Well, good morning to each of you. It's a pleasure to be here this morning, and it's a very special pleasure to be able to be a part of this, indeedly, very sacred and solemn time where this church, Trinity Bible Church, is ordaining a man for gospel ministry.

I don't believe that there is any time in the life of a church that is more sacred or more solemn than this particular occasion. And there is a sense in which at this particular time, I'm really glad that you're here, but I'm not gonna talk to you. All right, I'm zeroing right in on Mr. James Wiersom, right back there. So it's gonna be a conversation between me and him, only it's not a conversation, it's a monologue, okay?

Where we're gonna go to the word of God and we're gonna take a look at the responsibilities that he's assuming now as an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is such an important time. So, James and I are going to be taking a look at 2 Timothy.

So, if you want to take your Bible and go to 2 Timothy 2, we're interested in verses 14 through 18, but we're also going to be going beyond those particular verses. 2 Timothy 2 beginning in verse 14 where it says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid godless and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their word will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Phileatus, who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.

Now that's the particular passage, James, you and I are going to be focusing on today in regards to the ministry that you're assuming now. I've entitled this message, The Necessity of a Tender and Tough Shepherd. And being a shepherd is not easy. I was just talking with your sister just before the service today. They have sheep and one of them is sick. Well, not only do sheep get sick, but they also bite, all right? And sometimes when dealing with sheep, it's not the easiest thing in the world. So you must be tender in your ministry of the gospel, but you also need to be tough. And so there's three things that I'm going to highlight in this particular passage for you to understand in terms of your ministry. But I'll tell you right at the outset, you're not gonna be able to fulfill any one of them. in your own strength. You're not gonna be able to do it. Impossible job. Impossible job. But by the grace of God, and by the strength that he provides, and by his abundant provision, he will enable you to honor and glorify him through this particular responsibility.

Martin Lloyd-Jones once said, a man should only enter the gospel ministry if he cannot stay out of it. And that's true. In fact, in my own ministry, I've lived that way. I was raised by a pastor, my father. And I watched all the things he went through in terms of his ministry. And if you were to list 100 things that I had set my goal on to be, the gospel ministry was probably number 100 on that list.

But then the Lord changed my heart. The Lord gave me a burden for people and a burden for the word of God that I didn't have before. And that changed everything. And then I couldn't avoid it. I had to go into it. This was vital for me. This is why we say the church today is really in need of both tender and tough shepherds. If you can do anything else that pleases God and be content doing it, that's exactly what you need to do. Now, 2 Timothy is the final episode of the Apostle Paul. It's the last words that he has and he provides them to a faithful servant by the name of Timothy. He's in the shadow of martyrdom around 67 AD.

And not long before this, he had been released from Roman imprisonment and had written 1 Timothy and Titus as a free man, but now he takes up the pen once more. The scene has changed and he writes now as a prisoner. He even speaks to that in chapter 1 in verse 16 and then chapter 2 verse 9.

The iron hand of Emperor Nero had tightened its grip on Christians. And after the fierce persecution of Christians that began in 64 AD, believers were hunted, imprisoned, executed. And it was likely under the storm of violence that Paul now is arrested again. Now in his earlier epistles, Paul spoke with confidence of his release in Philemons, in Philippians. He expressed hope, assurance even, that he would soon return to his friends and to his ministry.

But now, in this particular book, there is no such expectation. In 2 Timothy In chapter four, verses six through eight, his words carry a different tune. He knows the end is near. And he writes not as a man anticipating freedom, but as a man preparing for the final sacrifice to the Lord that is of his own life. Before Paul had undergone house arrest, he had been confined. but still able to receive visitors and continue teaching. This time is different. Now he sits in a cold, dark dungeon, chained like an animal, and the clank of iron replaces the fellowship of friends, and many who stood beside him now have disappeared.

He's abandoned, he's awaiting execution, and he writes in the midst of all of that with very definite clarity and an unwavering faith. These are not the words of defeat at all. They are the final testimony of a soldier who has fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith.

