Scriptural Truth in Preaching, Part 2

Introduction: Five Correlatives of Scriptural Preaching

0:04 All right, brethren, as I indicated at the conclusion of the last hour, if this axiom is true, and I trust I've convinced you from the word of God that it is, that the proclamation, explanation of scriptural truth must constitute the heart and soul of our preaching, and I gave you the three lines of evidence, then there are five basic correlatives that grow out of this. A correlative is something closely related to the central truth, and these are the five correlatives pertaining to all of our preaching.

Correlative 1: Sermons Must Be Thoroughly Exegetical in Raw Materials

0:44 Number one, our sermons will be thoroughly exegetical in their raw materials. They will be thoroughly exegetical in their raw materials. Now, I'm sure somewhere along the line somebody's told you that they're not going to be able to read the Bible, and they're not going to be able to read the Bible, that the word exegesis is a transliteration of a Greek word not found in the New Testament in its noun form, but found a couple of times in its verbal form, perhaps the most well-known usage being John 1 and verse 18,

1:26 in which the incarnate word has exegeted the Father. So exegesis has to do with the fixing of the precise meaning of the individual statement. Exegesis is one of the most important statements of Holy Scripture. Baker's Theological Dictionary has one of the finest, simple definitions.

1:47 You need not try to copy this as I give it. Just look it up, Baker's Theological Dictionary, in the article by E.F. Harrison on page 205.

1:57 I quote, Exegesis is predicated on two fundamentals. First, it assumes that thought can be accurately conveyed in words, each of which originally, had its own shade of meaning. Secondly, it assumes that the content of Scripture is of such superlative importance for man to warrant the most painstaking effort to discover exactly what God seeks to impart through His Word.

2:32 Now you see, when we hold to the Bible's view of itself, that is, to the plenary, verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, then the onus is on us to handle the Word of God in such a way that we reflect what we've confessed in our doctrine of Scripture.

2:53 If 1 Corinthians 2.13 is true, that the Apostle says that he speaks in words which the Holy Spirit teaches, then all of our preaching of the Word must begin with ascertaining the meaning of particular words, words in which the Holy Spirit teaches. Words in connection, grammar, words in context,

3:22 which brings us into so many of the disciplines to which you are subjected in this place, which at times are nothing short of productive, of mental agony and pain. One of the brethren last week told me in preparing his paper on Job, it was at some points nothing but one extended headache. Well, you see, those headaches, are mandated by the Scriptures' view of itself,

3:54 that the words are given by God, and therefore if our preaching is to be thoroughly, pervasively biblical, then it must be thoroughly and painstakingly exegetical in the raw materials that constitute our sermons. Albert Barnes has wisely said that the Bible should be explained not under the influence of a vivid imagination, but under the influence of a heart imbued with a love of truth. And by an understanding discipline to investigate the meaning of words and phrases and capable of rendering a reason for the interpretation which is proposed.

4:40 End quote. Isn't that a great statement?

4:43 The Bible should be explained not under the influence of a vivid imagination. In illustrating its truth, a vivid imagination is a great, benefactor in being an interesting and captivating preacher, but it should not be explained under the influence of a vivid imagination. Illustrated, applied, amplified, yes, but explained, no. But under the influence of a heart imbued with a love of truth, and by an understanding discipline to investigate the meaning of words and phrases, and capable of including a reason for the interpretation, which is proposed. That's why

5:24 we refuse to budge on the matter of seeking to give you at least a cursory working acquaintance with the original languages. In many cases, we hope you'll get more than that, but at least that. And when you find seminaries that claim to stand in the Reformed tradition, altering their curriculum, as one major seminary has recently done, no longer making any involvement with the original languages required in their course. We need to go back and listen to Warfield, in his selected shorter writings, in a marvelous article on the purpose of the seminary. He

6:02 says, the minister in his place as Paul in his, is the spiritual guide and advisor of his people. For this we say, he needs to know the gospel. Page 377. All the work of the seminary must be directed just to this end.

6:18 For one thing, the minister must learn the code in which the gospel message is written. He must be able to decode it. To decode it for himself. No trusting the decoding to another. This is the message

6:32 of salvation, and he is the channel by which it is conveyed to men. He cannot take it at second hand. He must get it for himself, and convey it first-handed to those entrusted to his care. He must, in other words, know the languages in which the gospel is written, and he must be skilled in drawing out from the documents the exact meaning. Now, we would alter

6:58 that enough to say he must have sufficient acquaintance with the benefit, at least of drawing from the wells of those who themselves were knowledgeable in the languages. We are not saying, it is unrealistic to say that every man called to the ministry will become a skilled linguist. That is an unrealistic position. It can't be proven, either from the Bible or from church history.

7:22 We all ought to aim at acquiring the optimum competence we can acquire, given our native gifts and furniture. But the helps available to us, in terms of competent linguists, who can set down the exegetical problems, and the alternatives, and the various reasons, and sufficient of them are available to us, that gross and irresponsible exegesis is totally inexcusable. It is inexcusable.

