Will The Word Continue?

Ordination as a Sign That Christ’s Word Will Continue

Let me add my greeting to you, good morning to the church. We have much reason to rejoice this day, do we not? I was thrilled and unfortunately somewhat surprised to see Ruth Burchett yesterday at the work day.

And where is Ruth? Raise your hand, Ruth, I can't see you. How blessed you are, Ruth. Ruth isn't even looking at me. You know, Jesus says through the Apostle Paul that it's God who determined our times and our borders, and in his blessing she was put into these borders and these times when such an operation is possible, and then blessed her with up and around.

I was just so amazed to see her, and I shouldn't be because we've seen God do amazing things so many times, but we have reason to rejoice in that. Emmanuel, Rosanna, and Gorilla just became something new, because before there were Emmanuel one thing, and Rosanna another, and God made them one flesh, and they were successfully wed.

Yes, I can't wait to see them come back. We have much reason to rejoice here in this church. And today we rejoice, but in somewhat of a more sober way, as we're going to ordain Tim Mullet to this pastorate.

And so that's reason for rejoicing, thank you, and it's also reason for some sobriety. It's a somber occasion as well, as God has blessed us once again, and shown us that this work is, by his grace and through his blessing, going to continue.

My message this morning comes from 2 Kings chapter 2, and I'll read verses 9 -15 for you, and then we will begin. So when you have that, please stand with me. 2 Kings chapter 2, verses 9 -15. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken.

From you.

And Elisha said, Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. And he said, You have asked for a hard thing. Yet if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if you do not see me, it shall not be so.

And as they still went on and talked, Behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elisha went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its.

Horsemen.

And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces. And he took up the cloak of Elisha that had fallen from him and went back and stood at the bank of the Jordan.

Then he took the cloak of Elisha that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, Where is the Lord, the God of Elisha? And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other.

And Elisha went over. And please be seated. So today after the preaching, Pastor Owens and I, on behalf of you all, are going to lay hands on Tim Mullett and ordain him as our newest pastor here at Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church.

I want to present the question to you this morning. What does it mean to ordain a man of God to lead the people of God? I mean, ultimately, what's the meaning of what we're going to do here today? Are we just ordaining a man?

Are we just saying, well, now we have another man? Is it just putting a person in place? It's going to fill this pulpit most of the time? No, you see, it means something much more than that. It means something much deeper than that.

It means that the Word of God through men of God, now soon to be three men of God here in this place, is going to continue to be proclaimed from this pulpit. It means that Jesus Christ is true to his Word.

For example, in Ephesians 4, verse 11, that pastors are his gift to the church. It means that here at Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church, you will soon have three men of God to teach this Word to you, to preach this Word to you.

You're going to have three men of God to counsel you with the Word, three men to be living examples of what it means to follow Jesus Christ and his Word. You know, when the Lord, through the Apostle Paul, said in Ephesians 4 that pastors are among his gifts, that he showers upon his church as he builds his church, it is for that very purpose that he does that, to have his Word proclaimed, to have his people, you, taught his Word, shown his Word, counseled his Word, his Word brought to bear on all facets.

Of our life.

And the fact that we are ordaining a new man this morning means that by Jesus Christ's grace and through his power and his promise to build his church, it is going to continue here in this one small dot on this great globe.

An ordination is a celebration of Christ and his faithfulness to his own Word. An ordination is an assurance to us of continuity. It tells us that Jesus Christ is continuing his work of building up his body and that this local body, we few who meet here in this one place, have not escaped his notice, we've not fallen beneath the radar as we say today.

The Lord's provision to us, to us all, of another pastor is a sure sign that the Word of God will continue here in this place so long as the Lord tarries in sending his Son.

Again.

Elijah and Elisha as a Picture of Continuity

Well, we began with this really magnificent moment in church history, in 2 Kings, when Elijah is taken away in the whirlwind and we have those chariots of fire and those horses of fire. But you know, Elijah's final moment on earth and the way he was translated from earth and taken up into heaven, it's really only a footnote on what the real issue is there in 2 Kings.

