Illuminating Devices in Preaching

The point: Use legitimate illuminating devices as aids to effective proclamation, explanation, and application, recognizing them as helpers to open up and apply the word of God.

If a sermon is biblical truth (reinforced concrete), then illuminating devices are the holes that let light into the structure, making it clear.

Now if the sermon is constructed of the reinforced concrete of biblical truth, then these devices, illuminating devices, are the holes which let light in to the structure. Now in the axiom, I've used a qualifying word, legitimate. Now what do I mean by that? Well, not everything which would illuminate and clarify would be legitimate in any given sermon.

2:50 - 3:19 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes.

Blakey states that illustrations are like stepping stones, enabling the preacher to guide hearers along paths they otherwise couldn't follow, and lending bright hues to somber subjects.

Dealing with the whole subject of illustration, he says, the capacity of the human mind to appreciate resemblances and contrasts is one of its most invariable characteristics. And it may readily be turned by the preacher to valuable account. It enables him to lay stepping stones along paths where otherwise he could not hope to conduct the larger portion of his hearers. It lends bright hues to subjects which would otherwise be too somber, and catches the attention of the audience.

8:39 - 9:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes.

Dr. Guthrie resolved to compel his hearers to listen and, observing that illustrations captured attention, cultivated this skill to become a master of illustration, riveting his audience.

In cases innumerable, would be sure to be lost. It is in this light that we speak of it now. When ordained to the charge of his first congregation, the late Dr. Guthrie determined, that whatever he might fail in, he would compel his hearers to listen to him.

9:16 - 9:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes.

The bridge from the known to the unknown in learning is explanation, and illuminating devices are its building materials, making the transition richer and more effective.

all of these things, when the materials of the bridge are made up of that, you'll find more people landing from the shore of the unknown to the known than if the materials are made up of pure, unadorned, blunt statements. Again, here, as in so many other aspects, of the work of the ministry, in general, and in preaching in particular, there is that delicate interplay, and, coming together, the confluences, confluescence, of the natural and of the spiritual. It is a simple fact of human experience, one so patent that it was pagan Arabians who coined the proverb, he is the most powerful speaker ...

10:50 - 12:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes.

The proverb 'He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes' highlights the power of vivid language to engage the audience's imagination and attention.

all of these things, when the materials of the bridge are made up of that, you'll find more people landing from the shore of the unknown to the known than if the materials are made up of pure, unadorned, blunt statements. Again, here, as in so many other aspects, of the work of the ministry, in general, and in preaching in particular, there is that delicate interplay, and, coming together, the confluences, confluescence, of the natural and of the spiritual. It is a simple fact of human experience, one so patent that it was pagan Arabians who coined the proverb, he is the most powerful speaker ...

10:50 - 12:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes.

Jeremiah's prophecies used object lessons like the marred girdle, basket of figs, and potter's vessel to make his message concrete and understandable.

The scriptural mode of preaching. If we are to preach after the fashion of the biblical preachers, then we ought to use these illuminating devices in our sermons as a general rule. For instance, what would the prophecy of Jeremiah be if stripped of its object lessons of the marred girdle, the basket of figs, and the potter's vessel? What would Hosea's message to backsliding and unfaithful Israel be if stripped of the extended analogy of the unfaithful wife of the prophet?

12:06 - 12:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes.

Hosea's message to Israel used the extended analogy of his unfaithful wife to illustrate Israel's backsliding and unfaithfulness to God.

The scriptural mode of preaching. If we are to preach after the fashion of the biblical preachers, then we ought to use these illuminating devices in our sermons as a general rule. For instance, what would the prophecy of Jeremiah be if stripped of its object lessons of the marred girdle, the basket of figs, and the potter's vessel? What would Hosea's message to backsliding and unfaithful Israel be if stripped of the extended analogy of the unfaithful wife of the prophet?

12:06 - 12:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes.

Christ's preaching was filled with parables and verbal imagery like lost sheep, lost coins, wayward sons, and houses on sand or rock, making his messages vivid and memorable.

What would Isaiah's message be if denuded of its vivid poetic imagery, its flights of breathtaking analogy and eloquence? And when we turn to the recorded sermons of our Lord, can we even begin to imagine the flatness the insipidity, the insipid nature, the saltlessness of the recorded messages of Christ if we strip them of such things as lost sheep, lost coins, wayward sons, pleading widows, carefree birds, beans and specks, houses built on sand or on rock, millstones around the neck, vine branches, sheep and shepherd, mats and camels, seed and sower, bride and bridegroom, prevailing mothers,...

