Sinclair Ferguson: Pursuing Integrity (Pre-Conference)

0:00 It is a tremendous joy to be here, and I feel very privileged. And since I haven't been the pastor of a church for 12 years now, I am thrilled to be able to speak to you. I also have a certain reluctance because I have an honorific role as an old man, but I'm no longer in the trenches the same way you are in the trenches. and so I do stand before you with some sense of inadequacy. But we have the Word of God, and not only do we have the Word of God, but Ligonier or top people in Ligonier, whom I've never been able to discover who they really are, almost always give you a text in order to give you a beginning. And the text they've given to me as a beginning, as you may already know, is from the 78th Psalm. And I want to read those verses, first of all, at the end of Psalm 78. And then they've asked me to speak on this really important subject of pursuing integrity in the ministry. And I think probably of recent generations, our own generation, feels the pressure of that and the sadness of failure in it more than many other preceding generations. And so this is the word at the end of Psalm 78. The Lord chose David, his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds, from following the nursing ewes, he brought him to shepherd Jacob, his people, Israel, his inheritance. With upright heart, he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand. And whoever, whatever mysterious

2:06 person chooses these texts, this is really a beautiful text to have chosen. It might not be the first text that came to your mind. But it's particularly interesting because this is one of Asaph's Psalms. And there are about 10 Psalms just at this point in the Psalter, as though they'd collected all of Wesley's hymns, or Isaac Watts' hymns, or the Getty's hymns, and put them together in a little Asaph section. And since I think all of us know, especially the 73rd Psalm, in which Asaph reveals to us something of his melancholic spirit, he reminds me, because he was the music director in David's congregation, that when you're looking for a music director, director, you need to find somebody who knows what the minor key is in the Christian life and has a touch of melancholy about him, who knows what it is to lament as well as to rejoice, and who also has a sense of the whole history of the church, because this is what this psalm is about. He traces the history of the church from earlier generations right through to his own generation in the time of David. And he describes them in a very interesting way, both at the beginning of the psalm and then at the end of the psalm. You'll notice in verse 5, and then later on towards the end of the psalm in verse 71, he describes the people of God in a twofold way.

3:53 They are described on the one hand as Jacob and on the other hand as Israel. And you don't need to be a rocket scientist or a great theologian to understand what these two names for the same individual are communicating. They are communicating that although he became Israel, he never escaped from being Jacob. And as we know that's true of his personal history, it's clear that Asaph is conscious. It's also been true of the whole history of the redeemed people of God from the Exodus onwards. And it's a real reminder to us that just as the Lord called David to be the shepherd of Jacob become Israel, without fully and finally being delivered from Jacob, the same is true for the pastors of God's people in the new covenant era.

4:55 We are not dealing with those who are exclusively from the tip of their heads to the tip of their toes, perfected saints, but those who have been born again, who have been given a new name in Jesus Christ, justified and adopted, and yet as Luther so wonderfully taught the church at the time of the Reformation, although we are justified in Christ, we remain sinners in ourselves until that justification comes to its crowning glory in our final sanctification and also in our glorification. And in a sense, this is the 101 lesson of pastoral ministry. As shepherds of the flock, we will begin to smell of the sheep.

5:52 And at times, our princely sheep who have been brought into God's kingdom, made kings with Christ, heirs of glory, still remain sinners. and our task is to pastor them from this world of sin into that world of glory. And if we're going to be able to do that with integrity and with honesty, we must pursue spiritual and moral integrity in our own lives. And Asaph encapsulates that in verse 72, doesn't he? with upright heart, he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand. And he puts his finger there on, as it were, the two essential requirements in our pastoral ministry.

6:50 The first is the personal integrity in which we are faithful. And the second is the giftedness, which makes us skillful in pastoring the people of God. I suppose the New Testament version of this is the way in which the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24, 45, describes the good servant or the good steward in the house of God. What are his chief characteristics? First of all, that he is faithful. That is that he has integrity before God. And then secondly, that he is wise. That is to say, he is gifted in serving the people of God the food that they need. And our opening two addresses in our time together today focus on these two areas, on personal integrity and pastoral skill, on being faithful and also being wise.

