All right, a reading from the Word of God. I'm turning to the first epistle of Paul, the apostle to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians, and I'm going to read chapter 2. Chapter 2 of 1 Thessalonians, beginning at verse 1, which should give us a little bit of the attitude of the Apostle Paul to the work of the ministry to which he was called. So this is how the infallible Word of God reads. For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain But even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For our exaltation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak. not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness, nor of men sought we glory, neither of you nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. For you remember, brethren, our labour and travail? For labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. As you know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that you would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard from of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectively worketh also in you that believe. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews. who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins all the way. For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Wherefore, we would have come to you, even by Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing, are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. For ye are our glory and joy. And may God add his blessing to that reading of his most holy and infallible word, and bless our hearing of it for his name's sake. Amen. Right, a few thoughts then. Once again, thank you very much for putting up with me, thank you for inviting me. I think in blind faith I would imagine, but I'm very grateful. I must say that I was blessed last week, I did enjoy being with you, and I trust that the Lord will be blessing again this evening. Last week, I told you I felt led to consider with you what a church needs to look for when calling a man to be the pastor, the preacher, the minister of the Word of God. And last week I considered with you the man in relation to God. He must be in that right relationship. So this evening I move on. What follows from that is his relation to the Word of God, or his relationship with the Word of God. That is, with the Bible. And the Bible, the Word of God, consists of 66 books, 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New. And he must be a man of the book. Not saying that that's the only book he reads, but this is what he expounds, this is what he preaches, what God has given us clearly as his infallible word. The man you should be looking for will be called to proclaim this word. This is his job, this is part of the job description. He is to preach the word. He is to proclaim the Word of God. He is to expound the Word of God. And it is the Word of Almighty God, the God that cannot lie. And he should do this in such a way that people will be turned from darkness into light. so that they can be saved from eternal loss through Jesus Christ. He's got that important a job to do. And when he has people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, his job isn't finished. He now is called upon to teach those believers in all the truth that God has revealed. what the Apostle Paul calls all the counsel of God. That came in the reading last week, Acts chapter 20 verse 27. So he teaches those who believe so that they may grow spiritually. And when they grow spiritually they will be able to serve. A little baby can't do a great deal. But baby nurtured grows. Little child can do little things. bigger child can do bigger things. And when you get sort of into adulthood, so that the whole purpose really is to build the body of Christ, individuals, so that they can serve the Lord in all the different callings that there are in the church, whether they're helps or discerners or whatever they may be, whatever the offices and functions that they may be called to do. This man, is there to expound the Word and to feed them. And it doesn't end there, because he is also called to pastor the people of God, to shepherd them, so that they remain as one flock and not wander as individuals into this path and that path, or be diverted or enticed into every wind of doctrine. He has got a guardianship responsibility. Now in order to be able to do all that, he must be a man called of God. Not a man who says, oh, I can do that. I think I ought to do this job. It's not a man who does that. He is a man who is called of God and prepared by God inside as well as out. He needs to be a man taught of God, led by God, the Holy Spirit. He must be a man of God. And that means living I mentioned last week, in that relationship with God, he lives in the presence of God. Not in a sort of pseudo-pious way, I mean now, but his whole life is tied up with God. So that, as the scripture teaches, everything he does, whatever it is, whether he eats, or sleeps, or relaxes, or works, or goes on holiday, or preaches, which is his main work, or whether he is counselling and advising people, answering people's doubts and questions, whether he visits from house to house, as the Apostle Paul used to in Ephesus. Whatever he does, he does everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this way, he will also be what the Apostle Paul advises Timothy to be, an example to the flock. Because he lives his relationship with God. And so encourages people, not only by word, but by his example, by his life, to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he should be such an example as Timothy was, even though he may be a youth. If the Lord leads a young man to