Introduction to the Act of Preaching

The Fundamental Axiom of Preaching: God's Glory and Man's Good

0:03 Now, brethren, I'm sorry that I do not have your bibliography, or I should say your reading list, prepared, but God willing, next week it will be prepared, and the reading assignments for the entire semester laid out. But your reading assignment for next week is to continue right on in Dabney, and it's a short chapter, pages 260 to 270, and because of its brevity, I trust you will be able to make the time to read it twice and seek to absorb it. I think it's most fitting that as we begin this part of our study on the subject of preaching, that this chapter in Dabney should fall very naturally. In the regular course of working through Dabney's thoughts on preaching, because it emphasizes again for us the heart issue of preaching, namely that your own character as a man is most fundamental to what you will be as a preacher. So please read in Dabney, pages 260 to 270. Now, as we resume our studies...

1:16 In this part of our pastoral theology course, let me simply remind you of precisely where we are. We are under the first major division, the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching, and we have considered those elements as they pertain to the man himself, and then in the message, its content and form, having examined those seven general axioms which apply to all true preachers. And then having sought to give you specific guidelines with respect to the various species of sermons and how to construct them, we now begin Roman numeral number three, which is the act of preaching itself or the delivery of the message. The essential elements of effective pastoral preaching, Roman numeral one in the man himself, Roman numeral two in the message, Roman numeral...

2:17 The essential elements of effective pastoral preaching, Roman numeral three in the act of preaching itself or the delivery of the message. Now, as we approach this very unscientific and elusive and perhaps least precise category of our study, I will limit myself today to the broad category of preliminary considerations. So that's all we're going to take up today is preliminary considerations. And I will divide these...

2:47 I will divide these considerations into two major categories. First of all, the fundamental axiom, and then secondly, the formative perspectives. The fundamental axiom with respect to the act of preaching, and then the formative perspectives with respect to the act of preaching. First of all, then, the fundamental axiom with reference to the act of preaching itself.

3:18 Now, I have often told you that an axiom is an established law of science or art, a fixed principle of operation or of function. And the fundamental axiom with reference to the act of preaching is...

3:34 And here I want you to copy this down verbatim. The great end which all the elements of preaching must serve.

3:48 The great end which all... The great end which all...

3:51 The great end which all... All the elements of preaching must serve is the glory of God, is the glory of God and the good of men in their salvation and edification.

4:13 Now, technically I realize that edification is a dimension of salvation, but I'm using the term salvation in its more limited sense of bringing men into a state of grace. And edification...

4:30 And edification, of course, referring to their being built up in that state of grace. So, the fundamental axiom with reference to the act of preaching is that the great end which all the elements of preaching must serve is the glory of God and the good of men in their salvation and edification. Now, let me attempt to demonstrate the biblical basis for this axiom and its practice. Now, let me attempt to demonstrate the biblical basis for this axiom and its practice.

4:59 It has a practical relevance to the subject that we are taking up in this semester, namely the act of preaching. Now, the end, as expressed in the axiom, obviously has two dimensions, one vertical and one horizontal, one with reference to God and the other with reference to man. Now, the vertical is so self-evident that one feels that it's hardly necessary to articulate it. But the danger is...

5:29 The danger is that when we assume self-evident truths and do not pause to articulate them or demonstrate their biblical basis, we eventually lose our hold upon them. And never forget that. Something seems so self-evident that proof is almost embarrassing. But if people walk and live and think in the light of self-evident truths but do not self-consciously understand the biblical basis for those truths, it won't be long.

6:00 Therefore, things that are self-evident will no longer be within the field of their consciousness or their convictions. So, I want to pause to set before you some of the biblical principles which have formulated this axiom. The great end which all the elements of preaching must serve is, first of all, the glory of God and several key texts. Immediately, we think of 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31.

Biblical Basis for Glorifying God in Preaching

6:31 And I love this text for many reasons, not the least of which it directs us to activities or explicitly directs us to activities in which we are most like the animals, eating and drinking. Very mundane activities. And yet we are told in this text, Whether, therefore, you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all...

7:01 To the glory of God. And we can argue from the lesser to the greater, if the realization of God's glory, if the manifestation of the perfections of God are to be the motivating factor in such mundane activities such as eating and drinking. And if we are to eat and drink in such a way, and in the context, of course, it is in terms of religion. If we are to loud in our words, read, listen to, forces ourselves, get the great power of God through...