In that final epistle, Paul wants to pass the baton of pastoral leadership over to the young, non-apostolic Timothy once and for all. And like his friends who had forsaken him, Paul is concerned that Timothy does not cave in to fear, hence he talks about timidity in carrying out his ministry duties. He wants it to stir up the gifts that were given to him when they laid their hands on him in ordination for the ministry. And that implies that fear and possibly other spiritual problems really can dull or neutralize a pastor's gifts. Timothy, in this sense, is the prototype of all non-apostolic pastors.

So in writing to Timothy, Paul is addressing the first thing in a long line of, or the first one in a long line of non-apostolic shepherds that would stretch over the centuries. And in this respect, he's addressing you and I today and everyone else who claim to be a minister of the gospel.

So there's three things I want you to remember about what The Apostle Paul wanted his protege to understand. And I want you to look at verse 14 for the first one. He says, remind them of these things, solemnly charging them in the presence of God not to dispute about words which is useless and leads to the ruin of hearers. That tells me right from the outset that one of your primary duties as a shepherd, under shepherd of God's flock, is to be a troubleshooter. And you know what? People don't like that. They don't like that, but that's your responsibility as an elder. You cannot be timid, but you're supposed to be a troubleshooter.

I had a conversation with some seminarians and their wives around a table at a fast food restaurant, and one of their wives asked me if I thought her husband, who by temperament was very laid back, could be a good pastor. Her husband didn't seem to mind the question, so I answered. And I told her that temperament has nothing to do with pastoral qualifications. That, by the way, is a very modern misnomer.

Character is what is important to God. The qualities, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, 1 Peter 5, that's what we're talking about in terms of godly character and being a man of absolute integrity in your heart, even though that is not popular today, is really critical. especially in a culture where situational ethics reign. If temperament is really a disguise for timidity, then scripture is concerned about it. You cannot function properly as a pastor and be timid. Timidity is a form of fear of man. And you're not going to be a good pastor if you fear people.

In verse 14, Paul instructs this timid pastor to do two things, and then he proceeds to explain why he is to do those two things. The first part is what sometimes I refer to as aggressive shepherding. How are you to be a real troubleshooter on problems?

Well, he says first, remind them of these things. Because sometimes pastoral troubleshooting involves reminding the saints of certain things they don't want to hear, things that are important to their welfare. In fact, here it's stated in the present active imperative. So the word remind means to bring to their attention, persistently place into their minds, cause them to be aware of, remind someone over and over again about this. Oh, you said that before pastor. Yeah, I'm gonna say it so much. You're gonna be sick of it. You're gonna dream of it at night.

Remind them, remind them, remind them, because sheep are tremendous forgetters. So my mother used to say to me when I was a kid, John, you have a, your forgetter is working overtime, she would say. Sometimes sheep don't like reminders. They'll take it as an insult. You're treating us as children.

Why do you keep reminding us of these things? But pastor who fails to remind the sheep of things that are critical to their welfare are negligent shepherds." It's significant that the word here is used in the present tense. Timothy was to keep on reminding them over and over again. Now, what things is he supposed to remind them of?

Well, all the things in chapter 1 and chapter 2, right up to this particular point, which include, let me highlight just a few of them. Go back to chapter 1 and verse 7, where it talks about, for God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

And then in verse nine, he says, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which he has given to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been manifested by the appearing of our savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, brought life and immortality to the light through the gospel for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher and by implication he's saying now I am passing that responsibility down on to you, Timothy. And then verses 13 and 14, he says, hold to the standard of sound doctrine, which you have heard from me in the faith and the love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

To you. So that becomes Timothy's responsibility as a young pastor. And then in chapter 2, he says to him, you therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And again, in your own strength, you're never going to be able to accomplish any of this. It's only going to be through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul understood that in regards to Timothy.

And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to those, to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. That's exactly what Trinity Bible Church is doing today. They're in a sense entrusting to you these responsibilities. And now for the rest of your life, you have a responsibility to carry on that responsibility and be faithful to the word of God. And then he says in verse three, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Wow. This is not some kind of privileged office by any means. It has to do with hardship. And I believe that as horrible as the hardship that the apostle Paul was going through at that particular time, that that kind of hardship is coming on the church soon. And it's already, we see it. So this generation, your generation that we are ordaining are going to face hardship in the ministry that probably my generation never saw. But you can see it coming. It's everywhere. People hate it when you believe a truth that is absolute. Because for them, truth is convenient. It's not absolute. And they will hate that. And they will hate you for doing it.

