The Introduction of the Sermon, Part 2

General Guidelines for Constructing the Introduction

0:03 All right, brethren, having given a rather lengthy introduction to this subject, which I felt was necessary, and then having addressed ourselves to the functions of the introduction, we come in the development of our theme to the second major division, General Guidelines for the Construction of the Introduction. General Guidelines for the Construction of the Introduction. And the first is, don't force the introduction until the substance of the sermon is well in hand. Don't force the introduction until the substance of the sermon is well in hand.

Guideline 1: Don't Force the Introduction Until the Substance is Clear

0:50 Now, let me explain what I mean and why I've made that general guideline. Since the sermon is the house, you better know where your house is and the general structure of the house before you build your porch. You might have a nice little porch sitting out in the middle of your backyard. Or, to change the analogy, you might have a porch suitable for an old antebellum mansion, but not at all suitable for a little Cape Cod in Pequonic.

1:18 So, when a man seeks to construct his introduction before the substance of the sermon is completed, he's just getting the cart before the horse. So, let that general guideline help you to change the analogy. Now, the food, the main entree, dictates the kind of appetizer you'll choose.

1:42 And so you want to know what the main entree is like before you set out your appetizer. Now, if it comes to you at the outset, don't fight it. Man, any part that comes easy and comes unexpectedly, seize upon it. But what I'm saying is don't try to force it, particularly in consecutive expository preaching, you will often have to leave your introduction almost to the very end of your preparation, because it's not until the fruit of your exegesis has come to fruition in the homiletics of how you're going to handle that given passage that you will know what is appropriate

2:24 in terms of emphasis in that given sermon. Now, Dabney recognized this principle and addressed himself very specifically. To it, on page 145, and he said, get the proper quote, yes, but that isn't one, that isn't the one that, I'm sorry, on page 145, I'm looking at 144, no wonder I can't find it. From these rules, you will easily infer that the introduction must be short relatively

3:04 to the whole sermon, and a long and ambitious exordium is ruinous to all subsequent effect. It wastes time, it consumes the preacher's strength, it exhausts the sensibility of the people. And then he goes on to say that young preachers usually err in having too elaborate and too lengthy an introduction. He says this is because they are zealous for thoroughness, and being inexperienced, they don't realize that the body of the sermon will demand all of their powers for thoroughness, and they ought not to waste too much time at the outset on the introduction.

3:38 For this, as well as other reasons, it is well that the young preacher should not attempt to write his introduction. Until the discussion has either been written, or at least expanded in his mind. And Phelps gives a rather humorous illustration of what happens when this rule or suggestion is ignored.

4:04 Do not compose the introduction till the plan of the whole discourse is outlined. To write out a plan of the entire sermon from text to conclusion, adjust the form of the proposition. Analyze the outline of the argument, invent the chief illustration, shape the application, decide upon the method of closing in a word. Get everything done before you decide what is to be introduced.

4:34 Put it on paper if your mind needs, as many do, the help of the eye. Then you will know what the exordium ought to be, and can set about it intelligently, and you'll save time by this preliminary work. In other words, what he's saying, and the illustration comes under another heading, that if you will set the introduction aside while laboring at the real work of the body of the sermon, you will often find you've saved yourself a great deal of work. The shape, the emphasis, the thrust of the introduction will be much plainer at that point.

Guideline 2: The Introduction Must Be Pertinent to the Main Subject

5:12 Now, secondly, a general guideline for the construction of introductions is, the introduction must be pertinent to the main subject. The introduction must be pertinent to the main subject, or you may want to expand the statement. I'm not quite satisfied with that, so I put in parenthesis, it must be pertinent to, or comfortably lead into, the main subject. It must be pertinent to, or comfortably lead into, the main subject.

5:51 The porch is to be the... The porch to the house that you are entering, not to the house next door.

