Application in Preaching, Part 1

Defining Application in Preaching: The Fourth Axiom

0:02 Now, once again, brethren, we address ourselves to the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching as these elements are found in the content and form of the message. Thus far, we have stated, explained, and validated three axioms that pertain to all kinds of sermons. Number one, the proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truth must constitute the heart and soul of all our preaching. Number two, the P.E.A. of the scriptural truths most needed by our people must be our constant goal. And then the third one, the proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truths with perspicuity of form and structure must constitute our continuous endeavor. Now we come today to the fourth axiom, and I wrestled with whether I should make this much less wordy, and I went back and forth and back and forth, and I ended up back, all right? And back is this, the proclamation,

1:16 explanation, and application of scriptural truths with specific references to the thinking, comma, behavior patterns, comma, affections, comma, conscious consciences, comma, and wills of our hearers must constitute our continuous practice. The proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truths with specific references to the thinking, behavior patterns, affections, consciences, and wills of our hearers must constitute our continuous practice. practice. The briefer form was, with specific reference to the entire humanity of our hearers.

2:25 But that seems so bland, entire humanity, what's that mean? So I opted for the more lengthy axiom. All right? Now in my treatment of this axiom, I've organized the material under four heads.

2:38 I hope to cover the first two in this hour, and the last two in the next hour. First of all, a description and definition of the axiom. The axiom is the axiom of the axiom of the axiom of the application of application in preaching. And then secondly, a demonstration of the scriptural basis for insisting upon application in preaching. Then I'll give you some guidelines for cultivating aptitude in application in preaching. And then fourthly, some conclusions and counsels pertaining to application in preaching. All right? First of all, then, a description and definition of application in preaching. And then secondly, a demonstration of the scriptural basis for insisting in preaching. I've said in our axiom that the proclamation, explanation, and application of scriptural truths with specific references to the thinking, behavior patterns, affections, consciences, and wills must constitute our continuous practice. One has accurately written that, quote, application, application is the highway from the head to the heart in our preaching, end quote. We can conceive

3:58 of application as the bridge from correct notions of biblical truth to proper affections and right volitions in the light of the truth established. Application is the bridge from correct notions to proper affections and right volitions to proper affections and right volitions in the light of the truth established. Application is the bridge from correct notions to proper affections and right volitions, or to state it another way, application is that aspect of our preaching in which our hearers are made to feel, and I'm choosing my words carefully, are made to feel that we are not only or merely stating true and good things in their hearing, but that we are proclaiming vital things to their hearts. Now you see, there's a small zap here, but there's a small zap and you see, there's a small zap in the middle of the radio gig where God said, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this with you in and out of the the distinction. Much preaching could be characterized as the statement of true and good things in the hearing of a congregation, but you would not get much of an impression that those true

5:11 and good things were vital things that needed to grip the hearts of the hearers. It was said of Philip Henry, Matthew Henry's father, that he did not shoot the arrow of the word over the heads of his audiences in flourishes of affected rhetoric, nor under their feet by coarse expressions, but into their hearts in close and lively application. That's a beautiful description of preaching. He didn't shoot the arrow of the word over people's heads, letting it fly off into space.

5:50 Nor did he shoot it under their feet by coarse expressions that would disgust, but he shot it into their hearts by close and lively application. To change the imagery, if the truth is the nail, application is the hammer by which the truth is fastened to the hearts of our hearers. In all of our preaching, our aim must be to have the truth driven clear through to the deepest recesses of the heart, whether in conviction, encouragement, consolation, a sense of duty, or a sense of privilege. To use the analogy from the passage in Judges, we must not be content that the tent pin of truth be laid upon the temple to loosen the dandruff of our ciceras.

6:53 Rather, drive the plant clear through, until it is fastened to the ground with it. And I wrote in my notes, Oh, for the spirit of jael wife of heber. It's a graphic thing where she took the tent pin to his temple and drove it clean through until it stuck in the ground. Alas, much preaching does little more than loosen the dandruff in people's spiritual skulls. That's all it does is loosen the dandruff. Brethren, we want to nail skulls to the ground with God's faithfulness. He is not a saint. He is a master of his sins. He is ravioli. You know that. He was a man That's true. The imagery sticks, doesn't it? I hope so. All right.

