Plainness in Preaching

Introduction to the Sixth Axiom: Plainness in Preaching

0:02 Well, in our discussion, brethren, of the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching, we're presently concerned with examining those axioms or principles which are applicable to all kinds of sermons, whether topical, textual, or consecutive expository sermons, and you might even throw biographical sermons in there as another category. We've already examined five of these axioms, and we come this morning to take up the sixth. I'll state the axiom, and then as I usually do, I'll exegete it, and then we'll seek to give some biblical support for it,

0:44 and then try to give some practical suggestions growing out of the establishment of that axiom. Now, the axiom, as with all of the others, begins with the words, the proclamation, exegete, explanation, and application of biblical truths, the proclamation, explanation, and application of biblical truths with earthiness, simplicity, and plainness of speech,

1:22 with earthiness, simplicity, and plainness of speech must constitute our continuous labor. And if there is one text that I would emblazon over the entire lecture as exemplifying the axiom, it is 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 9, and so also ye, unless ye utter by the tongue speech easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.

2:05 Unless you utter by the tongue speech easy to be understood. And so our axiom has to do with this whole matter of speaking in such a manner as to be understood with ease. And so I've tried to express it in these words. We must proclaim the word of God with earthiness, simplicity, and plainness of speech.

Explanation of Key Terms: Earthiness, Simplicity, and Plainness

2:39 The first category in the unfolding of the axiom is an explanation of the key words in the axiom.

2:47 And the three key words are obviously the words earthiness, simplicity, and plainness of speech. Now when I use the word earthiness, what do I mean? Well, I'm using it in the sense in which its formal definition is given in Webster's New York Times. The New World Dictionary, as that which is simple and natural.

3:15 One of the definitions given for earthiness is that which is characterized by simplicity and naturalness.

3:26 Now we all agree that all true preaching has its origin in heaven. It comes from God who has revealed his mind and will in the scriptures. 1 Corinthians. 2 Who knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him?

3:45 Even so, no man knoweth the things of God, save the spirit of God. So that preaching has its ultimate origin in heaven, that is, in the mind and heart of God. And in a real sense, the great end of preaching is heaven. It is to lift men to the life of heaven now, and also to the life of heaven.

4:09 In the age to come. But though the origin of preaching is in heaven, and though the goal of preaching is preparing men for heaven, it does its work on earth among men who are earthy. Hence the word which has heaven as its origin, its theme and its end, comes to people enmeshed in this present, present world. A world in which assassination attempts on presidents are very real commodities.

4:49 Strikes and crowded highways are very real experiences. Inflation and economic instability are realities that every provider confronts, every payday, homework, exams, TV programs, and a host of other things comprised, and is the result of this earthly existence into which our preaching must come in the power and in the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. Therefore effective preaching is preaching which in its language, its illustrations, its analogies, its applications,

5:32 makes it plain that heaven indeed comes down to earth in real preaching. So that the real world, of the real heaven, touches the real earth of the real people to whom we preach. There should be then nothing that is stilted and artificial about our preaching. The earthiness should give to our preaching what the incarnation gave to our Lord Jesus Christ.

6:07 A form, a fashion, a schema, an existence that did not set him apart from any other common Palestinian. If the Lord Jesus were in a crowd of people in Palestine, he would not stand out because of his bizarre clothing, something unique about his features. That which set him apart from others was his moral character, his true identity as God, his incarnate. But the incarnation brought him to a state of true, unadorned earthiness.

6:51 And I was struck with this afresh in reading with my family last night the familiar Christmas account of Luke's Gospel, Chapter 2, trying to picture what it was like for the Lord of Glory to be brought forth apparently even unattended by a midwife. She brought forth her firstborn son, and she wrapped him. And it seems that the emphasis of the text is upon the unilateral activity of Mary in the bringing forth of her own child. And here the Son of God didn't even have the dignity of a midwife to attend him at his birth.

7:28 Well, that earthiness then followed our Lord all the way through, and in a sense our preaching must reflect that element of earthiness. And when I use the term, that's what I'm trying to capture, if there is a kind of speech that is peculiarly pulpit speech, then we've missed the element of the incarnation as it touches upon the regulation of our form of preaching. Then, by the word simplicity, I mean this. Well, I should say what I don't mean.

8:04 I'm not talking about simplistic preaching. We ought to avoid that at all costs. That is, giving shallow, inaccurate and incomplete answers to complex questions and issues. That's being simplistic.

