Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church

As I was standing in line being waited on, the manager came up to the young man who was working there and said, “I want you to put up joysticks and check the front.” And the boy said, “What?” Didn’t quite get it. “I want you to put the joysticks in and then check the front. Whatever else is missing.” We want to volunteer for God’s service. “Here am I. Send me.” God says, “Listen, before you go, meditate upon my word.”

So we sit and we receive instruction that we can then take to our culture. But let’s stand for this reading of the actual word and reminding ourselves that it is a command word to us that demands response on our part.

1 Timothy 1, I’m going to read verses 18-20 of 1 Timothy 1. And then we’ll turn to chapter 4. 1 Timothy 1:18-20.

“This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith, and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

And now turn over to chapter 4. We’ll read verses 11-16. 1 Timothy 4:11-16.

“These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity, till I come. Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, but the laying on of hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them. For in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.”

Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word and pray now that your Holy Spirit, given to us on the basis of our Savior’s work on the cross and his ascension, that spirit may do his work, Lord God, and take things of our Savior and teach us those things from your word to the end that we might obey them and praise you for them in this convocation of worship and praise and preparation for service. We ask this in the mighty and powerful name of our Lord Jesus Christ and for the sake of the extension of his kingdom, not ours. Amen.

In our Canons of Dort study last Friday evening out at our house, we were dealing with the second head of doctrine which we think of as limited atonement in the third point of the five points of Calvinism. Those five points come from the Canons of Dort. It actually is the second head there. They don’t start with man and his depravity. They start with God and his unconditional and sovereign election which is the place to start. In any event, the second head of doctrine is dealing with the death of Christ and the redemption of men thereby. It becomes known to us as limited atonement. Not limited in its value, but limited in its application to the elect.

Anyway, I want to read this article 9, the concluding article for the positive statement of the church fathers at Dort comprised, by the way, of men from other countries including England, men who were not Presbyterians but were rather from the church of England which is very interesting in terms of understanding of history. But in any event, this is the ninth article, the concluding article to the second head.

“This purpose proceeding from everlasting love toward the elect has from the beginning of the world to this day been powerfully accomplished and will henceforward still continue to be accomplished notwithstanding all the ineffectual opposition of the gates of hell so that the elect in due time may be gathered together into one and that there never be wanting a church composed of believers the foundation of which is laid in the blood of Christ. This is dealing with the death of Christ and the redemption of men thereby which may steadfastly love and faithfully serve him as its Savior, who as a bridegroom for his bride, laid down his life for them upon the cross, and which that is speaking of the church, may celebrate his praises here and through all eternity. Celebrate his praises. That is the purpose for which Christ died on the cross according to the Canons of Dort.”

And I believe that is faithful to the holy work. We have been saved that we might celebrate his praises now and in eternity. These articles were written and composed to combat the heresy which now permeates nearly all the Christian church certainly in our country and the great bulk of it across the world. Arminianism. Arminianism has changed perspectives on everything that we do.

There’s an excellent book, although not written by a believer, called *The Feminization of American Culture*. This book traces the American historical experience for the last 200 years as a transition from a masculine to a feminine culture. His author was perceptive enough to see that the problem there was a change of theology or the benefit thereof depending on your perspective. She traces the feminization of the American culture as a result of the replacement of Calvinism with Arminianism with the replacement of a God-centered culture to a man-centered culture and as a result a replacement of the masculine role as representative of God in the culture with the role of woman.

This has had incredible implications for all the various spheres of government and authority in our culture. There’s been a change from a patriarchy to a matriarchy. Along with that, I would posit that there’s also been a shift from a perspective of primacy of vocational calling to the primacy of the home. I believe that while the home is absolutely essential, it is important for us to recognize that Eve was given Adam as a helper for his task of subduing the earth, governing it under King Jesus and beautifying all the earth.

