Relevant Truth

The point: Continually strive to keep an honest and open heart before God in conjunction with discussion and deliberation with fellow elders to serve up a diet of divine truth that represents the truths most needed by regular heare…

Just as parents provide children with a needed diet, not just desired treats, pastors must preach truths that are truly needed by the flock, not merely what they want to hear.

Now, please note the key words in the axiom. We are dealing with the truths most needed by your regular hearers. Now, it is not necessarily the truths that they most desire. Your children might desire a constant diet of ice cream, Twinkies, and Froot Loops, but you have more love for them in regard for their physical well-being than to give them a diet comprised of what they want and what they don't want.

3:30 - 4:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Be sensitive to the present and long-term needs of your people, viewing them in the context of their growth and development unto the fullness of the stature of Christ.

Christ nourishes and cherishes the church by addressing its specific and current needs, just as a husband cares for his own body by providing the right remedy (band-aid, splint) for its specific ailment.

And he builds up, he nurtures his church in this way. Even as a husband cares for his own body, and if it needs a band-aid, he doesn't give it an antibiotic. If it needs a...

11:12 - 11:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Be sensitive to the present and long-term needs of your people, viewing them in the context of their growth and development unto the fullness of the stature of Christ.

If pastors are given for the 'mending of the saints,' they must know 'where the holes are in the net' to fulfill their function, implying a need to discern the specific spiritual deficiencies of the congregation.

If God has given us as pastors and teachers for the perfecting, for the mending of the saints, the same verb is used to describe what those disciples were doing before they were called when they were by the seaside mending their nets, are we indeed fulfilling our function if we don't know where the holes are in the net, where the mending is needed? If we are given as pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of service, then surely what we bring to them in the way of proclamation, explanation and application of divine truth

15:08 - 15:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The axiom is grounded in three pillars: the nature of preaching in relation to Christ's prophetic office (as seen in Revelation 2-3 and Ephesians 5), the implications of the…

Preaching a 'coat that fits everyone really fits no one,' like one-size-fits-all robes, emphasizing that sermons must be tailored to the specific needs of the hearers.

They were sermons suited to the need of their hearers. One has said, a coat that fits everyone really fits no one. It's like these one size robes. I wonder how they arrive at the cut and the size of those robes.

16:27 - 16:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And in like manner, though the preacher is aware that God alone can make his sermons effectual in the spiritual profiting of his hearers, yet because he is wise, he seeks to find out acceptable words which shall be as go…

Just as a farmer cannot make seed grow but diligently treats soil and crops according to their nature, a preacher, though dependent on God for efficacy, must diligently prepare sermons 'fitted to impress his hearers'.

necessity of the agency of the Spirit and his exertion to have his sermon such as shall be signally fitted to impress his hearers. Nay, rather, the more intelligently he believes that he is a laborer together with God, the more diligently he will work to make his discourse as excellent as possible. The more intelligently he will work to make his discourse as excellent as possible. The husbandman knows that he cannot make the seed grow. Yet, while he looks to God for

23:38 - 24:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of iron-clad rule-makers who mandate rigid sermon plans, as they may hinder sensitivity to the Spirit and the flock's needs.

The 'iron-clad rule-makers' who plan every sermon for the year are compared to an 'efficient train system' that is 'blessedly predictable, questionably predictable,' highlighting the rigidity and potential insensitivity of such an approach.

You see, the iron-clad rule-makers are those who would mandate, and I've read the books, interesting, by men who are not resident working pastors, most of them, who tell us you should sit down at the first of the year and map out every sermon for every week for the entire year and stick to it like the Medes, the law of the Medes and the Persians. They are convinced that the only kind of preaching is consecutive expository preaching. Therefore, they map out the book they're going to plow through from January through March in the morning and the book they're going to attack in the evening, and t...

25:51 - 26:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of copying others' methods for sermon selection, especially their idiosyncrasies, but rather seek to understand them and find your own method.

Martin quotes Spurgeon's highly mystical method of text selection ('when a verse gives your mind a hearty grip,' 'when the hook has pierced you,' 'when the text gets hold of us') to illustrate an idiosyncratic approach that should not be blindly copied.