5:59 And sometimes men have given marvelous introductions that had absolutely nothing to do with the substance of the sermon. It got your attention, but it got your attention for something completely other than that which they were going to lay upon you, and you felt cheated. And I've actually sat there wondering, well, if he developed that thing, what would he have said about it? You know, my interest was awakened in that particular thing.

6:24 By the way, they introduced it, but then they threw a curve at me, and they didn't give me what they promised in the introduction, and I felt cheated, and I'm just wicked enough at the level of the noetic to wonder, well, just what in the world could have been said or should have been said about that given subject? So be careful that your introduction is pertinent to, or at least comfortably leads into, the substance of the main subject. And here again, you'll...

Guideline 3: Do Not Steal Substance from the Main Body

6:54 You'll find Dabney's comments on page 142 to 144 to be very powerful. I'll not quote them. You're going to read those in a couple of weeks in your regular assignment. Then the third guideline, it must not steal substance from the main body of the sermon.

7:14 The introduction must not steal substance from the main body of the sermon. And here I will quote Dabney, because I want this to stick with you. Page 144. The introduction must not embody a thought which is essential to the main discussion.

7:34 This is an error of structure to which the inexperienced and impulsive preacher is prone. Approaching the work of composition with a mind fired by the subject, he finds those ideas which are cardinal to the subject prominent in his thoughts, and he can scarcely refrain from pouring out some of them from the very moment he begins. The consequence is that when he proceeds in...

7:57 In earnest to deal with his proposition, he will find he has anticipated essential matter. Now he has only the choice between a bald repetition of his first idea, or else leaving one of his arguments in a fragmentary state. A stone which is absolutely necessary to close his arch, he has already laid in the threshold.

8:20 Now that's an apt illustration. He's taken a stone necessary to close the arch of his argument, while he's already used it up. Now, in the foundation, and now he's got an unclosed arch, where he's got to reach back and steal it from where he already laid it, and stick it up there. Now again, that's a fault that often comes early in the ministry, and if it's not corrected, and in super-pious preachers who don't analyze their preaching, it never gets corrected, and so the people just have to put up with the tedium.

8:49 And God's truth suffers, because God has so made the mind that it feels the force not only of logic, but of compelling and completion. So if you love the God who has made the mind of man the way he has made it, and has constituted man a rational creature, then you will be careful not to steal the substance from the main body of the sermon, and place it in the introduction. You may anticipate. What?

Guideline 4: The Introduction Ought to Be Modest and Realistic

9:27 It will develop into a main argument. You may point in the direction, but you do not take the substance of the main body of the sermon and put it in the introduction. Then fourthly, it ought to be modest and realistic. The introduction ought to be modest and realistic.

9:51 Sangster is the one who gives this very vivid illustration in his book, The Craft of the Sermon, page 116. Years ago, I used to pass on my way to church a wee house with an enormous porch. I see it in my mind's eye as I write, great Corinthian pillars, complete with acanthus leaves, supported a baroque portico which would have given shelter from the rain for half a platoon of soldiers. On the other side of this enormous porch was something like the cheapest kind of council house.

10:27 And in British terminology, that means a little... row house, just a little binky shack, we would say.

10:35 I always smiled as I went by. It reminded me of two things. The man who began to build and had not wherewith to finish, and also certain sermons I had heard. All introduction, ornate splendor round the door, and next to nothing on the other side.

10:53 The little house by itself could be warm and welcoming and snug, but after that ridiculous porch? Dot, dot, dot, exclamation point, and there he ends the paragraph. He lets your mind complete the paragraph, and you get that grotesque picture. Ornate Corinthian columns with leaves and fruit and everything, leading in to a little shack.

11:16 Well, that's why I say your introduction ought to be modest and realistic. If your wife is serving you corned beef hash, she doesn't bring, as an appetizer, chilled, shrimp cocktail in a fancy dish with the ice all around it, such as you'd find in an uppity restaurant. No, there's some incongruity between that ornate appetizer and that humble fare of corned beef hash. Well, if your sermon is corned beef hash, serve up a few crackers and cheese for an appetizer, all right?