Oh, we see those pictures, have you seen them, where Elijah, or Elisha is looking, he's looking away from the fire and there's Elijah going up and he's got the chariots of fire and the horses of fire and it's just all magnificent, I'm sure it was.

Mind-blowing as we would say today. As wonderful and as magnificent as that was. Just a minor footnote in what's really happening there. Because the question is, this whole tour, and we didn't read the whole thing in 2 Kings, but this whole tour that Elijah took Elisha on, remember he kept saying, you stay here, let me leave you, I've got to go on, the Lord sent me to another place, and we're going to mention this again in a few moments, and Elisha says, no, I'm going with you, I'm going.

With you.

Why is that? What is going on there? The question is, will the Word of God continue in Israel? Will the Word of God continue to be proclaimed to that apostate, pagan really, nation, the way they worship like the pagans?

There was one torchbearer of the Word of God, Elijah. And when Elijah is taken away, will the Word of God continue? That is what was at issue here. It was a crisis. Will the Word of God be no more? Because Elijah had been that sole torchbearer for the Word of God.

Wherever Elijah went, whether it was to the brook Cherith or to the widow, wherever he went, the Word of God went with him. His departure from Israel's borders, that time he spent at the brook, that time he spent with the widow, were really judgments upon Israel.

Because when Elijah was gone, so also was the Word of God. And this brings us to that crisis. Elijah knows he's going to be taken away. Elisha knows Elijah's going to be taken away. The school of prophets know that he's going to be taken away.

And it's not just a shrug of the shoulders, hey, did you know he's going to go today? Yes, I knew. Will the Word of God continue? Will that Word be proclaimed from the Lord through his Spirit to a man, or is it going to be a famine of the Word of God, as Amos puts it, in that land?

You see, if it was a judgment against Israel, that wherever Elijah went, the Word of God was with him and was no more where he was, which was Israel, if that was judgment upon the house of Israel, what then does it mean when the Word of God continues in a place?

It's God's sure sign that His Word will continue. It's continuity. He's going to keep going. So let's understand that continuity in the leadership of the church is a blessing from God, is a gift from Jesus of immeasurable worth.

For a church to have leaders committed to the Word of God, to teaching it accurately, to preaching it boldly, to living it faithfully, is a sure sign of Christ's pleasure upon a work, upon our work, I would say, of His power of building His church, of the sure work of the Holy Spirit amongst us.

What does it mean to ordain a pastor today? I would say it means that we can be sure of Christ's blessing upon this place, and a sign from Him, according to His Word, that His Word will continue to be proclaimed from here and to you.

You know, the Lord Jesus Himself, He prayed all night before naming the men who would take up the work after He was gone. The men He called, the men He trained, the men He certified, the men who founded the church, the apostles, the church which is His body, the men who would preach the forgiveness of sins by faith in Christ, the men who would testify to His resurrection, each one chosen by God Himself, by Jesus Christ.

You see, men don't just wake up and find themselves miraculously qualified to carry on the work.

Of the Lord.

Even Jesus, Hebrews 5, 8 tells us, learned obedience even though He was God's Son. When we look for someone to conduct the gospel ministry, we look for men who've been refined in the furnace of life. We look for men whose rough edges have been smoothed out by experience, men who know when someone needs a gentle arm on their shoulder or a stiff rebuke from the Scriptures.

Our soon-to-be pastor, Tim Mullett, is such a one. He has served the Lord for the last five years at Providence Church. He was first ordained in 2014 at Cherokee Baptist Church. He's the host of a podcast called Bible Bashed where he deals with deep and hard-to-answer and some controversial Bible questions.

He's been through it, brethren. He's put his life into commitment for the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's committed to this place. And that's no small blessing. That's no small work of God in the spirit of a man.

That's a blessing to be recounted and rejoiced in. And what does it tell us? It tells us that Jesus provides for the continuity that the church needs to have. And we see this all over the Bible, that this idea of continuity.

I could even say secession, except that Tim's not replacing anyone. Conley and I are still here. But this idea of continuity. Joshua did, for example, what Moses could not do. As his successor, he took the people into the Promised Land.

