Membership and Biblical Preaching, Part 1

Driving home: So discriminating preaching, then, is preaching which does not create artificial distinctions, but is careful to identify distinctions which God says do exist and are real and are matters of life and death, of heaven and…

Martin's grandson Lucas eats dog food, mistaking it for Cheerios, because he lacks the ability to discriminate. This illustrates the need for 'discriminating preaching' to help hearers perceive real, life-and-death distinctions in spiritual matters.

The ability to perceive real distinctions. And I have my son's permission to use my youngest grandson as an illustration. A few days ago, our grandson was over at our home, and having our daughter stay with us, as most of you are aware, during this time of her recuperation, they have a little daughter. A dog, a little Shih Tzu.

13:47 - 14:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Feel what God is saying to you through the preaching.

Just as one looks for specific features of their own face in a crowd, applicatory preaching helps hearers see themselves in the detailed descriptions of truth, moving beyond generalities.

And he will do this by detailed descriptions of the issues expounded so that no one will be at a loss to see himself. You see, when you're looking for yourself in a picture, you're not just looking for a creature that has two ears and two eyes and a mouth and a nose. You're looking for the specific shape of your nose and your mouth and the color of your eyes. You know yourself when you see the peculiar delineating features of your own face in a mass of faces.

23:19 - 23:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Feel what God is saying to you through the preaching.

Preaching cuts the cloth (biblical truth) and puts it together (discriminating preaching), but application is like putting the garment on the hearer, making them feel its weight and know it's for them.

We not only cut the cloth out of biblical stuff and put it together by discriminating preaching so that the arm differs from the shoulder and the shoulder from the yoke and the yoke from the collar. But in application, we say, my friend, come now and I want to put it on. And I want you to feel the weight of the garment on your shoulders. I want you to know that the garment is for you and for you and for you.

24:07 - 24:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is seeking not only to preach, seeking not only to extract the truth from the scriptures, to set it forth in its discriminating differences as clearly taught in the scriptures, but in the language of Richard Baxter, h…

People tolerate truth floating by like clouds, but applicatory preaching makes those clouds form thunderheads, with lightning striking the citadel of their own breast, forcing self-condemnation or vindication.

It's tailor-made, has your name upon it. And that's done by detailed descriptions of the issues expounded. It's done also by pointed questions calculated to force people to self-reflection. You see, most people will tolerate the truth floating by them like beautiful clouds on a lovely summer day.

24:33 - 24:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if your professed faith has wrought a transformation of heart, mind, will, affections, and practice, lest it only damn you.

Martin shares that many visitors don't return to Trinity Baptist Church not because the service is dull, but because the applicatory preaching forces them to deal with God, revealing their lack of earnestness.

And we're committed to applicatory preaching. And I've blessed God over the years, even though people haven't known precisely what to call it, that has been one of the greatest barriers to dead wood in Trinity Church. We've had hundreds and hundreds of people over the years come here as one-time visitors. When I want to shock my ministerial brethren who know that we don't practice the invitation system, you know, getting people to raise their hand, come down an aisle, they ask how things are going, I say, things are going great, we're getting decisions every Sunday.

27:55 - 28:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines 'passionate and earnest preaching' as characterized by extreme compelling emotion, intense desire, seriousness, and intensity, not joking or playful. He illustrates…

Technical perfection in music is not enough; true greatness requires passion and earnestness, illustrating that preaching also needs these qualities beyond mere accuracy.

Not joking or playful. Now we see these qualities of passion and earnestness in almost every realm of ordinary life. I've heard it said of certain singers after they've made their debut at the Met. And I happen to get a New York Times on a Monday as my wife will often buy one for me on a Monday.

30:39 - 31:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines 'passionate and earnest preaching' as characterized by extreme compelling emotion, intense desire, seriousness, and intensity, not joking or playful. He illustrates…

Pavarotti asked an older tenor about his rise to greatness, who replied he was 'still becoming' and had just finished three hours of vocalizing. This illustrates the passion and discipline required for excellence, applicable to preaching.

