Clarity of Form & Structure in Preaching, Part 1

Introduction to Axiom 3: Perspicuity of Form and Structure

0:03 Well, I trust that you, brethren, are not growing weary of being reminded each Friday that the vast and weighty concern of this course is the concern of trying to come to grips with the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching. Our present area of concentration has to do with the message, particularly with respect to its content and to its form. Eventually, we'll consider seven axioms applicable to all kinds of sermons, and then some of the peculiar principles applicable to the various species of sermons in particular. Now, thus far this semester, we've examined two axioms. Axiom number one, the proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truth must constitute the beginning, middle, and end of the sermon. The end of all our preaching. Then, last week, axiom number two, the proclamation, explanation, and application of the scriptural truths most needed by our people must be our constant goal.

1:18 And in opening up that axiom, I gave you one fundamental principle, and then we tried to look at some basic guidelines with reference to the selection of sermonic materials. Now, today, we come to...

1:32 Axiom number three, and it is this. The proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truths. You notice each axiom begins with the same words. The proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truths in a perspicuous, P-E-R-S-P-I-C-U-O-U-S, in a perspicuous form, and structure must constitute our continuous endeavor.

2:12 The proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truths in a perspicuous form and structure must constitute our continuous endeavor. Now, let me first of all give a brief definition of the key words of the axiom. Then we'll consider, for the bulk of our time, the importance of this axiom, and then, finally, the price that must be paid in order to implement the axiom. First of all, then, let me define the key words and concepts in the axiom.

2:54 When I use the words form and structure, you should recognize immediately that this axiom is dealing with the arrangement of the materials of proclamation, explanation, and application. Form and structure bring us into the realm of division, arrangement, and relationship between the particular sets of ideas within a given sermon. So we are in the realm of division, arrangement, and relationship when we touch on the subject of form and of structure. And the axiom I've given states that the division, arrangement, and relationship, that is, the form and structure, must be marked by perspicuity. Now, I've used the word deliberately. I could have said clarity, for the word perspicuous means transparent, clear in statement, easy to be understood, or lucid. But this is a lecture, and in the lectures I'm using the language of the classroom and not the sanctuary, and one of my secondary goals is that of trying to enlarge your working vocabulary.

4:21 And so I've used the word perspicuous rather than its synonyms, because in a sense it is broader than any of those synonyms. So the axiom has to do with order and arrangement, division and relationship of the parts of a sermon which makes the truth being proclaimed, explained, and applied stand out in bold relief. Or in the language of Dabney, and I quote page 132, that discourse, that discourse should be perspicuous, and I found he used the same word, is to play...

5:02 to need words, for if it cannot be apprehended, why utter it?

5:10 The question, if it cannot be apprehended, why utter it? Horace has fixed the connection between order and perspicuity in a single phrase, lucidus ordo, so felicitous that it can never be forgotten. And if we had only been schooled in Latin, we would feel the weight of what Dabney held. He says, the whole thing is summed up in just those two Latin words.

5:38 The reason why method aids perspicuity has already been given in part, it is because it aids memory. And it cannot but be that the mind will grasp the materials of thought presented to it in those relations which are conformable to its own laws better than if their order is deranged. So the whole matter of clarity, lucidity, transparency is bound up in great measure with this subject of form and of structure. Now our axiom states that the proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truths in a perspicuous form and structure must constitute our continuous endeavor. In other words...

6:32 This perspicuity with respect to form and structure, that is, the division, arrangement, and relationship of your sermonic materials, must be a conscious goal and part of your conscious labors. It makes no difference what native gift you may have in this area or how orderly your mind may be, either natively or in terms of the mental disciplines to which you have been subjected in the process of your education. No one will produce consistently perspicuous sermons as to form and structure who does not consciously seek to produce such sermons and labor to that end. So this must be, as I've stated in the axiom, our constant, our continuous endeavor. Well, so much for the brief exegesis of the meaning of the words of the axiom. Now that which will constitute the bulk of the lecture today, let us consider...

The Importance of Perspicuity for the Preacher

7:33 Let us consider the importance of perspicuity in form and structure. The importance of this aspect of sermon preparation cannot, I say it cannot, be emphasized too strongly or with too much repetition. We dare not come from our closets in our studies and dump raw, formless globs of truth on the ears of our people. Now, if you're going to dump anything that's raw, formless, and globby, grant that it may be truth and not error.

8:13 But your people deserve something more than the raw, the formless, and the globby. Perhaps I can introduce the subject of the importance of form and structure in no better way than to read the perceptive words of Broadus. And this is in the edition that I recommend, the new 23rd edition. The one edited by Edwin Charles Dargan, 1898 edition of Broadus' classic work.

8:46 And Broadus says, concerning this very subject, and I'll give a rather lengthy quote from the bottom of page 258 to the top of 260. The effective arrangement of the materials in a discourse is scarcely less important than their intrinsic interest in force. This is a distinct part of the speaker's work and should be contemplated and handled as something apart from invention on the one hand, and from style on the other, albeit closely connected with both. In fact, the task calls for a specific talent.

9:27 Some men exhibit from the very outset a power of constructing discourses which is quite out of proportion to their general abilities. And other men...

9:37 ... find nothing so difficult to acquire or exercise as skill in arrangement And here, as in everything else that demands specific talent, there is need of special training and practice.

9:53 In this respect, the speaker is an architect. Out of the gathered materials he is to build a structure and a structure suited to its specific design The same or nearly the same...

10:07 materials may be made into a home, a jail, a factory, or a church. All right? You can take the raw materials, brick, mortar, two-by-twelves, sheetrock, and nails, and you may make a home, a jail, a factory, a church. But how different the plan of the building according to its design, and how important that it be built with special reference to the design. In like manner, substantially the same materials may be brought into a story, a dialogue, an essay, or a speech, and several speeches on the same subject and embodying much the same thoughts may make a very different impression according to the plan of each. Or the speaker's task may be compared to the organization of an army, and then the construction of the building. Concentration of its several divisions of the army upon one objective point. We know not how to name a composition without order. It is disposition, it is order, which constitutes discourse. The

11:16 difference between a common speaker and an eloquent man is often nothing but a difference in respect to what he calls here disposition, form, and structure. Disposition may be eloquent in itself, or on close examination, we shall often see that invention taken by itself, that is the composition of the raw materials, and viewed as far as it can be apart from order and form, is a comparatively feeble intellectual force. Good thoughts, says Pascal, are abundant. The art of organizing them is not so common.

