for a kind of internal immolation with his own passion for God's glory here are men made to worship God God worshipping the work of their hands and it's and it drives him up to the Areopagus where he's willing to be mocked mocked for it says that that was part of the fruit

73:45 of his efforts to preach but thankfully some clave to him they attach themselves to him and he was able to teach them further but then there must be selfless love for the good of men every man aspiring to the ministry and every man in the ministry ought periodically to read through 1 Corinthians 13 on his face before God if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love it profits me nothing I'm become as a clanging cymbal and an irritating gong on the ears of men if I'm prepared to give up my body and martyrdom

74:28 and have not love it profits me nothing and to have the love that with Paul can say in 2 Corinthians 12 O you Corinthians the more I love you the less I be loved so be I I'm going to continue to love you in all the vulnerability of an open heart though all you do is take my open heart and drive knives into it I won't close my heart to you I tell you only God can give you that and give you that over the long haul give you that over the long haul when you're just the same old voice and when you know what it is to go elsewhere and be received as an angel of God

75:12 but God can give it I know he can I know he does I know he is so that personal comfort and personal ease and promotion of one's own self is utterly consumed by the grace of God in this zeal for his glory and in this love what a discipline of the spirit must God grant to consume the remnants of ambition pride and a man

75:56 pleasing spirit until God's glory and man's good as determined by God are non-negotiable buttresses to every facet of a man's life in ministry what inner dealings must come to place so that I see as I told the men on Friday I exist like a candle to be burned for the good of my people they do not exist as a platform upon which I am to parade my gifts they do not exist for me I exist for them and Paul said even among all his associates he writes from a prison at Rome

76:41 and says in Philippians chapter 2 I'm going to send Timothy to you and the reason I'm going to send Timothy is this I know that when he comes and lives among you and questions you and if he returns with a report nothing will be colored by self-serving he said I have no man like minded who will truly care for your state for they all seek their own not the things which are Christ Jesus think of it he said I have no man like Timothy onions and labor but zeal for the honor of God and a passion for the good of God's people had not yet consumed

The Church's Responsibility in Realizing the Goal

77:24 gross areas of the remnants of self-seeking he said I've only got one Timothy and we're committed to have a school of Timothys a school of Timothys by the grace of God well I said the second question I'd just take a minute in closing what responsibility do we have as a church in relationship to this goal is this just some noble ideal to float by unattainable and unreachable no it isn't I ask you to show me from the scriptures where the standard has been theoretical and unattainable no it's a real standard and therefore

78:09 as a congregation we can and must cry mightily to God for the Holy Spirit to work in the realization of this goal He alone can give us men of real exemplary godliness He alone can mold men into accurate clear and powerful preachers He alone can make them into wise winsome and fearless leaders of His people He alone can make them into men consumed with a passion for God's glory He alone and the good of God's people therefore we must cry to God oh dear people pray the Lord of the harvest that He will first make men

78:54 true laborers and then thrust them out for to thrust out one whom He has not made as we heard again this morning is to curse the work of Christ rather than to aid it we secondly we can and must maintain at any cost the climate of an ungrieved spirit in our congregation of life what happens if the spirit is grieved among us Ephesians 4.30 and His gracious presence withdrawn then the whole rationale for the academy comes tumbling in and we close up shop the day the Holy Ghost is gone from our life together as a permanent judgment upon any of those sins that grieve

79:38 Him away in the context sins of the heart bitterness rancor unforgiveness envy sins of the heart evil speech sins of the tongue the day we so entrench ourselves in such sins and justify them as righteousness and grieve away the spirit that day the academy should close shop for it's only in the livingness of the presence of the Holy Ghost in the life of this assembly that there's any justification for an academy set in the womb of this church the next time you're tempted to indulge

80:23 a petulant little bit of personal peevishness remember you could be the occasion of grieving the Holy Ghost your own present immediate feelings almighty feelings ultimate feelings there's bigger things going on here than your feelings are mine you say well Pastor Martin you've crossed the line I can't be in a church where my feelings are ultimate and the whole world will stop I say it kindly I say it kindly the world is full of places like that go find them they're a dime a dozen

81:05 they're a dime a dozen my wife and I read an article in one of her women's magazines that made us want to barf one of the biggest church growth outfits out in the Midwest to see the things that draw people in to make them feel worth something and one man said I don't have much use for this God business but this place makes me feel good think of it and men are being traipsed out there by the bus loads to attend conferences on how to do it in your place like we've done it here God have mercy on us

81:47 then we must as you've already done and as Mark has validated open our hearts and our homes to integrate these men and their families into our corporate life you read the early chapters of Acts and the emphasis not only falls upon their gatherings in Solomon's portico for public instruction but their fellowship and their fellowship around tables in their homes they ate their food with singleness of heart with one accord with joy praising God having favor with all the people you have done over the years this very thing in the language of Paul in first Thessalonians

82:30 I exhort you to abound more and more well you've been very patient both this morning and this evening