The Body of a Textual Sermon, Part 1

Introduction to the Body of a Textual Sermon

0:03 Now, brethren, for reasons already given you in previous lectures, we're working with an approach to sermon construction which views the constituent elements of any sermon as consisting in basically three basic segments. The introduction, or the exordium, if we're using the terms of classic rhetoric, the discussion, or the argument, or the body of the sermon, and then the conclusion, or the peroration of a sermon. And thus far, we've examined the principles pertaining to the function and construction of an introduction, and we are presently engaged in the task of seeking to grasp some of the guidelines applicable to the discussion, or the argument, or the body of a biblical sermon. And as I reminded you last week, so I say again, since so many of the principles will vary in terms of the kind of sermon preached, whether topical, an individual text, or consecutive expository sermon, I've chosen to deal with this aspect of our subject by laying before you a specific set of guidelines for the discussion or argument of each major category of sermons.

1:30 And though there will be, some overlapping, some repetition, there are enough qualitative differences to warrant this approach. Now, last week we exercised our minds, I trust, with reference to the discussion or argument of a topical sermon, or a series of topical or subject sermons. Today, we direct our attention to guidelines for the discussion, the argument, or the body of the sermon. And may I briefly remind you of what I mean by using the term textual sermon.

2:12 We go to the extended analogy of the play. In the textual sermon, the stage is set by the portion of scripture that we use, the backdrop, and all of the main actors and action are derived directly from, the limited portion of the Word of God. We will be concerned in our time today with seeking to grasp some principles to guide us in constructing the body, the argument, or the discussion of a sermon in which one verse, group of verses, or part of a text of scripture forms the basis and the means to build the world to God, main substance of that sermonic exercise. The outline for the lecture will be exactly the same as last week. First of all, we'll consider the end or the goal envisioned in the argument or discussion of a textual sermon. Secondly, the steps calculated to attain this end or this goal, and then thirdly, some concluding miscellaneous suggestions.

Goal 1: Explication of the Text's Setting (Context)

3:32 First of all, then, the end or the goal envisioned in the argument or discussion of a textual sermon. And I would suggest there are at least four parts that comprise the goal envisioned with reference to the construction of a textual sermon. First of all, it should be the end or the goal envisioned. And then thirdly, some concluding miscellaneous suggestions.

3:57 our goal to give an explication of the setting of the text, an explication of the setting of the text. To explicate means to unfold or to make clear, to make explicit, you see the familiarity of word, what is implicit. Now, why is this necessary? Is this whole matter just an exercise in pedantry or an unjustifiable homiletical tradition? Well, obviously, if you are thinking biblically, the answer is a resounding no. Our task is to be able to say with the Apostle in 2 Corinthians 4.2, we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully. But by the manifestation of the truth. So our task, if we share this view of the ministry,

5:11 which the Apostle had, is negatively to make it clear that we are not merely handling the word of God, but that we are not handling it deceitfully. There is a handling of the word of God that is not honest. It is a handling of the word of God, but it is deceitful. It is deceptive handling.

5:33 Positively, we are to desire to make a full declaration, but by the manifestation of the truth. The open, patent declaration, the open, patent, clear unfolding of the truth. And it is this apostolic perspective on preaching that has brought the tradition of confession to a new level. We are to be concerned with regard to context, or, most of you are familiar with Professor Murray's term, which I like, universe of discourse, as an essential element in textual preaching. Since a right understanding of the meaning of a text generally, and I have chosen the word carefully, generally depends on its setting, its context, its meaning, its universe of discourse, it will be impossible to convince your thoughtful listeners of the correctness of your exposition if you ignore the universe of discourse.

6:50 A discerning people will not feel comfortable when you begin to assert that this is the meaning of a given phrase or statement of any text if you have not first of all prepared their judgment by explicating the context of that passage. As Alexander rightfully comments, the logical connections of Scripture are as much a fruit of divine inspiration as are the individual units of thought and the words in which the thought is expressed. So when we say that we believe in plenary verbal inspiration, we are confessing that we are committed to a view of Scripture that regards the connections of Scripture as much a part of God's work of direct inspiration as the individual units of thought which in turn are expressed in specific words. And on page 238 of Alexander's thoughts on preaching, he says, He states this very accurately.