Verse four says, then in chapter two, no soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. So you've got to be single focused. Verse five, and also if anyone competes in an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

You've got to do it God's way, the way he says it, not the way sometimes that you think is going to be best. Verse six, the hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. In other words, at this particular time, you're working among the sheep, you've gotta be willing to work hard as well.

Understand what I say, he says in verse seven, for the Lord will give you insight in everything. So, now, when it talks about remind them, There in chapter two and verse 14, who's the them? Well, in chapter two and verse two, the them is defined as faithful men. So a good pastor is first and foremost, a man who is training other leaders in the church.

You're, from the very beginning of your ministry, you should be training your replacement. That a person is going to be faithful. Now what, who you think are gonna be faithful and who turns out really being faithful may be two different people. You think this person's gonna be very faithful and then that person ends up failing and dropping out of the ministry due to integrity issues or other issues going on. But then the Lord may have his hand upon somebody that is unexpected, but you need to be from the beginning training up people that are gonna be your replacement.

And in verse 10 of chapter two, these people are called those who are chosen. Those who are chosen, faithful men who are chosen. So you're to remind them of these things. And then he says, number two, you're to solemnly charge them in the presence of God, not to wrangle about words. Now, what are we talking about here? Well, let me explain this a little bit.

For example, the word charge them is a powerful word. It's actually a compound word, dia maturamai, all right? And maturamai is the word testimony, but dia intensifies the idea. So the central core of that word is to be a witness, but with the prefix dia on it, it means be a very intense witness. So it means to be a solemn witness, to bear witness to, to them of what? of that which is extremely important, not just something that's a matter to be taken lightly, but of great significance. And the idea of seriousness of what to charge them about is increased by the phrase, in them in the presence of God.

Every time Paul wants to emphasize the seriousness of a statement, he will make that phrase. In chapter 4, verse 1, he does it. In 1 Timothy, chapter 5, verse 21, he does it. In 1 Timothy, chapter 6, in verse 13, he does it. So you get this idea that Paul is extremely serious about this.

Solemnly charge them not to wrangle about words. because saints will get into and sheep will get into word battles, not just word games. They'll get into disputes about the meanings of words, argue about trivial things. They'll have word fights, word wars. Now, in 1 Timothy 6, verses 3 and 4, it says, Understanding nothing but having a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words out of which arise envy, strife, slander, and evil suspiciousness." In other words, those word battles are evidence of their pride. I know what this means better than you know what this means. which then spawns this strife, this slander, people suspicious about people within the church.

So it's important to understand that the two men in the church here claim to be Christians. Verse 17 names them, Hymenaeus and Phileatus. They claim to be Christians. And they claimed to be teachers in the church. These two men were not merely sitting quietly in the congregation, they were presenting themselves as teachers of the Word of God within the church. But what were they actually doing?

Well, they were adding to Scripture, they were suggesting that the Bible taught things that it never taught. They clothe their ideas in philosophical idealism of the day, adding human speculation to what the Word of God said, and that is going to be the danger of every pastor, and especially in our day and age today, and every teacher and every pastor must guard against this. So you must watch carefully for those, even within your own congregation, who suddenly add to the text. They may begin with the Bible, but then they insert conclusions that are not rooted in what the Bible says. And it's usually due to popular books that are written. Popular concepts that are a part of the culture, the zeitgeist of the time, right? That's usually what happens.

And they demand that other people hold their interpretations and all their preferences and systems while really ignoring the ultimate authority of the Word of God. And this is happening everywhere in conservative Christianity today. It surfaces in rigid worship styles and music preferences and it appears in extreme eschatological systems. It shows up in inflexible views on different things like dating, courting or betrothal. You go into a church youth group and you start talking about that and you'll see the parents raise their theological guns at each other. It'll come up in all kinds of things.

