Topical Sermons: Benefits & Dangers

Introduction: The Necessity of Considering Sermon Species' Advantages and Disadvantages

0:03 Now, we come this morning, brethren, in this, our second study of this semester's material to take up once again the vast subject of the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching and we are presently opening and enlarging the whole area of the sermon, particularly its content and form. And in terms of the outline that I gave to you last week, after looking at the general axioms last semester, the seven axioms that are applicable to every species of sermon, we then began last week to consider specific guidelines applicable to the different species of sermons and last week I attempted to give you both a classification of the major species of sermons and their validity. So under B on the outline, B, specific guidelines for the different species of sermons, last week's lecture dealt with the classification of the major species and we looked at their identity and their validity.

1:23 All right, now we come to number two today, namely the relative advantages, and disadvantages, the relative advantages and disadvantages of the major species of sermons, okay? The relative advantages or disadvantages of the major species of sermons, or you may find that this terminology suits you better and so you're at liberty to use it in your own thinking or in the exam, the benefits and dangers of each species.

2:02 So either the relative advantages and disadvantages of each species of sermon, or the benefits and dangers of each species of sermon. Now by way of introduction, let me say a word as to why it is necessary to take up this subject. So if you were outlining, you would have a small a, introduction, dash necessity for consideration. this subject. And the necessity rests down upon a very self-evident principle, and it is this.

The Principle of Abused Gifts and the Biblical Answer

2:43 There is no gift of God either in nature and or in grace. There is no gift of God either in nature or in grace which sinful man will not abuse to his harm or even to his ruin. There is no gift of God either in nature or in grace which sinful man will not abuse to his harm or even to his ruin. For example, in the realm of nature there is the gift of food, and man will abuse it to his harm or his ruin by gluttony. There is the gift of sex, and man will abuse it to his harm or ruin by lechery, perversion, and adultery. Fornication, adultery, etc. There is the gift of art, the ability to appreciate form, structure, and man will abuse art, whether in visual art forms or musical art forms, or we might say physical art forms, dance, drama, a combination of both, and he'll turn it into idolatry. And there

4:08 are refined, lovely, cultured symbols. Minhmas are quite exhilarating to our friends, but they are nothing short, if biblically defined, of being crass idolaters. Now those are God's gifts of nature, and sinful man abuses them to his harm or his ruin, but likewise in the realm of grace. Man takes the provision of a free pard shell, adds to it the devil's logic, and comes up with a doctrine of license, or with antonomism. On the other end of the spectrum, he takes the głos that offers use, but on the other hand who gives out more by feeling that enough pang of grace or但on of grace is gleinal proof of a sin. spectrum. He takes the doctrine of the necessity of obedience as the proof of evangelical and saving relationship to God, and then perverts it into a horrible, crippling doctrine of legalism or works righteousness. So we could spend the rest of the morning in very profitable discussion having you men give your input on your observations of the manifold ways in which we see the principle illustrated, no gift of God either in nature or in grace

5:23 which sinful man will not abuse to his harm or to his ruin. Now it is true with the various legitimate ways of preaching the word. None of them is without its potential abuses.

5:42 And if God has graciously given, as we saw last week, as a combination of nature and of grace, of general revelation and special revelation, through rhetoric and homiletics as defined last week, this wonderful variety of means to present his word to men, we must expect that remaining sin in our hearts will abuse. Get ready...

6:13 This was dealt with... We with God fight against...

6:17 We strive against... I will curse when I am on that day in the heaven, Jesus remains vão Mason objetí couple.

6:42 Now what does the answer to these abuses? Well the biblical answer to these abuses is to be found in the grace of God working by and with the Word and the spirit. GrAsE working in conjunction with the word and the spirit? We never fight God, but we are his all loving lessons and you will find зim, as least and simply find and infinitive 찐 , the power of the Spirit.

6:44 flesh with flesh.

6:47 If you can get that thing embedded in your spiritual hide, it will stand you in good stead in many areas. You never fight flesh with flesh.

6:58 As in all areas, the biblical answer is grace working by the Word and the Spirit.

