Relevant Truth

The Centrality of Preaching and the Axiom of Relevant Truth

0:04 The following message was delivered at the 1991 Trinity Pastors Conference held on October 20th through 24th at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. What the nurture of the inner life of the man of God is among the private duties of the ministry, the public preaching of the word of God is among his public duties. That is, it is foundational, it is central, it is the crucial and most important part of his manifold tasks as a servant of Christ.

0:49 And perhaps nowhere is that two-pronged perspective more powerfully and simply distilled than in Paul's exhortation to Timothy, Take heed unto yourself. and to thy teaching, the primary public duty. And preaching in the biblical sense of that word, preaching, I say, is the most potent weapon in the arsenal of God for dismantling the kingdom of darkness and for establishing the kingdom of God's dear Son in the hearts of men.

1:32 And it is of utmost importance. Then that we have a clear understanding of what biblical preaching is. A clear understanding of what good, spirit-owned, consistently edifying preaching is. And in making an attempt to come to some clear views as to the elements and qualities of true preaching, we are presently examining some general axioms which apply, not to the act of preaching itself, which has its own set of unique dynamics,

2:13 but rather to the content and the form of our sermons, whether they be topical, the exposition of a specific or individual text, or whether they are part of a consecutive exposition of a larger portion of the word of God. Yesterday, we examined the first of these sets of sermons. We examined the first of these sets of sermons. We examined the first of these sets of sermons.

2:35 We examined the first of these sets of sermons. We examined the first of these sets of sermons. And we examined the second of these seven axioms that we hope to cover in these morning sessions. That axiom being that the proclamation, explanation and application of scriptural truths must constitute the heart and soul of all preaching.

2:56 Now in this first hour this morning, we take up the second axiom, which is found on page 2.3 of the notes that you have, which is found on page 2.3 of the notes that you have, Numbers are in the bottom right-hand corner, and that second axiom is stated as follows. The proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truths which are most needed by your regular hearers must constitute your constant goal.

3:30 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.

4:05 Furthermore, the truths most needed by our hearers may not necessarily be the truths we most desire to give them at any given point in our ministries.

4:20 The writer to the Hebrews had that problem. Concerning Melchizedek, he said, There are many things I desire to say, but he said, I can't say them. I desire to say them, but they were not in a posture of spiritual perception and spiritual health. I desire to say them, but they were not in a posture of spiritual perception and spiritual health.

4:37 in vigor enough to receive them, so he didn't say them. So we are concerned in this axiom to address the matter of ascertaining the truths that are most needed by our regular hearers and that giving such truth must constitute our constant goal. Now, as in all other things, we'll not perfectly attain our goals. We will not be perfect or infallible.

5:07 In our judgment, but we must continually strive to keep an honest and open heart before God in conjunction with discussion and deliberation with our fellow elders to serve up a diet of divine truth that indeed represents the truths most needed by our regular hearers. Now, with that brief explanation of the words, of the axiom, you will notice in your outline that we are going to trace out, first of all,

5:43 the biblical basis for the axiom, and then letter B, the fundamental principle operative in the application of this axiom, and letter C, some general guidelines for the wise selection of sermonic materials.

Biblical Basis for Preaching Needed Truths

6:03 Now, on what basis dare I assert as an axiom essential to all effective biblical preaching that the proclamation, explanation, and application of the scriptural truths most needed by our regular hearers must constitute our constant goal in preaching? Well, I rest my case, as for the biblical basis, upon three very sound pillars of biblical revelation. The nature of preaching, in relationship to the prophetic office of Christ, the implications of the pastoral office, and the pattern of biblical preaching.