7:56 And therefore, if we hold to this first axiom, then the first correlative truth is that our preaching must be thoroughly and carefully and painstakingly exegetical in its raw materials.

Avoiding Aberrations in Exegesis

8:16 I slipped my note under here before I was done with that particular point.

8:22 Ah, here we are.

8:25 Now, this will be in marked contrast with preaching that has as its raw materials the five common aberrations. Number one, the initial impression of a text or a passage. Many a sermon has been preached on the initial impression of a text or passage. Careful exegesis would have blown the sermon into nothingness.

8:51 For example, many a good sermon on the fact that God often uses the law in its condemning killing power to prepare a man for the gospel has been preached on Galatians 3.24. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, whereas careful exegesis would have taught men that's a wonderful truth, but that ain't the text from which to preach it. All right? So the initial

9:16 impression of a text or passage must never be the raw materials of our sermons. Secondly, the traditional usage of a text or passage.

9:28 You see, this is where people fix the meaning in terms of second-hand acquaintance. And there are some texts that have gathered to themselves a traditional usage, which because it is a biblical truth has never been jettisoned. It's not heretical, but it simply is not taught by that given passage, and we must not carry on such traditions in our preaching. Thirdly, many a sermon has been preached in terms of the dogmatic flavor of a text or passage.

10:02 Whereas careful exegesis would have given that passage its own inherent emphasis, not its particular emphasis in the corpus of systematic theology.

10:14 Some people are so forever concerned to find texts that prove their theological system that they don't allow the text to speak their distinctive message, which may in a secondary way contribute a proof text to one's system of theology. But we rob our people of the richness of the teaching of the Word of God, and I commend an excellent article by Paul, Paul Helm, in the Banner of Truth, Volume 116. Volume 116. Written some years ago. An excellent section,

10:49 article on this whole matter of not allowing our dogmatics to be imposed upon a text before exegesis has done its work. Our dogmatics will be there, as we'll see in one of the other correlatives, as a quality control mechanism. If your exegesis leads you to a position that puts you outside the orbit of proven orthodoxy, something's wrong with your exegesis. But if all you see in the text is something that establishes your present orthodoxy, then you may be squeezing the text and not letting it speak its own message.

11:28 And then, of course, a fourth thing that so often forms the raw materials of a sermon and ought not is a fanciful allegorizing or spiritualizing of a text. Careful exegesis, exegesis will keep you from fanciful allegorizing or spiritualizing. And again, much of this is done by good men. And then a fifth aberration is a clever and forced accommodation of a text.

12:02 And careful exegesis will keep you from that. And I need not give you the illustrations of that which, in some cases, are not only humorous, but ludicrous.

12:12 The famous one that I wish I could preach, but I never will. I have an unfulfilled wish in this area. You remember when Jacob and Esau came before their father, that he said, thy voice is the voice of Jacob, but thy hands are the hands of Esau. Well, I've got a whiz-bang sermon I want to preach on the disparity between the covenant voice and the wild man's hands.

12:41 And people who speak like Christian men, but who in their methodology act like Esau's wild men, totally detached from the principles of Scripture. It would be a great accommodation of the text, but I'll never preach it, because I couldn't do it with a good conscience that I was handling or write the word of God, you see. And it doesn't matter how much good may be done. It just cannot be done. All right?

Correlative 2: Sermons Must Be Predominantly Biblical in Overall Substance

13:04 So there's the correlative number one. Correlative number two is this. Our sermons will be predominantly biblical in their overall substance. Not only thoroughly exegetical in their raw materials, but predominantly biblical in their overall substance.

13:27 Now, some, in seeking to be exegetical, end up making a great part of the content of their sermon to be comprised of studies in grammar, words, etymology, and the mechanics of linguistics.

13:44 Rather than veiling that work and putting the structure behind them and giving us the fruit of it, and then illustrate and emphasizing and explaining the Bible with the Bible. Others taking their raw materials from exegesis spend too much time in the conveyance of that material seeking to be clever or novel in handling the truth that was rooted in exegesis. Since the Bible is its own infallible interpreter, and that's our Reformation heritage, brethren. I hope you appreciate that.

14:25 That's the pointed issue between us in Rome, that we don't need an outside court to tell us the meaning of the Bible. The Bible is its own infallible interpreter and its own best illustrator and explainer. Therefore, our preaching should be predominantly biblical in its essential substance. Now, this, of course, is what gives such weight to the Puritan writings. With all

14:55 of the long-involved, sentences and circumlocution and anacoluthon that makes me seem simple.

15:04 As John Bunyan, as he said of John Bunyan, prick him anywhere and out flows Bibeline. That's what Spurgeon said of Bunyan. Well, that's true of the Puritans. Prick him anywhere.

15:15 And biblical ideas are explaining other biblical ideas. And biblical analogies are explaining biblical narratives. And biblical doctrines are enforcing narratives, and narratives enforcing doctrine. And that's what makes their writing so rich.

