Well, it is a great joy to have a couple of the area pastors who are part of the Examination Council with us tonight. And we are first going to hear from Bobby Smith, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, who's here with his wife. And we're glad that she was able to come and be with you, brother. And this, your brother, has been faithful to the Lord over many, many years, and we have enjoyed his fellowship. He's a faithful participant in the Tri-State Particular Baptist Fellowship that we have here six times a year.
And we've asked him to come and to charge the candidate. If you'll do that, brother, come right ahead and bring us a message from the Word of God. I'll be reading in just a moment from 1 Corinthians, chapter 9, if you'd like to go ahead and turn there.
I want to say, first of all, it's such a delight to be here at Beacon once again. I have been familiar with this church almost from its beginning. Pastor B and I weren't very close in those days.
We were at some different spectrums theologically in those days. But over the years, we have become very good friends, and I thank God for him. And the other ministers that God has brought here, Pastor Bob, Pastor Mike, and Pastor Hunter as well, have become dear, dear friends.
I count it an honor and a privilege to be here tonight. Pastor Hunter and I met shortly after he first came here to Beacon. I heard him preach in one of our fellowship meetings not long after he came here. And I saw then that God had his hand upon this young man. Since that time, I've heard him preach on various occasions. And I'm convinced, even more so, that God is not only using him, but maturing him in the faith, gifted him in many gifts, for which I have been very thankful. Along with Pastor Bartman, I'm sure as a church, you have been praying for decades that God would raise up young men who believed the truth, who preached the gospel, to carry on in the days ahead. Sadly, most of the preachers I knew when I was Hunter's age are no longer with us.
Those that are still left among us are not in very good health. So we see the finish line in one sense, don't we, Brother Greg? So I'm thankful that we're seeing God's hand move in mighty ways. We don't always see it perhaps locally as we would desire, but one thing I can assure you of, God's purposes are being carried out in the earth. His will is being done throughout the world.
And even when our eyes can't unravel all the mysteries of his providence, I'm thankful that we can look to him, not so much even with understanding, but with faith, knowing that he doeth all things well. Hunter, when I was just a young preacher, the very first time I went to the church of which I am now pastor, talk about coming full circle, that was in 1970. I know I don't look that old, but I am.
And the man that was preaching that first service that night was a man out of South Carolina, an evangelist, and I had been invited there. I don't know if it was by my wife. We have actually known each other since we were 14. Her name is Joy. She's the joy of my life, I tell folks, and she really is. She tries to keep me on track, and I'm very thankful for her. She wanted to be here tonight and has not met most of you. And she's battling right now two kidney stones, one of which is nine millimeters. If any of you have had kidney stones, you know what she's kind of going through.
So I pray for her, and I'm thankful that she was able to be with us. But Brother B.B. Caldwell was preaching that night, Greg, and you probably remember B.B.
Caldwell. And I still remember the message that night. He preached from number 16. And as a young preacher myself, I was shocked at the title of his message, which was, Going to Hell with Your Britches On.
And if you know what number 16 is all about, you understand why he entitled it as such. I became very good friends with B.B. Caldwell, and through the years as a young preacher myself, he became not only a dear friend, but counseled with me. And one night when I was struggling as a young Bible college student with a lot of things, and I attended a service he was preaching at, and I said, Brother Caldwell, I'd like to talk to you about a couple of things if you've got a minute. And he said, I'll tell you what, somebody gave me a fruit basket. Come on back to the motel room with me and we'll eat that fruit basket and fellowship. Well, that night was a turning point in a lot of ways for me. So, Hunter, I commend you and thank God that he's brought you into this place. And Brother Greg told me to be brief.
My wife knows how difficult that is for me. He said about 15 or 20 minutes. That's about the time I usually get warmed up, so I promise you that's not going to be the case tonight. I see the clock here, so I'll abide, my dear brother. Three words I really want to share with you tonight in light of Hunter's ordination and to encourage him and charge him tonight in this special service is found, I believe, here in this verse. So if you look with me at 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 16, Paul is in the context here speaking of, even in the Old Testament, those who labored among the sacrificial system and ministry of the sacrifices, eight of those sacrifices, they were supported in that fashion. And he says the same thing concerning those who labor even in preaching the gospel, that it's no, is it any huge thing or shouldn't they therefore be supported or eat of that which they have planted? But in verse 16, he says something that I wanted to especially charge you with tonight, Hunter, and that is this. Verse 16 says, For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.
Three words I want us to look at. First of all, tonight, preaching. What is preaching? Secondly, the purpose of Paul's heart here as we recognize it once more.