8:19 But when I speak of preaching with earthiness and simplicity, I'm using the word simplicity again in terms of one of the dictionary definitions which suits my purposes, and it is this. Freedom from intricacy and complexity. Freedom from intricacy and complexity. Freedom from affectation, subtlety, etc.

8:49 Artlessness. That's the new Webster's dictionary definition of simplicity. Simplicity is that quality in which ideas do not lurk in the murky shadows of imprecise verbiage, abstruse imagery and dense vocabulary. You get the picture now?

9:15 Here are some ideas just desperately trying to get out of the fog and the murky shadows of imprecise verbiage, abstruse imagery and dense vocabulary. Rather, simplicity is that ability to speak so as to make our ideas stand out in blazing sunlight under a clear blue sky so that the only ones who can miss their identity are those who willfully close their eyes. A man may have 20-20 vision and find it difficult to identify something

9:59 that's moving in a murky, misty, dark shadow. But if someone has 20-20 vision looking upon an object that stands under the brilliant light of a noonday sun and a cloudless sky, why, then, the only way he can miss the identity of what is there is by closing his eyes. Ryle, in addressing himself to this matter of simplicity as it marked the great preachers of the 18th century in his book Evangelical Leaders of the Eighteenth Century, says this on the subject of simplicity. Page 24.

10:42 They preached simply. They rightly concluded that the very first qualification to be aimed at in a sermon is to be understood. They saw clearly that thousands of able and well-composed sermons are utterly useless because they are above the heads of the hearers. They strove to come down to the level of the people and to speak what the poor could understand.

11:12 To attain this, and here's a very perceptive comment, they were not ashamed to crucify their style and to sacrifice their reputation for learning. To attain this, they used illustrations and anecdotes in abundance, and, like their divine master, borrowed lessons from every object in nature. They carried out the maxim of Augustine, a wooden key is not so beautiful as a golden one, but if it can open the door when the golden one cannot, it is far more useful. They revived the style of sermons in which Luther and Latimer used to be so eminently successful.

11:54 In short, they saw the truth of what the great German reformer meant when he said, No one can be a good preacher to the people who is not willing to preach in a manner that seems childish and vulgar to some. Now, not vulgar in the sense of unclean, but vulgar in the sense of a bit uncultured. Luther said, No one can be a good preacher to the people who is not willing to preach in a manner that seems childish and vulgar to some. So when I speak of simplicity,

12:37 it is that quality that I am attempting to describe. But then the axiom contains a third key word. We must seek and labor to preach not only with earthiness and simplicity, but with plainness. Now you are aware, I am sure, that the word paresia, translated plainness, other places boldness in the New Testament, is the word used in 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 12 in which the apostle Paul describes his preaching in this way.

13:18 Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness or great plainness of speech. And in the Johannine usage of this word, the emphasis upon plainness seems to be most strong. John 10 and verse 24. John 10 and verse 24.

13:42 The Jews therefore came round and bowed him and said, How long do you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Spell it out for us. No equivocation.

13:58 Make it plain. John 11 and verse 24. No, not 11, 24. That's the wrong reference.

14:09 Let's skip over to 16, 25. 16, 25 and then 29. These things have I spoken unto you in dark sayings. The hour cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in dark sayings, but shall tell you, here we are, plainly of the Father.

14:30 See the contrast? Dark sayings. They were in the murky shadow. They were spoken in obscurity.

14:40 There was analogy that perhaps in some ways veiled more than it unveiled. But he said, I will no more speak in dark sayings, but I will tell you plainly of the Father. And then in verse 29, his disciples say, Lo, now speakest thou plainly and speakest no dark sayings. So you see the contrast between dark saying and plainness.

15:10 And you realize then what lay behind my analogy of speaking in such a way as to leave ideas in dim murky shadows and having ideas that stand out under clear blue sky, under the brilliant light of the noonday sun. Yes. 11.14 was the other reference.

15:36 Okay, I put a two instead of the other. Thank you. 11.14 is the other usage.

15:41 Plain preaching is that kind of preaching which makes, I'm sorry, yes, now I've got what I've listed here or what I've written. Plain preaching is that kind of preaching which makes it a labor for the listener not to grasp what is being said before him. In other words, he's really got to work at being dense and dumb not to get the point of your sermon. So then I suggest that effective preaching is preaching in which we will labor at cultivating the qualities of earthiness,

Scriptural Style of Preaching: God, Christ, Prophets, and Apostles

16:25 simplicity, and plainness of speech. Now then, having exegeted the axiom, in the second place, let me demonstrate that this is the scriptural style of preaching. As you know, I've attempted throughout the entire structure of the course to hammer out a theology of preaching that grows out of the scriptures themselves. Now I want to demonstrate briefly that this is the scriptural style of preaching.

