In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of using the talents and opportunities that God has given us. He warns against wasting our time and abilities and encourages listeners to make the most of the time and opportunities God has graciously provided. The preacher also discusses the commission that God has given to ministers, highlighting the solemn and eternal work they are called to do. He emphasizes the need for prayer and maintaining a close relationship with God to avoid losing the fire and passion for serving Him.

2 Timothy chapter 4, I want to read the first five verses. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and kingdom, preach the word, the instant in season, out of season, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure some doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto people. Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. I want to turn over to another scripture that you will find in the third chapter of the first epistle of Timothy. This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy liquor, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. The Lord will bless his word to our hearts. I want first of all to make a defense, a scriptural defense of the office of the minister. We live in a day when this office is under attack, and when there are many who say that there is no such thing in the scripture as a minister of a local congregation. Now I want to talk to you tonight about what God says in his book. When we think of bishops, of course, today we're apt to think of diocesan bishops with gaiters, garters, aprons on the lot, but these have no place in the scripture. Now if you turn with me to the book of the Acts, over to the book of the Acts of the Apostles, at the chapter twenty, the apostle Paul for three years was minister in the church at Ephesus. Now he was going to be martyred for Christ's preaching, and he called the elders. For what we would say today the session of the church, he called them together, and he gave them a great charge. And if you turn to chapter twenty and verse twenty-eight, speaking to the elders, you look at verse seventeen, it says, And from Belitus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. Then he says in verse twenty-eight, Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseen. We read there of elders that rule, and there is the office of ruling elders. Church of Jesus Christ is not a democracy as some people think of it. The church of Jesus Christ is a monarchy. Christ is the great king and head of the church, and he is delegated his authority as the supreme head of the church to elders. And there are elders who are to rule. But it says here, Let the elders that rule well be content worthy of double honor. Now look at it. Especially they who labored in word and doctrine. So there were elders who labored in the word. They were ministering elders. They ministered the word. And there was one minister in the churches that were written to in the book of the Revelation. Let's turn to the book of the Revelation. And in the book of the Revelation you'll find that the apostle was called upon to write the things which thou hast seen. Verse nineteen of chapter one of the Revelation. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. Chapter two, verse one, unto the angel. The church of Ephesus. When I was a boy, I used to wonder who this angel was. I belonged to a church, but I never saw any angels in it. I saw plenty of fallen ones, but I never saw any angels. And then when I grew up and learned a little, I learned that this word angelos, in the Greek translated here angel, means messenger or minister. And it's in the singular, you'll notice. It didn't write unto the angels of one church. There was one angel for every church. Quite simple to prove, isn't it? Look at verse twenty of chapter one. This really gives the brethren something to chew on. So when I talked to my big brethren, brother, and I like to bring them to this portion of the church, and asked them where the angel is in his church. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. There were seven churches, not fourteen stars or twenty-eight stars, but only seven. One messenger, one minister to every church. Talking of the New Testament doctrine and I, which of course is hardly known today, man, of so many theories that have tried to do away with the plain teaching of the word of God. Her brother has been sent over this congregation as the ministering elder, the angel, the messenger to the people. I'll have to bring him in charge. And this is a very solemn duty that falls on me. And I must be faithful, personally faithful to him. Because someday I shall answer to the great king and head of the church concerning the charge that would lay upon this young man who has been ordained here this evening. I want you to notice in 2 Timothy chapter 4, first of all the minister's charge. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead that is appearing in kingdom. We have the minister's charge. Then from verse 2 to verse 5 you have the minister's commission. God has told him to do certain things. He hasn't called him to run a bowling alley. He didn't call him to do that. Dear help him of the ever-attention. He hasn't called him to be a master and emcee at the church dance. He hasn't called him to be a sort of joker in the district, a suitable man to close up the proceedings of a night of joviality at a young farmer's club. He hasn't called him to do that. He's called him to do a work for eternity, a solemn and a charitable work this young man has been commissioned for. And then in the previous chapter that we read, we have the minister's character. So I want to talk to you about the minister's charge and the minister's commission and the minister's character. And I want to talk to him about it because it has to do with it. And that's why I set him forward to sit there, so that I could get my eyes upon him and really talk to him. He's charged before God. This man stands before God. He doesn't stand primarily before his brethren in the presbytery, nor does he stand primarily before you who shall listen to him. He stands before God. My brother, let me tell you that to stand before God means that God's eye is upon you. This does not refer to what you are merely in public, but this refers to what you are in private. God sees you no matter where you are and no matter what you do. It's a solemn thing to say. I would say to any man who desires to go into the ministry, make sure before you go ahead one step that you're prepared to stand before God to give an account of how you exercise your ministry. I would this very night resign from the solemn ministry of God's gospel if I wasn't damn sure that God called me to it. This, my friend, is the most solemn task that mortal man can face or mortal man can do. You are charged before God. You stand, my brother, before the God who made the heavens. He has all power. You stand, my brother, before the God who is all-wise and sees all things. And he sees your heart tonight. He knows your motives. He can test you and hold you in the hollow of your heart. You could fool your brother. You could give a fair feast before the world, but you will not fool the God before whom you stand. He searches the heart and triumphally. You not only stand before God, but you stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. Stand before him who has been specially appointed and delegated to be the mediator of his elect people and to be the great king of Hanover the church. Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. And if there is anything that Christ really loves, it is the church that he died for. And, my brother, you stand before the one who sees you ministering in the dearest place to his heart. And woe betide you if you should put forth sinful acts to soil the church which the Savior loves. You not only stand before God and before the Lord Jesus, but you stand before the great judgment day. The shadow of the judgment is upon every preacher. Who shall judge the quick and the dead and his appearing? And one day, my brother, you will give solemn account to God of how you lived, of what you preached, of how you acted, and of how you conducted your ministry in this way. This will not be a visitation of Presbytery. This shall be the visitation of the Lord of hosts upon your soul and upon your lips. And upon you tonight there is the shadow of the judgment seat. You have to live where the judgment seat behold you. You have to live in the light of the terrible day when God shall expose publicly before heaven, earth, and hell the motives of your ministry. So this is the charge of your judgment. It is a solemn charge. And I read these words, I tremble. And I read these words, I cry to God with Paul who is sufficient for these things. And I read these words, my knees down, and I say, Oh God, keep me ever faithful to this terrible charge that you put upon me. And as I have said before, only the solemn call of God would keep me in the ministry of the Lord. You are charged before God with the law of Jesus and before the judgment day. You are charged primarily before the coming of Jesus Christ. He is going to appeal to you publicly and physically and vocally. And you shall be presented before him as his servant for this discipline. And you will be asked to give an account of your stewardship, what you did with your time, how you occupied your time, how you occupied your talent, how you occupied the ability that God gave you, how you bought up your opportunity, how you invested the time that God graciously provided with you. How sad it would be if at the judgment seat you would be like the man who hid his talent in an alcove and buried it in a field. At the judgment day, the great steward said, calling upon the steward, he said to him, Because you have done this, left your talent behind and over to he that hath. And the point this man is pleased with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and dying of people. This is the charge. But there is not only the charge, but there is the commission. And you are commissioned to do something in this ministry. You are commissioned to preach the word, to preach the word of God. You are not commissioned to read essays. We have churches today that are filled with essay readers. And of the loss of place in the manuscript, they're lost completely. I heard about one man trying to read an essay the other day. His corrugation in page nine got mixed up with page eight, and there was no connection. He lost the thread of his discourse. And the people on the back seat of the pew, they clapped their hands. They mustn't have much time for them. They stepped their feet, and there was confusion in that service. You are not called to be an essay reader. You are called to