8:09 He states this very accurately. He states this very accurately. The clue to the whole is to be sought in the analysis of the reasoning. And then he gives examples of this. Furthermore, the weight and the relevance of a given text is often

9:23 dependent upon its context. And taken out of its context, you strip it of its inherent weight and relevance. In other words, brethren, the chi's and the Allah's and the God's and the Gah's and the Hati's are as much the product of divine inspiration as are the dikaiosune and hilasterion and all of the other words which form the substance of our great doctrines. Hence, you will not want to be found using as a pulpit Bible the NIV, in which Gah after Gah is left totally untranslated as though the NIV was a pulpit Bible. And so, you will not want to be found using as a pulpit Bible the NIV, in which Gah after Gah is left totally untranslated as though the Holy Ghost never inspired it. For the sake of simple newsprint sentence structure, there has been a thumbing of the nose at the Holy Ghost inspiration of Gah's, and I don't like it. I shall

10:32 desist at that point and restrain myself. The euthuses in Mark's gospel are as much the product of inspiration as are the more profound words. And when they are left untranslated and then translated arbitrarily with different words as they are in Mark's gospel, then I don't like it. So, you see, this commitment to the conviction that the logical connections are as much the product of inspiration as the things connected makes it essential for us in textual preaching to explicate the context of a textual sermon. Now, if explicating the context is to be part of our sermonic exercise, let me suggest that this part of the discussion or the body of our sermon be characterized by three words, accuracy, clarity, and brevity. Accuracy, not handling the word of God deceitfully,

11:58 and one of the best disciplines to make sure that you do not handle your text deceitfully is to be honest with its context. It brings pressure to bear upon your own mind and spirit as well as upon the minds and spirits of your hearers. And then your explication is to be that, not muddying the context, but explicating. It is to be marked by clarity. And then, if it's not to take up all of your time, it's to be marked by brevity. If you spend all the time laying out the context, you'll have very little time left for the opening up and the application of the text. As one person said of a certain preacher, he spent so much time spreading the table, there was very little time to eat. Well, don't spend so much time spreading the table that there's no time to eat and to chew upon the text itself. So, accuracy, clarity, and brevity

13:00 are to be marked by brevity. If you spend so much time laying out the context, you'll have very little should mark this aspect of the goal of the body of a textual sermon, namely explication of the context. Now, under this heading, let me make several concluding remarks. When you ask the question, how much of the context should I seek to explicate? I answer, the text may be treated accurately with very little reference to its context or its setting. The text may be treated accurately with very little reference to its context or its setting. And I want to illustrate these things so we don't hang them off in an abstract skyhook somewhere. Turn, please, to Proverbs 28 and verse 13, a text on which I have personally preached, an individualist, sermon on occasions. I've preached a whole series of sermons. Proverbs 28 and verse 13,

Varying Degrees of Contextual Explication

14:07 he that covers his transgressions shall not prosper, but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy. Now, when we read the verses prior to it, verse 11, the rich man is wise in his own conceit. Verse 12, when the righteous triumph, there is great glory. Verse 14, happy is the man that fears always. As we read the entire 28th chapter of the book of Proverbs, we soon become aware that there is no essential, clear, patent, organic relationship between Proverbs 28, 13 and the verses immediately preceding or following. So, in explicating the context, all you need to do is state briefly, that in this section of the book of Proverbs, we have brought together various councils and observations primarily contrasting the righteous and the wicked. And as you read through the chapter and circle the keywords, you would notice that that is the general motif. And having

15:21 observed that, then you can say, however, this text could stand on its own and the full weight of it, if we picked it right out of the book of Proverbs, would be the same as the text of Proverbs. So, in explicating the context, all you need to do is state briefly, that in this section of the book of Proverbs, and set it down in several other similar gatherings of general contest between the righteous and the wicked in other parts of the book of Proverbs. So now what you're doing is justifying spending so little time on the context and securing the consent of the judgment of your hearers that it is responsible for you to plunge right into the text without feeling you've got to go all the way back to Proverbs chapter 1 and then pull out your notes on the nature of wisdom literature and end up spending a half an hour giving some kind of a lecture on wisdom literature. No, you've come to this text with the burden that your people need to face the great reality if they fool around with sin and don't deal with it biblically they shall not prosper. And here is a text which gives you an opportunity to plunge almost directly into the language of the text with very little reference to its universe of discourse. However, there are other texts which do demand some extended reference to the immediate context and to the larger context of the entire epistle.