15:31 I thought for some of you who perhaps have not had a taste of some of this for a while, I'd whet your appetite again. That's what I love when I read these, the old Puritans. Brooks, in volume 4, page 113. He's dealing, as I recall here, with the subject.

15:47 Yes. It's on his lengthy exposition of Hebrews 12, 14. And under the fact that a holy heart knows that little sins have exposed both sinners and saints to great punishments. All right? Now, here's his point.

16:02 A holy heart knows that little sins have exposed both sinners and saints to very great punishments. Now, listen what flows out in but a few sentences. A gracious soul remembers the man that was stoned to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath. He remembers how Saul lost two kingdoms at once, his own kingdom and the kingdom of heaven, for sparing of Agag and the fat of the cattle.

16:27 He remembers how the unprofitable servant for the non-improvement of his talent was cast into outer darkness. He remembers how Ananias and Sapphira were stricken suddenly dead for telling a lie. He remembers how Lot's wife, for a look of curiosity, was turned into a pillar of salt. He remembers how Adam was cast out of paradise for eating an apple.

16:48 And the angels cast out of heaven for not keeping their standards. He remembers that Jacob smarted for his lying to his dying day. He remembers how God followed him with sorrow, upon sorrow, and breach upon breach, filling up his days with grief and trouble. He remembers how Moses was shut out of the Holy Land because he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. He

17:07 remembers the young prophet who was slain by a lion for eating a little bread and drinking a little water, contrary to the command of God. He remembers how Zacharias was stricken dumb and deaf because he believed not the report of the angel Gabriel. He remembers how Uzzah was stricken dead for staying up the ark when it was in danger to have fallen. Yea, he can never forget, the fifty thousand men of Beth Shemesh who were slain for looking into the ark.

17:31 Ah, how doth the remembrance of these things stir up the hatred and indignation of a gracious soul against the least sins. Ten examples in three sentences. Do you feel the weight of it? Letting the Bible enforce its own message. Boom,

17:51 boom, boom, boom. And I'd be willing to wager, though there's no way we could settle the issue until we get to heaven, that it didn't take him more than nine and five minutes to think of those ten things. See, where the interplay of the devotional life comes, there's a man whose mind and heart soaked in the Bible by that constant accumulation of systematic reading when he comes to his desk to prepare and he thinks of this great principle. Little sins have exposed both sinners and saints to great punishment.

18:22 His mind, just as it were, flashed back over Biblical history, Old and New Testament, incident after incident. And this is what gives the stuff such power and such freshness three hundred plus years after it was written. So my point is, brethren, if the axiom is true, that proclamation, explanation, application of Scriptural truth is the heart and soul of the preaching to which we are called, then not only must we be carefully exegetical in the forming of our raw materials, but we ought to seek to be pervasively Biblical in the actual substance of our preaching.

19:05 Now this will be in contrast to preaching marked by these four things. Predominantly anecdotal preaching, the telling of stories of our own making. Now you all know that I believe there is a place for making parables, illustrations. I'm going to conclude if I have time today with one that I made up while I was running yesterday.

19:32 But that ought not to predominate or with others it's biographical, the sharing of experiences. With others it is imaginative, the display of a fertile mind. With others it is literary, the display of a well-read mind. But for us, our preaching must not only be thoroughly exegetical but pervasive, letting the Bible explain itself, enforce itself, illustrate itself in the substance of our preaching.

The Three Stages of Preaching and Their Results

20:11 And here I commend to you page 74 of Spurgeon's lectures. You'll be reading that in your assignment, I believe it's in that chapter. And then I'll just briefly read from Dabney page 27 at the bottom to the top of page 28. And this is a tremendously perceptive statement.

20:36 I read it, re-read it, and meditated upon it in reworking the lecture in preparation for this morning. It is exceedingly instructive to note that there are three stages through which preaching has repeatedly passed with the same results. Dabney, the church historian, he was no mean historian as well as a theologian and a homiletician and many other things. He says again and again there's been a three-fold cycle in preaching in the church, always with the same results.

21:08 Stage one. The first is that in which scriptural truth is faithfully presented in scriptural garb. That is to say, not only are all the doctrines asserted, which truly belong to the revealed system of redemption, but they are presented in that dress and connection in which the Holy Spirit has presented them without seeking any other from human science. So he says there's stage one when the Bible is explained, enforced, and illustrated by the Bible.

21:40 Stage one. Stage two. He says this state of the Bible marks the golden age of the church. The second is the transition stage.

21:48 In this, the doctrines taught are still those of the Scripture, but their relations are molded into conformity with the prevalent human dialectics. God's truth is now shorn of a part of its power over the soul. See what happens? Still preaching the Bible, but illustrating and forcing it from contemporary current thought patterns.