you, don't be afraid of confirming the Lord's call, if the evidences are there. After all, a preacher must be young at some stage. He must start somewhere. It becomes a visual circle otherwise. So you can't have a man unless he's got experience, but you can't have experience unless he's actually used. And so some church has got to give a person a good start. So always look for the calling of God. Prayerfully get rid of prejudices. I haven't got that in my notes, but it occurs to me that we need to do that. because sometimes we are sort of a bit afraid. Because whoever the man is, it is God who calls and it is God who enables. He must therefore first and foremost, in relation to the word, he must believe Never call a man who doesn't believe the Word of God. And by that I mean that he believes that the Bible is true. That the Bible is the Word of the God that cannot lie. And it is therefore infallible, inerrant, and the authoritative and only rule for our faith and practice. since the Bible has not been set out like a book of recipes or like a car owner's manual you know, I've learned from car owner's manual how to change my brake pads and how to adjust the carburetor and things like that. It's very handy because it tells you in great detail. Or sort of with a recipe book, it tells you what you're aiming to get, it gives you the ingredients and how much and the method and how long to roast it or boil it or cook it in some way. The Bible is not that kind of book. And therefore, the man who is called to be your preacher must know how to understand the Word. There is a way of understanding the Bible. For this simple reason, you see, that there is a difference between one kind of scripture and another. I've been asked, or even accused probably, that I'm a literalist. I tend to deny that. I'm sure I'll make it clear. On the other hand, one needs to know, what do you mean by literalist? Something literal is what is written, and do you accept that something is written? Well, in that case, I'm a literalist, I suppose. But there are some people who think that a Christian minister believing the Bible actually believes everything without any discernment at all. Now that can't be right for the simple reason that there is a difference between history and parable for instance. And a preacher needs to be able to discern which is which. I heard about some archaeologist who discovered a gold ring somewhere in Israel and decided that it was the ring that the father gave the prodigal son. Well, you know that's right. I mean, the prodigal son is a parable. But when it comes to history, then you take that as historically true, as historical fact. Because when you read history books about Nelson or Napoleon or Julius Caesar or something, you take it as being history. You listen to the news and you believe that something has happened in Ukraine or wherever. All the history of the Bible needs to be taken like that, to be taken as true. But a parable is something quite different from history. And so he needs to discern this. And therefore there is also prophecy. Now prophecy is completely different from those two. And so is allegory. And allegory and a parable are not quite the same. And then of course, there's the apocalyptic literature. Those are the hard bits in the book of Daniel and Ezekiel. Those things that are virtually impossible to understand and you scratch your head and you say, what's the relevance of all this? Or the book of Revelation. Now that is what is called apocalyptic literature. Because it's not quite the same as history. And it's not parable. It's got its own purpose. And of course there's poetry. Now in the poetry of the Bible, it actually talks about God having wings. And we can hide under the shadow of his wings. But God doesn't have a body at all, let alone wings. He's a spirit. And so a preacher needs to be able to expound the scriptures in such a way that you can understand what God is revealing. There is counsel. Take for instance the book of Proverbs. There's law. And a preacher needs to be able to distinguish between what is ceremonial law fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ and moral law which is eternal. And he needs to understand doctrine and be able to teach that which... well, doctrinally. He needs to know apologetics and he needs to be able to give people reasons why they believe. Because the Apostle Peter tells us, you know, that you give a reason for the hope that is in us. But the word he uses, the Greek word he uses, is apologia, apology, and from which you get apologetics. And an apology to remember is not saying sorry to remember. According to the Greek it means giving a reason why. And so this is what we are commanded. So a preacher needs to be somebody who can discern the scriptures. And I think I've explained to you now, haven't I, why you don't put any Tom, Dick or Harry in the pulpit. He's got to be a man of God's choice and a man who can handle God's Word in the right way. Now if you call a pastor, he needs to know to quote from 2 Timothy 2.15, he needs to know how to rightly divide the Word of God. So he's got to have those things. He doesn't have to be a clever man, but he needs to be a spiritual man. And that is why he must be called of God and then he must also be recognised as such by many others who are tried and tested leaders of their churches. Because we find in 1 Timothy 4 verse 14, Paul says to Timothy, neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. You know, the eldership. In other words, a man doesn't sort of come and say, I'm the man. Other people have to say, yes, this is the man. There must be a recognition in that way. And he says, meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting might appear unto all. And since God will have called him, the man who is being called to preach will in fact be, he will feel, let me put it like this, constrained to preach. He won't be a man who says, oh dear me, it's Saturday night and I've no idea what I'm going to preach tomorrow. Usually, he'll have so many things that he could preach, he doesn't know which. And I found myself in that situation and I had to advise others in that situation. I remember somebody coming to me after I'd been in the ministry for many, many years and he said, you must be running out of sermons by now. And I have to say, I'm not sure whether I've scratched the surface yet. There's so many things, even eternity is too short to show forth all his praise. You can't possibly. And so he's a man who's got so much, he wants to speak, he wants to tell people. There is a zeal in him. And you find that Paul speaks in this way, doesn't he, about the love of Christ constraineth us. He says in 2 Corinthians 5 and 14, he says in verse 11 of that same chapter, gone for gone, Oh, that's right, yet knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. It's so frightening to know everybody. People who leave this world, they go into eternity. Where are they going? What sort of eternity are they entering? And so he's got this burden to tell people, to warn them. In 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 16, Paul says, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. That is really the thing. This is why a man goes into the ministry. When he preaches then, of course, he mustn't be preaching his own opinions. He doesn't. He shouldn't go into the pulpit and say, well I think that this is what you should do or what you should believe. If you find that man, give him the sack. Because it's not his business to preach his own opinion. He is an ambassador. And an ambassador, whether he agrees with the government has sent him or not, has to say, this is what my government says. If he's negotiating with some country, he's got to say, this is what the government says. And he is going to say, this is what the Lord says. The Lord has sent me to tell you this. And so it's not what he might think is best. And he has to do that even though he might be preaching against himself, convicting himself and condemning himself. Make himself appear to be a sort of a terrible sinner and a hypocrite or whatever it is. But this, thus says the Lord. And it's true, you know, that in fact there are things in the Bible that we feel sometimes we don't like what God is saying. And there's something inside us, this is a bit of a rebellion and we don't like it. And, well, let me put it like this. That's okay. It's okay not to be okay. Because it struck me, you know, about the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now Jesus Christ is a man just like all of us. Human being. And see him in Gethsemane. Now he knows that the will of God is that he should be crucified for mankind. He is the last Adam. And he's got to do what the first Adam failed. And this is his last test, as it were. Now, have you noticed that he's really saying, Father, I know what your will is, but I don't want to. I don't want to die. I don't want to go. Three times he prays and he says, Father, if it were possible, Are you sure there isn't some other way that we can save mankind? I don't... Right? This is the thing. But you notice the thing. This is where Jesus, the man, has the victory. And he says, nevertheless, not what I will. But I will be done. Now, it's worth you noting that, you see. That Jesus is the supreme example. And he shows us that even when he as a man felt I wish this were not the Father's will. He's got to accept it and express it, and so on. And if the Lord Jesus can do that, then I'm not surprised if I've got the same kind of feeling. He had the victory, so we just have to look to Him for that victory. But the Bible is clear, isn't it, that we should obey God. Who should we obey? God, not man. If I'm a man, I shouldn't be obeying myself. I'm afraid this is my weakness. This isn't all our weakness. We fall into sin over and over again. Praise God, we've got one who didn't sin at all. But the Bible is very clear that we ought to obey God. Peter challenges the Sanhedrin and says, you judge. Who should we obey? You or God? And carried on proclaiming. Now, another thing I would say about this preacher is this, that he must be clear in his preaching. You don't need a man who sort of leaves you confused and says, what exactly was he saying? I'm no clearer now than I was before. You want a man who is clear, not dark and all foggy. He needs to speak intelligibly so that it makes sense and you can understand. His preaching also must be challenging. In other words, he's not there to entertain, he is there to speak to your conscience and make you think, oh, am I conforming to the word? And he should be persuasive. So when you have somebody in sort of, whenever a man comes, so you need to find a man when he preaches and you sort of, he's here on approval or whatever, that you need to listen to his preaching. Find a man who can make a change of mind if you're in error. because the Bible tells you that you're in error. Or if you're right, then he confirms your faith. He must communicate the gospel to all alike, to believers and to unbelievers. He's only got one gospel. You haven't got one gospel for the unbeliever and one for believers. When he preaches, he's going to preach the same to everybody. Let me sort of give you a little story. Happened to me many, many years ago. I had... a sort of class, a Bible study class. I was living in West Wales at the time. And quite