7:57 and our task in this hour or this 31 minutes and 45 seconds is to focus on the first of these. What does it mean for us as undershepherds in the flock of Jesus Christ to be faithful in our ministry and to exhibit real pastoral integrity? And I want to try and answer that question by asking four questions. And we'll spend, I think, most of the time on the first, but let me at least tell you what the questions are. The first question is, why is pastoral integrity so important? The second, how is pastoral integrity threatened? The third, which is, I think, an important question, what is the key to pastoral integrity? And the fourth, where are we going to find the resources that we need to sustain pastoral integrity. So this is a four-point exposition which is really disguising a 15-point message, and you will understand that at points I may just list what I want to say. So why is this integrity so important? If we grasp the importance of it, the weight of it, the graciousness of the burden of it, then I think it will help us to sustain integrity because we realize it isn't just important for ourselves, but as it were, we keep our lives ourselves, our bodies under, lest we ourselves be disqualified.

9:44 but it's so important for the ministry that we share, the gifts that God has given to us to help the people of God. And I think there's a very simple answer to this question, why is integrity so important? I could put it like this, it's important because the servant is never above the master. And the servant needs to become like the master in order to represent the master. Our Lord Jesus himself, basic principle in calling the apostles found in the words, follow me. And of course, those words from one point of view were to be interpreted literally, leave your boats, get up, and follow me. But within the context, certainly, of the world in which Jesus lived, they mean much more than that, don't they? Follow me is not just a formal matter.

10:51 Follow me, in Jesus' case, means, first of all, be with me. He took them to be with him in order that he might send them out. And this clearly is a fundamental element in our pastoral integrity. We cannot model the Lord Jesus to our people unless we are with the Lord Jesus in his presence. It means follow me in the sense of be with me. It means follow me in the sense of watch me. Watch me. That is to say, while you are called to be an under overseer of the flock, all the while you are watching over the flock, you have an eye to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, those of you, those of us who preach know what our congregations don't know, which is many things are simultaneously going on in our minds while we are preaching to them.

11:59 We are preaching to them and we notice Mrs. Jones has fallen asleep, or it might be in your case, Mr. Kim. And two things are going on in our minds. So you don't need to be schizophrenic for your vision to have two persons in view, the persons of your congregation that you are overseeing, looking over and looking after, but simultaneously, as it were, as you look at them, you see beyond them to the Lord Jesus Christ, and your eyes are towards him. as the eyes of servants are looking to the hand of their master and maidservants hand of their mistress. We always have one eye on the Lord Jesus Christ. We live everything out in the world as those who live in the presence of Jesus. And only those who live in the presence of Jesus will, as it were, convey in their ministry to people the atmosphere of the presence of Jesus.

13:08 And we are always looking to him. And because we are always looking to him, we are always seeking to imitate him. And that's built into, follow me. This was the culture of a first century rabbi. His students not only literally followed him, watched him, listened to him, but they imitated him. And supremely the Lord Jesus teaches us to imitate him where? In John chapter 13. just as you have seen me lay aside my garments, take the servant's towel, wash your feet, so you also ought to wash one another's feet. I think if anyone had asked the Apostle Paul, what is the heartbeat of your ministry? I think he might have said, well, have you not read 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 5? We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.

14:11 And were I writing that verse, that's where the sentence would end. But it's not where Paul's sentence ends, is it? His sentence ends with, and we are your bond slaves for Jesus' sake. And in many ways, that is the key to pastoral integrity. It's the key to not abusing your people. It's the key to not making the sheep food for your own ambition. That when you stand before them, when you live among them, you're constantly on your knees before them. Because you believe that whatever giftedness you may have, it has been given to you, not for your sake, not for your aggrandizement, but for the sake of their blessing and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

15:08 And of course, from one point of view, that imitation, that imitation of the pastor, the very natural thing. It's like Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 1, you became imitators of ours. That was certainly before he said to them, imitate me. It was something that happened naturally. How do I learn what it means to be a Christian if I'm in Thessalonica? Well, I look at Paul. I watch Paul. But then these letters are punctuated with an exhortation to do that. As we follow Christ, you follow us. As we imitate the Lord Jesus, you should learn to imitate us. And while we are not apostles, that's a transferable principle in all ministry, isn't it? We should never have been ordained to the ministry of the Word of God if those who thus ordained us did not see that there was something sufficiently like Jesus in us to encourage others to be like Jesus too.