11:55 I will not go so far as to say that a discourse without order can produce no effect, for I cannot say that an undisciplined force is an absolute nullity. We have known discourses very defective in this respect to produce very great effects, but we may affirm in general that other things being equal, the power of discourse is proportional to the order which reigns in it, and that a discourse without order is comparatively feeble. A discourse has all the power and power to be made, and the power of which it is susceptible only when the parts proceeding from the same design are intimately united, exactly adjusted, when they mutually aid and sustain one another like the stones of an arch. This is so true, so felt, that complete disorder is almost impossible even to the most negligent mind. In proportion to the importance of the object we wish to attain, or the difficulty of attaining, we must be able to attain the object we wish to attain, meaning it is our sense of the necessity of order.

13:08 Now, it's one of the most perceptive things I've ever read on this subject, and there's something in those very statements that strikes a note of inescapable affirmation in your own mind and consciousness. Well, you see, we're talking about something that's tremendously important. Now, I'm in no way nullifying axiom number one and its five corollaries. The corollary number one being that painstaking exegesis must constitute the raw materials of all of our sermons.

13:41 But if we don't go beyond, you see, the mere gathering of the raw materials, or spend such a disproportionate amount of mental time and energy upon the raw materials so as to cheat on the matter of form and structure, the thrust, the impact, the power, the grip, the toothiness, the stickability, the buriness, use any other term you want, of our sermons, will be greatly eroded, and we will not become in the hands of God the effective preachers that otherwise we might be. Well, let me break down specifically now the importance of perspicuity of form and structure into two major categories. I've introduced it by this rather lengthy quote from Broadus, but now let's think specifically, and this outline has been suggested to me by Broadus, though the material...

14:33 The materials are different. The importance for the preacher himself, and then secondly, the importance for the hearers. Of what importance is perspicuity of form and structure? Remember now we're talking about order, arrangement, and relationship of sermonic materials, assuming they grow out of careful exegesis, assuming that the raw materials are thoroughly biblically, harmoniously, theological.

15:03 All of those other things assuming that the raw materials are the raw materials of which sermons ought to be constructed, of what importance is this matter of perspicuity of form and structure to the preacher himself. And I answer the question by two statements. Number one, it will impart freedom and force in the detailed preparation of the sermon. It will impart freedom and force.ツ tnd lgă commandments advisors decibelce and generalharmonia satisfactorily كان in the detailed preparation of the sermon. Once the mind of God with respect to the text has been ascertained, once the basic spadework of exegesis has been done, or sometimes even in the midst of the exegetical work, if no form or structure begins to emerge, you will find that the advancing stages of sermon preparation are an advancement in confusion and mental paralysis, because you

16:14 will have this growing mass of materials lying all around you with a two-by-fours mixed up with a two-by-twelves and a pile of nails in the middle of it and some sheetrock there, and you just finally wanted to put your hand over your head and go on off and do something other than try to construct a jail, a church, a house, a barn, or something else. So if you are to have that mental freedom and that sense of the force of the discourse upon your own spirit in the more advanced stages of preparation, then there must be emerging in your own mind and most likely for most of us on paper some distinct form and structure to the sermon. Without this, mental freedom and freedom of thought, you will not be able to do anything. You will not be able to work the. And this is an absolute terror to the centimeter!

17:07 The surreal effect ofodiography and the the the this this displeasing to it. And he uses the same analogy. A heap of stone and timber is not an architectural structure, but an unsightly mass of rubbish. A mixture of brilliant gems is not a mosaic picture, but a quantity of pebbles. And the richer their colors, the more dark and confused is the mass. A mob of men is not an army. The atoms of this mighty universe, without an orderly connection, would only be a vast nebula of dust. Have not the poets, ancient and modern, found in chaos

18:11 the strongest conception of what is repulsive and abhorrent in matter? And then he has a footnote, Paradise Lost, Book Two. You see, the point that Dabney is making is the point that I'm attempting to make, that if we are to have that freedom to think our discourse through to the point where we ourselves are , feel the force and the thrust of it upon our spirits, then there must be, at some point in the advancing stages of preparation, form and structure emerging in the discourse. Again, I quote from Broadus, who, speaking to this very point, says, further on page 260, arrangement is of great importance to the speaker himself. It reacts upon invention. One has not really studied the subject when he has simply thought over it in a desultory fashion, that is, passing from one thing to another without any thorough examination of anything. One has not studied a subject when he has simply thought it over in a desultory fashion, however long-continued and vigorous the thinking may have been. The attempt to arrange his thoughts upon it suggests other thoughts, and can alone give him

19:32 just views of the subject as a whole. Good arrangement assists in the working out the details, whether this be done mentally or in writing. Each particular thought, when looked at in its proper place, develops, according to the situation, grows to its surroundings. If one speaks without manuscript, an orderly arrangement of the discourse greatly helps him in remembering it. One reason why some preachers find extemporaneous speaking, and he doesn't mean speaking without forethought, but without notes, is that they are not speaking without forethought. So difficult is, they do not arrange their sermons well. Whether in preparation or in delivery of sermons, a man's feelings will flow naturally and freely only when he has the stimulus, support, and satisfaction which come from conscious order. Let me give it to you again. A man's feelings will flow naturally and freely. Now notice he says,

20:34 Whether in preparation or in delivery of sermons, a man's feelings will flow naturally and freely. or delivery, only when he has the stimulus, the support, and the satisfaction which come from conscious order. Listen to Shedd speaking on the same subject, page 186 of his Homiletics and Pastoral Theology. Although the sermonizer may modify his plan after he's begun to compose, he may not begin to compose without any plan. He is to construct the best scheme possible beforehand and to work under it as the minor works under his movable hurdle, never disturbing the outside or the main props, but frequently altering the interior and secondary framework as the progress of his labor may require. If, therefore, the sermonizer neglects this practice, he may not be able to compose without any plan. He is to construct the best scheme of skeletonizing and begins to compose without a settled scheme, writing down such thoughts and observations as spontaneously present themselves. His intellect will surely and at no slow rate lose all its logical ability and all its methodizing talent. The fundamental power

21:53 of the rhetorician and orator, the organizing power, will disappear. So, brethren, I cannot emphasize too much. If you would seek under God to know something of that freedom and force that ought to be your portion in the more advanced stages of the preparation, you must cultivate the art pertaining to form and to structure. Let me try to illustrate this from something that I hope will be quite relevant. Those of you who were present Sunday evening when I sought to expound on the subject of the sermon, I was not able to do so. I was not able to do so because I was not able to do so. I was not able to do so because I was not able to do so. I was not able to do so because I was not able to do so.