22:16 Human dialectics. Human logic. Human reason. Putting one's ear, as it were, to the ground of current fads. God's

22:27 truth is now shorn of a part of its power over the soul. Now he says the third stage is then near, in which not only are the methods and explanations conformed to the philosophy of the day, but the doctrines themselves contradict the truth of the word of God. Again and again have ministers traveled this descending scale and always with the same disastrous result. And then he goes on to identify those epochs in church history in which this was true. So brethren,

23:03 as I even listen to your sermons now, you say, to my sermons? Yeah. Alan has a confession to make. He's handed over all the sermons anyone's ever preached down at, or in the process of doing it, down in Flemington.

23:20 And I hope to get Pastor Dykstra to do the same, and anyone else. And I've started listening to them. And whatever else I'd have to criticize, and there are some things I would give some constructive criticism. Almost all of it is in the area of having to urge you brethren not to give so much in one sermon. But I

23:41 thank God that that's the error I have to correct. Because what you're giving is gobs and cobs of the Bible, and in fact so many gobs that people are going to go out with this scented bellies and wearied heads. But I said, Lord, if there's a fault, thank God that's the fault they have. In your desire to explain the Bible biblically, you're just overloading your sermons with too much material. It's like having fourteen main

24:07 courses, and twelve appetizers and the rest. But I'm proud of that fault. And I commend you for that fault. But don't go on doing it.

Correlative 3: Sermons Must Be Theologically Harmonious

24:17 But if you start anywhere good, and I'm thankful that somehow this must be getting through, and I bless God for that. And may that ever be so, that even when you become, and I mean this in the highest sense of the word, as polished a man of God in the pulpit as you will be in this life, may it ever be said that not only do your sermons reflect careful exegesis, but a determination to be pervasively biblical, explaining, illustrating, enforcing the Bible with the Bible. Alright? Thirdly, the third correlative is that your sermons must be theologically harmonious in their statements of

25:01 truth. They must be theologically harmonious in their statements of truth. God's truth comes to us in what one of the brethren quoted in his prayer, in the form of sound words. 2 Timothy 1.13

25:20 There is a beautiful but delicate and intricate relationship in all the facets of God's truth. It is therefore important that in the handling of any one part of it, that we do so in such a way as to harmonize with the whole. Now, we may be sounding only one note in the chord. Say it's the chord, the C chord.

25:43 Alright? And we may be sounding only one note, but we ought to sound it in such a way that if all the other notes were sounded, there would be no dissonance. It would be evident we were sounding a proper note in the C major chord. And that's what we have to aim at in our preaching. That our

26:04 preaching be theologically harmonious as opposed to theological dissonance. Lloyd Jones on page 66 of his Preaching and Preachers says this on this very point. If then I say that preaching must be theological, and yet it is not lecturing on theology, what is the relationship between preaching and theology? I would put it like this.

26:28 That the preacher must have a grasp and a good grasp on the whole biblical message, which is of course a unity. In other words, the preacher should be well versed in biblical theology, which in turn leads on to a systematic theology. To me, there is nothing more important in a preacher than that he should have a systematic theology. That he should know it and be well grounded in it. This systematic

26:52 theology, this body of truth which is derived from Scripture should always be present as a background and as a control influence in his preaching. Each message which arises out of a particular text or statement of Scripture must always be a part or an aspect of this total body of truth. It is never something in isolation, never something separate or apart. The doctrine in a particular text, we must always remember, is a part of this greater whole, the truth or the faith. Now brethren,

27:27 this is what makes biblical preaching in the truest sense of the word so enriching and so satisfying to the enlightened heart and mind of a well-instructed congregation. There never is the sense that someone is playing the wrong note out of harmony with the whole cord of truth which he has been establishing from his own pulpit. Now this kind of quality control upon our preaching will again be in contrast to preaching that is marked by what I have described in three ways as self-destructive, imbalanced, and half-truths. Self-destructive. Some men are so anxious

28:11 to establish one aspect of truth that they blow to smithereens all the other aspects they have been trying to establish prior to that given sermon or series of sermons. For example, some men in a context where people have had free-willism and false notions of man's state in sin and by nature, they are so determined that the people will understand that salvation is of the Lord that they totally negate all responsible pronouncements of human responsibility and they turn people into de facto hyper-Calvinists. And then they try to turn around and urge people to duty when they have established such a structure in which any effort at duty

28:54 has been undercut by that man's ministry. So we must beware of self-destructive preaching and unless our preaching is theologically harmonious, what we build up on one Lord's day, we will tear down the following. Likewise, it will keep us from imbalanced preaching. You've seen when you've watched your tires being balanced that if a tire is out of round or if the tire is out of balanced while stationary, everything's fine or while going very slow. But when that thing goes

29:26 faster, you just see the thing until the whole front end of the car will shake. Well, that's what happens in preaching. Once you begin to move forward with the truth of God and begin to accumulate more and more in that circle of your influence upon your people, if there's imbalance, the further you go, the longer you go, the faster you go, the more that imbalance will begin to manifest itself in the quality of religious life among your people. For remember, vital religion is the counterpart of truth in the human heart and in affections.