16:25 And this is a very simple principle, but it's the reason, of course, the great emphasis in the New Testament instruction about elders and pastors is not largely on their gift, in a sense. It's assumed there will be a gift. It's largely on their character. it's not accidental incidentally that one of the qualifications for an elder in the New Testament church is that people who are outsiders who aren't Christians what they think about him I don't know that there are many sessions or groups of elders in churches who when they are thinking about how do we add to our elder board ask the question does anybody know what outsiders think about him. Now they may hate him, but that actually may be an evidence of his Christ-likeness.

17:28 But the really important thing is character. And certainly in the world in which I've lived, I have sometimes felt at least quietly, without ever saying publicly, that there are men who believe they are called to the ministry because they can argue you into the ground, who don't realize that that's a character flaw, that's It's a disability that you are argumentative and you're able to dominate with speech, but not imitate Jesus in life. And so this is why integrity is so important, because it is inevitable. Brothers, we may not like it this way, but it is inevitable that people think about the voice of God the way they hear us preach the word of God.

18:32 And because their access as a group of people to the character of Jesus and what feeds their own reading of Scripture in a well-structured church is always what happens from the podium. they will begin to think that Jesus is a bit like us. And the evidence for that, at least in my experience, is where there is a strong ministry of the Word, it's really interesting to see how the attitudes, the aptitudes, the interests, the dispositions, even the eccentricities of the people are actually mimicking the person who has ministered God's Word. And there are all kinds of ways I haven't time to go into where that appears sometimes in the most superficial ways, but the place where in a sense either most gloriously or most tragically it appears is in the reduplication of the character of the pastor in the people because they associate the ministry of the Word with the character of the Lord, and they know they should seek to imitate Him.

20:01 And that's a very obvious reason why integrity is so important. There's a second reason, I'll deal with it much more briefly, and that is because the ministry of the Word requires it. the really significant thing about the quality of our ministry of the word, brothers, is not the size of our congregation or the importance of the place where we minister. What will last for eternity is not going to be geographical location, nor size of congregation, but what we put into the people of God in our ministry of the Word, both in public and in private. And if I read the New Testament aright, not least the pastoral epistles, and also what the Apostle Paul has to say about his fellow workers in various places, what determines that insofar as it is determined in the Lord's providence by the human instrument is the character of the pastor.

21:15 Sometimes I've noticed young seminary graduates don't get that. They go to a church where pastor so-and-so was there for 40 years. He read very few really great books. He had never read Greg Beale on the book of Revelation. He hadn't even read William Hendrickson on the book of Revelation. He comes from another generation. And this young man has had a really great theological education. He can even spell the word premillenarian properly. And he assumes because of that, that he is God's gift to this congregation. And he doesn't know that the scripture teaches us that the ultimate aim of our charge, 1 Timothy 1 verse 5, is that we love them.

22:09 And he assumes that his gifts equate to 30 years of the former pastor's love. And he doesn't understand why it is that the people are not immediately overjoyed with his ministry. And think as used to be said in my earlier days in Scotland, he is the greatest thing since sliced bread was invented. And that's why pastoral integrity is so important. Over the years, I have come to think that at least in one respect, the Greek philosopher Aristotle was right in his work on communication and rhetoric, when he argues that there are three characteristics of rhetoric that has integrity. The first is logos, that is to say the clear exposition of the truth when we think about it in terms of ministry. The third is pathos or pathos, that is to say that the truth is communicated in an affectional and emotional atmosphere that's married to the truth.

23:26 Because truth communicates to people not simply by propositions. So there is an atmosphere to the different genre of Scripture and there is an atmosphere to our communication of the Word of God that should be appropriate to the truth that is being communicated. And in the middle, you remember, Aristotle says there needs to be ethos, ethos. That is to say, true communication needs to leave the impress on the hearers of the integrity of the character of the speaker with the message the speaker is communicating. And as you grow in discernment, it's usually not too difficult to notice where that is lacking. That there is a kind of pretense in the rhetoric, because it doesn't go through and through with the life of the individual.

24:34 When I was a small boy, if you went away on holiday, your friends expected you would bring back what we called rock, a stick of rock, candy, hard candy that would break your teeth. And each holiday place would have its own candy with the name of the place. It seemed embedded at the end of the rock. and if you bought a cheap version of this and broke it in two, the name had disappeared. If you had bought the expensive version, no matter where you broke up the rock, the name was still there. It was embedded right through. And I've sometimes thought that's a kind of parable of preachers, isn't it? There is preaching that sounds in its rhetoric magnificent, But the more discerning you are, the more likely you are to notice there seems to be a difference between the rhetoric and the pathos, and an even greater difference between the rhetoric, the logos, which may be true, and the character of the individual. He's got hold of the truth.