11:52 That's much more appropriate. Now, some sermons are corned beef hash. Your people need corned beef hash. You can't always give up.

12:00 You can't always give them prime rib, you know? But if you give them corned beef hash, give them a corned beef hash appetizer, little crackers and cheese, all right, or a few Cheez-Its or something else, something that is realistic and modest with respect to the substance of the sermon. Again, Dabney speaking with great perception to the issue, says on page 144, his fourth point, while the thought of the introduction should by no means be tribbled or uninteresting, neither should it be ambitious. It should not vie in splendor with all that are to succeed it, lest it should raise too much promise in the expectation of the hearers.

12:41 The impression which they carry away from a sermon is usually that produced by its concluding parts. If you fail there to fulfill the promise of your introduction, the pleasing surprise which you gave them in beginning will not cause them to pardon you the disappointment at the end.

13:03 They feel cheated if on the menu they've ordered prime rib and they get corned beef hash. They feel cheated. So the introduction, then, must be modest, it must be realistic. In fact, one man writing on the subject says the words that should characterize every introduction are simplicity, modesty, fitness, and suggestiveness.

Guideline 5: The Introduction Ought to Be as Brief as Possible

13:29 Simplicity, modesty, fitness, and suggestiveness. Simplicity, modesty, fitness, and suggestiveness. Then in the fifth place, general guidelines, it ought to be as brief as possible. The introduction ought to be as brief as possible, given the purposes of the introduction and what you must do to serve those purposes in any given sermon.

13:56 Make those purposes concrete in as brief an introduction as possible. If ever you take the knife and cut away every bit of excess fat and verbiage, do it in the introduction, because remember, once the hearts of your people and the minds of your people have been warmed by friction with your heart and mind in the sermon, a bit of prolixity, a bit of excessive verbiage in the body of the sermon can be tolerated in the warmth and heat and excitement of that mutual interplay of heart and mind. Remember, the introduction ought to be as brief as possible, given the purposes of the introduction and what you must do to serve those purposes in any given sermon. The introduction ought to be as brief as possible, given the purposes of the sermon.

14:37 But at the outset, it's tedious. And when a man is just plodding around in quicksand in his introduction and slogging around in mud, you sense it very, very keenly. He can get away with things later on in the sermon that he cannot in the introduction. And we must recognize that, brethren.

14:56 And if ever we need to be careful to be as brief as possible, as streamlined as possible, it's in the introduction. And then, my friends, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

Guideline 6: The Introduction Ought to Be as Interesting and Arresting as Possible

15:05 My sixth suggestion is, it ought to be as interesting and arresting as possible. It ought to be as interesting and arresting as possible.

15:21 Now, notice that comes after modesty and realistic. Now, don't make it arresting at the expense of modesty.

15:32 But within the bounds of modesty and realism, make your introduction as interesting and arresting as possible. All right? Having set forth the functions of the introduction, some suggested guidelines for the construction of the introduction, now, thirdly, suggested sources for your introduction.

Suggested Sources for Introductions

15:55 From what sources do we derive introductions to our sermons?

16:02 Well, let me set before you four categories. And this, again, is by no means an exhaustive list. And I'll give you a little bibliography where you can find a more thorough, thorough treatment of the subject. But number one, the weighty reasons for taking up the subject or text often form the substance of an introduction.

16:27 The weighty reasons for taking up a subject or a text. For instance, back several years ago when little Janine Berry was born, the only Down's syndrome or mongoloid child we have in the church, when you think of all the babies we've had, had through the years, and never has a mongoloid child been born to any of our couples, that thing had a shock effect upon our people. And when the news came in midweek, I knew that gathering on the Lord's Day, everyone's mind would be filled with that. So it was appropriate that in a context of pastoral, congregational intimacy, I should have introduced my subject that morning by saying,

17:11 most of us are aware that during this past week, God entrusted to one of our couples, the gift of a Down's syndrome child. And they, and we with them, are facing realistically that if God spares the life of this child, they will, until that child dies, bear the burden of all the peculiar trauma of a child in that condition. Now in the face of that, do we dare to believe the text that I'm now to quote in your hearing? Then, all things work together for good.