7:09 And without that, you'll either end up in homiletical legalism or homiletical antinomianism. You see, this stuff will dog your steps no matter where you turn. You can't even sit at your desk and be engaged in the question, shall I preach a topical, textual, expository sermon without the presence of remaining sin being there to pervert any one of those avenues that you take. And the answer is not flesh fighting flesh, but it is grace working through the Word and the Spirit.

Dangers of Homiletical Antinomianism and Legalism

7:54 Now let me flush that out a bit. What happens when you approach the potential advantages and disadvantages of the various species supposedly by the Spirit without the Word? Here's someone who says, well, I'll just trust the Spirit of God to guide me. I will be utterly indifferent without God's Word in special revelation, without His Word in general revelation. I will give no attention to external rules and guidelines. I'll simply trust the Holy Ghost. And if I get an impulse to treat a subject, I'll trust the Holy Ghost to help me to develop in a way that will be unto edification. Now, there are people who have actually practiced this form of homiletical antinomianism.

8:49 One, case in point, is many of the old hard-shelled Baptists. In their view,

8:56 any thought of preaching as a science subject to fixed principles derived from general and special revelation is all carnal, and you simply trust the Holy Spirit to fill your mouth when you stand to speak. Alas, it is an insult to the Holy Ghost that so much hot air is attributed to Him.

9:19 So, be ware of any apparent exalted spiritual approach to preaching which says, well, the answer to the potential abuses of the various species of sermons is simply to trust the Holy Ghost, all spirit, no word, and you end up with a kind of antinomianism. But there are others who say a plague on your house. What we need is to master the principles of expository preaching, the principles of rhetoric as they flow into and are disciplined and conditioned by the science of homiletics, and so they have the word or the rules without the spirit.

10:04 And what happens here is you have people who set out in a course of homiletical endeavor in which year after year, month after month, week after week, their particular rules are like the law of the Medes and the Persians.

10:26 There is no room for the liberty of the spirit in the mapping out of how they will preach, what they will preach, or even what happens while they're preaching. May I say it reverently, the Holy Spirit, if it were possible, could vacate this universe for a month, and it would make no difference in how or what or the manner in which they preached. No difference whatsoever. You see?

10:52 This is a purely rationalistic, or in that sense, using the terminology we've been using, a legalistic, wooden approach to the subject. But in the New Covenant, God has brought together His word and His spirit, and He brings them into contact with the deepest springs of our being. He says, I will write my laws upon their hearts. I will place my spirit within them.

11:22 And why? To give them ability to keep my statutes. So, law and spirit, spirit and law, dynamism and external, objective precepts are not found separated, antithetical, and at war with one another, but beautifully fused in the full provisions of New Covenant life. So then, a theory or a theology of preaching.

11:54 That is true to the Word of God will seek to bring to bear upon your mind and consciousness these two great concerns. Number one, the necessity of constant, conscious dependence upon and openness to present, powerful, and living impulses of the Holy Spirit. The necessity of constant, conscious dependence upon and openness to present powerful and living influences of the spirit but at the same time the necessity of constant conscious regard to and respect for the principles of effective communication necessity of constant conscious regard to and respect for the proven principles of effective communication and the potential advantages and disadvantages of each species of sermon so you see we refuse to set up any kind of dichotomy between the strictest

13:23 most careful recognition of proven principles of communication awareness of the potential advantages and disadvantages blessings and cursings of each species of sermon all the while held in a heart where there is constant conscious dependence upon and openness to the present powerful and living operations of the Holy Spirit so we hold and I trust will work out in our experience of you of preaching that will make libertines in that sense charismatic antinomians who have a view that's all spirit we will look to them when they view our way of preparing sermons and why we do they will look upon us as legalists but those who know nothing of the dynamics of the spirit look at us and say you're a bunch of fanatical wild eyed antinomians and we should be a mystery to people whose view of preaching holds only one side of the coin alright am I making sense brethren this stuff is vital and that's why having lined out or laid out before you the classification of the various species of sermons identifying them subject or thematic textual and consecutive expository and the validity