12:49 - 14:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes.

Blakey emphasizes that Christ's discourses abound in illustrations, from the Sermon on the Mount to his most solemn periods, demonstrating their pervasive use.

He comes to summarize his polemic for the use of illustrations and analogies and parable and metaphor, and he says, Our Lord's discourses abound in these things. His parables are illustrations all through. The Sermon on the Mount was hardly started before we find the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the city set on a hill, the candle under a bushel, and the candle on the candlestick. In their most solemn and impressive periods also, Christ's discourses are pointed with illustrations.

14:12 - 14:50 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes.

Even in the agony of Gethsemane, Christ spoke of his sufferings as a 'cup,' showing his natural inclination to use figures of speech.

The Sermon on the Mount fills us with an overwhelming sense of the retributions of the day of doom by the illustration of the house on the rock and the house on the sand. The parable of the Last Judgment makes a similar impression by the illustration of the shepherd dividing his sheep from the goats. Nothing could repress the outflow of illustration from the mind of Jesus. In the deepest agony of the garden, his sufferings were spoken of as a cup.

14:50 - 15:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is the most powerful speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes.

Christ's farewell discourse used imagery like the house of many mansions, the vine and branches, and a woman in travail to convey profound truths.

The farewell discourse begins with the house of many mansions, has for its central subject the vine and the branches, and near its end introduces the woman in travail having sorrow when her hour is come, but after the child is born, forgetting her anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. Probably it is not less instructive in another connection that there are no figures and hardly any illustrations in the intercessory prayer. When the address was to God, they were not needed. He's speaking of John 17.

15:21 - 15:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin argues for the desirability of illuminating devices based on three considerations: a God-given law of learning (proceeding from known to unknown), the scriptural mode of…

Paul's epistles are rich with imagery such as the slave master, the son under tutelage, and the son come to full age, clarifying complex theological concepts.

I'm sorry, then that goes on to give another polemic for this. Well, you find the same emphasis in Ryle in his treatment on simplicity in preaching in the collection of essays, The Upper Room, page 48, where he summarizes from the life of our Lord the profuse use of these illuminating devices in preaching. And when we move on to the epistles, even where you find closely reasoned argument, the argument is again and again suffused with these devices. What would Paul's epistles be without the slave master imagery, without the son under tutelage and the son who has come to full age and full accept...

16:25 - 17:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin argues for the desirability of illuminating devices based on three considerations: a God-given law of learning (proceeding from known to unknown), the scriptural mode of…

Paul's pastoral concern is expressed through images of a nursing mother and a good father, making his affection and care tangible.

I'm sorry, then that goes on to give another polemic for this. Well, you find the same emphasis in Ryle in his treatment on simplicity in preaching in the collection of essays, The Upper Room, page 48, where he summarizes from the life of our Lord the profuse use of these illuminating devices in preaching. And when we move on to the epistles, even where you find closely reasoned argument, the argument is again and again suffused with these devices. What would Paul's epistles be without the slave master imagery, without the son under tutelage and the son who has come to full age and full accept...

16:25 - 17:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin argues for the desirability of illuminating devices based on three considerations: a God-given law of learning (proceeding from known to unknown), the scriptural mode of…

The book of Revelation uses extended imaginative descriptions with horses, dragons, fire, smoke, thrones, thunder, and lightning to set forth Christ's ultimate conquest.

I'm sorry, then that goes on to give another polemic for this. Well, you find the same emphasis in Ryle in his treatment on simplicity in preaching in the collection of essays, The Upper Room, page 48, where he summarizes from the life of our Lord the profuse use of these illuminating devices in preaching. And when we move on to the epistles, even where you find closely reasoned argument, the argument is again and again suffused with these devices. What would Paul's epistles be without the slave master imagery, without the son under tutelage and the son who has come to full age and full accept...

16:25 - 17:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Labor at suffusing your sermons with illuminating devices if you desire them to be useful and clear to your people throughout your ministry.

Stuart argues that abstract truth must be translated into concrete truth through illustration to impact the average mind, citing Christ's example as decisive.

But the men of whom we have some record, who preached effectively to their own generation, whose sermons live, if they are in print, and minister to us today, are the men who did not think it beneath their dignity to use these devices in preaching and to use them often profusely. One of the great blessings again of the Puritan literature is that in spite of their prolixity, they ooze with anecdote, analogy, and the other tools of imaginative preaching. Stuart, in his little book on preaching, speaking of this principle, says, We may not possess one-tenth of George Whitefield's dramatic imagina...