preach the word of God. To be a prophet and to preach this book from Genesis to Revelation. And there are untalentable things in this book. Things that man don't like, and things that will stir hatred in their heart against you. But my brother, you've got to preach them, fearing no man but fearing God. Preach the word. And of course, in the preaching of the word, you've got to be instant emcees in the Bible. There is no holiday for the minister. He can't take off his ministry and put it in a wardrobe and say, in a month's time I'll be back to put on the garments once again. You are always a minister. You're always God's servant. You're always to be at this holy task. And every opportunity, in season and out of season, has to be invested for Jesus Christ. Reprove. The minister is called to reprove. He's to reprove sin. This is an unpalatable task. This is a terrible task, to reprove sin. You're called upon to reprove sin. The darling sins of our day have got to be reproved. The great crazes of drunkenness and immorality that are so rife in the land. The great crazes of displeasure, mad ease. The minister of God has got to reprove them. Him and the immovable Lord. This is a task that needs the strength of heaven and the courage of an apostle and the fire of a prophet. You're not only to reprove, but you're to exhort. With all long-suffering and doctrine, exhortation is part of your task. You're to exhort men to get out of the apostasy. But if you look here, set in here as a parenthesis, there is this word, for the time will come when they will not endure son doctrine, but after their own vastly heaped to themselves teachers having itching ears. And that's the day in which we live. After their own lust, the apostate churches have heaped to themselves teachers having itching ears. Look at that word, heaped. That means there'll be a superabundance of apostate preachers. You'll be alone. There are not heaps of gospel preachers. You can hardly find gospel preachers. Oh, there are evangelicals, yes, with the emphasis of the jelly. And you can call them jellyfish. You can get plenty of those. You can get a heap of them any time. And the jellyfish, you fishermen, oh, you stand up. You stand in these jellyfish mires with sticks. I want to tell you tonight in this meeting, friends, that there are not many who stand for God. The apostates are heaped up. There's just a few preachers. Just a few men. Brother, you'll be lonely. You'll fall alone later on if you stand for God. There'll not be many want to associate with you. There'll not be many want to say, that man's my friend. When you walk down the street, many will pass on the other side. Many will be ashamed of your stand. Paul said about people, you're ashamed of me, the prisoner of Jesus Christ. There are people who'll be ashamed of you if you're to go on exhorting them in this evil day. Exhorting them with the doctrines of the book. And if this book teaches anything, it teaches separation from apostasy. What fellowship of life would guard me? None. What relationship can there be between Christ and the Antichrist? And a man that's sealed cannot scripturally set with a man that's unsealed. I wish him God's speed and unite with him in redeeming others who know not God and obey not the gospel. How can Irians, Sicilians, Unitarians, and Trinitarians unite to form a pure church? He said, today we have these evangelicals uniting with man that hid the gospel. And then in the general assembly underway, Dr. Brickey, who stood up and tore the Bible to pieces. And these men protested, not because he tore the Bible to pieces, but because he insulted their scholarship. So he came back onto the forum, and he says, if I have hurt any preacher, any minister of the church, I'm very sorry. My friend, he had hurt the Lord, but he didn't express sorrow for what he had done to Jesus Christ. I'm not a bit interested what anybody thinks about me, but I'll be standing up for the honor of Jesus Christ. So I'll be standing up in honor of the Savior. And then Mr. Gellies has said, we have preachers going around the country preaching what they call biblical separation, but what I call sinful segregation. My friend, there is a biblical separation. I'm called to separate from those who know not God and have taken up the gospel. And it's in the book, very strongly in the word of God. And I'd like just to read it to you, so that you know where it ends. The sixth chapter of 1 Timothy. And verse 3. This was quoted tonight by the clerk in the charge. It's in one of the questions that our brother answered. Verse 3. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, 1 Timothy 6 and 3, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness. And this refers to the preachings, and the Carlisle Patricians, and the heirs of the General Assembly. Mr. Nicholson used to say, and these Professor Heirs of the Assembly's College, he says they're unclean too. And he was really hitting the bell, you know, when you hit the bullseye, the bell rings. I would like to ring the bell like that in your heart tonight. Says he is proud. God says a freaky who stood up in the assembly and tore the Bible to pieces in his feet. Proud. Says something else about him. He says he should have known nothing. Doesn't know anything. Knew nothing freaky. He says he's doping. Old doping freaky. That's what the Bible says about him. This is pretty strong language, isn't it? This is