6:48 First of all, then, the nature of preaching in relationship to the prophetic office of Christ. One of the truths of Scripture which I trust all of you holds dear is that when the Lord Jesus said, where two or three are gathered in my name, where am I in the midst, that this is not a noble notion, it is a blessed, albeit spiritual, reality. And when the Lord Jesus is present in the assemblies of His people, He is present to exercise all of the prerogatives of His offices

7:32 as Prophet, Priest, and King of His people. in the assemblies of His people He is present to exercise all of the prerogatives of His offices, as prophet, priest, and King of His people. prophet, priest, and King of His people. He is present not only to be worshipped in the glory of his person, not only to be praised in terms of the sufficiency of his work, but he is present to instruct us as our great prophet, to minister to us as our succoring high priest, and to exercise his crown rights as our exalted king.

8:00 And he exercises these offices by his word and spirit through the means ordained by him as those conduits through which he comes to his gathered people in his offices of prophet, priest, and king. Now, when we ask the question, how does he fulfill his office as prophet in the midst of his people? I believe the section in Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, holds the most helpful clue of the answer to that question.

8:43 For in Revelation, chapter 2 and 3, we have the picture of the Lord Jesus in all of his exalted glory in the midst of the lampstands, and what John hears and sees, he is to write to the seven churches. And the Lord Jesus begins each of his messages. He begins by saying, I know thy works, and concludes each message by saying, he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

9:16 And in each of those messages, our Lord gives specific, pointed, tailor-made observations, rebukes, consolations, and counsels. But he also gives general, sweeping, universal truths and principles. In each of those messages, there is a promise to him that overcometh, will I give? And in a similar way, he exercised his prophetic office in the early churches when the letters would come from those uniquely inspired men called apostles.

9:59 So that the Apostle Paul could write in 1 Corinthians 14.37, If any man among you is spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I say unto you are the commandments of the Lord. In other words, Christ is standing among his people in the apostolic writings, exercising his office as prophet, as God's final word to his people, as well as king and sovereign over them. But in preaching, he also manifests what is said of him in Ephesians 5.

10:38 When we husbands are told to love our wives as Christ loved the church, to love our wives as being our own bodies, we are told in that passage, as Christ nourishes and cherishes the church. Well, what is? One of the ways in which Christ continues to nurture and cherish his church. Well, he does this as his word is read and expounded and applied to his people.

11:12 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...

11:28 A splint, he doesn't give it an injection of cortisone. He nourishes his body in terms of the specific and current needs of his body. And so the Lord Jesus, as the tender priest and as the authoritative prophet and the reigning king in his church, exercises his offices in this way. Therefore, I say, we must be sensitive to the present need.

11:58 The needs of our people view not only in the immediate context of where they are, but in the long-term context of their growth and development unto the fullness of the stature of Christ. And only as we are concerned about preaching those truths most needed by our people, do we show a sensitivity to the reality of Christ ministering among his people as the living God. As the living and ever-present prophet of his church. But then, secondly, the implications of the pastoral office point in the same direction.

12:41 If we stand before our people to feed them, Bosco, feed my sheep, in the capacity of shepherds, then surely sensitivity to the state of the flock is essential. In that beautiful...

12:59 In that beautiful imagery of Psalm 23, one of the great functions of the shepherd is to lead the sheep into green pastures, to lead them by waters of stillness or quietness. And what man is worthy of his position as a shepherd who is either ignorant of or indifferent to the state of his sheep, and what they may need at any given time in the way of the shepherd, and what they may need at any given time in the way of the shepherd, and what they may need at any given time in the way of the shepherd, is to have the guidance and direction rooted in the word of God. If we take the imagery of 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 11, that of a father in the midst of his family,

13:43 then the same case is made for seeking to bring forth those truths needed by our people. For Paul says in that text, you know how we dealt with each one of you as a father with his own children. Exhorting you, and encouraging, and solemnly testifying to the end that you should walk worthily of God who called you unto his own kingdom and glory. And while a loving father will have generic instruction for the entire family, he is not worth his salt as a father who is not in touch with the real current needs of his children,

14:27 and committed to portioning his children. He will be portioning out the kind of instruction most needed by them. If we go to another imagery of what we are as overseers and as God's servants, if we are set among the commonwealth of God's people as governors or rulers, Hebrews 13, 7, 17 and 24, what governor is worthy of his position who is indifferent to, ignorant of, or insensitive to the state of the commonwealth and what it may need in the way of authoritative direction.