Historical Perspectives on Application: Quotes and Imagery

7:29 Now, to give you an idea of what others have done, and we're just trying now to talk around what is application in preaching, and that's why there's very little organization to this first heading, in an excellent little treatise called Power in the Pulpit by Henry Fish, a man who preached in Newark with great blessing in another generation. On page 9, or page 8 and 9, this is what he says about application. The eloquence needed for this age is that of Pericles, which was described as that which, quote, left stings behind, end of quote. Most hearers know enough.

8:10 They want to be made to feel and to do. Now, this next statement is not true in our day. It was in his. The defensive outworks of Christianity are pretty well raised.

8:21 We now need to advance on the enemy and shell him out from his entrenchments by shooting fires into the souls of men. It were a blessing to some ministers who have so much dignity to support and who are so proper and so precise as to break nobody's heart with the hammer of truth if Klaus Harms were to cry out in their ears as some of the fine writers of his day speak negligently and incorrectly. A discourse had better be...

8:53 And then he uses a term, and I took all of my dictionaries and couldn't find it. The best I can figure out is describing a rough blanket. Better be like a Hetchel with the toe pulled out. T-O-W.

9:08 And the best I can fit together, there is a definition of toe, and it has to do with jute or other rough material. So I think what he's saying is this. A discourse had better be like a rough blanket than like a smooth cushion for the hearer to lean asleep with a sleepy head upon. Better like lightning darting zigzag and piercing and tearing and splitting the object it strikes than like a letter dispatched without a direction, to use John Newton's comparison, addressed to nobody, owned by nobody, and if a hundred people were to read it, not one of them would think himself concerned in its contents.

9:49 Now John Newton heard an awful lot of non-applicatory preaching to come up with this. It was so vivid an image as a letter addressed to nobody, owned by nobody, and if a hundred people were to read it, not one of them would think himself concerned in its contents. Well, that's application. Application is preaching sermons that are like letters that have your name on it and contents which make it unmistakably clear that the person who writes the letter to you, addressed to you, knows you, and is telling you something about yourself.

10:26 In the excellent section, probably the finest thing in short compass that I know of on the whole subject, in Bridges' section on applicatory preaching of the gospel, he says on page 270, we must not expect our hearers to apply to themselves unpalatable truths. Massillon's preaching is said to have been so pointed that no one stopped to criticize or to admire it. Each carried away the arrow fastened in his heart, considering himself to be the person addressed and having neither time, thought, or inclination to apply it to others. So powerfully did it fasten upon the individual heart that none had time, thought, or inclination to apply it to others. Preaching in order to be effective, page 271, must be reduced from vague generalities to a tangible individual character coming home to every man's business and even to his bosom. He goes on in a slumbering routine of customary attendance, nothing but the preacher's blow, the hand not lifted toward him but actually reaching him will arouse him to consideration. There is no need to mention names.

11:51 The truth brought into contact with the conscience speaks for itself. Even the ungodly can bear forcible sermons without any well-directed aim. The general sermons that are preached to everybody are in fact preached to nobody. They will therefore suit the congregations of the last century or in a foreign field as well as the people before our eyes.

12:17 Such discourses as Bishop Stillingfleet remarks have commonly little effect on people's minds, but if anything moves them, it is particularly important that they be able to understand the particular application as to such things in which their consciences are concerned. We must therefore preach to our people as well before our people. The consciences of the audience should feel the hand of the preacher searching it and every individual know where to class himself. The preacher who aims at doing good will endeavor above all things to insulate his hearers, to place each of them apart, and render it impossible for him to escape by losing himself in the crowd. That's the preacher's aim, to isolate each man with the truth of God and not be lost in the crowd. At the day of judgment, the attention excited by the surrounding scene, the strange aspect of nature, the dissolving of the elements, the last trump, will have no other effect than to cause the reflections of the sinner to return with a more overwhelming tide on his own character, his own sentence, his own unchanging destiny. And amid the innumerable millions which surround him, he will mourn apart.

