The Body of an Expository Sermon

Introduction: The Difficulty and Legitimacy of Expository Preaching

0:03 In his masterful essay on expository preaching, an essay which I believe you brethren have read if you've done your homework assignments or your reading assignments, you'll remember the words of Alexander found on page 242 of that essay. The observation is very common that expository preaching is exceedingly difficult. Yet the writers on homiletics, as if it were the easiest thing in the world and taught by nature, almost without exception, dismiss the whole subject with a few passing remarks and lay down no rules for the conduct of a regular exposition. We are persuaded that if equal pains were taken to prepare for one as for the other, and if the one were as often practiced as the other, this complaint would have no place. Now I'm afraid that for the most part that Alexander, Alexander's observations are sadly true. Most of the older standard works on homiletics assume the predominance of the textual and topical sermon. Now in the face of that, we ought not to be overly critical, but cautious.

1:21 And Alexander expresses that caution when he says in his opening paragraph of the essay to which I've already alluded, page 228, the pulpit discourses of Roman Catholics, as well as Protestants during several centuries have been for the most part founded on short passages of scripture, commonly single verses, and often are less than more. This has become so prevalent that in most treatises upon the composition of sermons, all the rules of homiletics presuppose the treatment of an isolated text. We are not prepared to denounce this practice, especially when we consider the treasury, of sound doctrine, cogent reason, and mighty eloquence, which is embodied in productions formed on this model, and call to mind the instances in which such discourses have been signally owned of God in the edification of the church. But there is still another method. Now I love that kind of holy caution. You see what Alexander is saying.

2:30 Though the great works on homiletics, assume the predominance of the textual and topical sermon, and though the history of preaching reflects that that has prevailed in recent centuries, and though it is evident that the Spirit of God has wonderfully blessed that method, it is not the only method. And then he goes on to give his case for expository preaching. Well, in the light of this fact, much of what I will set before you today, brethren, is not the fruit of extensive reading and then a distillation of that reading on the subject in hand, but it's an analysis of my own feeble efforts and the efforts of others. Now before we take up our subject for today, let me briefly remind you of where we are in the unfolding of the vast field of concern, namely the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching. As we wrestle with the elements as they touch the content and form, of the sermon, having considered axioms pertinent to all sermons, we are now wrestling with principles pertaining to various kinds of sermons. And in the outworking of that outline, having given you the identity and legitimacy of the three kinds of sermons, the worth and weaknesses of each, we are now seeking to unfold the constituent elements. We've examined principles

3:58 touching the introduction, and now are working on the principles of the sermon. The principles which ought to regulate the discussion or the argument or the body of our sermons. We've already done this with respect to the topical sermon and the textual, and now this morning we take up the subject of the discussion or argument of an expository sermon. And I remind you, by expository sermon, I mean what I have defined that to be the consecutive exposition of a large, portion or entire book of Holy Scripture.

Goal 1: Explication of the Passage

4:37 Now the outline we'll follow this morning is the one we've had for the previous two lectures. Number one, the goal envisioned in the discussion of an expository sermon, and then secondly, the means calculated to attain that goal. Now under the goal envisioned in the discussion or argument of an expository sermon, I have four points or four sub-points or four parts or four aspects of the goal envisioned. And the first is this.

5:09 We ought to have as our goal an explication of the passage which constitutes the text for that particular sermon. An explication of the passage which constitutes the text for that particular sermon. As with the textual sermon, the words and ideas of a given segment of the word of God should be unpacked and opened up. Now when the bud opens up and becomes the flower, nothing is imported from the outside.

5:47 That which was self-contained in the bud is simply now brought out into its full and visible expression in the flower. When someone hands you a wrapped gift and you untie the ribbon, tear off the outer covering, and open up the box and take away the packing paper or protective things around the gift, you are not bringing anything into the box. You are simply untying, unwrapping, unpacking what was already there. And so the goal that you must envision with respect to the discussion of an expository sermon is an explication of the passage which constitutes your text for that particular sermon. And so the goal of the text for that particular sermon is to have an explication of the passage which constitutes your text for that particular sermon. And so the goal Now, let me give a couple of words of qualification of this part of the goal. First of all, the explication does not need to aim at being exhaustive.

6:48 You must never feel that unless you have said everything that can be said upon the words of your text, you have somehow fallen short of your task as a preacher.

7:01 Some expositors expound every text as though it were an inverted pyramid.

7:09 And if the base of the pyramid here represents the words of the text, they are never satisfied until they see in a sense the whole body of divine revelation resting down upon and shedding light upon the actual words of the text. Well, don't feel that if you have not said everything you presently know, let alone all you might know and all that has been said upon the text, you've somehow failed. No, your goal is to give an explication of the passage that is not necessarily an attempt to be exhaustive. And when I say that you do not import anything from the outside using the analogy of the bud or the opening of a gift, that must be qualified by this statement, that we introduce from the outside only as much as is necessary in order to demonstrate, validate, illustrate, and clarify, what the text itself says. Now, we may bring materials from other parts of Holy Scripture, but we're doing that to demonstrate that our assertions about the meaning of this part are well grounded. So when we say that the word means thus and thus, we may want to take a couple of passages from other portions of the word of God in order to demonstrate the basis of the assertion or to validate those assertions or to illustrate and clarify those assertions.

8:40 In summary, when we are done with the discussion, the argument of an expository sermon, the ordinary, intelligent, careful listener should be able to leave the congregation and explain to any other ordinary, intelligent listener the meaning of the passage we've expounded.

9:05 And if you've done as much explication as is necessary, to achieve that end, you have done your job. And that brings us right back to that text that is almost invariably brought forward when expository preaching is discussed. Nehemiah chapter 8. We read in verse 4 that Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit or platform of wood which they had made for the purpose.