15:08 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

15:50 must be reflective of the needs of the people. The people of God. But then thirdly, I rest the case on what I've called the pattern of biblical preaching. Now we turn over to page 2.4.

16:07 The pattern of biblical preaching. As we read the recorded sermons of the Old Testament and the New Testament, we see pastoral concern coming to expression in the epistles of the New Testament. This principle is different. Dominant.

16:27 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.

16:46 Because while they may fit everyone, they really fit no one. And so as we turn to the recorded sermons in the scriptures, whether in the Old or the New Testament, we see again and again that what they said was determined by the state and the condition of the people.

17:10 Jeremiah's message could not be as suitable to the people of God in his day or as in the day of Isaiah, so that the two could be switched. The Corinthian letter did not need to be sent as a pastoral correction, to the Philippian church. And it would have been wrong to send the Philippian letter to the Corinthian church as a pastoral letter. Now granted, as it became evident that these were the letters that would be incorporated into the permanent documents of the New Covenant community, I understand full well that the Corinthian congregation needed the Philippian letter.

17:52 You're missing the point I'm making. The point I'm making is that what precipitates, what facilitated the letter, what determined its specific content and even its form, was the current need of that congregation. And this pattern of biblical preaching is found throughout the Old and the New Testaments. And while we are under a qualitatively different mode of the Spirit's operation and influence, they were direct organs of revelation and had unique authority as prophets and apostles, yet there is an underlying principle that with the prophets, our Lord and the apostles,

18:34 they did not cut suits that fit everyone. They were cutting suits that fit particular congregations and particular states and conditions of the people of God. And brethren, I believe that three-fold witness cannot easily be pushed aside. And if we are convinced of the nature of preaching in relationship to the prophetic office of Christ, the implications of the pastoral office, and the pattern of biblical preaching recorded in the Scriptures, then we will have as one of our constant goals

The Interplay of Natural and Supernatural in Sermon Selection

19:15 to bring forward to our people the truths most needed by them. Now, having established that, let us then move to letter B, the fundamental, fundamental principle operative in the wise selection of sermonic materials. One of the questions that was submitted with an application had to do with this very issue. The fundamental principle operative in a wise selection of sermonic materials, and it is stated in your notes this way, there is a constant and delicate interplay of the natural and the supernatural.

19:56 One of the points that I emphasize almost ad nauseum throughout the entire pastoral theology course is that in every facet of the work of the ministry, as in our progressive sanctification, there is a constant and delicate interplay of the natural and of the supernatural, the divine and the human, the mundane and the supermundane, the rational and the truly mystical. truly mystical. Such text as Philippians 2, evidence that this is God's way of operating

20:35 in his people under the full blessings of the new covenant. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You are to engage all of your faculties with the highest sense of the solemnity of the issues involved. You are to be wholly engaged with fear and trembling. Why? For it is God

21:01 who is at work in you to will and to work for his good pleasure. My intense working does not displace God's working. The reality of God's working does not negate the necessity of my working. I work because he works, and I give myself to him because he works. I work because he works, and I give myself

21:22 because he works, and I give myself to him because he works. I work because he works, and I give myself to work in the confidence that he has preceded me and attends me in my efforts. Philippians 4, 13. I can do all things. I do them, but I do them in him or through him who strengthens me. He does not

21:42 bypass me. He does not do them through me. I do them. And in all that is bound up in the integrity of my renewed ego, I do them.

21:53 I do them. I can do, but I do through him who strengthens me. And nearer to home with this matter of the work of the ministry is 1 Timothy 2, 7. Paul has written to Timothy, and he has used some illustrations, buttressing certain commands, and then he says, think on these things. And that verb

22:17 is in the same family of the noun nous, to use your noggin, Timothy, to what I've said. All your mental faculties upon it. Think on these things. And then he says, and the Lord give thee understanding. He didn't say, Timothy, throw your mind into neutral and pray and wait for light.

