I extend a special welcome to
any of you men. I think I see one, two, I think,
who are here this morning, who were not with us yesterday morning.
And especially for your sake, I'll take just about three minutes
to review what we covered yesterday morning, and then we'll move
on into the material that we plan to cover in our two sessions
this morning. The broad subject of this conference
is the Christian ministry. And yesterday we began by addressing
two very basic questions. First one, what is the Christian
ministry? And we looked at nine passages
in the New Testament, which clearly described the Christian ministry
in terms of the function of an elder, a bishop or overseer,
a ruler among God's people or a pastor and teacher. We must
not think of the Christian ministry as though somehow it's an extension
of the office of a prophet or the office of an apostle. Until
we think of the Christian ministry in the categories in which it
comes to us in the New Testament, we will never be able to think
biblically about the task and the calling to this tremendous
privilege and awesome responsibility so we started with that very
basic question what is the Christian ministry and as I say expounded
nine pivotal text in the New Testament then we took up the
second question who should be in the Christian ministry And
here we looked particularly at three very foundational texts,
1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, and 1 Peter 5. And the answer to that question
is that no one has a right to be in the Christian ministry
who has not been furnished by Jesus Christ, the head of the
church, with the necessary graces of life, with the necessary gifts,
and with a proper calling by the church anyone who is in the
Christian ministry who picks up first Timothy three where
it says if a man desires the office of an overseer he desires
a good work the overseer therefore must be And when he reads through
that list and sees that there are glaring inconsistencies between
what God says he must be and what he is, he's got no more
business being in the Christian ministry than I have any business
this morning walking down or driving over to the Phoenix Airport,
finding the first 727 that's about to go out, barging into
the cockpit and telling the pilot, I'm going to fly it. I'll tell
you one thing, if I'm flying that plane, you don't want to
be in it. Because I don't have what it takes to fly one of those
babies. Well, when God says the bishop
must be, the overseer, the pastor must be, we have no business
forcing ourselves into the office or letting anyone else put us
into the office if we do not have the gifts and the graces
required by the Lord Jesus and if we are not properly called
by his church, that is, the church assessing our gifts our graces
in the light of the Word of God. And I'm personally convinced,
brethren, that if the ministry is to be thought of as the Bible
sets it before us, Christ giving gifts to His church, to build
up His church, to nurture His church, to feed His church, then
the vast majority of men in the ministry are not Christ's gifts.
They are the devil's substitutes. because they are not being used
to build up Christ's sheep. They're being used either to
tear them down, to fleece them, confuse them, and to scatter
them. They are not Christ's gift for the building up of his people. Now then, we come this morning
to the third question. What are the tasks of the Christian
ministry? Having answered the question,
what the Christian ministry is, It is the office of an elder,
an overseer, a ruler, a pastor, a teacher. Who should be in it? Those whom the head of the church
has given the gifts and the graces and whom the church has called
to the task. Now then, what are the tasks
of the Christian ministry? When we boil down all of the
tasks of the Christian ministry according to the scriptures,
what are they? Now, once again, brethren, as
we approach this question, we must be willing to set aside
all the traditional expectations that people may have of us, the
denominational expectations that may be made upon us, or even
the congregational expectations that may be forced upon us. And
we must go to the scriptures and say, Lord Jesus, If you are
the one who gives ministers and if you are the head of the church,
then you're the only one who has a right to tell me what my
job is. If I hire you and I'm your boss,
you don't go next door to some other company and ask for a job
description. If I hire you and I'm your boss,
you come to me for your job description because you're answerable to
me. Well, Christ is the head of the church. He gives pastors
and teachers, and he's the only one that has the right to give
the job description as to what the basic tasks of the Christian
ministry are. Now, what I want to do is to
take you this morning to what I believe is the most helpful
single text in all of scripture to give us in the distilled essence,
the boiled down essence of the task of the Christian ministry
in a more simple and clear way. I don't think there's any other
text that can match Acts 20 in verse 28. So I want you to turn
in your Bibles, please. And we're going to spend a few
minutes just opening up the text. All right, Acts chapter 20. You
remember the setting of the passage we looked at it briefly yesterday