17:50 And then I introduced the text, Romans 8.28. That was taking, you see, the weighty reason for taking up that subject or that text on that given occasion, and making it the introduction into it. It may be that there's an event in the church calendar, and I think the advice of Dr. Lloyd-Jones ought not to be treated lightly,

18:13 that we should seize certain opportunities, in the so-called church calendar, when we will have visitors and unconverted people present, thinking about the resurrection or about the birth of Christ. Well, that may form a very natural basis for the, or natural mind for the raw materials of the introduction. There may be particular circumstances which have engaged your own mind, or the minds of the congregation. The weighty reasons for taking up a subject or text, form a legitimate source for an introduction.

18:50 You see Paul doing this at Athens, and he tells them that his subject matter has been determined by his observation of their religious life. In all things I perceive you are very religious. As I pass by, I beheld your altars. What is he doing? He's introducing his subject.

19:08 And he's seizing upon what he has observed as the reason, the rationale for addressing himself, to that subject. Then the second major category of source for the introduction is the text itself. The text itself. You may wish to give the geographical or historical setting of the text.

19:33 For instance, if you've been constrained to preach on the, what Hugh Martin calls the shadow of Calvary, the circumstances of Gethsemane, what better way to introduce it than to just get your facts straight, about the relationship between the geographical setting of the upper room, and the brook Kidron, and the Mount of Olives. And in brief, terse, descriptive phrases, let your people see in their mind's eye that little band coming down out of the upper room, making their way out of the precincts of what we would call the heart of that section of Jerusalem, making their way out over the brook Kidron, and into that sacred,

20:18 sacred place where our Lord agonized before his Father. You may find in the text itself, giving the geographical or historical setting, the basis of your introduction. If you were preaching on the 51st Psalm, what better way to introduce it than to say there was once a man mighty before God, a man called, a man after God's own heart. But this very man in a moment of weakness stood upon a rooftop, looked and lusted, and lay with a woman other than his own wife.

20:50 What does God feel towards a man like this? What does a man like this do in the face of his wickedness? Well, you see, in just a few terse sentences, you've awakened the interest of the people by taking from the text itself raw materials for your introduction. Or it may be that you want to expound the context, the universe of discourse, as part of the text itself, becoming the raw materials for your introduction.

21:21 But then there is a third source of introduction, the weighty reasons for taking up the subject, the text itself. Thirdly, a judicious review of the previous parts of a series of expositions, whether topical or consecutive expository, a judicious review of the previous parts of a series. Now, I say judicious, and by that I mean not a bland, lifeless, colorless. Now, this morning, we will review.

21:55 There's a preacher who's done some excellent work of exposition in a certain part of the Scriptures, and not knowing whether or not he might eventually listen to these tapes, I'm not even going to say what part of the Scriptures it is, and I've listened with great profit to some of those sermons. But every single sermon, he stands up and says, this is sermon number 23, on, and then mentions the section of Scripture he's expounding, and then he moves in. Now, that's not something dubbed into the tape beforehand. That's how he preaches.

22:29 Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. And he gives a very good review, but it's not judiciously handled. There's a monotony and a sameness that borders on tedium. So, you can, as you labor at the art of introduction, give a judicious review of the previous parts of the series for your introduction, and there can be, fourthly, a judicious use of arresting literary devices.

22:59 A judicious use of arresting literary devices. And what are they? Well, a pithy statement at the outset of a sermon will arrest the attention, form an introduction. A brief series of questions is a literary device by which we can introduce our subject.

23:24 And there's a host of these available. You'll learn them by observation, by reading sermons, by listening to sermons. Now, these are four of the major sources for the introduction. And if you want a more complete list, a more detailed list, let me give you a brief bibliography at this point.