the language of the whole world. Not what he implied. And when God looks at the General Assembly's apostates, he says they are a bunch of know-nothing, proud dopers. That's all they are. They'll bark their lot in the true church of Christ that belongs to the synagogue of Satan. They don't like questions and strides of words. Whereof cometh envy, strife, reelings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of man of corrupt mind, destitute of the truth. Supposing that Gideon is gobbling us. Stay with them. Pay into them. Help to support them. The Bible says from such with draw thyself. Mr. Dilley says that's sinful segregation. My Bible says it's separation. And then when he's challenged, he backs off the board. Says Mr. Paisley is a Hitler. Oh, dear. I've heard that before. That's like something he turns a knee would say. He's just a part of the old apostates. And then in his church, he starts doctoring with the confession of faith that he swore to believe. This is more serious than he says. We don't really, when we sign the confession, believe the Pope's the Antichrist. So you have Brinkley who says he doesn't believe it. And you have Withers. I got Withers magazine the other day. Withers is the minister of fishery. Mr. Nicholson used to say that fishery used to waddle. That was the previous minister, but now it Withers. And that was justified right. Withers is at present. And he says that it's only an extremist who would believe that dear papa is the Antichrist. I want to say, my friend, tonight that the reformers died because they believed the Pope was the Antichrist. That's why they burned them. The last words that Thomas Cranmer said, I reject the Pope as Antichrist. And they pulled him down, and they burned him for saying that. And Mr. Gilley says, you know, I want to tell you, friend, any man that deserves the name and the prerogatives of God Almighty as an Antichrist, the Bible says even now there are many. We in the Free Presbyterian Church believe that the reformers were right. We have no apology to make for that. We believe that we're men of God. We believe that the greatest revival since Pentecost was the Protestant Reformation. God sent us another Reformation. What the church needs today, if it withdraws, get out, stand up, shout out, get out, stay out. What the Bible teaches is quite simple. You do not need to argue just to faith. God doesn't thank you. What about my business? That's the honor of his. You obey God. God will bless you. I lived in the home of that. I will not allow you to plow our fields. We will not allow you to thrash our corn if you join the Free Presbyterian. He said, all right, I'll just starve, but I'll obey God. I went down to see him after he came out, friend, and he did more business than any other man in the country. And every one of his sons are flourishing businessmen today. Some of them were the biggest businesses in the country. Do you think God is any man's standard? Do you? I don't. I believe if you obey God, God will bless you. Just obey him. Say, what about the future? That's God's business. Free Church started, a man came to me and said to me, is your influence established? Well, I said, I never had much anyways. It wouldn't matter. He's got more influence today than ever had, and it's an influence for good, you know. What other Protestant preacher could get 5,000 people at the diamond in Lobgall on a Sunday evening at 9 o'clock? You just find them in Austin. What other preacher could get 1,400 people in a tent in Port-au-Dain with every church against them on a Sunday evening? And 19 people gloriously saved as a result of the preaching of the gospel. What other preacher's going to build the biggest Protestant church in Great Britain and Ireland? Not because this preacher's any, but because he obeys God. Not because there's any better but Ian Peasley, for Ian Peasley knows his sins and his fault, but I know that Ian Peasley's God will not fail him. I've been in tight places, and in the prison cell I've proved that God doesn't thank me. I'm talking up in hearts. God will not let you not disbelieve Him. Do what He tells you. Brother, you've got to preach this. He shall turn their ears away from the truth. Watch thou in all things. You need to watch. Watch that the holy light of Zeus doesn't burn up. You know, the greatest danger to a minister is when he's pocketed. When the church is filled, I have a lot of people in my congregation who think that the preacher should tone off now. One lady said, I wish Mr. Peasley wouldn't be so fierce now, after all he's done to me. Could he not just tone off a little bit and be nice? You know, I'd like him to have time to come and sit in my drawing room and drink afternoon tea with me, have a little talk about the weather, about the things that are going on in the world. It would be very nice to have a friend. God never called me to drink tea in a lady's parlor. God called me to get out a sword and fight the enemies of the Lord. I'd just like to go into that parlor and put my foot under that table and kick it up in the air. Spill all the tea over a nice carpet. Say hallelujah. I'm going to preach the truth. Watch thou in all things. Don't let the light burn low. Brother, what about the prayer camp? You'll never do anything for God if you don't pray. I've got to watch my life. I've got to live for God. You know, when you're busy for the Lord, you could let sacred