17:02 Earthiness, simplicity, and plainness of speech. Now a number of lines of evidence could be used. I choose only several. First of all, this is the way in which God himself spoke in giving us the scriptures.

17:19 There is no special God Hebrew or God Greek. It is my understanding that what we have in the Greek, we have likewise in the Hebrew as best we are able to examine the structure and compare the forms of ancient languages, that there was no special God language by which the living God communicated his mind to his people. If I may say so. If I may say it without being irreverent, it was the tent Hebrew of the wilderness

18:02 in which God communicated to his people as well as the market Greek of any metropolis in the Roman world with which God spoke in the New Testament era. Now this tells us something. If God condescends to speak in a form marked by earthiness, simplicity, and plainness when he embodies his mind in the scriptures, in the very inscripturation of the word of God, then he is setting the pattern for our expression of the thoughts thus inscripturated. And then, of course, the second line

18:47 of evidence is the way in which our Lord himself spoke. He was reared in the despised peasant village amidst a world of the disciplines of the artisan class, the carpenter's son. He observed such mundane matters of processes of digestion, prevailing mothers, sown fields, fishing and fishermen, and these things became the raw materials out of which his sermons took substance. He was in his speech what he was in his person,

19:28 God incarnate. In the incarnation, true deity took on true humanity, and likewise in his speech the things that I speak, he says, are the things I have learned of my Father. I don't speak my own words. What my Father gives me to speak, that's what I speak to you.

19:55 But he spoke in the language that was marked by earthiness, simplicity and plainness. Now I'm aware that part of the judicial blindness upon apostate Israel was the veiling element of some of his parables. I'm fully conscious that at times he used enigmatic language as an element of judgment. Now I'm not discounting that part, but by and large when it says of our Lord that the common people heard him gladly, it is indicating that this element of earthiness, simplicity and plainness made it a delight for common people

20:39 to attend to his preaching. And then of course it's the way in which the prophets and the apostles spoke. You do not find detached artificial oration in the preaching of the prophets. You find at times a gutsy, earthy directness that is just plain shocking.

21:02 Oh Micah says to those people that are doing nothing but filling up their bellies with food when they ought to be mourning that I'll take the dung of your feast and spread it on your faces. That's pretty earthy stuff. I don't know if I've got the guts to speak quite that earthy, but there it is. And you find other things just as earthy.

21:27 Often the simplicity of analogy and the plainness of speech could not be misunderstood. And then of course that great prophet who rounds out the prophetic ministry, John the Baptist, he did not stand in the presence of that heathen leader and just talk in vague generalities, but he used such simplicity and plainness of speech as resulted in losing his head. And of course I always like to take the example of Nathan when standing before David. He didn't say, now David, there's a certain homo sapien whose contemporary

22:12 situation is quite analogous to my parabolic description having just been discharged in your hearing. Upon thoughtful reflection and personal scrutiny you might be amazed at the uncanny similarities.

22:31 No, he didn't do that. He gave the parable and when David was incensed he simply turned and said, thou art a man. You know, it's a terrible thing to see a man spend hours sharpening his arrows in his study and then when he gets in the pulpit putting big wads of cotton around the arrows when he goes to shoot them. And that's what happens with many a sermon.

22:54 It loses its point in the actual preaching because of the absence of earthiness, simplicity and plainness of speech. Sheb said, and I may have quoted him last week in this, but he bears repetition, he must employ rhetoric which resembles Jael's treatment of Sisera. That is, put the nail of truth to the head of the hearer and drive it clear through to his brain. One has said, the clerical mind which is sworn only to the traditional and speaks only in the code language of tradition is mortally sick.

23:34 And I said, say amen to his statement. Stuart, in his excellent work that I refer to from time to time, says on page 34, be real in your language. Shun everything stilted, grandiose, insipid or pedantic. Don't be like the learned preacher who in the course of a sermon in a village church remarked, perhaps some of you at this point are suspecting me of utiki utiki utikianism.

24:08 I'll get it out yet. You fellows who've had your church history can say it better than I. You know that that was one of the early heresies. In your business of bringing the Christian religion decisively to bear upon the needs and problems of a 20th century congregation, the language of Nicaea or even of the Westminster divines may be a hindrance rather than a help.