9:34 Verse 5, and Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and when he opened it all the people stood up. And then verse 8, and they read in the book in the law of God distinctly or with an interpretation and gave the sense so that they understood the reading. So that when Nehemiah and his companions had gone through a given section, those who stood listening attentively had come to an understanding of the sense of the book. And they had come to an understanding of the sense of the book.

Goal 2: Demonstration of Connection to Larger Context

10:09 And they had come to a sense of that portion of the law of God. And that indeed is one of the aspects of the goal envisioned in the discussion of an expository sermon. But then the second part of the goal is we ought to seek to give a demonstration of its connection with the whole argument,

10:33 a demonstration of its connection, the its referring to our given text, a demonstration of its connection with the whole argument, message, or emphasis of its larger context.

10:54 When preaching through a book or large section, we must continually aim at showing the relationship of the given part that is in hand on any given day to the whole that is continually before the minds of your people. Now in the textual sermon, reference is made to the whole only so far as is necessary to demonstrate that we are properly setting forth the meaning of that particular part. But the goal is the opening up of the part. For instance, in this series, the brief series on Romans 13.14, my goal is to open up that particular part of the 13th chapter of Romans. My goal is not to expound the entire 13th chapter, let alone the 12th chapter, let alone the entire, 13th epistle. And therefore, very passing and relatively minimal reference was made to the general setting because the goal is not to set forth the entire argument of the epistle to the Romans. But if I were expounding the epistle to the Romans, it would be necessary to demonstrate the intimate connection between Romans 13.14.

12:13 Now I always want to invert this. I've worked those things for some crazy reason to the entire argument of the epistle and also more particularly to the entire argument of that more immediate context. You see the contrast between what I'm doing Sunday nights and Sunday mornings. Last week, when we dealt with Philippians 3.10, though I held it for the conclusion, I tried to show the relevance of Paul's comments with respect to knowing Christ in the fellowship of his suffering as being made conformable to his death to the issue of his warning against the influence of the Judaizers. Now if you were simply expounding Philippians 3.10 as a text to demonstrate the framework of a Christian's communion with Christ, it would not be necessary to go back and to do that to the same degree because you were giving a textual sermon on Philippians 3.10.

13:09 But if you are purporting to expound the epistle to the Philippians, then it is essential to show the relationship of that given part to the whole.

13:21 All right? Now this may be done in the introduction, it may be done in the discussion itself, or you may actually work it into the conclusion. But it ought to be done as a general rule. Now if you want a good example of how expository preaching can recognize this principle, read some of McLaren's sermons.

13:44 In these sermons from the book from the Expositor's Bible, McLaren does the expositions on Colossians and Philemon. And he's a good model of how the connection of the given text to the larger argument of the epistle can be done without going on for page after page after page. Let me just read an example. His text for this particular sermon was Colossians 1, 12 through 14.

14:12 The Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the world, the saints in light, who delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. Now he begins his sermon. We've advanced thus far in this epistle without having reached its main subject. We now, however, are on its verge.

14:37 The next verses to those now to be considered lead us into the very heart of Paul's teaching by which he would oppose the errors rife in the Colossian church. The great passages describing the person and work of Jesus Christ are at hand, and here we have the immediate transition to them. You see, he's anticipating what's coming, showing the relationship of today's text to what is to follow. Now he goes on to say the skill with which the transition is made is remarkable.

15:09 How gradually and surely the sentences, like some hovering winged things, circle more and more closely round to the central light till in the last words they touch it, the sun of his love. It is like some long procession heralding a king. They that go before cry Hosanna and point to him who comes last and chief. The affectionate greetings with which he began the letter, now he's judiciously reviewing and taking you back to the beginning, you see, pass into prayer.

15:45 Colossians 1, 9 through 11. The prayer into thanksgiving. The thanksgiving, as in these words, lingers over and recounts our blessings as a rich man counts his treasure, or a lover dwells on his joys. The enumeration of the blessings leads as by a golden thread to the thought and the name of Christ, the fountain of them all, and then with a burst and a rush, the flood of the truths about Christ, which he had to give them, sweeps through Paul's mind and heart, carrying everything before it.

16:21 The name of Christ always opens the floodgates in Paul's heart. And then he begins to open up the text. Well, you see there that very judicious way, in a matter of two paragraphs, he has shown the relationship of that portion which forms his text for that day in the consecutive exposition of Colossians. He shows the relationship of the part, to the whole.

16:46 Now, brethren, skill such as that is not developed overnight. And it's not something with which a man is just born and does it naturally. It's something that must be worked at, no matter what our native ability may be, and we will not work at it unless it is self-consciously a part of our goal in the discussion, in the argument, in the body of an expository sermon. All right?

Goal 3 & 4: Articulation of Truth Principles and Application

17:14 Then, the third part of the goal should be this.

17:19 An articulation of its, that is, our given text for the day, its principles of truth. Not only an explication of the passage which constitutes our text, a demonstration of its connection with the whole argument, message, or emphasis of its larger context, but an articulation of its principles of truth. In other words, what does this text, specifically reveal of Christ, of promise, of duty, of comfort, of doctrine? Or to state the question in a more biblical way, how is 2 Timothy 3.16 exemplified and expressed in this passage? What doctrine is here? What reproof? What correction?

18:05 What instruction in righteousness? Or, to frame the question in terms of other passages, to what extent is Romans 15.4 expressed in this passage? Or, to frame the question in terms of other passages, to what extent is Romans 15.4 expressed in this passage?

18:15 Or, to frame the question in terms of other passages, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Or, Psalm 19.11, Moreover, by them is thy servant warned. What warnings are herein contained?

18:29 Or, 1 Corinthians 10.11, These things are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come. And it's these last two parts of the goal, the one I'm mentioning now and the one I'll mention subsequently, that make the difference between expository teachings and preaching.

