Perspicuity of Form and Structure

Defining Perspicuity of Form and Structure

0:03 If you have your notes before you, brethren, we are right at the bottom of 2.4, as we take up in this hour the third axiom pertaining to the content and form of our sermons. And let me say at the outset, in addressing this axiom, there is another lecture that I am simply going to pass over. You have the notes. If you want the class lectures, they're available on tape.

0:35 But if we're going to stick to the schedule and get through at least a cursory treatment of all seven axioms, it would have been impossible to park and to work through some of the mechanics of form and structure, as I do with the men. That puts us into the realm of more of homiletics proper and even some of the principles, the proven principles. The principles of the science or the art of rhetoric. And for any of you who have the motivation and desire, that material is available on tape, and you'll have the outline of it as well.

1:12 But hopefully, we want to address this morning the first half of this axiom, that the proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truths with perspicuity of form and structure must be fulfilled. Let us constitute our continuous, conscious endeavor. Now, some of these axioms may seem rather loaded with strange words, and there is a method in my madness. I've chosen the words carefully.

1:46 I've tried to choose words at times that are not so much a part of our ordinary vocabulary that they cease to have any meaning. And so I want to spend just a few moments on the definition, an explanation of the terminology in this axiom. We are dealing in this axiom with the form and with the structure of our sermons. In other words, we are coming into the realm of the order and arrangement of the raw materials of the biblical truth which form the substance of our preaching.

2:26 This brings us into the realm of such materialism. It matters as division, progression, transitions of thought. All of these come under the general heading of form and of structure. Anatomy is the science of the structure of animals.

2:47 And when we do this with plants, I think it's called morphology, I'm not sure. Human anatomy focuses on the arrangement and relation, relationships, sustained by the component parts of the body. When you look at the body, it has not only hands and arms and a torso and legs and a backbone, but it has all of the parts in the right place if it is a properly functioning body. So when we talk about form and structure, we are talking about the raw materials that come out of our exegesis and

3:26 are now to be put into a form that will make them suitable to be presented and understood by others. And now the key word is perspicuity. And the word means transparent. It comes from the Latin perspicere, meaning to see through. And what is perspicuous then is lucid. It

3:49 is easy to be understood. And so I'm asserting in this axiom that in effective possible popular address, the order and arrangement should not only be good and latent, but it ought to be good and patent, that is, perspicuous to the average listener. He ought to know where you've begun, where you're going, and when you get there. He ought to be able to separate the tale from the ears of your sermon. He ought to be able to change the

4:27 imagery to know when he's nibbling at his corn, when he's cutting up his meat, and when he's biting off a chunk of his roll. And if the poor man wonders if the roll and the corn and the meat have all been ground up and thrown in a blob of homiletical hash on the plate, woe be unto such listeners who must constantly come to such a diet. Now I've asserted in the axiom that such with perspicuity of form and structure must be our continuous conscious endeavor. And in the use of those words, I'm underscoring the fact that preaching and teaching marked

5:12 by these qualities of perspicuity of form and structure is not something that just happens. There must be sustained and conscious effort directed to this goal. Just as surely as exegetically accurate sermons as to the substance of content do not just happen, but are the result of a conscious commitment to the task of being honest with the text of Scripture, so preaching marked by perspicuity of form and structure does not just happen.

5:55 Regardless of the measure of a man's native gift and cultivated abilities, it will still require to the end of his days continuous conscious endeavor if his sermons are to be marked by perspicuity of form and of structure. Now having stated the axiom and given a definition and explanation of the key words in the axiom, we come now to the axiom of the axiom of the axiom of the следующий раз Now to take up the importance of perspicuity of form and structure first of all for the preacher himself and then for the listeners.

Importance for the Preacher: Discipline and Freedom

6:40 Why is clarity of form and structure important for the preacher himself? Now I cannot underscore too forcefully With too much repetition how crucial this is for one's understanding of this teaching, with theami clarity of form and structure, with the amputees Titanic or a Parthen 자연's With too much repetition how crucial this is for one's understanding of this teaching, This preached in the axiom is not that he must be menuach is, reason,weiterexample not, As much as each child, L blaming his mother for this teaching because I consider this Latin, and assume it just being something else which was expected to be a religious legacy, So apologizing to the preacher. now why is it that John 7 where we are not being able to teach also eat. for the preacher himself.