The home, the origins of the home in the marriage was for that very purpose. And that purpose is accomplished through the extension of vocational calling on the part of men as well as through the rearing of children to be sent out as arrows into this culture in the cultural warfare that we will find ourselves in nearly throughout all history. The antithesis between the two seeds working its way out.

There has been in our day and age a recovery of the home to some degree by homeschooling. That is the home is no longer seen as simply a place of pleasure and entertainment. But now it is also seen as the necessity to be a rearing place for those arrows that are shot back into the culture as they’re reared from our families and launched into the culture. I think time will tell, however, whether this movement is a movement back to the orthodoxy of the faith and Calvinism or whether it is an extension, albeit a perverted one, of an Arminian theology that still has the home at the primacy of its role.

We must in our culture, in the Christian culture of America, to affect a true reformation, effect a reformation in terms of vocation as part of the movement back to a thoroughly Calvinistic Augustinian sovereign worldview as opposed to an Arminian Pelagian worldview. Other institutions have suffered as well and today I want to talk about the institutional church.

The church has had its effect as well as men moved away from a Calvinistic perspective to an Arminian one. The church also now is seen as by many as a place of entertainment, a place not of dominion and preparation for conquest, a preparation to take the message of God into the culture, but rather as a place of entertainment and a place to make us feel good. And so men in their desire to feel good in opposition or in coming away from the world act like children in many worship services.

There is a movement as we move from men to women as the central point of our culture and with instead of seeing the woman as assisting the man in his task, we also become child-centered as that progression continues its way down and our worship becomes childish and juvenile. The church has become a vapid pointless exercise for all too many Christians and men won’t put up with it and so men leave the church rather than going to church and acting like six and seven year olds.

For others, the church is simply irrelevant to the whole situation. Any attempt to exhibit some kind of disciplinary action in the church is seen as somehow exceeding the authority of the local church because that authority has been reduced to a place of personal peace and affluence in the context of the church. No hassles are what people want. Give us soft words. So the church becomes vapid and pointless. It loses its ability to proclaim the effectual word of God and prepare its people therefore for the cultural warfare in which we find ourselves in our context today in America in 1996.

The church has become a place where people are essentially anesthetized. They’re made comfortably numb to quote another of our cultural heritage from the last 30 years in music. Church is vapid. The church is pointless. Well, we want to do something different. We want to come together in the Lord’s day to celebrate his praise and to understand that the praise of God is not found in one sphere, one slice of our world, but rather that praise of God is to extend out into everything that we do and to praise him for all aspects of the world that he has given to us and the spheres in which we find ourselves operating.

The worship of the church is absolutely essential as a starting place and ending place. The corporate worship of God’s people, which forms then the basis on which we are accompanied by the Spirit of God as we move into that culture and reassert the sovereignty of God, the crown rights of King Jesus over every area of life. The church in its celebration of his praises from the Canons of Dort the second head does not mean an isolation from the world but in seeing worship as the mix from which all of the world is seen and seen from that perspective, the heavenly viewpoint in our circumscribed world.

We seek that heavenly perspective, not just on what we do here, but on all of life. We see from that heavenly perspective as revealed in the book of Revelation that there is warfare that goes on in the context of our world. And we’re to take the sword of the Spirit. We’re to take the word of God with us as we leave this place. “Here am I, send me” as a warrior. And our celebration of the praise of God extends to our application of the sovereign worldview that we have been taught from the scriptures and to all the world.

The church is given among other things to equip the men and the women and the children to go forth and to engage in a Christian perspective of the family, a Christian perspective of one’s vocation, a Christian perspective of one’s recreation, and a Christian perspective of our civic actions as well. And so 1 Timothy 1 verse 18 and 4:14 is very important for us. You remember the context for these is that Paul wrote the epistle to Timothy so in case he didn’t come or was delayed, Timothy might know how to behave himself and how those who are in the church might behave themselves in the household of God.

