Doing the Work of an Evangelist in Preaching, Part 2

The point: When delivering evangelistic thrusts, have a present pressure upon your spirit regarding the immediate necessity and urgency of the truths conveyed.

This analogy contrasts discussing fire insurance at an appointed time with being awakened by smoke and seeing a neighbor's house on fire. It illustrates the difference between presenting the gospel as a contractual arrangement and preaching it with passionate urgency to rescue people from immediate danger.

As we preach and look out upon our people. Well, if we do, will be all the difference in the world that there is between going to a neighbor at an appointed time to discuss with him the availability of fire insurance for his house, and being awakened at three o'clock in the morning by the smell of smoke, and seeing that your neighbor's house is on fire, and yet, no windows are open, no doors are open, you have reason to believe everyone is in that house and about to be charred. Now, is there any difference in the way you'd deal with your neighbor? In one, you are giving out objective informati...

25:05 - 25:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Lay the claims of the law and gospel upon consciences with an assured sense of the ultimate authority behind the truths and your position as being sent by the Sovereign.

Martin recounts an incident where he publicly demanded attention from a young woman preening her hair during a sermon. When challenged, he asserted his authority as a 'sent one' of Christ, demonstrating the assured sense of divine authority behind the message.

And this element is vital in all preaching, but particularly when we would lay the claims of the law and the gospel upon the consciences of men. We must, we must do so with the assured sense of the ultimate authority that stands above and behind and over those truths and our position as being sent by the sovereign in conveying them. I shall never forget that incident in the Christian college several years ago when I began to preach the first morning and the young woman sat up in the balcony preening her hair and I waited to get her attention and when I didn't, I had the temerity to point to he...

28:26 - 29:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Drawing from Paul's experience in 1 Corinthians 2, Martin argues that the evangelist's disposition must include a sense of weakness, fear, and trembling due to the active blinding…

This example describes how a natively timid man, convinced of God's authority in his message, undergoes a 'total metamorphosis' in the pulpit, exhibiting a 'ragged edge of boldness' that is otherwise absent from his personality, illustrating the power of divine commission.

Men who by temperament out of the pulpit are backward and retiring and shy, but they understand and undergo nothing short of a total metamorphosis of their entire personality when they stand to preach. Why? It's because this truth is victim.

31:07 - 31:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate evangelistic passion through prayer, meditation, and holy soliloquy, bringing near the day of judgment and viewing people as those who will stand before God.

Martin suggests a 'holy soliloquy' where a preacher imagines this sermon is his 'last legacy to a dying world,' prompting reflection on what and how he would speak, to cultivate evangelistic passion.

apart from these realities percolating through the soul. And I say it's to be done by prayer, by meditation, by holy soliloquy, talking to yourself, tell yourself every Lord's Day, this may be the last time I ever speak in my Master's name if He'd reveal to me that this would be indeed my last legacy to a dying world. What would I say? How would I say it?

36:22 - 36:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate evangelistic passion through prayer, meditation, and holy soliloquy, bringing near the day of judgment and viewing people as those who will stand before God.

During the collection, the preacher is encouraged to look at his congregation and imagine them standing before God in a short time, fostering a disposition of urgency and concern.

By holy soliloquy, talk to yourself. Bring near the day of judgment. Sitting upon the platform while the collection is being taken, look out upon your people and enter into soliloquy with your own soul. Look upon them as those who in a short time are going to be are going to stand before their God.

36:52 - 37:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Submit to every discipline that brings you to more conscious weakness, recognizing that God uses such means to perfect Christ's strength in you.

Martin illustrates how God sovereignly makes preachers 'consciously weak' by cutting into their preparation time (e.g., a distressed sheep needing ministry, a sick child), forcing them to rely on His strength rather than their own competence.

may tabernacle over me may spread its tent over me that I may be intended in the power of Christ and he said that will be in the context of conscious weakness we don't like to be weak so what will God do all those hours you blocked out to do that kind of final preparation that would have meant the difference between a rough axe hewn sermon and a well sanded smooth polished sermon God will bring some distressed soul and you're ministering to one of your sheep and you come with such felt weakness he said only if I'd had three more hours I feel I have a handle on this

49:04 - 49:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Make evident your desire to spend and be spent for the salvation of your hearers, giving not only the gospel but your very soul.

Martin describes the feeling of being 'rung out' over the people in evangelistic preaching, where 'something goes out of me that will never be put back again,' likening it to having 'the blood of your soul spattered upon them,' to convey the cost of deep pastoral attachment.

for their salvation. And brethren, it is that aspect that I find when I must go and do evangelistic preaching, I find a recoil, because I know that when I'm asked to come and preach evangelistically in a concentrated way for four, five, six, seven services in a row, there's a recoil in me because I know if God does what I pray that he will do, something goes out of me that will never be put back again. That I must be willing to have God ring me out over the people and take the frail humanity and ring it out over the souls of men.

67:16 - 67:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: All that He's determined to hear His voice through my voice are going to hear. They're going to hear.

Using the imagery from 2 Corinthians 2, Martin describes God 'sniffing' every time a gospel preacher preaches, and being 'pleased' when He 'smells His Son' in the sermons, regardless of the hearers' response, illustrating God's satisfaction in faithful proclamation.

And He is pleased. We are a sweet savor of Christ unto God. Again, the imagery is overwhelming. God is sniffing every time a gospel preacher is preaching.

75:21 - 75:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid crippling discouragement when you appear unsuccessful, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Martin shares an anecdote of a woman who approached him years later, recounting her conversion after hearing him preach at a wedding. This illustrates that labor is 'not in vain in the Lord,' even when immediate fruit is unseen, preventing crippling discouragement.

In due season we shall reap in the work of the Lord. If we faint not. One of the things I didn't tell you that it's appropriate to put in here about that ministry down there in Piscataway a few weeks ago. A woman came up to me after the service beaming all over.

79:13 - 79:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Have no carnal pride when success is granted, remembering that God alone gives the increase.

An old woman's warning to a young preacher, 'Beware of the demon of discouragement,' is quoted to highlight the destructive nature of discouragement in ministry.

And therefore, I will not be crippled with discouragement. Discouragement is one of the most crippling, paralyzing things in the world. And, an old woman said to a young preacher when he came into the church, a wise old woman took him aside and said, young man, beware of the demon of discouragement. Beware of the demon of discouragement.

80:11 - 80:31 Read in full sermon