22:39 The Lord will give you light. He said, think, and the Lord will give. Well, is it my mind that gives, or is it the Lord that gives? Well, you see, you don't set up a dichotomy. The pattern of God in

22:53 sanctification generically comes to specific application in this matter, of preaching, and even more narrowly in this matter of making a wise selection of sermonic materials. There will be this constant interaction of the divine and the human, the mundane and the superhuman. Blakey has stated this very clearly and powerfully in his excellent book, For the Word of God. The work of the ministry. He says, there is no inconsistency between the preacher's faith in the

23:38 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

24:06 the increase, he is himself careful to treat each sort of soil as its nature requires, and to give to each kind of crop the peculiar attention that its character demands. 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 goads and as nails fastened by the masters of the assemblies. Ecclesiastes 12, verses 10 and 11. And what is true in the act of preaching and in laboring in the content and substance of the

24:51 sermon is equally true in making judicious decisions with reference to the whole of the gospel, and in that whole matter of what I should preach. Now, all of us struggle with the fact that by temperament, by natural inclination, and by training, we will tend to err either on the side of trusting too much to our natural faculties in the engagement of our God-given natural powers, or to sit back and shift into a semi-mystical state,

Warnings Against Extremes in Sermon Selection

25:30 and say that God must be the one who gives me light in this matter. And therefore, in the light of this fundamental principle, I give four warnings. Beware. Beware of the iron-clad rule-makers.

25:51 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 they map it all out. They can announce.

26:33 They can announce it ahead of time, and just like an efficient train system, they're right on schedule, blessedly, blessedly predictable, questionably predictable. Beware of the iron-clad rule-makers. Secondly, beware of a legalistic inflexibility with your own plan. You are Christ's free man, and you and I can be indifferent to the text, quench not the Spirit.

27:03 Yes, we must have. We must have some plan, some overall scheme and approach to what we are going to preach to our people, but there must never be bondage, not only to the rules of others, but to our own unwritten rules, the principles by which we find ourselves most comfortably working in this. Don't ever let them become a straitjacket to yourself. And then thirdly, beware of copying others as you seek to find your own method.

27:34 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.

27:59 For when he asked the question, what is the right text? How do you know it? He answers, 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 will need no further direction as to your proper theme.

28:16 Like the fish, you nibble at many baits, but when the hook has pierced you, you will wander no more. When the text gets hold of us, we may be sure that 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. You try to break them up.

28:35 You hammer at them with might and main, but your labor's lost. At last, you find one which crumbles at the first blow, and it sparkles as it falls in pieces, and you perceive jewels of the rarest radiance flashing from within. It grows before your eye like the fabled seed which developed into a tree while the observer watched it. It charms and fascinates you, or it waits you to your knees and loads you with the burden of the Lord.

29:04 Know then that this is the message which the Lord would have you deliver, and feeling this, you will become so bound by that scripture, you will never feel at rest till you've yielded your whole mind to its power and have spoken upon it as the Lord shall give you utterance. Wait for that elect word, even if you wait till within an hour of the service.

29:31 Now you're going to be indicted. Listen. This may not be understood. Listen.

29:36 Listen. Listen. Listen. Listen.

29:36 Listen. Listen. Listen. Listen.

29:36 Listen. Listen. And I say, God bless Spurgeon for his law, but don't make it mine. I mean that.

29:57 And Spurgeon was wrong to set that out as a pattern for his... Imagine trying to throw off that counsel when that man stood before you in all the living, presence of his Christ-like life, his selflessness, the unction and power.

30:16 Who am I, a little neophyte, to question a giant? Brethren, brethren, I urge you, beware of the ironclad rule makers, beware of a legalistic inflexibility, beware of copying others, especially when they obviously in their own experience are way out in what we would call the very marginal edges of the mystical dimension of getting the mind of God. Dr. Lloyd-Jones uses some injudicious language in the same way.

30:50 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.

31:24 And then, I've already anticipated the fourth warning, beware of the two great dangers of enthusiasm, using it in the sense of the old writers, and rationalism. Enthusiasm was the word that was...