23:45 Broadus, pages 268 to 272. Broadus, 268 to 272. You will soon be reading in Dabney, these suggested sources, page 146 to 148. And then the most complete list that I have in my library is found in Phelps, Austin Phelps.

24:11 And I don't know if we have that in the library here. If we don't, I'll stick my copy in for a while, so eventually you can read some of this. Pages 266 to 274. And I think he lists 12 sources of introductions.

24:29 Phelps, The Theory of Preaching. This is the author of the book the banner printed called The Quiet Hour on Prayer. The little paperback, this is the same Phelps. Austin Phelps, The Theory of Preaching, 266 to 274.

Concluding Exhortations: Diligence, Variety, and Genuineness

24:46 All right, now let me lay upon you what I'm calling concluding exhortations relative to the construction of your introductions. Number one, and this stands over all the others, don't skimp on mental labors connected with constructing an introduction. Don't skimp on mental labors associated with constructing an introduction. One has said, well begun is half done.

25:24 Well begun is half done. Another man who quoted that went on to say, ill begun is apt to be wholly ruined. We often say first impressions are lasting impressions. What's true of people is true of sermons.

25:41 First impressions often last clear through the sermon. Now thank God grace enters and many times restores what the locusts of a poor introduction have eaten. Now thank God for grace that is above and beyond and beneath and bigger than all the rules and general principles. But don't tempt God by defying the general rules and principles either.

26:06 And if you've blown your introduction, say, Lord, magnify your grace by restoring what my folly has done in the first part of the sermon. But don't skimp on mental labors at this point, brethren. Secondly, don't get into a rut of sameness. Don't get into a rut of sameness.

26:32 Because of the way God has put us together mentally, aesthetically, because of our literary inclinations and influences, all of us left to ourselves will gravitate to a certain form of introduction and with that we will feel most comfortable because of all those factors of our individuality and because usually that expression of our individuality is the easiest road to take. But if you love your people, and here's where you see you cannot separate the art of sermonizing from the passionate love to your people, you will be willing for their sakes to labor at freshness in your introductions.

27:16 You will not indulge yourself in the luxury of the rut of sameness. One man of God says, you know what a rut is? It's nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out. That's what a rut is.

27:29 Well, sermons can be like that and they'll smell of the grave because there is a rut of sameness and your people, without you saying it, will get the impression that you really are not that excited about securing their attention because it's evident that you're not putting forth any labor to secure it. Now you say, well, if there are spiritual people, they'll come and be ready to listen to introduction and no introduction. Well, that's right, but you're not dealing with a bunch of people that are always all that they ought to be spiritually, any more than you are. And when you are, at any given point, all you ought to be as the epitome of spiritual hunger,

28:09 then you can assume that your people are, but not until then. Now that's why I don't assume that on any given Lord's Day everyone comes there hungering and thirsting for the bread of life and prepared to give themselves to the discipline of careful listening. I don't assume that because I know I'm not always in that frame. And I thank God when preachers have loved me enough to do what was necessary to help get me in the right frame to listen to what they had to say.

28:42 I love them for their labor. Well, then you earn the love of your people for your labor. Don't get into a rut of sameness. Thirdly, don't attempt to be elegant or dramatic.

28:54 And here again, this is often the sin of young preachers. They see the importance of the introduction, and they're so convinced the introduction ought to really introduce that they become overly elegant. And there's such a disparity between the introduction and the body of the sermon, it's like you're listening to two different people. And the minute people just sense that, then they begin to have suspicions about your what?

29:21 Your genuineness. They begin to think you're phony. So don't attempt to be elegant or overly dramatic. Some people say, well, the people are half asleep, I'm going to get them awake.

29:31 So they just jump up into the pulpit. And people somehow sense something's not quite kosher. So don't attempt to be elegant or overly dramatic, as I have just been by way of caricature. Now, fourthly, self-consciously seek to learn, self-consciously seek to learn how to construct good introductions by observation and practice.