In other words, you find out that the sheep are very susceptible to whatever's going on in the culture around them, and imperceptibly, they have adopted those same ideas that really undermine the essential presuppositions of what the Bible really teaches.

One of the most popular ones today comes from a book called Gentle Parenting. Oh my. Gentle Parenting. Now that sounds good because we wanna be gentle parents. I wanted to be a gentle dad. But that particular book by Sarah Ockwell Smith become very popular among Christians and are being taught on a regular basis in churches just to give you an example. And yet a book like that has a very unbiblical view of child rearing. For example, the Bible affirms gentleness, no doubt about that, but not at the expense of authority.

Scripture commands parents not to provoke their children to wrath, Ephesians 6.4. Harsh, sinful anger and abusive control are clearly forbidden.

Colossians 3.21. warns fathers not to embitter their children. However, the same passage in Ephesians commands parents to bring up their children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord. So biblical parenting includes both tenderness and authority. That book also is different what the Bible teaches, because the Bible teaches that the child's heart is not morally neutral or good.

We talked about it yesterday in the ordination. It's one of the reasons why I brought that up, by the way. In fact, that book is based upon Skinnerianism. Much of the digital parenting assumes misbehavior is primarily a result of unmet needs, developmental limitations, emotional dysregulation.

Scripture gives a much deeper diagnosis. Proverbs 22, 15 says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. Jeremiah 17 9, the heart is deceitful above all things. And the Bible teaches that children are sinners by nature, not merely immature or misunderstood. That does not mean that we respond harshly to them, but it does mean that behavior is not always innocent. Sometimes it is rebellion.

And if parenting focuses only on emotional coaching without addressing sin, then it misses the root cause. Ultimately, when you fail to address the core issue of sin in the child, you invalidate the necessity of the gospel. That's what ultimately happens. There's a third thing, just to give you this illustration.

Gentle parenting often rejects punitive discipline, especially physical discipline, in favor of natural consequences and reasoning. But in the Bible, discipline is not abusive rage, it is loving correction, designed to train, restrain, and shepherd the heart of the child. The biblical model combines instruction, correction, consequences, loving restoration. A parenting philosophy that removes meaningful correction risks producing a child who lacks self-control and respect for authority.

And we see that in abundance in our culture today. Proverbs 13 verse 24 talks about the fact he who holds back his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently. Everything about gentle parenting is vitally opposed to what the Bible says there. And the Bible has always got to trump that when it comes to the Christian Hebrews chapter 12 verse six, the Lord disciplines those he loves.

There's a fourth thing that I think is really key here. Emotional validation versus moral instruction. General parenting places strong emphasis on validating feelings. Children need to know that they're heard and understood. But scripture calls parents to do more than validate feelings. We are to shape affections according to the truth. A child's feelings are not ultimate. God's word is ultimate.

That's what you're handling. And the goal of parenting, what about that? General parenting often aims at raising emotionally secure, self-regulated, confident individual. But the Bible sets a much higher goal. to raise children who know, fear, and obey the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me be clear.

Teaching and applying the text of Scripture is not wrong. Faithful exposition demands application. What is wrong is teaching imaginative ideas that come along in the culture that the text does not teach at all and then binding the conscience of believer to those external ideas.

If you're going to be a gracious and firm shepherd, you've got to become a careful troubleshooter. You must discern error early that's going on in the flock. You must protect the flock from subtle additions to God's word. And you must have the courage to say with clarity and kindness, this is not what God says. Now, why are you to be a troubleshooter? Look at verse 14, he explains.

Notice why Paul wants Timothy to remind them of these things and why he wants Timothy to solemnly charge them not to wrangle about words, which is going on in the culture at that particular time. Because number one, having word fights, wrangling about words is useless, no profit, of no service. The same kind of word is used in the book of Philemon where Paul says of Onesimus, he was formerly useless of no value. So don't get involved in word fights over issues that are not clearly taught in the word because they don't do anything constructive. And not only are these wranglings about words useless, they are worse than that.