22:30 Luke 9.51-62 will remember that I had two divisions to the sermon. The division of verses 51-56, we have the picture of our Savior moving with resolute determination to Jerusalem. And then we have the Lord Jesus calling disciples into a resolute commitment to Himself in their discipleship.

22:54 Now, having established that the main thrust of the sermon was to be the opening up of the cost of discipleship, but setting that in the context of the resolution of our Savior, I was prepared to skip over verses 53-56 except with a very brief summary statement, and felt no clangs of conscience in doing that because it was irrelevant to the purposes of that particular sermon. Now, had I not early in my preparation established the form and structure of that sermon, as well as the overall thrust, which is a part of the form and structure, or determining the form and structure, you can see what would have happened. As I got involved in the preparation, I would have gotten fascinated with this when the text says, and they did not receive Him because His face was going to Jerusalem. How did they discern it? How could they? And you see, that's the kind of thing that just cries out, look at me, examine me,

24:00 pick me up, pick me up, pick me up, pick me up, pick me up, pick me up, pick me up, pick me up, apart. Well, see, if you allow your mind then to spend all that time, you would have lost the force of that which you felt was the main burden of that particular sermon. And your mental faculties, your time, and then your homiletical energies would have been dissipated over a wide field that had nothing to do with that particular sermon and the burden of the Lord for that particular sermonic exercise, you see. And this whole matter of form and structure, then, is essential for that freedom and force in your detailed preparation. And I could not help but think of that when I was reworking the lecture and rewriting the notes for this morning as a very current example in my own experience of this very point. But then the second thing with regard to the preacher, the second great benefit and importance, you see, we're looking at the importance of perspicuity of form and structure, first of all for the preacher, first statement for the preacher, and then for the preacher. And then for the preacher, first statement for the preacher, it will impart freedom and force in the detailed preparation. Secondly, it will greatly assist freedom in the actual delivery of the sermon. It will greatly assist freedom in the

The Importance of Perspicuity for Freedom in Delivery

25:16 actual delivery of the sermon. A man unsure of where he's going must keep his nose in his map and cannot enjoy the luxury of drinking in the beauty of the landscape as he goes. Some of you have gone into strange places. Maybe you can remember the first time you came out of your little boondocky town into this metropolitan area, and you thought for sure you were going to have to hire a professional navigator ever to make it. All these roads coming this way and that way, and where you come from, everything's north, south, east, and west, and divided up into mile roads, and you just said, man, I can't make it. And you had to keep your nose in your map. Well, I have sensed at times when listening to certain men preach, the reason they had their nose in their map, their map being their notes, was simply because they had either not understood, or if they understood, had not disciplined themselves to implement what they knew, this whole principle of the necessity of perspicuity of form and structure. The sermon was so unnatural as to its form that they could not hold it in their own minds. It could only be there on their paper.

26:32 And they were glued, not only to their paper, so that there was no eye contact,

26:38 they could not allow themselves the luxury of throwing their own hearts, as it were, on the crest of the thoughts expressed, because there was no logic, there was no progression, there was no closely chiseled connection between the thoughts, so that their spirits were constricted, as well as their eyeballs restricted, and the whole element of pulpit liberty and freedom was absent, primarily because there was an absence of perspicuity of form and of structure. The one who knows where he is going can walk securely and enjoy the sights along the way as well. All of the masters on preaching are in almost complete agreement that the ability to preach without a detailed manuscript or copious notes, will be in direct proportion to this.

27:33 proportion to the clarity of structure in the sermon. Stewart, in his excellent little book on preaching, James Stewart, simply called Preaching, says on page 158 the following perceptive things. It is worth emphasizing that freedom of delivery in the pulpit depends upon carefulness of construction in the study. It is surprising how often this point has been missed in the debate between read and spoken sermons. To the question, ought I to risk oral delivery of my sermons, in other words, preaching without notes or without manuscript or with very few or scanty notes, the right answer surely is that it all depends on the sermon. Some sermons it would be almost impossible, even for the man who wrote them, to carry in the mind at all. They meander with mazy motion. They return upon their tracks. Ideas overlap. Single paragraphs trail on for pages. There's not

28:41 one illustration like a beacon to light the way. For such sermons, oral delivery would involve prodigious feats of memory, and that is no true preaching. On the other hand, it should be quite possible for the preacher, without the stiltedness of mechanized memorizing, to get a sure grip and clear conspective. This, that was a new word for me, of his own sermon, provided that certain conditions have been observed in the composition of it. These conditions are clarity of logical structure, well-defined divisions and subdivisions, exclusion of irrelevances, short paragraphs with a single clear-cut thought in each, not long unbroken stretches where a dozen ideas jostle, balance and progress and development, with one or two strong and vivid illustrations marking out the track. The point is that freedom of delivery will tend to vary in direct proportion to accuracy of construction. If you can fashion a sermon which stands out clearly in all its parts before your own mind, the tyranny of the manuscript will be the same. If you can fashion a sermon which stands out clearly in all its parts before your own mind, the tyranny of the manuscript will be the same.

30:02 If you can fashion a sermon which stands out clearly in all its parts before your own mind, the tyranny of the manuscript will be the same. If you can fashion a sermon which stands out clearly in all its parts before your own mind, the tyranny of the manuscript will be the same. If you can fashion a sermon which stands out clearly in all its parts before your own mind, the tyranny of the manuscript will be the same. If you can fashion a sermon which stands out clearly in all its parts before your own mind, the tyranny of the manuscript will be the same.