And so these verses tell us about how to behave and how to order the affairs of the household of God that it might be effectually celebrating his praises in corporate worship as a model then for going out and engaging in the cultural warfare that we must to proclaim the crown rights of King Jesus.

What does First Timothy tell us? 1 Timothy tells us in verse 18 of chapter 1 that there is a charge. That charge has a relationship to prophecy and that prophecy and charge to the end that Timothy might wage warfare.

Look at verse 18 of chapter 1. “This charge I commit unto thee, son of Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare.”

1 Timothy 1:18 tells us that the church is not a place of numbness, is not a place of inactivity, is not a democracy. It is an order. The Apostle Paul has given a charge to Timothy referenced in verse three of chapter 1 where he tells Timothy “as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.”

That was the purpose for Timothy. It is the charge to which Paul here refers to. The charge to Timothy was to charge some to teach no other doctrine to engage in necessary heresy trials and in disciplinary action against those who would teach false versions of the scriptures, unorthodox teachings, heterodoxy, bad doctrine. The church involves necessarily from the charge in verse three, verse five, and then in our text from verse 18 that tells us that the church is to be a place of discipline, structure, authority.

It is an army with ranks and divisions and it must have authority and structure to it. And in the context of that, officers are called for. Office is asserted with the insertion of the charge here to Timothy. The offices to the end that this task might be fulfilled. And the end of this charge as we read in verse 5 is love. Is love. There’s no contradiction between the proper application of church discipline, the proper view of church office, and the manifestation and growth in love of the body of Christ.

It could be said that if Timothy was to take this charge given in the context of prophecy and war a good warfare. The purpose of the warfare and the mechanism of the warfare is love as defined by the scriptures and as defined by a Calvinistic Augustinian sovereign worldview as opposed to love defined by the romanticized versions we found in the Arminian culture that developed in America. And so we read of the charge here.

We read that this charge we could say the installation of Timothy and that particular place for that particular responsibility was the charge he received. And we see that there’s a relationship of this to the prophecies that were somehow referenced here. We read that “this charge I commit unto thee according to the prophecies which went before on thee” or that could be translated “went before to thee.”

Now this is a difficult text. Luther in his commentary on this text says I don’t know what it means. Can’t figure it out. Don’t know. Luther said, “Well, maybe there’s a reference here to the Old Testament scriptures as the prophecies that would assist Timothy in fulfilling this charge that he had received and to wage the warfare.” Others think, and Luther talked about this a little bit too, although he favored the Old Testament view, but it’s acknowledged in ignorance of coming to a certainty of position.

Others would say that at Lystra, when Timothy is selected by Paul and then later in his ordination, that certain prophecies were spoken by someone to Timothy. We really don’t know though. And we have a problem with that second interpretation, the normal one, because it says one way to translate this prophecy text in verse 18 is that in these prophecies wage war and why would that refer to something that wasn’t directly related to what he was doing now, rather simply a foretelling of what he would end up doing in terms of office.

Lenski takes the position. Lenski is the great Lutheran commentator, which you have to be careful with because he is a Lutheran. But nonetheless, he is excellent at exegesis of the Greek texts and he believes that these prophecies refer to the prophetic word inspired epistles that went before Timothy in a sense and went with Timothy in terms of his function.

Let me quote Lenski here. Lenski says that these are the apostolic prophecies and teachings which are described with a present not an aorist participle as going to Timothy in advance of this time when he is especially called upon to make his disciplinary measures accord with them conducting his good campaign in connection with these prophecies. The word prophecy, now in general as found in the New Testament, the Greek word—the word may refer to immediate revelation in the sense of a prophetic utterance on the spot but it is also used with reference to all transmission of such revelation by those who have received it immediately. We receive revelation immediately from the scriptures from the apostles and to read that is to be prophetic in that sense.