25:51 but over the months and years it becomes clear that the truth has not really got hold of him. And if we are to exercise pastoral integrity and are called to be those who model the life of the Christian believer before the congregation, I've sometimes said, you know, when we are choosing elders. What we want is men about whom if an outsider who isn't a Christian comes among us and says, well, what does it mean to live the Christian life? We ought to be able to say, keep your eye on him for a couple of days, and then you come and tell me what it means to live the Christian life. And since we are the under shepherds and pastors of God's people, that kind of integrity is absolutely of the quintessence of our ministry.

26:53 It is that important. And not least when men are coming forwards as candidates for the ministry, who ought surely to see a spark of this in their lives and be able to say to them, as Paul said to Timothy, now as you go on, make sure, you remember how he says it, these words can haunt you, even paralyze you. Make sure everyone sees your progress. That'd be a testing question in our congregations, wouldn't it? Somebody did a survey, and the question was, have you noticed Pastor Ferguson's progress since he came here?

27:45 Because that's what we are summoning our people to, and it is unavoidable that in our ministry to them we become models of it. Well, that's why it's so important. How then is it threatened? and clearly there's an answer to this. It's threatened the same way integrity is threatened in every believer. You know, we are not superhumans. We may sometimes have difficulties in the congregation that make us feel as though we've been treated as subhumans, but we are believers and we are afflicted and prosecuted by Satan the same way every other believer is, and yet at the same time, I think it's clear in the New Testament there is a consciousness that because of our role, our office, I don't like the word, but that's what we usually call it, our office as ministers of the gospel, we become objects of special attack because of what we come to mean to our people. It is one of the most amazing blessings of being a pastor, isn't it? However difficult it may be in the trenches, the affection of the people of God for us. The importance they attach to us because we are the ones who feed them from the Word of God is phenomenal, and it can be glorious. But that's exactly why Satan would seek to threaten it.

29:16 I've often thought reading what James says about temptation and sin in James chapter 1, if he had King David in mind. When sin, when it's fully grown, eventually leads to death, and you remember the death of the child. And, you know, Asaph has such wonderful things to say about David, but Asaph must also have known that there was an asterisk at David's name and that he had failed. And his failure was not simply a private matter because he was the shepherd of God's people. And the whole story of God's people from that point onwards is the story of how the asterisk of his failure works out. And he's saying to us here in a kind of code language, yes, David was the shepherd, but precisely because David was the shepherd in subtle ways, he apparently did not recognize. His integrity was specifically focused by the evil one.

30:29 And how? Well, the same way, judging by observation and by temptation, the same way the integrity of pastors is attacked by Satan with like the three most basic tools. One is sexual, another is financial, and another is powerful. And they operate in different ways. And although it's true that the seed of every known sin is present in each of our hearts, there is no doubt that we are differently wired and therefore more easily prey to the devil's attack, to bring us down, to seek to destroy the fellowship of God's people, to divide God's people. I wonder if you've noticed this, that when a pastor falls, it's almost the easiest way to divide the congregation. There can be all kinds of opinions on what happened, all kinds of blaming.

31:31 And so often it's true in the Christian church, nobody stands up and says, is it possible that an enemy has done this? And the Lord Jesus teaches us that's a really important question for us to ask. Has an enemy done this? And so we're counseled again, especially by the Apostle Paul, to be watchful in these areas because there's always the danger of pride and self-sufficiency. It happened to him, but it could never happen to me. That's why Paul says, brother's not a novice in case he falls into the danger of pride and self-sufficiency. and the ministry in a way that is different from many other callings, indeed most other callings, carries with it because of our role in people's lives, because of the platform that we are given, carries a great temptation to pride.

32:46 I remember one of the great forefathers of the Reformed movement in the United Kingdom who taught in a seminary in London saying that one of the great dangers in the Christian ministry is pride. And maybe it's just because I'm a Presbyterian. Maybe it doesn't happen in Anglicanism, Methodism, independency. but there's pride all over the place. It's a huge temptation. People grasping for position, people stretching for what someone else has, and it exposes us to temptation. It weakens us. or with it then goes the pastoral mask, doesn't it?