30:04 If you can fashion a sermon which stands out clearly in all its parts before your own mind, the tyranny of the manuscript will be the same. If you can fashion a sermon which stands out clearly in all its parts before your own mind, the tyranny of the manuscript will be the same. express it, the tyranny of the manuscript is broken. Now, you see, your manuscript, however much or little you have, ought to be your servant, not your master. And I have listened to men preaching that I felt literally they would have died a thousand deaths if the wind came along and blew one page of their manuscript away from them. They would have become unhinged. They would have come apart at the seams. There was a tyranny, and you sensed that that manuscript held them in its grip, and you almost wish you could have taken the tyrant and shot him. That is the manuscript that you might get some preaching. And that's the thing that Stuart is speaking about, that a preacher will not know under normal circumstances, as a general rule, much liberty or freedom in the actual delivery of the sermon unless there is perspicuity of form and structure embedded in his own mind with respect to that sermonic exercise. Ryle, in his classic essay, On Simplicity in Preaching, found in the collection of his essays, The Upper Room says, Furthermore, if you wish to see through your subjects thoroughly, and so to attain the foundation of simplicity, do not be ashamed of dividing your sermons and stating your divisions.

31:22 I need hardly say that this is a very vexed question. There's a morbid dread of first, second, and third in many quarters. The stream of fashion runs strongly against divisions, and I must frankly confess that a lively, undivided sermon is much better than one divided in a dull, stupid, or illogical way. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that can preach sermons which strike and stick without divisions, by all means, let him hold on to his way and persevere. But let him not despise his neighbor who divides his sermons. All I can say is, if we would be simple, there must be order in a sermon as there is in an army. What wise general would mix up artillery, infantry, and cavalry in one confused mass in the day of battle? What giver of a banquet or dinner would dream of putting on the table the whole of the

32:21 meal at once, the soup, the fish, the entrees, the meat, the salads, the game, the sweets, the dessert, in one huge dish?

32:31 Such a host would hardly be thought to serve his dinner well. Just so I say it is with sermons. By all means, let there be order. Order, whether you bring out your firstly, secondly, or thirdly, or not. Order, whether your divisions are concealed or expressed. Order, so carefully arranged that your points and ideas shall follow one another in beautiful regularity, like regiments, marching before the queen on a review day in Windsor Park. And there a good Englishman gives you a good bit of counsel. And then he goes on to say that's why he admires Spurgeon. And in his day, apparently, it was not for the dignified thing for an Anglican, and especially an Anglican bishop, to speak of his enthusiasm for Spurgeon. And he said, if you study the sermons of men who have been and are

33:27 successful preachers, you'll always find order and often division. I'm not a bit ashamed to say that I often read the sermons of Mr. Spurgeon. I like to gather hints about preaching from all quarters. David did not ask about the sword of Goliath. Who made it? Who polished it? What blacksmith forged it? He said, there is nothing like it, for he had once used it to cut off the owner's head. Mr. Spurgeon can preach most ably, and he proves it by keeping his enormous congregation together. We ought always to examine and analyze sermons which don't draw people together. Now, when you read Mr. Spurgeon's sermons, note how he clearly and, here's the word, perspicuously divides a sermon and fills each division with beautiful and simple ideas. How easily you grasp his meaning.

34:16 How thoroughly he brings before you certain great truths that hang to you like hooks of steel, and which, once planted in your memory, you never forget. My first point, then, is, if you would be simple in your preaching, you must be faithful. You must be thoroughly understood, and if you want to know whether you understand your subject, try to divide it and arrange it. And he says, if you can't do that, it's because you don't understand.

34:43 It's not that you're so profound that you have such large ideas that are beyond division. It's that you have confused notions that defy division because of their chaos and their confusion. So, then, for the preacher himself, perspicuous, the ability of form and structure is essential, two reasons, for the freedom and force of advanced preparation for freedom, and, in that sense, force and liberty in the actual delivery of the sermon. But now, what about our poor listeners, who must sit before us week by week?

The Importance of Perspicuity for Hearers: Intelligibility

35:21 Of what importance is the matter of form and structure to them? And here I have not two points, but I have four points. Double. All right?

35:33 First of all, it, that is, perspicuity of form and structure, the pronoun refers to that, which is the heart of our axiom, it is a major factor in making what we say intelligible. It, that is, perspicuity of form and structure, is a major factor in making what we say intelligible. Now, I've chosen my words carefully. I say, Perspicuity of form and structure is not the major factor, but a major factor.

36:10 Other things, such as vocabulary, figures of speech, illustration, and even animation,

36:17 have a major contribution with respect to whether or not what we say proves intelligible. Now, by intelligible, I am speaking to the grasp with which the things we say are not has upon the minds of our hearers, its penetration to their consciousness. The Holy Spirit alone can make it spiritually powerful to the heart, to the affections, and to the will. And I'm fully conscious of that, and I'm speaking self-conscious of that reality. But may I say, without being irreverent, it is not the task of the Holy Ghost to take your jumbled mess of formless globs of truth and make them intelligible to people. That's your task. It is His work to give spiritual illumination, to warm the affections, to move the will. But it is not His work to set it out in such a way that it is intelligible. That's your work. And don't you throw on the shoulders of the Holy

37:21 Ghost what He's put on your shoulders, or be guilty of tempting God and asking Him to do something that is really a cover-up for your own laziness. The same apostle is saying, which things we speak in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth, said, we use great plainness of speech. And never separate those two things. We use great plainness of speech. Listen again to Stuart on this point, quoting now from page 108. Here I urge you to spare no pains. And he's speaking now about the matter of reducing the chaos of the raw materials to order, taking the jumbled mass of material and putting it into order. And he's speaking now about the matter of reducing the ...hammering it into coherent shape. This is his own language. Now I quote him. Here I would urge you