They're destructive, he says there in verse 14. The original language here is where we get into a catastrophe. That's literally the Greek word we get our English word catastrophe from. It's a transliterated word. So it'll actually mean to ruin. It'll be destructive in a big way. So, God destroyed them.

It's the same word, by the way, that was used in 2 Peter 2.6, that speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah. And you know that God utterly destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, that's what Paul says happens when people do not rightly interpret the word of God. Now, for a moment, at this particular point, I wanna skip over verse 15, because I'm gonna come back to it. But I'm gonna jump to verse 16 through 19.

The second thing, not only should you be a troubleshooter, but the second thing is you need to be a teaching specialist. A teaching specialist. Now why do I say that? Well there in verses 16 through 19 of 2 Timothy 2, you must warn your flock to avoid teachers who read meaning in the text that's not there.

First, Paul directly commands Timothy to avoid such speculations himself. So it would be easy for you to get caught into such word wars. And the original term means to turn yourself around for the purpose of avoiding something, stay away from it, refuse to listen to it. And in some contexts, this is a word also means to oppose it. And second, and I believe by principle of necessary extension, Timothy is to instruct his flock to do the same.

Avoid such teachers. Don't get caught in discussing or listening to teachers like Hymenaeus and Philoetus. And there's been tens of thousands of Hymenaeus and Philoetus down through church history. Don't get caught in discussing or listening to teaching or those who teach and their fanciful diversions away from the text. And then I want you to see beginning in verse 16, now five reasons to avoid such teachers. Number one in verse 16, because it is worldly and empty chatter. Worldly and empty chatter.

We got that going on today. In our culture today, everything is about sickness. Nothing is about spiritual issues in our culture. And so we name everything sickness. That's what the DSM-5 does. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association does that kind of thing. That's the reason why they have all those labels. Assessive compulsive disorder. Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADHD, or Dissociative Identity Disorder, or PTSD, or whatever the case may be.

Now, you're not gonna find those labels in the Bible. You go to the concordance of your Bible, you're not gonna find any of those. But when you take a look at the cluster of symptoms behind every single one of them, the Bible is full of answers to this. The labels aren't there, because they're just modern labels. But the cluster of symptoms are there. So can those be addressed? Absolutely, they can be.

All of that leads to worldly and empty chatter. And then in verse 16, because it promotes personal self-ungodliness, it will rob a person of spiritual vitality and undermine their mental focus on godliness. It's interesting, the biblical term in the Old Testament for insanity, You can see it in Ecclesiastes 9 in verse 3, by way of example.

That particular word actually means to be intensely self-focused, just turned in upon oneself. And then the book, the term counseling, like the term nuthateo, actually means to speak soundness to the mind. Soundness to the mind. in order to invert that intense narcissistic tendency. Soundness of the mind. That promotes nothing but, that's just empty and worldly chatter. And it promotes personal ungodliness.

The renowned Puritan pastor Richard Baxter, who was way ahead of his time, when you read Baxter's works, believed in the faithful ministry of the Word of God. And he said this, it's an obvious error for all to see in those ministers of the church who make such a wide gulf between their preaching and their living. They will study hard to preach exactly and yet study little or not at all to live exactly. All the week long is little enough to study how to speak for two hours. And by the way, their sermons were two hours back then. I don't think we can stand that in our culture. So we speak for two hours and yet, One hour seems to be too much time to study how to live all week. He goes on and says, they are loath to misplace a word in their sermons, yet they think nothing of misplacing affections, words and actions in the course of their lives.

Oh, how curiously I have heard some men preach and how carelessly I have seen them live. That's got to be a person of integrity and you've got to be able to live in a godly way. Warfield said this, a minister must be learned on pain of being utterly incompetent for his work. But before and above being learned, a minister must be godly. Nothing could be more fatal, however, than to set these two things over against one another. Recruiting officers. Do not dispute whether it's better for soldiers to have a right leg or a left leg. Soldiers should have both legs. End of quote.

So what the church does not need is another polished preacher anxious to prove himself in the pulpit. It does need another godly preacher anxious to live and teach out godliness. God cannot use a pastor if your heart is filled with every envy and pride that comes from useless arguments over speculative theology. It robs you of godliness.