30:01 And if there's a distortion of truth, then that distortion is going to be revealed in the quality of religious life among your people. Now Spurgeon felt the weight of this. Listen to what he said in the all-round ministry. And remember, these were sermons preached to his graduates when they would come back for their annual convocation. Page 320

30:21 of the all-round ministry. We desire so thoroughly to know and so heartily to love the truth as to declare the whole counsel of God and to speak it as we ought. This is no small labor. To proclaim the whole system of truth and to deal out each part in due proportion is by no means a simple matter.

30:43 To bring out each doctrine according to the analogy of faith and to set each truth in its proper place is no easy task. It's easy to make a caricature of the beautiful face of truth by omitting one doctrine and exaggerating another. You know what caricature is. You take a person's leading feature and you accentuate it by drawing it all out of proportion to others. Any caricature

31:06 of Bob Hope always has his turned-up nose, almost like Pinocchio. Any caricature of President Reagan will focus on different things. He has a lot of facets in his physiognomy that seem to draw forth caricature, but this is what Spurgeon is saying. We can take the beautiful face of truth, and what makes a face beautiful is when you have not only individually attractive components, beautiful eyes, beautiful nose, but beautiful in their setting in relationship one to another. You might have

31:38 someone whose eyes looked at in isolation with beautiful nose, but maybe they had an unusual space between the eyes, and the woman was never called beautiful because the space was out of whack. Or maybe the nose was unusually set low. It's this beauty of God's truth, all of its features in due proportion and in their proper place, and he says we want to avoid distorting that beauty. We may dishonor the most lovely countenance by giving to its most striking feature an importance which puts it out of proportion to the rest. For beauty

32:11 consists greatly in balance and harmony. To know the truth as it should be known, to love it as it should be loved, then to proclaim it in the right spirit and in its proper proportions is no small work for such feeble creatures as we are. Now you see why you've got to slog through that stuff that Mr. Waldron lays on you, and why you've got to bend your brain trying to keep up with that razor trapped brain of Dr.

32:40 Bing in your systematics? You see why? You see why? It's to the end that the day will come when you will have a people whose religious life will accurately reflect the beauty of God's truth, and who will have in that sense beautiful Christian lives that will be reflective of our beautiful Lord. And that's why

33:08 our preaching then must be theologically harmonious as opposed to self-destructive imbalanced or trafficking in half-truths. You remember Dr. Packers? He may not have been the one who originally stated it, but he's made it famous. A half-truth

33:26 paraded as a whole truth becomes a whole untruth. And it's a terrible thing to see congregations cursed because the minister traffics in half-truths. And it's not that his exegesis is faulty in the given portions that he deals with, but that he's carrying on his work of exegesis in a framework in which he has no solid grasp on systematic theology. We will never, never handle any one of the parts so as to disrupt the beauty and the symmetry of the whole.

Correlative 4: Sermons Must Be Intensely Practical

34:07 Well, then there's a fourth correlative, and it's this. If our sermons are indeed the proclamation of biblical truth, the heart and soul of them, painstaking exegesis, in the raw materials, the Bible itself, in their essential substance, theologically harmonious, number four, our sermons will be intensely practical in their overall thrust. Our sermons will be intensely practical in their overall thrust. And you see, the purpose for which Scripture was given is clearly stated in such passages as 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.

34:50 The God-breathed Scriptures are given and profitable for teaching. Now, some people, that's where they stop, and they feel, when we've taught what the Bible says, we've done our job. But that isn't what the text says. For teaching, for reproof, for correction, for child training in righteousness, that's why they were given.

35:13 Or, 1 Corinthians 10, 11, concerning great blocks of Old Testament narrative and history, these things were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages meant that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted and perished and were destroyed by the destroyer. Therefore, all preaching that is really Biblical must manifest these realities of what the Bible says concerning why the Bible was given. Take Titus 1, 1. Paul speaks of the truth which is according to godliness.

35:49 It is truth which tends toward and leads toward and is supportive of godliness. And if God godliness is not a very practical issue then I don't know what it is. So we must not traffic in truth as the newscaster does in reporting the major events of the day. He's just reporting events.

36:10 I'm just reporting facts that are in the Bible. No. Though any given sermon may, in terms of sermon type, take me nine-tenths of the time to explain, to illustrate, to qualify, to demonstrate, it's all leading to that ultimate assault upon the conscience, the affections, and the will. It's all leading to the authoritative summons to have dealings with God.

36:41 Whether in the reception of His comfort, whether in the reception of a new dimension of His revealed will, whether in the expansion of my appreciation for His grace, the Scriptures were given to lead us to have dealings with God in the concrete of the totality of life under the eye of God and lived in the fear of God. Now, such preaching will be found in direct contrast to that which is merely, and here again I've given you three things it shouldn't be. I find it helpful if I can state, well, this is what I'm aiming at and if I'm aiming at that, this is what it won't be. So this is why I'm doing this with you.

37:23 Preaching which is merely informational. Here the preacher seems to be concerned with nothing less than the injection of facts into the heads of his hearers. And once he's injected the facts, his informational task is done, he's done, they're done, everyone goes his way. On the other hand, there are others whose preaching is exclusively emotional.