What is it makes the great musicians great? It is not only their mastery and they have to master their scales. Singers must master the discipline of vocalizing. When Pavarotti as a young man asked one of the great tenors of his day, when, when did you become the tenor that you are?

31:38 - 32:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines 'passionate and earnest preaching' as characterized by extreme compelling emotion, intense desire, seriousness, and intensity, not joking or playful. He illustrates…

If someone threatens to shoot you, you quickly discern if they are 'in earnest' or joking. This illustrates how earnestness is recognized and demands a response in ordinary life, and thus should be present in preaching.

Extreme and compelling emotion, commensurate with the lyrics, with the music, with the role, with the overall plot. And they'll spend hours and hours until the music gets inside of them and becomes a part of the texture of their very being. Then when it comes out over the vocal cords, that element is there. Likewise, with the matter of earnestness, you come up to someone and say, hey, I'm just about to shoot you.

32:28 - 32:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines 'passionate and earnest preaching' as characterized by extreme compelling emotion, intense desire, seriousness, and intensity, not joking or playful. He illustrates…

Sports writers analyze Darryl Strawberry's performance, noting that his channeled anger (passion) is crucial for his hitting. This illustrates how passion and earnestness are vital for performance even in sports, and by extension, in preaching.

You're not fooling, are you? You see, earnestness and passion we live with all the time in the music realm. We live with it in the sports realm. What's you guys who follow the Mets?

33:08 - 33:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines 'passionate and earnest preaching' as characterized by extreme compelling emotion, intense desire, seriousness, and intensity, not joking or playful. He illustrates…

Martin quotes John Angel James's 'An Earnest Ministry' to define earnestness as 'impassioned vivacity' and 'intense feeling of the subject,' emphasizing that it comes from a deeply impressed mind and warmed heart.

And in a profoundly moving book passed on to me by one of my spiritual sons, a man converted by listening to some tapes on discriminating preaching, the old carnal Christian tapes. He was a ministerial student in seminary but unconverted. And God used those tapes to be the instrument of his salvation. And he knew I'd been looking for this book for a long time and he wrote to a dear friend and faithful friend and father whose life and ministry have profoundly influenced my own.

34:14 - 34:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines 'passionate and earnest preaching' as characterized by extreme compelling emotion, intense desire, seriousness, and intensity, not joking or playful. He illustrates…

A lawyer disbelieved a client until her strong emotion and vehemence convinced him. This illustrates how earnestness conveys truth and conviction, akin to the importunate widow, and is necessary in preaching.

And it's John Angel James' book entitled An Earnest Ministry The Great Need of the Times. Listen to what John Angel James says on this matter of earnestness in preaching. He says that earnestness is not and then he takes off describing the false and the artificial tricks of the stage but it is the impassioned vivacity of the church and the capacity of one who feels intensely his subject and who speaks under the influence of strong emotion. The secret of animation the nature of earnestness lie as we have said in an intense feeling of the subject of discourse in a mind deeply impressed and a hea...

34:45 - 36:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Wrestle with the meaning of biblical words and lines of argument.

Just as one never despises the mother who gave birth, believers should never despise the Word of God, which was the womb of their spiritual birth, but appreciate it more with maturity.

The longer a Christian matures in grace, the more he understands and sings from his heart. I love not only to tell, but to hear the story. For those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.

44:24 - 44:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not regard it as an innocent suggestion if someone says that passionate, thinking preaching is not popular; tolerating such a view means giving up the means ordained of God for salvation.

God's Word is like fire to consume human pride and stubbornness, and like a hammer that breaks the hardest rock in pieces, illustrating its power to break resistant hearts.

can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him the answer is no do not I fill heaven and earth saith Jehovah I've heard what the prophets have said that prophesy lies in my name prophets came along with their prophets clothing and with a sanctified far away holy look in their eyes I've dreamed a dream that's what they say I've heard what the prophets have said lies in my name saying I'm saying in my name saying I have dreamed people already say oh tell me a dream oh boy a prophet said a dream tell me a dream how long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies...

53:14 - 54:42 Read in full sermon