J. Sidlow Baxter said, no man who is full of himself can ever truly preach Christ who emptied himself. And then, Robert Murray McChain in a letter that he sent to Dan Edwards back in 1840 after his ordination to the gospel ministry, he became a missionary to the Jews in Germany. And he said this, I trust you will have a pleasant and profitable time in Germany. I know you will apply hard to German, but do not forget the culture of the inner man. I mean that of the heart.

How diligent the Calvary officer keeps his saber clean and sharp. Every stain is rubbed off with the greatest care. Remember, you are God's sword, his instrument. I trust a chosen, vessel unto God to bear his name, so in great measure, according to the purity and perfections of the instrument, will be the success. It is not great talents that God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. That's gotta be your life. That's gotta be your life.

Third reason, because it was spread like gangrene or rapid cancer. The idea that Paul expresses here is not a mild rash or some minor inconvenience, but it's something that will kill you and kill the people you minister to. It is a disease by which any part of the body suffering from inflammation becomes so corrupted that it's useless that any kind of remedy be applied.

Paul wanted Timothy to screen that, what was being taught in the church. And that's what you'll need to do. You'll need to screen what's being taught in the church. Fourthly, he says, because they have gone astray as far as the truth in verse 18. Now Paul gets down to specifics. What have they gone astray on? Well, the answer is that they were teaching that the resurrection had already taken place. How did they do that? Well, they were teaching really a form of docetic Gnosticism.

From the text, we get the idea that they were spiritualizing the Bible. Everything the Bible said about the future bodily resurrection of God's people was merely a spiritual resurrection, not a bodily resurrection. So as Paul talks about in Ephesians 2, one, Through seven, future resurrection means to be raised spiritually. So, they were allegorizing, spiritualizing the future resurrection of the saints. There was no future bodily resurrection, they said, only a spiritual one.

They were causing confusion and dissension among the church with those twisted word wards. So, Paul instructs Timothy to avoid such people, shun them, and teach your flock to do the same. In other words, for them, Gnosticism basically taught that everything that was physical is evil, everything that's spiritual is good, and so we were, in a sense, looking forward to being spiritual. So if that's true, if everything physical is evil, then Jesus could not have come in physical form because that would have been coming in evil form.

Then he couldn't have lived a life that was a physical life for eating food. It was physical food. And he couldn't have suffered in a physical form. He couldn't have died in a physical form. And he certainly wasn't resurrected in a physical form. It was all spiritual. Hence docetic, which means seems. He seemed to have come in physical form, but he didn't. So he really wasn't like you and me.

Which Paul understood at this particular point, undermined everything about the gospel. Jesus didn't really come, wasn't really born a physical form, didn't live a physical life, didn't suffer in physical, didn't die physically, didn't resurrect physically. It denies everything about the gospel.

That's what narcissism was doing. And notice at the end of verse 18, because they upset the faith of some. Inverted faith is the opposite of what should be, it becomes a useless faith. Listen, Paul warns again and again that well-meaning teachers will come into the church and overturn the faith of many people. Imagine believing for the most of your life that someday you and your family and friends who are believers will be resurrected bodily and live together, serving the Lord and the new heavens and the new earth, and then suddenly find people at your church teaching the opposite.

They denied the bodily incarnation of Jesus Christ. and thereby denying his life, denying his death, denying his resurrection. To them, it was all spiritual because the physical world was innately evil and wicked. So as a pastor, James, you must watch out for similar teachers, guard your flock, be on patrol for them. Weak shepherds, passive pastors will allow their sheep to be devoured by that kind of philosophical teaching. I cannot tell you how rare it is to find a pastor who takes those issues seriously. That's why the church is weak and in a weak condition today in the church in which we, in the broader evangelical church in which we are aware of. You must be number one, a troubleshooter. Number two, you've gotta be a teaching specialist.

Let me go back to verse 15 in closing. Verse 15 now says this, be diligent to present yourself approved of God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. So, verse 15, this is your imperative, that is to be diligent.