in verse 17 from Miletus he that is Paul sent to Ephesus and called
the elders the pastors the shepherds of the church and he said unto
them now the first thing he does is to review his own ministry
among them he tells them how he served the Lord with lowliness
of mind and with tears and with trials what he did in serving
the Lord verse 20 he did not shrink from declaring anything
that was profitable how he served the Lord teaching publicly and
from house to house what was the heart of his message testifying
to Jews and Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward the
Lord Jesus, then he tells them not only how he served them,
but what he sees unfolding in his own life as he's about to
leave them. And now I go bound in the Spirit
unto Jerusalem, not knowing what's going to happen to me there,
save that the Holy Spirit testifies unto me in every city, saying
that bonds and afflictions abide me. But he said I do not hold
my life as any account dear to myself, that I may finish my
course." Now then, he's going to make a transition after saying,
this is how I served you, this is what I anticipate for my future,
and as I leave you, I leave you with a good conscience. My hands
are clean from the blood of all men, verse 26, for I did not
shrink from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God. Now
up to this point, Paul's been talking about himself. He's been
telling us how he served the Lord, he's been telling us what
he anticipates in his future, and he says, as I leave to go
to Jerusalem, I leave with a good conscience, my hands are not
stained with anybody's blood, because I was faithful to proclaim
the whole counsel of God. Now notice at verse 28, he stops
talking about himself, how he ministered, what he ministered,
where he ministered, where he's going, how he's going with a
good conscience, and now he turns to these pastors, he turns to
the ministers in the church at Ephesus, he turns to these elders,
and now he's going to lay on them their ministerial responsibility. And notice how he does it. He
says, take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock in which
the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, bishops, as we saw
yesterday, that's what the word bishop means, one who looks over
to feed or better to shepherd the church of the Lord or the
church of God which he purchased with his own blood. Now put yourself in Paul's place.
You've poured out your life and your soul for over three years
in the city of Ephesus. God has raised up a wonderful
flock of his people. And when you turn to Revelation
chapter 2, verses 1 and following, you see what a great church that
was at Ephesus, and how they were faithful in so many things.
And Paul had his guts in that church. He could say that he
had warned them day and night for three years with tears. Verse
31, Watch, remembering that by the space of three years I ceased
not to admonish everyone day and night with tears. That church
was in his heart. He wasn't a professional clergyman
doing his thing and collecting his paycheck. He was a man that
was bound up with his people. He shed tears over them. He had
sleepless nights for them. He was willing, as he says later
on here, even to earn his own living and not only work hard
enough to earn his own living, but to earn enough money to provide
bread for those companions that were with him in his gospel labors. Now you think of how dear that
church was to his heart. That church was stained with
his tears. That church had been planted
with his own sweat, blood, and tears and now he's going to leave
them and all of the care of that church is going to be in the
hands of these elders. So if ever he was going to lay
out the heart of ministerial responsibility it would be in
this setting where he's handing over the reins of the care of
that church to others. You feel something of the pressure
now of the setting of the passage? Now when he hands over that reign
of responsibility, what does he say? Well, he tells them in
verse 28, and the word that he uses is this, take heed, or literally,
be concerned about care for, pay attention to. That's what that word means.
To take heed means to be concerned about, to care for, to pay attention
to, and he uses the form of the verb, a present imperative, which
means be continually paying close attention to. In other words,
the moment he spoke, The ears of those elders knew whatever
he's telling us is our long-term job description. He's telling
us be continually keeping at this task. And what was the task? Look back at the text. He said
you are to be concerned about continually. You are to constantly
pay attention to two things. Notice, unto yourselves and to
all of the flock. And there in a nutshell, brethren,
is the heart of all of our ministerial responsibility. We are to give
constant care to the nurture of ourselves and constant care
to the nurture of our flock. So under A and B, What are the
tasks of the Christian ministry and of the Christian minister?
Constant care of ourselves and constant care of the flock. That's it. That is a stripped
down, boiled down, streamlined job description of the work of
the ministry. And I want to be bold enough
to say that anything that you can't fit under this or that
has no business as part of your life or mine as a Christian minister.