1 Corinthians 14:1 urges all Christians to seek this gift and ability. This is the sense of prophecy as it is seen here. And so what Lenski believes is that what’s going on here is that the charge Timothy is in relationship to the preached word as exposited in Paul’s epistles which would precede him now at least by way of application. Okay, we can say that charges to office bearers in the church are certainly today to be carried out in coordination with the word of God, the prophetic word of God as revealed in the 66 books of the Bible.

Okay? Now, maybe by way of exegesis, we can say that Lenski would say so. But even if we don’t know that exegetically, we know that it is true by way of all the other scriptures teachings that we don’t exercise office and we don’t wage the warfare apart from the revealed word of God now in the scriptures that have been given to us once for all. And so Timothy’s charge is related to the truth at least that is revealed in the scriptures.

I think it’s very helpful to think of it that way and not in some way that makes it particularly applicable only to Timothy some kind of special knowledge about him. That may be true, but it’s important for us as we ordain and install and charge officers to recognize that the context of the revealed word of God is found in the scriptures. And then third, the purpose of this charge in accordance with these prophecies, the revelation of God’s mind on a thing, whether immediately or mediately, the purpose in the text is that he might wage war.

And I would suggest that the implications of that is that the purpose is not restricted to the institutional church. To wage war doesn’t mean that the church is always in one big battle where warfare is always going on. That is not the normative picture. When the New Testament church is painted for us in scripture, there are skirmishes. But I think that when he tells Timothy to wage a campaign, a war, he’s talking about the extension of the crown rights of King Jesus in all of Macedonia, all the area which he would find himself.

That’s what he’s speaking of. And so I think that this charge links the installation of office for a particular task to the revealed word of God. And those things link together that installation of office using the word of God and is the effectual means of waging and advancing this cultural warfare to call it in the modern parlance we use the term in terms of the preaching of the gospel of Christ and extending the visible manifestation of the reign of Christ in our areas geographically.

Now I think we can also see by way of application again that this warfare works in the context of people who sin that we wage war in the context of our own sinfulness and so certainly officers in the church and the charges they receive and the proper seeing of that in relationship to the revealed mind of God as found in the scriptures is for the purpose that warfare also might be waged not just geographically in the context of our culture but in the context of our men and women and children in terms of their maturation that as the geography of the land manifests increasingly the order of God’s kingdom so our lives do as well and so the waging of war has to do with both those aspects at least by way of application.

Very important to stress this though because again as we moved from the Reformation to the feminization of culture the idea of cultural warfare or spiritual warfare that Christianity has any relationship to warfare was certainly done away with or at least perverted to a strong extent. Lenski says here that like troops these prophecies and true teachings come to Timothy in advance to enable him to make a good campaign in his new field.

He is Paul’s lieutenant general, reinforced by his general in chief. His campaign is to be an excellent or a noble one. Well conducted “that thou campaign in connection with them.” The noble campaign is what the Greek reads there. Again, to quote Lenski, this is military language. Timothy is the campaigner. He has a campaign. He is engaged in campaigning or waring and he is to accomplish the noble campaign or the good life but his forces are these prophecies. His whole campaigning is a spiritual one. Paul’s charge to Timothy does not merely have this as its purpose. This is the charge itself. The charge is to wage this war in relationship to the prophecies. And now it has a specific application to Timothy in his cultural setting and in his particular calling. But that’s what it’s for. Charge the word or prophecy and to the end that warfare might be waged rather.

Let’s turn to our second text 1 Timothy 4 and deal more specifically now with the ordination side of charge and ordination verse 14 1 Timothy 4.

“Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy but the laying on of hands of the presbytery.”

Now again here we can see this for understanding purposes we can structure it as a series of three things that are talked about. There is first a charisma there is a gift in the King James version that is not to be neglected and actually the text says don’t keep neglected doesn’t warn Timothy apparently Timothy was neglecting it to a certain degree but there is a gift there is a charisma that’s talked about here. There is as well the necessity to see this in relationship to prophecy this gift which was given thee by prophecy. And then third, the giving of this gift is related to the laying on of hands. Timothy’s ordination as an elder of the church of Jesus Christ.

