The Body of a Topical Sermon
Pastor Martin outlines the essential steps for constructing the body of a topical sermon, emphasizing the need for accuracy, balance, and biblical grounding. He details initial disciplines like prayer and broad acquaintance with the subject, intermediate steps for structuring the material and selecting key texts, and concluding steps for incorporating illustrations, applications, and transitions. Martin warns against inflexibility and the pursuit of exhaustive treatment, advocating for a focused, biblically supported, and applicable approach to topical preaching, exemplified by a sermon on the independence of God.
Topics
Outline 6 sections · 72 min
- Introduction to the Body of the Sermon 0:02
- Goals Envisioned in the Topical Sermon 3:27
- Initial Disciplines for Topical Sermon Construction 19:15
- Intermediate Disciplines for Topical Sermon Construction 42:50
- Concluding Disciplines for Topical Sermon Construction 56:03
- Concluding Warnings and Exhortations for Topical Preaching 62:00
Key Quotes
“If your goal is to present your topic in an accurate and balanced manner, then that is indeed your great challenge, your great difficulty, and your great danger is that you will be inaccurate and unbalanced.”
“And this is why much current topical preaching is imbalanced, inaccurate and sloppy. It's because we are suffering from the plague of the absence of having systematic theologians in the pulpit.”
“Whereas the fundamental end in view in preaching is to grip the conscience, to move the affections, and to secure the consent of the will.”
“with our viewings of preaching, brethren, the Holy Spirit is not a theological concept or a luxury. He is an absolute necessity.”
“Nothing should be advanced which is not solid, and all should be so perspicuously and forcibly put as to silence every man, every mind, which is not perverse.”
“When you can prove a point with a friend, why use a stranger?”
“Don't illustrate if the truth that you are expounding is clear and forcefully presented without illustration.”
“don't overload the sermon with too much of a good thing and by that I mean don't bring too many texts to bear upon the development of a topical subject if God says that the mouth of two or three witnesses every word will be established in that could be the basis of capital punishment then should we not take that as a guideline that in proving an issue in demonstrating the biblical basis two or three well chosen witnesses are sufficient”
Applications
All listeners
- Be aware that presenting an accurate and balanced view of your subject is the great challenge, difficulty, and danger of topical preaching.
- Ensure that even in impassioned evangelistic appeals, you never leap over the boundaries of systematic theology, as it serves as quality control for all teaching and preaching.
- Demonstrate the true biblical basis for the view given of a theme in the actual sermon, not just stating it.
- Consciously aim for the application of the theme to the real world of your hearers when working on the body of a topical sermon.
- Engage in earnest prayer for the present aid of the Holy Spirit, especially for wisdom and counsel, due to the peculiar dangers of imbalance in topical preaching.
- Acquire a broad acquaintance with your subject or theme to ensure balance and accuracy in your treatment.
- Note and record the main texts and major strands of the theme that emerge during your broad acquaintance research.
- Carefully exegete the key texts that will form the basis of your proof or assertions, ensuring they bear the weight you put on them.
- Reduce the mass of general material to its basic framework for preaching, using catechisms, definitions, or key texts as guides.
- Compose the headings and select key texts for exposition under each heading, considering suitability for brief exposition, biblical theological method, listener prejudices, and familiarity.
- Carefully map out the manner in which you plan to expound the texts, including realistic time estimates, even using a stopwatch.
- If preaching a series of topical sermons, mark out the material into major divisions of the subject to ensure a balanced and comprehensive treatment without excessive overlap.
- Work in necessary illustrative material sparingly, only when the truth needs light to be grasped clearly.
- Work in the applications during preparation, rather than trusting to the impulse of the moment, while still relying on the Holy Spirit for selection.
- Work very carefully on your transitions from one unit of thought to another to naturally carry the minds of your people through the argument.
- Do not be so bound by your initial plan for a topical sermon series that you cannot adapt as you plunge into the preaching of it.
- Don't paralyze yourself by seeking to be exhaustive on your theme or subject; acknowledge your present understanding and preach what you know to be true.
- Don't overload the sermon with too many texts; two or three well-chosen witnesses are sufficient to establish a point.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 157 paragraphs, roughly 72 minutes.