Benefits of Topical Sermons to the Hearers

14:52 we now want to deal with the relative advantages and disadvantages of each species of sermon and this is why because we take seriously the reality of remaining sin that will abuse all of God's gifts and we do not desire to fight flesh with flesh but rather to deal with flesh by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit so now we're going to take up the topical sermon its benefits and dangers or relative advantages and disadvantages then we'll take up the textual and then the expository alright first of all then the benefits of the topical sermon remember the extended analogy a topical sermon is one in which the stage is set from a text or a subject then all the actors and scenes are imported from many parts of the word of God and I want to set before you first of all the benefits of topical sermons to the hearers benefits to the hearers and there are three and then we'll look at the benefits of the topical sermon to the preacher and there are four and then we'll take up the dangers to the hearers to the preacher and that's the form we're going to use all the way through alright first of all then

16:19 the benefits of the topical sermon first of all to the hearers three distinct benefits number one it imparts to them a breadth of exposure it imparts to them a breadth of exposure to the total knowledge witness of scripture on a given subject it imparts to them a breadth of exposure to the total witness of scripture on a given subject now in a real sense topical preaching is systematic theology dressed up in the garb of homiletics or to change the image it is systematic theology adapted to the peculiar circumstances of the pulpit and the sanctuary in contrast to the lectern and the classroom you see that distinction it is systematic theology dressed up in the garb of homiletics or systematic theology adapted to the peculiar circumstances of pulpit and sanctuary in contrast to the lectern in the classroom now what this means

17:45 will be opened up in detail in subsequent lectures how you go about it will be opened up in detail will be opened up in subsequent lectures suffice it to say that it is a distinct benefit of topical preaching it is taking all the benefits of systematic theology and making them accessible to the man and the woman the boy and the girl in the pew but a second advantage to your hearers is this it provides them with a living demonstration of the unity and progress or progress of biblical revelation it provides them with a living demonstration of the unity and progress of biblical revelation when topical preaching follows the outlines and the contours of biblical theology the overall unity and progression of truth is clearly seen and this is a great benefit to your people for example and I want to give one example in a common book that most of you if you don't know you will know before you get out of here and then from some preaching that I hope if you've not heard you will hear Professor Murray's

19:12 Principles of Conduct what is one of the great benefits of that book well one of the great benefits is that it takes the subject of ethics or the divine canons for human behavior divine norms for human behavior and beginning with what he calls the creation ordinances we are taken right back into Genesis and then we see how those directives for human behavior unfold out of that original revelation of them as they come down through into the Decalogue and then their full flowering in the epistles of the New Testament like the doctrine of work or the doctrine of the sanctity of marriage etc and this is a tremendous benefit to our people so that when they pick up their Bibles having had a topical study that has been laid out and structured homiletically after the pattern of Biblical Theology in which as you know from even your most cursory contact with the science of Biblical Theology is a science that is different geared to God's self-disclosure in terms of this line that begins at the beginning and ends at the end of that self-disclosure

20:41 as opposed to systematic theology in which we may take our witnesses from all over the Word of God and then seek to bring them into their various categories well this is a great benefit to our people in giving to them by way of living demonstration an example of the unity as well as the progression of Biblical revelation now when I was bringing what was really a preachment of systematic theology some years ago in a series called the Here We Stand a series that's now being chopped up some and featured in the next flyer in the Trinity Pulpit I often used the Biblical Theology model or phrase framework for the development of the giving subjects for example when I dealt with the office of Christ as King I started the development of the kingship of Christ with Genesis 3.15 traced it all the way down through Melchizedek and on into the prophecy of old Jacob in Genesis 49 and ended up with the kingship of Christ in the Book of the Revelation so that our people had this sense at the end that the doctrine of Christ's kingship is a doctrine that breathes and throbs through the entirety of God's book from Genesis to Revelation

22:08 now it not only gives them an appreciation for that unity and that development it wonderfully immunizes them against a host of things it immunizes them against a cavalier statement well the kingship of Christ is something peculiar to Israel and has no real relevance now but will in some future millennial age or something anyone who has sat through that would immediately that stuff would roll right off their back and say I don't know how to answer all that stuff but one thing is clear to me they don't get that out of the Bible that I've been studying because I've seen Christ as King from Genesis 3 right on through to the Book of the Revelation and that is no little part of your task as a preacher is to give your people an appreciation of the unity and the progression of biblical revelation and topical preaching will do that in a way no other kind of preaching will do consecutive expository preaching included alright thirdly it acquaints your people with the pivotal text of Scripture relative to the subject preached it acquaints your people with the pivotal text of Scripture relative to the subject preached God has so ordered His revelation