33:44 One of the things that Paul loves about Timothy is that his faith is anhypocritus. It's without hypocrisy. It's without a mask. That he's the real deal. That he may have struggles, but he is the real deal, and people know that he is the real deal. And there is patterns of interest, which incidentally, to anyone who examines it, will be present. If you have a Twitter account or an X account or whatever account, whatever social media you have, somebody with discernment is going to be able to look through that and conclude what you are really interested in. and so we are very much exposed in different ways. So what in the third place is the key to pastoral integrity? Well, let me give you a passage and a few sentences on the passage and you can turn to the passage again and again and again and again at your leisure. So what is the passage?

34:54 Well, the passage is Proverbs 4, verses 20 to 27. Let me just walk you through it. Begins with the words, my son, right? The early chapters of Proverbs, my son. Remember how Hebrews 12 transposes that into the mouth of God. Have you forgotten the exhortation from Proverbs in which he, God, addresses you as his sons. So, this is the Father, as it were, speaking the Word of God to the Son. So, let us transpose that into the Lord speaking the Word of God to pastors. What does he say to us? Well, he says seven things, I think, seven things. Or if there are more, it's kind of nice to think that there are seven basic principles. Verses 20 to 21, you will be safeguarded so long as you keep giving your attention to the Father's voice in his word. That's a guarantee. His word will keep you and give you integrity.

36:09 Principle number two is in verse 22. The word of the Father is life to those who find the truth of his sayings and healing to all their flesh. What does that mean? Well, if you are to give attention to the Father's voice and word, you are to fix your faith on the Father's promise. He has promised and he will do it. Three, verse 23, you are to keep your heart with all vigilance. Don't trust it. Watch it. Guard it. Keep it. Fourth, verse 24, you are to guard your lips because they are the key to the heart. The verb that's used here at least once in the New American Standard Bible is translated behead. That's interesting, isn't it? Not just guard your lips, but behead anything that is coming from your lips that is an indication of what is actually happening in your heart.

37:21 You know, in my world, so many young men have thought that they are God's gift to the ministry because they find it so easy to speak. And that's the problem, isn't it? They don't know anything about beheading their lips. And we're being called here to that kind of self-discipline. And then in verse 25, so important to us, let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you. What does that mean? That means what you need to discipline as much as anything else is your eyes. When you look at the great moments of temptation in Scripture, the eyes are always there, aren't they?

38:15 Eve at the tree, David on the roof of his house, Jesus in the wilderness. Do you see all these kingdoms of the world? You have come here to win the kingdoms. See them all, Jesus. What do I do with my eyes? I can't let them operate simply in terms of what attracts me. I need to keep them looking straight ahead. Sixthly, consider where the pathway that you are tempted to follow is going to lead you. Ponder the path of your feet, then all your ways will be sure. However, most of us of a certain age in pastoral ministry have probably had at least one man sitting in our office with his head in his hands saying, I don't know what came over me.

39:16 And the answer to his question is precisely what is being taught us here. You didn't ponder where the path was leading. and then seventhly you need to learn to be committed to the undiverted life in verse 27 don't swerve to the right or to the left there are always going to be people to the left of you and always going to be people to the right of you and this father is saying to his son and our father is saying to us, be an undiverted pastor and be it with grace. And then, where are we going to find the resources? Well I've five points, and a second each. The call of God in our lives.

40:14 Doesn't that sustain us? Second, the Word of God in our hands. More than anyone else in the congregation, we have this privilege. people of God as our family. That's a good motivation, isn't it, for holiness? I love these people so much I would never want to let them down. I once chose my friends over my family when I was a little boy. And ever since the rest of my family had gone long ago, almost 50 years ago. I've regretted it. I've lived with that regret. It's not paralyzed me. but it has wounded me that I chose my friends over my family when I was a boy of nine, and I've never forgotten the failure. And the same is true of the ministry.

41:18 It doesn't just go away. It lives with you forever if you betray the family. and then our brothers in the ministry. What a help it is to our brothers who are in the ministry and most of all, the Son of God who is in heaven, who has promised that he will never stop interceding for us. So however daunted we may be by the challenge, we have more reasons to be encouraged than we have to be daunted. So let us be willing, even just now, to say, Lord, make me as holy as it's possible for a saved sinner to be, not only for your glory and for my sake, but for their sake. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for one another. Thank you for the bonds that we share in this room and for the new bonds, indeed old bonds that we now discover for the first time with each other. And we pray that by your grace, you will keep every single one of us in this room with faithfulness and integrity as we seek to love and to serve your people.

42:39 And we ask this for Jesus, our Savior's sake.