Introduction to the Body of the Sermon
Now, for reasons given in the previous lecture, brethren, we'll be working with an approach to sermon construction which regards the constituent elements as consisting of the introduction or, as it is called in classic rhetoric, the exordium, and then the discussion or argument or body of the sermon, and all of those terms will be used synonymously in my lectures, and then the conclusion or what is called in classic rhetoric the peroration of the sermon. Now, in the previous lecture, we addressed the subject of the introduction, both its functions
and guidelines for its construction, sources for suitable introductions, and some miscellaneous exhortations and warnings pertaining to the construction of acceptable introductions. Now, today we move on to begin our treatment of the major part of each sermon, namely the discussion, the argument, or the body of the sermon. Now, since so many of the principles will vary in relationship to the kind of sermon preached, that is, topical, textual, or expository, I've chosen to lay out the materials in terms
of a specific set of guidelines. For each species of sermon, although there will be some overlapping and repetition, there are enough substantial differences to warrant this approach. So you only had one lecture on the introduction, but now we're going to take up, as we discuss the matter of the argument or body of the sermon, how to construct the body of the sermon for a topical sermon or thematic sermon, a textual, and then an expository. Now, I'm assuming that the sermon is going to begin with a very simple expository or a consecutive expository sermon, and we will have a full lecture time for each one of those
subjects and then just one lecture on the conclusion or the peroration. Now in taking up the subject, I'm assuming the recognition and implementation of axiom number 3 from our last unit, namely that the sermon will be marked by perspicuity of form of structure. And nowhere is this axiom of greater importance than in the body of the sermon. And some of you who are not here in the unfolding of the cyclical nature of these lectures may wish to get hold of those tapes and listen to them. You don't need to purchase
them, MIM 15 and 16, in which I deal with the axiom of perspicuity of form and structure in our sermonic exercises. Now today we're going to concentrate all of our attention on giving guidelines for the construction of the discussion or body or argument of a topical sermon or series of topical sermons. And the basic outline which we'll follow today will be used for each lecture on each species of sermon. First of all, we'll consider the
Goals Envisioned in the Topical Sermon
goal envisioned in the body of the sermon. Secondly, the disciplines essential to the attainment of that goal. And then thirdly, some concluding warnings and exhortations. All right, so the goal envisioned in the topical sermon. While assuming that the salvation of
sinners and the edification of the saints are always our ultimate concerns, what are the specific distinguishing goals of the individual topical sermon or series of topical sermons? Well, let me suggest that there should be three distinct goals. Number one, the presentation of an accurate and balanced view of your subject or biblical theme. Goal number one should be the
presentation of an accurate and balanced view of your subject or biblical theme. Now I've chosen my adjectives purposely, and perhaps to underscore their importance, we'll just think of the antonyms to the words accurate and balanced. The antonym of accurate, of course, is inaccurate, balanced, imbalanced. And whenever we take up a thematic, sermon, a topical sermon, a subject sermon, we must be concerned to present an accurate and
balanced view of that subject or biblical theme. Now in the case where your subject is not drawn from the scriptures, you must aim at being accurate and balanced in your treatment of it. For example, some of you were here when I preached on a biblical perspective on the space shuttle disaster. In fact, I'm glad to understand from the tape people that's been the all-time bestseller in the Trinity Pulpit. And what I was doing was taking a subject from an event
in our national life and seeking to preach a topical sermon based upon a subject that is not introduced by the Bible, but an event introduced in the providence of God into our national life. The same thing happens when we preach on a topic that is not introduced by the Bible, but an event that is not introduced by the Bible. And so, we must be concerned to present an accurate and balanced view of the scriptures that address those themes that arise not out of the Bible,
but out of a common national concern or preoccupation. Now in the case where you are taking up an explicitly biblical subject, you must be concerned to present an accurate and such as intercessory prayer or Christian joy or the doctrine of hell, you must have as your goal an accurate and balanced presentation. Now, that does not mean that you must attempt or claim to be exhaustive or fully comprehensive in your treatment of the subject or theme. By a few qualifying sentences, you can make your hearers aware of the much larger setting
or the inseparable attendance of the aspect that you are presently treating. For example, suppose you were to preach one topical sermon on the subject of Christian joy. All you would need to say in your introduction is this. While any full treatment...
...of this great biblical subject would demand an accurate definition of joy, the unique source of Christian joy, the fruits of Christian joy, I wish to focus only upon the issue of Christian joy in the midst of adversity.
Now, you see, what you're doing is you're apprising your hearers of the fact that the subject of Christian joy, as it comes to us in the Scriptures, is much broader and much more... ...more comprehensive than your treatment of that isolated aspect.
And you need perhaps only do what I've just suggested. One or two well-worded sentences which give an instant glimpse of the broader field so that as you now focus with the zoom lens of this single topical sermon upon your subject, your people will not get a distorted view of that subject. You have...
...as it were, locked them in to that subject against the backdrop of its broader and more comprehensive dimensions.
Or we might take, for example, the doctrine of hell. And you might introduce it by saying, while a balanced view of this doctrine that is comprehensive would demand that we consider the character of God which demands hell, the fact that there are degrees of punishment in hell, we shall focus only upon this question, what does the Bible say about the duration of the suffering in hell? So you're making people know that any comprehensive view of this doctrine must be rooted in the nature and in the character of God himself, the justice of God in the degrees of punishment,
but that for reasons that you believe are good and wise growing out of certain pastoralism, you must be rooted in the nature and in the character of God himself, so in saying that our goal must be the presentation of an accurate and balanced view of your subject or biblical theme, I am not suggesting that you must be exhaustive or fully comprehensive in your treatment of the subject. Now you can readily see, I trust, why this first goal, comprises both the great challenge and the real difficulty and danger of topical preaching.
If your goal is to present your topic in an accurate and balanced manner, then that is indeed your great challenge, your great difficulty, and your great danger is that you will be inaccurate and unbalanced. In your presentation of that subject or theme. As I informed you when describing topical or thematic preaching, when the topic or theme is extracted from the Bible, what you are doing basically is preaching systematic theology.
And therefore you must be an accurate systematic theologian seeing all of the parts in relation to the topic, and seeing all of the parts in relation to the whole, if you are to be accurate topical preachers. And this is why much current topical preaching is imbalanced, inaccurate and sloppy. It's because we are suffering from the plague of the absence of having systematic theologians in the pulpit. And though he would not mean by it what we would, the man who said, if only all of our theologians were evangelists, if only all of our theologians were evangelists, if only all of our theologians were evangelists, if only all of our theologians were evangelists,
and all of our evangelists were theologians, the church would be in a much healthier state. Now we can take that statement and knowing what we know and believing what we believe about systematic theology, say amen to it. That in our most impassioned evangelistic appeals and declarations, we never leap over the boundaries of systematic theology. It is the quality control upon all, all of our teaching and preaching.