What is this charisma? What is this gift that he’s not to neglect? Well, some expositors for instance say that this gift is in the technical sense is the extraordinary powers distinguishing certain Christians and enabling them to serve the church of Christ. The reception of which is due to the power of divine grace operating in their soul by the Holy Spirit. Another commentator says that this gift was Timothy’s ability to understand the true gospel teaching over against spurious and false teachings. He had the gift of prophecy and of discerning of spirits through all false teaching. He could properly transmit the true word of God.

Well, that’s true. There is true that Timothy was certainly gifted to do that. But I do not know that is what is meant by the gift here because why is that gift restricted to the laying on of hands of presbytery? I believe that the gift that Timothy is being referred to here is a proper noun. It refers to his office. And it was that office that Timothy received through ordination, the witness of the congregation of Jesus Christ, the witness of other elders to his fitness to have that gift. And also that ordination was in relationship to again the revealed prophecies of the scriptures.

So we see these necessary elements of ordination that it is a gifting and whether we see it as at that particular point in ordination Timothy received the gift to exposite scriptures etc or whether we see it as office really is somewhat irrelevant. The point is that the laying on of hands was effectual I believe for communicating the office not the giftings but you may say giftings okay there’s a heightened sense in which the giftings may come upon him I don’t believe that in this case but that may be true but the point is that the ordination is important at least for the gift as revealed in terms of the office. And Timothy is to use that office and the assertion of the authority granted him by Christ through his body.

And in relationship of course only to those prophecies again which again may refer specifically to those revelations of his particular calling or may refer to and certainly does have application to us the scriptures. And so charge here in verse 18 of chapter 1 is related to the installation of a man in the institutional church to affect a particular task and is to be seen in relationship to the scriptures and in those combination of those things. It is the means of which war is waged and the rights of King Jesus are proclaimed and affected geographically and then in the context of our own maturation as Christians as well.

And this charge is given to those who are ordained as officers in the context of the church according to 1 Timothy 4:14. So there’s a relationship between charge and ordination and the gifting that Timothy received relative to that second item really precedes the historical charge as given to him here.

Now this last point that the charge goes to the one who had earlier received the gift I believe of office in relationship to the word of God through the laying on of hands of the elders. This charge or this ordination rather this last item brings us to consideration of what we do this day. We today come here to celebrate the praises of God by responding to his calling of men for special office in the context of the church deacons to give them a charge relative to the warfare that we are to wage.

And so all of this brings us away from the trend of the last 150 years in this country of feminization. The ordination of men if brings us away from the idea that we’re just supposed to restrict ourselves to having happy homes and the job is there to support the family. No, because it tells us that this is for the purpose of employing the gifts of these men in the sovereign use of God to enable the congregation, each and every one of us, to engage in that warfare, proclaiming the crown rights of Jesus and changing our lives as a result to refocusing on what that vocation is.

And don’t think of it as just a way to support your family. Think of it as a way to extend the manifestations of God’s order and rule. The crown rights of King Jesus. Are you beautifying the world? I believe that everyone I know of here in their vocational callings can understand that calling has been given to you by God for that task of taking the implications of Christianity into that particular arena and enabling men by way of mechanical tools or by way of computer technology to produce a world that becomes more and more ordered under Jesus.

Now yes, much of that technology is being used for evil in our day. So you know, so the songs were developed, musical instruments were developed and they became incorporated into the worship of God. So it is the heritage of all the things the wicked does. That’s all saved up for the righteous because not because they get to use the stuff for themselves, but because they’re going to employ that technology for the purpose of the manifestation of Christ’s kingdom in the earth.

And so God brings us to the point today where we’re going to celebrate his praises by the ordination of deacons and we’re going to do this through the laying on of hands. Now, the laying on of hands is a symbol of course of the hand of God. Ultimately, God has a mighty hand in deliverance. We read in Deuteronomy 6:21 that thou might say unto thy son, “We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.” God’s mighty hand is a hand of deliverance.