19:33 - 20:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Labor at suffusing your sermons with illuminating devices if you desire them to be useful and clear to your people throughout your ministry.

Instead of speaking abstractly about importunate prayer, Jesus showed a man shamelessly hammering at his neighbor's door at midnight, making the concept vivid.

Surely our Lord's example is decisive here. Jesus did not speak of the efficacy of importunate prayer. He showed us a man, shamelessly hammering at his neighbor's door at midnight. He did not say that wrong personal relationships were inimical to religious reality.

20:53 - 21:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Labor at suffusing your sermons with illuminating devices if you desire them to be useful and clear to your people throughout your ministry.

Instead of abstractly stating that wrong relationships harm religious reality, Jesus advised leaving a gift at the altar to reconcile with a brother first.

He said it would be wise to leave our gift before the altar, go and make peace with our brother, then come back and offer our gift. When a certain jurist, an expert in definitions, demanded, Who is my neighbor? The answer was, A certain man went down to Jericho. And the story of the good Samaritan, truth made concrete, will find a way past many a door, where abstractions knock in vain.

21:12 - 21:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Labor at suffusing your sermons with illuminating devices if you desire them to be useful and clear to your people throughout your ministry.

When asked 'Who is my neighbor?', Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, making the abstract concept of neighborly love concrete and impactful.

He said it would be wise to leave our gift before the altar, go and make peace with our brother, then come back and offer our gift. When a certain jurist, an expert in definitions, demanded, Who is my neighbor? The answer was, A certain man went down to Jericho. And the story of the good Samaritan, truth made concrete, will find a way past many a door, where abstractions knock in vain.

21:12 - 21:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Labor at suffusing your sermons with illuminating devices if you desire them to be useful and clear to your people throughout your ministry.

The speaker uses the metaphor 'Truth made concrete will find a way past many a door, where abstractions knock in vain' to illustrate the power of concrete truth.

And you see the very imagery. He's illustrating it. Rather than saying, Truth will find entrance where mere abstract statement won't, he uses a figure. Truth made concrete will find a way past many a door, where abstractions knock in vain.

21:40 - 21:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Labor at suffusing your sermons with illuminating devices if you desire them to be useful and clear to your people throughout your ministry.

Broadus emphasizes the 'beyond expression' importance of illustration in preaching, calling it the best and often only means of explaining and proving religious truth to the popular mind.

And that certainly is illustrated in the history of preaching. Broadus, summarizing some of his own views on the subject, says, on page 228, The importance of illustration in preaching is beyond expression. In numerous cases, it is our best means of explaining religious truth, and often, to the popular mind, our only means of proving it. And then he goes on to give other benefits that come, and he says, Among the Christian preachers, there are preachers of different ages, who have been most remarkable for affluence and felicity of illustration.

21:59 - 22:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the passion for making truth plain and riveting it on the minds of your people drive the use of all illuminating devices, ensuring they serve this great end.

An author states that 'reasons are the pillars of the fabric of a sermon, but similitudes are the windows which give the best lights,' highlighting the clarifying role of illustrations.

One author has said that reasons are the pillars of the fabric of a sermon, but similitudes are the windows which give the best lights. Now if this fact is before us, we'll have the key to the answer to such questions as, how much shall I illustrate in any given sermon? What illustrations are appropriate in this situation? What kind of imagery will be proper here?

25:25 - 25:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid storytelling or flights of imagery that have no basis in exegesis, do not clarify truth, or merely attract attention to yourself.

Martin used analogies of a football coach and a military commander to clarify the structure of Philippians 2:1-4 for his congregation, setting a framework for exposition.

As I wrestled with the matter, how can I make plain to people who are not trained in thinking logically to whom the words, framework of exhortation, substance of exhortation don't mean anything? They're not taught and they're not trained and disciplined to think in that language. How can I make plain the structure of Philippians 2, 1 to 4? And I said, well, there's some who've got an athletic background and all the rest so I'll come at them with that illustration of the coach.

28:58 - 29:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Aim for sermons that are 'pleasantly profitable,' making them interesting and enjoyable for hearers without becoming mere pastime.

Spurgeon advises not to deny people 'the salt of parable with the meat of doctrine,' as imagery provides pleasure and allows hearers to rest and prepare for deeper exposition.