And therefore, when we come to construct the body, the discussion, the argument of a topical sermon, our goal must be to set forth an accurate and balanced view of the biblical theme, or an accurate and balanced view of the biblical perspectives that come to bear upon a non-biblical theme. But then we must have a second goal. And if this goal is kept in mind, it will help you in the actual construction of the sermon. And it is this.
The demonstration of the true biblical basis for the view that you are giving with reference to that theme. The demonstration of the true biblical basis of the view you are giving of that particular theme. Okay. And what I mean by this goal is simply this.
We must not merely tack on verses in support of the various lines of thought expressed in a topical sermon, but we must actually open up the pivotal texts relating to our present theme.
You see, so often there is a prejudice against topical preaching because it is done in a way in which, the texts of scripture are simply tacked on the way you find them so often in Charles Hodge's treatment of systematic theology. In contrast to Professor Murray's treatment of systematic theology. Now, any of you who have done any reading in Hodge and Murray, you know exactly what I'm saying. So often, Hodge will write a whole paragraph and make statements, assertions and affirmations, and then there will be a string of texts tacked on.
But if you look at the text, as I have done in using his outlines of theology and in certain areas of his systematic theology, you wonder at times whether there were gross typos and mistakes when the linotype worked, or whether indeed there was any careful exegesis. And certainly, Hodge did not lack the skills and the tools of being a careful exegete, but that approach to systematic theology, that does not demonstrate how the assertions actually grow out of and are founded upon careful exegesis, is not the approach that we are seeking to impart to you men here in the academy.
At this point, the Puritan model is very helpful with respect to topical preaching. You know that, again and again, you find in the Puritan model that though they're going to treat a broad biblical theme, they start with an opinion, an epitomizing text, and they lay out before you the very structure of their exegesis, and then state the doctrine based upon that exegesis. For example, Owen on mortification. He opens up Romans 8.13.
I believe he has five points in the opening up of that text. And it's a model of careful, responsible exegesis. And he sets the field. He sets the field of the importance of mortification, the fact that it's only by the Spirit that we mortify, and yet though it is by the Spirit we mortify, what does it mean to mortify, so that when he gets into his subject, you feel that the Bible has planted you in the midst of that weighty subject.
And so whenever we are handling any topical sermon, we must not only have as our goal to set forth an accurate and balanced view of that theme, but we must demonstrate in the actual sermon the true biblical basis for the view given of that theme.
Now thirdly, we must have as our goal in a topical sermon, and as we're working on the body of the sermon, the application of the theme to the real world of our hearers. The application of the theme to the real world of our hearers. Remember, we are preaching a topical sermon, not teaching a topical lesson. And if there is any fundamental difference or distinction between preaching and teaching, I am convinced, according to my present light and study of the biblical data,
it lies in the fundamental end in view that is different in preaching and teaching. Both preaching. Teaching and teaching must have didache. They must have substance.
Both teaching and preaching, if they are biblical, must be rooted in a responsible exegesis of the word of God. But the fundamental end in view in teaching is to impart a body of knowledge. Now it's not the only end in view. We're imparting it that ultimately it may sanctify and save.
But the fundamental end in view is the impartation of a body of knowledge. Whereas the fundamental end in view in preaching is to grip the conscience, to move the affections, and to secure the consent of the will.
And all of your teaching, all of the didache, has that end in view. And you are not satisfied if the people go out having grasped the teaching. You want to know that by the grace of God the conscience has been preached. The affections have been moved and the will has consented to fall in with the pressure of that truth.
Now that may be true if the primary focus is comfort, urging to action, reformation of practice, whatever it is. So therefore, in preaching, topical or subject sermons, we must have as one of our conscious goals at the point that we sit down to work on the Bible, the body of the sermon, the application of the theme to the real world of our hearers. All right? Those are the goals envisioned.
Initial Disciplines for Topical Sermon Construction
Now then, secondly, the disciplines essential to the attainment of these goals.
The disciplines essential to the attainment of these goals. And there will be three subheadings, and this is the outline I'll follow all the way through as we treat the discussion or the body of the sermon for topical sermons, for textual and for expository. And they are sequential in terms of time. The initial, the intermediate, and the concluding disciplines.
All right? So the disciplines essential to the attainment of these goals, first of all, the initial disciplines.
You're convinced, for good and wise reasons, you ought to take up the subject of intercessory prayer.
Now then, you sit down to compose a series. You estimate at this juncture that it would be well, perhaps, over a period of two months on the Lord's Day morning to preach some eight sermons on intercessory prayer. How in the world do you begin? Where do you start?
Well, the initial disciplines, I suggest, are these. And I will give you four of them. Number one.
The first must always be earnest, earnest prayer for the present aid of the Holy Spirit. Earnest prayer for the present aid of the Holy Spirit. Now, we always stand in desperate need of His grace and power as the spirit of illumination, the spirit of pastoral sensitivity and concern. But, brethren, I suggest we especially need Him as the spirit of wisdom and counsel because, because of the peculiar dangers of imbalance and overstatement connected with topical
or subject preaching.
We are much more dependent on factors of human judgment for the emphases and the arrangement of the material than in textual or expository sermons. There, a given verse or group of verses or whole chapters are dictating the track that we will follow and the emphases that we will give. But in topical preaching, that burden is thrown back upon our own minds and our own judgment. How shall we sort out the materials?
How much time will be given to, say, the conditions for effective intercessory prayer? Intercessory prayer in relationship to the sovereignty of God. Intercessory prayer intercessory prayer in relationship to, and then you have other things that you're going to bring in. Well, you see, if ever we need the Holy Spirit's ministry as the spirit of wisdom and counsel, we need Him desperately when we set ourselves to do any sermonic work in this area of topical or thematic preaching.