Concluding Exhortations: Learn by Observation and Practice, Write Out Introductions

30:07 So you can reduce it, learn by observation and practice. When you read sermons, ask yourself, what is this man doing in his introduction that makes me want to read on into the body of his sermon? Now, here's where Spurgeon can be a great help to you. You will notice both judiciousness in his introductions, tremendous variety in his introductions, all of these principles that I've mentioned.

30:36 You can take almost any volume of Spurgeon, I did it yesterday, and thumb through at random and find Spurgeon using introductions derived from the text or the universe of discourse, circumstances in the life of the people, circumstances in his own life, the life of the church, or giving you the biographies or the graphical, historical setting of the passage. You see, Spurgeon is a wonderful illustration, and I think, again, from the human side, that's one of the reasons he was listened to with such profit and eagerness over so long a period of time, tremendous variety in his introductions. Sometimes it's just a paragraph, and he'll say, we're going to plunge right in. Other times, there's two, two and a half pages of introduction.

31:19 Tremendous variety in the length. So study Spurgeon as a good model in this area. I've been interested in beginning to try to get into some of these sermons of Samuel Davies, who was a great preacher, and what I did yesterday was to take his volume one of his sermons and notice his introductions, and it was tremendously interesting to see the variety of his introductions. Let me give you a little sampling, and I think we have these in our library.

31:50 In his opening sermon, which is on the divine authority and sufficiency of the Christian religion, his text is Luke 16, 27 to 31. Then he said, I pray therefore, Father, you would send them to my Father's house. I have five brethren that he may testify to them. And Abraham said they have Moses and the prophets.

32:08 If they will not hear them, they will not hear the one come back from the dead. What Micah said surreptitiously when he was robbed of his idols, you've taken away my gods and what have I more, may be truly spoken with regard to the religion of Jesus. If that be taken from us, what have we more? The generality of you owe all your hopes of a glorious immortality to this heaven-born religion, and you make it the rule of your faith and practice, confident that in so doing you please God.

32:42 But what if after all of this you should be mistaken? What if the religion of Jesus should be an imposture? I know you're struck with horror at the thought and perhaps alarmed of making so shocking a supposition, but this suspicion, horrid as it is, has probably been suggested to you at times by infernal agency. And then he goes on to draw out the consciousness of every believer.

33:08 What would it be like if I had no certainty of the world to come, of heaven and hell? And then he goes on to open up this text in which the Scriptures themselves are the self-attesting declaration of these great realities. And all the way through you'll see the different approaches he takes. And another time he speaks of his sense of frustration.

33:30 He quotes his text dealing with the final judgment. And he says, As I've wrestled with what I should bring for the benefit of your never-dying immortal souls, I have felt frustration and agony to know just precisely what note I should sound. But convinced that this note can never be wrong, then he launches into a sermon on the second coming of the judgment of the great day. Well, reading men like this, seeing what they did, and again, brethren, if that was something that came, as it were, automatically to these men, it was only after years of a cultivated discipline.

34:06 And you, brethren, are at the point where you must cultivate the disciplines that will become mental, spiritual, homiletic habits with you in later years. So I urge you, learn by observation and practice that Spurgeon is an excellent help. Read the sermons of Shedd. Notice his different introductions.

34:26 If you want a helpful model of judicious introductions, Warfield's Faith in Life. And again, I did this yesterday, so I'm not telling you to do something I didn't do. I tried to do this, but I tried to concentrate it into many hours. Didn't finish up till 8 o'clock last night.

34:42 But if you want a good example of how to use both the context, the thrust of the text, parallel concerns as judicious introductions, Warfield's Faith in Life will be a great help to you. These are sermons that he preached to the students at Princeton on Sunday afternoons. And so you're seeing Warfield, the preacher, here as you do not see him in any of his other works. And you want a model of a preacher.