24:32 It is sheer slackness to fling at your people girls and boys and children in the church. It is sheer slackness to fling at your people great slabs of religious phraseology derived from a bygone age and leave them the task of retranslation into terms of their own experience. That is your task not theirs. Beware lest with facile platitudes and prosy commonplaces you cheapen the glorious gospel of the blessed God.

24:56 Eliminate everything which does not ring the bell of the gospel of the blessed God. You are not worthy of the gospel which does not ring true. Be chary of indulging in oratory. If a learned brother, said Spurgeon, fires over the head of his congregation with a grand oration he may trace his elocution if he likes to Cicero and Demosthenes but do not let him ascribe it to the Holy Spirit.

25:27 If you have a tendency toward purple passages that's the old way of describing flights of excessive rhetoric, which is suspicious and impatient of high-sounding declamatory language in Parliament and press and on the public platform is not likely to be impressed by it in the pulpit and if you once give men the idea that you are indulging in self-conscious artistry they will hardly believe that the things of which you speak are over-mastering realities. John Bunyan declares this abounding quote I could have stepped into a style much higher

26:12 than this and could have adorned all things more than here I have seemed to do but he is quite candid about his reason for refusing such tricks of elegance in ornament. I dare not God did not play in tempting of me neither did I play when the pangs of hell were the same as the pangs of the earth but I did not play in tempting of me neither did I play in tempting of me because I did not play in tempting of me

26:56 and I did not play in tempting of me and I did not play in tempting of me and I did not play in tempting of me and I did not play in tempting of me and I did not play in tempting of me and I did not play in tempting of me and I did not play in tempting of me and I

27:35 to aim at this earthiness, simplicity, and plainness in our preaching. It's the pattern of the preaching of our Lord. It's the pattern of the preaching of the apostles and of the prophets. It is the kind of preaching which alone will gain us credibility.

27:57 Stuart, in another place, has said, It is a pleasure to break down the lath and plaster of old externals and formalities in order to make room for the granite walls of reality. There you picture, you see, God's truth is the granite wall, and over it there is lath and plaster. Tear it all away and express it in such a way that the granite wall is seen in its strength and in its beauty. Some of you will remember that in Hugh Martin, in his treatment of the atonement, where he's dealing with federal theology in relationship to the atonement, several times he alludes to this fact.

28:38 He said, we are not pressing for the maintenance of a wooden loyalty to old ways of expressing biblical truths. He said, let each generation bring all of the power of its mental and spiritual and linguistic genius to the abiding truths of God, and experience, and express those truths in fresh ways, so long as it's the changeless truth that we are expressing. Now again, that does not mean that we need not give to our people an appreciation for words that have significance in the history of the church.

29:18 We may wish to use some terminology that is not current verbal currency, but the moment we have done so, we will do the translating for them. We will say, this was an ancient way of expressing that which in our day would be expressed in 20th century American East as. So then you're doing two things. You're giving them a sense of historic perspective.

29:44 You're giving them a key that when they pick up a book and they read that phrase or terminology, they know what it is, but you're not simply giving them something that is a museum piece of terminology which has no relevance to their own. It has nothing to do with their present situation. Just one final quote from Bridges in seeking to show that this is the biblical pattern of preaching, and some of you will not get to this in your reading until further on in one of the other units. He says on page 310, Our Lord's discourses without any of the artificial pomp of oratory

30:25 and with a profusion of imagery are a perfect model of simplicity. Never was there a more plain and popular preacher. The most sublime truths are illustrated by the most familiar comparisons from the objects around them. And then he goes on to enlarge and give specific examples from the life and ministry of our Lord.

The Cost of Cultivating Plain Preaching: Pride, Labor, and Opposition

30:53 Well, having explained the words of the axiom, having demonstrated that this is the scriptural style of preaching, now let me, set before you something of the cost of cultivating such a style of preaching. The cost of cultivating a style of preaching marked by earthiness, simplicity, and plainness of speech.

31:21 Generally speaking, the man who has mental powers and educational privileges sufficient to qualify him for the basic biblical standard for the ministry, is a man who with some effort can acquire a vocabulary, a manner of speech that would be marked by elegance, if not eloquence.

31:52 So, if you're going to develop a style of preaching that is marked by this earthiness, this simplicity, this plainness of speech, it will first of all cost you, number one, the pride of attaining, a reputation for elegance. It will cost you the pride of attaining the reputation for elegance.