7:04 Raw, formless globs of truth are better than symmetrical, well-structured error and froth. But the best is to serve up the pure truth of God in such a way that no reasonably intelligent and careful listener could fail to follow the trail of truth, knowing where it began, where it was going, and when the destination had been reached. Now, for the preacher himself, it's important for two basic reasons.

7:45 Number one, it will impart discipline and clarity in the detailed preparation of the sermon. After the spade work of exegesis has been done, you do not, very soon in the process of developing the sermon, see the basic form and structure. Your ongoing preparation will not only be difficult, but it will make organization even more difficult because the mass of raw materials is being multiplied. And you will get into a state of mental confusion and paralysis before you can get to the point where you can get to the point where you can get to the point where you can get to the point where you can get to the point where you can get to the point where you can get to the point

8:30 before the sheer size of the pile of the raw materials. Let me illustrate this way. If a builder arrived at a building site and found a jumbled pile of 2x4s, 2x6s, coils of electrical wire, kegs of nails, and a host of other building materials, what would his first task be if he were to have any hope of building a house? Well, the answer is, he'd have to have a sorting out party.

9:02 He'd have to sort out all his 2x6s and put them here, and his 2x4s here, and his 2x10s there, and the 6 penny nails here, and the 8 penny nails there, and the 10 penny nails there. He would have no hope of taking those raw materials and constructing a symmetrical house if he did not early in the process sort out into the various categories these raw building materials. So then, in preaching, and here again, it pains me not to quote Broadus and to quote Shedd and some of the old masters who are bold enough to say

9:43 that if we do not give ourselves to this matter of form and structure early in the actual development of the sermon, we are doomed to fail in terms of developing clean homiletics, ethical habits, and setting forth God's truth with perspicuity of form and structure. So the benefit, first of all, to the preacher himself is it will impart discipline and clarity in the detailed preparation of the sermon. If he begins to see its form and structure early, then as it grows, the various components grow in their proper place

10:27 and do not simply add to this, in growing pile of jumbled thought. But then it's also important for the preacher because it will greatly assist freedom in the actual delivery of the sermon. It will greatly assist the preacher's freedom in the delivery of the sermon. A man, unsure of his path, must continually look at his map and at his compass as he makes his journey.

11:00 One who is walking down a familiar path, who knows where it takes a right angle to the left and a 45 degree angle to the right can lift up his eyes from the path, from his map and his compass, and enjoy the scenery. And all of the old masters of preaching, when they address the subject of how much manuscript shall I use in preaching, how little shall I use, how much reference should I make to it, in this they are all agreed, though the disagreement and the debate on this issue is both amusing and in itself perplexing, but on this they are all agreed. In the actual delivery of the sermon,

11:41 a man cannot experience true liberty of utterance who is bound to his paper for his thoughts. Even though he may have a full manuscript before him, if the form and structure of the sermon is not embedded on the walls of his own mind, so that he himself knows where he is and where he is going and when he has arrived, he cannot, as it were, give his own spirit to be carried along by the truth that he's conveying to others. And if true spirit-filled eloquence is anything, it certainly has to do with the mind

12:25 and spirit of the preacher feeling the heat that comes from the spirit of the preacher. The friction of truth upon his own heart. And that simply cannot be known if what the old rhetorical teachers taught, the sub-processes of being attached to the paper as my map and compass are that which so possess the mind and the spirit that the spirit cannot enjoy its own friction with the truth that it is delivering to others. Furthermore,

13:07 if the sermon is overloaded with a complex system of subdivisions and sub-sub-sub-divisions, very intricate as we find in some of the Puritan works where they are not good models of homiletics in certain areas, there can be very little freedom in the actual delivery of the sermon because there is simply too much. It's like some of the old ornate filigree that you see on some of these Victorian buildings where there is all of this intricate carving and the lines are not clean and simple. Likewise then in preaching,

Importance for the Listener: Intelligibility and Aesthetic Pleasure

13:50 if we are to know freedom in the actual delivery of the sermon, the sermon must be marked by perspicuity, clarity of form and of structure. But it's not only important for the preacher, but for the listeners. And I've listed four things in which clarity of form and structure will be helpful to the listeners. First of all, it is a major factor in making what we say intelligible.