18:49 It is not enough to explicate the meaning of the passage and give the sense, to demonstrate its connection to the larger whole, whether it's the chapter or the entire book or that section of the argument in an epistle. There must be an articulation of its principles of truth, a setting forth its specific teaching, an underscoring of its specific reproof, rebuke, comfort, direction or duty. And then, fourthly, we must have as part of our goal an application of its abiding message to our listeners. An application of its abiding message to our listeners.

19:34 Now, without being tediously repetitious, I want to underscore how vital this issue is. Everything we have said in our explication, demonstration, and articulation must intrude itself into the world of our hearers whether they want it to or not.

19:56 Everything we've said must now intrude itself into the world of our hearers whether they want it to or not. Now, there are times when they welcome that intrusion and they will already anticipate your efforts at application. The people of God, when they're in a healthy state of soul, will often, be about 15 to 20 minutes ahead of you. They will make that line from the explication, demonstration, and articulation to the application.

20:32 But not all of the people of God are always in the frame they ought to be. And not all of your hearers are the people of God. And so it is your task to intrude that passage into the realm of their consciences. And if there is any difference, you've heard me say it before, and I'll, keep on saying it, between teaching in its proper sense and preaching part, if not the majority of the difference, lies here.

21:00 That the goal in teaching is the conveying of the body of information that eventually we trust will regulate life. But the self-conscious goal in preaching is to make men feel presently while we are exercised in conveying divine truth. The pressure of truth upon conscience. What aspect of life and thought and conduct and attitude ought to be changed by what they hear.

21:28 Now brethren, it is this part of preaching that constitutes this prophetic element. You see, the prophet was always there a nuisance to the people of God because he was intruding into their world with the pressure of God's law and the implications of God's covenant. And when the people of God and when the people of God and when the people of God and when the people of God and when the people of God and when the people of God forgot the demands of the law within the framework of covenantal relationship to God the prophet was there as a goad in their side to remind them here are the implications of your relationship to God and the demands of that relationship. And this prophetic element must be present in our preaching.

22:12 We see our Lord himself performing it to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. He is not present now nor is he present now nor is he giving the kind of direct revelation which allows for such letters to be circulated but in a real sense he performs that ministry still through his servants who open up his word not only explicating not only showing the connection not only underscoring and articulating its abiding lessons but bringing it home to the theater of the conscience and the affection and wills of the people of God. Now brethren that's a lofty goal but as I said last week with the goals of a textual sermon which aspect of the goal would you omit and still feel that you had a biblical standard for preaching?

23:08 I don't know one that can be omitted as a general rule. So that's the goal envisioned in the body in the discussion or the argument of an expository sermon. Now what means are available to us in seeking to attain that goal?

Preliminary Investigation: Understanding the Whole Book

23:32 Well let me adjust the outline a little from the last two things the others you remember we had the elementary steps the intermediate and the concluding well here I have another step that goes before those and I call it the preliminary investigation then we'll come to elementary steps intermediate and concluding. The preliminary investigation unlike the preliminary investigation unlike the textual sermon in which the context is consulted only so far as is essential to grasp an accurate feel for the text itself here the concern is broader and deeper. You'll never be able to demonstrate the connection of the given parts to the whole if you are not thoroughly familiar with the whole. It's one thing to preach a few sermons on Romans 14-13 make a passing allusion to the original sermon and the overall structure of the epistle to the Romans and the immediate contextual structure it's quite another thing to preach through the book of Romans. Here are the questions why was the epistle written? What were the circumstances which provoked its composition?

24:43 Who was its author? What about the people to whom it came? These are vital issues if you are to preach the whole of the epistle to the Romans. Therefore the preliminary investigation will involve a careful and repeated reading of the entire book larger section or chapter looking for those clues to its overall thrust and intention.

25:11 Furthermore here is the place for a wide reading of the best available literature that will give you help in understanding these matters essential to the preliminary investigation. Here is the reading the place for the reading of your introductions and here you can be grateful that you are being given an acquaintance with some of those books. Here is where Guthrie can be of tremendous help to you and others whose names are set before you some of them as textbooks others as collateral reading. It is here that you will want to read the sections in the best commentaries in which the commentator such as a Hendrickson or a Lenski or a Schubert or a Lightfoot has done extensive research into the historical setting of that particular epistle or that particular book giving you background information on the author and his literary style and all of these things. Don't overlook that basic work, brethren. It's vital if you are to come with some degree of accuracy to the heart of the message of a given book or large section of the Word of God. Hear your Bible dictionary again will be a help to you.

26:31 And though it would be sneered at in some circles I am not at all reluctant to say even such things as Campbell Morgan's messages of the books of the Bible can be a help to you. Some of those distilled descriptions of the thrust of a given book there are works such as Campbell Morgan's that can be a help to you. Edersheim men of that caliber and again I need not give you an exhaustive list or even attempt to do so because you're getting much more in the way of specific bibliography in your various courses. Well that preliminary investigation is essential if you are to realize the goals that we've outlined under our first heading.

27:15 You cannot have a feel for the relationship of the individual parts to the whole if the pressure of the whole is not forceful upon your mind and clear in your understanding. All right then we come to the elementary steps.

Elementary Step 1: Wisely Selecting Text Boundaries

27:33 The first is and perhaps the most most difficult many times it is you must wisely select the boundaries of your text.

27:46 Now this is no easy thing in consecutive expository preaching. How much shall I bite off at any given time on any given Lord's Day? And much of this can only be learned in the actual doing of it. But I want to say I want to lay out some suggestions as again I've tried to wrestle through what principles have regulated my own acquisition I hope of a few tools along the way to make a wise selection of the boundaries of my text and then as I discuss this matter with other preachers and try to observe what others have done and under this head I've got six suggestions.