32:29 One of the excellent footnotes in Bridges is found on page 311. Vanity will make a man speak and write learnedly, but piety alone can prevail upon a good scholar to simplify his spirit, speech for the sake of the vulgar. Such a preacher, though his worth may be overlooked by the undiscerning now, will one day have a name above every name, whether it be philosopher, poet, orator, or whatever else is most revered among mankind. Vanity will make a man speak and write

33:10 learnedly, but piety alone can prevail upon a good scholar to simplify his speech for the sake of the vulgar. Now, for any of you men who have the ability to be elegant, and possibly even eloquent in the bad sense, you must again and again come back to this great issue, what am I doing behind the sacred desk? Is it a platform on which to display myself, or is it a marvelous platform from which

33:49 to bring to bear with utmost clarity and power the truth of God upon the consciences of my hearers? What am I here for? And you've got to keep asking that question and keep answering it biblically, and constantly have dealings with God in terms of this matter of the pride of God. Secondly, it will cost you much self-denial and labor. To be earthly, simple, and plain in your

34:26 speech will cost you much self-denial and labor. Ryle understood this as perhaps few preachers understood it, or should say few preachers in the past generation. He says on page 51 in his excellent essay, Simplicity in Preaching, Let me add to all this one plain word of application. You will never attain simplicity in preaching without plenty of trouble. Pains and trouble, I say emphatically, pains and trouble.

35:09 When Turner, the great painter, was asked by someone how it was he mixed his colors so well, and what it was that made him so beautiful, he said, What made them so different from those of other artists? Mix them? Mix them? Mix them? Why with brains, sir?

35:31 I am persuaded that in preaching little can be done except by trouble and by pains. In other words, you see, when the artist was mixing his colors, there was arduous mental activity going on, and that made him different. From the ordinary artist. And I say there's much self-denial involved in this, because like an artist, there are times when in painting verbal pictures, there's a certain word that gives just the stroke of color that satisfies you aesthetically. But the problem is it will say nothing to your people.

36:13 And you have to swallow the very word that natively comes to your mind that says what you want to say precisely. I'm struck with this every time I have to do what I did when I was over in Sweden. I didn't preach, and I kept to my mandate not to preach, so I came back with a good conscience. I cheated a little bit the last time I was away.

36:36 But I made due confession. Done my penance, so I'm in good standing again. I think I have anyway. But what I did do is, Sunday night, they have an informal type Bible study usually, and in lieu of that, they just let me be available for questions that they may have had about church life and about Trinity and all of the rest.

37:02 Well, since English is the second language for everyone there in Sweden, they take it from the third or fourth grade onward, so the average Swede has had eight years of English, so he has some proficiency in English. But of course the vocabulary is limited, and also the matter of being able to understand if the sentences move too quickly. So, So, in order to be able to understand if the sentences move too quickly, So, in order to be able to understand if the sentences move too quickly, in order to speak to them with earthiness, simplicity, and plainness, it meant that I was continually having to push down two- and three-syllable words that came to my mind and try to find one-syllable replacements. And you talk about self-denial, and you talk about pain.

37:46 That was painful. Instead of being able to receive the question, think through the answer, and then just give verbal expression a little slower. That's not too painful. For instance, in speaking to you men right now, I do not find it too painful to hold back the of my thought and let the sentence construction.

38:24 That's not too bad. But now if I have to take that same thing and find a different word for flow of thought, sentence structure, the mind can retain, so that you're not only holding it back, but you're not only holding it back, but you're not only holding it back, but you're not only holding it back, but you're not only holding it back, but you're not only holding it back, but you're not only holding it back, but you're not only holding it back, but trying to reduce it all into something smaller. I tell you, it's mental agony. And that's why speaking through a translator is even worse than that, because you're doing all of that while at the same time listening to this character who's saying something that has no relationship to what you're saying, and then listening to when he's done so you can give the next phrase and all the rest.

39:04 So never, never speak through a translator unless you have to. But that's a little digression. But it does come back to what I'm underscoring here. Well, in the same way, though not to the same degree, if you read widely and if you have a growing, working vocabulary that is the result of your wide reading, you're going to find more and more those words that become part of your working vocabulary, they come to mind in the very act of preaching.

39:38 But as they do, you've got to ask, a question. Not only does it accurately express the thought as it is resident in my mind, but will it accurately implant that thought in the mind of the average listener? And if it doesn't, then you've got to make another choice. And that's painful, because often the choice may be six or seven words or several phrases, and it still doesn't say the thing the way you would like it to be said, and you know it could be said.

40:09 But again, love will demand, that you are willing to undergo that self-denial. It will cost you constant labor. How can this be said in a way that is simple, that is plain, that is earthy? For instance, if you're using an illustration, and in your illustration you're going to talk about a little boy who runs out of the house and gets in a mud puddle.