16:51 For example, suppose you were preaching on Philippians 3 and verse 3. The marks of the true people of God maybe that's your subject the title you've given to your sermon and your text is verse 3 of Philippians 3 for we are the circumcision and here are the three great marks of God's true people who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now that statement cannot responsibly be explained and cannot be explained and cannot be expounded apart from the context of Paul's concern about the Judaizing tendencies which either were about to impinge upon the church at Philippi or perhaps had already begun to impinge for you'll notice he says in verse 2 beware of the dogs beware of the evil workers beware of the concision beware of the knife wheelers that's right beware of these people that come around with a glint in their eye and the flint in their hand and want to get you down to the local rabbi to get fixed now why that concern well you see the very use of this description we are the circumcision

18:19 we are the true people of God described in terms of the circumcision has to do with the context of Paul's concern with the Judaizers who are either like wolves walking about the flock at Philippi looking for a weakness and seeking to pounce upon them or have already begun to infect them and you have indications of that in verse 18 of chapter 3 and in other places of the book so if you are responsibly to handle the language of Philippians 3.3 there must be some judicious and religious and relatively lengthy treatment of its context or universe of discourse so the text may be treated accurately with very little reference to its context or setting on the other hand the text may necessitate some extended reference to its context or setting now the second thing I want to say in rounding out this first point this part of our goal is that the context may have been underscored or opened up in the introduction the context may have been underscored or opened up in the introduction

19:46 and therefore you need say very little in the actual body of the sermon now this will be particularly true if you are preaching through a narrative portion of scripture for example again I want to give concrete examples in 1st Kings 18 verses 20 and 21 1st Kings 18 verses 20 and 21 Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel and Elijah came near unto the people and said how long go ye limping between the two sides well here you may announce that you're going to address your people on the subject of the need for decision in the face of true religion how long go ye limping between the two sides and in your very introduction you would then open up the setting on who was there upon Mount Carmel what brought them there who spoke these words what was the situation often your introduction in preaching a narrative section will constitute an explication

Goal 2: Convincing Explanation of the Text's Meaning

21:13 of the context and if it's done in the introduction then there's no sense of repeating it of course in what you would call more formally the body of the sermon so think of this particularly now when preaching through narrative sections in the Old and the New Testaments if I can judiciously use the introduction to set the context then when I come to the words of my text itself that task is already behind me I've already secured the judgment of the people that I'm handling the passage responsibly having set it in its own God-given universe of discourse and so there is flexibility I've put this matter into the body of the sermon but there are times when explications of the context can be included in the introduction but now there's a second part of the goal of the body of a textual sermon and it's this our goal is not only an explication of the context but secondly a convincing explanation of the meaning of the words of the text our goal is to give a convincing explanation of the meaning of the words of the text since all you plan to assert and apply

22:42 derives from the mind of God as contained in the words of your text you must seek to gain the hearty consent of your hearer's judgment with respect to the meaning that you affix to your text how can their consciences feel the pressure of your application if their minds have not bought the meaning your meaning of the words if you say the words mean this and you only assert albeit very bombastically and with great officiousness but you haven't carried their judgment now when you try to construct your arrows out of the weak material of an unconvincing statement of the meaning of the words your arrows will break in your own boat and they'll never find their way into their hearts it's only when your treatment of the words is so convincing that they'd have to give up rationality to reject it that when you start carving arrows out of that very strong wood of convincing explanation of the meaning your words then those arrows when properly feathered will find their way into their consciences as though they may not bend before them and enash their teeth but they cannot stand

24:11 there and laugh at the arrows that break before they ever get out of your boat so brethren the onus is on you it is on me when expounding a text to give a convincing explanation of the meaning of the words of that text now how we arrive at that meaning awaits our consideration of the means to attain the goal but suffice it to say that that must be our goal furthermore this part of our discussion ought to be characterized again by three words accuracy clarity and brevity you may reduce to three sentences the labor of ten hours and you may sit and say to yourself man there's ten hours before I could say this word this phrase means this and this is why I assert it means this and you may do that in a matter of three sentences or three minutes and you may do that and yet it represents ten hours of work well you've got to be prepared for that and don't say well that's not quite fair people won't know how much I worked unless I take thirty minutes no no you are set apart to do what in the word and in doctrine copy-ah-oh to labor unto toil