28:27 All right? If you are wisely to select the boundaries of your text number one consider the paragraph divisions as a starting point for a workable boundary. Consider the paragraph divisions as a starting point for a workable boundary. Now I'm fully conscious that when the Apostle sent his letter to the Philippians he did not write in paragraphs but those who have worked through both in giving us the most accurate text or attempting to give us the most accurate text of the original languages and also good English versions have labored at dividing the text into its major units of thought and they express this in paragraphs and so a good standard English version as well as your Greek Testament will be of help to you in working through this matter. Consider the paragraph divisions as a starting point for a workable boundary for your text. Secondly, and this is so important, consider the inherent richness or density of thought in establishing the boundaries of your text. For instance, if you were to preach through the Epistle to the Romans as Mark is doing, it would soon be evident that there is a density of thought

29:57 in the opening paragraph that is not found in verses 8 say through 13 in that paragraph. That opening paragraph as those of you who have studied Romans under Mr. Garlington are well aware, you have some of the most fundamental and profound concepts with respect to the Christian faith to be found anywhere packed together in one place. And you have them here.

30:22 So if you were expounding Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God which he promised afore through his prophets and then that pivotal text declared to be son of God with power, et cetera. Well, here you have tremendous density of thought. Well, because God has given such density of thought, if you're to accomplish your goal of explicating the meaning of the text, demonstrating its connection to its wider context in the argument of the whole, if you are then to articulate its principles of truth, some rich stuff on Christology here, of course, and on the relationship of the gospel to the Old Testament, et cetera, and then to make application, well, it's obvious that you're going to take more time working through these first four or five verses than you would the section beginning with verses 8 and going through verse 13 which speak of Paul's longing to see the Romans, his desire and previous purposes to come to them and his frustration in that purpose. It's obvious that there is not the same density of thought, the same essential unqualified inspiration of the Spirit, but not the same density of thought conveyed by the Spirit. Am I making sense? So as you work on this matter, beware of an artificial straitjacket

31:50 that would say, well, you must preach a paragraph, a unit of thought. And I've heard some people pontificating on expository preaching and saying, if you do anything other than preach a paragraph, then you're not an expository preacher. Well, I don't know where they got their rules. They didn't get them from good sense.

32:08 Anyone who would have the nerve to pass over the Romans 1, 1 through 7 in one sermon in preaching. Now, I'm not talking if you were teaching the book of Romans in a survey form, that might be very proper. You might want to go through the whole chapter in one lesson. If you had just three sessions, someone comes and we're having a retreat, will you give us, please, a survey of the book of Romans in three one-hour sessions?

32:33 Well, you're going to have to cover a lot of things. A lot more than chapter one. I hope they don't ask me. Yeah.

32:38 No. No, I've told them not to.

32:42 You've declined the invitation. That's right. But now, we must get hold of that principle, brethren. Consider the inherent richness and density of thought in establishing the boundaries.

32:53 Now, Alexander recognized this. On page 248, he addressed himself to this very issue.

33:03 He says,

33:06 next to the want of truth, the greatest fault in the world in the sermon is want of matter. It is not the province of any mere method to furnish the material, but the ordinary mode of handling the scripture in the pulpit affords great occasion for diffusiveness and has brought leanness into many a discourse. A man of little thought, it is true, whether he preach from a verse or a chapter, will necessarily impress the character of his mind upon his performance. Yet, the temptation to fill up space with inflated weakness is far greater under the modern method he meant of just taking a phrase or a given text.

33:42 We conceive it to be no disparagement of the word of God to say that it is not every verse, even of sacred writ, upon which a long discourse can be written without the admixture of foreign matter. In too many instances when a striking text has been selected and an ingenious division fabricated, the preacher's mind has exhausted itself. You see what he's saying? It's no insult to the Holy Ghost to say that there are certain texts that do not warrant 45 minutes of exposition.

34:18 And they don't warrant it simply because the Holy Ghost didn't intend that they should be used in that way. But there are others that if you didn't give 45 minutes to it, you wouldn't begin to be honest to the substance that is there contained by the inspiration of the Spirit. So, in wisely selecting the boundaries of your text, consider the paragraph division, which is a starting point. Secondly, consider the inherent richness or density of thought.

34:45 Thirdly, consider the thought of the text in relationship to the present circumstances of the church to which you are ministering. Consider the thought of the text in relationship to the present circumstances of the church to which you are ministering. For instance, if you were preaching through 1 Corinthians and when you came to chapter 1, your people were in the midst of a problem of internal division. Well, it's obvious that in opening up the apostles' treatment of division at Corinth, it would warrant a much more thorough treatment than if the church were in a present period of relative peace, harmony, and internal stability. You see, the text originally came in an existential situation. So let it come that way again. It came in a burning pastoral context.

35:45 Now let it come again in a burning, living, pastoral context. Now I intimate it. One of my reasons for taking Romans 13, 14, and I even wrote it in the inverted way here, 14, 13. That perverts something in my head.

36:03 Any of you who've had a little psychology, if you work on that for a while, for diversion, why I am determined to make Romans 13 14, 14, 13. I keep telling myself it's the other way around, but something's wrong. Well, maybe it's...

36:19 Huh? I don't know. But anyway, I intimate it in the opening exposition of that passage that it was the pressure of known circumstances with people wrestling with these aggravated forms of remaining corruption dealt with in the immediate context that led me to that text. And I wasn't embarrassed at all to say that.

36:44 And then I gave a polemic for not being embarrassed about saying it. Well, that's the principle I'm talking about. As you work through in expository preaching, there will be times when you will be utterly amazed at the foreknowledge of God and the wisdom of God in moving you to settle on that book long before the situation to which the given passage that comes up next week had opened up to you. And long before the circumstances in the church to which it addressed itself had even developed.

37:17 We've seen this with the consecutive reading through the scriptures. We've had people come and say, thank you for the sermon this morning, Pastor, but you know what really ministered to me? The consecutive reading was addressed exactly to my personal need.