He led them to victory after victory. We might even say that Joshua did greater and more works than his master Moses had done. Well, that said, it was Moses.

I suddenly have a dry spot in my throat.

Excuse me for that. Could somebody grab my canteen? There's a canteen right on the, it's a gray one, it's right on the desk there.

The canteen. I need the canteen.

All better.

What was I saying?

It was Moses who had led them out of Egypt. Moses could only go so far, though. He was not allowed in the Promised Land. After 40 years of wilderness survival, though, he did something for Joshua. He had, if you think of it this way, trained up and developed, after 40 years of wilderness survival, the toughest army that the world had ever seen.

And we can see that in what he handed to Joshua. These tough, trained, rugged men who would take that Promised Land.

Think of Solomon.

Solomon did what David could not do. He built the temple. But it was David who handed his son secure borders, a brimming over treasury, and detailed plans for God's house. Elisha, we were talking about just a few moments ago from 2 Kings.

Elisha did what Elisha could not. He prophesied judgment on the sinful king's houses and sought to it to be done. He did more miracles than his teacher Elijah. Even Elisha's bones, we read in 2 Kings 13, when touched by a corpse, brought that corpse back to life.

Well, Tim is not here to do what Conley and I cannot do. He's here to add his gifts and his skills to ours so that we three, acting as one, might serve you all the better and bring you all closer to Christ, all of us closer to Christ.

But his coming here proves how deeply Jesus cares for the continuity and the succession in his church. It was God who chose Joshua just as it was he who told Elijah that Elisha would be next. It was God who chose Solomon to complete the work that had been on David's heart, the work of proclaiming God's word.

This gospel of our Lord Jesus is going to continue as long as God wills it to continue. But let me say again, let me reinforce this, let me be repetitive about this. The fact that we're able to ordain a man this morning, you're going to have three pastors who are going to love you and care for you and preach to you and counsel you and visit you with all the three varying gifts and personalities, tells you something.

It tells all of us something. That this work can continue. That this work has Christ's hand of blessing upon it. Because I believe as Conley and I worked to find a candidate and interviewed him and prayed about it and brought him to you and presented him to you and you all prayed about it recently, we all fasted for the day and then we had a prayer vigil about this.

We followed the scripture. We can be confident that having followed Christ's word, not out of rote but out of love for Christ and desire to honor him, that we do have God's hand of blessing upon the proceedings this day, continuity, variety of gifts.

What a blessing Christ is bringing to us. This work of proclaiming God's word, this gospel of Jesus Christ is going to continue until the father tells the son, go back and bring your people here. It's Christ.

It's Jesus Christ. It's God's son who is building his church. As he told Peter in Matthew 16, upon this confession, upon this word, because flesh and blood did not teach you this, Peter, but only my father in heaven revealed this to you.

And what was that? That you, pointing to Jesus, he saw him in the flesh. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And add to that the resurrection of the Christ, the son of the living God. And upon that confession, upon that truth, Christ is building his church and will continue here to build his church.

So we've humbled ourselves before God with our fasting. You know, fasting does not make God hear us all the better. It makes us ready to hear God. Fasting reminds us of our need for God, of our weakness before God, of the fact that anything we have that makes us strong enough to even get up in the morning and go about our duties and our regular routines is a blessing from God.

Every good and perfect gift is from above. And we've humbled ourselves by remembering that all this is from God. So we humbled ourselves through fasting. We prayed, we followed the scripture, Old Testament and New Testament.

We're fasting in prayer where the necessary preparation for major occasions. In a few moments, by prayer and laying on of hands, we're going to confirm that the Lord Jesus, just as he did for Israel in raising up Joshua, just as he did when he ensured the continuance of his word through Elisha, just as he did for his children when he commissioned Solomon to complete his father's heart's desire, just as he did 20 years ago when this church ordained me, five years ago when this church ordained Pastor Conley, he's given us assurance that this work will continue.