It means to make haste, it means to be enthusiastic and eager about it. In fact, one of the best ways you could probably translate this is, do your utmost. Because it conveys the idea of doing the most you can once you've done everything you can do. There's nothing left to do. It utilizes your abilities, efforts, powers, resources to the highest and the greatest degree.

So Paul is saying whatever he's commanding Timothy and you now, James, as a pastor to do in the remainder of the verse in verse 15 is urgent, get right at it, it should be done with enthusiasm, it should be done with diligence, it should receive your utmost effort, and it should something that you give yourself to, to the uttermost. This is your calling as a minister of the gospel. Now, what are the concerns to which you should devote yourself? Well, there's five critical concerns here.

Number one, do your utmost to present yourself approved into God. That means you as a man of integrity, you as a husband of integrity, you as a father of integrity, you as a pastor, Do everything you can to present yourself approved unto God. In other words, you're not just studying the word of God in order to preach it, you're studying it first to conform your life into his image and then you preach it. Do yourself to, that word approved actually was used for metal urgy in the first century. And it had the idea of purifying and making it stronger. Be real, real in a good sense, in a biblical sense, not fake. Secondly, do your utmost to present yourself approved to God.

Now this is really interesting because nowhere does it ever say approved to people. Because that's always gonna be the temptation in pastoral ministry, isn't it? I want the congregation to like me. After my sermons, I want them to be able to go out and say, Pastor, that was just the most wonderful sermon I ever heard.

No, you're approved unto God. They may say that. And knowing you, James, you'll probably have some amazing sermons. But whether or not they do, that's not the goal. Your approval does not come from them. Your approval comes from God. That's really important. The goal of your ministry is not so that men will say amen to your teaching or tell others how wonderful you are. No, the goal is to please God.

Richard Baxter again said it this way, to be a pastor, a man must set his heart on the life to come and regard the matters of eternal life above all the affairs of this present life, above the trifles of this world, he must appreciate in some measure the inestimable riches of glory. That's what you must do. Thirdly, do your utmost to be a hardworking shepherd. So you've got to work hard at studying, understanding, applying the Bible, being true to its original intent.

G. Campbell Morgan asked by young pastors the secret of his success. And when someone inquired of him what he said to those pastors, he said, I always say to them the same thing, work, hard work. And again, work. That's what you have to do. And Morgan lived up to his own advice. He would be in his study every morning at six o'clock, finding rich treasures out of the Bible to pass on to God's people. The word of God is your gold mine that you must mine. And a miner works long shifts. to find the rarest, richest gold. Fourth, do your utmost to be a workman that is not ashamed. So Paul wanted Timothy to be a particular kind of workman, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, not embarrassed. A lazy, negligent, unfaithful, irresponsible pastor will never assume a real godly role.

They are an embarrassment. Being unashamed points to the ultimate goal of your study. It is not to increase your Bible IQ. It's not to be the smartest person in the room. It's not to have people praise your insight into sermons and profound counseling insight. It is to enable your flock to change and to grow to be more Christ-like. Your flock will not care how much you know until they know how much you care about them. You have to care about them. The real Bible study is not to inform sheep, but to sanctify them.

I used to think as a young pastor, I used to think, wow, you know, after I preached a sermon and people said, wow, I saw things in the Bible today, pastor, I never saw before. I used to take that as a compliment. I don't take that as a compliment anymore. But when people walk out after hearing a sermon, they say to me, Pastor, it was like you had a camera in our house this week. How did you know? Well, I didn't. I was taking the truth and word of God and applying it to where they really live. Now that's compliment to me now.

So you must live so that you are not ashamed. You wanna enable your flock to be more Christ-like. Your real Bible study is not to inform the sheep and to sanctify them, then they will know, otherwise they will stand before Christ, or you will stand before Christ ashamed. Do your utmost to accurately handle the word of truth here, he says. Verse 15, Paul goes on and tells pastors how to present themselves approved unto God. If you want to present yourself approved as a workman, you must rightly handle the word of truth.