13:39 It is thus the Christian minister should endeavor to prepare the tribunal of conscience and turn the eyes of every one of his hearers upon himself. But this applicatory mode should extend to the consolatory as well as awakening exhortations of the gospel, bringing home the general promises to specific cases, the promises of forgiveness to every distinct case, of penitence and faith, of direction, support, comfort to each particular emergency as if they had been made for it alone. The property of a good portrait well describes a good sermon, that it looks directly at all, though placed in different situations, as if it were ready to speak to each. I have a message from God unto you. You've seen those portraits that are haunting. Everywhere you go in the room, the eyes of the person are on you.

14:39 He says that's the picture of a good sermon. Wherever you are, the eyes of God shine through that sermon, not over the heads of everyone in general, but into your eyes and into your heart in particular. And then, to give you several quotes from Brooks,

14:57 what does he say about this matter of application? What is it in relationship to preaching? This is volume 1, page 23 of the works of Brooks. Doctrine is but the drawing of the bow.

15:10 Application is the hitting of the mark. How many are wise in generals, but vain in their practical inferences? A general doctrine not applied is as a sword without an edge. Not in general.

15:26 Not in itself, but to others. Or as a whole loaf set before children, it will do them no good. A garment fitted for all bodies is fit for nobody. And so that which is spoken to all is taken as spoken to none.

15:46 Now, of course, he lived in the day before stretch socks and stretch pantyhose that one size fits all. But in terms of our normal garments, can you imagine somebody going into business, and saying, we have a new commodity, we have a sport jacket, fits all, from 5'2", 105 pounds, to 7'6", 385 pounds, one size fits all. Well, that would be ludicrous. Well, he's saying, that's a sermon without application.

16:14 One size fits all, fits no one. Fits no one properly. Listen to him as he speaks in volume 3, page 218. To divide the word aright is to cut out, says Calvin, and others, to every...

16:28 Every one his portion, as a parent cuts out bread to his children, or a cook meat to his guests. A general doctrine not applied, he repeats himself here, is as a sword without an edge. So I take comfort. These good old preachers had a good imagery.

16:45 They used it more than once in their sermons, and unembarrassed to have it go to print. He says, a garment fitted for all bodies, the same imagery. Doctrine is but the drawing of the bow. Application is the...

16:59 Hitting of the mark. He said, such preachers, who only are wise in generals, but vain in their practical inferences, are fitter for Rome than for England. He says, go be a priest in the Church of Rome, rather than evangelical and reformed preacher. In volume 4, 439, Brooks says of application, we shall now come to the use and application of this point to our own souls, remembering.

17:29 This is a classic statement. That close application is the very life and soul of teaching. A thing without its life and soul is called dead. He is saying that close application is the very life and soul of teaching.

17:48 And as a man does not attain to health by reading of Galen and knowing Hippocrates and his aphorisms, apparently these were the two great medical authorities, up to that day, but by the practical application of these principles to remove the disease, so no man will attain to true happiness by hearing, reading, or commanding what I have spoken or written, but by a close application and bringing it home to his own soul. The opening of the point is the drawing of the bow, but the application of the point is the hitting of the mark. We would say the bullseye. He calls it the...

The Essence of Application: Conscious Effort and Divine Sovereignty

18:30 Apparently the center was the white. We would say the bullseye. So, you see the old writers, all of them unite in one consistent testimony in bringing before us that application is that element in our preaching in which we make a conscious effort to bring home to our hearer's consciences the spiritual, moral, and practical implications, consolations, and demands of the truth proclaimed and explained. Now, I am not saying that the only time the word of God comes home with power is when we are consciously making specific application. No. God is greater than our purposes and greater than our efforts. He works according to His designs and the measure of His power, not our feeble designs and the measure of our efforts.

19:29 So, I'm... I'm fully conscious as we heard from a letter down there in Yazoo City recently.

19:36 Do you remember? The man said, hearing a sermon on God's lordship over the nations, he got such a sight of the majesty of God that the ill will he held to a brother appeared so ugly he had no rest till he made the thing right with God and with his brother. Now, God does that all the time. But, but, while acknowledging God is utterly sovereign in applying His truth under our preaching, we, we are responsible under God to make conscious efforts at giving specific thrust to the consciences of our hearers as part and parcel of that which constitutes the very essence of preaching.