37:49 Their end seems to be the mere disruption or agitation of the feelings. If I can carry on the imagery, he tries to get an electric probe into the area where the affections are stirred and give them a jolt. That's his end. And then others, they seem to be merely rhetorical. They want

38:11 to dazzle the eyes of the mind and tickle the ears with the lovely sounds that come out of their voices. But with this practical concern that people will have dealings with God in the full range of what that means, from conviction to comfort to consolation to the response of faith and awe and love and the full range of all that constitutes wholesome, full-orbed Christian experience, so many men seem to be utterly ignorant that the end of preaching is to see such responses elicited from the people of God. So if the Bible is being preached

38:55 biblically, it cannot help but be preached practically. If it is preached biblically, it cannot help but be preached practically, for it was given for those practical ends. And here again, Dabney the philosopher comes forth here. He said eloquence is often named, page 30 of Dabney on preaching, music I'm sorry, eloquence is often named as one of the fine arts, but I've already forewarned you there's an essential distinction made by the ends of the two.

39:29 Music and the imitative arts, that's the theater, are designed primarily to gratify the taste. Their immediate aim is at the sentimental affections of the soul. But the immediate end of eloquence is to produce in the hearer some practical volition. Its design is to evoke an act. When this is said,

39:49 you will not understand me as indicating by the word action only the movement of the body and its members. I speak of the actions of the soul, of those mature determinations of the will, in which man's rational and responsive activity consummates itself. And I repeat that wherever there is no direct purpose in the speaker to reduce action of the will in his hearers, there is no proper oration. He's saying that a sermon is a sacred oration.

40:20 And in classical rhetoric, the oration always had as its end something more than the mere impartation of information, the mere stirring of emotions, or the display of the rhetorical arts of the orator. There was an end in view that was intensely practical, and brethren, we must never forget that. Now, one of the great liabilities of the ministry is you don't know how close you're coming to your mark. There's no way to measure any given sermon. You may be very

40:54 conscious at what you're aiming at. Under God you're aiming that people shall be overwhelmed with a sense of the majesty of God, or the beauty of Christ, or the compassion of Christ, or the horrible depths of human depravity. And you have no way of measuring whether or not that effect, that practical response of humiliation, or exultation, and praise, is actually being elicited in any one sermon. And that's the frustration of preaching, that you have to be a man of faith who leads to God, that over the long haul you will have undeniable evidences that the Word is indeed accomplishing that. But whether you can

41:33 measure it or not, that's what you must drive after. That's what you must pour out your soul in. And it must be evident to even the most cursory listener that that man in the pulpit is not content for me simply to have a mental injection. He wants me to feel what he's feeling. He wants me to

41:55 commit myself to the things he's committed to. That they ought to know. And they ought to know that every single time you preach. And every single time I preach.

Correlative 5: Sermons Must Be Pervasively Evangelical

42:06 And that's why old Professor Murray said, preaching without passion is not preaching. Because you cannot feel the pressure of the practical ends of the truth in which you traffic without feeling passion. It's impossible. Well then, I close on this fifth corollary, or correlative, oh my.

42:28 Our sermons will be pervasively evangelical in their overall climate and flavor. And here I wish I had a whole sermon. I may tack it on at the end because I've been doing a lot of thinking and reading in this area recently, or re-reading more. Our sermons will be pervasively evangelical in their overall climate and flavor.

42:53 Now what do I mean by evangelical? I mean that the realities of the central saving acts of God in Christ, those things that form the heart of the evangel, will flavor our sermons regardless of their precise focus. Now we are called upon to preach the whole counsel of God, and as Professor McCloud so wonderfully stated, this whole idea that Christ must be the explicit focus of every sermon, that theological preaching must dominate, he showed how utterly nonsensical and unbiblical that idea is. You remember he quoted from the prophets, I have hewn them by the words of the prophets. There are certain

43:37 portions of the word of God that are not intended to set forth Christ, they are intended to hack and hew an apostate nation. But, having said that, the element of truth that lies behind the thesis propounded by men like Dr. Clowney is that Jesus Christ, in the perfection of his work and in the glory of his person, is the great lodestone of scripture, the great magnet that holds all of its components together in a cohesive system. Luke 24, 25 and following, the testimony of Paul in 1 Corinthians 2, 1 and 2, determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him as crucified, Colossians 1, 27 to 29, whom we preach,

44:21 warning every man teaching every man that we may present every man perfect in Christ, Ephesians 3, 8, to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Well, let me give you just a choice quote from Gardner Spring and then I'm going to conclude with a bibliography of some excellent works that open up and sections of works that open up this concept of having this climate and flavor of the evangel in all of our preaching. On page 92 of Gardner Spring's Power in the Pulpit, he writes addressing this very subject, the pulpit is powerless where the cross of Christ is not