25:39 and pain in the word and in doctrine you exist for them not they for you so you're prepared if accuracy can be attained by giving the fruit of ten hours work in three sentences or three minutes you're prepared to do it and then there needs to be clarity you may have plowed through a hundred pages of commentary until you came to a settled conviction that your view of the meaning of these words and these words in this particular arrangement into a phrase has this meaning and you are as convinced of it as you are of your own name and yet you may state that conviction in essentially what would only take up two pages if you were writing it out that's alright that's what you're there for that's your task you don't resent that you count it a privilege to root around in the word of God and in the richest thought of other men of God who have sought to ascertain the meaning of those words of God so accuracy clarity and then brevity brevity don't spend so much time seeking to give a convincing explanation of the meaning of the words of the text that there's no time left to preach you don't bring all of the processes of the study into the pulpit you don't do that now you may be tempted to but you're not to do that

27:07 Dabney's very very helpful on this point it says on page 160 it's good when you find Dabney in Dabney and not in Alexander I knew Alexander wasn't saying what Dabney's supposed to say alright here we are

27:31 the explication of the passage on which you preach should be plain and convincing it is this part of his task which behooves the preacher to show the hand of a master workman he should so establish the view of the meaning which he has adopted after careful deliberation as to extinguish doubt and cavil in every attentive mind and to commend his opinion conclusively to his hearers and to commend his opinion and to commend this should be done without an air this should be done with an air of solid good sense rather than of scholastic nicety in other words doing it in such a way that the average man or woman of good sense will be convinced rather than a person impressed with how much you know and say well he must know what he's talking about because he says it in a way that has a learned air about it but for the life of me I couldn't give it back to you but I'll take it in faith because he seems to be a learned man no that's not the way to preach the word of God the Bible should be approached as a popular book and not as a learned riddle a book given by God to the common people a book which while it contains unfathomable depths of wisdom and knowledge yields its instruction on all truth fundamental to salvation to every honest and earnest searcher the manner of the expounder should seem to say to his hearers

29:00 quote , these scriptures do not indeed disclose their treasures to heedless indolence or shallow inattention but they offer them up to the faithful inquiry of every plain mind come with me and we shall by prayer and carefulness find the undoubted meaning of the spirit end quote but on the other hand the preacher should not flatter his people by intimating to them that they are as competent as he to expound the word nor should he permit them to depreciate learning and ability as valuable helps in the task if your people were indeed as able as you are to explain it this would only prove that you're not fit for your place that's true the spiritual teacher should in this matter magnify his office not by pretentious displays but by solid ability and mastery of the scriptures you see when you give them the fruit of all of the acquisition of your special tools and they see the fruit of that coming to bear lord's day by lord's day when you say the text means this and for this reason and you carry their judgment they know that in bringing you to that conviction and in your ability to bring them to that conviction you are exercising tools that took you years to acquire and on the one hand they will thank god

Flexibility in Explaining Textual Meaning

30:28 for you as a gift of christ molded and honed by the head of the church and prepared and given to them but at the same time they will be convinced that the key to scripture is in the scripture itself and in humble dependence upon the holy spirit this book is not locked up only for the professional but it is a book that god has given to them now as with the matter of explicating the context let me make a few qualifying remarks i've said this convincing explanation of the gospel the meaning of the word should be marked by accuracy clarity and brevity now then let me give some qualifying remarks under this second part of the goal if you are extracting a doctrine a duty or a general proposition this element of explanation will come at the beginning of the discussion and will not be repeated throughout the sermon if you are extracting a doctrine duty or general proposition this element of explanation this convincing explanation of the meaning of the words of the text will come at the beginning of the discussion and will not be repeated throughout the sermon for example if you were speaking from first Corinthians 121 on the futility of human wisdom to attain

31:56 a saving knowledge of god and here's our text for seeing that in the wisdom of god the world through its wisdom knew not god it was god's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe well here the convincing explanation of the meaning of the words would be done at the very outset and the words and phrases you would explain of course are the wisdom of god the world's wisdom in what sense the world did not know god god's good pleasure what is the foolishness of the wisdom of god the thing preached and here you'd have to give a little layman's definition of the kerugma that it is content and also content proclaimed but having done that you would have established your case and then basically you would move in form into what would be more like a topical sermon based upon that principle extracted out of your text so you would not be going back and giving the meaning of words again and again on the other hand if you were breaking down the text into component parts foreseeing that in the wisdom of god the world through its wisdom knew not god it was god's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe you might have