38:12 to spare no pains. Clarity, logical progression, natural transitions, closely riveted connections, these are duties you owe to your hearers. The preacher who stints toil at this point, these are duties you owe to your hearers. The preacher who stints, toil at this point, being disciplined for the strenuous, being disinclined, I'm sorry, for the strenuous mental discipline involved, is laying upon his congregation the onus of a task which is really his and not theirs. He is transferring to them a burden he ought to have taken on himself. Is it surprising that their acceptance of it should, to put it mildly, lack enthusiasm? Never grudge the labor which clear thinking and methodical construction demand. A sermon which has

39:14 some symmetry about it, built to an orderly plan and showing evidence of carefully chiseled thought, is likely to have far more thrust and grip and attack upon the hearer's minds than any amorphous collection of fine ideas. There is a story of a young minister, oops, that crazy watch of mine, there is a story of a young minister who, concerned about the apparent failure of his preacher, consulted Dr. Joseph Parker in the vestry of the city temple. Parker was a famous preacher in his day. His sermons, he complained, were encountering only apathy. Could Dr. Parker frankly tell the young man what was lacking? Well, said Dr. Parker, suppose you preach to me one of your sermons here and now, said Parker. And his visitor, not without some trepidation, complied. When it was over, the doctor told him to sit down. Young man, he said, you asked me to

40:13 be frank. I think I can tell you what is the matter. For the last half hour, you have been trying to get something out of your head instead of something into mine. For the last half hour, you've been trying to get something out of your head instead of into mine.

40:38 Distinction is crucial. Wrestle with your subject in the study that there may be clarity in the pulpit. For if the trumpet gave an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? If the soldier doesn't know whether he's hearing mess call or call to arms, he doesn't know whether to grab his mess kit or his rifle. And if our preaching, through lack of perspicuity of form and structure, does not have that intelligibility about it that ought to mark our sermons, then let us not be surprised if there is no grip upon the conscience of our people, and in a sense there is no delight in listening to us preach. Again, Broadus addressing himself to this same principle, that for the listener, the matter of form and structure is essential for intelligibility, says, still more important is good arrangement as regards the effect upon the audience. It is necessary first in order to make the discourse intelligible. Hearers

41:48 generally, when the preacher has a poor plan, feel the difficulty, though they may not be able to trace it to its real source. And one of the reasons why a man of truly philosophical mind is able to make things plain, even to illiterate hearers, is that he presents clear thoughts in a proper order. Now you know what it's like to sit there sensing when a man is struggling with the whole matter of unorganized thought in his own mind, and you feel with him and for him. And instead of sitting there having your own mind and heart feel the thrust of truth, you're sitting there pitying the poor fellow, wishing, which I could help it.

42:26 You just, you feel so awkward and you feel all this inward pain and, well, that's not what preaching is for, to set up a sympathy of common pain. I mean, the idea is you're there to send home truth to the mind and ultimately to the conscience. And under the blessing of the Spirit of God, to the affections and wills of men. And now Spurgeon, addressing himself to the subject, says on page 209 of his lectures to his students, Brethren, we should cultivate a clear style. When a man does not make me understand what he means, it's because he himself does not know what he means. An average hearer who is unable to follow the course of thought of a preacher ought not to worry himself. But to blame the preacher, whose responsibility it is to make the matter plain. If you look down into a well, if it be empty, it will appear to be very deep. But if there be water

43:26 in it, you will see its brightness. I believe that many, quote, deep preachers are simply so because they're like dry wells with nothing whatever in them except decaying leaves, a few stones and perhaps a few stones. And if you look down into a well, if it be empty, perhaps a dead cat or two. This is what his preacher boys got Friday afternoon. If there be living water in your preaching, it may be very deep, but the light of truth will give clearness to it. It is not enough to be so plain that you can be understood. You must speak so that you cannot be misunderstood. And then Spurgeon goes on to amplify that very subject.

The Importance of Perspicuity for Hearers: Aesthetic Pleasure

44:13 So, brethren, if we would speak to our people in such a way as to have our sermons intelligible, then there must be clarity of form and structure. But then, secondly, as to its effect upon our hearers, it is a major factor in making what we say more aesthetically pleasing. It is a major factor in making what we say more aesthetically pleasing. Now, let me ask you a question. Who gave us our sense of aesthetics, that is, the ability to appreciate the beautiful, the noble, the elevating, and the harmonious? Who gave us that capacity, God or the devil? Well, I hope all of you have already answered in your own minds and have no question. One of the things that lifts us above the beast of the field is that ability to appreciate the beautiful, the noble, the elevating, and the harmonious.

45:19 The ability to recognize and to appreciate the orderly, the symmetrical, the harmonious, and the beautiful. Now, what should be more beautiful, more majestic, more aesthetically pleasing than the revelation of the mind of the God who is the sum total of all that is truly beautiful and noble and pure? This is why I dare to say that our sermons ought to have the elements of the heavenly spirit. of the aesthetically pleasing in them.

45:57 God made the mind with its sense of order and arrangement. Sin, not grace, has disrupted all of this. And the God of creation must be honored in the proclamation of his redemptive truth. And therefore it is not wrong to have as one of your goals in preaching this goal to have sermons that are as aesthetically pleasing as it is possible to make them without sacrificing truth.

46:29 It is in the interest of the advancement of truth that we seek to have sermons that are aesthetically pleasing. We want to know that if there's any offense, if there's any rejection, it is the offense and the rejection of truth presented in its most aesthetically pleasing form. And therefore we will have all the more leverage when we tell our hearers, and if you reject this truth, you reject it because of the sin of your heart. And know that none can answer and say, no, preacher, I reject it because it sounds so hopelessly confusing that there's a rejection mechanism going on inside me that I simply can't sort out what in the world you're talking about.

47:14 And so a major factor in making what we say aesthetically pleasing is this element of perspicuity of form and structure. And again, it was good to have, my thoughts on this thing confirmed by one of the old masters, Broadus says on page 263, using different terminology,

47:35 again, clarity of form and structure greatly contributes to make the discourse pleasing. Order is heaven's first law. Even those phenomena in nature which seem most irregular and those scenes which appear to be marked by the wildest variety are pervaded by a subtle order without which they would not please. Chaos might be terrible, but could never be beautiful.

