(1) I desire to point out to you as a pastor set apart, the advice that the Apostle Paul gave in the Spirit to Timothy, who was a young minister, and that was that he was to preach the Word of God.
It was out of the Word of God that he was to take all that he would preach—law and gospel, and attached to that advice there is a most solemn warning—”I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom; preach the Word—” You are to preach with a view to the Great Day of Judgment and the account you will have to give then as to whether you declared the whole counsel of God to poor perishing sinners on their way to eternity. Keep yourself exclusively to the Gospel of God’s truth and take good care that you will not follow the learning of every man. “Search the Scriptures—.”
(2) The second advice I would give you is that you are to take heed to yourself.
A minister ought to be an example to his congregation, and you ought to be so in this place both in your life and conversation, walking circumspectly before them, and shunning all appearance of evil, and knowing nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and having nothing to do with the big noise that is in the Churches of our day—social gatherings, concerts, etc. That is not the duty of a minister at all; your duty is to keep clear of all these works of darkness, and take heed to yourself for you are to save your own soul as well as your people.
Take heed to your doctrine what you preach from Sabbath to Sabbath, that you will preach nothing but what you can prove on the spot to be based on the infallible Word of God, and this promise goes along with that, that by doing so you shall both save yourself and those that hear you, and surely that ought to cause us to care for nothing that men would say. We ought to preach God’s Word and nothing else, and we ought to keep nothing back of the whole counsel of God for the face of any man or woman, and that is your duty and mine, and it is as a friend whom I dearly love that I advise you of your duty, and your own soul’s salvation depends on it, and the salvation of the poor sinners in Kames depends on how you will carry that out, and on the example you will set before them.
“O, Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called.” These were among the last words of Paul to Timothy. He was now Paul the aged, and ready to be taken away, and he was appealing to Timothy whom he loved, and I appeal to you, that you will see to it that you will keep that which is committed to you, and that is the whole ministry of the grace of God, and that you will not for the sake of something new go one hair breadth from God’s Word, and may He give you grace and strength of body and mind to carry out these duties.