14:22 I've used the words major factor with purpose. Other things are great aids and help making what we say intelligible. Our vocabulary, our figures of speech, our illustrations and our animation in delivery, the paralinguistics are all part of making what we say intelligible. However, clarity of form and structure are a major factor in making what we say easy to be understood.

15:01 And the scriptures tell us that if we do not speak in such a way as to make our speech easy to be understood, 1 Corinthians 14, 9, then men will not be able to render a proper response. And so if we would have our people know the delight of grasping what we say without placing too great a burden upon them in the process, then there must be clarity, perspicuity of form, and of structure. But then secondly, it's a major factor in making what we say aesthetically pleasing.

15:47 Who gave us an appreciation for the orderly and the beautiful as well as a revulsion at the disorderly and the ugly? Was it not our God who is himself beautiful and orderly?

16:07 And if anything, should be beautiful, it should be the preaching of the truth of God's Word. Why should it be ugly when it can be made aesthetically pleasing? We want the offense to be in the content of what we convey, not in the sloppy manner in which we convey it. And we will have far more assurance that negative reaction to the Word of God is indeed negative reaction to the Word of God if what we say is true.

Importance for the Listener: Moral Persuasion and Intellectual Retainability

16:38 What we are saying is set forth in such clarity as no one can justly charge it with being marked by mental chaos. And therefore, if we would have our people pleased in the right sense with our sermons, then they ought to be marked by perspicuity of form and of structure. But then thirdly, with respect to our people, it is a matter of fact It is a major factor in making what we say morally persuasive. Now let me be understood that I am not dabbling in the heresy of moral suasion, a Pelagian error that teaches

17:23 that conversion occurs when we appeal powerfully enough to men's sense of justice and rightness and get them to decide for Christ. But I'm thinking of such text as Acts 26, 28, when Agrippa says, said to Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And 2 Corinthians 5, 11, where Paul declares, knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. Now when Agrippa was almost persuaded, what had Paul done?

18:01 Well, if we look at the context, we see he had given a wisely constructed testimony and an appeal called in verse 24, a defense. On another occasion, it was his reasoning concerning righteousness, self-control, and judgment to come that caused a man to tremble. Acts 24 and verse 25. You see, it is God who has made men's minds that faculty of perception to feel the weight and the pull of clear, logically structured biblical reasoning.

18:40 It is one thing to know that God alone can regenerate the sinner and therefore to cry to God that he would do that work, to preach in conscious dependence upon the Holy Spirit. It's quite another thing to expect the Holy Spirit to sort out and make compelling in the minds and consciences of men that which is disorganized, convoluted, and confusing. It is one thing to expect the Holy Spirit to sort out your disorganized, convoluted, and confused line of reasoning that is not compelling.

19:25 Rather, in persuasion, we recognize from general revelation the way God has made us that as surely as I stand before you and start numbering one, two, three, you've already said four, and if I say seven, I'm either doing it for shock effect or I show that I'm violating the natural laws of the human mind. If I say two, four, six, you've already said eight. If I say two, four, six, thirteen, I've thrown a curve at you. I've either done something to shock your mind into listening more carefully or I have violated your sense of propriety in the progression of those numbers.

20:10 And we see examples of this everywhere in Scripture. One of the clearest examples is Romans 10, 13 to 15. That closely reasoned argumentation of the Apostle Paul, having stated that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, he then begins to ask some questions. How shall they call on Him in whom they've not believed?

20:37 How shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? And you see, it's that progression of sound, simple, common sense logic that carries our judgment and makes us feel the weight of Paul's argument.

21:04 Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 15, 12 to 19, he takes the fundamental premise of those heretics that were seeking to infect the church at Corinth, denying the reality of the bodily resurrection. And he says, if your premise is true that there is no such thing as bodily resurrection, then Christ is not raised. If Christ is not raised, then. If Christ is not raised, then.

21:33 And you feel the force of the logic. Why? Because he has used the ordinary laws of the human mind and he has, as it were, taken the truth of God, and saddled it upon those laws seeking to ride the truth into the theater of the human conscience. And if we want to have sermons that are morally persuasive, that carry the judgment of men and make them either stand against themselves in the court of God or stand with Christ for them in the court of God, our sermons must reflect this clarity of form

22:17 and of structure. And then, fourthly, it is of a benefit, it is a benefit to our people because it is a major factor in making what we say intellectually retainable.