7:34 If the glory of God is to predominate in our eating and drinking, and in the circumstances attendant upon those activities-, how much more should the glory of God dominate when we stand to speak forth the word of the everlasting God to the ears of men? And then in 1 Peter Chapter 4, in a text that speaks more specifically to the даже more messy thing, which is this expression. That is, that the breaking of fast because each of depicted stews is miraculously done. the very subject of ministry. We read in 1 Corinthians, 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 10 and 11, according as each has received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speaks, speaking as it were the oracles of God. If any man ministers, ministering as of the strength which God supplies, that. And here's the great end to be secured in a man speaking and doing so as it were the oracles of God, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ whose is the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. And so the great

8:57 end that might be. must self-consciously be present in the act of preaching, is this end of the glory of God. In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, we see the Apostle Paul manifesting this consciousness with respect to his own ministry. 2 Corinthians 1 verses 19 and 20. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him is yea. For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea, wherefore also through him is the amen, unto the glory of God through us. And so the Apostle says, in preaching Christ as the Son, substance, the affirmation of the promises of God, the great end secured is the glory of God

10:04 through Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus. And so this is not just a pious phrase that we sort of place over any activity to give it some semblance of spirituality. The Apostle was self-conscious of having this goal as part and parcel of his own ministry. And so the Apostle says, his great passion in the proclamation of the word of God. And so the great end which all the elements of preaching must serve is the glory of God. Now when we descend to the practical, do you see how this perspective, this axiom will impinge on every facet of the act of preaching itself? For instance, will God be more or less glorified if I speak distinctly or if I mumble? I'm to be an image bearer of God when I convey the word of God. Did God speak to us in

11:06 mumblings or did God speak to us in clear words so that he who runs, he who understands may run?

11:17 How has God spoken? Well, then we glorify God as we accurately reflect his image in our preaching. Will God be more or less glorified if I manifest real passion and earnestness in my preaching? How does God speak to men? Is he in blood earnest when he calls men to repent and believe? When God says, why will ye die, O house of Israel? Does he say that in dead earnest? Then you better say it in dead earnest. And the earnestness better be evident in the way in which you say it. Is God glorified in a ministry that, speaks his word accurately as to its content, but does not reflect the emotional overtones of that word? I leave the answer with you. Will God be more or less glorified if I minister with distracting mannerisms? Am I simply to allow them to remain and pass it off with the pious fraud?

12:33 Well, no one's perfect anyway. Well, you see, if this axiom has gotten hold of us, that the great end which all the elements of preaching must serve is the glory of God, then it will enter into our thinking and to our self-conscious activity in every dimension of the act of preaching. So this fundamental axiom in its first dimension, its Godward dimension, must become a kind of passion, a kind of holy obsession, one which throbs through the entire act of our preaching, which, of course, throws us back again upon the intimate relationship between the nurture of the inner life and the most practical aspects of our public ministry. Because if in the nurture of the inner life we do not have as one of the constant and deep impressions upon our soul this great concern for the glory of God, the hallowing of his name, we cannot simply flip a little switch as we pass by from wherever we prepare to preach to the place where we actually engage in the act of preaching. But there's also a horizontal dimension

Biblical Basis for Seeking Man's Salvation and Edification

13:53 to this axiom. The great end which all the elements of preaching must serve is not only the glory of God, but also the good of men in their salvation and edification. And let me take those two things. The good of men, first of all, in their salvation. And surely the two pivotal passages in the New Testament, at least to my understanding, are 1 Corinthians 9 and Romans 10. When the apostle thinks of himself as a gospel preacher, he says that this great passion was ever before him in the context, of course, determining even the context, in which he would preach with respect to things indifferent and to the relinquishment of lawful liberties. Verse 19 of 1 Corinthians 9. Though I was free from all men, I brought myself under

14:54 bondage to all that I might gain the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain Jews. To them that are under the law, as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. And so, in this sense, I'm going to take the first two passages of 1 Corinthians 9. To them that are without law, as without law, not being without law to God, but under law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And when you read in the book of the Acts the manner in which the apostle actually preached, this passion is clear.

15:37 When he's in the midst of an exclusively Hebrew situation, he uses everything at his disposal from what language he will speak in, how he will address his brethren, how he uses his vast knowledge of Hebrew history. All of that is present and is being wisely and judiciously employed. To what end? Because he is convinced that in the act of preaching he must seek the salvation of men.

16:07 And, of course, that great truth is underscored in Romans chapter 10, where the apostle makes it evident that men will not be saved unless they call upon a known Christ. And they cannot call upon a known Christ unless they hear the very voice of Christ through those whom he sends. Verse 12 of Romans 10. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, but the same Lord is Lord of all.

16:39 And is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? And here you see something again of this tremendous passion for the salvation of men. And when any man is saved, he shall be saved. And when any man is saved, he shall be saved.

17:09 And when any man is saved, he shall be saved. And when any man is used of God to any degree in the salvation of sinners, it is generally because this has become also a kind of holy obsession with him. Now I'm giving due allowance for diversity of gift. Some men have a more highly cultivated gift in communicating the gospel to the consciences of the unconverted. I'm giving due allowance to the sovereignty of God. One sows another waters, but God gives the end. But within that framework of due allowance of diversity of gift and the absolute sovereignty of God as a general rule, men who in a lengthy pastorate have at least a trickle of conversions as part and parcel of their ongoing ministry have those conversions because they desperately desire to see them and are self-consciously preaching with a view to seeing men converted. Amen.