And then thirdly, the people to whom Paul labored. First of all, in preaching, what Paul didn't say, woe is unto me if I preach not. There has been periods of history when God silenced his preachers. You're all very familiar, I'm sure, with between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, the Old Testament and the New Testament, there were how many silent years?
Four hundred silent years. No revelation, no word from God. Sometimes that's in judgment. But one thing we definitely see in this verse is that Paul is not simply saying woe is unto me. And woe is, by the way, one of the strongest words we find in the Bible.
Woe unto you. You remember Christ pronouncing woes upon the self-righteous Pharisees who ultimately murdered him. Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. I believe so strongly that God has called every preacher to preach the gospel. The gospel is nothing more, nothing less than the whole counsel of God.
And I think we could even simplify it and summarize it even more so in saying this. Paul said we preach Christ and him crucified. That's our calling, Hunter, is to preach not about salvation but the very person who is able to save unto the uttermost all them that come unto God by him.
There is no other way. There is no other message. And woe be unto us if we preach not the gospel. The gospel is not only the death of Christ. I was preaching from Acts chapter 11, going through the book of Acts in our church. And I mentioned there that as the apostles went forth preaching the gospel, you will notice there in those early chapters all the miraculous events that were taking place in their preaching. Multitudes were being added to the church.
They were being thrown in jail and beaten for just preaching the gospel and by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I would say this as we think about preaching. An old preacher friend once said to me, he said, Well, Bobby, I've got an outline.
I sure hope I don't have to use it. And I didn't understand exactly what he meant by that until later when it came to me. What he was talking about is we study, we pray diligently, we must do those things. But when all is said and done, except the Holy Spirit, come among us and bless those words.
They fall upon dead ears, dead hearts. So, Hunter, I encourage you as you ponder your preaching, and I know you do already, but I encourage you to do so even more as the years go by. Seek the power of the Holy Spirit in your life and in your preaching. Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.
Holy Spirit-filled preaching will be that of the gospel. And I said to the church this morning, the gospel, as 1 Corinthians 15, Paul very clearly reminds us, it is the death of Christ, as John Owen called it, the death of deaths. Yes, Christ died for us.
Why? Because, as Romans reminds us, the wages of sin is death. We could not die a million deaths and meet the justice that was due to us because of our sins.
But he also was buried for us. I grew up in a Presbyterian church, and I was mentioning this morning when I was just a child, I was catechized, and then as in the Presbyterian church in those days, I recited what's known as the Apostles' Creed every Sunday. Now, I'm not very much in favor, Hunter, of liturgical ceremonial services necessarily, but I will say this, there is a value to repetition. In fact, when I was in school, the teacher said repetition is the mother of all learning.
And I find as I get older, I have to repeat things to myself more and more. But one thing I'm sure of, as we quoted and recited that Apostles' Creed, it even talked about their Christ descending into hell, as it were for us. Yes, Christ not only died for us, but suffered the very hell that was due us.
Think of that. And then Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, if he be not risen, then we're what? Yet in our sins and of all men most miserable. So the gospel is more than Jesus died for you, it's yes, he died for us, a death we could never die. But he also lived for us, a life we could never live. I don't care how righteous you may feel at times or unrighteous, the truth is the best we can do, the Bible says our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before him. So how can he present us faultless? How can he present us without spot or any such thing?
Only because the life he lived, giving us and cloth taking my sin. Okay, except by the power and revelation of God, we'd never be able to wrap our minds around this, that he who loved us so unconditionally, that he not only would die the death we were deserving, suffer the hell that we deserved, but rise again to justify us and to present us faultless at his coming. What a gospel is ours to preach.
So Hunter, if that doesn't excite you, I don't know what will, brother. And then notice Paul says there's a purpose to our preaching. And he even talks about in the context here, days to come, if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward as if this is not just a one and done. It's not just a one time exercise of something called preaching, even as we've gathered here tonight and not only to ordain Hunter into the ministry, but to encourage him and support him and pray for him. We understand it's a life long calling. Spurgeon once said to his students in lectures to my students in the preacher's college, can you imagine a preacher saying this to young preachers wanting to enter the ministry?
If you can do anything else, go do it. You say, well, I don't quite get that. Well, the point is this, if God hasn't called you, you will probably quit the ministry and you will certainly be miserable in it because you can't quit. It's like, as Jeremiah said, a fire within our bones.
You can't shut it up. It's a message God's not only given you to preach in his word, but burned into your very soul by his grace. And that brings us to the purpose of preaching.
Paul in his closing years, in fact, in the very book that your pastor read earlier, as Paul in his latter days encouraged young Timothy, he made this comment. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. There's a purpose to your preaching, Hunter. It's not to fill an hour.