That is not carnal. God has made us so that we gravitate to the pleasurable and we have an aversion to the unpleasant. Spurgeon, speaking to his students, understood this well, or I should say understood it well and in speaking to his students articulated this principle well. He says on page 350, Let us not deny our people the salt of parable with the meat of doctrine.

32:27 - 33:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Aim for sermons that are 'pleasantly profitable,' making them interesting and enjoyable for hearers without becoming mere pastime.

Spurgeon compares an apt simile in a sermon to a candle lit in a dark third-class carriage, which lights up the whole matter and gladdens every heart, including children's.

Our congregations hear us with pleasure when we give them a fair measure of imagery. When an anecdote is being told, they rest, take breath and give play to their imaginations and thus prepare themselves for the sterner work which lies before them in listening to our profounder expositions. Riding in a third-class carriage some years ago in the eastern counties, we have been for a long time without a lamp and when a traveler lighted a candle it was pleasant to see how all eyes turned that way and rejoiced in the light. Such is frequently the effect of an apt simile in the midst of a sermon.

33:00 - 33:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Aim for sermons that are 'pleasantly profitable,' making them interesting and enjoyable for hearers without becoming mere pastime.

Ryle states that if a preacher says 'now I'll tell you a story,' all who are not asleep will 'prick up their ears and listen,' demonstrating the attention-getting power of stories.

metaphor or analogy will leave our people dull the use of these devices will cause them to perk up their ears and to rivet their attention upon that which we are about to say. Let me give you a quote from Ryle if you've not read his treatise Simplicity in Preaching or if you've not read it for a while I commend it to you it's one of those I try to go back over and read periodically Ryle says on page 48 of the Upper Room if you pause in your sermon and say now I'll tell you a story I engage that all who are not too fast to sleep will prick up their ears and listen. People like similes illustrat...

36:02 - 37:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Aim for sermons that are 'pleasantly profitable,' making them interesting and enjoyable for hearers without becoming mere pastime.

Ryle quotes the Arabian proverb, 'He is the best speaker... who can turn the ear into an eye,' emphasizing the visual and engaging nature of effective communication.

metaphor or analogy will leave our people dull the use of these devices will cause them to perk up their ears and to rivet their attention upon that which we are about to say. Let me give you a quote from Ryle if you've not read his treatise Simplicity in Preaching or if you've not read it for a while I commend it to you it's one of those I try to go back over and read periodically Ryle says on page 48 of the Upper Room if you pause in your sermon and say now I'll tell you a story I engage that all who are not too fast to sleep will prick up their ears and listen. People like similes illustrat...

36:02 - 37:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Aim for sermons that are 'pleasantly profitable,' making them interesting and enjoyable for hearers without becoming mere pastime.

Spurgeon, sensing a hot and heavy morning, decided to use more illustrations to keep his drowsy audience awake, demonstrating their function as attention-getting devices.

page 404 Now I thought as it was a very hot and heavy morning that I had better give you a number of illustrations lest anyone should be inclined to go to sleep anyone should be drowsy will his next neighbor just nudge him a little bit by accident for it may be as well while we are here to be awake I'm sorry for it may be as well while we are here to be awake especially with such a subject on hand as this. The illustrations will be such as have been commonly used and perhaps I may be able to give one or two of my own. Now here either he knew on Saturday when he was preparing his sermon for tha...

37:31 - 38:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Aim for sermons that are 'pleasantly profitable,' making them interesting and enjoyable for hearers without becoming mere pastime.

Nathan's parable of the poor man and his one ewe lamb stirred David's anger and then convicted his conscience, leading to his repentance.

can often be used with great effect in application not only in exercise but also in explanation but in application and of course the classic example in the Old Testament is what Nathan and David you can't think of illustrations being used to stab the conscience without thinking of Nathan's parable of the you and her little lamb you cannot think of that whole situation or this whole concept without thinking of that powerful vision of how David's slumbering conscience that had apparently resisted all of the ordinary means of grace and all of his general knowledge of God and of his ways but when ...

39:56 - 41:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Aim for sermons that are 'pleasantly profitable,' making them interesting and enjoyable for hearers without becoming mere pastime.

Jesus used parables that incensed the Pharisees, leading them to condemn themselves and revealing that the kingdom would be taken from them.

can often be used with great effect in application not only in exercise but also in explanation but in application and of course the classic example in the Old Testament is what Nathan and David you can't think of illustrations being used to stab the conscience without thinking of Nathan's parable of the you and her little lamb you cannot think of that whole situation or this whole concept without thinking of that powerful vision of how David's slumbering conscience that had apparently resisted all of the ordinary means of grace and all of his general knowledge of God and of his ways but when ...