33:24 and i'm trying to think on my feet now you might begin by saying first of all what lies behind man's inability to know god without special revelation and then you would explain in the wisdom of god it was in the wisdom of god that the world through its wisdom do not god second heading would be what lies behind god's commitment to disclose what man could never know it was god's good pleasure and then you to open up the meaning of those words thirdly what is god's great instrument or the self disclosure but being preached and you would be explaining the meaning of the word god and it was in the wisdom of god and the second heading would be the word kerubna so there you would have three cycles of explanation and then proclamation and application based upon it whereas if you approach the text under the form the futility of human wisdom to attain a saving knowledge of god all of your explanation of the meaning of the key words would come at the front end and then none would follow subsequent however if you're opening up all the statements of the text and structuring the sermon around the various units of thought then you may as i've already indicated have to go through this process two or three times now let's turn to a text with which i can do it not off the top of my head

34:49 but having preached on the text on probably about a dozen times a dozen occasions isaiah 53 and verse 6 here it does not take long to give an explication of the second Isaiah caught up in the spirit 800 years before the cross writes as though he were a first hand eyewitness of the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah was introduced to us in verse 13 of chapter 52 now in the midst of this description of the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah he gives to us in verse 6 what for years I preached under three headings a statement of unreasonable straying all we like sheep have gone astray stop to explain the meaning of the imagery all we like sheep and then we have gone astray gone astray from whom from what into what explication a convincing explanation of the meaning of the words of the text secondly a statement of unbending self-will we have turned everyone to his own way what does it mean we've turned to his own way every one of us has turned to his own way give the meaning of words heading number three God's gracious provision

36:18 and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all well the last few times I've preached it I've preached it under two headings bad news and the good news the bad news has two prongs to it a vivid imagery all we like sheep have gone astray a blunt assertion we've turned everyone to his own way the good news sent to us by the Lord the Lord hath laid on him and it focuses upon the activity of the servant of Jehovah he hath laid on him the iniquity of us all well obviously no matter how you preach under the three headings or two headings there must be a convincing explanation of the meaning of the words of the text what does it mean hath laid on him well then you're into studying that Hebrew verb hath made to light or is it strike and there you have to do some work you've got to do some study until you can assert with confidence that here we have the imputation of our sin to the suffering servant of Jehovah and imputed to him in such a way that when it is imputed to him he is the stricken he is the smitten he is the afflicted one so you get the idea of what I'm saying now and you don't want to get yourself pressed into a wooden form that you can never break and you can never break and you can never break and you can never alter you are free you're a Christ free man to take the course

Goal 3: Articulation of the Text's Burden

37:48 that will enable you under God to most clearly and convincingly open up and apply that given text of the word of God so that when you are done giving your convincing explanation of the meaning of the words of the text the average listener who has followed your train of thought should have a solid understanding of what the text says whether he is molded by it whether he yields to its influence is quite another thing but his understanding should be convinced alright so the goal then in a textual sermon is explication of the setting of the text second part of the goal explanation of the meaning of the words of the text thirdly and this is vital an articulation of the burden of the text an articulation of the burden of the text it is not enough to give the meaning of words what is its message alright so you've explained to me that the imagery of Isaiah 53 6 is that of a great flock of sheep having gone astray from its shepherd but what is the burden of that statement well the burden

39:16 of that statement is that God is making an assessment of all humanity and until the humanity sitting before me feels the pressure of that text I have not articulated the burden of the text and there's the difference you see between giving a running commentary upon the text and textual preaching not enough to give an accurate statement of its meaning but I must articulate the burden the burden of the text and again that can be done frequently throughout the sermon it may be held until all explanation is done and then it is gathered as it were into one mass of exhortation and entreaty we had a classic example of it last Sunday morning Pastor Nichols opened up that section in Isaiah and took the phrase every knee shall bow those of us who were there I hope we never forget it what was the burden of that text the burden of that text is that the Lord has sworn he's made an oath sworn covenant with himself that to him every knee shall bow and you knew the burden of that text before our brother was done Sunday morning the atheist the agnostic every knee shall bow

40:45 and then the screeching feminist and the homosexual and the lesbian every knee shall bow every knee shall bow every knee shall bow until he corralled almost every single segment of unregenerate humanity and you knew that the burden of the text is every knee shall bow but you knew it not in terms of an abstract concept that had carried your judgment because there was a responsible exposition of the words doctressed by the Holy Spirit's use of the words of Isaiah 45 in Romans 14 and also in Philippians chapter 2 but you knew the burden of the text because it had been brought home to the conscience of those of us sitting there so that's what I'm talking about when I say there must be then an articulation of the burden of the text now sometimes and here's where we part with classic rhetorical axioms the burden may be manifold it may not be single in classic rhetoric you would be faulted if you had more than one focused point of what we are calling here the burden of the message but the text may carry two or three major burdens and if you are preaching that text in one sermon then you must articulate that manifold burden of the text now you may for good and wise and sometimes the wise is simply the limits of time