One has said that the proper use of biography is not to copy great men, but to understand them. Not to copy them, but to understand them. And certainly, if anyone gets so enamored with Spurgeon that he says, well, the secret of his great power and usefulness over so long a time must have been the way he selected his sermons. I tell you, I'd be in the loony bin if I accepted Spurgeon's way.

27:34 - 27:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of the two great dangers of 'enthusiasm' (claiming direct revelation/fanaticism) and rationalism (selecting sermon materials without conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit).

Martin references Dr. Lloyd-Jones's statement about a series of sermons being 'dictated to me by the Spirit himself' as another example of injudicious language that, while perhaps true for him, should not be copied by others.

I'll not give you the whole quote, but he speaks of a certain series of sermons, and he says, I am quite confident, page 190, that the preaching of that series of sermons was dictated to me by the Spirit himself. There it is. I didn't write it. Well, we must, by God's grace, beware of copying others, because generally when you copy, you copy the idiosyncrasies of others and not those areas in which they were in the center of sound principles.

30:50 - 31:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to be consistently prayerful for divine guidance in the matter of sermon selection, recognizing the immense responsibility for the flock's spiritual health.

The quote 'What you eat, and any congregation, is what it eats' emphasizes that the spiritual health of the flock is directly dependent on the 'spiritual diet' provided from the pulpit.

The awareness that in great measure the health and well-being of the flock will be dependent on the main spiritual diet given from the pulpit should cause us to cry out continually, Who is sufficient for these things? Adele Davis said, What you eat, and any congregation, is what it eats. And what it eats is what you and your fellow elders will serve up when you stand and proclaim the Word of God. But it's precisely at this point that we have one of those promises that ought to be one of the most frequently pleaded promises by every preacher.

33:50 - 34:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to be diligently aware of the general, specific critical, and occasional needs of the flock of God, studying your people as diligently as any book.

William Gurnall's statement that 'The preacher must read and study his people as diligently as any book in his study' underscores the importance of knowing the flock's state to dispense truth faithfully.

Now, if it's right that a literal shepherd who has a literal flock of sheep is commanded by God as a part of heavenly wisdom and an expression of the fear of God, to be diligent to know the state of his flocks as an economic responsibility, how much more we who are charged with that flock purchased with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. William Gurnall in his massive treatise, The Christian in Complete Armor, writes, The preacher must read and study his people as diligently as any book in his study. And as he finds them,

37:03 - 37:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Pastors should be sensitive and accurate about their own development as preachers, avoiding pride (Romans 12:3-4) and realistically assessing their ability to handle complex texts…

The story of tenor Richard Tucker waiting until age 62 to perform a specific opera role due to his honest assessment of his vocal and maturational development illustrates the importance of a preacher's realistic self-assessment regarding their readiness for certain preaching tasks.

I think I'd preach the congregation to sleep if I were to tempt. For me personally, at this stage in my development, to try to preach through Hebrews, to teach through it, would be another thing. And I marvel because the men of this world often are wiser in their generation than the sons of light. One of my favorite tenors who's been dead now for 15 years was Richard Tucker.

44:24 - 44:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to be sensitive to the reaction of the flock, not as a men-pleaser, but as one concerned for the spiritual well-being of regenerate members, and seek feedback from mature saints and fellow elders.

Martin distinguishes between 'goats' (unregenerate) and 'sheep' (regenerate) to clarify that while he shouldn't cater to those who dislike spiritual food, he should be sensitive to the reactions of true believers.

And if we find them all with a sour face and continually burping and belching, maybe the food we're giving them isn't the best.

46:40 - 46:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Preachers should be sensitive to how the flock reacts to the 'food' being served, not as 'men-pleasers' (Galatians 1:10) but as those concerned for the saints' spiritual…

Martin shares his personal experience of feeling uncomfortable with the mechanical nature of his conference presentation but submitting his desire to 'preach' to the counsel of his fellow elders, who affirmed the helpfulness of his outline-driven approach for the audience.

Get their feedback. I sought feedback from my brethren between yesterday and today. I feel so uncomfortable doing what I'm doing. Running through this outline, it feels to me so mechanical.

47:28 - 47:40 Read in full sermon