Take heed unto yourselves. Take heed unto the flock of God. Now what we're going to do in
the remainder of this first hour is we're going to take A. What
does it mean to give constant care to ourselves? That's what
we're going to take The first part of this and then the second
hour we're going to take the last part of a so all we're going
to look at today is a and then tomorrow we're going to take
up B and complete our series. Take care of yourselves the care
and the nurture of ourselves is our first and greatest ministerial
responsibility. Now that's not only the teaching
of this passage I would be very reluctant to build a case on
this one text, someone said he who builds his doctrine on one
text only will soon find that he has no text. But over in 1st
Timothy 4.16 Paul says almost exactly the same thing. In 1st
Timothy 4.16 he says to this younger minister Timothy, After
giving him a whole bunch of ministerial responsibilities, he says in
verse 16 of chapter 4, take heed to yourself and to the teaching. So in both cases, constant care
of ourselves is first in order of responsibility. And what I
want to press on the consciences of you men is this simple fact
this morning, that your first and foundational responsibility
as a Christian minister is the care and nurture of your own
self. And that in three basic areas. So under A we're going to have
one, two, three. We'll get to one in the first
hour, two and three in the second hour. First area is this. You are to take care, pay close
attention to your own inner spiritual life and communion with God. Your first and greatest responsibility
as a minister is not to preach sermons. It is not to make visits
in the hospital. It is not to go into homes and
hold old ladies' hands and make them feel good. Your first and
great responsibility is to take heed to yourself, to pay attention
to yourself, specifically your own inner spiritual life and
communion with God. Let me give you three texts to
but this, this. Proverbs 4 and verse 23. Solomon
says to his son, guard your heart above all that you guard, for
out of it are the issues of life. Of all the things you're going
to guard, Solomon says to his son, guard your heart above everything
else, for out of it are the issues of life. You're the state of
your heart, brethren. The state of my heart is the
most significant factor in the usefulness of my ministry, if
indeed I belong in the work of the ministry. And then Jesus
said in Matthew 12, in that passage where he was dealing with the
Pharisees, he articulates a very, very vital principle. He says
in Matthew 12, And in verse 34, you offspring of vipers, how
can you, being evil, speak good things? Now here's the principle.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Now we preachers
do a lot of talking. And if we think That a ministry
is primarily determined by what happens at the mouth, we're mistaken. The most significant thing about
the ministry is what happens in your heart. For out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And if our hearts are
cold to Christ, and if our hearts are entertaining sin, and if
our hearts are full of bitterness, and full of envy, and full of
pride, No matter how much we may try to say the right words
in the pulpit and the right words by the bedside and the right
words in that hospital room, there will be lacking the ring
of reality and the unction of the Holy Spirit because our hearts
are out of tune. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. And then listen to that greatest
minister of all next to the Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul, who
could say in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16, these very, very interesting
words. Wherefore, we do not faint, though
our outward man is decaying. He recognized he was getting
old, he was wearing out, he was on his way down to the grave.
Yet notice what he could say, though our outward man is decaying,
yet our inward man is renewed day by day. You see, he knew what it was
to have the inner life renewed daily, and that's why he could
serve God with such faithfulness and zeal and compassion and freshness
right up to the moment. when the guillotine came down
and his head dropped in a basket, because the inward man was renewed
day by day. And brethren, I say to you that
your first responsibility in the ministry and mine is the
care and nurture of ourselves, specifically our own inner spiritual
life and communion with God. I hope I've convinced you of
that from the Scriptures. Now you ask, how do I go about
nurturing my own spiritual life in communion with God? Well,
let me give you three indispensable ingredients that make up the
nurture of our own inner life in communion with God. What are
they? Number one, by systematic, prayerful
assimilation I'm not using that big word to show off, but I'll
show you why I'm using it. By systematic, prayerful assimilation
of the Word of God to our own hearts and lives. That's how
we take heed to ourselves and nurture our own spiritual life
in communion with God. Not by occasionally lucky dipping
in the Bible. You know what I mean by lucky
dipping? It's kind of, well, Lord, I'm in a hurry, you know,
Lord, and I need a little blessing, and reach down and pick out a
verse. Call that lucky dipping. No,
there must be systematic, systematic contact with the Word of God. Why? Jesus said in Matthew 4,
for man shall not live by bread alone, but by what? Every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God. I need every word that
proceeds out of God's mouth to make me whole and to nourish
me in my own walk with God. Again, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, instruction in righteousness.