It's not to fill a service. The purpose of preaching is that God, through the very foolishness of preaching, as the scripture defines it, would save sinners. We had the pleasure last Sunday of baptizing a young lady that had been coming to the church for a while, and the Lord had saved her out of Catholicism. Nothing thrills my soul more in preaching the gospel.
And, Hunter, I know this is true in your own soul, but I tell you tonight, with all earnestness of heart, don't ever lose the excitement. Don't ever lose the desire, the diligence to call upon God to buy your preaching to save sinners. A young man, after finding out I'd preached for a lot of years, asked me, How many people have you saved?
I said, Not one. He looked shocked, and I said, The only savior of sinners is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you know anything about the gospel, we know that's the truth and all of its fullness. So, on purpose, God's purpose will be fulfilled, as I said earlier, in the earth. And to just play a small part in that, what a privilege is ours.
I see the privilege that Paul talks about. Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Necessity is laid upon me. It is necessary.
We've heard in the last few years things called essential things. Well, this is the essential thing, that we preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord had said it himself well, even as a lad, you remember when left behind and they figured he was among the crowd, but found out he wasn't. And of course, they go looking for him, and you remember the comment that was made by our Lord himself when he rejoined his earthly parents.
Wish ye not that I must be about my Father's business. There's a purpose God's given us, Hunter, as preachers that we can never neglect. That purpose, even as our Lord said repeatedly, is our Father's will, our Father's purpose that he's given us in the earth. It will require purpose as you live and preach. Young Timothy was exhorted by Paul to flee youthful lust.
It takes purpose of heart. We sometimes hear that expression and think, well, he was just talking about sexual lust, but I think that was obviously included. But there's a lot of youthful lust that have destroyed many a ministry. Lust for fame, lust for popularity, ambitious lust that can destroy us with pride.
Flee those things. Even the desires, the delights, they often deter us from the very purpose God has called us. The Bible also presents us as ministers of the Gospel, Hunter, with this, that we're to walk and live with a single eye. What does that mean? That doesn't mean we're one-eyed, but it means you've got to focus so lasered in, if you please.
You've heard it talked about in sports and things. Sometimes people get in the zone to where they're locked in on a purpose. I see here in Paul's mindset, don't you, that purpose, that kind of preaching, that this is the purpose for which God has called us, locked in on the Gospel. To do that, we must redeem the time, the Scripture says.
That word redeem has the idea of buying up the opportunity. So I would encourage you, Hunter, preach. As Spurgeon said, preach at the drop of a hat and wear a hat.
You notice I brought mine with me, actually. But he's also saying this, seize the day. I truly believe God gives us a day, an hour, a message for the hour. I believe it was Martin Lloyd-Jones who once said, I don't want to stand in the pulpit and just say something. I want to stand in the pulpit and have something to say. That's the purpose that God gives us. Seize that day, seize that hour, seize the opportunity God will present you with, with all humility and yet with all firmness of faith and determination to glorify God in all things.
And finally and quickly, people. These pastors will tell you every preacher of the Gospel is quickly reminded, we have no ministry without people. I thank God for you people that have, some of you been here as this brother that prayed tonight for a lot of decades.
I know how thankful Brother Bartman is for you as well as the other pastors here. But people can also be detrimental. Paul often warned the young preachers not to be afraid of their faces, not to let, you know, even the scripture speak of one of the attributes of our God is that he is no respecter of persons. Not a lot of people interpret that and think that means, well, he treats everybody the same. That's not what it's saying.
It simply means this. God's not impressed with your looks. God's not impressed with our attempts to come before him and with credit or some sort of plea that is based on who we are and what we are. We have, as the hymn writer said, I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.
But I'll say this about people, Hunter. God will bring into your ministry people that will be prayers, warriors of the faith. Tonight, as we met in the men's prayer room, I couldn't help but think of Spurgeon. God blessed his ministry, as many of you are aware of his ministry there in England and London and Metropolitan Tabernacle. And someone once asked Spurgeon, what do you attribute your success here in this church to?
And he said simply this. My people pray for me. Thank you for your prayers. Pray for Hunter.
I'm thankful that this church understands the importance of that and I was even able to be a part of that tonight. But, Hunter, I would tell you this. Don't try to ever be all things to all men. Paul even talked about that with his own ministry.
He didn't try to impress, even though he had letters set at the feet of Gamaliel, a Pharisee among the Pharisees. He said it's all nothing. It's all waste, except I know Christ. Not everybody's going to like you, Hunter. Is that news?
Probably not. I love Hunter and I thank God for him, but preachers have to learn very quickly in this world. We're not here to please men. We're here to please God. That's our purpose. That's what preaching is all about.