37:32 Yeah, that's happened so many times I wish I'd kept a record of it. It's been amazing. Well, we shouldn't think it's strange then if we have prayerfully settled upon the given portion of the word of God or a given book. God, who is ultimately in the person of His Son, the great shepherd of His sheep, He knew all of the circumstances that we'd be unfolding.

37:52 He also knew the pace at which we were going to preach through and in a sense, you see, in His wise, loving foresight of His people's needs, maybe a year down the road He moved us the year previously to settle upon preaching on that given book. He knew all of that. And it's a wonderful thing to sense you're caught up in something bigger than yourself and bigger than your preaching schedule and bigger than your planning and yet something that we only know after the fact. You see, God doesn't catch us up in some kind of a mystical thing and then stretch out before us all of the problems the church is going to face over the next six months and then show us how...

38:30 No, no, no. It doesn't work that way. You're just feeling your way along. Often it's a matter of not saying I'm 100% sure but you say I'm about 51% inclined in this way and 49% that way.

38:43 So you very hesitantly step out and then lo and behold God gives you encouragements and confirmations as you look back upon the road of divine providence. Well, brethren, consider the thought of the text in relationship to the present sacred circumstances of the church. You're trying now to wisely select the boundaries of your text. Fourth guideline, consider your present understanding and experience of the text in determining its boundaries.

39:14 Consider your present understanding and experience of the text.

39:21 Here I may intrude a little biography. One of the things I dreaded about preaching through Philippians and it's one reason why I didn't preach through the book previously is I've always been mystified by verses 10 and 11.

39:41 I've always wondered what in the world was Paul talking about when he said he wanted to know Christ in the fellowship of his church. Well, little did I know when I started preaching through Philippians that in a real sense the experience of the last few months has been the exegetical key to the passage. And it has been. It really has been.

40:07 There are certain passages that only experience can exegete. That's right. And you must consider that in terms of setting the boundaries of your text. And it's no fault of yours if God hasn't brought to you the experience of the text.

40:21 He's brought you into the crucible of experience that will ultimately unlock a given passage. So, that's one that you know you're going to pass over in a relatively surface manner. And there's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

40:36 And then, perhaps down the line, 20 years from now, you'll be able to preach that passage again with much more diffusiveness and accuracy because your own experience will have become the classroom of exegeting or for exegeting during that passage. Then, fifthly, consider the grammatical construction in determining the boundaries.

41:03 There are some times when, what should we call it, there's a homiletical playground with the construction grammatically. You'll have a lovely series of dependent clauses or prepositional phrases or a series of imperatives. And, boy, when you see them there in the text before you, you just say, well, it's clear what the boundaries of the subject of the sermon should be. They should be bounded by this set of grammatical similarities or this grouping of thought that is bounded by that particular construction.

41:40 So consider the grammatical construction in determining the boundaries and then the sixth suggestion, consider the necessity of unity of thrust in determining the boundaries. Consider the necessity of unity of thrust in determining the boundaries. To use the classic rhetorical phrase unity of discourse in determining the boundaries.

42:06 Now, one given text may have such a dominant idea of tremendous relevance that if you attempt to expound another verse or two, you will bleed off some of the force of that given text.

42:24 And you will, in reality, preach too many sermons but not really preach one sermon. And you've got to wrestle with that matter in considering the determining the boundaries, consider the necessity of the unity of thrust in determining those boundaries. Now, brethren, please don't just put these things down on your notes and push them aside and then vomit them up in the final. Reflect on these matters and then when you're actually doing the work of consecutive expository preaching and you just can't seem to determine the boundaries of the text, pull your notes out, blow the dust off them and go back over some of these things.

Elementary Steps 2 & 3: Analyze Language and Understand Burden

43:04 As I say, I wish someone had helped me with these things. The agony that has come over the years many times has come because I've had no set of principles to guide me in this very vital issue. All right, the next preliminary step is carefully analyze the language of the text. You've set the boundaries of the text for this coming Lord's Day.

43:30 Now you must carefully analyze the language of the text. That's preliminary step number two. And here you just need to consult your notes with regard to the textual sermon. Use your lexicons, your dictionaries, your concordances, your commentaries.

43:50 Have your exegesis sheet before you.

43:54 And here you will find in consecutive expository work you'll want to save many of those sheets because you're working ahead. As you try to be sensitive to the entire flow and development of argument, you'll find that you'll be doing exegetical work far beyond that which you're doing for the coming Lord's Day. Well, preserve the fruit of that exegetical work for subsequent sermons. As ideas come for structure, principles, application, write them down.

44:25 Just take all of the directions I gave you last week for this stage of the textual sermon and apply them to the text. Apply them to the consecutive expository sermon. Carefully analyze the language of the text. Then, thirdly, prayerfully seek to understand the burden of the text.

44:44 Prayerfully seek to understand the burden of the text. What is the message of the Lord from this passage? I believe I understand the language, the meaning of the language, the relationship of words. You've done the work of careful analysis of the text.

45:02 Now, then, comes the tremendous issue of the possibilities with this text in terms of predominance of emphasis, of the point of thrust, the pressure upon the conscience and will and affections of the people. Lord, what is the burden of the Lord for this coming Lord's Day? And here the element of the Spirit's ministry is most vital and so desperately needed.

45:32 Now, it may be that there's more than one thing that is the burden of this text. But whatever it is or whatever those things are, we who are preaching must have some sense of that burden of the text. And here's the point at which you will be thinking through the state of the congregation, what you know by virtue of your pastoral intimacy with them, what you know from the input of your fellow elders, what you know from being sensitive to the general climate in which your people must live and witness and work and labor. Here's that element, you see, of bringing home the Word of God to the theater of their own conscience. And you, you as the servant of God, must prayerfully seek to understand the burden of the text. Well, those briefly are the preliminary steps. Now let me touch with even greater brevity upon the intermediate steps.