18:09 And so as surely as the glory of God must be a self-conscious passion in the act of preaching, so likewise the salvation of men must be a self-conscious goal and spiritual passion. Acts 14 and verse 1 is a fascinating text, and it came to pass at Iconium, they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, And so spake, that a great multitude both of Jews and Greeks believed. And here Luke, the great theologian of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, who is the very one who tells us that the Lord opened Lydia's heart so that she believed, the same one who tells us, The same one who tells us, That many of them were ordained unto eternal life. Believed, here it says, That a great multitude believed, That a great multitude believed, their coming to faith was in some way related to the manner in which the servants of God spake, they so spake that a multitude believed. And there is a manner of speaking that is more likely to be used of God in the salvation of sinners than another manner of speaking.

19:31 So the salvation of men must be part of our self-conscious goal in preaching. And then, of course, edification of the people of God. And here the key passage is 1 Corinthians 14. As we flush out this axiom more fully, the glory of God, the salvation of men, the edification of men. 1 Corinthians chapter 14.

20:06 And you remember what the problem was. God had sovereignly bestowed these various gifts, we might call them gifts, revelatory gifts of oral communication, but the Corinthians didn't know what to do with them. And they had turned them inward upon themselves, or they had turned them into a cacophony of sound and into that which was not bringing edification. And notice how the apostle, when he tries to sort out that whole mess, comes down again and begins to say, I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. I don't and again upon this note of edification. Verse 2, For he that speaks in a tongue speaks not unto men, but unto God. For no man understands, but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries. But he that prophesies speaks unto men edification, and exhortation, and consolation. He that speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he that prophesies edifies the church. Verse 5, I would have you all

21:06 speak with tongues, but rather that you should prophesy, and greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks with tongues except he interpret. And why is that so? That the church may receive edifying. Verse 12, Since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound unto the edifying of the church. Verses 15 and following, I will pray with the Spirit, pray with the understanding, sing with the... Spirit, sing with the understanding. Why? Well, he says, so that edification may be secured. If thou bless with the Spirit, how shall he that fills the place of the unlearned say the amen at the giving of thy thanks, seeing he knows not what you say? For you verily give thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank God I speak with tongues more than you all. How be it in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding than...

22:06 That I may instruct others also. And then verses 26 through 33, the same emphasis comes through again and again. Let all things be done unto edifying. 26c. And in a sense, that's the summarizing statement. And then he goes on to give directions about how many should speak, and in what way, and in what the others should do. And the undergirding principle, is the regulation of public gift in the public assembly in order to secure maximum edification. Now, though we do not have those revelatory gifts, the great principle is nonetheless the same.

22:57 That which ought to regulate us in the act of preaching is this great passion, not only so to speak, that God... God would bless our speaking to the salvation of those who are yet out of Christ, but so to speak, not as to secure a minimum measure of edification, but a maximum measure of edification to those who sit before us as the people of God. And so you see then I trust the biblical basis for this fundamental axiom, that the great end... v-m.

23:38 Which all of the elements of the act of preaching must seek to secure is that end of the glory of God and the salvation and edification of men. And this end is consciously to be sought. This end is at points in the very act of preaching self-consciously to be present in our minds, and where it is not self-consciously present in our practical stance. Programms which are joined together and we week and the werdenstيم will have no exhibit-enne, but bits and pieces.

Practical Effects of the Axiom: Guarding Against Affectation and Complacency

24:06 present. It ought to be the substructure, the sort of undergirding, out-of-sight beam and what would we call it, structural part of the soul in our preaching. Now, when that's so, then elegance of style and elegance of form with a view to impress will never be a problem to us. There's a fascinating poem in Broadus written by one of the servants of God of a bygone day that underscores this point very, very powerfully. And I'm moved every time I read it. At least I'm moved to myself. I hope you find it moving. Dealing with this whole matter of people who have some other end other than the glory of God and the salvation and good of men in mind, Cowper writes, In man or woman, but far most in man, and most of all in man that ministers and serves the altar, in my soul I loathe all affectation. Tis my perfect scorn, object of my

25:26 implacable disgust. What? Will a man play tricks? Will he indulge a silly fond conceit of his fair form and just proportion, fashionable mane and pretty face in presence of his God? Or will he seek to dazzle me with tropes as with the diamond on his lily hand, and play his brilliant parts before my eyes when I am hungry for the bread of life? He mocks his maker, prostitutes and shames his noble office, and instead of trying to seduce me, he's trying to seduce me. And he's trying to seduce me, and instead of trying to seduce me, he's trying to seduce me. And he's trying to seduce me, displaying his own beauty, starves his flock. Therefore be gone all attitude and stare and