48:02 And discourses which are pleasing but appear to have no plan will be found really to possess an order of their own, however unobtrusive or peculiar. An ill-arranged sermon may, of course, contain particular passages that are pleasing, but even these would appear to still greater advantage as parts of an orderly whole, and the general effect of that whole must be incomparably better. Let it be added that a well-arranged discourse will much more surely keep the attention of the audience, and this not merely because it's more intelligible and more pleasing, but also because, being conformed to the natural laws of human thinking, it will more readily carry the hearer's thoughts along with it. So let's not think it beneath our dignity to have as one of our concerns in preaching this matter of preaching, aesthetically pleasing sermons. Not tickling men's ears, not seeking to throw, as it were, some kind of a veneer over the truth, no, no, no, no, but setting out the truth in its most pleasant form so that the God who made our people with an appreciation for the pleasant will find it a joy to listen to us preach even though the things that they enjoy listening to cut them to pieces.

49:27 And it will be, what I call the sweet pain that comes when sitting under good preaching.

49:35 Its aesthetic beauty draws you near, and as it draws you near, its content smites you.

The Importance of Perspicuity for Hearers: Moral Persuasion

49:43 All right? The third function of clarity of form and structure for our hearers is this.

49:52 It's a major factor in making what we say intelligible, a major factor in making what we say aesthetically pleasing. Thirdly, it is a major factor in making what we say morally, morally persuasive.

50:07 Now, hear me carefully. Making what we say morally persuasive.

50:15 Now, those words sound like first cousins to the doctrine of moral suasion, that there is no more divine efficiency put forth in the gospel than a general moral suasion. That teaching, if you've not encountered it, you will sooner or later in historical theology, is downright heresy. It is one of the ugly plants that grows well in a Pelagian or semi-Pelagian theology of the influence or non-influence of the fall of man. I'm not speaking of anything that in any way is related to the doctrine of moral suasion.

50:55 But I'm trying to express what Paul meant when he said, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. And remember, when Paul was standing there, standing for a heathen potentate, he said, almost thou persuadest me, or with but little persuasion would you make me a Christian, regardless of how we translate it, the concept of persuasion was present.

51:22 And the scripture tells us, as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and of judgment, the heathen potentate trembled. Now, God has made us not only to feel the beauty of the aesthetically pleasing, but to feel the weight of logic or orderly argument. And since the Spirit does not bypass, but lays hold of this reality of our humanity, we must seek clarity of form and structure if our prayers, that our sermons be convincing, not be undone by the lack of form and structure in our preaching. It's one thing to expect a miracle of regeneration. It's another thing to expect a miracle of life. It's another thing to expect a miracle of life. It's another thing to expect a miracle of life.

52:09 It's another thing to expect an immediate miracle of divine intervention to sort out the head, the tail, the leg, the foot, and everything else of our sermon so that people can recognize what kind of a beast it is.

52:26 And all I'm saying, brethren, is that is a job that is ours. And if our sermons would be morally persuasive, they must have in them the force of perspicuity of form and structure, particularly, particularly at the point of the logical progression in the unfolding of truth or the logical connection between the truth unfolded and its moral, its spiritual implications. And I was thinking in my preparation of stating it this way, that the God of Scripture is the God of the gars, the haughties, the hinas. That's the God of Scripture.

53:09 I beseech you, therefore, therefore, then, if, then, finally, brethren, all of that language, and to give you the shock treatment, I thought I'd ask this question. Would there be any difference in the moral persuasiveness of the exhortation of Romans 12, 1 and 1, Romans 12, 1 and 2, if we inserted it into Romans 1, 9 to 11?

53:39 Well, the answer, you see, is obvious. If we lifted up Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice. And we put it down there in chapter 1, and in places verses 9 to 11, where Paul speaks of his desire and intention to come to Rome, etc. If we had that exhortation there, it would lose its force.

54:03 Why? Because it's lost its logical connection with the development of the entire argument of the epistle. And you find this in some passages very, very painful, very painful, very painful, romans 10 is a classic example. How then shall they call on him whom they have not heard?

54:22 How then shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Well, you see, you're carried along with the tremendous force of that logic, and before you know it, it has the consent of your conscience, and he's got you. He's got you.

54:40 1 Corinthians 15, you find that same kind of closely reasoned, argumentation on the very surface of things. If Christ be not risen then, if then, if then, if then, right through the passage. Well, I say, brethren, though the Bible is given to us not in that sense to be the model of homiletics, but gives us the raw materials on which our homiletics works, nonetheless, there are indications in some of the recorded passages of Scripture, the recorded sermons and in the epistles, the outworking of this principle in a very concrete way. And so then, if we would be morally persuasive in our preaching, then, brethren, we must spare no pains in seeking to be perspicuous as to form and structure. And then, fourthly, the fourth area of influence upon our hearers, then we'll quit at this point and pick up the third strand of our lecture in the reopening minutes of the next hour. It, clarity, perspicuity of form and structure, it is a major factor in making what we say intellectually retainable. It is a major factor in making what we say intellectually retainable.

The Importance of Perspicuity for Hearers: Intellectual Retainability

56:07 I trust that our great longing in preaching is to get certain truths into the heads of our people so that they may feel the weight and influence of those truths upon their hearts. Now, the more clear the structure, the more orderly the form, the more likely our people are to retain the content of those sermons. Now, I'm fully aware that much of the true effect of a sermon is not immediate nor isolated from its part in the cumulative influence of a sound ministry. Now, if you don't understand that principle, you'll get very discouraged.

56:45 You cannot measure the benefit of any given sermon in isolation. From its cumulative, its part in the cumulative influence of a sound ministry. In other words, as your people are listening to you preach week by week, month in and month out, year in and year out, they are gaining a general knowledge of the Bible. They are gaining, without even knowing it, a set of principles of hermeneutics, how to interpret the Scripture, how to handle the Word of God.

57:18 And any given sermon has for its, benefit and profit, all of those things which cannot be measured in terms of its isolated and immediate effect. You see? You're building up in children a whole backlog of concepts of God and truth and the Christian life. How can you measure those things when in reality it may be years down the road before any kind of visible fruit comes from it?