We stand in a trajectory of biblical history that's really pretty amazing if you stop and think about it in a moment. Moses to Joshua, David to Solomon, Elijah to Elisha, and now another pastor. So Tim, I want to tell you personally from this place, I want to tell you with all humility and all glory to God, all honor to Christ, as the predecessors paved the way for those who came next, so Conley and I have engendered and maintained here in this place a love for God's word, a love for God's word, so Tim, preach it to us.

Be ready in season, out of season, because you're preaching to a group that wants to.

Hear it.

All honor and glory to Christ, but I would say Conley and I have worked hard to maintain that love of the word, that anxiousness to hear the word. Know that when you come to this pulpit and begin to declare this word to us, that they want to hear it, they want to follow it, and they need to hear it, and they need to be helped to follow it.

Preach this word to us, Tim. I think we three are like Ezra in Nehemiah chapter 8. Do you remember that, where they had that great time when the people came together in the seventh month, the first day of the seventh month?

I think anticipating the day of atonement, but it doesn't say that, that's just what I think. But we're sort of like Ezra when we come to this pulpit, all three of us now, where the people tell them, bring out the book, bring out the law, preach it to us, Ezra, tell us about it, and the Levites moved among the people and explained it to them, made sure they got the sense of it.

They wanted to hear it, they knew that they needed to hear it, and they knew how much they needed to hear and understand God's word by hearing and understanding what God had to say in that word, as does, Tim, this great throng to whom you're going to preach, who you are going to care for.

And know this also, and this is part of my charge to you, Tim, these people love their pastors. Conley and I have both known the love of this group for those men who are ordained here and proclaim this word and are committed to them here in this place.

They love their pastors, so love them, Tim. Love us all. Love Christ first, love Jesus foremost, which when we see will make our confidence in you and our security in Christ soar. We know that you love him, Jesus, best, and therefore we are secure because you are in him.

Know that sometimes these sheep bite, but they don't gnash, they don't snarl, they don't gnaw, well, not usually, but it's a good group we hand over to you. It's a good group you're going to care for.

So preach this word to us, Tim, and love us the way Christ would have the church be loved by their pastors. You know, there is another example in the Bible of this sort of secession that we're talking about, and that's from John the Baptist to Jesus.

The Baptist, you see, he played a crucial role in God's unfolding plans. It was the Baptist who prepared the people to understand who Jesus was and who Jesus.

Is.

It was John who completed the entire prophetic thrust of the Bible. It was John the Baptist who was able to point and say, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so what did John do?

He preached repentance. He could even lead men to recognize their sin and repent of it. As a soldier, he came to him and said, what do we do? He says, don't intimidate people. Taxpayers are, what do we do, John?

Repent of ever having cheated, is my way of saying it. He could take them so far, but Jesus completed that ministry by doing what the Baptist could.

Not do.

By doing what only he, what only Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, could do, which is to forgive. Forgive sins.

That's secession.

It's continuity. Tim, again, tell us about Jesus. Tell us about the Lord Christ. Portray him to us crucified for our sins, raised for our justification. Tell us of the man who touched broken eyes and lame limbs and putrefying flesh and made them all whole again.

Tell us about Jesus. We want to hear about none other in this place.

We would see Jesus.

Prayer, Preaching, and Pastoral Success

To the church, I tell you, as the Lord is blessing us with this continuity, as the Lord is giving us this sign of his pleasure upon this work, not a perfect work. We've always got room to improve. We're always reforming.

But by ordaining Tim this morning, we do know his hand of pleasure upon us. Church, there is no greater joy than for a pastor to find his charges walking in the truth that he proclaims. And so, church, hear this man as you have heard Conley and as you have heard me, as you heard pastors before even me.

Hear this man as he proclaims this word to you. Hear Tim as his words come from Christ's words. Tell Tim how it's helped you. Tell Tim how it's affected you. Let him know that his preaching and his teaching is something more than just words assembled into phrases and sentences and paragraphs and finally into sermons.

Tell him how God's Spirit is working on you as a result of his labors. Encourage him that way as you have me, as you have Conley. Church, pray for him. Continue to pray for me and continue to pray for Conley.