26:18 stark theatric practiced at the mirror. You get the picture of this elegant preacher who practices his fair figures of speech and his purple phrases so that he may impress. Well, I would like to take this time to thank you, and I would like to thank you, please, for your kind attention. This is not a Riad Maracos-and the Riad Maracos-And nothing will serve to keep us from ever drifting in the slightest degree in that direction so powerfully mocked by William Cowper than this great principle, living in our hearts. On the other hand, it will keep us from lightness and any desire to tickle the fancy, of men, solid edification, accomplished by truth impinging upon understanding, heart, and affection, will be the great passion of our preaching. And if we really understand and live

27:26 by this axiom, brethren, it will have at least these two very practical effects throughout the entire scope of our ministries. On the one hand, it will immunize us against a false guilt when we work at being better preachers in the act of preaching. See, there are few men who think there's anything wrong with trying to become more accurate exegetes, more astute theologians, better homileticians in the study. But for a man to practice at making his voice more pleasant, suddenly he feels there's something profane about this. I have descended from the lofty heights being a man of God to being an actor. And if I work on the modulation of my voice, while that's a theatrical exercise, that's not the exercise for a prophet of God. Well, you see, if you get hold of this principle, this fundamental axiom, that the glory of God and the salvation and edification of my voice are the same, then you're not a prophet of God. You're not a prophet of

28:41 God. You're not a prophet of God. You're not a prophet of God. You're not a prophet of God. You're not a prophet of God. You're not a prophet of God. You're not a prophet of God. You're not a prophet of man is the great end to which I must labor in my preaching. If I become aware that by nature and by a combination of other factors, my voice is too strident and it makes people want to push me away because it simply comes across as being too harsh, then is it not seeking the glory of God to try to learn to so modulate the voice that it's not a prophet of God? It no longer drives people back from my message. There's nothing theatrical about that. That's seeking the glory of God, the salvation of men, and the edification of men. Some of you do not naturally find it easy to look people straight in the eyeballs when you talk to them. Now, I can't look at your eyeballs as much as I'd like when I'm lecturing because I'm conscious of trying to read things off as I've written them in the calm of the study and not freelance it too much. As I would do in preaching. But some of you, psychologically and emotionally and for a number of other reasons, you find it hard to look people in the eye. And you will have to work at cultivating

29:54 eye contact because the eye is the window of the soul. And if you're preaching unto edification, you want to know whether people are getting what you're saying. And if as you're preaching to people's eyeballs, you notice there's a glassy stare there and a glassy stare there and a glassy stare there and a glassy stare there and a glassy stare there and a glassy stare there and a glassy stare there, you begin to get the message. I can't be edifying because I'm obviously not being understood. So right then in the act of preaching, the combined glassy stares are saying something to you. They're saying, preacher, cry to God for help to do something to make this point clear. And so you lift up your heart to God and say, Lord, I'm in a mess and a muddle. Help me.

30:37 Because the poor people are obviously in a mess and a muddle. And we ain't getting nowhere. And so you right then and there in the midst of preaching, realizing God cannot be glorified if the people are not being edified, you learn from their glassy stare that you've got to do something right on your feet and you fish for an illustration. You're willing to do anything short of being a buffoon or sin to get the point across. What is elegance? What is your outline? What is the homiletical finesse of your life? What is the finesse of your life? What is the finesse of your sermon if all you're getting is glassy stares? Now, some of you just have a bad habit of looking down at the floor. Or to me, what is the most abominable habit in preaching is preaching

31:27 to the top of people's hairlines. You're just missing by three inches. And I've had preachers that I knew they were preaching to the top of my forehead. And I'm so convinced of it that I've been tempted. I'm naughty enough to be tempted to do certain things, though I hope I have enough grace that I don't. But when their eyes came by and they were trying to fool me that they were looking at me, and they really weren't. They were just here. I wanted to just go and make a funny face and see if I got the reaction. And if they just went right on, you know, then I'd know, aha. And then I'd go to them after and say, brother, you weren't preaching to my eyeballs. You were preaching to the top of my forehead. You know what kind of face I made when you looked at me? No. And then just do it all over again and then watch his reaction. Now, I've never done that. And don't you go out and do it. And then you're going to have to justify the fact that you got the idea from Pastor Martin. No, I really

32:22 didn't. But one day when I was preaching, I had given the wrong reference. And he was desperately trying to give me the signal. Now, I knew he was giving me the signal. He was sitting there with his hands going like this. But I thought he was trying to tell me that I had a wad of spit somewhere that will sometimes gather on my lips. So I'm reaching in for my handkerchief and wiping away. And he's still got that funny look.

32:45 Well, I was saying, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that.

32:46 I was saying, 1 Peter 5, 8, when it was 1 Peter 4, 8. And he was giving me signals. So I had good eye contact. It was just our signals were bad. That's right. That happened just a few weeks ago.

32:59 And every time I'd look at him, I knew something was bothering him. And then he was making signals to me. So I reached in there. And then I took a snort of water. And then he still looked troubled.