57:43 Now, I'm aware of that and I slip that in and from time to time I'll remind you of that so that you won't be discouraged. But, having said that, we still ought to have as one of our longings to preach with such clarity in the area of form and structure that when our people go home and sit at the table on Sunday afternoon, a father can say to his kids, now what did pastor preach this morning? And open up the Bible and have the children of some reasonable age and intelligence say, well, these are the basic points. May not give them in the same way verbal form and the rest, but they'll be able to follow through the substance of the sermon.

58:26 Now, if what they hear is not intellectually retainable, how can they meditate upon it day and night and be the blessed men or women described in Psalm 1? Peter said that he stirred up the minds of his hearers or his readers by way of remembrance that even after he was dead they might call to remembrance the things that were written. And I guess as you start down the other side of the hill of your three score and ten,

58:57 you begin to wonder, what will people remember when I'm in my grave?

59:03 What things am I making so perspicuous that they cannot miss it? What things do I have some reason to hope are being embedded in their consciousness through the instrumentality of my preaching? Very sobering question. Let me give you two quotes addressing themselves to this very point that I'm making, the intellectual retainability of our sermons.

59:30 Spurgeon says on page 131, Let the good matter which you give your people be very clearly arranged. There's a great deal in that. It's possible to heap up a vast mass of good things all in a muddle. Ever since the day I was sent to shop with a basket and purchased a pound of tea, a quarter of a pound of mustard, and three pounds of rice, and on my way home saw a pack of hounds and felt it necessary to follow them over hedge and ditch, as I always did when I was a boy, and found when I reached home that all the goods were amalgamated, tea, mustard, and rice, into one awful mess.

60:11 I have understood the necessity of packing up my subject in good, stout parcels, bound round with the thread of my discourse, and this makes me keep to first and foremost. Firstly, secondly, and thirdly, however unfashionable that method may now be, people will not drink your mustardy tea, nor will they enjoy muddled-up sermons in which you cannot tell head from tail because they have neither, but are like Mr. Bright Sky's terrier whose head and tail were both alike. Put the truth before men in a logical, orderly manner so that they can easily remember it, and then, they will the more readily receive it.

61:00 Again, Dabney, speaking to this same matter, to be more specific, I would show that order promotes the recollection of a discourse, both by the preacher and the hearer. And, brethren, surely we should long that our people retain as much as is possible, and no little part of that retention will be determined by the perspicuity of the form and structure with which we preach. Well, we'll take a break here, and then we'll take up point three. I gave you definition of the axiom, the importance of it, and now we'll deal with the price of attaining perspicuity of form and structure in the next hour.

The Price of Attaining Perspicuity: Toil and Labor

61:44 May I say a word quickly before you?

61:49 Good. All right, brethren, we'll pick up precisely where we left off in the previous hour, having set before you the third axiom applicable to all, all kinds of sermons, namely the axiom referring to the necessity of clarity or perspicuity of form and structure. I gave you a brief exegesis of the axiom, set before you the importance of the axiom with respect to the preacher, two lines of thought with respect to the hearers, four lines of thought. Now we come to the third division, explanation of the axiom, importance of the axiom.

62:27 Now, thirdly, the price, of attaining perspicuity of form and structure. And I wrestled here with my terminology. I said, is price the word I want?

62:42 And after going down other avenues of thought and possible selection of other words, I've come back and I'm using the word price.

62:52 While fully recognizing the existence of the diversity of natural ability and a diversity of spiritual gift in this area, and you'll get more of that in next week's lecture, God willing, fully recognizing that, the price to be paid by any man who would attain and maintain perspicuity of form and structure in his preaching,

63:22 that price is given to us in the language of Genesis 3, in the sweat of thy brow. That's it.

63:33 In the sweat of thy brow. It is toy, toil, more toil, and incessant toil.

63:45 If your sermonic exercises are to have this quality in a consistent manner. There are some sermons, the clarity of form and structure of which is quite evident very early in the preparation,

64:05 and therefore, the attainment of perspicuity of form and structure in that particular sermon is irrelevant. It is a relatively easy task. But you will not preach long, particularly if you engage in any kind of consecutive ministry, whether it is verse-by-verse consecutive ministry, expository ministry, or topical, before you'll realize that some subjects, some texts, some passages simply will not yield their natural form and structure easily. And then you will understand your task as never before as a task of kapiontos and logokai didoskalia.

64:50 Kapiao. Labor unto difficulty and hardship. 1 Timothy 5 and verse 17. And you'll understand why Paul described your function as laboring in the Word and in doctrine.

65:06 Because you will sit and look at these raw materials. You're confident that it is best you can in dependence upon God with the tools at your disposal. You have ascertained the mind of the Spirit in the given passage. But then you say, how can I construct this into a sermon?

65:28 And you will labor with that question. And you will take up different approaches. And you'll do like the architect who draws a sketch and then another and then another and another. And he's not satisfied that that sketch reflects the intention of the person who has secured his services.

65:45 He says, I want a building for a certain end to perform a certain function. Will you take your architectural knowledge and skills and all of the rest and produce that? And often he will find himself tentatively moving in one direction only to scrap all of that and then to move in another only to scrap all of that. In talking with architects you would find that there are times when a stroke of genius comes and the first thing they put to paper is the thing that ultimately becomes the framework of their masterpiece.

66:17 But that's not the rule and that's not the rule in preaching. So the price to be paid, brethren, face it, I don't care what your native gift is in this area, no matter how God puts you together in your mother's womb and how naturally logical and connected are your thoughts, if you are to have sermons that are perspicuous in form and structure week in, week out, month in, month out, the price is toil, more toil in service and toil, toil to the point where you'll wonder at times what in the world am I doing in this business? You'll feel the frustration of being unable to reduce this mass of raw materials to some kind of form and structure that will make it intelligible to your people. And God have mercy on you if you don't feel that burden. Either you don't have a clue of what the thing is or you're a concoction of genius that the church in the world has never seen before.