And we should come to that point and we should come to that point and we should come to that posture of felt dependence remembering God's gracious promise in James 1.18. If any of you lack wisdom, let Him ask of God. I'm sorry, not James 1.18,
James 1. That's too late. It's James 1. Is it 5?
Yes. James 1.5. If any lack wisdom, let Him ask of God and then verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights.
And so, if pastoral concern and involvement with your people has led you to the conviction that a series of sermons on intercessory prayer is needed and you've detected that there are such, there is such a combination of misconceptions that it will not do simply to take a few pivotal passages where intercessory prayer is recorded for us in Scripture such as Daniel 9, Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, or perhaps some of Paul's statements in Romans 9. But you're convinced that you need to approach the subject after the pattern of systematic theology. Well then, surely, if the Holy Spirit
who has given you that pastoral concern and that pastoral discernment and has impressed upon your heart the need to do this is not going to leave you bereft of His help, when you sit down to set forth a balanced view of the subject of intercessory prayer. But as so often is true, God must say to His servants again and again, you have not because you ask not. And brethren, I confess there are times particularly when I've labored in topical preaching, when I seem to have come up against the wall and I've butted my head against it until I just felt I was ready to quit
and there's been that recognition, no voices speaking, but just in quiet biblical self-reflection. It serves you right, Buckle, because you didn't prostrate your heart in conscious childlike dependence upon me. You have not because you ask not. And when I've confessed my sin of subtle creature confidence and gone to Christ for forgiveness and pleased with Him and many times left my desk and gone to my prayer chair, I've come back to my desk and all has broken open in such a way that I've said, Oh, God, help me not to forget it only to find out a few weeks later I had to learn the lesson again
and again and again and again and again. So in the initial disciplines, discipline number one, earnest prayer for the present aid of the Holy Spirit with our viewings of preaching, brethren, the Holy Spirit is not a theological concept or a luxury. He is an absolute necessity. All right?
Second initial discipline is this.
There must be the acquisition of a broad acquaintance with your subject or theme. The acquisition of a broad acquaintance with your subject or theme.
Now, why is this necessary? Well, because of your goal. If the goal is to treat but a part of the whole, how do you know you're treating that part in balance unless you are acquainted with the whole? If you're going to treat the whole, how do you know that you're treating the whole unless you have acquired a broad acquaintance with your subject or your theme?
Now, how do you go about acquiring that broad acquaintance with your subject or theme? Well, the answer is by using the tools calculated to attain such an acquaintance. And what are they? I'm going to give you five of them.
Number one,
your concordances.
Concordance is a wonderful aid for a broad acquaintance with a biblical subject. I can remember as a baby Christian just a few months out of the womb spiritually, spreading out my old Strong's concordance on the dining room table and looking up every single reference in the Old and New Testament to repent, repentance, repenting, repent head, and the tremendous impression made upon my young newborn soul that whatever message I ever preached in the name of the God of Heaven, the note of repentance better be central to it or I was outside the lids of the Bible. And that broad acquaintance came with just going through Strong's concordance.
So your concordances are a great help both your Strong's or Young's as well as your Greek and Hebrew concordances. Secondly, your Bible dictionaries. Don't despise the benefit of Bible dictionaries.
Good and godly men have bent their minds sometimes hundreds of hours on a given subject and you need to enter into the fruit of their labors since God has blessed us with being born in the English speaking world with all of the tools available to us. Go to a third world country and look at the libraries that men have of stuff in their own language and you do two things. You're overwhelmed with your privileges and you're filled with a deep sense of penitence at how we've despised our heritage. We have so much there's no excuse for imbalance with the tools we have.
Concordances, Bible dictionaries. Thirdly, your theological dictionaries are in fact encyclopedias.
Make good use of them in seeking to gain a broad acquaintance with your subject. Your theological dictionaries or encyclopedias. Then fourthly, your systematic theologies.
For example, if you were going to preach on the doctrine of hell, it would be good for you to take all of the standard systematic orthodox theologians on your shelf and read the section in the system of theological works on the eternal state for the impenitent. And I'll tell you in a bit why it's so vital and why it's so helpful to do this. But then fifthly,
seek to read the collections of theological themes available to you. And here I refer of course to such as Warfield and Murray,
Hodge,
Shedd, men of that caliber.
For example,
any preaching on the person and work of Christ as far as I'm concerned would be pitifully defective if it did not work through Warfield's collected writings that are put together in that volume in the Craig edition out of the old Oxford set on the person and work of Christ is his treatment on the emotional life of our Lord as the most profound insight to the inner life of our Lord as far as I'm concerned has ever been produced and meets left to subsequent generations. And you'd be greatly impoverished if you did not expose yourself to that kind of reading. So, the second initial discipline after earnest prayer
for the assistance of the Holy Spirit is the acquisition of a broad acquaintance with your subject or your theme. And then I would add to what I've already said the use of confessions and catechisms and the expositions of those confessions and catechisms. Very helpful.
And then the sixth way to get a broad acquaintance with your subject or theme particularly if it is a New Testament theme is to speed read the New Testament or the epistles.
For example, if you are preaching a series of sermons on the responsibilities of church members one to another. Start in the hortatory sections of Romans and go right through all the epistles. Speed read in your English Bible all of the hortatory sections. And see what emphases come through.
What things does God give most emphasis to? It's a very salutary discipline. Some of you wonder how Pastor Nichols has gained such an acquaintance with his English Bible. That's one of the reasons.