Goal 4: Application of the Abiding Message

42:14 focus only upon one or two but you may state that there is a three-fold burden of the text may be more than that you may see and legitimately see that there are five or six major pressing issues in that text and therefore you may choose then to bring a brief series on that one text or you may choose for good and wise reasons to say while we could sit and emphasize this this this and this in the light of the circumstances of our own congregation as I understand them I am convinced it is this area upon which we need to throw the spotlight and there you sit on that particular aspect of the burden of the text and then fourth part of our goal explication explanation articulation and then our goal is to make an application of the abiding message of the text an application of the abiding message of the text as you sit at your desk you must remind yourself that you are not there laboring in order to make a contribution to the history of exegesis and I doubt any of us and I say that deliberately I doubt any of us is going to make

43:43 any significant contribution to the history of the exegesis on any passage of the word of God were there some other gentlemen sitting here this morning I would not say that but with respect to those of us who are here this morning I doubt that any of us is going to make any significant contribution to the history of the exegesis of any text of scripture now I believe there are some among us who will but they're not sitting here alright so you sit at your desk anticipating that awesome moment of truth when you'll stand before God's people in the presence of the living God with a pressingly vital word for their hearts and you are concerned not only to carry their judgment by explicating the context but also giving a fair explanation of the meaning of the word setting before them the burden of the text you now are concerned by close and as Philip Henry said lively application to make them feel the burden of that text it's one thing to see it it's another thing to feel it it's one thing to look at the burden of the text objective to me it is another thing to be under the pressure of that text upon me and that's where application comes

45:09 and that's where our view of preaching differs from those who say I am only to articulate explicate explain articulate the rest is the ministry of the Holy Spirit and we say no it is our task to demonstrate how this text of scripture is profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for instruction in righteousness it is our task to demonstrate that before our hearers so as a vital part of the discussion of a textual sermon we must recognize that application to the hearts of our people is part of its abiding message whether that application comes in the form of comfort whether it comes in the form of directives to duty whether it comes in the form of rebuke whatever form it may be and all of those things are warranted by scripture 2nd Timothy 3.16 I have already mentioned Romans 15.4 these things are written that through the patience and comfort of the scriptures we may have hope 1st Corinthians 10 and verse

Conclusion: The Irreducible Minimum of Biblical Preaching

46:38 14 these things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come 1st Corinthians and whatever final application may be reserved for your conclusion or the peroration is a general rule there should be application as part of the main body of the sermon now for a while it became a matter of of innocent humor around here and probably will be after I'm gone that you could count on Pastor Martin when preaching through certain portions of scripture to have this kind of outline the setting of the text the meaning of the text and the message of the text well because that was the best way I knew how to do it I did it and I continued to do it until I could vary my method and be convinced that I was fulfilling my task I found that that outline forced me to do the very things I'm telling you the setting of the text the meaning of the text the message of the text that way I could not carelessly attack the meaning without being sensitive to its setting but recognize that the setting was only a means to ascertain the meaning and the meaning was only a means to ascertain its message or its application to one's hearers so these then are the goals envisioned for the body of a textual sermon

48:08 and it's interesting you can play with these things sometimes to help you to think them through and I did a little mental gymnastics and I said in a real sense they could be reversed what is the ultimate goal of a textual sermon it's the application of God's truth to the consciences of the hearers what are the intermediate steps to that goal an explanation of the words and what are the preliminary steps a description of the context and if you find it helpful to think in those terms then think in those terms whatever way helps you most now let me ask you as we conclude this first hour does this sound like too high a standard what part would you omit as your non-negotiable irreducible minimum of your goal for a textual sermon what part can you omit and call it biblical preaching can you omit a responsible treatment of the context where necessary a convincing demonstration of the meaning of the words a pointed terse articulation of the burden of the text application of that text which one would you omit and still call it preaching you can't you can't so those comprise the irreducible minimum of the goal envisioned when we set out to construct the body

49:38 of a textual sermon now we'll take a break and then we'll come back and take up the means to attain that fourfold goal and then have some concluding observations