35:13 Warfield, I don't know what he was like in his presence, but the stuff comes across with tremendous unction and tremendous intellectual satisfaction. And no little part of it are his excellent introductions. And then fourthly, as a rule, write out your introduction in detail. As a general rule, write out your introduction in detail.

35:38 Now I urge you to do this, not to encourage you to read verbatim your introduction in the pulpit, but as an aid to help you in attaining conciseness, directness and pungency in your introduction. The fact will be more apparent if you put pen to paper than if you just have generally formed thoughts in your own head. Often we deceive ourselves that we really have a grasp on a thing and we will be able on the spur of the moment to express what we desire to do so in terse statements, but when we actually come to do it,

36:20 we find there is an awful lot of verbal fat hangs on. Well, if you are determined to cut out that fat in the introduction, I know of no better way than to write it out. I do more writing of the first opening paragraphs or two in my sermons than in any other part. And I have found through the years that this is a very helpful discipline with respect to this matter of seeking to have simple statements, because later on again when you get caught up in the sermon and the people are caught up with you, you can have a sentence that runs on for five minutes and nobody is confused.

36:55 Because you are hanging parts of it here with this hand and parts of it over here, and the whole context of what you are saying sorts it all out. But in the introduction you can't do that. And if you get dangling modifiers over here and incomplete sentences here and anacoluthon here, it's just a hopeless confusion in the introduction. And often again, first impressions are lasting impressions.

37:21 So, terse, pungent, pointed statements that accomplish the goal of the introduction ought to be reproduced as a general rule on paper. You will find this a helpful discipline. Now let me say by way of caution, don't then read it off and then abruptly move to eye-to-eye extemporaneous expression of your thoughts. The people will sense that there is a jarring transition and they won't feel comfortable with it.

37:51 So, remember that part. If necessary, commit it to memory. Commit it to memory. So that basically you can establish your eye contact right from the outset.

38:02 And if you don't yet feel comfortable with eye contact, at least you can look to the foreheads of your people. And we'll come to that when we come to the act of preaching. And I didn't say that to be humorous. I mean that there are times when I don't feel strong enough yet to look into people's eyes.

38:18 I come feeling so utterly weak in terms of the proper sense of weakness and perhaps so insecure of just what's going to happen that I can't bring myself, right from the time I stand in the pulpit, to look directly into people's eyeballs. So I look at their foreheads till I get going. And if the Lord comes and I feel help and strength, then I get bold enough to start. But to just keep my head glued down here and then all of a sudden sense, woohoo, good, the Lord's come and I feel like I didn't start looking at their faces.

38:47 It's too abrupt a transition. So if you write out your introduction, don't get your eyes glued. In fact, again, one of the, not unpardonable, inexcusable. We make a difference between unpardonable and inexcusable sins.

39:01 Never, never get your speech apparatus down here. Even when you're looking at your notes. Keep this trumpet with the bell out here. One of the things my pappy taught me.

39:11 He was a bandmaster in the Salvation Army. And he taught me how to play the trumpet and the trombone. And one of the things that was inexcusable was to get the bell of your instrument down here. My pappy always worked on keeping the bell of the instrument that threw out the sound.

39:26 Keep it out here. Never less than parallel to the ground. Little did he know, he was teaching me some important lessons about public speaking. This is your bell.

39:36 The sounds emit from here. Not from the top of your head. And some preachers, I think they think that they must have a horn here in the top of their head. Because that's about all you see when they preach.

39:49 Once in a while you see their eyes. But the speech apparatus is down here. No brethren, keep it up here. And then glance down this way.

39:56 And that'll help you when you get old and need bifocals. You've already trained yourself to look through the bottom part of your glasses. And you don't have any problem adjusting to your bifocals. You see? Because you've already learned how.

40:06 That's a simple little thing. But that's anticipating something that comes later on. We get ridiculously practical in this course. But to some total, good preaching is a lot of little things.