Now we're going to add Tim into that mix. You have the blessing of praying now for three men. And you now, if we think about it in a larger sense, you have three pastors and two deacons. We have John and Albert as faithful deacons in this place where we believe strongly in the plurality of officers.

Think of it. You have three pastors and two deacons. So pray for him as he settles into this work. Pray for him on specific things. Do not let Tim, when you come and say, how are you doing, pastor, say, I'm only concerned with how you're doing.

He tried that on me once. He had to admit I saw it coming. Don't let him get away with that. No, how are you doing, Tim? How can I pray for you? And let him know, let all of us know, but let him know that you did pray by coming back and saying, how did this work out?

And how can I pray next? Church, pray for Elizabeth. Pray for Elizabeth who's going to feel the weight of his burden as only a pastor's wife can. Hold her up in prayer. And you ladies, make sure you know how she's doing.

Elizabeth, be honest, as I'm telling your husband to be. You now have children, more children to pray for. Vivian, Titus, Ezra, Roman, and Gavin. So with the Owens nine, with the Burchett's five, with the Samuntha's two, you now have 21 children, four wives, and five officers to pray for.

You're blessed by that. He's the oldest of the bunch, but yes, plus Jared. That makes 22. Do not be slack in this, church. We all need your prayers. Tim came from the far-off land of Alabama. It's going to take some adjusting here.

Pray for him and help him.

Pray.

You remember the story of Spurgeon when he was asked why his ministry was so powerful? Why it was so, what they called at the time, successful? Well, he took the inquirer to a room in his church, and that room was filled with members of the church who at that moment were praying for the church as the service was progressing.

Prayers, your prayers, are what drives this church. The power of your prayer is Christ who hears the prayers, the spirit who works his good through those prayers. We need those prayers. Now you have a lot to pray for.

Elisha had many chances to turn away, going back to 2 Kings for a moment. Each time Elisha said, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me to another place and another place and another place, and each time Elisha says, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

We're sort of reminiscent of Jesus and Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than.

These?

And Peter said, afraid not, Lord. I think I'm going to keep on fishing.

No.

He said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Elisha had his chances to turn away. Peter, if you think about it, could have gone back to fishing. I was once at a small, not small, but at a pre-conference meeting in Minnesota years ago that was led by Mark Dever of the Capitol Hill Baptist Church, and he was talking about success in the ministry.

You expect a guy like this who's a Cambridge scholar, and he's got this huge church at the capitol, he's got senators and vice presidents and all these big people coming to him, powerful people, notable people, right?

He's a big guy in the church, isn't he? And he said, and I knew he meant it, you could just tell from the way he was talking to we pastors. He says, you want to know what success is in the church? And you expect some condescending thing from this big name to us unknowns?

Wasn't like that at all. With all sincerity, he said, here it is, preach, pray, love, stay. That in Christ's eye is success in the church. Preach and pray and love and say, so brother, preach for us. In season and out, pray for us and teach us how to pray.

Be open and tell us when you need prayer or hands to join in rejoicing or a shoulder to offer for weeping. Love us, Tim, love Jesus, and because of him, love us and stay.

Just stay.

We'll do anything we can to help you adjust to this wacky valley, but you have to tell us. Love us enough to tell us and trust us and stay. And so, as Mark Dever put it, succeed here with the rest of us by preaching and praying and loving and staying.

I pray you, Tim, to have success here in the Lord's name. So in a moment, Colleen and I will formalize our conviction that Tim Mullet is God's man for us. May God be pleased to have his word continue to be faithfully proclaimed here at Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church.

May his blessing be upon us as we three minister to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And may you all grow into the image of our Savior in love for the saints, in humility and ever-growing knowledge of the truth that is in Jesus.

And may that word continue in this place so long as Jesus cherries in his return. And God be blessed that he's added Tim to your pastoral team, and may you all be blessed by this word that will continue to be faithfully proclaimed from this place.

Tim, Elizabeth, and all five of your children, welcome to this place. God bless you for coming. And may God be praised in all that we do here. Amen?

Amen.