Bill James, who was a dear preacher, I think you knew Bill, Greg, one of his sons in my church and reminded me the other day. He said, my dad's favorite joke, I guess I can say this and be politically correct, involves a cannibal. Joe Biden mentioned a cannibal, so I guess I can. He said the cannibal went to the psychiatrist and asked him, well, why are you here?
What's wrong? He said, I'm just fed up with people. There's going to come days, Hunter, you're just going to be fed up with people. And I say that for this reason. There's not a minister in this room that some Monday morning hasn't said I quit.
I'm going fishing. We're in good company, aren't we? Brother Peter said that. Had that work out for you, Peter?
Not so good. Aren't you glad the Lord's a restoring Lord as well as a gracious savior? Hunter, I love you. I bid God's blessing upon you. I'm thankful to be a part of this tonight. The Lord be with you.
Let's pray. Father, your goodness abounds to us. We thank you for this opportunity to be in this place and among these people. I ask, Lord, that you'll give them a heart for Hunter as he continues his ministry here and in years to come. That you will empower him, Lord, by your spirit. That you will cause his affections to be set on things above and not on things on the earth. That you give him a single eye with the purpose to glorify you in all things. And even in the midst of suffering that may come in years ahead. May he, with our brother Paul, be able to say that the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
We ask it all for Christ's sake. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Bobby Smith, for an excellent message, an excellent charge to our brother tonight who's going to be ordained for gospel ministry. And now I'm thankful to be able to have Pastor Jim Bledsoe of Faithway Baptist Church in Greensboro. A pastor that's a little closer than Bobby Smith over there in Winston-Salem. Pastor Bledsoe has labored there faithfully and fervently for many years. And he's going to come and charge our congregation with a message from the Word. So Pastor Bledsoe, if you'll come at this time, please. It is a great privilege, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart, to be part of an ordination service where men are entering into the ministry of Jesus Christ. And have given their lives for that cause and that purpose. It is a privilege.
It's a face of reality and humility. Paul never considered himself worthy. He talked about himself being the chief of sinners, but God counted him in faith for putting him into the ministry. We've all been through this, the candidates questioning the church's evaluation, the elders interrogation.
And then their approval of Hunter. Isn't that wonderful, by the way? I have three elders at our church. I'm very grateful for each one of them, by the way.
They each serve in a great capacity, a great way. Very grateful for them. You know where they came from? Out of the congregation. They didn't come from Bible college. They didn't come from some mission agency.
I'm not opposed to any one of those, by the way. They came out of our local church. I have one man in our church who drove and moved, he quit his job, moved his family 300 miles to be in our church. I have another man who moved about 280 miles and moved his family and found a job to be in our church. Oh, I'm a great preacher. Yeah, you'll read about me someday in the comic strips, maybe.
No, it's not me. They, as a member of my congregations in the past, have a passionate desire for the word of God. They have great expectations from God. They, as members of the congregation, realized what to expect when they said they were preaching the word of God. They expected to hear truth, biblical truth, doctrine, teaching, etc. So they had some expectations. And I'm the deliverer.
I'm the messenger from God. They realized that as well. But they also realized this, that with the early apostles, as the 12 were giving themselves to prayer and study of the word of God in Acts chapter 6, they also realized that it's going to take some help for this. Hunter's not going to make it on his own. Let me help you with that, okay? Hunter has to have help.
I mean real help, genuine help. You widows that are complaining, let me get you some assistance here. Because it's not right that we should get up and leave our study to serve tables. So choose your seven men full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom that we may give ourselves to this task. So they went out and they got seven men full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. They brought them back to the apostles. They came out of the assembly, by the way. Those, if you want to refer to them as deacons, I guess, in Acts chapter 6.
Came out of the assembly. Then go out on the street and hire them. Then run down to the Bible college and get them. They came out of that church.
So real quick, or very quickly, we understand that there's great participation to be given with Hunter. And the other elders as well. If they have no following, they have no leadership.
Who's following? If they have no students, if they have no pupils, if they have no disciples, how does that mess you out with scriptures as far as being a New Testament church? It doesn't. We're not going to make Hunter or any other elder an idol. We're not going to do that. We're not going to make him a one-man team. We're not going to do that.
He didn't carry a badge that said, I do it all. Hunter's quick fix ministry. We're not going to do that. We're going to do what we have to do before the Lord. We have to come alongside Hunter and these elders that are already serving and take our part in the ministry of Jesus Christ. If you're here tonight and you have been born of the Spirit of God, born from above, washed in the blood of Christ, confession of faith in the resurrected Savior, there's no such thing as a spectator in the body of Christ. Nobody to sit back and just watch things happen. There's not a cheerleading section.
It's not there. Everyone in the body of Christ is a participant in the work of Jesus Christ. He's the head, Paul said in Colossians 1, you're the body.