Scriptural Basis for Application: 2 Timothy 3-4

20:19 Well, I've talked around the subject of application. What is it? I've tried to give you a definition or description of application, not so much one formal statement, but I trust, by these various quotes and images and analogies that you have a working conceptualized concept of this matter of application. Now then, secondly, I want to give a demonstration of the scriptural basis for application in preaching.

20:52 A demonstration of the scriptural basis for application in preaching.

21:00 Now, the most critical passage, in reality, the locus classicus on the subject, is 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, and 2 Timothy 4, 1 and 2. I am prepared to rest the whole case of applicatory preaching as being of the very essence of preaching, not a one of many styles or one of many emphases of preaching, but I am prepared to rest the case for application being of the very essence of preaching on these two texts. Writing, to Timothy, Paul has described the function of Scripture in Timothy's life in being the instrument of his own salvation, verse 15 of 2 Timothy 3, from a babe, brephos, from a wee tiny one, you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired of God and is also profitable for teaching. For, now notice, reproof, correction, instruction, or child training, or discipline which is in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete in his person, furnished completely unto every good work as to his calling and responsibility.

22:29 So the Scripture is given that we might be made wise to the salvation which is through faith in Christ, and for us to be made wise to the salvation of our lives, and to the salvation of our lives, and to the salvation of our lives, and to the salvation of our lives. are also profitable by divine design, not by the discovery of the Puritans in the 17th century, but by divine design. They are profitable not only for teaching, the setting forth of the propositional concepts of God and all reality, but for reproof, the pointing out of wrong patterns of thought and behavior behavior, for correction, showing us the right way to think and behave, for discipline, for training up in the life of practical godliness, that the man of God himself may be a complete man and may be furnished completely unto every good work. Then, when Paul turns to Timothy to tell him how he is to handle that word which is functioning in him in its applicatory ways, as described in verse 16, he says, this is what you're to do, Timothy. 2 Timothy 4.2. Preach the

23:44 word. Be urgent in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. For.

24:00 The time will come when they will not endure the sound or healthful teaching. They will not endure healthful teaching. And what is healthful teaching? It is that teaching that is derived from the word that comes in terms of objective, propositional realities, yes, but more than that. That word is to be proclaimed. As teaching, but it is also to be proclaimed in terms of reproof, rebuke, exhortation, or comfort, and in a context of long-suffering and teaching, that is, the objective realities. So, brethren, the whole concept, or the whole perspective, that applicatory preaching is a valid, quote, style of preaching, if that happens to be your bag, I reject, flat out, and say that preaching that is not applicatory is not biblical preaching, because it falls short of the very purpose for which the Bible was given.

Scriptural Basis for Application: Prophetic, Apostolic, and Christ's Preaching

25:13 So, it's of the very essence of preaching. It's the very essence of a proper handling of the Scriptures in terms of the purpose for which the Scriptures were given. God never gave us the epistle to the Ephesians that we might know the outline of Ephesians have in our minds the basic content of that epistle and be able to convey it to others, he gave it that the church at Ephesus originally and all of the churches till the consummation might, through the instruction of that book, come into greater conformity to Jesus Christ, living out consistently the will of Christ in a pagan society, shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Now, when we read the recorded sermons of prophets, apostles, and our Lord, here's our second line of evidence as to the biblical basis for application in preaching. I've said the locus classicus of these two passages. Secondly, the recorded sermons of prophets, apostles, and our Lord all indicate that the applicatory element was constantly present.

26:31 Thirdly, what is preaching? Well, let's go to the scripture and see the recorded preaching in the Bible, and what do we find? Well, when we turn to the prophets, the denunciation of sin took on concrete realities of the specific sins of which the hearers at that time were unusually guilty. Isaiah chapter 1, there was religious formalism, going to all the ritual of temple worship and new moons and feasts and fasts.