39:56 - 41:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You've sought to open up a truth by simple plain statement by the explanation of words by the demonstration of parallel scriptural principles and precepts and then you seek to rivet it all with one telling illustration a…

An illustration is like an 'unusual dress' for a truth; when people recall the dress, they make their way backward to the truth it adorned, aiding memory.

to a generation bringing forth the fruits thereof they signed their own death knell they signed their own death warrant sounded their own death knell and there is that tremendously powerful and albeit secondary function of these devices and that is what I've called the conscience stabbing contribution and then fourthly but not least in importance is the memory aiding contribution another hyphenated word the memory aiding contribution you've sought to open up a truth by simple plain statement by the explanation of words by the demonstration of parallel scriptural principles and precepts and the...

41:25 - 42:53 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You've sought to open up a truth by simple plain statement by the explanation of words by the demonstration of parallel scriptural principles and precepts and then you seek to rivet it all with one telling illustration a…

Broadus notes that illustrations greatly assist memory, as good anecdotes are more easily remembered than arguments, and can recall the train of thought.

they made the association with what was in it and that is no little factor in the desirability of using these devices the memory aiding now Broadus was very conscious of this in dealing with the desirability of these devices Broadus said they greatly assist the memory of the hearer in retaining the lesson of the sermon page 228 good anecdotes and illustrations are far more easily remembered than bright sayings and trains of argument it is not an uncommon experience with preachers to find that their sentences and profoundest observations easily slip the memory while some apparently trivial anec...

42:53 - 44:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You've sought to open up a truth by simple plain statement by the explanation of words by the demonstration of parallel scriptural principles and precepts and then you seek to rivet it all with one telling illustration a…

Martin used the analogy of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to help a four-year-old understand a sermon's context, demonstrating how illustrations make concepts stick in memory.

and people are able to hold the thing together I was so tickled when one of the parents told me that a youngster who's only about four years of age was able to understand the context by that sandwich illustration and that really stuck because this particular person really loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so when I talked about the slice of bread coming down from above and the one from beneath and the peanut butter and jelly in the middle that really stuck with this little one and the father told me that it was evident that they just were not tickled with the idea in the technical sense...

44:21 - 45:51 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have a gift for imaginative description, keep a tight rein upon it due to its inherent dangers.

Lloyd-Jones recounts the story of Robert Roberts, a Welsh preacher with a great gift of imagination, to illustrate the power and potential pitfalls of vivid descriptive preaching.

Lloyd-Jones said, Lloyd-Jones gives a classic example that I do want to read. I know many of you have not read this, and I'm hoping this will whet your appetite to read this. Let me relate to page 237. Another authentic story is giving this caution. There was a preacher in Wales at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century called Robert Roberts. He also had this great gift of imagination. If anything, even more so than did Whitefield. He was preaching one day in a very crowded chapel and again was dealing with this same point about the sinner not heeding warnings, enjoying himself ...

48:46 - 49:36 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have a gift for imaginative description, keep a tight rein upon it due to its inherent dangers.

Robert Roberts used the vivid illustration of people basking on a promontory of rocks, oblivious to the rising tide that slowly encircles them, to warn sinners about ignoring coming judgment.

Lloyd-Jones said, Lloyd-Jones gives a classic example that I do want to read. I know many of you have not read this, and I'm hoping this will whet your appetite to read this. Let me relate to page 237. Another authentic story is giving this caution. There was a preacher in Wales at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century called Robert Roberts. He also had this great gift of imagination. If anything, even more so than did Whitefield. He was preaching one day in a very crowded chapel and again was dealing with this same point about the sinner not heeding warnings, enjoying himself ...

48:46 - 49:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not use any illuminating devices unless they clarify truth to the average hearer, being sensitive to the context and comprehension level of your audience.

Martin quotes an extremely verbose and obscure commentary on Ephesians 3:10 as a negative example of using language and imagery that fails to clarify truth for the average hearer.

average hearer and this is very important and this is where you see you can't make hard fast rules and i want to illustrate it from your own ranks you've got to be sensitive to the situation the context in which you are preaching don't use any of these devices unless they clarify truth to the average hearer now let me give you a negative illustration here's someone who's writing a commentary in the book of ephesians and he is seeking to illustrate to elucidate to clarify the text to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the ch...