They work together. We understand that. Now let me give you some particulars. If you have your Bible, and I trust that you would, and I want to do this biblically, turn with me please to the book of Hebrews. I hope the fellows at our church never get the idea of putting the clock in front of me.
I'm like the guy from the federal government. I'm here to help you. And the Baptist preacher said, well, I'm here to say a few words, right? Okay.
No, I'll honor this, I promise you. Look in Hebrews chapter 13, and you probably figured somebody, somehow, some way would go to this, by the way. And I want to look at verse 7 as the author gives this closing chapter, and it's full of admonitions, to the local assembly. By the way, speaking of the local assembly, if you'll study your New Testament epistles, you'll find they were written to local assemblies. Now the local assembly is filled with people, and it's referred to as brothers and sisters in Christ at times. You're referred to as saints at times, beloved at times. It's at a different name that calls us to be familiarly related in Jesus Christ. So it's not me versus you, you versus me.
That's not how it works. So the author is going to give us a slew, if you please, of admonitions here, and in the midst of it, he says this in verse 7. Remember them which have the rule over you.
I'm not finished there, but I am going to jump over to verse 17 of this same passage, just for the sake of doing it. Obey them that have the rule over you. Now obviously, and it doesn't take a scholar to figure this out, we have to recognize that we're to be under a governing hand, a congregation. As a matter of fact, to the point where he says, I want you to remember them. Now you're not talking about you remember their names, you remember having elders and so forth. You remember then that you're mindful in your conduct of the elders' leadership. Be mindful of their teaching. Be mindful of the sessions that they're preaching and sharing with you, or the admonitions, or the counsel they're giving you. Keep this in your mind.
Don't hear a message and walk out the door the same way you came in. In other words, Pastor Hunter preached this message and here's what he had to say and here's how it was applicable in my life. And he's admonished them to be mindful because they have the rule over you. As a matter of fact, later in verse 17, they watch for your souls, he says. So see, they're not just preaching or just teaching, they're actually ministering to the needs of God's people.
Now why? Because they aren't God's ambassadors. You know who the messengers to this church are?
I mean from God. 1 Timothy 3, we made reference to a little while ago, or 4. 1 Timothy 3, the apostle brings out in that local assembly for the very purpose of so that we may be able to know how to behave ourselves in the household of God. So what does he do? He establishes leadership. Leadership for who? Leadership for the congregation. Now here's the leadership. If any man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good one.
That's the first one. The second one, likewise must the deacons be. So the point being that we have leadership for the congregation, that Jesus didn't die on the cross, birth people into the family of God and say, okay, I hope it works out for you. But this is how Christianity is in this modern day. This is the profession of faith that we hear. Oh yes, I was saved. Where are you attending church?
Where are you serving? Oh, I'm not a member of a church anywhere. I've even heard it said there's no such thing as membership taught in the Scriptures. Was that true? Wow.
Where'd you get that? How come they knew how many were saved on the day of Pentecost? How come they knew who the widows were? I mean where's the numbers coming in there? Somebody kept a book.
Somewhere there's a book. So it was for the parishioners or the congregation that this leadership was established in Timothy 3, et cetera. But it was before that, 1 Timothy 3, the passage of the deacons. So the first thing we need to do is be mindful of the order that God has given us.
Now I want to show you something. Remember then what you have the rule over you in the spoken word of God. Obey then, verse 17, to have the rule over you and submit yourselves. We'll look at the word submit for just a sec. That word submit means to place yourself under. You already know all this, I understand.
But I'm having fun doing it so just bear with me. To submit myself to the leadership that God has ordained for the church. Now go back to 1 Timothy 3, we have to say God ordered this, don't we? God established it.
We didn't set this up. So we've got pastors, we've got deacons, we've got leadership among the congregation. That word to obey and submit ourselves to. That word submit is the same word in, I don't want to, the same word in Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 22, submitting yourselves one into another. Then right after that verse is another verse of submission where the wives submit themselves to their own husbands.
And I don't want to start any miracle counseling for anybody because sometimes you preach that stuff, you're going to have counseling the rest of your life. But the point being, submitting ourselves, what's that mean? Place ourselves in the order that God has established.
Hear this? In the order that God has established it. If you'll read Ephesians chapter 5 and 6, you'll find there that Paul deals directly with wives and husbands. He deals with children and parents and parents and children. He deals with work situations, masters and servants, servants and masters. He deals with domestic life.
He said it was filled with submission. Get in the order that God wants you to be in. Now the order is like this. It's elders, okay, leadership, parishioners. That's how it works.
That's the order that God has established. You're a big major part of God's plan for Hunter's life and the elders' lives here. You're not here by accident. You're here by the good providence of God. I believe that by my heart.