27:03 And what does the prophet say? Woe unto me is all of this ritual! And he goes right after the heart of the sin of empty ritualism. Our Lord does the same in Matthew 23 when he goes after in a denunciatory way the scribes and the Pharisees.

27:20 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees! And then he delineates their specific sins. And when the apostle writes to the Corinthians, he doesn't write about the problems of the churches of Galatia. He doesn't write about the problems in the church at Philippi.

27:37 He says, it's been reported to me at the house of Chloe that you've got a mess in your place and I'm going to address your messes. And he addresses them. In a real sense, the epistles are the very embodiment of applicatory pastoral injunction and instruction. And you see this all the way through in the denunciation of sin.

28:02 Concrete realities of the specific sins of the specific hearers were addressed. Furthermore, the consolations to the distressed took the form dictated by the peculiar struggles of the hearers. Look at the last half of the book of Isaiah. Such a contrast that as you well know, you have your critical theory of two Isaiahs and some, I don't know what number they've elevated it to.

28:33 But here, the people of God are envisioned as having passed through that horrible experience of the exile and being in the posture of God's promises to bring them back and of restoration and the tremendous consolations and comforts with which those last chapters are filled. Beginning, of course, with chapter 40, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. The book of Hosea. That marvelous picture of God taking back his adulterous wife, that I will allure her and I will woo her.

29:14 I will betroth her unto me in righteousness. Here are consolations to the distressed that take a form dictated by the peculiar struggles of their hearers. The epistles to the seven churches in the book of the Revelation. We find our Lord doing this.

29:31 Here is his faithful friend. He says, you've been faithful in these things, continue in them, I'll give you the crown of life. And the consolations are not generic, they are specific to the circumstances in which the people of God are found. Likewise, with the announcements of God's glorious being and purposes, you find them suited to the specific state and condition of the hearers.

30:03 What does that mean? What does an oppressed, exiled people there in a foreign land need to know about Jehovah? Well, they need to know that all the nations, including Babylon, the Medo-Persian government and nation that will emerge, and all the rest, they are as a drop in a bucket in the presence of this great God. What do they need to know about God?

30:25 Well, you see, the majestic descriptions of the exaltedness of God are specifically made to give. It's a consolation to God's people in their concrete circumstances. You find the same in Revelation 1-3. As the Lord gives messages to each church, he first of all directs attention to himself, harking back to the vision of chapter 1, 18 to the end, and he picks out an aspect of his own glorious being, the total of which shattered John and left him as dead, and he picks up a strand, peculiarly appropriate to the message he's about to give to each of those seven churches.

31:03 What is this? This is applicatory preaching in its consolatory dimensions as well as in its convicting dimensions. It is said in Matthew 21-45 that when our Lord finished speaking on this occasion, there was no question who he was speaking to and what he was talking about. It says that when the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them.

31:45 Now, we're told, never so speak that anyone will know or even suspect that you might be speaking about them. Where do you get that in the Bible? In a public situation, Jesus was indicting a specific group of people, and when he was done, they knew it. And they knew it to the extent that they got so mad they tried.

32:04 They tried to lay hold on him, but it was their fear of the multitude that caused them to carry out their design to destroy him. John the Baptist, you talk about close-pointed applicatory preaching. He says to that potentate, it is not lawful for you to have her. He didn't stand in his presence and say, sir, I would like you at your leisure to consider whether or not there may be aspects in the law of God.

32:35 Which you are presently not giving due consideration to. Now, I wouldn't want to offend you, sir, but it just may be that, what kind of nonsense is that? It is not lawful for you to have her. Off with his head.

32:50 Close applicatory preaching. Lost him his head. But when his head tumbled into the basket, his soul went into the presence of his God, and he heard the words, well done.

33:04 Paul says, oh, foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched? Who has spooked you? Who has bamboozled you?

33:11 Foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you? You very people before whom Christ was placarded, crucified among you. I mean, that's close applicatory preaching.

33:25 He's calling these people a bunch of dupes. That's what he's saying. Foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you?

33:34 All over you.

33:42 Well, brethren, that's applicatory preaching. That's the kind of preaching and teaching that is found, in the prophets, in the apostles, and in our Lord. Wonderful summary of this on page 271 of Bridges.