33:10 Well, the only thing I could do then was just to stop. But there was something now that wasn't there. Because the people were...

33:16 Flipping their Bibles all over the place. And so there's not just the eyes, but the ears, too. Yeah. And the people where the pages were going like this.

33:24 Yeah. And usually I'll pick that up. But this time for some reason...

33:28 I got so caught... Well, I'll tell why. Because I was so caught up with that matter of the blanket, having that large blanket that covers the multitude of sins, that I really became insensitive to, for a moment, to those other signals. So it illustrates that very principle. That's one of the dangers of just that complete abandonment. Yeah.

33:46 Yeah, that you can be insensitive to those things. Well, you see, brethren, working on these things, you must not have a false sense of guilt. And that's where I started when we ended up where we're at now. And we want to come back to it. Don't get a false sense of guilt or come under false guilt when you work on these things that are part of the dynamics of the actual act of preaching. Why? Because your motive is not to get a reputation for being a great preacher. Your motive is not to gain the reputation for being someone who has a great command of the English language and of people. Your great passion is to bring ultimate glory to God and to see as many

34:32 sinners saved as God will save under your ministry and to see your people built up into the fullness of the stature of Christ. And then the second thing it will do, if you get hold of this axiom or it gets hold of you, it will...

34:45 It will slay a sinful complacency and a paralyzing fatalism. It will slay a sinful complacency and a paralyzing fatalism. Now, all of us, because of the effects of sin and the various ways that sin operates through our peculiar personalities, we have kinks in every department of our humanity. Some of you have unusual questions, kinks in your emotional makeup. You find it very, very hard to let your emotions show on your face, to let your emotions affect how your vocal cords work, temperamentally, background, influences, all of the rest. You simply are one of these people who it's very difficult to read in terms of your emotions. Well, if you become convinced that when God says something in His Word with the emotion of His own holy heart throbbing through the thing that He says, you are not going to be content to expound that passage as though God said it with no emotion. God is an emotional being, and when the old confession says He has no parts or passions,

36:09 beware of construing that as meaning that God has no emotions. God is perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ, and when you've read Warfield's masterful article on the emotional life of our Lord, then you have some little understanding of the breadth of the emotion of the heart of God. You and I are made as image bearers of God, and our emotions, even though stained with sin and constantly vulnerable to sinful influences, are nonetheless a reflection of God. When the Bible says, God beheld the violence in the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. Is that an unemotional description of how God felt? It didn't say it just angered Him in the court of His justice. It grieved Him at His heart. He looked down at all these creatures made to reflect His image, and when they were reflecting the image of the devil, God was pained. He was grieved.

37:15 And if you're preaching that passage and something of grief and pathos doesn't come through you, you are not rightly representing the Word of God. I remember listening to a musician give a senior recital at a local college, and as best as my ear could discern, technically, technically, she played every note as the composer had originally written it. But there was one thing wrong, one fundamental thing. There was not an ounce of emotion in her playing. She played it as though she were a robot. There was no soul in the thing. And the thing never came alive. And you don't have to be a musician to know when something comes alive.

38:14 Well, you see, if you have this axiom written in your heart, that I must seek in the act of preaching the glory of God, the salvation of men, the edification of men, then how can you be sinfully complacent or allow yourself to be held in the grip of a paralyzing fatalism that says, oh, well, this is the way God put me together, this is the way I happen to be, and distracting mannerisms, kinks in your emotional development, problems in the area of the use of the voice, you just fatalistically say, well, that's the way I am, that's the way I always will be, and the people of God will just have to put up with it. No, brethren, if we are...

38:57 If we are committed to maximum edification, then we will labor at correcting these things for the good of our hearers. And we will not simply say, well, I'll pray and trust God. If you've got a tight lower jaw, I don't mean to be irreverent, all the praying in the world isn't going to loosen it up until you do some exercises to loosen it up. The upper jaw doesn't move, except when you move your head. If you don't believe me, put your finger right there. Now, when you speak, it's the lower jaw that moves. You see, this is the finger that's going. Now, if I move my head, this one goes. But the upper jaw ain't going nowhere. It's the lower one that moves. And if you've got a tight lower jaw, you're simply not going to articulate clearly. And all the amount of praying isn't going to loosen up your jaw. You may have to say, all right, Lord, every time I shave, those of you still shave, the rest of you more...