I do. The steps of a good man over the Lord, I believe that. It's not an accident. So our leadership is imperative to us because this is the order which God had. I'm not saying anything that God's not saying about that, but we understand the position.
We understand this. That God has said in Titus chapter 1 verse 7, here's the sincerity of this, that we count them as God's stewards. These elders are the managers on God's behalf.
How about that? Now I personally take that as a tremendous responsibility. I'm doing this on God's behalf. I have no liberty of my own to do anything different than what God has ordained.
None. So you as a parishioner, I want you to do this. I want you to trust God with His plan, His plan for Beacon Baptist Church or Faithway Baptist Church or any other church, that God's plan is fulfilled and is quite evident in the biblical methodology in which we adhere to among the congregation.
I don't know about you, but you know what? Thirty-three years I've been at Faithway Baptist Church, and I know I don't look that old either. My wife would be here tonight, but she's not for a good reason. We had to flip a coin. We had to be here or at the ministries of Faithway Baptist Church, and tonight is a ladies' ministry that only happens once every six weeks, I think it is, and it's tonight of all nights. So rather than make all the ladies mad at our church, we decided, honey, you go there, and I'll go to Beacon Baptist. I didn't flip a coin.
I already committed myself. She didn't need it, by the way, teasing. I kept them as though they're stewards of God's truth as managers. We also want you to know this as a parishioner, as a congregation, that God has gifted you with Bob and Hunter and Pastor and Michael, et cetera, et cetera.
These are gifts to you. I tell my wife this. She doesn't believe a word of it. Honey, come to the Bible. Ephesians chapter 4, Paul addresses the church there at Ephesus, which, by the way, was a very theologically taught church chosen in him before the foundation of the world, predestination, forgiveness, redemption, et cetera, et cetera. What a church. What a church. He gets in chapter 4 and he says, I want you to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. In other words, take all that theology off the page and live it. Put it to practice.
Now, here's how we're going to do that, Paul said, in verse 11 of chapter 4. And he gave some pastor slash teachers. How come?
That's why, if you're from West Virginia, how come? For the perfect of the saints. For your maturity.
For your maturity. Now, if you want to ring my bell, you talk theology. Just talk theology.
You don't have to say it like I would say it, and I don't have to say it like you would say it. The men of the Faith-Way Baptist Church tonight are meeting in a theological meeting that we call the Band of Brothers that's held the same evening that the ladies have their meeting. And you know what they're going to talk about? Politics. No, they're not.
No, they're not. They're going to talk about theology. They have a theological topic they're going to address.
Why? Because we believe behind every attitude, action, behavior that is sinful lies poor theology. We believe that. We believe that.
Marriage covenants are solid because of the theology that's involved, not because of your, quote, idea of love. Paul said, I want you to know this is for the perfect and the saints. Now, wait there.
Hey, hey, wait. For the work of the ministry. That's to the congregation. We don't just teach on evangelism and preach evangelism. We're sharing our theological perspective of evangelism with you that your lives would be conformed to Christ's likeness in that arena as well.
For the work of the ministry. It's toilsome. It's heavy sometimes.
It's hard. He said also we give to you for the edification in the body of Christ. Do you ever need edifying? Do you ever need build up or lift it up in the faith?
Encouraged? That comes through leadership. You know, we face battles similar to yours, if not the same. We run into the difficulties in society just like you do. We pay taxes. We pay penalties.
We do it all. We go to the hospital periodically. Doctors for surgery. Two kidney stones. Twenty-seven kidney stones.
Okay. I'm not very big, but I've been cut from top to bottom. And around both sides.
Twenty-seven kidney stones. I prayed one time, God just take me. Obviously he didn't respond in my favor on that one. He has a goal for you. Because you have a tendency. To be tossed about with every wind of doctrine.
That's our tendency. You notice these fatty churches. Not fat fat. F-A-T.
But F-A-D. D-Y. Fatty churches. Ties up out of nowhere or super abounding in number.
Activities and, you know, humanitarian efforts. And they're all coming up. You know what I'm saying? And people get hung up on those things. Because they give immediate results. Superficial they are.
But immediate. We're here to keep you from falling and that kind of stuff. Believe it or not. We're not against everything. We're just against those things that are conflicting with the gospel. The preaching of the word of God. The teaching. The discipleship.
That would interfere with your life. That you be not children tossed about with every wind of doctrine. By the slight of men and cunning craftiness.
And they lie in wait to deceive. Okay. You got it? No wait, participants.
I'm finishing. On time. He said, I want you to submit yourselves. Or place yourself in the order.
Watch. That God himself has ordained in the body of Christ. People praying about the will of God.