Intermediate and Concluding Steps

46:36 And they are similar to what you had last week. That's why I can move through some of this material quite quickly. There must be a reduction of these materials to their natural divisions, reducing the materials to their natural divisions.

46:59 Notice I did not say reducing the material to three divisions or to two or to four or to five, but to their natural divisions.

47:09 Now if their natural divisions are three, fine, there's something about us that we can't that feels very comfortable with three points. I've got my own theories as to why that's so. And it's interesting that the great writers on classic rhetoric have wrestled with this question and some have been so bold as to even relate it to matters pertaining to natural revelation and Christian writers on homiletics have even tried to draw analogies to say that it's one of the indications that God is Trinity and unity and unity and Trinity reflected in the very constitution of the mind that feels comfortable with three units of thought in a sermon.

47:54 Yeah. Yeah. They actually relate it to something of the image-bearing capacity of man and to the innate consciousness that though the doctrine of the Trinity is a matter of pure revelation, its fitness is sensed in the tripartite division of argument. Very interesting.

48:14 But be that as it may, I won't wear you with those things. You did. Is that right? Oh.

48:25 Well, so this... Not the exact point but the tripartite element of that.

48:30 Yes. Well, you must reduce the materials then, brethren, to their natural divisions and then secondly you must wisely arrange the divisions. And here again I simply remind you of that analogy. Don't put roof materials in the foundation.

48:48 Save your roof materials for the roof. Use foundation materials where they belong in the foundation. And here in wisely arranging the divisions you may not necessarily follow the exact order in which they appear in the text.

49:04 Don't feel bound to use as a rigid framework for your homiletical exercises the actual way in which the mind of God is unfolded in the text. And I went over some of those specifics last week. I hope you'll remember. For instance, your vandalistic punch may come from the initial introduction of your text where I beseech you therefore brethren you may want to hold off the significance of that use of brethren to the end as you bring home the message to the conscience of the unconverted.

49:38 But wisely arrange the divisions whether the arrangement is logical, chronological, rhetorical, pastoral. Have a wise arrangement of the divisions and then thirdly carefully work the divisions.

49:58 And I told you last week what we meant by that.

50:04 And now from the preliminary investigation we moved on to the elementary steps, intermediate steps and then finally the concluding steps of the discussion of an expository sermon and here again I just reproduced the stuff from last week's lecture. Work in the illustrations.

50:22 At what point do I need to illustrate whether by a parallel a parable that I have myself created something that's come to me in my reading some parallel passage of scripture work in the illustrations secondly work in the applications at what point will I self-consciously seek to intrude this message into the consciences of my hearers and then work in the connections and transitions. Don't leave these matters brethren to the moment of preaching. One of the great weaknesses in preaching is that people just assume well an illustration will come to me on my feet an application will come to me in the heat of explication and the connections and transitions will just take care of themselves. Well I got news for you. It just don't work that way. And good sermons sometimes are spoiled because of inadequate illustration to clarify insufficient application to make it preaching and then sloppy connections and transitions which failed in failing to give them left the thing disjointed.

51:38 So don't don't despise these matters. I haven't put them here simply for filler. Work in the illustrations applications connections and transitions. Now in concluding our consideration of the discussion or argument of an expository sermon I want to give you some miscellaneous suggestions.

Miscellaneous Suggestions for Expository Preaching

51:56 That's a potpourri at the end. And I think we'll take a break. It's a quarter after. We've gone for a 50-55 minutes and then I'll give you these five suggestions that should only take me about 20 minutes and then we'll have some.

52:11 All right brethren let's pick up now where we left off. I suggested that I would bring or not suggested announce that I would bring in this concluding section some miscellaneous suggestions a potpourri P-O-T P-O-U-R-R-I of miscellaneous suggestions not a potpourri P-O-P-E-R-Y the exercise of papal authority. Now to show that I'm not a pope and that I do not speak with infallibility one of the brethren reminded me that there are a couple of other principles that I should have given you under that first elementary step wisely selecting the boundaries of your text and he mentioned two more that he has observed as I've intimated some of my own wrestlings so add to the six these two more number one the general edification of the people of God for instance you may ascertain before you start preaching through a book as I did with Philippians that I wanted to get through it in somewhere around hopefully forty-five at the most fifty sermons now I'm probably going to miss it by about five and I had specific reasons for that and so there have been passages that I wanted desperately

53:39 to expand and dilate and open up more fully I have simply refused to do so because I wanted to have first of all a more viable model for you men I wanted to preach through in a way that would be perhaps closer to the mean the middle point of what you men would do in handling a book so I've tried though in the present situation and once in chapter one I became more like my native self and more expansive and dilated on the passage more and then also thinking of the situation of a number of new converts who perhaps would find it difficult to hang in there for more closely reasoned arguments that did not move through at a more rapid pace they might lose the thread of the overall argument these were some of the pastoral concerns that operated in my own mind as I anticipated the boundaries of my text and how I would preach through and then there's another factor your own present ability and development as a preacher there may be certain texts which twenty years from now you could well preach unto edification by simply taking one verse in a whole chapter but if you attempted to do it now it'd be thirty percent edification

55:07 seventy percent or sixty percent hot air and ten percent bluff and then you'd be you'd be now it's that last seventy percent that is not very attractive so include those factors in setting the boundaries of your text alright now then some of these miscellaneous suggestions if I were a pope they would be papal bulls or mandates in papal what do they call them now encyclical yeah encyclicals yes but these are just suggestions alright and I have five of them suggestions with respect to this whole matter of learning how to construct adequate expository sermons number one expose your mind to a variety of good models expose your mind to a variety of good models while you're in a formative stage it would be tragic if you never found out who you were meant to be as a preacher now where are these models to be found well they're to be found first of all in the time proven literature you want to know how to make some good beginnings in expository preaching through the gospels read Ryle's