23:35 that there are many portions and sometimes mere sentences which epitomize the major biblical ideas on a given point Dabney calls them epitomizing texts for example Romans 6.23 if you were dealing with a series of sermons on the subject of sin and its consequences how could you better distill the whole essence of everything taught in the Bible on the consequences of sin better than Paul has done by the Spirit in Romans 6.23 for the wages of sin is death well in a sense you see a topical treatment of that in which we see the threat there in Eden in the day that thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt die and we've come through chapter 5 and he died and he died and he died and he died and the horrible holocaust of the flood and right on through we see epitomized in that text the wages of sin is death or if you're dealing with the fact that sin has inescapable consequences how can you state that truth more emphatically than Proverbs 28.13 does he that covereth his sins

25:02 shall not prosper and there the whole doctrine of the inevitability and the inescapability of sin's consequences is set forth well one of the great benefits of topical preaching is it will take your people into direct contact with the pivotal texts in scripture relative to that broad subject that you are unfolding now you might not touch on those pivotal texts in consecutive expository preaching were you to preach in one place for 70 years but by wise judicious arrangement of materials in a matter of weeks you can acquaint your people with the pivotal text of scripture relative to the subject preached and therefore I hope no one around here ever despises a proof text acquaintance with the word of God as long as our understanding of the proof texts does not violate their meaning conventionally conditioned by context and the other factors of sound hermeneutics proof texting is not wrong in fact I will go so far to say there is strong biblical precedent for proof texting both in our Lord

26:28 and in the apostles Jesus proof text the devil out of his presence it is written and he extracted terse statements out of the book of Deuteronomy and to the devil put his tail between his legs and ran off he couldn't stand Jesus proof texting him because he said in these texts there is epitomized the will of God for me and I'm committed to the will of God and not to your suggestions Satan we find our Lord doing it in his discourses in some of his most intense polemical circumstances have ye never read if then David called him Lord how then is he David's son he proof texting took a text out of the Psalms and said hey guys explain this one to me and you see it all the way through the Gospels and you see it in apostolic preaching there is proof texting we are not drunk with wine as you suppose suppose but this is that which is supposed to be spoken by the prophet Joel and then he did not stop and give a forty minute biblical theological lecture to demonstrate that he was properly quoting Joel

27:56 he just proof text him with a section out of the book of Joel now he was properly using it but he wasn't nervous about having to prove to the whole world and there is an anti-proof text mentality abroad today a kind of what I call pseudo sophistication don't you be bullied into that make sure that the soldier you call forward to shoot the gun is the right soldier holding the right gun and then you let him shoot and there is tremendous power in preaching that is peppered with proof texts there's something unique to the authority of God's own word quoted in the hearing of men and that's one of the great benefits of topical preaching to the hearers very interesting just this past year in fact a few months ago someone handed me a book that had not come into my hands among the dozens that I'm privileged to have on the subject of preaching and pastoral work the divine art of preaching by A.T. Pearson now A.T. Pearson's

29:03 theology is nothing that would ever have attracted me to this book for example you see why I say that give your topic a biblical rather than a moral theological or philosophical form and expression and if you adopt a biblical terminology be sure your terms have a scriptural meaning we question for instance whether the words quote effectual calling end quote as used in theology have any such meaning in holy scripture I put in the margin if so I question Mr. Pearson's understanding of theology so again I don't say this to commend A.T. Pearson's theology any man's theology that says what is conveyed in the terms effectual calling has no counterpart in scripture is ludicrous and the major use of the word calling is what we do call effectual calling only once or twice does call mean merely summons or does it mean vocation it means that effectual work of God laying hold of a sinner and transforming him out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of God's dear son but under topical preaching he set out advantages listen there are certain advantages in topical preaching number one I'm just doing this so you didn't think I plagiarized all of this was after the fact I've gone through this three times the aggregation of scriptural testimony on any one subject single text generally present