I happen to know that he does this many times in approaching a subject. Speed read all of the epistles. Just letting your eyes go down through and getting a feel afresh. Not just trusting to your memory but letting the text of scripture itself make its impact upon your mind and your spirit.
For example, if you were going to preach on the subject of child discipline, you'd speed read the book of Proverbs for all the references to the use of the rod and correction and reproof. If you were bringing a series on the proper use of the tongue, here again, go through the epistles and speed read all the hortatory sections. Go through the book of Proverbs and do the same. This is giving your mind and your spirit direct contact with the word of God and with its own emphases and its own weight felt upon your mind and your spirit at the initial level of preparation.
All right? And then thirdly, the initial disciplines, earnest prayer for present aid of the spirit. Secondly, the acquisition of a broad acquaintance with your subject or theme and I've given you six practical suggestions as to how to get that acquaintance. Then thirdly, note and record the main texts and major strands of the theme that emerge under discipline number two.
Note and record the main texts and major strands of the theme as they emerge under discipline number two.
And what I mean by that is simply this. As you start reading your concordances, your dictionaries, your systematic theologies, as you speed read your New Testament or the Book of Proverbs, any of these suggestions I've given, you will find that certain points, certain aspects of that theme are emphasized by every writer. And you'll say, well, any responsible treatment must of necessity then handle this aspect. Now, writer A may handle this, this, and this, and writer B may not touch on those, but there are two or three aspects that A and B handle and C, D, and E, and F.
Well, you're beginning then to get an acquaintance with what are the accepted, minimal, common denominators of any responsible handling of that subject. You are entering in, you see, to the multitude of counselors in which there is safety, then you will notice that there are certain texts that the most careful exegetes use and those that are not so careful, and those are your three and four hitters in your lineup. You find that, say, in the subject of depravity, I know of no systematic theologian who writes from an Augustinian, from a biblical perspective,
that does not include such texts as Genesis 6, 5, Psalm 51, 6, Romans 3, 10-21, Jeremiah 17, 8, Ephesians 2, 1-3. You'll find that there are certain texts that all of the theologians use, that all of those who write in the Bible dictionaries on the subject use. Well, you need to note and record those main texts and those major strands of the theme which come through as you attain that broad acquaintance with yourself. You are beginning, then, to get a sense of what will be involved in giving an accurate
and balanced presentation of your theme and also beginning to know what text you will have to expound in the hearing of your people so that they see your subject or theme in its own native biblical roots.
All right? And then initial discipline number four.
Carefully exegete the key texts which will form the basis of your proof or assertions. Carefully exegete the key texts which will form the basis of your proof or assertions.
Now, you will find at this point that some texts simply will not bear the weight put on them in traditional usage of them. Their traditional use is not warranted by careful exegesis. And you do not want to weaken a good cause by a weak argument.
Now, the classic example of this is the traditional reformed use of the text in Galatians, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. Based upon a poor translation in the authorized version, an experimental truth was embodied in that poor translation of the authorized version of that text so that a whole theology of the use of the law as preparatory in the soul of a man to give him a felt and existential awareness of his need of grace was epitomized in that text. And in our own generation
we've seen what happened. When people came along who wanted to chuck out the law, as having any necessary part in evangelism in the New Covenant, in guiding the conscience of believers in the New Covenant, they've been able to show that the strong and almost universal Puritan usage of that text was faulty. And in so doing, they thought they, with a kind of triumphalism, could throw out the whole experimental, theological, and biblical concept because they shot the first-ranked soldier.
See, when you strike out, your number four hitter, when the base is loaded, then you figure, well, I can certainly get the number nine hitter with nobody on base. I mean, the real danger is when you've got the bases loaded and you've got your slugger up there and you can't afford to walk him and you've got to get somewhere near the plate with your pitches. Well, you strike him out and then you're not too worried when the number nine hitter comes up with nobody on base. Well, that's what will happen if there are any who have a resistance to the truth you're seeking to establish.
And you set forth attacks that may be used quite frequently in the material you've read. You make sure that it bears the weight that others have put upon it. Bring your own mind into immediate, first-hand contact with this ultimate source of authority. Now, Dabney speaks very wisely to this point on page 207.
On page 207, and I want to quote him, it's point number eight in Rules of Argument. Last, the preacher should see to it that his proof is unanswerable. Nothing should be advanced which is not solid, and all should be so perspicuously and forcibly put as to silence every man, every mind, which is not perverse. Wrong language.
Put it forth in such a convincing way that unless a man has a perverse mind, he cannot help but bow before the weight of it. While every public speaker must be prompted to speak convincingly by whatever motive causes him to speak at all, this force is demanded of the preacher by a more solemn obligation. It is God's truth which he advocates. It is a system which claims infallible certainty.
Common hearers are apt to suspect that an inconclusive argument betrays an inconclusive argument. For this, although not a just, is a most natural inference. The result of sophistical preaching and sophistry is clever, plausible, but unsound argumentation. That's what sophistry is.
Now the result of this sophistical preaching is to make Christianity seem sophistical. He is no small criminal who by his indolence or heedlessness occasions this profane deduction. Hence the preacher should be, as a logician, intensely honest. It is his sacred duty to practice the most painstaking care in constructing his arguments and to be sure that he sees all around his points before he ventures them.
You'll find here an additional reason against logical novelties and long-drawn ratiocination in the pulpit. In other words, complicated, intricate argumentation. No man can safely risk their multiplied occasions of fallacy. We should restrain ourselves within those solid grounds where we can be certain of our correctness.