45:04 magnified. Christ must be the theme, the scope, the life, the soul of the pulpit. It may have the subtleties of philosophy, the attainments of accomplished literature, and the enticing words which man's wisdom teaches, but it has no powerful attraction of God's truth where Christ is wanting. The preacher may not hope to see the strong cords of earth broken, the feathers of gold dissolved, or any of the fascinations of sin disturbed by which the spellbound mind is held in bondage until he throws around it the stronger attractions of redeeming love. There is wondrous

45:44 power in the pulpit where the cross is lifted up, and where instead of attracting men to himself the minister of God would fain attract them to his and their savior. What savors not of the cross of Christ belongs not to the work of a Christian minister. What savors not. He didn't say what is not explicitly focused upon, but what savors not. Alexander

46:13 and his thoughts on preaching, page 207, 208, some helpful thoughts. I hope to read them, but time is gone and I cannot. But the best statement I know of this whole concept of having a ministry that is pervasively evangelical, I found when I came across this wonderful work by Murphy on pastoral theology, on page 168 to 170, he has the most balanced expression of this that I have found in any uninspired literature. Speaking of this fact, quoting from Luke 24, that Christ is the great theme of Scripture, he said, whatever text or theme then is taken by the preacher, it ought to look to Christ.

46:58 He should be the great burden of every sermon. His name need not necessarily be mentioned as that which is to be the subject, but the tone, the spirit, the life, the deep undercurrent and steady aim of every discourse should pertain to the person and work and infinite blessings of Christ. And then he goes on to open up some of those familiar scriptures, some of which I've quoted and then he says this, It is not meant that the death of Jesus in the place of sinful men should be the announced subject of every sermon, nor even that his name should be in every point that is handled. This might not always be possible, nor would it always be best. But what

47:42 is meant is that the salvation of Christ should be the drift, the center, the substance, the aim, should give tone and direction and impulse to every discourse. And then he goes on to give a marvelous quote from Spurgeon and then shows how man's need and all of God's provisions and all of the incentives to a holy life, right up to the consummation at the resurrection and the glorification, how Christ crucified is to be the great burden and central theme of our preaching. Now, if this is so, it will be in direct contrast to preaching that is, and here again

48:24 I've got three contrasts, legalistic or moralistic. Legalistic or moralistic preaching. That is preaching in which biblical duties are taught with no reference to their substance as expressing the will of Christ. You see, to teach a duty to a Christian congregation and not to remind them that it is part of the all things that their Lord commands them is to be guilty of legalistic or moralistic preaching.

48:57 When the motives to obedience do not derive from the love of and fear of Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. When we do not point people to the power for obedience as derived from the strength of Christ, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, he works in you to will and to work.

49:30 I can do all things through all things through him who strengthens me. You see, Christ centered preaching is not preaching which necessarily in every sermon expounds some facets of the work of Christ and the person of Christ. If we are preaching consecutive systematic preaching that would be to strain not expound the text of scripture. But surely when we come to pressing duty we must put it in its larger context as part of Christ's prophetic ministry to his church, teaching them the will of God for their salvation and life.

50:06 And we must teach them and constantly reinforce motivation as derived from the privileges of being within the orbit of the redemptive grace of Christ. Well, it will be also in contrast to what I call bland didactic preaching. Bland didactic preaching. Great truths about the whole spectrum of revealed reality are taught with no reference to Christ.

50:33 Who has the preeminence in all things. What is the doctrine of creation if we do not see it in its biblical setting that all things were made by him and for him. He is the firstborn of all creation. Why? Because he

50:50 is the creator himself. And the doctrine of providence can become very detached if it ceases to be the upholding of all things by the word of his power and his having all authority in heaven and in earth and being head over all things to his church. That's what I mean by bland didactic preaching that has no savor of Christ. Or thirdly, mere sentimental preaching.

51:15 Touching sermons. Heartstrings pulled, tugged, strummed by stories about mother and babies

51:26 and starving millions in Ethiopia. But no reference to Christ, his cradle, his cross, his wounds, his open tomb. Moving people by statistics and graphic descriptions of human need without pointing them to the fact that the heart is only truly moved when it shares a sympathy with the heart of him who saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion. So brethren, when I talk about preaching that is pervasively evangelical this is what I'm talking about.

Avoiding Legalistic, Bland, or Sentimental Preaching

51:58 Preaching in which Christ forms the unspoken at times but very real context and flavor of our preaching. And this is so crucial that I want to commend to you by way of a little bibliography these things for your perusal in days to come. Volume 3 of Brooks. And I know I've gone over my time and I appreciate your forbearance.

52:21 I'll be done here in two minutes. Volume 3 of Brooks, pages 207 to 223. I reread the section yesterday to make sure it was as good as I had put in my notes that it was. And it is.

52:34 And then Gardener Spring, The Glory of Christ. If you can come across that, I think we may have a copy in our library. Pages 25 to 33. I have in my notes here to give you a sample to whet your appetite but I don't have time to. It's marvelous.