For what purpose? That the man of God, the minister,
the servant of Christ may be complete, thoroughly furnished
unto every good work. I need the whole of the inspired
word of God to make me a whole man and an adequate minister. And you see, unless the Word
of God is first of all coming to my own heart, making me what
I ought to be, it will never be used by me in ministry to
others to do much good to them. Again, Psalm 1. How is the blessed
man of Psalm 1 described? Blessed is the man, negatively,
that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in
the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but
positively, his delight is in the law of God, and in his law
does he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted
by the water, whose leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he
does shall prosper. How am I to prosper in the ministry
unless my roots are continually sunk down by the pure stream
of the water of God's Holy Word, systematically assimilating the
Word of God, brethren? And then I said, prayerfully
assimilating the Word of God. And why did I say that? I mean,
not just coming to the Bible because I'm supposed to do it
to keep a good conscience, but coming with the prayer, Oh God,
may your words come to me with freshness. May they come to me
with power. Lord, search out my sins. Lord, show me my Savior. Show me my duty. Lord, furnish
me with wisdom to be the man I ought to be, the husband I
ought to be, the pastor I ought to be, the neighbor I ought to
be. Lord, show me Your glory in the mighty works of redemption. Show me Your power. Lord, I want
Your Word to be life and meat and drink to my soul. It's by
systematic, that is, having a plan by which I read through at least
once every couple of years, clean through from Genesis to Revelation,
whatever that plan is. And there are many plans available
in print. that help us, to guide us, taking
portions out of the Old and New Testament daily, or the Old and
New, and portions out of the Psalms. But have a plan in which
you come to this Bible, not hurriedly Saturday night, having never
opened it from Monday to Saturday, and looking for something to
preach to others. Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! but coming to this Bible Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, not
primarily as the book with which I'm going to thump others, but
the book by which I'm going to let God beat up on me if necessary,
by which I'm prepared to have God thump my heart and have God
show me His glory, the glory of His works, the glory of His
Son, the glory of His ways. There needs to be systematic,
prayerful, and then I use the word assimilation. Why did I
use that? Because I don't know a better
word. When something is assimilated, what happens to it happens to
water when you put it on a dry sponge. The sponge soaks it up
and the sponge makes the water its own. Now, when you assimilate
the Word of God, you've taken the Word of God into, as it were,
the sponge of your soul and made it your own. Remember what Jeremiah
said in Jeremiah 15-16. He said, your words were found
and I did eat them. I did eat them. He didn't say
your words were found and I analyzed them so I could preach them to
others. He said, your words were found
and I did eat them and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing
of my heart. Jeremiah was a mighty prophet
of God who spoke the word of God to others, but he was first
of all a thoroughgoing man of God who drank in the word of
God for himself. And brethren, If we are to do
what God's called us to do, to take heed to ourselves, to pay
close and constant attention to ourselves, then first of all
our own inner spiritual life and communion with God needs
to be nurtured by systematic prayerful assimilation of the
Word of God to our own hearts and to our own lives. Now brethren,
You're not going to find time to do this. You've got to make
time and guard time and protect time like you were protecting
a treasure. You're never going to find a
piece of time floating by you throughout the day saying, hey
preacher, use me to read your Bible for your own soul. You're
not going to find time. People say, well, I can't find
time. You can look for it to your eyeballs,
hang out on your cheeks. You're never going to find it.
You've got to make it. And you've got to guard it. And
sometimes you've got to kick yourself in the butt and get
yourself out of bed. And you've got to pull yourself
away from your newspaper and your TV and from the telephone
and say, I must get along with God. If I don't, I'm not doing
what God told me to do. He told me to pay close attention,
first of all, to myself. And I need the Word of God, first
of all, to minister to me. I need to see my Savior for my
own needs. 2 Corinthians 3.18 We all with
open face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed
into that image from one stage of glory to another. I need to
have God warn me about my own dangers and pitfalls. Psalm 19.11
Moreover, by them is thy servant warned. In the keeping of them
there is great reward. I need to know the will of God
for my own life as a man of God. Psalm 119, 105, Thy word is a
lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. So brethren, you
must make time and you must have a plan. And I'm telling you right
now this morning, if you've not been making time, repent and
stop it! And say, before I go to bed tonight,
I'm going to sit down and do whatever I've got to do to make
time to be alone with this book in order to feed my own soul. You've got to make time and you've
got to have a plan. And if you've got no plan and
you need help in finding a plan to read through the Word of God,
we'll gladly make some available. But that's the way we take heed
to ourselves. But then the second way we take
heed to ourselves is this. Not only by systematic assimilation
of the Word of God, but by maintaining the habit and the spirit of secret
prayer. By maintaining the habit and
the spirit of secret prayer. Now, what do I mean by maintaining
the habit of secret prayer? Well, let's look at a couple
of verses from the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, where
Jesus is correcting the Pharisees as well as instructing his own
disciples. He says in Matthew 6, 6, but
you, when you pray Matthew 6, 6, Enter into your inner chamber,
and having shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret."