We should rely upon those broad and strong views of truth which are grasped firmly by the common mind. To secure this honesty, your study should be accompanied with much prayer that the infirmities and uncertainties of the human understanding may be gone. And I did from on high. And I would say, and after prayer, careful exegesis of the key text which you are going to make as the basis of your proof.
Intermediate Disciplines for Topical Sermon Construction
All right? So those are the initial steps in constructing the body, the argument, the heart of a topical sermon or one part of a series of sermons. Now then, they'll have time to move to the intermediate steps.
All right?
The intermediate steps. Well, in fact, it's already 12 o'clock. Let's break here because it will only take me about half as much time to cover the intermediate steps and only about a fifth as much time the concluding steps. So let's break right here.
All right?
All right, brethren, let's pick up where we left off at the last hour and having set before you four of the initial steps with reference to constructing the body or the argument of a topical or thematic sermon. We now come to the intermediate steps and let me once again suggest four such steps. And this may seem a little bit mechanical for you, but I'll clue you when you're sitting down trying to do it, you'll be helpful for some mechanics and then you can adjust them and tailor make them to your own use. First of all, the first intermediate step is to reduce the mass
of general material to its basic framework for preaching. You must reduce this mass of the general material to its basic framework for preaching.
Now, in doing topical preaching that is doctrinal, this is where your catechisms and confessions will be very, very helpful because sometimes, a catechetical definition or description of a given doctrine forms an excellent paradigm for teaching.
For example, whenever I have been called upon to give any formal teaching on the doctrine of justification, I have found by experience that for me, there's no better way to treat it than to take the definition of justification in the shorter catechism and to use it as a framework for handling the biblical materials.
So you've got to start reducing the mass of material, general material, to its basic framework for preaching. Sometimes by definition, in which case your catechisms and confessions will be most helpful. Sometimes it's by focusing upon the key text or texts or key propositions or assertions that you will seek to prove. Now here again, I refer to the Puritan model where Owen introduces his treatment of the subject of mortification by exegeting, expounding, extracting major principles
from a single text.
It may be that you will want to sort things out in terms of their natural categories, the main aspects to be covered. For example, you who were here or have lived here or have listened to Pastor Nichols' series on molding children or the post-war generation and the major influences that have impinged upon it, it's obvious that at some point he had to take this mass of material and sort it out into its most obvious categories.
So in the intermediate steps you will make very little progress toward coming to a finished sermonic product if you do not start with reducing the mass of material and introducing that mass to its basic framework for preaching. Then the second intermediate step, compose the headings and select the key texts to be expounded under each heading. Compose the headings and select the key texts to be expounded under each heading.
And if you ask what process do I go through to get to the key text, to determine what are the key texts? Well, let me answer your question by saying, number one, there's suitability for brief exposition. There's suitability for brief exposition.
Don't choose a text that you cannot responsibly expound without a complex involved treatment of the context,
syntax,
or even worse yet, critical text. You don't want to get the minds of your people diverted for 15 minutes on the discussion of manuscript evidence for the particular translation that you're giving of that text. That is not a suitable text for brief exposition. Now, in consecutive expository preaching, you may be forced into that.
That's one thing when God's tracts lead you to it, but don't make your own leading to such a one if you can avoid it. All right?
And then a second way that you may select your key texts is to keep in mind your biblical theological method.
And you may want to take the key text out of the Book of Beginnings, the Book of Genesis, if you were dealing, for example, with the subject of male and female roles and distinctions. You may want to take the biblical theological method for selecting your key text. Take your key text out of the creation account. Key text in the subsequent to the fall, and then some key text out of the Book of the Law, and some key text out of Proverbs, some key text out of the Prophets.
I mean, what a masterful text when God says it's a matter of judgment that He will give women to rule over them. It's a matter of judgment. You see, the whole biblical concept has tremendous weight when we take the Bible. So you can take your biblical theological method and use that as your framework.
Thirdly, under this matter of principles for selecting key texts, you may want to keep in mind the known prejudices of your listeners.
That may determine the texts that you will use. There may be particular prejudices that either need to be avoided in terms of unnecessarily stirring them up against what you want to do. What you are proving or need to be attacked by a fungal attack with the Word of God. And then fourthly, the measure of acquaintance that your people have with those texts.
When you can prove a point with a friend, why use a stranger?
When you can prove a point with a friend, why use a stranger? There may be a text that you know your people are acquainted with it. You hear it coming out in their prayers. It comes out in conversation.
Well, take their friend and say, this is what your friend is saying to you. If you bring along a stranger, they might be a little bit suspicious. Well, you say, they're supposed to believe it's the Word of God. Yes, that's right.
But they have remaining sin like you do, which can act in very strange ways even in the midst of preaching. And then the fifth principle for selecting a key text is it's proven worth to support what you say it's going to support. It's proven worth.
All right? So I haven't given you an abstract concept. I've tried to give you a principle and then some actual materials for using that principle. So intermediate step number one, reduce the mass to its basic framework for preaching.
Number two, compose the headings and select the key text to be expounded under each. Then thirdly, carefully map out the manner in which you plan to expound the texts. Carefully map out the manner in which you plan to expound the texts.
As we've already indicated, make sure the text will bear the weight you seek to put upon them. Make sure that you have a realistic, as much as possible, a realistic view of how much time it will take to expound that text and to expound it. And then thirdly, and this is where in the beginning you may actually want to use a stopwatch or a timer. To this day, I find I must do it.