39:58 I'll sue the fellas at another time. I will force myself to do 15 exercises with my lower jaw. I will open it as far as I can. Every time. You say, that's ridiculous. Not if it makes you a better preacher. It isn't ridiculous. If you're determined that God will be glorified, sinners will be saved, that you will preach the gospel in as distinct a manner possible, in a manner that brings maximum edification, you won't fatalistically sit back and say, I was born with a tight jaw, and the people of God will just have to put up with my mumbling for the rest of my days. You may have been very shy as a kid, and when you began to speak, your parents didn't work on that shyness. And they allowed you to mumble. And when you

40:45 spoke, you put your head down and not use all your apparatus. And now you're just programmed to talk that way. All right, so what are you going to do about that? If you're to be understood, you've got to use all of the faculties. You talk, not only with the larynx and with the diaphragm. And the lungs as they bring out the air over the larynx. But you speak with your teeth, with your tongue, with your lips, all of it. That's your trumpet, to sound the message of God's jubilee, his day of deliverance. That's your trumpet. You don't want a beat-up old trumpet, and the bell is all bent over so the sound doesn't come out. Man, you want the bell open. You want the sounds to be as glorious and attractive to the audience as the ears of men, as it is possible by prayer and pains to make them. And you join those two, prayer and pains. So if any of you has any mentality of a sinful complacency or a

41:45 paralyzing fatalism, I hope God will kill it, and I know of nothing that'll kill it more quickly than to have this fundamental axiom become a part of your own inner life in the presence of God, that the great end in the act of preaching is the day of the end. The end of preaching is the end of all religious ideas. That's what I hope God will do with me. That is the end of all spiritual acts I know of. And it is the end of all the sins. That's is the glory of God and the salvation and edification of men. Now, from the fundamental axiom, let me now move on to some of the formative perspectives.

Formative Perspectives: Biblical, Realistic, and Proven

42:19 This is preliminary considerations. That's just a fancy way of saying a general catch-all at the beginning. Preliminary consideration number one was the fundamental axiom. And now number two, the formative perspectives.

42:35 Now, why do we need to start here? Well, each man who addresses himself to this elusive but vital theme of the act of preaching will do so in terms of the perspectives which materially influence his whole view of preaching. Now, I would not deny that that's not true of me. You see, the eye sees what it is trained to see, and often, what it wants to see.

43:03 There's that teenage fellow that when his mother says, Son, why in the world don't you pick up your dirty socks and your dirty underwear and your dirty jeans? They're all over the room. He says, My, I don't even see them. But lets a nice-looking girl walk down the street three blocks away, and the curtains are only open three inches, and, man, he sees real well.

43:25 No problem with his eyes. No problem with his eyes. The eye sees what it desires to see, and is conditioned to see. Well, it's the same way with preaching.

43:35 You see, every man who addresses himself to the subject of preaching is going to see what his own homiletical and preaching eye is trained to see and what it desires to see, and I would not be so foolish as to think that I'm exempt from that reality. However, however, I do trust that my perspectives which determine my approach are not framed by personal prejudice, or an unmortified egotism that would elevate my own personal preference and taste into a law for others. I trust that the formative perspectives are biblical, realistic, and proven, even though they're tinged with me.

44:27 I trust that they are biblical, that they grow out of and conform to the norms of Scripture. If so, then the major principles, should be amply illustrated by Scripture, and I want to do that. As we move through this subject of the act of preaching, we do so, I trust, with the conviction that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, even on the act of preaching, and for reproof and correction and instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work, even the act of preaching. And when we come to the matter of the use of the voice, there's a marvelous theology of the use of the voice in the Old and the New Testaments, not only by way of illustration, but by certain words that are used that can mean nothing other than a description of the use of the voice in preaching. So I trust that though the perspectives are colored by my own thinking and experience, that I will again and again bring them to the touchstone of Scripture. Furthermore, I hope they are realistic, that they address themselves to the realities of diversity of gift and opportunity and the reality of the sovereignty of God in terms of how He blesses His servants.

45:53 And then I hope they will be proven principles, not novelties that I or someone else have concocted sitting off in an ivory tower somewhere, but things that have been tested, in the long history of preaching as recorded for us in the Scriptures and in church history and Christian biography, and I hope to some degree proven in what will be, as of this month, 30 years of working at this matter of trying to preach. It was 30 years ago this month that I first preached as a Christian. I gave a lot of talks for four or five years in young people's groups before I was saved. But it was about 30 years ago this time that I made that long trek. Some of you may know about that, and that's the turning point in my life in terms of the work of the ministry, when an old saint recognized what God had done in the hearts of a few young people and said, look, we need to get out on the street and preach to sinners. And it was a Tuesday night.

47:01 The snow was on the ground. I had an old blue overcoat. It's all as vivid in my mind as though it were yesterday, and it's been 30 years ago. And I usually took the bus.

47:10 When it was cold, it was about a mile and a half from my house to the Liggett's drugstore in downtown Stamford, Connecticut. And I knew that, no, Thursday night, that's when all the guys hung out, and all the guys I used to play football with would be there standing around talking and looking at the girls going by and just wasting time. And I shall never forget that walk. It seemed in some ways as though the walk was 10 miles.

47:37 Instead of taking the 25 minutes or so that it took, it seemed like it took three hours because I knew this was the beginning of the end. Now what they had heard that something had happened to me, now it was going to be known. And that night when I stood on that street corner with my little New Testament and began to try to preach the word of God to these, my lost friends, something of what we're talking about was born in my own heart and that urgency to try to get their ears and communicate the word of God. And so for 30 years, I've been working at it.