40:35 All right, you're going to show the difference between the person who lives in sin and the person who falls in sin. Well, in working on your illustration, you can say, there was a little boy who ran out of the house and sat down in a mud puddle. That's fine. But can't you make it more vivid than that with a little work?

40:57 Can't you talk about the little boy who runs and trips his way out of the house and plops himself down in the mud puddle? You see, just with a little work in the area of words and giving some thought to it, you can take, something that is bland, conveys an idea and make the thing much more vivid. Because the word plop says something far more than sits down in a mud puddle, doesn't it? I mean, you see it, plop, the mud goes and the rest.

41:31 Well, you see, that's that element of the earthiness, and that ties in somewhat with last week's lecture in terms of a more picturesque speech. You ought to read that section in Reader's Digest towards a more picturesque speech, it's a feature that's in there every month. And I marvel at times of some of the, at some of the wonderful imagery, just the use of words that help things to stand out in bold relief. Well, this takes labor.

41:59 You may labor for a long time over just a few sentences in a given sermon, but the end in view is that there may be the elements of earthiness, simplicity, and plainness, of speech. So it will cost you the pride of elegance, much self-denial and labor. Then the third thing it may cost you is opposition from your peers in organized religion. Opposition from your peers in organized religion.

42:34 I trust we consider ourselves the unworthy and certainly in stature pygmy heirs of Bunyan, Whitfield, and Spurgeon, but do we know that no little part of their opposition came at this very point? Not only what they said, but how they said it. And the thing that irritated people was that in the eyes of the professional religionists, these men prostituted the sacred dignity of the ministry by speaking like real men to other real men, living in a real world.

43:18 And you read Bunyan's Apology, page two of Pilgrim's Progress, and again on pages three and four, I didn't bring it along to weary you with the quotes, but he was very conscious when he sent forth his Pilgrim's Progress, that he was going to have some people get all upset with him because he was taking such sacred things as effectual calling, and making them plain by such matters as the different cockings of a hen. You remember the section, where the hen has different cockings, and he says there is a general call, and then there is a comforting call, and then there is a special call. Well, for some people, that was a terrible thing.

43:59 Imagine the grand and glorious doctrine of effectual calling brought to the level of cock, cock, cock. You know, I mean, you just don't do that. Well, Bunyan says, in essence, who says you don't? Who says you don't?

44:15 And then you'll know there are places along the way where he uses sort of an allegorical interpretation, he says, for all I know, that may be the gospel sense of that passage. One that sticks in my mind is the difference between the clean and the unclean beast. And you remember he spoke of the fact the clean beast not only parted the hoof, but also parted the lip. Wasn't that it?

44:39 Chewed the cud, sorry, chewed the cud, didn't part the lip. And then he speaks of the fact that that's the person whose foot walks the way it ought to walk, and whose mouth speaks the way it ought to speak. And constantly using the analogies from the natural world. Why was Bunyan doing this?

44:56 Not to show his cleverness, but to make things stick, and stick they did, and stick they do, even to this very day. This was true of Spurgeon, one of the things that caused him to be lampooned. And if you've seen any of the drawings that occurred in some of the religious and secular periodicals, when he came to London as a young man, oh, they lampooned him for taking the high doctrines of the covenant of grace and all of the rest, and bringing it down into the language of the ordinary person in the streets of London. Listen to the words of Spurgeon,

45:34 who was very conscious of this problem on page 353 of his all-round ministry. Love for souls will operate in many ways on our ministry. Among other things, it will make us very plain in our speech. We shall say to ourselves, no, I must not use that hard word, for that poor woman in the aisle would not understand me.

46:01 I must not point out that recondite difficulty, for yonder trembling soul might be staggered by it, and might not be relieved by my explanation. I heard a sentence the other day which struck me because of its finery, rather than its weight of meaning, an admirable divine remarked, when duty is embodied in a concrete personality, it is eminently simplified. You all understand the expression, but I don't think that the congregation to which it was addressed had more than a hazy notion of what it meant. It's our old friend, example is better than precept.

46:42 It's a fine thing to construct sounding sentences, but it's only an amusement. It ministers nothing to our great end. Some would impress us by their depth of thought, when it is merely a love of big words. To hide plain things in dark sentences is sport, rather than service for God.

47:05 If you love men better, you'll love phrases less. How used your mother to talk to you when you were a child? There, do not tell me, don't print it, it would never do for the public ear. The things she used to say to you were childish, and earlier still babyish.