I look at a text and I've worked over it and I say, well, I think that'll probably take five, seven minutes, but I don't trust myself. So I actually go to an exercise of preaching it in the study as though I were expounding it and I see, man, I was way off on that. The thoughts can run through your mind at a tremendous rate that take ten times as much time on the clock to articulate them in the hearing of God's people. So if you're going to start cultivating accuracy and assessing how much material will fit within a given framework, you may have to actually do some of the mechanical timing right in your study.
So carefully map out the manner of expounding the texts and then fourthly, if it is a series of topical sermons,
mark out the material in major divisions of the subject. You see, you're not only reducing the mass to its basic framework for preaching, an individual sermon, but if it is a series of sermons, you are marking out the divisions of your subject and you may plan to deal with them one sermon each. For example, again, trying to put it in the concrete, you may have concluded that it's time to bring a series of sermons to your people on the biblical doctrine of calling. Theologically described as effectual calling and so you may
break down your materials into a definition of calling, the author of the call, the subjects of the call, the means of the call, the results of the call, and then the practical bearings of the doctrine of calling. All right, now you've broken it down into its major component parts and then you may want to pre-announce to your people. We'll come into that under another heading how much to pre-announce, how much to recapitulate, but at least in your own mind now, you have broken down the materials into the categories that are natural, that are forced upon you
by any responsible, balanced overview of that given subject, and then you feel safe as you enter in upon that particular aspect that you are not going to be cheating your people, of a major dimension of that doctrine, nor will you be guilty then of excessive overlapping and repetition. Now, if you don't do that at the intermediate step and you leave that to some time later, you're going to get yourself in a mess saying, oh man, this that I'm coming at in message four really belonged back there in message number two, and to try to piecemeal all that stuff together afterwards can be messy business. All right, now then we come to the concluding steps.
Concluding Disciplines for Topical Sermon Construction
You've worked through the intermediate steps. You've reduced the mass of general material to its basic framework for preaching. You've composed your headings.
You've carefully mapped out the manner in which you plan to expound the key texts. If a series, you've marked out the divisions. Now, what are the concluding steps? Well, number one,
work in necessary illustrative material. Now, under the major axioms pertaining to all preaching, there is an axiom dealing with illustrative devices, and I can't repeat all that material, but let me just extract this one basic principle that I touch on at greater length in dealing with that axiom.
Don't illustrate if the truth that you are expounding is clear and forcefully presented without illustration.
You don't need to illustrate the sun. Just look at it. It is its own illustration. And it's amazing how some men feel if I don't have three illustrations in a sermon somewhere, I'm defective.
No, if what you're dealing with is plain and clear and can be forcefully implanted in the minds of men without the use of illustration, then just to use illustration because you're supposed to is really taking up precious time. But as you look back through the sermon and you say, all right, the average person sitting there is not going to be going to grasp this distinction as plain as I try to make it unless I can illustrate it. Now, it's very interesting. I was convinced that that was true when I brought that series back a while ago on dealing with our awakened children and trying to show the difference between the emergence of spiritual life in the context
of Christian nurture in the home, in the school, in the church and the radical invasion of spiritual life into a pagan who doesn't have that nurture and who doesn't have And after trying to make the distinction I was convinced that some of the people would still not see the distinction and that's when I pleaded with God. I said, Lord, give me something to illustrate this thing with and I went out to run that day with that prayer in my heart. And then the contrast between the firing of the reciprocal engine and the firing of a jet engine came to my mind and wherever I go and anyone who's heard that series, that's one of the first things they say to me. That illustration did it for me.
That illustration did it for me. Well, what they meant was, not that the case was established on the illustration but their understanding all came together in terms of the illustration. So that's the point I'm making. Work in illustrations sparingly but go back through the material and ask where does some of the density of the material need the light of illustration?
Secondly, work in the applications. Don't trust to the impulse of the moment. And having your notes after you've got careful road map for your exposition put their application brackets Lord help me to be able to say something end of bracket and go on. No.
That's presumptuous.
Now there are times when I have under the section of applications certain that I've written and I write in my notes so big bold letters it's right in front of me when I preach. Lord choose my arrows for me. That there may be in the actual giving of what has been pre-thought other things that will come to mind or you must be selective. You'll find you're running out of time can't give all the applications you had planned in the study.
And certainly there needs to be present dependence on the Holy Spirit in the act of preaching but let's not presume that he will just flood our minds with applications as we're preaching. Work in the applications in the concluding steps of your preparation and then thirdly and brethren this is so vital work in your transitions from one unit of thought to another. Work in your transitions.
It's one of the most difficult parts of the art and I use art in its highest and most noble sense in the art of effective preaching is learning how to make good transitions so that the minds of your people are very natural actually carried into the next development of your argument and don't trust to the moment that those transitions will come. Work very carefully on them. If I may use my own personal experience next to writing out my introduction second most thing that I write out in full are my transitions
so that I can carry the minds of the people with me as we move into a new section in the development of the material. All right, so those are the concluding steps to a topical sermon. Work in illustrations, applications, transitions. Now we come finally having looked at the goal envisioned the steps to attain those goals now some concluding guidelines and they are three and they are in the form of warnings.
Concluding Warnings and Exhortations for Topical Preaching
Number one and I don't know how to reduce this so let me give it to you and then you put it down any way you want in your notes although you should make an effort to see the whole series of sermons at the beginning assuming you're doing a series of topical sermons don't be so bound that you can't adapt as you actually plunge in to the preaching of that series.
So what would the warning be? Don't be inflexible as to the way the series of topical sermons will unfold.
