Texual & Expository Sermons: Benefits & Dangers

In this part of the sermon: Martin reviews the previous lecture on topical sermons and introduces the current lecture's focus: the benefits and dangers of textual and expository sermons. He reminds the…

The textual sermon is likened to a play where the text sets the stage, providing the backdrop, props, and actors, ensuring all major components are derived from the text itself.

Well, as you brethren know, what happened last week is we really only got through the first of three divisions of our lecture in which we're attempting, having established the identity and legitimacy of the three species of sermons, we're attempting to consider the benefits and dangers of each species or the relative advantages and disadvantages. And last week we covered only the benefits and dangers of the topical or subject sermon, and now today we'll take up the dangers and benefits or advantages and disadvantages of the textual sermon, and then also and finally of the expository, that is, ...

0:03 - 1:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Learn how to break down a text of Scripture into its various parts in order to think through it in a logical way.

Pastor Nichols' communion meditations are used as an example of textual preaching aiding memory, as people can recall key texts and themes years later due to their powerful grip.

but that legitimate climate of expectancy that is present when people do not know what text of Scripture the servant of God will bring before them week by week. Then secondly, it has this benefit to the hearers, which is in that it usually provides, good footing for the memory. Generally speaking, textual preaching is done with texts that have in the very way they are stated, more than an ordinary grip upon them. And so for aiding the memories of our people, textual preaching is indeed a benefit, providing a good footing, for the memory. I'm sure that most of us who sit through the series that...

3:16 - 4:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not rob yourself and your people of the benefit that comes from working through a text which has gripped you in your own spiritual exercises.

A text that grips a preacher's soul is compared to burrs fastening to britches, impossible to shake off, illustrating the compelling nature of such passages for textual sermons.

It allows him the liberty of preaching on passages which have gripped him in an unusual way. If you are locked in to consecutive expository preaching, morning and evening, or you are locked in to a consecutive expository series in the morning and a large, broad, topical or thematic series in the evening, and you have no place for textual preaching, what do you do when in your own personal devotions there is a text of Scripture that fastens itself upon your own soul and like burrs that fasten themselves to your britches when you take a walk through the fields, you just can't shake the burrs off...

9:51 - 11:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not rob yourself and your people of the benefit that comes from working through a text which has gripped you in your own spiritual exercises.

Martin quotes Spurgeon's 'Lectures to My Students' on how a preacher knows the 'right text' – when a verse 'gives your mind a hearty grip' or 'the hook has fairly pierced you,' indicating divine leading.

What is the right text? How do you know it? We know it by the signs of a friend. When a verse gives your mind a hearty grip from which you cannot release yourself, you'll need no further direction as to your proper theme.

11:18 - 11:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not rob yourself and your people of the benefit that comes from working through a text which has gripped you in your own spiritual exercises.

Spurgeon's simile of hammering at texts until one 'crumbles at the first blow and sparkles' with 'jewels of the rarest radiance' illustrates the unexpected revelation of truth in a gripping text.

Like the fish, you nibble at many baits, but when the hook has fairly pierced you, you will wander no more. When the text gets a hold of us, we may be sure we have a hold of it and may safely deliver our souls upon it. To use another simile, you get a number of texts in your hand and try to break them up. You hammer at them with might and main, but your labor is lost.

11:35 - 12:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquire the habits of sound interpretation by focusing on the immediate and remote context of Scripture.

Martin quotes Professor Murray's term 'universe of discourse' to emphasize the importance of context in textual preaching, contrasting it with the hackneyed word 'context'.

They will not be able to understand the detail of their words by reading them, nor do they have a clear understanding of the meaning of the words they're talking about. In each of the verses in the Bible, the text has been translated from the text of the Bible to the text of the Bible, and the text of the Bible has been translated to the language of the Bible. The lecture of the Bible is in the context of the Bible. It takes the text and plunges right in without any reference to what Professor Murray called the universe of discourse.

16:23 - 16:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquire the habits of sound interpretation by focusing on the immediate and remote context of Scripture.

Martin quotes Dabney on the 'harassing doubt and hesitation which often attend the selection of an individual text,' highlighting a key danger of textual preaching and a benefit of expository preaching.

in his lectures to my students. Speaking of the advantages of expository preaching, Dabney writes, The expository method secures for the pastor sundry conveniences and advantages. One of these, not to be disdained, is that he is thus relieved of the harassing doubt and hesitation which often attend the selection of an individual text. Instead of having to read the text, having his spirits consumed for a day by this question, that is, what text shall I preach, he proceeds at once to attack the work of preparation which is laid out for him in advance.

18:27 - 19:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquire the habits of sound interpretation by focusing on the immediate and remote context of Scripture.

Martin shares his personal experience of the 'agony' of subjectivism in text selection during his early ministry, waiting for hours for an 'elect portion' of Scripture.