God’s mighty hand is a hand of conquest as well. However in Joshua 6:2, the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given unto thee and under thine hand Jericho and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor.” When God’s power is demonstrated over Dagon, as the ark sits in the context of this false god, we read that the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold by being in the presence of the manifestation of God’s power.

God demonstrates his mightiness of hand in deliverance, but he demonstrates the mightiness of hand in conquest. And he would give Joshua a mighty hand to conquer. And he demonstrates his conquest as well by cutting off the hands of Dagon, a representation of all that would oppose King Jesus. All other kingdoms are cut off at the hands, so to speak, as God’s mighty hand is put forth.

God’s it is God’s mighty hand of ordination that is upon men and calls them to serve in the congregation and the elders and imposition of hands is a picture only in response of God’s hand upon a man first. God’s mighty hand is a hand of great blessing upon his people. Our hands are used as well. And we see in the context of scripture that the imposition of hands, the laying on of hands in the scriptures has an identification with the sacrificial system in its earliest use. We’ll get back to that in just a minute. It is the means in certain scriptures of the transmission of health.

It is the means of the transmission of the power of resurrection in the gospels. It is the means of the transmission of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. It is the means of the transmission of wisdom or gifting upon a man in Numbers 27 and 2 Timothy 1:6 as well as the text that we read today from 1 Timothy. It is the means of the blessing of the penitent. It is the means of putting blessings upon the heads of children. It is the blessing of inheritance is transferred by the laying on of hands as well as the hands can refer to the imposition of cursing and judgment as we saw about God’s hands cutting off Dagon’s hands.

Hands are important and when we think of hands, let’s not just think of the appendages that our secular world wants us to think of. Let’s think about God’s hand as a picture of God’s authority and power, deliverance and conquest and health and blessing to his people.

Now, we do it a little differently here. Many churches in the imposition of hands would restrict this to the elders. We read in Acts 6 of what most people would see as the ordination of the first deacons and the deacons are selected out by the congregation. They’re brought to the apostles and then it says that hands are laid upon them. But it doesn’t say that it’s the apostles hand that’s laid upon them. You don’t know whose hands it is. It just says hands were laid upon them.

And if we go back to the selection of the Levitical officers as substitutes for the firstborn of Israel in the old covenant, we find there that it was indeed the hands of all the congregation. Whether directly or through representatives, we don’t know. But it was the hands of all the congregation that were placed upon the heads of the Levites.

Turn if you will to Numbers 8, verses 10 and 11. I know for some of you this is review. Review is good. Helps us to remember it. For many of you it may be new. Numbers 8:10 and 11 we read that “they shall bring the Levites before the Lord and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites. And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel that they may execute the service of the Lord.”

Here the Levites are ordained to the imposition of hands to their special service to God and his people. That was their purpose. Verse 12 of this chapter which reads, “And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bulocks, and thou shalt offer the one for sin offering the other for a burnt offering.” This verse makes clear that the Levites lay their hands upon sacrificial animals identifying themselves with the animals.

Identification then is involved in the imposition of hands. The Levite himself representing the children of Israel is the one who had sinned. The animal had done nothing wrong. And so this identification of the Levites with the sacrificial animals is how we interpret then the identification of the people of Israel in laying their hands upon on the Levites to set them apart for this special service in terms of God.

And so when we look at what we do today, we involve all male heads of households from this church in the imposition of hands upon the deacons as they’re ordained and installed into office because it is a picture that these men are not set apart to do the work of the ministry. These men are there to enable you to more effectually carry out the ministry that God has called each and every one of us to do.