And I meant to bring my copy of Bunyan you'll remember in his apology at the beginning a very tongue-in-cheek humor and Bunyan speaks of the fact that he took up his pen and thought to write a few lines but it grew and grew and grew and grew and the result was Pilgrim's Progress. Well how thankful I am and how thankful millions are and have been and will be until the Lord returns that Bunyan was not bound by his preconceived notion of how he was going to handle his topical subject. Namely giving an allegory of a Christian's pilgrimage out of a state of nature and into glory. Well that will often happen in
topical preaching. Little did I know when I set out at a time where pastorally I thought we had another fresh generation of baby Christians who needed an exposure to some of just the major pivots of the Christian faith and I set out I think in the opening sermon of the Here We Stand series I said to preach twelve sermons on several basic biblical truths. Well after the third one I ended up in the hospital with back surgery and while I was there God had dealings with me and I ended up preaching some what 110, 120 sermons and I don't know if he's told you this or not he'd have no reason not to
but first time around many parts of Pastor Nichols sermon of Christology section in systematics the basic exegetical work was taken from my notes he's one of the few people that's learned to decipher my hieroglyphics and the section on the person and work of Christ and there are groups of people now all over the world who are learning their systematic theology hearing it preached from that Here We Stand series and I had no idea when I started that that's where it was going to go but I sought to be flexible and as I got into those things and there are people who sit and worship with you every Lord's Day who trace their conversion or their coming to the assurance of faith to that series of sermons particularly when we got on the
person and work of Christ so that's always been a vivid reminder to me and here again you'll learn by experience there'll be times when you'll make a judgment that expanding the series is going to be unto edification only to find that you've misjudged alright you don't claim to be the Pope so you don't you got nothing to lose to say I made a mistake you see the Pope can't say that when he has spoken ex cathedra as someone has said there's no way the church of Rome can be reformed how can you reform an infallible system you can't change a perfect circle it's no longer a perfect circle but that's another whole subject but in your own dealing with with topical
preaching with subject preaching don't be so wooden and so inflexible that you don't allow that thing to flower if it appears when you get into it God expands your own understanding and your own pastoral burden to treat it in a more expanded way secondly and this is one of the dangers you men will face earlier in your ministry the older you get the more realistic you become so this is a warning particularly for the early days of your ministry don't paralyze yourself by seeking to be exhausted on your theme or subject don't paralyze yourself by seeking to be exhaustive
on your theme or subject for example you may want to introduce your treatment of some of your earlier exercises in topical preaching with a statement such as this while I am quite certain that with my own growth in grace and knowledge that I will experience a more expanded accurate and comprehensive view of this subject this much of it I know to be true and I am certain unless I apostatize will never change because it is rooted in the word of God and in the faith of God's people through the ages and then you plunge in
now you are acknowledging that if you are there ten years from now you may treat the subject in a way that will have nuances and shades and hues that you presently don't have in your treatment of it but it won't be a different landscape it will be the same landscape with the same basic oak trees and maple trees and maple trees and maple trees and terra firma but maybe some new shadows and side lights and cross lights from your enriched understanding but don't paralyze yourself by seeking to be exhaustive in the treatment of your theme or subject or feel I can't preach upon it until I have the confidence that I have an exhaustive view of it we have no view of any truth
in an exhaustive sense the truth you see most clearly you see through a glass darkly and that's it's only when we have the beatific vision that we will see things as they really are alright then thirdly don't overload the sermon with too much of a good thing and by that I mean don't bring too many texts to bear upon the development of a topical subject if God says that the mouth of two or three witnesses every word
will be established in that could be the basis of capital punishment then should we not take that as a guideline that in proving an issue in demonstrating the biblical basis two or three well chosen witnesses are sufficient now how many of you were here to hear Mark Sarver's sermon on the independence of God alright now that was an excellent pattern of this very thing in preparation for today's lecture I went back over my notes and may I suggest I wish I'd done this years ago don't keep your notes on pieces of paper scattered here or there get this kind of notebook with the dividers and this is my fourth one I'm filling up now
Sunday school AM worship PM worship miscellaneous and conferences and that way it's all there and when I wanted to go back over Mark's sermon I just knew he preached it in the PM back not too long ago and there it is 630-87 God is independent in his existence God has no causation he used two texts God has life in himself he used two key texts he is the I am he used two key texts his second heading God is independent in all of his perfections he is independent in his knowledge one key text independent in the exercise of his will one key text independent in his love one key text and then third heading
God is independent in all his works work of creation one key text no two key texts and in the work of redemption two key texts it was a wonderful example of taking some of your number three and four and five hitters and sending them up to the plate and letting them knock the ball out of the park well when you've done that in the last of the ninth and won the game why send anybody else up to the plate I mean if the job is done it's done and I was tremendously impressed with the wisdom that he showed and I hope in a right sense gratified that maybe some things he learned sitting where you're sitting were coming to fruition as I sat there and of course that gives you a tremendous sense you feel like old Simeon let thy servant depart in peace
mine eyes have seen thine salvation somebody's preaching a topical sermon in a way that shows good sense and therefore he can teach others so what do I need to hang around for anymore Lord take me home well that's a funny feeling you get at this stage of your life how'd I get into that well that's what happened okay here we are don't overload the sermon with too much of a good thing and I was saying that our brother Mark was an excellent example of that and if you haven't heard that if you haven't heard that sermon I would urge you to listen to it as a model as a good model of a single one shot topical sermon on a very weighty subject that could have been
handled in a very semi-philosophical way one that could have been overloaded with text after text but shot a very wise a very tasteful selection of sufficient witnesses to carry the judgment but not overloaded with too many
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Texts Expounded
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Content and Form of the Message
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