22:33 Now, there was a time when I used to be very burdened with the fact that many of the people who sat and listened to me on Sunday could not give me back even the first head or two of what I preached. By Wednesday.

22:50 Then I made the discovery that oft times I couldn't do it myself. It's a very humbling thing on a Wednesday to say, what were the heads of my sermon on Sunday? If you haven't tried it, try it.

23:06 You see, the great benefit of preaching is not in the ability to go back and to repeat the heads a week after it was preached. It's the cumulative effect of the Word of God taking root in the hearts of your people. I fully understand that. But at the, at the same time, the more they are able to retain the truth, not only in terms of being able to turn to the passage and say, yes, this is what I understand now that it was expounded in my hearing, but to have the pegs on which it was hung, it will help them to become the blessed man or woman of Psalm 1.

23:45 To meditate on the Word of God day and night so that driving to work and at the workbench and behind the kitchen sink and whatever the circumstances are when our people's minds are not necessarily occupied with other things, they can think back to the ministry of the Lord's day and what they think back upon was not this jumbled mess of homiletical hash, but they can think in terms of the various components of the sermon and the way it was laid out and though they may forget the exact headings, they'll remember the units of thought. They'll remember that you opened up to them that here is the central imperative of the passage and here are the motivations that follow

24:29 and as you expounded the Word of God with perspicuity of form and structure, it is much more likely that what we say will be intellectually retainable and in the light of Psalm 1, the blessed person is the one who meditates upon the law of God day and night. And then that text in Ecclesiastes 12, 11 which ought to be a motto for each one of us in our preaching. Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 11 the words of the wise are as goads and as nails well fastened are the words of the masters

25:14 of the assemblies which are given from one shepherd. And when the one shepherd the Lord Jesus, is ministering his words through us, what a blessed thing when our people can say that we have ministered that word as masters of the assembly and cause the Word of God to be as nails, not merely tapped, but well fastened, driven, and sunk into the two by four of their brains.

The Price of Perspicuity: Single-Eyed Focus

25:51 Perspicuity of form and structure is of great help to the preacher it is of great assistance to our listeners but it will come only at a great price. And I want to address in the third place the price of perspicuity of form and of structure. And I've listed three things under this heading. Number one, it will cost you the price of maintaining a single eye to the God-ordained end of the world.

26:25 Number two, it will cost you the price of preaching and there ought to be there a dash,

26:30 the salvation and edification of men. When we ascend the pulpit week by week, what is the great end we have in view? Well, the great end we ought to have in view in the language of Scripture is let all things be done unto edification. Not our edification, but the edification of our people.

26:57 And then also recognizing that the proclamation of the word is the great means of God for the salvation of His elect. We are in earnest that God would use our proclamation of the truth as the means of bringing some to repentance and faith. And therefore, our goal is not rhetorical elegance. It is not the promotion of our reputation as good preachers.

27:27 It is not conformity to current ministerial fads of what it means to be a quote good communicator. We are bent and obsessed with this one passion, optimum edification and the salvation of the never dying souls of men. And if you are to be marked as a preacher with all of your own fingerprints unashamedly unashamedly unashamedly smothering your preaching so that it's distinctively yours and no one else's but nonetheless marked by perspicuity of form and of structure it will cost you

28:11 the price of keeping that single eye week after week month after month year after year asking yourself when you sit at the desk what am I doing? I am seeking to learn to lay hold of this passage this theme this section of the word of God and so to present it that there will be optimum edification of God's precious people and the likelihood that the spirit of God will use what I say to awaken the conscience of the indifferent to give instruction to those who are interested and concerned and hopefully

28:56 to be a means in God's mind in God's hand of enabling some sinner upon whom God has already been dealing in mercy to lay hold of the Savior even under the proclamation of the word and brethren to keep that single eye over the long haul is not an easy thing we can get so accustomed to what we're doing and there is no erosion of confidence in the word of God there may not even be a backing off in our laboring in our laboring but to keep that single eye goal constantly before us it can only be kept before us by a constant spiritual discipline

The Price of Perspicuity: Death to Man-Pleasing

29:39 allowing no other goal to enter in and become influential in our preparation but then secondly it will cost you the price of constant death to the opinions wishes and tastes of those who do not want perspicuous Bible preaching the end of which is to pierce them with the ethical implications and here I've quoted two texts Galatians 1.10 if I should yet please men I should not be the servant of God and Paul says it's a little thing if I be judged if you are of man's judgment for he that judges