Benefits of Topical Sermons to the Preacher

30:32 only a phase others are needed for a complete and well-rounded view and one text may mislead if not offset and interpreted by others secondly there's an increased range and scope of view three in the application of truth the object to be accomplished by the person creature may not always be covered by a single text four as to conclusiveness of argument single text like single threads in a cable may not always bear the strain that is placed upon them but weave many texts together and you've got a strong cord that will bear the weight but then he says there are manifest disadvantages well I'm not going to let him preempt me I'll give you my disadvantages as I have them later on but I was comforted to know I was in good company as to the observations if not the theological framework alright what are the advantages to the preacher there are great advantages great benefits of topical preaching subject preaching to the preacher I want to give you four of them number one topical preaching generally forces the preacher to read widely and to think comprehensively topical preaching generally forces the preacher to read to read widely and to think comprehensively I say generally but not always

32:02 as some of you were here to remember after the shuttle disaster I brought a topical sermon on lessons to be learned from the shuttle disaster it did not force me to read widely it did force me to think comprehensively so sometimes you may be forced to think comprehensively without reading widely but if your subject is a biblical subject you're going to bring a series on the subject of the biblical notion of repentance the biblical concept of the sovereignty of God the biblical doctrine of work and labor the biblical teaching on human sexuality that will immediately force you to read widely and to think comprehensively it will drive you to your concordances it will drive you to your systematic theologies and we'll give more of that in the nuts and bolts mechanics of how to compose a topical sermon and one of the points I will make is that when you read your systematic theologies you begin to notice that certain texts are used by all the theologians there are common denominator texts you begin to note those and say hey these guys are always put up third and fourth you never find them stuck baton ninth they're not the punching judy hitters they're not the guys who are going to bunch them these guys knock home runs so you get a line up then of all number three and four hitters as you read

33:32 widely and then as you think comprehensively now that's tremendously beneficial to you and to me as preachers the more our minds can be stretched to think comprehensively and to read widely the better we will be as God's servants so that's a great advantage number two topical preaching acts as a check upon native imbalances of thought and statement topical preaching acts as a check upon native imbalances of thought and statement each of us brings to almost any subject of scripture the molding influence of our past associations our exposure to that given subject and our religious influences certain biases of our own experience and one of the wonderful benefits of topical preaching is that it acts as a check upon these native imbalances of thought and statement let me give my own personal testimony here one of the first things I did as a young Christian after I peddled my bike for 85 cents an hour in the slush in the winter of 1952 to earn money to buy my

34:59 Thompson Chain reference bible and I hugged it and cried the day it came I say that unashamedly the next book I got was a Christian uncle of mine gave me a Strong's concordance that was in the spring of 1952 and I still have that concordance I've rebounded myself once and it's about to get retired because it's it's seen better days but I can remember sitting and I had no private place at the time sitting at our large dining room table and spreading out my bible my Thompson Chain reference bible my concordance paper and pen and as a baby Christian looking up the word repentance and looking up all the passages that said repent repentance repented repenting and I came to this deep conviction barely out of the womb some of my birth blood still on me that any preaching of the gospel that omitted repentance was not biblical preaching so God spared me from ever preaching easy believers now I brought to my early Christian experience influences that would not have given me a proper biblical perspective on repentance but preparing as it were a topical sermon when in reality I really wasn't preparing primarily to preach but just to get my thinking straight on the matter and then I can remember as well looking up

36:28 the word disciple and looking up all the words believer and coming to the conviction barely out of the womb that there was no fundamental distinction recognized in the word of God between a believer and a disciple a disciple was a believer a believer was a disciple to profess to believe while not having met the terms of discipleship was utterly impossible as far to profess it wasn't impossible but to experience that profession so God spared me from that horrible dichotomy the church is full of believers but only a few disciples nonsense that forms the very rationale for whole sermons and conferences and books and God spared me from that not because I had good theology around me but I had a concordance and I was determined to see what the total witness of the Bible was on some pretty vital issues and that experience has simply developed over the years and again and again I have found preparation for topical preaching checkings some native imbalances of thought and imbalances and imprecision of statement now that's a great benefit to us as preachers this is why you see we insist that you men be systematic theologians before you become trusted expositors to a flock of God's sheep no man will consistently touch and handle any one of the parts