Another gain is it enables the preacher to embody and use many points which separately are too brief to offer a sufficient tract of thought for a whole sermon, etc. But he recognized that we would be delivered from the volume of the text. He recognized that we would be delivered from the volume of the text. He recognized that we would be delivered from the volume of the text. He recognized the vulnerability to the unnecessary agony of subjectivism. Now some of us who only preached after the textual model in our early preaching experience really know what that agony is. To wait sometimes litera...

19:12 - 20:06 Read in full sermon

Driving home: it brings both preacher and hearers into direct and immediate contact with the mind of the Spirit. The open Bible on the sacred desk is the token that both speaker and listener regard it as the ultimate standard of appea…

Expository preaching is likened to a 'play in serial,' where the stage is set from a given passage in a book, and the sermon unfolds in installments through a book or chapters.

all of the major components are taken from that section, and what we have is a play in serial. So, we have installments until we have preached through the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, or the Book of Philippians, chapters 1 through 4, etc., etc. Now, what are the benefits of the expository sermon? And you remember our definition is consecutive expository preaching. Well, you're going to see my prejudice in that we've got five benefits, all right? Five benefits to the hearers, and then four benefits to the preacher. All right, to the hearers, benefit number one. The Bible is seen in...

23:59 - 24:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Teach your people how to read the Bible for themselves by exhibiting methods of interpretation in actual use.

Martin quotes Alexander on how the expository method best communicates 'scriptural truth in its connection,' emphasizing that the Bible's logical connections are as inspired as individual statements.

Pretty much synonymous. The Bible is seen in its own native form and substance. Now, Alexander perceptively recognized this and expressed it on page 238 of his thoughts on preaching, in which he's dealing with this whole question of expository preaching, and he writes, the expository method, page 238, is best fitted to communicate the knowledge of scriptural truth in its connection. The knowledge of the Bible is something more than the knowledge of its isolated sentences. This logical connection between the various statements is no less the result of inspiration than is any individual statemen...

25:11 - 26:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Teach your people how to read the Bible for themselves by exhibiting methods of interpretation in actual use.

Martin quotes Taylor on how expository preaching brings preacher and hearers into 'direct and immediate contact with the mind of the Spirit,' with the open Bible as the ultimate standard.

I'm thus brought naturally to the consideration of the advantages which are connected with this method of ministerial instruction, and among these I mention first the fact that it brings both preacher and hearers into direct and immediate contact with the mind of the Spirit. The open Bible on the sacred desk is the token that both speaker and listener regard it as the ultimate standard of appeal. Thank you. Then he goes on to say that in both the topical and the individual textual, it's much easier to depart from the mind of the Spirit as embodied in the words of Scripture. And the second grea...

27:06 - 28:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Teach your people how to read the Bible for themselves by exhibiting methods of interpretation in actual use.

Martin quotes Dabney on the pastor's duty to teach people 'how to read the Bible for themselves' through public discourses, exhibiting methods of interpretation by example.

They need to have increasing confidence that it is the book for the people. As Dabney says, on page 81 of his excellent treatise on sacred rhetoric, a prime object of pastoral teaching is to teach the people how to read the Bible for themselves. A sealed book cannot be interesting. If it be read without the key of comprehension, it cannot be instructed.

28:40 - 29:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Instruct your people by example not only how to interpret the scriptures, but how to apply them, engaging in 'uses' of doctrine.

Martin uses Proverbs 5 as an example of a graphic passage on marital love and fidelity that expository preaching naturally introduces, whereas a topical sermon on sexual purity might only allude to it.

Unsavory but necessary subjects are naturally and inevitably introduced. Unsavory but necessary subjects are naturally and inevitably introduced. Just a general sense of the word, of reticence to touch certain subjects of a delicate nature, of a very controversial nature, are forced upon us in consecutive expository preaching as they are in the consecutive reading of the scriptures. I doubt I would ever have preached on the text in Proverbs 5, preached on purity and marital love and fidelity as a means of purity, but it's not likely that you would say rejoice in the wife of thy youth, let her ...

30:56 - 32:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Instruct your people by example not only how to interpret the scriptures, but how to apply them, engaging in 'uses' of doctrine.

Martin quotes Dabney on how the expository method enables the pastor to introduce 'delicate subjects of temptation and duty and those obnoxious doctrines and rebukes' without offense, such as polygamy, divorce, or predestination.

The expository method enables the pastor to introduce without offense those delicate subjects of temptation and duty and those obnoxious doctrines and rebukes, which on the opposite method always incurs so much odium. He calls certain doctrines and duty and rebukes obnoxious. The fragmentary preacher will find it very difficult and delicate thing to request his people to give him the Sabbath hour for the discussion of polygamy, divorce, and other sins against chastity. The taste of many will be disgusted. They will ask, what foul taint does our pastor suspect in us that he supposes these offen...

32:53 - 33:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure your exposition is so clear that listeners feel they could have seen the truth themselves, rather than being amazed at your unique insights.