30:24 me is the Lord therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and then shall every man have his praise from God brethren to be clear and to be plain to be perspicuous means that people cannot misunderstand what we say unless they make a very very hard effort to do so it means therefore that the pressure of the word of God both in its consolation and in its conviction both in its bringing home the provisions and promises of God as well as the demands and the threats of God that they will feel

31:08 the weight of that truth because what we say is as clear as the pane of glass in the church window and therefore if you are not settled in your own heart that you are prepared to receive whatever the fruit of that kind of ministry will be then you will not give yourself to it over the long haul because the clearer you make God's truth by perspicuity of form and structure the more patent it will be that you are a saver of life unto life and death unto death and that even among the people of God there will be those who will welcome you

31:52 as an angel of God and on that very day there will be others who because of the activity of remaining sin will rise up and buck against the truth I had a classic example of this a few weeks ago I came here on Wednesday night went to my letter file in the church office to take out any letters that demanded that they be read last minute in the prayer meeting and there were two letters hand delivered obviously no stamp on them had my name on the outside and I opened them and one was a letter from one of the saints who's had a background in which there's been horrible abuse of pastoral authority and in this section of the manifesto where I was dealing

32:37 with the job description of church leaders I had opened up the concept of shepherd and this brother wrote how thankful my wife and I are to see these things opened up from the word of God just wanted to write and encourage you and thank you for your labors it has helped to clarify issues it was a letter of great encouragement the other letter was a resignation said after Sunday's message it's very clear that my congregational views are not welcomed around here and therefore I don't belong here well it went like a knife to my heart why hours have been spent with the couple that resigned

33:22 pastoral labors all coming to naught that's grievous that's grievous but the silver lining in it was that it must have been so clear that it blessed a confused sheep on the other hand and flushed out a bucking sheep on the other the same message brought a resignation and a loving commendation and word of appreciation and the consolation in all of that was well at least it wasn't so muddled it neither blessed nor blasted and if you're going to preach so as to bless

34:06 those who are hungry for the truth and to go after those in trouble drenched in pillboxes of error where remaining sin has caused them to be indifferent or calloused or perhaps even hostile to certain dimensions of God's truth then if you're going to be committed to having a ministry with that precipitates that response it will cost you constant death to the opinions wishes and taste of those who want something other than preaching that is clear and then thirdly and this I would underscore most forcefully it will cost you

The Price of Perspicuity: Agony of Mental Labor

34:50 and I've chosen the word carefully because it's a good New Testament word agonizomai the apostle uses it with reference to prayer with reference to his ministry in general in Colossians 1 it will cost you the agony and toil of incessant mental labor and if ever you will feel your job description in 1st Timothy 5 17 it's in the commitment to clarity of form and structure those of us who are privileged to be set apart to labor in the word and in doctrine if kapia'o means anything to labor unto toil and pain

35:34 you will know it peculiarly in this area there are times when exegesis is shown and you sit at your desk and say can it be that I'm getting paid for doing this rooting around in the word of God in the green pastures of God's truth and you say it's too good to be true I'm putting bread on my table doing this what a privilege so to labor but then you take those raw materials and the moment of truth comes and you say ah now the time has come to say firstly secondly and finally secondly thirdly here's the tail here's the body here's the head

36:18 and you say how do I sort all of this out and you strike out on one course only to scratch it all out and throw that piece of paper away and then you start out on another course and you come almost to the verge of despair and you say Lord how can I organize this stuff it's it's blessed my soul there's rich truth here there's marvelous spiritual reality but it's not but Lord I don't know how to sort it out and one hour merges into another and into another and you know the moment of truth is going to come it's labor it's labor brethren it's labor and there are times

37:03 when you just wish you could turn the clock back two days and say I just can't but the clock isn't going to be back and Sunday morning is going to come and you must stand before the people of God and brethren it's labor if you are not prepared for the agony and toil of incessant mental labor really you have no business being set apart for this ministry because you're set apart to labor in the word and in teaching and because God has not given us some infallible manual even with all the advanced computer technology God's not sent down from heaven some homiletical software