37:57 who is not well grounded in the whole and that's why systematic theology is essential to responsible exegesis week in and week out alright thirdly third advantage to the preacher topical preaching forces the development of organizing skills topical preaching forces the development of organizing skills and next to content brethren nothing is more vital to effecting preaching of any kind than organization of the raw materials and i'd be prepared to defend that statement with my life but with everything short of it you see in taking the vast gobs of the raw material of a topical sermon you must sort out the materials into distinct categories you must then arrange them into some logical relationship while maintaining categorical distinctives leading to the practical implications of all that material and so whatever our native and presently cultivated

39:23 organizing skills may be topical preaching will force you to hone those skills and since organization is one of the most vital factors of effective i'll use the term effective sacred rhetoric anything that forces you to hone your organizational skills ought to be welcomed and then the fourth advantage to the preacher is this topical preaching gives the preacher liberty to address issues which have gripped him in his pastoral awareness of the needs of his people topical preaching gives the preacher liberty to address issues issues which have gripped him in his pastoral interaction with his people for example when the whole nation was going around stunned after that space shuttle disaster being committed to the legitimacy of topical preaching i felt no compunctions about going to my knees and then to my desk saying lord what does your

40:52 words say on this whole complex of events and our reaction to it and because my own mind and spirit were gripped with that and i knew the mind of the congregation was gripped with it in a matter of some hours i put together materials which from what billy has said they're proven to be the best seller in all the history of the trinity pulpit and i meet people wherever i go saying lord wonderfully and profoundly used that sermon in their lives back a couple of years ago pastor nichols as most of you know who came out of a life of hippiedom and was a typical product of the post war generation was forced to analyze in sorting out his own christian experience and in seeking to hit a stride of spiritual stability and maturity what are the influences that i'm struggling why is it so difficult for me to make progress here when others don't seem to have that difficulty and out of the crucible of his own spiritual agony came this burden to address his own generation who for the most part were representative of the heart of this congregation now thus the series the molding influences on the post war generation and wherever i go around the country i meet people who say that series has had a profound influence upon them

42:21 well you see it grew out of the desire to give vent to subjects and issues that grip the preacher in his own walk and in his own interaction with his people in this place well that's one of the great benefits of topical preaching but now there are distinct dangers there are indeed real liabilities and disadvantages first of all to the hearers and then to the preacher so now i'm going to play devil's advocate as it were get on the other side now what are the dangers to the hearers i'll mention three of them and then four dangers to the preacher alright what are the dangers of topical preaching to the preacher i mean to the hearers number one they may imbibe a distorted view of the nature of the bible if they get too much they may imbibe a distorted view of the nature of the bible if they get too much topical preaching they may look upon the bible

Dangers of Topical Sermons to the Hearers

43:44 like a box full of jigsaw puzzles placed at random in the box to test the skill of the one who puts them together to test the skill of the one who puts them together namely the preacher. Now it would be terrible if your people looked upon the Bible as a box full of jigsaw puzzle pieces and only the skilled hand of the preacher can put them together into a picture that they can see.

44:16 Now if people are subject to topical preaching in an excessive degree that is one of the dangers to which they are vulnerable and you ought to be aware of that if you embark upon a topical series that there are some very real dangers. That's the first one to your hearers. The second one is this. They will not as readily acquire they will not as readily acquire the habits of sound interpretation.

44:49 They will not as readily acquire the habits of sound interpretation.

44:59 You see brethren in preaching we are not only conveying substance but we are also conveying a method of reading and understanding the Bible.

45:12 Your preaching my preaching are continually conveying not only substance thus saith the Lord but also method how does the Lord say it and how do I discern what he said.

45:30 So your hermeneutics are not being formally expounded. But they are being powerfully impressed upon your people in your preaching week by week.