48:11 And I don't claim to have arrived, brethren, but I hope the perspectives grow out of some acquaintance with the Bible, with the history of the church, and have been confirmed in my own experience. All right, now then, that little bit of a justification as to why we need to start with our perspectives. What are some of these major perspectives that must be kept before us as we try to work on this subject, of the essential elements in the act of preaching itself? Well, first of all, I want to say something about the great importance of this division of our study.

The Great Importance of the Act of Preaching: Born or Stillborn

48:54 I've labored in previous semesters at great length to underscore the strategic place of the minister being a clean vessel, the centrality of truth in all preaching. I've sought to underscore the necessity of careful, close, exegetical labor, the necessity of a man being a theologian, having an acquaintance with the whole if he's to deal accurately with any one of the parts. But in a very real sense, brethren, a sermon is either born or stillborn in the act of preaching. A sermon is either born or stillborn in the act of preaching.

49:39 Now, if I may take the analogy of birth, sermons are generally conceived in the study. That's where the seed is sown and conception takes place. Sometimes it's when you're out running. Sometimes it's when you're in the midst of a counseling session, driving along the road.

50:00 But generally speaking, sermons are conceived in the study. Then they pass through a period of gestation in the study. And the gestating process involves your lexicons, your concordances, seeking the face of God, the use of your commentaries, all of these helps. But now, you don't have the sermon born in the study and then carry it into the pulpit and hold it up and say to the people, look at my lovely baby.

50:35 You come to the study pregnant. I mean, come to the pulpit pregnant. That's right. Come to the pulpit pregnant.

50:43 Pregnant with that which was conceived in the study, gestated in the study, and now you come to the pulpit pregnant. And it's then that something is born that is living, crying, active, or to the grief and pain of your own heart and the pain of God's people is a stillborn child. It will have the form of a child. It will have the features of a child.

51:11 But it has no life. It has no life. And in a very real sense, though any analogy breaks down at certain points, the importance of this study, the subject, the act of preaching, lies in that fact that the sermon is either born or stillborn in the act of preaching. Remember that text to which we alluded earlier, Acts 14.1?

51:39 They so spake, that is, something happened in the act of preaching, that multitudes believed. Paul could say to the Corinthians, My speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of me. But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. My speech and my preaching.

52:03 That's the act of preaching. And Peter can speak of those who preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. And Paul understood this. And that's why he pleaded with his converts to pray for him.

52:19 And what was his plea? Well, you have a specimen answer. Or we should say a typical dimension of that answer in Ephesians 6. He says, Pray for all the saints, but on my behalf, verse 19, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.

52:45 He didn't ask them to pray that he would understand the mystery more fully. He said, Pray that utterance may be given to me. Pray that something will happen in the opening of my mouth. I marvel at that.

53:02 But that's the language. And on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth. Now this principle has not been missed by those who were masters of this subject, both in secular rhetoric and in homiletics. Broadus on page 480 and 481 of the edition that I have makes reference to this fact.

53:32 And I want to quote at least briefly, A speech in the strict sense of the term exists only in the act of speaking. All that precedes is preparation for a speech. All that remains afterward is a report of what was spoken. See what he's saying?

53:56 Whatever be our method of preparing, we should habitually regard all of it as but preparation. It must be cherished and kept alive in the mind, must be vitally a part of itself, and then as living, breathing thought, it will be delivered. And as the preparation is not a speech till it is spoken, so the mere manner of speaking should not at the time receive separate attention. It should be the spontaneous product of the speaker's peculiar constitution as acted on by the subject which now fills his mind and heart.

54:38 The idea of becoming eloquent merely by the study of voice and gesture, though sometimes entertained, is essentially absurd. You see what he's saying? He's saying that in the act of preaching we must be so totally taken up with that which we are conveying that it is the all-absorbing thing. Now he is not saying that outside of the pulpit we may not have to work on such practical things as overcoming a distracting gesture or an element that is displeasing in the voice.

55:13 What he is saying is that in the actual act of speaking it is then and there that we are to be so consumed by the content of that which is prepared that, to use my analogy, our great concern in the pulpit is to deliver ourselves of this which has been conceived in the presence of God. All right, that's the first perspective that I want to lay before you, the great importance of this division of our study, and now some of the major principles involved in this department of our concern. When we work through this whole subject, what are some of the major principles that will constantly come before us? Well, the first one is one you've heard before, but you're going to hear it again, and as I told Mr. Young yesterday, I hope after I'm dead and gone there'll be few things I'll be remembered for. I hope this is one of them.