31:38 Enthusiasm was used as a synonym for fanaticism, claiming and expecting something very close to direct revelation. Don't get yourself in the bondage of believing and heeding Spurgeon's counsel. Don't speak injudiciously of having a series of sermons dictated to you by the Holy Spirit to say that in the course of your ordinary ministry you were unusually moved, and gripped by a text, and you could have no rest until you preached upon it. That's quite another thing.

32:16 But on the other hand, beware of rationalism. That is, an approach to selecting sermon materials without conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit, without earnest prayer for the help of the Holy Spirit. This committing of oneself to a series of sermons without ongoing sensitivity to pastoral concerns, which might dictate either the interruption, the expansion, or the cessation of the series on which you started in good faith, but within which it becomes evident pastoral concerns demand that you bail out.

Guideline 1: Consistent Prayer for Divine Guidance

32:58 Now then, let me, in the ten minutes that remain, give what I'm calling some general guidelines for the wise selection of sermonic materials. If you've considered the Biblical...

33:10 If you've considered the Biblical basis of the axiom, the fundamental principle operative in the outworking of that axiom, now some general guidelines for the wise selection of sermonic materials. And here, brethren, I confess, as I went over these things last week, and again early this morning, it pains me not to read the many quotes from the old masters in this area, but I simply must, in the interest of time, pass over them. First, And fundamental to everything else, seek to be consistently prayerful for divine guidance in this matter.

33:50 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.

34:35 James 1 in verse 5, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, God who gives. Three of the verses that are some of the earliest that we tucked away as Christians. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart.

34:53 Lean not upon thine own understanding. He doesn't say don't use it. He says don't lean upon it. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths.

35:04 And while we abominate any claims to direct revelation, we do believe in specific guidance. It's a difference. It's a difference between the two. Direct revelation is one thing.

35:16 Specific guidance is another. And specific guidance is promise to those who ask. And who ask in faith. What a curse is upon a people whose prayerless parson serves up sermons precipitated by his own whims of the moment or the dictates of Lord convenience and King expediency.

35:40 Perhaps our lack of divine guidance is simply a witness to the truth of James 4, 2. Ye have not because ye ask not. So the first guideline, brethren, is seek to be consistently prayerful for divine guidance. How often my heart is smitten me when I've launched into a series and I've come to the desk and automatically reached for my exegetical tools in the next paragraph and begun my work, lifting up my heart for help in my work, but not pause.

36:14 I'm pausing to say, Lord, is it that I should carry on in that next paragraph this week? Am I just automatically turning to that because months ago in answer to prayer I was convinced it was the right thing to do? We need to keep that sensitive spirit that constantly finds us prostrate before God crying for wisdom. Secondly, seek to be aware of the needs of the flock of God.

Guideline 2: Awareness of the Flock's Needs

36:43 Amen. Shepherd the flock is to lead, to guard, to feed them. Therefore, we must take seriously the admonition with respect to a man's literal flock of sheep as found in Proverbs 27, 23. Be diligent to know the state of thy flocks.

37:03 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,

37:43 dispense like a faithful steward unto them. The Apostle Paul is the great example of this principle in action when he lists all of the things he bore for the name and sake of Christ in 2 Corinthians 11, 28. He said, besides all of this, that which cometh upon me daily, the very word he says in Philippians, we should not be anxious. He says, I am anxious.

38:10 Anxiety for all the churches. Therefore, the epistles are pastoral responses to perceived need. Responses personally given. 1 Corinthians 1, 10 and 11.

38:25 It's been reported unto me of the household of Chloe that there are divisions among you. And then he begins to address that very issue. The book of Galatians, the epistle to Philemon, 1 and 2 Timothy, all of these things indicative, of pastoral sensitivity. Our Lord is the great pattern, is the great shepherd.