Here it is. Place yourself where God would have you. In the body of Christ. If you're not an elder, don't try to be an elder. If you're not a deacon, don't try to be a deacon.
Okay. Don't try to work as if you're one. Work with them.
Work alongside them. That's how it works in the New Testament. So as this young man enters into the ministry, you know what he can expect? You. I expect my people to participate. I expect it. I don't demand it.
I certainly don't deserve it. But God has ordained it. That's sufficient to me for life and godliness.
If it's written in the book, it's settled. Now yes, like all churches, probably all, I say superficially, but yeah, we've got some spectators. I think we've got some of just taters.
But most are, that was a little bit of human, not a lot, but a little bit of humor, just for those of you that are dozing, if there be any. But yeah, we've got some. What can we do for them? What can we do? We're not going to manipulate.
You hear me? We're not going to chase them. We're not going to purchase them. We're not going to buy their services. We're not going to buy their cooperation.
We're not trying to win friends and influence people. We're going to teach the word of God. And let the blessed Holy Spirit do what only He can do in their hearts and life. And see, here's the good thing for the congregation. You know that it's the Holy Spirit that is working in you when you obey the word of God. John 6, 63. So I pray for this congregation and their elders, by the way.
I pray for you, Paul, upon every address. Romans, for instance, Paul lists those that helped him. Acts, he mentions people that helped him.
Colossians, he mentions people that helped him. And he closed every one of those with, pray. Pray.
Put them on your prayer list. Not just on Saturday night. Put them on their Monday morning, Tuesday, Wednesday.
Why? It's seven days a week, 24-7. Oh yes, they can take a day off if they choose. But you know what's going through their little feeble minds on their day off? Aunt Mary's sick and in the hospital. I need to get over there. Or Uncle Joe is upset and he's in sin.
I need to speak with him and try to admonish him in the faith. My wife can be sitting at the coast and me and I'm quiet and just sitting there watching the waves come in and she said, what you thinking? I said, I'm thinking about Sister So-and-so, how sick she's been here lately. I'm praying for her.
Why? She's part of my life. She's been part of my life for 30 years. Faithful to the house of God. Loved her pastor all these years.
And now she's in her final journey home. You think you don't think about those kind of things? You don't take your day off? No, we need you people. We need God working in your hearts and lives like he's working in our hearts and lives. So thank God for being Baptist Church. Thank God for the congregation.
I don't even know you. But to be out here tonight in this session knowing what was going to take, and you're here by the goodness of God, I'm thankful to God for you, for your pastors, your elders, your leadership, and for you being faithful to the things of God. Father in heaven, blessed be the name of the Lord. God, we love you.
And it's simple because you first loved us. We love the church as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Help our love to increase, help us to grow and express our love to the leadership that God, you have ordained and put in our paths and our lives that we can be victorious in Christ and live that victory in this present evil day when there's so much that's opposed to God and your church and the things of God, when there's so much rebellion, so much misunderstanding of submission and order, people are confused. Only in the light of the Word of God can we know the path that you would have to take. Bless this, dear church, as you have and as we know that you will in Christ's beloved name. Amen.
Thank you so much. Well, the Lord has given us two good messages tonight, much to think about, and we've heard the Word of God and we need to respond obediently, believeingly, humbly and joyfully to what the Lord has given us tonight. All right, we're coming to the time when we're going to lay hands on this brother as the scripture indicates we should do and officially ordain him to gospel ministry. Many of you know that this will actually be the second ordination for Hunter.
He was ordained by his home church several years ago and then, I won't give the whole long story, but when he came to the doctrines of grace, his church wasn't happy about that and they removed his ordination. I told someone about that recently. They said, can they do that? And I said, yes, they can do that.
And that's what they did. And so he was ordained to gospel ministry. He has been unordained to gospel ministry and now a church that appreciates that he believes what we believe about the gospel.
He believes what we believe the Bible teaches and we are privileged to be able to now ordain him into gospel ministry. We had 10 men who gathered back in August with the ordination council, the examining council. Five of them were members of this church and five were men from other churches and not all of them are here tonight, but the ones who are here I'm going to ask to come, but I'm going to read their names as they're listed on the ordination certificate, which we have here to present to honor in just a moment. The ordination council consisted of Gregory Barkman, Robert Latour, Pastor Jim Bledsoe, Pastor Dale Wallace of Damascus Baptist Church in Statesville, dear brother in Christ, Pastor Kenneth Hansard of Beacon Baptist Church in Anstead, West Virginia.
He's not with us tonight. Pastor Bobby Smith that you heard a moment ago, Pastor Terry Lane of Shallowford Baptist Church in Pofftown, just the other side of Winston-Salem, the church that Bill James that was referred to earlier pastored for many years, Pastor Michael Carnes, Pastor Thaddeus Boyd. Did you know his name was Thaddeus? We call him Thad. Thaddeus Boyd III.