52:52 And thank God for the reprinting of Gardener Spring's The Attraction of the Cross. And I would urge you to read and reread this book periodically throughout your ministry. He has a classic statement. Every truth in the Bible brings us at last to the cross. And the cross

53:11 carries us back to every truth in the Bible. So that the sum and substance of all truth is most impressively proved, illustrated, and enforced by Christ and Him crucified. A right conception of what is included in the cross ensures a right conception of every important doctrine contained in the Bible. This is the hinge on which the whole system turns and the great truth by which alone any and all truths can be understood. Someday I want to preach

53:40 a series of sermons on the attributes of God, something I've never done. Preach this series on the attributes of God, but I want to preach it in this way. All of God's essential attributes most clearly revealed in the cross of Christ. It's a series that's been forming for many years in my own mind and heart. And I believe it. I believe

53:59 with all my heart it's not artificial to say that every attribute of God comes to its fullest expression in the cross of Christ. It is the grandest display of who and what God is that was ever made in the moral universe. You'll find that emphasis in springs, the traction of the cross, and then volume one of Flavel, the fountain of life, a display of Christ in all of his various excellencies. And I want to do like the old preachers did. I want to

Conclusion: The Admonition to Preach Christ

54:32 conclude with an illustration, a story. And I do that with a little story. But this was so moving this past year. Someone was kind enough after I spoke so highly of

54:45 Nicholas Murray. Someone found his biography and I read it with much delight to my soul. And there is this touching incident. And this happened right over here in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. The Sabbath was

55:02 a chilly one in October. And in the middle of the sermon I saw an old man rise at the end of the church with a large handkerchief thrown over his head. And placing his stick on the seat of the pew before him, leaned on its top to the close of the sermon. The attention of the old man was obviously fixed.

55:20 His movement and appearance were so peculiar that I was induced to make inquiry in reference to him when I learned that he was a pensioner of the church. In other words, was receiving money out of the church's funds to support him. Of marked character, of subtle mind, of remarkable Christian experience, and of the most fervent piety. When he felt in the least drowsy under the preaching of the word, it was his habit to stand up so as to hear the gospel with all his powers all awake to the importance of the message.

55:50 So that's what he was doing that day. He felt himself getting drowsy, put his cane on the pew, stood up. He wasn't going to miss a word of the sermon. In going my rounds the next day among the people to receive their donations to aid me in the erection of my church, I met this old man.

56:06 He was in an old, dilapidated gig, drawn by a horse just like it, with his aged wife sitting by his side. They seemed all well stricken in years. He stopped, and Dr. M., who was going

56:18 round with me, introduced me to a man who was affectionately called Father Miller. And the following words took place. You are the minister who wants aid to build a church, eh? Yes, sir. But I do not

56:32 wish you to give anything. Then you don't take anything from poor people like me, eh? The Savior did not prevent the widow from giving her mite, all that she had. Are you kinder to the poor than your master?

56:47 I knew not what to reply.

56:51 Take what he gives you, said Dr. M. So after searching his pockets and whispering to his wife, he handed me two shillings and sixpence, saying, I wish it was a hundred dollars, but it's all we have. God never permits us to want.

57:05 We've always a little for his cause. We give you this with our prayers. The whole thing was said and done with a tone of simplicity and earnestness that deeply affected me. Having emptied his pockets, he then commenced to speak to me from the fullness of his heart.

57:22 You, said he, are the young man who preached to us yesterday. I am. Well, that was a kind of missionary sermon, and I liked it well. It is necessary to preach such sermons occasionally, but they are not the gospel.

57:36 You are young, and I am old. You know a great deal more than I do, but dear young minister, preach Christ. If you wish to be useful, preach Christ. If you wish to be a blessing to the church, preach Christ.

57:52 You may never see this poor old man again. If not, let my land be blessed words to you. Preach Christ. I was moved beyond the power to reply, and after slapping the old horse three or four times with the reins, he slowly walked away.

58:09 Upward of a quarter of a century has passed since that interview. Father Miller and his wife have long since gone to heaven, but the impressions still abide. The spot where it occurred, the appearance of the aged couple are indelibly impressed in my mind. Had I the pencil of an angelo, I could paint them to the life. I

58:33 subsequently became that man's pastor. His entire life to its close was in perfect keeping with that first interview. For him to live was Christ. Everything to him was dross and dung that he might win Christ. And although for

58:51 years a pensioner of the church, we all felt when he fell that one of the strongest pillars of our church was removed. If you wish to be a blessing to the church, preach Christ. How often have these admonitory words rung in my ears and burned in my heart. To preach Christ as Paul preached him, the world over, to saint and sinner, as the great remedy for all the moral woes of our race.

59:19 This is the grand duty of the ministry. To this one duty everything must be made subordinate and subservient by the ministry. Then he goes on to demonstrate that in the history of the church, those who were owned of God were those who had much of Christ in their preaching. Well, I thought you'd appreciate the words of that old man just a few miles down the road.

59:44 And who knows but what he being dead yet speaks. And his words will follow us all of our days. Let's pray.