47:25 Why did she speak to you this way? It was because she was a sensible woman, because she loved you. Love's manner of addressing men disregards all the dignities and fineries of language, and only cares to impart its meaning and infuse the blessing. To spread our heart right over another heart is better than adorning it with the paint and varnish of brilliant speech.

47:58 You see? So there's the picture of a man who was determined to spread his heart over the hearts of others, and he knew he had to do it by means of speech, and Spurgeon was no dope in terms of vocabulary and in terms of ability for purple passages. I mean, it's obvious. One can only imagine how much he, he must have restrained, as well as humor, and had an unusual combination of a brilliant mind, of a very imaginative mind, of a large vocabulary, a great grasp upon theology, and yet the common people heard him gladly because there was that element of earthiness,

48:41 simplicity, and plainness of speech. So Spurgeon had to be willing to bear reproach from people in his own generation. Whitfield in the same way, and Bunyan in the same way, and to some degree, you and I will be, must be willing to bear that same reproach. Now, why is it that that reproach will come, particularly from religious circles?

49:10 Well, some of it will come from jealousy because people will see you're being heard and dare not. Some of it because people have a false notion of what preaching ought to be. You remember Owen's famous quote that he would give up all his learning to be able to preach to the hearts of men like the tinker of Bedford. Well, I'm glad Owen didn't give up all his learning, but that showed his estimation of Bunyan's ability to preach simply, plainly, and with an earthiness that caused common people to hear him.

Practical Cautions for Plain Preaching

49:52 Gladly. Well, let's take a break at this point, and then we'll take up two other lines of thought in the next hour. Some practical cautions, and then some materials that I hope will help you in the cultivation of this simplicity and earthiness and plainness of speech. All right, brethren, we'll pick up where we left off at the last hour.

50:25 I sought to explain the sixth axiom relative to all kinds of preaching, the axiom dealing with the necessity of preaching with earthiness, simplicity, and what? What was the third word I used? Plainness. Plainness, thank you.

50:45 And having explained the meaning of those words, having sought to demonstrate the scripturalness of such preaching, having laid out what it would cost you to cultivate that style of preaching, now let me give you a few practical cautions and I have three of them. Number one, do not stereotype what this principle will mean in the real situations of preaching. Do not stereotype what this principle will mean in the real situations of preaching. What is earthy, plain, and simple in one situation may be considered elegant in another.

51:29 Because of cultural differences, because of literary tastes, all of those factors are variables. Preaching in a rural situation, earthiness and simplicity would be different from the expressions of earthiness and simplicity. Preaching in a college town to a congregation made up primarily of college graduates and people who are attending college. The truth of God is no different.

52:02 The fact that you ought to preach in an earthly, simple manner, that mandate is not different, but exactly what that means will be different. So when you become a resident preacher, seek to acclimate yourself to those variables in that given situation and make your preaching conditioned by the real circumstances in which you find yourself. Now we see that evident right from our own ranks that some of you who come from a more rural situation, when you use illustrations, when you use analogies,

52:46 they more naturally flow from the circumstances of your rural background, your vocabulary, your choice of words, all of that. Well, don't stereotype then what this principle will mean in the real situation of preaching. Then secondly, do not despise elegance in preaching where it is warranted. Earthiness, plainness and simplicity do not necessarily exclude elegance in certain circumstances.

53:22 Whitefield preaching before Lady Huntington was not Whitefield preaching before minors. And it's a beautiful thing when a preacher has the ability to adapt himself to various audiences while still struggling and staying within this framework of earthiness and simplicity and plainness of speech. And some have forgotten this principle and have allowed themselves to get in a straitjacket that has made their ministry less effective in some circumstances than otherwise it could have been.

54:05 And then the third caution is do not mistake earthiness, simplicity and plainness for coarseness, or vulgarity in preaching. And now I'm using vulgarity in the sense we usually use it in our day. Do not mistake earthiness, simplicity and plainness for coarseness or vulgarity in preaching. And Ryle gives this caution on page 38 of the Upper Room in his treatment of simplicity in preaching.

54:46 Finally, let me observe that it is not coarse or vulgar preaching that is needed. It is quite possible to be simple and yet to speak like a gentleman and with the demeanor of a courteous and a refined person. It is an utter mistake to imagine that uneducated and illiterate men and women prefer to be spoken to in an illiterate way and by an uneducated person. To suppose that a lay evangelist or scripture reader who knows nothing of Latin or Greek and is only familiar with his Bible is more acceptable than an Oxford first class man or a Cambridge wrangler if that first class man knows how to preach

55:31 is a complete error. People only tolerate vulgarity and coarseness as a rule when they can get nothing else. They usually only tolerate it when they can get nothing else. And again, some of you brethren will realize what I have said when I say that in certain parts of the country again, this is a cultural matter there is an element of pride that goes along with the idea that I am really plain and I am straightforward and what they mean is that I am so insensitive as to be coarse and vulgar in my preaching.