45:43 Now in topical preaching where the connection of a part to the whole is not as prominent too much will leave people without an example of how to read and interpret the Bible for themselves. They will begin to think well the only way I can understand any one of the parts is if I understand the whole and since I'm no systematic theologian and can't understand the whole I'm not certain as to how to approach any one of the parts. So they will not as readily acquire the habits of sound interpretation. And that's why people who have had nothing but a primary diet of topical preaching will generally be found to be very weak in their ability to open up the Bible and to come to a reasonable understanding of its more plain and easy to be understood parts. Then thirdly here's another potential and at times real danger to the hearers too much topical preaching they will probably remain ignorant they will probably remain ignorant I used to have they will remain ignorant I said probably remain ignorant of many facets of biblical knowledge.

47:10 They will probably remain ignorant of many facets of biblical revelation. Anyone who rightly uses the topical method does so because of the pressure to convey either a vast and large truth or a pressing truth of pastoral concern.

47:41 When you engage in topical preaching your concern is to embrace the truth and to embrace the truth and to embrace the truth and to impress upon people a dimension of truth that is vast, large, weighty, and vital or to press one of immediate pastoral concern.

48:00 But not all truths are of the same vastness or weightiness to illustrate God's word is like a mountain range. You have foothills you have moderate hills and mountains and then you have mountains and then you have mountains and then you have mountains and then you have mountains and then you have mountains and then you have mountains and then you have mountains like Mount McKinley's and in the range of God's truth there is that diversity. But the scripture says man is not to live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And if a man engages in an imbalanced amount of topical preaching his people will probably remain ignorant of many facets of biblical revelation. Now the ones who are not who will not are those who have good habits of private reading of the word of God, who have good habits of general biblical and theological reading that will make up for the deficiencies in the pulpit. But there are many truths, though you could not call them vast mountain peak truths, they are vital to the life of a congregation. And one of the problems of topical preaching is

49:23 one of its dangers. It can leave people ignorant of many facets of biblical revelation. But now there are dangers and disadvantages to the preacher himself. And here I give you four, and I'll be more brief, and when I've done with these we'll take our break.

Dangers of Topical Sermons to the Preacher

49:41 The disadvantages to the preacher. Number one, the tendency to major on themes of personal interest or prejudice. The tendency...

49:55 to major on themes of personal interest or prejudice.

50:04 You see, here, our doctrine of remaining sin is always at our elbow.

50:12 We must never think that when we sit at the desk or go to our knees to pray, Lord, what shall I bring in this next course of sermons, that even for an instant the influence of remaining sin is suspended. The scripture says, for when I would do good, evil is present with me. Now, what higher good can you will to do than to bring an appropriate series of sermons to your people? When I would do that, good, evil is present with me.

50:44 The flesh is lusting against the spirit. And because of that reality, there is a tendency to major on themes of personal interest or even of prejudice. And that's one of the dangers of topical preaching. Left to yourself, that influence will push you in these directions.

51:06 Secondly, the tendency to organize material in an imbalanced way. There are certain facets of any large topic of the Word of God concerning which you have more personal felt affinity than others. But your personal felt affinity may not, be a reflection of the balance given to that subject in the Word of God. For example, for some of you who had the experience of having a father who literally beat you, I don't mean spank you judiciously, wisely, and in a manner commensurate with the teaching of the Word of God, but actually beat you in a cruel and unmerciful way. Now, if you're teaching a series of sermons on, on Biblical principles of child discipline, you have a built-in aversion every time you see the word rod in Proverbs. You've got a built-in aversion. You will have a tendency to organize the material in such a way as to minimize the rod because of its horrible associations in your own life.

52:28 And you'd be less than human if you didn't have that tendency. Now, we could illustrate that ad infinitum, but I give that one illustration. To demonstrate what I'm talking about. Then thirdly, to the preacher, the danger is the tendency to become lazy and shallow in your study of the Word of God.

52:51 The tendency to become lazy and shallow in your study of the Word of God.

53:01 You see, in topical preaching, since you're dealing with front-line texts as your main soldiers, epitomizing texts, often the very reason they are epitomizing texts is that their meaning lies on the surface, even, of a good English translation. And so the pressure to dig deeply and wrestle with grammar and syntax and context and vocabulary is nowhere near the same, generally speaking, in a series of topical sermons.