Now notice, he doesn't say, but you, if you pray. He says, but
thou, when thou prayest. He's assuming all of his people
pray. He's not talking to ministers
here. He's just talking to all the sons and daughters of the
kingdom. And he assumes that they're going to pray. And my
friend, if every true Christian prays in secret, how much more
the man of God who is set apart to the work of the ministry.
For what does the scripture say? He is set apart, Acts 6, for
in order to devote himself to prayer and to the ministry of
the Word. Prayer and the ministry of the
Word. And we need to maintain the habit
of secret prayer. Luke 18, 1, Jesus spoke a parable. And what was the purpose of the
parable? We're told He spoke a parable unto them to the end,
that they ought always to pray and not to faint. In other words,
to maintain the habit of prayer is a duty. Even when I feel faint
and I have no desire to pray and I've lost all my heart to
pray, I ought to pray. And I'm to fulfill my duty no
matter what I feel like. There are times when you've got
to kick your feeling in the teeth. You've got to walk over the belly
of your feelings. You've got to stomp on your feelings.
You may go to the place of prayer and your heart is as cold as
an iceberg. But God says men ought always
to pray. Cold heart, warm heart, times
you feel like you ain't got no heart! Still, men ought always
to pray. We must maintain the habit of
prayer. But, oh brethren, we must not
only maintain the habit of prayer, but we must constantly seek to
maintain the spirit of prayer. Zechariah says that God will
pour out upon His spiritual Israel the spirit of grace and of supplication. And you remember what Paul said
in Romans 8? There are times when you say,
I just don't know how to pray as I ought. There's so many needs
and so many concerns, and I don't know the mind of God. Well, take
comfort. You're in good company. Paul
had that experience. Listen to him as he says in Romans
8. And verse 26, in like manner,
the Spirit helps our infirmity, for we know not how to pray as
we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with
groanings that cannot be uttered. The Holy Spirit is given to be
to us the spirit of grace and of supplication, and we must
not be content simply to maintain the habit of prayer. Otherwise,
we can just be going through the motions to salve our conscience. But we must seek to maintain
the spirit of prayer. That is, we must cry to God. Luke 11, 13, we must cry to the
Father to give us the Holy Spirit in fresh measures, that we may
know how to pray as we ought, that He will warm our hearts,
enlarge our hearts, draw out our hearts, and enable us to
pray as we ought. You see, brethren, it's so vital
to maintain the habit and spirit of secret prayer as a minister.
because it's in the secret place that everything is kept in its
proper focus. Out there in the ministry, things
so many times don't seem to be right. The most godly are having
the roughest time, the sinners and those hypocrites, and one
man said, I got some devils in my congregation. They seem to
be blessed and no trouble. It doesn't seem right. Well,
that's what happened to the psalmist in Psalm 73. He looked out on
the world and he said, it's all screwed up. It's all backwards. Doesn't seem right. He says,
the wicked prosper. Psalm 73, 3. No pangs in their
death. Their strength is firm. They're
not in trouble. They're not plagued. They go
around proud as a peacock. Their eyes stand out with fatness.
They have more than their heart could wish. And he says, God's
people, look at them. They are in the midst of suffering.
They're being chastened, verse 14. And he was at the place where
he said, it didn't make sense. But you know where it all got
sorted out? Look at verse 16. When I thought how I might know
this, it was too painful for me until, until, until I went
into the sanctuary of God and considered their latter end.
Then he began to get things into proper perspective, and when
he did, look at verse 21, My soul was grieved, I was pricked
in my heart, so brutish was I, and ignorant I was as a beast
before you. And now he says, Ah, I see everything
as I ought now. I am continually with you. You
have held my right hand. You'll guide me with your counsel
and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You?
There is none that I desire on earth beside You. My heart and
my flesh fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion
forever." I tell you, he's on shouting ground before he's done.
He was there with a face as long as your arm. No joy. Wondering, it doesn't make sense.
But when he got aside in the sanctuary and began to meditate
and began to think, all right, look at those sinners out there.