67:17 And, of course, I'm talking tongue-in-cheek, buried in my cheek. Now, to underscore that this is not just a peculiar notion of my own that the price is toil, more toil, and incessant toil, let me quote from several of the masters again. First of all, from Broadus, he concludes his whole section dealing with this subject on the importance of arrangement. That's what he calls form and structure.

67:44 He concludes with this paragraph. Cockerell says that the lack of method is the most common fault of preaching and the most inexcusable because usually it is the result of insufficient labor. A man cannot give himself all the qualities of the orator, but by taking the necessary pains he can connect his ideas and proceed with order in the composition of a discourse. Without specific talent for building discourse, one will not find it an easy task and may never be able to strike out plans that will be remarkably felicitous.

68:28 In other words, outstanding. But a fair degree of success in arrangement is certainly within the reach of all provided they are willing to work. End quote. You see what Broadus is telling us about the price of perspicuity, of form, and structure?

68:49 It is the price of toil. Now, Lloyd-Jones, recognized by many to be one of the outstanding preachers in our own generation, proven over a long haul, when he addresses himself to the subject, this is what he says in his book Preaching and Preachers on page 78. In other words, I assert there is an artistic element in a sermon. This is where the labor of preparing sermon comes in.

69:21 The matter has to be given form. It must be molded into shape. I imagine that the musical composer or the poet has to do this very thing. The poet has certain general ideas, certain themes suggest themselves to him.

69:35 But if he is to produce a poem, he has to take all these ideas that have come to him and mold them into shape and put them into a particular form. This involves considerable effort and labor. I hope to dwell in detail when I come to the actual practical preparation of the sermon on the variable character of this toil and on some of the difficulties and also on the way in which the problems are sometimes resolved in strange and unexpected manners. All I am saying now is that it is our business as preachers to hammer out our subject matter in order to get it into the form of a sermon.

70:17 And then he goes on to take up common objections to this particular teaching and then he concludes by saying, the preparation of sermons involves sweat and labor. It can be extremely difficult at times to get all this matter that you found in the scriptures into this particular form. It is like the potter fashioning something out of the clay or the blacksmith making shoes for a horse. You have to keep on putting the material into the fire and on to the anvil and hit it again and again with the hammer.

70:52 Each time it is a bit better but not quite right. So you put it back again into the fire and hammer it again until you are satisfied with it or can do no better. And I am so glad he put that final part or can do no better. At least you know when you hold up your horseshoe and you say, I know it ought to look more like a horseshoe but that is the best I can do given the amount of heat that was in my fire and the strength that was in my arm and the amount of heat and the shape of my anvil and the time I had to put all those commodities together.

71:23 See, he is a realist now. He is not talking like some ivory-towered idealist. He is confessing that there is a lot of sermons he preached in which he himself was not satisfied but he could do no better.

71:39 This is the most grueling part of the preparation of a sermon. The most grueling part. Not the most blessed, the most joyful, the most grueling part of the preparation of a sermon. But, at the same time, it is a most fascinating and most glorious occupation.

71:58 It can be at times most difficult, most exhausting, most trying. But at the same time I can assure you that when you finally succeeded you will experience one of the most glorious feelings that ever comes to a man on the face of this earth. To borrow the title of a book by author Kessler you will be conscious of having performed an act of creation and you will have some dim understanding of what the scripture means when we are told that God looked at the world that he had created and saw that it was good.

Challenges and Call to Labor for Preachers

72:32 And that's true. I can say amen to that. And I'm sure some of you in your limited experience can even add your amen to that as well. So, when we come to this whole matter next week of what constitutes perspicuity of form and structure we're going to be laying out matters that are going to be difficult to implement for some of us.

72:54 It's going to be particularly difficult because you are the products of an educational system in which logic, composition, literature, oratory were all at an all-time low. Imagine being a product of a school system in which from the lowest grades you were taught elocution. You were taught Latin. You were taught logic.

73:17 You were taught how to compose. You were given a broad background in the classics literature-wise. When I see some of the dribble that my girls have to read in their English literature courses, I mean dribble compared with some of the things even I had to read 30 years ago, I'm grateful that there was much more common grace and sound education in existence in the public schools back when I went to school. But you see some of you men sitting here today, you're the products of an eroded educational system that has left you with very little in the way of backsliding around to do this work.

73:57 But it has to be done. And just as in the areas that I've acknowledged to you men in which I've been shortchanged in the acquisition of certain tools for the ministry mean that I have to do a continual work of catch-up, some of you will have to do continual catch-up work in some of these areas. But if you're determined to be the best preacher, God's grace and your own pains can make you. And don't ever separate those two.

74:23 God's grace and your own pains and labors can make you. Then you're going to find before long if you've not already that the price of perspicuity in form and structure is the price of arduous labor. You're going to have to labor to grasp the principles because you've not been trained to think logically. You're going to have to labor not only to grasp the principles but to seek to imbibe them, to master them.

74:49 And then you're going to have to labor yet more to begin to work with them until they become your own working tools. But brethren, work you must. Work you must. And so I announce again, if you don't have a heart for work and if you don't find emerging in your spirit a love for God's people that will make it your joy to labor and to toil for their well-being, then get out of this academy.

75:16 Forget the ministry. Forget it, brethren. Forget it.

75:23 Because there is no standard by which your job performance can be measured like it is at Exxon. You don't measure up, you get your pink slip. And many a man ought to have had his pink slip because people must sit and try to sort out these unformed masses, sometimes of good truth, but simply do not come with clarity of form and structure. And I'm convinced that on the one hand the problem is people simply don't understand the principles and the principles but where they don't understand them, the other hand I'm convinced the problem is sheer laziness.

76:03 Sheer laziness. And we are called upon to labor in the word and in doctrine. Now that's the price. I wish I could give you some easier method.

76:12 I wish I could tell you there was something which when once mastered would be the key but I would be going contrary to everything that the masters have said. Everything contrary to my own limited experience. And I ain't never going to do that. Whatever else I do.

76:29 The time you find me speaking contrary to the masters and to my own experience is the time you ought to rise up in mass and drive me out of this place or at least put me under house arrest until the elders can get hold of me and dispose of me in due time. All right. We've got 20 minutes before Mr. Holbrook comes.

76:48 Are there questions that you want to ask?

76:52 There.