56:35 expository thoughts on the gospels as a good model if you know anything about Ryle's expository thoughts in the gospel you know that Ryle read according to his own testimony about 70 of the best commentaries on any given gospel before he put pen to paper and yet the simplicity extracting the major principles in an 8 or 10 or 12 verse section and laying them down upon the conscience with close application he's a good model for someone beginning an effort in expository preaching in the gospels so Ryle is one of those proven guides to whom you ought to expose yourself you want a good model for expository preaching through an epistle I believe you can do no better than to follow the tracks left by John Brown in his expositions of 1st Peter that is some of the most masterful expository preaching to be found anywhere in the English language at least English language that I've seen now Brown himself was greatly indebted to old Archbishop Leighton whose work on 1st Peter is a classic so if you can get hold of that get hold of it you find Brown quoting Leighton time after time or saying making an allusion to the fact that his thought was triggered

58:05 by something Leighton said if you're concerned about how to do expository preaching in the biographical sections I have found nothing finer than the works of William M. Taylor you may be able to pick these up in a used bookshop Baker did a reprint of these a few years ago and I was able to pick up a whole set they did a reprint in 61 I only had him on Elijah he was a great help to me when I was preaching through Elijah but he's got a series of 2, 4, 6, 8 Moses, Joseph, David, Ruth, Elijah, Daniel, Peter, and Paul and he's a great example of how you can in a consecutive way preach through the life of one of the major biblical characters in that connection we're doing something on Joseph the reprint of the banner of truth of George Lawson you'll get some helpful modeling from him not so much in the area of the homiletics but how to work in applications in that type of preaching and of course in our own day Dr. Lloyd Jones as far as I'm concerned his finest work is the work on the Sermon on the Mount it's one of his earlier works but some of the emphases that began to dominate in the later years that we would not endorse with enthusiasm

59:34 on the work of the spirit those are absent from his two volumes on the Sermon on the Mount and it's masterful stuff Pink's work on the Sermon on the Mount apart from the fact that he gives a lot of quotations it was originally prepared not for the pulpit but for the magazine studies in the scriptures understanding that and recognizing that element you will still find a good model of expository preaching McLaren sermons well these are some suggestions when I say expose your mind to a variety of viable models this is what I'm talking about and then not only can you do so in time proven literature but in God owned contemporary ministries and here we have the wonderful privilege and benefit of taped sermons and you can learn so much by listening to men who have proven their worth as able expositors of the word of God and I don't say this to promote a personal friend but I hope with some degree of objectivity Pastor Chantry's ministry he's almost always locked in to a series morning and evening of consecutive expository preaching I don't know how he does it to me the demand of what he's done over the years I think would have put me in my grave but right now he's preaching through Romans in the morning and Isaiah in the evenings

61:02 but he's a good model for instance when he came to that section in chapters what is it 18 or 19 or so through there the judgments on the nations preached one sermon covered I think four or five chapters see rather than weary the people he said now in these chapters of God's judgment pronounced upon the nations there are some fundamental principles of the dealings of God with the heathen nations and in one sermon covered a whole block but then when he's come to sections that are dense in messianic promise dense in comfort dense in contemporary application he's taken just four or five verses and made a whole sermon on them so you see the principles I've laid before you mean so much more when you can see them fleshed out in a living ministry and I am convinced that our brother is a good model not only in terms of what I've mentioned but because he never or rarely ever preaches beyond 35 minutes rarely rarely so if you want to see how much can be said and how good preaching can be done in 35 minutes I've proven through the years my brother to be a great help to me and a great challenge to me I always feel so wordy and prolix when I've done listening to him and I just say why can't I streamline my preaching like my good brother does so I find my own

62:31 goals and perspective challenged and there are others and it would not do to try to give an exhaustive list but seek to find men not who are promoting themselves to beware of people are promoting themselves but ask the question what has this ministry proven itself to be over the years and if it's been a God owned ministry then they must be doing something right and you ought to expose yourself to learn what it is that they are doing right alright second suggestion continue to read literature on the subject of expository preaching continue to read literature on the subject of expository preaching while you must sift and in sifting will end up throwing away much you may pick up a principle here and there some books on preaching I've read there may be only one or two thoughts out of the whole book that were worth anything but they were worth the whole book and this is what you must do and because this is the most difficult kind of ministry as well as the most rewarding we need constantly to be getting help wherever help is to be found now I want to get this recent book that's been done by the man who was professor in homiletics and preaching at Dallas for a number of years is it Haddon Robinson yes I must get hold of that book on expository preaching they've used

63:58 it as a text over at North Eastern by the way I had to bail out last Tuesday but I'll be going over this Tuesday God willing at 115 for their preaching class there to speak to the men alright thirdly seek the evaluation of competent critics with respect to your efforts seek the evaluation of competent critics with respect to your efforts now here's the problem of being young there's lots of problems with being young but you're insecure and therefore because you're insecure or you're insecure ought to be taking constructive criticism is most difficult because you feel threatened by it when you've got a little more experience and God has helped you to see some things and you say well in spite of all my sin and all my failures God has given me something to which I can look as my seal or his seal upon my labors then you're not quite as shaky when somebody comes up and tells you you're doing something wrong but never do you need constructive criticism more than in your formative stage bad habits develop then become lifetime companions so that's one of the disadvantages of youth there are a lot of advantages and the older you get the more you see those advantages but the more you can see the disadvantages as well and that's one of them

65:27 but face it and pray to God for grace to rise above that peculiar weakness of youth and to have a concern for the glory of God and the good of your people that's bigger than any native sensitivity or insecurity and those of you who have wives listen to her she may not know one tenth of theology you know and don't expect her to I'm amazed at how again young men think that their wives gotta be theologians look man if she puts up with you and loves you for what you are and washes your dirty socks and underwear and feeds you and takes care of you and loves God and loves his word don't be upset if she never becomes a theologian man you've got a jewel be thankful what you've got and don't try to make her into a theologian a woman's gotta if she's a real Christian she's gotta visceral theological sensitivity will stand her in good stead and don't be upset if she doesn't become a profound theologian at the level of being able to articulate all the stuff you dump on her when you come home from the academy and wonder why she starts looking at the clock and tapping her foot and getting restless and wants to get down to more practical things now nurture your wife as best you can theologically and the rest but don't be upset God didn't intend women to be theologians in that sense he didn't he didn't intend them to be theologians he intended them to be thoroughgoing Christians