56:12 And God's truth does not need the service of coarseness and vulgarity. The meekness and the gentleness of Jesus ought always to be present even in the plainest of preaching. Alright, just those practical cautions and now I conclude with a few practical suggestions as to how to cultivate this art of simplicity and earthiness in our preaching. And once again you have heard this again and again but you are going to keep on hearing it because I don't know any other advice to give.

Practical Suggestions for Cultivating Plain Preaching

56:52 Study the models. Study the models of earthiness, simplicity and plainness in preaching. Whether dead or alive whether sacred or profane study the models. And here again I commend to you Ryle I commend to you Spurgeon I commend to you many of the Puritan writers study living models and then secondly

57:30 constantly read materials dealing with this subject. Ryle's essay on simplicity in preaching is something you ought to read periodically. Bridges section in the Christian ministry on plainness in preaching. Again you ought to wear it out over the course of your ministry.

57:58 And then of course as you absorb the scriptures devotionally and you think in scriptural patterns you cannot help to some degree but cultivate this art of simplicity and earthiness and plainness because that's the way the Bible is written. So study the models read and re-read the masters who've addressed themselves to the subject and then finally consciously work at this grace in your sermon preparation.

58:42 And I want to close with a quote from Brown if you don't have John Brown on the resurrection of life I commend this to you and he has a section at the beginning called The Right Way of Preaching the Gospel that I think is worthy of being put in a booklet form. It is excellent. It begins on page 26 and goes through what through 43. But this is the point that Brown makes dealing with this subject.

59:20 There is a technical artificial theological language the language neither of common life nor of the Bible but that of catechisms confessions of faith and bodies of divinity to which many of us have been accustomed from our infancy. And if a minister in preaching carefully adhere to this phraseology he generally passes for a plain preacher. He uses words and phrases which are familiar to the ear and we too readily conclude that he conveys clear and important truths to the mind. In many cases however instead of helping us to think he but furnishes us

60:03 with an apology for not thinking. In such instances little or no truth is conveyed to the mind and the hearer might easily convince himself of this if he were but disposed by a very simple experience of discernment. Let him try if he can express in other words what he has heard from the preacher and thinks he well understands and he'll probably find that the information he has got is neither so extensive nor so distinct as he had supposed. Preaching in a continued figure is also not unfrequently considered as plain simple preaching.

60:44 The judicious use of figures greatly contributes to the illustration of abstract truth. The great teacher often employed them. He who spake is never man spake often spake in parables but those wire drawn illustrations of scriptural figures which delight many minds generally serve any purpose rather than making truth more plain. The imagination is so occupied with the sign that the understanding loses the distinct apprehension of the thing signified.

61:16 So, one of the points that Brown is making is that we must be careful in thinking that because we use the trade language of theology that somehow we are conveying clear concepts and if you want an experiment in being humbled you just take someone aside from the congregation and say now today I use thus and thus and thus and thus in my sermon this terminology, that terminology what do those things mean to you? You ask yourself that. You ask yourself what do I really mean by that? And so we must constantly work at the matter of simplicity.

61:58 Asking ourselves do I really know what that means? How can I express that concept in terms simple enough for a ten year old to grasp? And may I urge you along this line to gear the majority of your sermons in terms of the way you structure and illustrate and the rest in terms of meaningful communication to I try to gear it at a level that will be somewhere around junior high school age relatively intelligent junior high schoolers and if you gear it at that level you pretty well will be sure to get most of the adults and probably a few more

62:42 down below that. Now don't tell them you're doing that just do it. Now there are times when you can't. I remember a few weeks ago I said now what I'm going to say most of you kids and you young people you won't get it but I don't care at this point I want your parents to get it because if they get it then they can give it to you.

63:06 But that ought to be the exception rather than the rule. Alright that's all I've prepared to say to you this morning. I hope you'll find some things helpful in it. My own mind has not been as fertile as it usually is.

63:24 All the rest and I've tried to stick close to my notes so I didn't get into unsanctified ramblings which would be neither to your profit nor to mine. Are there questions that have arisen from what we've covered this morning on the matters of simplicity and earthiness and plainness of speech that you'd like discussion on or contributions?