37:47 that tells us how to break down a passage and God have mercy if you buy that that you can purchase for so many dollars a year of 52 exegetical sermons all the outlines all done my respect for Stephen Olford tumbled when I saw that he allowed himself to enter into that kind of trafficking in the word of God I've had such esteem for him as a true man and a good preacher but when I see advertised in poop it helps that I can buy his expository outlines what a horrible thing one of the advertising letters

38:31 came to me and said we all know that it takes a man at least I'm not kidding you now I said at least four to five hours to produce a good expository sermon and the busy pastor who's doing this and that how can he find four to five hours therefore don't starve your people by my outlines well somebody's keeping those guys in business I hope none of them are here if they are I hope the flush of embarrassment on your forehead will betray you before you brethren

39:14 and bring you to repentance brethren we're called to labor in the word and in doctrine now am I saying that if in our labor and in our desperation and in our crying to God we've hit the wall and we say well maybe someone else handled the passage in a way that I'll find helpful and so we turn to the textual index in Spurgeon's works and we see here's how Spurgeon handled it and we turn to another and we go to John Brown and we see something that helps us am I saying it's wrong then to come before our people and say in the breaking down of this passage I've been greatly helped by Spurgeon no not at all all things are yours John Brown

39:58 and Spurgeon and Calvin but not ours to avoid the agony and toil of mental labor but ours to assist us in the midst of it and I trust brethren that by the grace of God we will never be marked by that laziness that serves up amorphous globs of truth to our people and then walks away saying well it's God's truth and the Holy Spirit will bless it that's presumption and don't presume upon the Holy Spirit's ministry as a cover up for your own laziness well that's what I wanted to say and got through it in just about the right amount of time

Cultivating Perspicuity and Concluding Prayer

40:42 and what constitutes perspicuity of form and structure you'll have to look through the outline and if you want the lectures as I say they're available for you and may the Lord help us let me simply say as I do close that like so many other things you'll get far more help by seeing it as you read sermons that are perspicuous in form and structure and listening to sermons than by reading even the best of the writers and homiletics who give you the theory this is an aspect of preaching that is more caught than formally taught now if we had had

41:25 in our early education as was true in previous days courses in logic and rhetoric that might not be true but most of us are the products of an educational system that had no place for logic for rhetoric and for some of these things that would have helped us in this dimension of the content and form of our sermonizing but because God has put us into the ministry and we have a heart to serve Him and serve His people to their edification the Spirit of God will indeed equip us in spite of those deficiencies in our background and it's been my experience and as I've tried to listen

42:10 to men who've been helped that I believe it's accurate to say that in this area one example is worth a thousand words and you can read all of the various ways of analyzing perspicuity of form and structure in the old homileticians but read Spurgeon read Ryle read McShane's outlines and see sermons listen to men who have a clear preaching style and say what are they doing and why are they doing it and then you will begin to absorb the mental disciplines which will help you by God's grace to proclaim to open up and to apply the truth of God with perspicuity of form

42:55 and of structure let's pray our Father we confess in your presence that this whole matter of the proclamation of your word in many ways is such a mysterious thing as the wind blows where it wills so you often take our most pathetic efforts and bring the greatest measure of blessing and yet we would not presume upon you we do desire to open up your word in such a way that the average serious listener will not be confused

43:40 or frustrated or even irritated because of our laziness but oh God help us so to labor that our people will long to come and sit under our ministries knowing that whatever we are going to bring them it will not only come out of the crucible of honest serious dealings with the text of scripture but will come to them in such a way that they will be able with mental comfort to follow the line of thought the development of argument the progression from one stage to another as we seek to lead them into the green pastures of your holy word

44:23 oh Lord we do not ask that you would raise up an army of men whose names would go down in church history books but oh God raise up an army of men who will go down in the hearts of your people as helpful clear preachers who by their helpful clear biblical preaching made them fit for heaven and better able to serve you in their earthly pilgrimage oh Lord deliver us from every carnal motive to become better preachers but may we be impelled by righteous motives to become the best possible preachers

45:07 we can be that sinners may be saved and saints edified and our church is built up and that the bad name preaching has been given in our day may be wiped away as men see multitudes flocking to our assemblies because they know the word of God is to be preached in the authority and power of the spirit and with clarity of form and of structure by men whose lives embody the truth hear our cry we plead and help us for the sake of your dear son Amen