The Levites purpose was to cause the children of Israel to grow in holiness before the Lord and to minister the word and sacraments to them. Other Levites were officers to allow those Levites to devote themselves to the word and prayer, public worship and private worship and private teaching and public teaching and counseling etc. And so there’s this correlation and the Levites had officers and they were also ordained in this particular manner at this time.

These were I think we have here in the Levites a picture of both functions will be later in the New Testament be seen as elder and diaconate functions, oversight and service. And these are all the result the recipients of the laying on of hands of the congregation identifying themselves with these men in their work to the end that we might see that we have not a class of men who are involved in ministry but we have an every believer ministry to use a term that’s so frequently used.

And so our ordination tells us that in the Old Testament these officers, we’re talking about deacons today. The officers who I think were their corollaries in the Old Testament. When the army was gathered together, we’ve talked about this the last few weeks. Remember the priests would exposit the word of God. “If you’re frightened, stay home. If you’ve got a new wife, stay home. You planted a vineyard, haven’t eaten the fruit, stay home.” And the officers would take that word and order the army of God in relationship to that. They’d say, “Hey, if you’re cowardly, go on home. We don’t need you today. You’ve got a wife and haven’t spent time with her, you go on home now, etc.”

Well, those officers in the context of that’s from Deuteronomy 20:1-9. The officers served the priest by organizing the army. And by the way, this imposition of hands in the context of the book of Numbers, the book of Numbers is structured along the organization of the army of God to march into conquest later under Joshua who by the way also was had hands laid on him by Moses recognizing God’s selection of him.

So Numbers the whole context for setting aside these Levites as replacements for the firstborn of Israel, the context for the ordering of special officers was for the purpose of organizing the church that it might have officers who were ordained and given a special charge to fulfill that they like Timothy might wage the warfare that God was calling them to do. That’s the context for all this.

And so we read in Deuteronomy 20 that the officers of the congregation serve the priest by organizing the army. So in like fashion today, the deacon in a secondary sense, his primary sense is always service to God. But he serves the elder and the congregation by organizing the church to wage that warfare that Timothy was called to wage. And as the officer serves the army by organizing it for battle, so the deacon serves the church by organizing it for the spiritual battles we’re involved with as well.

And as the officer served God ultimately by managing in conformity to the law to those prophecies that at Mathew 1:18 and 4:14 that define then the charge and the warfare and define then the gift or office and the ordination. And so the officer does those jobs in relationship to the word of God at its core. And so the deacons serve God by knowing and applying his law.

All of this is to the end that we might be men once more. That we might once more act responsibly as mature Christian men. That our worship might train our hands in terms of the warfare that we’re to engage in. That we might once more exhibit that sense of vocation, that sense of calling that the Puritans knew about and transformed, built a country that the heritage of which that pure legacy lasts to this very day.

That we might once more understand that our families do need to be governed and we do need to stand in front of our families in a reverential way. As Paul told Timothy, all officers must in the list of qualifications that we might indeed given the helpmate that God has given us, send forth arrows that are rifled, so to speak. They used to have bullets that didn’t have any rifling in the guns. You had to get real close to be able to hit somebody. Now we’ve got rifling that puts the spin on the bullet. As children are arrows in our hand, men we must they will be arrows whether we shoot them but right whatever we do and some of those arrows if we fail in our responsibilities will come back and hit the church of God and hit our own family.

We must as part of our responsibility put that rifling on our children as we raise them for God’s purposes that they might stand in the gate and perform valiantly. And we must stand in the gate ourselves. We must have a sense of civic responsibility and exhibit once more a vocational calling and not see the home as our primary sphere of activity and not reduce the church to simply helping the home be a nice place to live.

The home is a factory. It’s a munitions factory. It’s what it is to enable the husband to exhibit his calling and to extend God’s order and peace and shalom in the vocational sphere. That the wife might help her husband in that task and that they both might send those bullets out of that munitions factory in terms of the children. Scriptures say we’re supposed to be men.