33:58 This is what he says. Personal application formed the nerve of the preaching of the Jewish prophets and of our Lord's public and individual addresses. His reproofs to the scribes and Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, had distinct reference to their particular sins. In his treatment of the young ruler, the woman of the Samaria, he avoided general remark to point his instructions to their besetting and indulged sin.

34:24 Talking to their thoughts, as one writer has observed in the case of the young man, as we do to each other's words. Peter's hearers were pricked to the heart by his applicatory address. He didn't say, now, I don't want to offend anyone, but let's face the fact that certain among you may have been guilty of crucifying God's Messiah. No, he says, you, by wicked hands, took him and killed him.

34:55 He called them murderers of Messiah.

35:02 Talk about bruising people's self-image. They were pricked to the heart. Even the hardest heart, the most stubborn sinner, is made to smart under the point of the two-edged sword. Now, if these assertions and observations are correct, then we should expect that the people, who took their views of preaching from the Bible itself, should see the same thing.

Historical Reformed Witness to Applicatory Preaching

35:28 All right? Well, when we pick up the books that record what others who read the same Bible we do have said about this, the biblical basis of applicatory preaching, we're not at all disappointed. Quoting from Peter Lewis's excellent book, The Genius of Puritanism, he quotes James Durham on page 49. And this is, what James Durham said about application in preaching.

35:55 Application is the life of preaching. And there is no less study, skill, wisdom, authority, and plainness necessary in the applying of a point to the conscience of the hearers, and impressing of it home, than is required in the opening of some profound truth. And therefore, ministers should study the one that is application as well as the other, exposition. Hearers are often ready to shift by the most particular words much more when they are more shortly and generally touched.

36:30 Hence, preaching is called persuading, testifying, beseeching, entreating, or requesting, exhorting, all of which import some such dealing in application, which is not only a more particular breaking of the matter, but a directing it to the consciences of the present hearers. And so, and in this especially does the faithfulness, wisdom, and dexterity of the preacher, and the power and efficacy of the gift appear. Then in the directory for public worship, and I have a great time with my Presbyterian friends, many of whom in the past have fought me tooth and nail on this matter of applicatory preaching. Some of them have just about done everything but call me a devil for getting people upset under preaching when I've engaged in close applicatory preaching among their hearers. I love to turn some of their own documents on them. And in the directory for public worship, wonderful section in here on the preaching of the word. Excellent stuff.

37:36 Listen to this. This is the directory for public worship that was originally framed way back in, let's see, the first edition of it. When did it come?

37:51 1645, right after the framing of the confession. Concerning the preacher, he is not to rest in general doctrine, although never so much cleared and confirmed. All right? In other words, he's taught it, shown where its roots are in the scripture, and confirmed it with other scripture, but to bring it home by special use, by application to his hearers, which, albeit it prove a work of great difficulty to himself, requiring much prudence, zeal, and meditation, and to the natural and corrupt man, will be very unpleasant.

38:28 Yet he is to endeavor to perform it in such a manner that his hearers may feel the word of God to be quick and powerful. May feel the word of God to be quick and powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and that if any unbeliever or ignorant person be present, he may have the secrets of his heart made manifest and give glory to God. Obviously a reference to 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 14. Furthermore, on page 380 of this edition that I have, it is also sometimes requisite to give some notes of trial, which is very profitable, especially when performed by able and experienced ministers with circumspection and prudence, and the signs clearly grounded on the Holy Scripture, and a parenthesis, it is requisite to give some notes of trial whereby the hearers may be able to examine themselves, whether they've attained those graces, and perform those duties to which he exhorts, or to be guilty of the sin reprehended, or in danger of the judgments threatened, or are such to whom the consolations propounded do indeed belong, that accordingly the hearers may be quickened and excited to duty, humbled for their needs and sins, affected with their danger, and strengthened with comfort as their condition upon examination shall require. So you see, that full spectrum of applicatory preaching,