fire burn out within your soul. You're going every day and forth, traveling thousands of miles, doing all sorts of things over and above your own pastoral work. You could lose the fire. The preaching, instead of being pure gold, could only be an honor. Oh, watch, my brother. Watch your soul. Eat sweet with God. Don't let bitterness get into your heart. You'll face many difficulties. You'll get many disappointments. Men all around the country will call you. All things of the day, don't try to answer them. Let the Lord mend it for you. Just stand up for Jesus. I don't allow them to come to me. I'm trying to keep the right things abreast of me. I've never been done with it. I wouldn't need to fight ten sacrifices to do it. I would be a fool. The devil would like me to do that, but I'm not the devil. I'm like Nehemiah. I'm doing the great work of God's will. I'm not coming down to die. For the sin ain't above my Lord. I'll be at him with the sword. Don't sink in your own name. Let Uridium perish. Let them kick Uridium along the throats. Stand for Jesus. Watch out in all things. Do the work of an evangelist. Never lose an opportunity to preach the gospel. I had a bunch of men once in my church committee, and they were scared of the preacher when he evangelized. They didn't like him to be away from home. One night they had a meeting, and they said, we'll keep the preacher at home. We'll pass a rule that he'll have to pay all the supplies. They met me and they said to me, if you go away anymore, you'll pay the supplies. I said, all right. I'll pay the supplies. God'll blue them. So he did, and blew them all out, every one of them. Next time there was an election, and they were all blown out one by one. The next committee, when they read the minutes of the meeting, they said, that's a terrible thing to do. Brother, we'll make it up to you. And they did make it up to me. You think I quit evangelizing? No way. I went on putting up tents and preaching in halls and getting man-shamed. That's what God called me to do. I'd preach all the time as God gave me opportunity. He said, my church was done. It never was done. It went up higher and higher. I got more members when I preached the gospel. Did I neglect my own church? Not at all. I was there twice in Sunday, and I was doing all this extra. My brother do extra for God. Who's a second man? Don't just preach twice in Sunday and once during the week, and then sit back and say, I've done well. If God gives you people to preach to, preach every day. Preach twice a day. If I could get a congregation five times in a Sunday, I would preach to them. After all, the old preachers preached ten times a Sunday. Really, one day in the life of Spurgeon, and he preached every day. People were seated at every one of them. Brother, do the work of an evangelist. Make foolproof of your ministry. You're a minister of Christ. You couldn't have a greater office. You couldn't be called to a greater task. You couldn't have a greater master. You couldn't have a greater work. You know what you're going to do? You're going to win souls for each other. And if a soul meets you at God's right hand, perhaps no deed could happen to me, and I'm not blind. If you don't know who's dead, she is dead, and you're living. I was standing at the tenth door in Cortadine last night, the big fellow as big as myself, and he had a hand on him like a vice, and I have a real strong hand, and he caught my hand, and the blood ran off my arm. He said, Brother, I never told you, but you were preaching some time ago in Lurgantide Hall. And he said, I was sitting in the seat, and the Holy Ghost came up, and I was saved. And this is the first time I was ever able to get to you this time. He said, I'm going to trust you in the Lord. He said, I'm going to go one way. He's going to do that shortly, and I'm going to go that way. I'll sing on for a moment, because there's a young lady here in her eyes are flashing fire, and if I said anything more, instead of hammering this man, she would try and hammer me. You have to be vigilant. You have to be sober. You have to be upright. You have not to be a brawler. You have not to be quick-tempered. You have to know how to control your tongue, be an early member. You have not to be a striker. When men strike you, you have not to strike back. You keep your hands in your pocket, and you'll be struck if you're in this mess. I remember putting up a boot table at Fort Stewart Convention, and a Presbyterian elder, just as at the feast, came out of his house with a dog lash in his hand, and he lashed me right across from my ear to my mouth. And if I ever felt like putting my hand out and picking a man, I'd stop and hammer him. But the Lord said to me, fearfully not a strike. Keep your hands in your pocket. The Lord has been before you. So he did. You know what God did? God took that man away not very long afterwards. Then this happened to him. The Lord's anointed him. The Lord would take care of him until you hung him. You have to be sober, clean and straight, and your private life is to bear that curse of scrutiny. Nobody can point a finger at you before God. No skeletons in the cupboard, none of your tribe or height. You're a man walking in the broad hill. That's the sort of times we were in. Father, you couldn't keep the charge or do the work, or have this kind of thing. But by the grace of God, God gave him a means for his innocence. Amen.