Joab was called upon to a real bad battle once. He was head of David’s army. And Joab in 1 Chronicles 19:13, the odds were way against them. And he said, “Be of good courage. Let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people and for the cities of our God and let the Lord God do what is good in his sight.”

Now, that’s a godly attitude. Show thyself a man. First Kings 2:2. That’s what David told his son. Show thyself a man. Job was a picture of showing himself a man. The odds were against him. He obeyed that admonition we have from 1 Corinthians 16:13. “Watch ye stand fast in the faith. Quit you like men.” Acquit yourselves, in other words, as a man would acquit himself.

We stand in the context of great odds against us difficult times and we have no assurance from God that in our lifetime we’re going to win this battle. We may go down but with Joab we must say the Lord God do what he will but he wants us to strengthen ourselves up not just for our own sake and for the sake of our families for the sake of the cities of our God and for the sake ultimately of the Lord to do that which is good in his sight.

That’s what God has called us to do. That’s why we celebrate his praises today through the practice of ordination of officers to assist the men. And we have in that very example a warning to us because Joab turned bad. Joab was a macho man. The scriptures say we’re supposed to be men who are meek and humble under the control of God and then we’ll be effectual. David had to tell Solomon to act like a man in relationship to Joab. He had to say, “Go take Joab and kill him. That guy has done murder. He’s done bad things and he has hurt my kingdom and he had.”

And so we must admonish our children to be Joabs, but Joabs who are reformed and who put the glory of God before ourselves, not just in word, but in deed. That’s why we ordain officers today. That’s how we celebrate his praises this day. That’s how we worship today. Let us continue in that worship.

Father God, we thank you that you do not leave us by ourselves. You call us into the body of Christ. And we thank you for that body stretching out across this country and the world. We thank you for the great assurances of the Canons of Dort, reminding us that your scriptures tell us the gates of hell shall not prevail so as to eliminate your church. We thank you, Lord God, for giving us these great promises that there will always be your faithful people, an elect community who celebrates your praises.

And we thank you, Lord God, for telling us that community shall indeed fill the earth and inhabit it as it is meek and submissive to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we thank you for this institutional church, the preparations that it gives us for our homes and for our vocations and for our civic activities and for our recreation. And we pray, Lord God, that what we’re now about to do, the ordination of these men might indeed accomplish its purpose. That the charge given to them in their ordination might be to them that they and we might wage a good warfare. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

Dave asked if I would give a congregational affirmation of Dave and Howard becoming deacons. Dennis F. I was qualified since I live about 5 minutes from Dave and for the last two and a half years have been a part of the prayer group meeting that he leads. I’ve known Howard since about 1986 and Howard was instrumental in bringing me into the Reformed and Reconstructionist fold.

In order to provide some framework for this congregational affirmation, I’m going to read out of Acts 6 that Dennis referred to earlier. Acts 6:1-6.

“Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. But select from among you brethren seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And the statement found approval with the whole congregation. And they chose Stephen a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And Philip Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles. And after praying they laid their hands on them.”

I’d like to address how Dave and Howard have three characteristics that are mentioned here in this passage that are required for the office of deacon. The three are that they’re full of the Spirit and wisdom. Second that they have a good reputation. And the third that they can be put in charge of a task. Dave and Howard demonstrate the Holy Spirit’s fullness and wisdom.

Howard and I work for the same company and also work in the same office. My first clear memory of Howard, which I think was in 1987, was when he was in my office and challenged me to live according to God’s law. My immediate response was to ask him if his suit was made of any kind of cotton, wool, or polyester blend, in which case he would be breaking the law. He made or he had an immediate response to my facile comment and from there over a period of a few months he helped make me a theonomist.

This defense of the truth on Howard’s part was evidence of God’s spirit and wisdom being with him. Dave shows wisdom in several areas of his life. He teaches his wife and children from the scriptures and the secondary standards of the Reformed church. He works to reduce his long-term monetary debt and he develops skilled and independent men in his business. Dave is current