I think of that silent movies’ entertainer, Charlie Chaplin, who grew up in the area of Walworth. His family spent time in the old Lambeth workhouse which used to be a few yards from the Tabernacle, and had a very poor childhood. But his mother went regularly to church, and the church she went to was Christchurch Upton Chapel on the Westminster Bridge Road. But she was starving, and she would go without food for days on end so that she could feed the boys. Eventually it made her ill, and Charlie Chaplin apparently used to be convinced that it was through all the privatisation and the self-denial of the mother that her mind failed. Didn’t anybody notice her condition in church? Wasn't anybody watching, looking out for this emaciated worshipper, who clearly was in dire trouble and needed help? Well apparently not, but this is what the apostle means. The senior men must be awake and alert, watchful.
Let me put it spiritually. We lost a lot of Baptist churches in this city and in this country between the two world wars, because liberalism, theological liberalism, came into the colleges of the Baptist denomination. This church has been independent of the Baptist denomination since 1887. But the Baptist denomination was going downhill, and the rot set in at the top. And in the colleges the men were being taught theological liberalism: to deny and doubt the Bible and so on, to abandon the gospel. And these men were being called into Bible believing churches, but people weren't paying attention. ‘Oh, they said, this is our Baptist denomination. These people must be fine. They've been to our denominational colleges. They must be sound.’ And they weren't watching. And so the ministry in so many churches became liberal, and eventually those churches failed and closed, and there used to be dozens of them, and now there are so few. And I remember as a youngster [in] the first church, Baptist church, I was in membership was with, and the story about how they called a new pastor, and there was one man there, senior man, who objected, because this proposed new pastor didn't seem to be strong on this and this and this issue. And everybody else said, ‘Oh, be quiet; that man is just a nuisance. He just objects to everything. Be quiet.’ No, it turned out he was the only one watching, the only one who was vigilant, the only one who cared. And they called the wrong man, and downhill they went from that time on. So that helps to illustrate this: ‘that the aged men, be sober.’ Restrained in their personal habits, practising a measure of self-denial, ‘and watchful’, good sentries, caring for people, alive even to theological situations. ‘That the aged men be sober.’ It's a big word, and it hasn't just to do with drink.
The young Christians will ask some difficult questions. How can God be sovereign over all things, when there is so much sin in the world? Is he the author of sin, or is he not? Do you know the answer? Do you know how to explain the sovereignty of God in relation to sin? Can people come to you and respect you, because at some point in your life you said, ‘I am getting to be an older man, I ought to be versed in everything. The young will ask me. My teenage children will ask me. I have never learned the deep things of God. I have never read a systematic theology. I have never read the doctrines. I cannot answer these questions. I need to be a person having some depth and some understanding.’ That should be especially your aim and your desire: to be useful to God, to be able to stand for these things. Not a shallow person, but a serious person. Oh, you may be blessed with a sense of humour, and that is nice; that isn’t banned. But at the same time, there needs to be a deep side to you and a serious side. You are not one hundred percent trivial or humorous.
There are great examples throughout the Bible of people who lost their self-control. Senior men, never lose your self-control. Your great aim in the family, in the church, is never to lose your temper, never to be out of control. Esau was out of control. Of course he wasn't really a believer, but he was privileged with the possibility that he would hold the reigns of the God's special family on earth. But when he was hungry one day, he didn't care about that. He threw it away, and sold it for a meal. He was a man who had no control over these rational processes. Satan loves to bring down the senior man, so that he goes out of control with some dreadfully covetous act, or some other sinful act. This is about self-control, self-mastery. We could think of Sampson. What a servant of God he was! Some people foolishly fault Sampson for all sorts of things, when he was doing them by command of God. But once, he did the most foolish thing and lost his self-control, and what a tragedy it was for him. Then there was King David, the psalmist of Israel, a prophet, a leader, a teacher. He was so used of God, but he lost his self-control. How did he commit the sin with Bathsheba? There must have been stepping stones on the way. He must have been giving way to himself on all sorts of lesser things, before the big temptation. Finally he fell to a great sin which should not be once named among believers. Don't let it happen. Practice self-denial. When the temptation comes to justify that unnecessary, expensive possession, deny yourself if it isn't necessary. Don't give way to yourself. This is what this word means: temperate, moderate, self-mastery, self-control.
If we were to have a pop band here, and a pop choir, and contemporary Christian worship, and spend our money finding the finest pop instrumentalists and vocalists, we would not be practising the trust, the faith. We would have become a church that said, ‘God doesn't have the power to attract people; God doesn't have the power to save souls. He needs a little help from the entertainment industry; he needs a little help from sound and decibels and performance, so we will have these things to help God out.’ That is the practice of anti-faith, of a small faith. The practice of faith is to say, ‘Stick to the things that God in his word tells us to do: to preach the word, to praise him as congregations, to pray and lay our needs before the Lord, and he has the power to bless and to use us.