Martin shares his personal experience of forgetting his own sermon outlines a week later, using it as a humbling example to illustrate that the goal is for people to retain the 'solid marble of divine truth,' not the homiletical scaffolding.

you tried to have headings that were easy to remember, because you won't be able to remember a week later. You want something to humble you? In consecutive expository preaching, when you sit down to prepare next week's sermon, try to repeat your outline from the week before without looking at your notes. I find it's one of the best things to keep me very, very realistic in what I expect from my people. Here, I've spent a whole day's work over, and I can't even remember the outline many times. But I can go back and think my way through the passage, and feel that the understanding gleaned is wit...

38:12 - 39:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure your exposition is so clear that listeners feel they could have seen the truth themselves, rather than being amazed at your unique insights.

Martin quotes Dabney on how the expository method is 'naturally adapted to sustain the interest of common minds in that it provides them with frequent and easy transitions of subject,' unlike professionally trained minds.

And one of the great benefits then of consecutive expository preaching is that there is that constant variety and change that encourages sustained interest in your people. Listen to Dabney on page 87.

40:01 - 40:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Put yourself in the Lord's hands when preaching difficult passages, trusting His providence to guide you through the consequences.

Martin quotes Alexander, who recounts how the eloquent Summerfield turned to simple exposition to throw the preacher 'into the shade,' and Dr. Mason's counsel against choosing a man who always preaches on 'insulated texts' to prevent substituting the preacher for the Word of God.

involves that. And so we have no problem with eloquence, oratory, when it is the vehicle of making men feel the weight and the pressure of God's own holy word. But now Alexander recognized the benefit of consecutive expository preaching because he lived in a day when there were men who were eloquent and who could have abused that gift and that cultivated art of eloquence. Such a mode of preaching, 251 at the bottom of Alexander's thoughts on preaching, is less adapted than its opposite to make the speaker a separate object of regard and might be selected by many on this very account. It is now...

49:46 - 50:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Use good judgment in summarizing sections and avoid excessive detail to prevent weariness and tedium in expository preaching.

Martin references a story, attributed to Spurgeon, about a preacher who started with 800 people preaching through Job and ended with a handful, illustrating the danger of weariness in expository preaching if not done with good judgment.

But there is a weariness that can set in to good, godly, spiritually-minded people. And this is particularly true for those who are not in the spiritual world. going to preach through. I think it's Spurgeon who makes reference to that preacher who started his ministry with 800 people preaching through the book of Job. And when he got to chapter 42 at the end, his congregation was down to what? How many? A handful? Well, he had preached through the book of Job, but he preached the congregation into nothing. They just became weary because there are certain motifs and certain forms of literary ex...

56:35 - 57:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray and seek the Holy Spirit's guidance in sermon selection, even in consecutive exposition, to ensure you are preaching the word your people truly need.

Martin quotes Jeremiah 17:9 ('Cursed be he that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm') to warn against the subtle danger of a preacher becoming less dependent on the Holy Spirit in sermon selection, presuming the next passage is always the right one.

I have found myself being brought up short many a time when it came time to prepare the next message in a consecutive expository sermon opening up the text, beginning my study, lifting up my heart in prayer to God that he'd give me light and understanding, but then saying, wait a minute, what right do you have to assume that that's the passage you ought to be preaching? Don't you think you ought to at least pray, Lord, all things being equal, this is what I ought to do, but is there some need that I'm not aware of? Lord, help me not to come presumptuously assuming that simply because this next...

64:38 - 65:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Vary your preaching method with topical series to prevent mental and emotional exhaustion and homiletical ruts, returning to consecutive ministry with freshness.

Martin refers to Dabney on the danger of a preacher becoming 'paralyzed by his own labors' through mental exhaustion and homiletical rut if he doesn't vary his method from consecutive expository preaching.

The preacher can become paralyzed by his labors if he doesn't vary his method. A man committed to consecutive expository preaching week in, week out, Sunday mornings, Sunday night, can become mentally and emotionally, intellectually sterile through the sheer pressure and the lack of variety in that kind of preaching. Dabney even makes reference to this on page 90. Page 90.

66:10 - 66:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Vary your preaching method with topical series to prevent mental and emotional exhaustion and homiletical ruts, returning to consecutive ministry with freshness.

Martin uses Dallas Seminary's approach to expository preaching as a 'classic example' of mistaking a running commentary on the text for true preaching, which lacks the prophetic and applicatory edge.

He can easily mistake a running commentary on the text for true preaching. I don't mean to be unkind when I say it, but the view of expository preaching reflected over the years by a place like Dallas Seminary is the classic example of this. The average Dallas Seminary graduate who gives himself to consecutive expository preaching as he's taught to do it in Dallas does not know the difference between a running commentary on the text and expository preaching. This was, you see, the great concern of that homiletics professor.

68:25 - 69:05 Read in full sermon