53:05 - 54:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Never use illuminating devices as mere filler; preach a solid, well-trimmed sermon even if it's shorter, rather than padding it with unnecessary content.

Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress' used extended analogies embedded in the common culture of 17th-century England, requiring footnotes for later generations, illustrating the need for culturally relevant illustrations.

And don't use any of these devices unless you have reason to believe they will clarify the truth to the average hearer. Sometimes you'll be reading in the old writers and they will use analogies and similes that don't register because they really did register in the context of their own generation. And there's a sense in which any man's writings that would relate to any culture and any generation at any given time really were not meeting the need of the context in which they were originally given. This is why some of the things in Bunyan demand footnotes. Because Bunyan the Tinker was taking h...

58:42 - 59:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Never use illuminating devices as mere filler; preach a solid, well-trimmed sermon even if it's shorter, rather than padding it with unnecessary content.

A hamburger stretched with breadcrumbs is used to illustrate a sermon filled with filler, emphasizing that quality (real meat) is better than quantity (mush added for size).

All of you have had a hamburger that was stretched a little bit too much with breadcrumbs. You'd much rather it had a smaller hamburger that was real meat than that mush that was added to make it bigger. They weren't fooling anyone. Your taste buds could immediately sense that that was added simply for size and certainly not for taste and not necessarily for nutriment. Well, Phelps, who has the largest treatment, one of the longest treatments of this whole subject, speaking to this issue says on page 440,

60:30 - 61:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Never use illuminating devices as mere filler; preach a solid, well-trimmed sermon even if it's shorter, rather than padding it with unnecessary content.

Phelps warns against excessive illustration as a form of digression, noting the temptation to illustrate for beauty, novelty, rhetorical display, or entertainment rather than necessity.

digression, he's warning against digression in preaching, may take the form of excessive illustration. The difficulties of composition must have already disclosed to you the temptation which a preacher experiences to illustrate for other purposes than to meet the necessities of the thing in hand. We're tempted to illustrate for the sake of the illustration, its beauty, its novelty, or its eccentricity. We're tempted to illustrate for the sake of rhetorical display, display of ingenuity, of learning, or originality.

61:08 - 61:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Never use illuminating devices as mere filler; preach a solid, well-trimmed sermon even if it's shorter, rather than padding it with unnecessary content.

A popular lecturer whose passion for anecdote degenerated into 'anecdotage' is cited as an example of illustrations multiplying to the point where they become mere jocular diversions, improving digestion more than culture.

We're tempted to illustrate for the entertainment of an audience, and of course that's the curse of much modern preaching. We're tempted to fill in with anecdote for the sake of the story, not because the thing in hand demands the anecdote. You all know a certain popular lecturer whose passion for anecdote is so great as to have degenerated into what De Quincey calls anecdotage. Illustrative stories have so multiplied in number that now the larger portion of the time spent in listening to him is devoted to laughter at his jocular, and then he uses a big word here, that means his jocular divers...

61:39 - 62:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to employ illuminating devices in ordinary conversation to cultivate a natural, conversational preaching style.

The phrase 'God tanned my hide and blessed my soul' is used as an example of culturally influenced imagery in expressing spiritual impact, highlighting how cultural background affects communication.

Someone else from another part of the country might say, Pastor, God tanned my hide and blessed my soul with that preaching this morning. Well, obviously that whole matter of the imagery of having one's hide tanned and soul blessed, grows out of a cultural perspective, and these are the things that of course will influence the way in which we use the various illuminating devices in our actual preaching. However, giving due allowance for this great diversity rising from native gift, early cultivation of mind and cultural impression, there are ways in which each of us can labor at cultivating a ...

64:24 - 65:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Labor at using illuminating devices in the instruction of your children to develop skill in creating word pictures.

Martin used the word picture 'John the Baptist did a backflip in Elizabeth's womb' to explain Luke 1:41 to his children, demonstrating how to cultivate vivid language for teaching.

used to help make our preaching clearer and to make our preaching more interesting. Then there is a second indirect way in which we can cultivate these devices, and it's what I am calling to labor at using these devices in the instruction of our children. For instance, when we were going through a portion of the Word of God dealing with the birth narrative in Luke's Gospel, and we came to that incident where it is said that the babe leaped in the womb of Mary, I'm sorry, in the womb of Elizabeth at the presence of Mary, I used the terminology with my children that John the Baptist did a backfl...

65:51 - 67:20 Read in full sermon