And then Ryan Brigman also was part of that council. So we're going to ask Hunter to come and to kneel on the floor here with enough room behind you for these men who are part of the examining council and are here tonight to get behind you and lay their hands on you. And I don't know how we're going to get all these hands on one man, but anyway, you fellas come, all of you whose names I called who are present, and we're going to officially ordain this brother to gospel ministry, and then we'll have another presentation when we close. Come gather around.
Let's get at least one hand on there somewhere. And Pastor Michael Carnes, would you come on, Thadd. Father, this is a momentous occasion in the life of Hunter Strength and in the life of our church. Father, we thank you for the way you have worked in his heart and life, how you have saved him by your marvelous grace. You've given him a godly life.
You've given him beautiful children. You put a love in his heart for the word of God by the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, Father, you have called him to gospel ministry, and we thank you for the process that he has been through that brings him to this place this evening. Father, we are mindful that the ministry is a glorious privilege to be engaged in, and it's not something that a man seeks after, but it's something a man submits to as God calls him. And we thank you, Father, for your call upon his life and for the gifts that you've given to him. And we ask our Father that there'll be days ahead that he'll ask, even as Paul asks, who is sufficient for these things?
And yet he answers his own question by saying that God has made him competent for the new covenant ministry. Father, may he run to you continually, keep him humble, keep him dependent upon you, fan the flames of his affection for you and for his church. Father, it is a sober reality to understand the calling of an elder to care for the never-dying souls of that good. Father, he will weep tears for your sheep. Father, he will weep tears for your sheep. He will give much of himself for the sake of the sheep.
And rightfully so, because Jesus died for his sheep, he died for his church. Father, it is your doing to give the church men after your own heart who will feed your sheep with knowledge and understanding. Father, thank you that we believe that this is a man who called and equipped and given him a heart like yours and has a love for teaching and giving understanding. So bless him, Father. Bless him in the days ahead. Bless him in his preparation, his formal preparation for ministry as he's given himself to theological training.
We thank you for the sound mind you've given him. We thank you again for his gifts. And we thank you, Father, that you are ordaining him to the gospel ministry in this local assembly. We pray your blessing upon him, not only this evening, but in the days and months and years to come. And Father, may he know the joys of the gospel ministry. May he not become weary in well-doing.
May he be instant in season and out of season. And may he know the days and months and years of fruitfulness because you have shined upon him and you have chosen to bless him and use him for your honor and glory. I know this man.
I know his heart. I know he would say, not unto me, Lord, but unto you be the glory. Bless this man now for the sake of your church and for the gospel ministry.
We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm not unhappy that Pastor Strength went through that trial of having to stand for the truth of God's word, even if it cost him his ordination, if it cost him the ministry that he was involved in at that time, if it cost him his treasured relationship with his home church.
He's been willing to give that up for the sake of truth. And that's what we need. We need men who kindly, humbly, and graciously will say, like Martin Luther, here I stand. I can do no other.
This is what the Bible teaches, and I will stand upon it. Well, we have two things for you tonight, brother Hunter. First of all, we want to present you with your certificate of ordination. You've got one now.
Did you have to turn your other one in? No doubt. All right. Now you've got one. And we also have a Bible to present to you. It's a beautiful Bible. It is a Thomas Nelson premier collection, large print, thin line reference, New King James Bible.
You can see it here. I'm unwrapping it. It's very nicely wrapped and boxed. And inside, on the presentation page, a beautiful script that one of our members, who has nice handwriting, did for us, because I wasn't about to put my handwriting in this Bible.
It says, this Bible is presented to Noah Hunter Strength by Beacon Baptist Church on September 15, 2024. So we're going to give you a new sword to wield in the work of the ministry. Now, if you have anything you'd like to say to us, we'll give you an opportunity to do that at this time, brother. They asked me if I was nervous.
I told them I wasn't, as long as I didn't have to speak off the cuff. Thank you for your confidence in my ministry. Thank you for your affection for my wife and I. I had been asked about the possibility of taking other pastoral opportunities.
And when confronted with those options, my typical response is that Beacon is not my employment. This is my home church. When we came here, we had no community. We had no local church, particularly the back home that resonated with where we were theologically.
So arriving at Beacon was more than just an employment opportunity. This was finding an assembly of believers who resonated with where we were doctrinally. So we thank you for not only being congregants that we have the privilege of ministering to, but for being our home church. We love you and we praise the Lord for you and are looking forward to ministering with you as long as the Lord gives strength to my body. Thank you.