39:57 that there may be a quickening and an exciting to duty of being humbled for sins, affected with their danger, strengthened with the consolations of the gospel. In the larger catechism, the same perspectives come through under the question, how is the word of God to be preached by those called thereto? Question 159. The answer is, they that are called to labor in the ministry of the word are called to preach sound doctrine, diligently, in season, out of season, plainly, not in the enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, faithfully, making known the whole counsel of God, wisely applying themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers, zealously, with fervent love, to God and the souls of his people, sincerely aiming at his glory, their conversion, edification, and salvation. So the framers of the larger catechism say that the word is to be preached not only in terms of sound doctrine, in the power of the spirit, but wisely applying themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers. And then there's a witness that comes from a source,

41:24 that's not generally been known to be strong in this area, and that's why I like to quote him. Dr. Clowney, in his book, Called to the Ministry, which has some excellent materials, listen to what he says with regard to application. Preaching includes the proclamation, explanation, and application of the word of God.

41:45 Sounds familiar? That's on page 58. Then he says this on page 60.

41:52 This leads to the third aspect of preaching reflected in the third group of New Testament terms. Preaching means application. The preacher exhorts, comforts, reproves, rebukes, warns, and censures. You know what text he gives?

42:05 2 Timothy 3.16 and 2 Timothy 4.2. He converses with the church in the intimate fellowship of the upper room and admonishes them when they fall short of obedience to God.

42:18 The New Testament epistles are full of such exhortations. Preaching today requires apostolic practice, radicality, as well as apostolic authority. And then, of course, that wonderful section in Bridges, pages 259 to 280, 259 to 280, the chapters dealing with experimental preaching, practical preaching, applicatory preaching, and discriminating preaching.

Addressing the Objection: Spirit's Work vs. Preacher's Duty

42:47 Well, what do we say then in conclusion under this head on the biblical basis of insisting upon application in preaching? It should not surprise us to discover that the preaching most owned of God in the history of the church has been marked by a predominant applicatory element.

43:09 Now, that's just a fact of church history. Now, one great objection is raised. I've heard it everywhere I've gone, almost everywhere I've gone, and sought to preach and teach on this subject. And the great objection is this.

43:24 Is not the matter of application the work of the Holy Spirit? We are simply to preach the Word. We are to leave to Him to apply it to the specific cases. And I answer in this way.

43:38 To make the application spiritually perceived is the ministry of the Spirit. To make it morally effectual, that's the work of the Spirit. To make it more extensive than we could ever have conceived it to be, that's the work of the Spirit. To make it more particular than we could ever be, that's the work of the Spirit.

44:04 But to deal in vague generalities and trust the Spirit to make specific pointed application to our hearers is to be guilty of presumption. The Spirit has left us a record of the preaching which He owns. And that preaching is applicatory preaching. Furthermore, the very scriptures we are to preach we have seen were given for reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.

44:33 The very preaching to which we are called involves as part of its essence reproof, rebuke, encouragement, etc. Which is simply to say that application is of the very essence of preaching.

Conclusion: The Sweet Blending of Preaching Elements

44:51 Nicholas Murray in his book Preaching and Preachers had a choice little statement that I found and it is this. When the expository expository the didactic and the hortatory that would be application are sweetly blended in the same sermon that the great ends of preaching are attained and it is then that the preacher from year to year can edify the same people. When the expository the didactic and the hortatory are sweetly blended he said such a man will be an instrument of grace and blessing to his people year after year. So while we gladly acknowledge that no matter how specific our application no matter how pointed the spirit must give perception people can be looking right smack in the mirror of God's truth by close application and all they see is their neighbor.

45:54 All they see is their neighbor. The Holy Ghost must give them accurate self-knowledge in the context of the most close searching applicatory preaching, yes. And only the Holy Ghost can bring their affections and their wills into line with the pressure of that application. He is the one who effects moral reformation.

46:16 He alone can effect true spiritual transformation. We believe that. I trust we believe it with all of our hearts. And he alone can make it more extensive and more particular than we would ever think of making it.

46:28 But he does so in the context where we are working at the application of the word and he takes that means and in his own sovereign purpose makes it spiritually perceived morally perceived and far more extensive and particular than we could ever conceive it to be.

46:50 Well, we'll stop there.