Eyeballs standing out with fattens. They got their chains around
their neck. They got their stocks, their bonds, their Cadillacs,
their townhouses. They got all that. But do they
know what it is to draw near to God and have communion with
him? They don't know that. Whom have I in heaven but you,
Lord? And if I have God, I really have everything I need." And
he said, Oh God, I've been like a beast. I've been thinking like
an animal. Oh God, God, thank you for getting
me all sorted out again. And where did it happen? In the
place of secret prayer, brethren. In the place of secret prayer.
You let yourself get all uptight about that sister or that brother
in the church. In the judgment of charity, you
call them sister or brother. You really wonder. whether they
are sister or brother. But in the judgment of charity,
you call them that. And it begins to get under your
skin and you begin to say, there must be an easier way to make
a living than this. Lord, how long have I got to put up with
this? And you begin to get so grouchy. Your wife, if she didn't
know better, she'd think you were going through the change
of life the way you're acting. That's right. The way you're
acting. Getting all uptight and irritable
and What do you need, Brendan? Get in the secret place. Get
in the secret place. And there in the secret place,
everything comes back into focus. But not only that, I want you
to turn to Psalm 90. Something else happens in the
place of secret prayer. Something else happens in the
place of secret prayer. This is that wonderful prayer
of Moses, the man of God. This is the prayer that he prayed
as an old man. One thing he learned about going
into the secret place, verse 8, you have set our iniquities
before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. Brethren, listen to me. You and
I can indulge in secret sins and our consciences can be dull
and hardened and we don't feel grieved about those sins. We may indulge that second look
and allow that little fire of lust to burn toward that woman
that's not our wife. We may indulge that little bit
of envy at a ministerial brother. We may indulge some pride. God
helped us to deliver the goods, and we cried that He would do
it. We felt so helpless. We said, Lord, if any good comes
out of this sermon, surely you'll get all the glory. And God came
and helped you. And what did you do? You sucked
a little bit of the glory into your own heart. And yet you've
not been humbled for it, as long as you're going around in the
midst of your busyness. But what happens when you get
in the secret place and you lift up your face to the light of
God's countenance and you realize that he's the God of burning
holiness? The cherubim veil their face
and their feet, and they cry, holy, holy, holy. And the Word of God says, our
God is a consuming fire. God is light, and in Him is no
darkness of all. He is a purer eyes than to look
upon iniquity. And what happens in that secret
place? Those secret sins begin to be
seen in all their ugliness. And you say, oh God, how can
I fellowship with you? with this mind and heart that
entertain that look of lust. How can I commune with You, Lord,
when I've been entertaining that envy to my ministerial brother?
Lord, how can I commune with You when I've stolen Your glory
by wicked pride? Oh God, wash me afresh in the
blood of Your Son. Oh God, cleanse me afresh in
that fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Lord, I plead Your
promise. If we confess our sins, You're
faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. Lord, wash my mind from the polluting
influence of lust. Wash my heart from the staining
influence of envy. Wash my spirit, O Lord, from
the foul influence of pride. And there in the secret place
of prayer, holding commune with the Holy God, our secret sins
are seen in the light of His countenance. And brethren, we
could go on speaking of the benefits of the secret place, but these
two or three are enough to underscore. Do you see why Paul said to those
elders, your first responsibility is to take care of yourself? Because unless the Word of God
is nourishing our own souls and making them fat with the knowledge
of God and communion with God and experience of the ways of
God, our ministries will be flat and empty. We'll say the words,
but there'll be no ring of reality. Unless we are maintaining the
habit and the spirit of secret prayer, how can we dive into
the consciences of our people to deal with their sins if we're
not in the place where God is diving into our consciences,
dealing with our sins in the secret place? How can we speak
of the glories of heaven and the horrors of hell if we're
not spending time alone meditating upon those great realities? and putting everything into perspective. And then the third way that we
nurture our own inner spiritual life, brethren, is this. Not
only by systematic assimilation of the Word of God, maintaining
the habit and the spirit of secret prayer, but hear me now, we nurture
our own spiritual life by keeping a tender, blood-washed conscience. by keeping a tender, blood-washed
conscience. And what do I mean by those words?
Turn to Acts 24, verse 16, and I'll try to explain what I mean.