That is, using good hermeneutical study while constantly asking yourself, how should this change my life and the life of the people that I'm ministering to? Whether you're using the word in public or private, in preaching or in counseling, you must handle it properly. Let me go back to Baxter again. He says, I know that preaching the gospel publicly is the best means in terms of efficient use of time and energy because we speak to so many at once, but it is usually far more effective to speak it privately to a particular person, end of quote. I look back upon my ministry back years ago in Ohio, planning a church there and the ministry there, almost all the people that actually came out as leadership of the church actually went through intensive counseling.

Handling accurately literally means to cut it straight like a carpenter that's cutting boards to fit it together. Otherwise, the house is gonna be misshapen. And you must note that the immediate context contains the idea that to cut it straight means much more than just accurate interpretation. It means to cut it straight so that it is useful in helping your flock identify errors and avoid the errors that is swirling around them in the world today.

Listen to the experience of Martin Luther. Let ministers daily pursue the studies with diligence and constantly busy themselves with them. Moreover, let them with care and diligence beware of the infectious poison of this imagined security and conceded overestimation rather let them steadily keep on reading, teaching, studying, pondering, meditating. My concern should be that others receive from me what God has taught me in scripture and that I strive to present this in the most attractive form to teach the ignorant, to admonish and encourage those who have knowledge, to comfort troubled consciences, to awaken and strengthen negligent, sleepy hearts, as Paul did, and as he commanded his pupil Timothy and Titus to do, this should be my concern, how others get the truth from me, studying is my work, the work that God wants me to do, and if it pleases him, he will bless it, end of quote.

So it's your job to handle the word of God accurately. It's not your job to add to the word, to say more than the word says, to subtract from the word. You must be careful not to falsify or mutilate or improve God's word. It's your job to understand it, interpret it, exposit it, apply it in such a way that it changes the lives of your flock and pleases God. And to do that, you must cut the word straight.

There's an old saying, it goes like this. There is a pastor himself he cherished, who loved his position and not his parish, so the more he preached, the less he reached, and this is why his parish perished. To those whom God has destined for this great office, he will previously provide with the armor, I should say, that is requisite for its discharge, that they may not come empty and unprepared. That comes from John Calvin. So your duty as a tender, but tough, under-shepherd of God's flock is to be a troubleshooter, teaching specialist, and a truth seeker. Those three things become your focus in terms of being a godly minister for Jesus Christ.

Let's bow our hearts in prayer. Gracious Father, we thank you for your goodness and grace in raising up a man like James. And now, Father, the elders will be coming forward to lay their hands on him, which is a tradition that goes way back, right to the New Testament, in order to affirm publicly and to affirm before you the fact that they see the qualities of a minister in James Wierson. And we pray, Father, that as they do, that you will, through the Spirit of God, especially anoint him, to be a pastor who is devoted first to you in his personal walk, in his life with his wife, in his life with his children, and in his pastoral ministry that will be uncompromisingly devoted to the word of God and will be an example of Christ likeness. So Father, we commit him to you. And we ask Father, that as he is faithful to you, that your hand of blessing will rest richly upon his ministry. And the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ, will go forth through his ministry, out into our country, around the world, in so many different ways, help his wife, Kayleen, who now has the responsibility of being a pastor's wife, which itself brings its own challenges, to follow Christ first, and then to be the godly wife that I know she can be to her husband, James, and will be a great asset to him throughout this lifetime together.

This we pray in Christ's name, amen. All right, I'm gonna ask James Wearson to come forward. Ask the elders to come forward and also Dr. Street. And I'll ask you to join me in prayer. Dear Father, we come before you knowing that you are present here. We come before you through the shed blood of Christ, and it's in Jesus' name that we consecrate and set aside James Wierson for gospel ministry.

We ask that you would strengthen him. We ask that you'd protect him. We ask that you'd encourage him. that you make him a fruitful servant. Father, we pray that you would empower him to answer the call and to make him a tender and tough shepherd. We know that you are able, we trust that you will do this for James.

Pray that you would just protect his heart, pray that your Holy Spirit would speak a word in season to him in his time of need. We pray the same for Kayleen and for his family. We just commit him to you with full hearts and rejoice in the ministry that will come from him And we ask all of these things in Jesus' name, amen.