40:19 And bad preaching the same. It's usually the accumulation of a lot of little bad things. So, write out your introduction. But don't be glued to it.

40:27 Don't read it. If necessary, commit it to memory. And go from there. Now, I want to close with a quote with respect to the difficulty of the introduction.

The Introduction as the Preacher's Cross

40:39 One of the brethren talked with me in the hall before and said, I just still find the introduction so difficult. And I didn't say, join the club. But I could have. It is tremendously difficult.

40:53 And one of the writers on this subject has said, now if I can find Vinay, I thought this was the quote from Vinay in Phelps on page 266. But it is not. He's speaking of the difficulty. But Vinay, the French writer, yeah, I found it. Here we are.

41:10 Before passing to the next topic of discussion in the analysis of the sermon, I wish to suggest a few hints on the work of composing the introduction. The introduction has been called a preacher's cross. It is the most liable subject of criticism, but the most difficult of execution. I'm sorry, the most easy subject of criticism, but the most difficult of execution.

41:36 Vinay says that it is like the fine and precise operations and mechanics in which every workman may end in success, but only after having broken more than once the instruments employed. You have probably already experienced in some degree the common lot of preachers in this respect. A subject is opened richly to your mind. Thoughts upon it have been fluent and affluent.

42:02 Illustrations have been luxuriant. Details of style, even, have flashed upon you invitingly. Your fingers have felt nimble with the pen, and you could have plunged into the heart of the discussion with bounding eagerness. But this drudgery of an introduction has balked you.

42:20 It has busted your powers of invention. It has chilled your imagination. It has put out the light of your subject. And you've found yourself perhaps floundering in the middle of it as in a slough of despond feeling no bottom and unable to reach ashore.

42:36 Perhaps after a hard morning's work the thing is finished, but it dissatisfies and annoys you. It seems forced, insignificant, disjointed, objectless, and you feel that a critic comparing your labor with its result would be severe, but severely just in saying with a hymn as I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was. To those beginners in the work of sermonizing who know anything of this experience, the following hints will not be untimely." And then he goes on to give his suggestion.

43:08 So there's a man who recognized that most preachers, when they've been honest, if they've really labored at a true and realistic standard of efficient introduction to their sermons, have confessed that it was their cross in the sense that it was a difficult, difficult labor. As I was saying with this brother, you feel that God has given you something to say with which you can cruise at 40,000 and you know under God how to get the thing back on the ground, but for the lifer you don't know how to get the thing into the air. And just as with an airplane, usually the average aircraft expends half its fuel supplies in takeoff and attaining altitude. Think of the parallel in sermonizing.

43:51 Many times the labor and the introduction is arduous. If I can just get this crazy thing off the ground, I think we'll cruise. But we can't cruise till we get it off the runway and up the altitude. Well, brethren, that's your job.

44:07 That's your task. And it will not do to have a pious cop out and say, well, my exposition is true to the word of God and that's all that matters. Well, if all you were doing is giving an exegesis course somewhere, maybe that's all that would matter. But you aren't.

44:23 You're bringing the word of God to the people of God in all the diversity of their taste and backgrounds and they come battered and bruised and disjointed and distracted and you have but these 35, 40 minutes or 50 minutes, whatever it is, to bring the bread of life to them and you're coming as a man who is determined under God to use every legitimate device deposited by God in your hands to get their interest in the truth of God, to turn their affections to that truth and to bring it to them in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit. And having done all you can do, then you can with good conscience leave to God to do what only He can do. Make it all

45:07 effectual. But don't under the guise of leaving to God to do what only He can do skimp on the work that God ain't going to do for you. And God ain't going to write your introduction for you. He'll help you as you set yourself to do it. But His help will not

45:24 negate the reality nor the ardor of your labor. It will make it effectual. And that's our view of the Christian life and it carries right over into the labor of preaching. Alright, it's five minutes to one and if you have to leave promptly at one, do so and will not be offended.

45:46 But discussion is in order if there are things to discuss. Questions to take up?