Acts 24, verse 16. Paul here is giving his defense
before Felix, and in the midst of it he says this, Acts 24,
verse 16, Herein I also, now look at that
next word, exercise myself. The Greek word is the one from
which we get the word he's an ascetic. He's someone who puts
himself under strict and rigorous disciplines. He said herein do
I exercise myself. This is something I do consciously,
I do deliberately, I do with exertion of my mind and spirit,
I exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense towards God and
men always. You see what he was saying? He's
saying in the light of that coming day of judgment, verse 15, having
hope toward God, which these hope that there shall be a resurrection,
both of the just and the unjust here in or on this account. I
exercise myself realizing that when I stand before God, I will
not stand there for anyone to speak for me who's been helped
by my ministry. I'm going to stand there. Every
one of us shall give account of himself to God. And in the
light of that day, he said, I constantly work and labor at keeping a conscience
void of offense to God and to man. Now, what is conscience?
Conscience is basically that little moral monitor within who
has a very limited vocabulary. He knows only two words. Right. And wrong. And every time you
and I contemplate a given action or word or reflect upon it and
say, was it right? Was it wrong? Conscience only
knows two words, right? Wrong. Conscience either pats
us on the back when we do right or conscience stabs us in the
ribs when we do wrong. And you know what we do? We tell
him his vocabulary is too limited and we say, Mr. Conscience, you
got to learn the third word. Neither. And so you look at conscience
and say, now conscience, it's time you grew up. You only say
two words, right? Wrong. You've got to learn a
third word. Now conscience, say neither. And conscience looks
up and says, right? No, no, no, no. I want you to
say neither. Conscience says, wrong. Conscience,
you're getting stubborn now. I'm going to knock you in the
head if you don't shape up. Now conscience, I want you to say
neither. He says, right. Conscience, I'm
losing my temper with you. I want you to learn a third word.
Wrong. Right. Wrong, right, wrong, right,
wrong. Conscience has got only two words
in his vocabulary and he won't learn a third one. Now, as conscience
is enlightened by the Word of God, conscience becomes God's
monitor within our breast to make certain that we are walking
in the light of God's law. day and night, walking with integrity. Now, this is what Paul says,
I exercise myself at all times to be able at any moment to look
up into the face of God and say, God, I have no known controversy
with you. Anything in which conscience
has smitten me and said wrong, I've confessed it. I've fled
to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness, and I've asked
to be washed in the blood of Jesus. But now notice, he said
he wanted a conscience void of offense always toward his fellow
men. He wanted to be able to look
at any of his companions and the people he ministered to,
and if he had wronged them, he had been willing to humble himself
and not only confess his sin to God, but go to his companion
and say, Silas, you remember yesterday afternoon when we were
in that tight situation and I spoke sharply to you, Titus, when I
went to have my devotions this morning. My conscience smote
me that I sinned against you, Titus or Silas. Will you forgive
me? Why, of course, brother Paul,
I gladly forgive you. Thank you, brother. Now I can
go pray with a conscience void of offense to God and to man. That's what it means. You've
come in with your almighty ministry so burdened, and your poor wife
asks a very innocent thing, and you're sharp with her and quick
with her, and then you try to go to pray, and the Lord smites
your conscience. Look, she didn't do anything
to deserve that kind of treatment from here, you old beast. Get
out there and tell her you're sorry. Well, at that point, you've
got to do one of two things. You either got to rationalize
and try to get conscience to say, well, that was neither right
nor wrong. That was just human. Come off it. You know, it was
wrong. It was not being gentle to her and sensitive as Christ
is to the church. So you need to go out and put
your arms around her and say, honey, I'm sorry the way I spoke
sharply to you yesterday. That was sin. I make no excuses. I ask the Lord's forgiveness.
Will you forgive me? Isn't that what Jesus said? If
you come to bring your gift to the altar, and there, remember,
your brother has ought against you, leave your gift before your
altar, go be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer
your gift. You know what God says? I don't
want your stinking worship unless you're right with your fellow
man. That's what God says. Now, can you imagine if people
took that seriously? Some dude comes into the temple
and he got him a nice old lamb. I mean, it's spotless, one-year-old,
meets all the requirements. And he's coming up there, strutting
up, and he's going to give it to the priest. And then he remembers. He'd blown his cork at his kids
that morning. And suddenly he says, a priest,
will you watch after this lamb? I got some business to attend
to. And the priest says, I thought you were coming here to worship.