38:50 The Sermon on the Mount, contrasting the nature of the kingdom he has come to establish with the perspectives embedded in the life of the Jews of his day through their cursed leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees. And then his upper room discourse given to comfort his own on the eve of his departure from them. And you and I must seek to be aware of the needs of the flock, particularly in the various categories that I've listed, and I must touch upon them quickly, their general needs. As you seek to determine the mind of God in the selection of sermonic materials,

39:35 seek to know your people with reference to their general needs. Do you have a number of people that come out of religious and cultural backgrounds that are indicative of broad areas of need? I remember when God brought us a number of people out of hyper-Calvinistic backgrounds who found it impossible to believe the freeness and the fullness of the gospel offer, who were constantly looking for signs of grace within before they would lay hold of the objective promise of the gospel without. Well, once that need was perceived, then the preaching, both the selection of texts

40:19 and subjects and applications, would reflect the sensitivity to that need. If you have a number of people brought out of the background of a feelings religion, truth is no broader, higher, deeper than their present feel-o-meter. Well, you have got to give then great doses of those portions and principles of the Word of God that will correct that horrible error. But then you must be sensitive to specific critical needs.

40:50 I cannot understand the pastor who, knowing the church, is going to face a matter of crucial, heart-wrenching discipline, just plods right on with his regular text in the next passage or the subject in the topical series he's bringing and doesn't prepare his people for the grief and the pain and the heart-wrenching experience by opening up some appropriate passages dealing with the subject of discipline. Perhaps God has taken away a giant from the congregation. Someone esteemed and loved by the entire congregation has been cut down suddenly. And you know that when the people come on the Lord's Day,

41:34 their minds are full of grief and a sense of loss. How insensitive not to cry to God that He would give you a word that like the Lord Jesus, of whom it is said, He has given me the ear of one that is taught that I might speak a word in season to him that is weary. Be sensitive to the specific critical needs and then be sensitive to what I've called the occasional needs. When things happen in our national life,

42:08 just this week ago, Lord's Day, this happened in our assembly as the whole mind of the nation was taken up with this matter of the proceedings in connection with Judge Thomas. Our people were not living in Mars during that week. They were filled with all the questions and the consternation and concern. And I was wrestling with whether I should say something.

42:31 And I came to the conviction that I should not. And how relieved I was when Pastor Nichols called me and said, have you decided whether you're going to carry on in the manifesto? I said yes and gave my reasons why. He said, well, I believe God has gripped me with some biblical perspective.

42:47 And he went over them with me. And then even that morning, as I've indicated in the announcements, he'd be addressing it that night. One of our most perceptive, godly women came and said, oh, Pastor, what an answer to prayer. I've been crying to God that I wouldn't enter this new week confused as to how I should think as a Christian.

43:06 And so you seek to be sensitive to the occasional needs of the people of God. Then thirdly, seek to be sensitive to God's dealings with your own heart and mind. And here I wish I could pause and expand, but I cannot. But you need to be sensitive to your own, your own walk with God, God's dealings with your own heart, with your own mind.

Guideline 3: Sensitivity to God's Dealings with Your Own Heart

43:34 Though we don't preach ourselves, we do preach out of ourselves, out of the crucible of our own dealings with God, our own wrestlings with sin and grace. And as you assimilate the word of God in your own devotion, in your own life, and the flavor of your own inner life is conditioned by that. Be sensitive to that in terms of the selection of your sermonic materials. And then fourthly, seek to be sensitive and accurate with respect to your own development as a preacher.

Guideline 4: Sensitivity to Your Own Preaching Development

44:08 Romans 12, 3 and 4 is always in order. Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. I'm amazed when a young Tyro will say, well, I just preached through the book of Hebrews. I marvel at his cheek.

44:24 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.

44:46 And there was pressure on him for years to sing the role in a certain opera in which he was singing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. In which he would play the role of a high priest.

44:55 And as a devout Jew, a cantor, that's how he began to sing in Long Island. He said, no, I've not developed vocally. I've not developed in my general maturation of the appreciation of that role. I'm not ready for it.

45:11 40, 45, 50, 55, 60.