a goodly number, a respectable sort of number came along. Yeah, it was probably about as many as a year or, you know, 15 to 20, I can't remember. And we were having a weekly meeting and studying the scriptures. And I was going through the scriptures, through the gospel, showing God, holiness, man's failure, the fall, sin, God's solution to it, and so on, and all the work of God, and that we are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And one evening after we'd gone through all this, and I think I must have be coming to the end of the series, a woman spoke to me after one meeting, and she said, do you know Mr. Parry? I don't understand what you're saying. And I had, I'm trusting her as the Lord, but I had this sort of feeling, so, well, ask her, well, what do you, what have you heard? What do you think I've been saying? Tell me, tell me sort of what you've heard. And she opened her mouth and spoke, as the scripture says, of the Gospel. And I had to say to her, Mrs X, I think your problem is not that you haven't understood me, but you haven't believed me. And she was a woman, sort of, I'm not sure whether she ever came to faith, but she was always trying to win God's favour by her good works. And she objected to this Gospel of freeing grace. But one of the things I'm really saying to you, she certainly understood what I said, although she didn't believe it. When the preacher preaches, he needs to preach with confidence. Oh, he might be shy, he might be young and sort of insecure and all kinds of things. I don't mean that kind of confidence. Don't look for a man who's confident in his own eloquence, or in his own knowledge, or in his own strength. You want a man who has confidence in the power of the Word of God. God has put power in his own word. And that you'll find in scripture. Paul talks here, sort of, in our reading, that you received it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectively worketh also in you that believe. It actually tells us there that the word of God works effectually. The word itself has got power. And so you need a man who believes the Bible in such a way that he knows that, well if I can put it like this, faith, you don't get faith from me. What does the Bible say? Well it does say that faith comes by hearing. But he's not hearing any old thing. But hearing by the word of God. So in other words, cutting the middle part, faith comes by hearing the Word of God. So there's power in the Word of God. As Paul says here, you see, the Word of God effectively worketh also in you that believe. It's the Word that God has used to make you believe, and I think that is one of the things that a preacher should always have confidence in. God has ordained that the Word of God is to be preached and that people may come to faith thereby. It is the instrument of God's choice. God has ordained. And if God has ordained the instrument, he will use the instrument. A hammer is made for knocking in nails. So you use a hammer. A screwdriver is made for screwing screws into something. Well, you don't hammer nails with a screwdriver, you don't screw screws with a hammer. And if God has ordained that the Word of God is meant to be preached so that people come, we need that sort of confidence, certainly in this day and age. We need confidence in the Word of God. But it follows that the preacher should therefore be bold and uncompromising in his proclamation. The fact that men hate God and therefore despise his word should not discourage and stop him. And did you notice Paul, when he spoke to the Thessalonians, said that he'd been persecuted, and persecuted, and persecuted, and moved along and so on, but he doesn't say, oh, I'll give this up, it doesn't pay, it's a miserable life. No, he goes on and he goes on, he preaches the gospel somewhere else. He had trouble in Thessalonica. And so he went to Berea. And he was moved along even by the persecution. But he never lost confidence in the power of the word. And he shouldn't be discouraged because people object to the fact that Jesus was substituted for sinners to pay their debt for sin. I've come across people who have harangued me and said it's totally unfair, it's immoral of God that he should punish Jesus for somebody else's sins. They just haven't understood the last Adam. And this is probably because we're living in an age where the history of Adam is not believed as history. This is why discernment, it's not parable, it's not poetry, it's history. And it makes a big difference. And we should never fear to offend people by proclaiming Christ crucified and risen as the only means of eternal salvation. And we should tell people that salvation is all of God's sovereign grace. His sovereign and free grace, I should say. that is, are not of him that runneth, or of him that willeth, or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy, as Paul says in Romans chapter 9 verse 16. Consequently, the preacher that you call should not be afraid of controversy. I've been told many times, people have said, you're not afraid of controversy, are you? Well, I'm not looking for controversy, I just try and preach the Word. It's unbelief that causes the controversy. I must tell you this story. Two women came to me after a meeting and said, you think you're right, don't you? Well, what's the answer to that one? The alternative is that I actually preach something I know isn't right. Of course I believe I'm right. Well, what I really believe is that the Word of God is right. And so you need a person who is not afraid of making a stand and he needs to be able to explain to you, the congregation, why what he's saying is true. Perhaps next week's meeting. without me. It will probably