66:56 but the very thing that makes her a woman is the thing that makes her in a sense unqualified to be a theologian now this will get me in all kinds of trouble if I don't shut up here but some of you perhaps might need that though they may not be theologians for the most part if they're thoroughgoing Christians and know anything about preaching they do know when they hear good preaching and they do know when they hear bad preaching so listen to your wife don't debate her don't argue welcome her say now honey level with me how'd I do this morning and she says rotten you say go easy on me honey well you know you asked me what was rotten with it oh you were like an elephant with shoes of mud on I mean you just were I had to do all I could took all the grace I could muster to keep awake was it that bad yeah I saw people around me nodding their heads and so now I'm thankful that's not a quote from my wife not quite but she's been brutally honest with me yeah and it's been good it's been good so use your wife use your fellow office bearers if and when God gives them to you and until then as I emphasized in other aspects of the pastoral theology course

68:25 seek to find out those discerning people who love you and love what you stand for and love the ministry and love you enough to be honest with you seek them out brethren if they're really godly men and women they know that you're young and they're willing and love to throw a blanket over many of the things that are the constant reminders of your youth and your inexperience and they just are too gracious to come up and take the initiative and tell you what's wrong with your preaching but they have enough grace that if you let them know you welcome their input they will in most cases do that and again they may not be profound theologians but they know good preaching when they hear it and they'll be able to help you so seek the evaluation of competent critics with respect to your efforts and then fourthly don't quit expository preaching because of the rigors or failures in your efforts don't quit expository preaching because of the rigors or failures of your efforts the demands which this kind of preaching make upon you are many but for the most part those demands are good because they make you stretch your mind they make you pray they make you wrestle with God with truth with a homiletical method

69:53 and most of you will be starting with a group of hungry hearted people so starved for good food that they'll bear with the less than totally aesthetic manner in which that food is served up now again there's one of the benefits that you'll have in going in and starting a new work here you have many of you many of you will have the privilege of going into a group of people who've been kicked around in shallow circles where they've not been taught and they've been praying and crying to God to raise up a solid biblical testimony that is locked into historic Christianity that is centered in sound biblical preaching and those people are hungry and they will not be overly fastidious about how you're doing it so it's good that you're in that kind of a situation because you can grow then with your people and let them learn what good preaching is as they see it happening before their eyes they're so starved that though you may be a poor preacher preaching good things they'll be so taken up with the good things they won't know how bad you're preaching and they'll bear with it but you will know you will have had a standard you will have been exposed to some viable models in your reading and in your exposure to other means of hearing preaching and you will feel something of the tremendous pressure of seeking to produce after a standard that you've set

71:22 you believe realistically from the word of God and proven principles and you can get discouraged but don't quit because of the rigors or because of your failures it's like an apprentice the first time he picks up that trowel and tries to get the mud on the end of it I mean he just gets it all over his arm all over everything and well if he quits and says I can never be a mason he's never going to learn now it's discouraging if he's worked alongside a real mechanic I can remember watching my boss when he'd take that trowel full of mud and go down the whole row of blocks and never drop a you know a half an ounce of it and then the day came when he said alright you go ahead and butter up the course well you know I took that crazy thing and I'd get about one tenth of the mud on the edge of the blocks and the rest slopped here there and there and the rest well he bore with me and that I had to learn how to handle it well in the same way you're getting the theory here but the time comes when you've got to take your trowel and slop the mud on the block and you're going to miss some of it but that's alright don't quit because of the rigors or failures and then finally fifth suggestion never forget that some of the major benefits of expository preaching are cumulative and long range never forget that some of the major benefits of expository preaching

72:51 are cumulative and long range a man who preaches striking individual texts or powerful topical sermons may have the luxury of a more immediate enthusiastic response from his people I think I've mentioned this to our people I think I've mentioned it to you men but if I were to determine the method of my preaching by the immediate enthusiastic response to my preaching I would preach nothing but sermons that are based upon striking text or are topical in nature you get the least amount of immediate enthusiastic response from consecutive expository preaching but in terms of the edification of your people whether they know it or not that kind of preaching is the most significant in its cumulative effect and long range influence upon the people of God you are not you are giving them a method by which to arrive at the proper meaning of the word of God you're teaching them without them realizing that of course in hermeneutics you're teaching them the great principles of how to interpret scripture you're exposing them to side lights and highlights and notes of divine revelation that otherwise they would never be exposed to

74:19 in a hundred years of picking up individual texts and all of the peculiar benefits of the Bible that we mentioned under consecutive expository preaching most of them are cumulative and long range and though you are making relevant applications as God enables you to do so it's not the same as when you see a pastoral situation and you address yourself to it topically everyone feels almost instantaneously the burning relevance of that subject you've taken in hand or as in the case of selecting this Romans 13 14 text good got it right that time immediately when you tell people why you've chosen it everyone's all ears because they sense and feel something of the pressure of that text upon their given situation well obviously the response will be much more visibly and immediately enthusiastic well don't don't despise that that's good welcome it but don't let that convince you that well that's the only kind of preaching that's really scratching the people where they itch that's the point I'm making never forget that some of the major benefits of expository preaching are cumulative and long range though I hope you'll use all of the methods I hope included in them with some degree of regularity will be this particular method of communicating the word of God alright

Conclusion

75:47 well I've said all I want to say it's on my notes to say are there questions?