53:37 And brethren, every one of us, by nature, is a sluggard when it comes to distinctively spiritual, and demanding intellectual endeavors.

53:52 So you beware, if you come to the conviction, well, I just think I'm peculiarly gifted to major and topical preaching as my main fare. That may be the voice of the sluggard coming up into your consciousness, dressed in very pious garb, pull his robe off and call him what he is. The tendency to become lazy and shallow in your study of the Word of God. And then, this is a fourth very, a real danger in topical preaching.

54:21 The tendency to make a minor subject into a major one. The tendency to make a minor subject into a major one.

54:34 May I give you a grotesque illustration? A man who would abuse God's people by preaching on a Sunday morning why God hates women in pantsuits.

54:47 Okay, need I say more? And then a butchering of certain passages out of the Old Testament. A woman shall...

54:54 ...will not wear that which appertaineth to a man.

54:58 God has said it. God means it. Pants are man's clothing. You women are an abomination.

55:07 You've got this great big mountain of false guilt thrown on the back of a woman because she wears a pantsuit. Well, that's not far from the mark of what men have done and some places continue to do. And that may recognize, that danger in his day when on the bottom of page 63 speaking on this very subject he said, Nor should the preacher under pretense of definiteness encumber his sermons with secular details of the means for executing a duty which has been established. He may be assured that the attempt to do this now I'm on 64 will lead him at once out of his province. He will enjoin on mechanics Christian honesty and fidelity to engagements. He will urge the agriculturalist to diligence for the glory of God but let him not proceed to instruct the former that is, the mechanic of the materials and species of workmanship to be employed for executing faithful work nor presume to dictate to the latter that is, the agriculturalist a rotation of crops. He would thus cease to be a minister of religion and would only be a master among his apprentices.

56:25 Apprentices. And then he goes on to say that a man may enjoin upon people the grace of neatness but then if he goes on to give details of how to be neat and descends to particulars he leaves preaching and is moved into trifling. Now this is one of the dangers of topical preaching that because of a variety of circumstances all the way from natural temperament upbringing, sociological factors current factors in the life of the church there is a tendency to make a minor subject into a major issue. Now with such great dangers what in the world should we do?

The Balanced Approach: Word and Spirit

57:10 Well the legalists says don't preach topically it is so fraught with dangers leave it alone. Do people destroy themselves with alcohol? Do drunkards become the blight of families? Then demon alcohol out of the church!

57:29 ... Out of the light, total abstinence is the only safe Christian position.

57:35 Legalism. All in pursuit of preserving people from the horrible scourge of demon alcohol. But that's not God's answer, legalism. You see, it's not God's answer ethically.

57:47 It's not God's answer homiletically. What is the answer? The antinomian says, well, in spite of the dangers, just go ahead and preach as many topical sermons as you feel led to. The Holy Ghost will keep you from the dangers.

58:02 That's the person who says, regardless of my chemical tendency to obsession with alcohol, regardless of my psychological predisposition to escapism that will abuse alcohol, I'll always keep some booze on hand because I'm free in Christ. That's antinomianism. That's failure to be watchful. That's failure to pluck out right eyes and cut off right hands.

58:28 So what's the answer? The Word and the Spirit. That's the answer. So you look at the advantages, and you say, Lord, in light of those advantages, I'd be a woolly-headed, empty-headed, screwed-up-headed, any other kind of headed terminology that's legitimate, fool if I don't preach some topical sermons.

58:51 With all those advantages to my people and to myself, I don't want to rob them or myself of all those advantages. But, Lord, in the light of those dangers, those disadvantages, those liabilities, help me to do what Your Word says, to watch and to pray that I enter not into temptation. Let all things be done with moderation. So I will be moderate in my use of topical preaching,

59:22 seeking to bleed my exercises in it of all the good that both I and my people can derive, while watching. Watching and praying against the potential evils to my people and to myself. That's the answer. Word and Spirit.

59:44 Okay? Well, let's stop there. And it looks like I'm not going to get through all this lecture today, but that's all right.