tell you something about the importance of that, of being able to tell people who don't believe why it's right and it's not contrary to science and everything. I said it's right to believe why the word of God is true. And such a man, even if he is isolated by all the opposition he gets. Persecution and so on and ostracizing the man of God. He should never be afraid because he's never alone. The Lord has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. But as Paul tells Timothy, one of the important things, and we need this in this day and age because of political correctness is biblical incorrectness. And what Paul says, and take this to heart, the servant of the Lord must not strive. In other words, he must not be argumentative. He can explain, but he mustn't get into quarrels, he mustn't be quarrelsome, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, doesn't give up easily. He tolerates all kinds of opposition and unbelief, in meekness, instructing those who, those that oppose themselves, because that's what an unbeliever does, is actually doing harm, eternal harm to himself or herself. If God put a danger, he can't do it, but who knows? Who are God's elect? Who will God call? peradventure, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. A strong man armed can only be beaten by the stronger than he. And so he mustn't be the man who tries to do that. The battle is the Lord's, not his, you see. And, oh, by the way, since none of us are perfect, he needs to be a man who admits that he always needs more light. on the unchanging Word of God. The Word of God is always unchanging, but our understanding needs to change. We need to understand more and get a clear understanding. I know this in experience. It comes and you say to your friend, oh, I hadn't seen that before. And I can preach that then as if it was something new. Preach on the same text, something completely different. Perhaps half the congregation have seen that before, before I did. You need a man who is like this, who is teachable, but not pliable. Know the difference? A pliable man will listen to all kinds of things, but a teachable man learns to understand more and more of the scriptures and he gets better understanding. And over the years, as he has experience, his preaching should be improving in that way. Now in this man, the man you call will be very, very wary of error and false teaching and will preach against them, expounding the word to prove what is right. According to the truth of God's standards, He will be very aware of what Paul tells Titus. I'm tickled by what Paul tells Titus because problem in the church, he says, Titus should be holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers present day application but in that situation especially those of the circumcision whose mouths must be stopped. I think that is very, very touching. Paul knows the importance, he tells Titus, you've got to know your doctrine, you've got to shut them up, because they're going to ruin the church. Look at the state of the church, look what's happened. And then in chapter two he says, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. He needs to be a man who safeguards in this way. And he must also guard himself, by much prayer, against pride. Especially if he's young. His task, remember, is to glorify Jesus Christ, but that is also the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, He shall glorify me. John 16, 14. and the preacher is to be the instrument used by the Holy Spirit to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Holy Spirit, as you know, does not draw attention to himself but always draws attention to Jesus and therefore in the life of the minister there must be an ambition not to bring any fame or praise or popularity to himself but always to magnify Jesus. As John the Baptist said, He must increase and I must decrease. And finally, he must be a man of prayer. And I don't mean that he is like a monk, sort of using these set prayers all day and all night and whipping himself and standing in icy water to keep himself awake and attentive and wearing knotted rope around his middle and things like that. That's false prayer. but he needs to be a man in the relationship with God and he is in any place and at any time he can talk to his Heavenly Father because he's there he can talk to his Lord, the Lord Jesus is with him all the time and so he can actually tell him about his problems and his difficulties and about everything really especially if he's entering as a lamb among wolves He needs to have the same attitude as Solomon, doesn't he, as they're saying. I'm only a child. I can't look after your people. Give me wisdom, give me the power enabling me to do it. And his prayer must be like that continually. And talking to his Heavenly Father about his weakness and about his problems and about his doubts and about his sufferings and about everything, all the problem people he's got in his congregation and so on, he must be a man of prayer all the time. And feel free in the presence of God. And you need to pray for him as well. Very much. Because there are times where the devil, the devil, do remember, the devil's going to make him a target. smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. So do pray for your pastor, present and future. Yes, he needs to be a man spending time with God in this way, asking for grace to sustain him and enable him in everything that he does. It's a great calling, it's an important calling, it's a difficult calling. So he needs all the grace he can get. And may God provide you with such a man. when Mr Thackway has to leave. So it seems to be the providence of God. So may God lead the church. Amen.