45:17 And he was 62 years old when he had learned the role and was going to make his debut in that opera. And he was in that particular role and three weeks before he was to do it, he died. But I marvel at that kind of honest assessment. I'm not prepared to do that role justice.

45:34 Now, in a sense, we can never do any portion of the Word of God justice, granted. But let's be realistic in terms of our development as preachers, in terms of our relationship to our people, in terms of our cultivated skills in homiletics and in the ability to take weight and to break them down simply to the people of God. I commend to you Gardner Springs' comments on this in his book Power in the Pulpit, my old edition. I didn't look up the pages in the new edition.

Guideline 5: Sensitivity to the Flock's Reaction

46:07 I'll try to get them for you. But then quickly, seek to be sensitive to the reaction of the flock. Now, this may sound strange to some of you, but I'm going to take the time to say it. Seek to be sensitive to the reaction of the flock.

46:21 If you've got truths how the food's going down, what's the matter to you?

46:28 Now, you're not the servant of men. And as Paul says in Galatians 1.10, if I should yet seek to please men, I should not be the servant of God. You must not ignore true sheep.

46:40 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.

46:50 And this is where you see carefully guarding the membership is critical. I don't want to ask a bunch of goats if they like the food I'm serving up that only sheep will love. But if under God you have a regenerate membership, then seek to be sensitive. Don't ignore what they are saying.

47:08 If Paul was concerned that bringing an offering would please the saints, Romans 15.31, shouldn't we be concerned if our sermons please the saints? And don't be so insecure that you can't ask the mature saints and get their feedback and listen to them. Ask your elders.

47:28 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.

47:41 On point after point, I want to cut loose and preach, but my fellow elders and several of you whose judgment I trust have said to me, no brother, you're doing what's right. I believe it's good. And I've subjected my own desires to the counsel of my brethren.

47:58 I'm not just mouthing theory. I have put it in practice between...

48:02 Yesterday and today. Because I believe you're true men. I believe you've come here to be taught and helped. And if you say to me, Pastor Martin, this is the most helpful thing.

48:13 Granted, it's not dealing with it the way you deal with it in the classroom. But I've had former students saying, thank you, Pastor. It's like having a refresher course. I completely forgot about that.

48:23 Or it was good to have it handled afresh. I've been taking the input of my sheep in the sense that temporarily you are sheep that I am to feed. And then I want you to add a sixth. So I was praying over this material this morning.

Guideline 6: Sensitivity to the Flock's Spiritual State and Capacity

48:38 I said, Lord, how could I miss this sixth one? Seek to be sensitive to the spiritual state of the flock. That is, where they are in terms of their ability. Two passages.

48:50 Mark 4.33. Jesus spoke to them as they were able to receive it. As they were able.

48:58 And then Hebrews 5.11. I want to give you stuff about Melchizedek. You're not able.

49:04 You're not able to take it. Be sensitive to the spiritual state of the flock in terms of what they are prepared to receive. And if they need milk and need the rudiments again, you may have to give them milk and the rudiments again.

49:24 Well, may the Lord help us, brethren, in this matter. It's a delicate, vexing issue. Certainly, I don't claim to have all the answers, but I hope the things we've considered will be of help as to get us out of this situation. Together, we seek to be wise and good shepherds to our people, giving them that which they most need at any given point in their life as a congregation.

49:47 Let's pray. Our Father, we feel afresh the weight of the responsibility that is upon us. And we confess our native ignorance and dullness and how much we need the help of the Holy Spirit if we are to give to your people that which is good for us. That which is good for us.

50:08 That which is good for us. That which is good for us. That which is good for us. That which is good for us.

50:08 That which they most need. Help us to have hearts open to our people. Help us to have discerning minds. Help us, our Father, to know what it is to be guided of your Holy Spirit in the exercise of sound judgment.

50:26 Keep us from a calculating, rationalistic approach. Keep us from a fanatical approach. Help us to keep on that razor's edge of utter dependence upon your spirit while engaging every legitimate means and all of our faculties in seeking to know your will. Hear us and answer us, we pray.

50:50 In Jesus' name, amen.