He said, yes, yes. I want to come and offer my lamb,
but, but, I blew my cork at my kids this morning. I got to go
back and make it right, because I heard the Lord Jesus say, when
I was listening to the great teacher out of Nazareth, that
if you come to bring your gift to the altar and remember that
anyone is ought against you, go be reconciled, then come and
offer your gift. Brethren, if you are determined
to be a man of you'll be determined to keep a tender, blood-washed
conscience at all times. And that way, you never need
to worry that you're going to end up between the legs of a
woman other than your wife. Preachers don't get there overnight.
They get there when they allow that first look to be tucked
away in their mind. And then there's a second look.
And then they indulge a thought and then a little fantasy, never
thinking they're going to end up committing adultery. When
men fall into adultery, it doesn't happen in three minutes. They
stop keeping a tender, blood-washed conscience. When we go to God
grieved and broken as much over a lustful thought as though we'd
actually committed the act, we'll never commit the act. It's when
you indulge the thoughts that the act will sooner or later
follow. And when there's bitterness, and when there's that lack of
forgiveness, and when all these other ministerial sins that grieve
the Holy Spirit so that God's hand is taken off the ministry
of a man, it all starts when men cast off a good conscience. And you read that frightening
passage in – well, let's look at it, and we'll close on this
passage this morning. Because brethren, this is absolutely
vital. If we're to be what God commands
us to be. Notice 1 Timothy 1 in verse 18. This charge I commit unto you,
Timothy, my child, according to the prophecies which led the
way to you, that by them you may war the good warfare. Now
notice what he says. Holding faith and a good conscience,
And notice the next pronoun, which? Well, that which in number
and gender agrees with conscience. It doesn't refer to both faith
and a good conscience, but it refers specifically to a good
conscience. Holding faith and a good conscience,
which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning
the faith. And then he names two men. of
whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered unto Satan,
that they might be taught not to blaspheme." Here were men
who were professing the Christian faith, now they are blaspheming
it. And where did it all start? When
they gave up a good conscience. When they gave up a good conscience. When they gave up a good conscience.
Oh, my brethren, take heed unto yourself. That's your first great
responsibility as a minister. The care and nurture of yourself
in the first great area under that is your own inner spiritual
life and communion with God. Robert Murray McShane said it
this way, What my people need more than anything else is my
own personal holiness. A holy man is an awful instrument
in the hands of God. There was a story told, and it's
supposed to be true, that up in the highlands of Scotland
there was a Presbyterian church without a minister. And when
it came time for the denominational representative to come and try
to help the church find a minister, a dear old woman came up and
said, Would you please send us a man who knows God other than
by hearsay? You see what she was saying?
Send us a man who knows God other than by hearsay. What is hearsay? That's just general talk that
everybody picks up. He says, we don't want a minister
who's just picked up the language of the ministry and the language
of preaching and the language of God and Christ and sin and
heaven and hell and faith and patience and grace and peace. We want a man who lives in those
realities. We want a man who speaks out
of the living experience of his own walk with God. And brethren,
if we're to speak with freshness and power about holy things week
in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out,
there is no other path to such a ministry but taking heed to
ourselves. Taking heed, first of all, to
our own inner spiritual life and communion with God. Determine
that we're going to assimilate the scriptures, first of all,
for our own nourishment, not to prepare food for others. that
we're going to be in the secret place to pray, that more praying
is being done in the closet than in the pulpit. I know men who've
admitted that they actually spent more time forming prayers in
the pulpit than they did in secret. Shame on them. No wonder their
prayers in the pulpit were so predictable. You could listen
to them and almost tell you what the next phrase was going to
be. There was no freshness, no power, no life. Why? because
it was stale old words they'd been mouthing for years, nothing
fresh in the secret place. It'd been a long time since alone
with God they had a sight of His glory in the Scripture that
brought them to the place of brokenness, a sight of their
sin that humbled them, a sight of the great spiritual realities
on which we feed. Oh, my brethren, I plead with
you in the name of Christ, if you're not determined If you're
not determined to pay the price, to take heed to yourself, to
nurture your own spiritual life and communion with God by feeding
on the Word, maintaining the habit and spirit of secret prayer,
and by keeping a tender, blood-washed conscience, then in the name
of God, get out of the ministry! Get out of the ministry! Don't go and answer to God. the
horrible, horrible, tragic fruits of a barren ministry because
you had a barren and a shriveled soul, just a professional clergyman.