Principle 1: The Interplay of the Divine and Human

56:18 The delicate interplay and interpenetration of the divine and the human are most prominent in the act of preaching. The delicate interplay and interpenetration of the divine and the human are most prominent in the act of preaching. Now all along I've sought to emphasize this reality, Philippians 2, 12 and 13, and in your preparation you have been reminded again and again that there is no contradiction between the most earnest prayer for the illumination of the Spirit and the most assiduous, relentless tracking down of the precise meaning of a given word in the original and using every tool at your disposal. There is no contradiction between those two things. As you cry for the Spirit to give you light and illumination, there is this interplay between the work of the Spirit and your own conscious, responsible activity. So it's there all the way through, but in the act of preaching, it is most prominent.

57:31 On the one hand, there is this whole matter of the anointing of the Spirit in preaching. Who can describe what it is? Who can articulate what it is? Who can predict its presence and operation?

57:56 The measure and degree of its operation? Who can govern this? Will the Spirit speak powerfully in the act of preaching? Will the Holy Spirit give to me as a preacher, in the act of preaching, felt enjoyment of the very truth that I am preaching?

58:17 Will the thing that tasted so sweet to my own spiritual palate in the study become bland and perhaps even sour in my mouth in the act of preaching? Brethren, those are real things. They are real things. And without in any way wanting to cast any of you out into a sea of subjectivism, I don't want to in any way overlook or pass over lightly these things.

58:47 They are very vital matters in preaching, this interplay and interpenetration of the divine and the human. And they are most prominent in preaching. And Spurgeon is very helpful in his instructions because he understood this. It's Spurgeon who said, the next best thing for grace in the act of preaching is plenty of fresh air.

59:10 Well, I love that juxtaposition of grace and fresh air. What was Spurgeon saying? Well, he was saying that next to the anointing of the Spirit upon a preacher, a lot of fresh air helping people to keep their minds clear and awake was the best thing in preaching. He understood that delicate interplay.

59:28 If people are oxygen starved, it's doubtful they are going to get spiritually glutted. If their minds are oxygen starved, the level of their ability to receive the content of preaching is greatly hindered. Now, in unusual circumstances, the Holy Spirit may overrule that. We put no limits upon what God may do.

59:49 But neither do we want to presume and expect that He will when a little forethought and foresight, perhaps doing as I did a couple of weeks ago, taking one of the deacons out during the offering and saying, hey, this place is getting stuffy, turn the fan on so there's some good fresh air circulating when I preach. Now, where there was an opportunity to use an available means, it would have been tempting God to have gone on and hoped that all would be all right, even though it was stuffy in the auditorium. There's that interplay, you see, of the divine and the natural, the supernatural and the human. And likewise, you see, with working on these elements in our own preaching style, we need to cry to God, Lord, mold me into the preacher you would have me to be. But having prayed that, our Bibles tell us that the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Well, who's controlling?

60:58 The Spirit or my conscious selfhood? Which is it? It's the fruit of the Spirit, and yet it is self-controlled. So when your elders take you aside, as they did me some time ago, and said, Pastor, when you're working yourself up into a lather, preaching to the young people, we know you well enough to know your heart is concerned because of certain circumstances in your own experience, but you're giving the impression that you're mad at the young people.

61:35 I said, Brethren, is that true? And I went right around to all of them, and they said, every one of them said it's true. I said, Well, if all of you who know me well enough, to make those assessments are of one mind, then I have to believe what you're saying is true. So I'll have to ask the Lord what I'm going to do about this, what I've got to do about it.

61:53 So I began to pray, Lord, what shall I do? My brethren have spoken to me. They want maximum usefulness. I believe they're right, and they know me well enough that they're making accurate judgments, and they have no ill will to me.

62:06 Lord, what shall I do? And I don't know whether it was in my own regular devotional life, or whether the Lord just brought to my remembrance that text. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and the marginal reading is speak to the heart of Jerusalem. And I said, All right, what I'm going to do when I feel a holy tear coming on, when I'm preaching to the young people, I'm deliberately going to just lean forward, put my hands on the side of the pulpit, and just talk in a conversational tone.

62:34 I'm going to make myself rein in my voice and my emotions, and let there be the backlog of an emotional pressure that people will feel, even though it's not expressing itself in an outward nuance. And I worked on it. And then I checked with the men a month or two later, and they praised me and encouraged me, and I thanked them for their help, and I think I made some progress. Well, I hope there are other areas that along the line will still come to light.

63:04 Now, you see what I'm talking about? Self-control. I was conscious of having to say, uh-oh, rein yourself in. Self-control.

63:15 But when I was done, I didn't go home and say, hey, boy, you really did a good job this morning. I said, thank you, Lord. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. You see?

63:26 So you work at it as though it were all your task, and when you have any success in it, you acknowledge it was all His grace. And that's the great principle, and you're going to find that all the way through as we touch on the place of the emotions in preaching. I'm going to give some advice to some of you that you're going to think is ridiculous. Some of you need to learn how to peel off some crusty layers of old leather that somehow got plastered over your emotional structure.

63:55 And you will never have an element of abandonment in your preaching until that element is dealt with. And I may advise you to see certain movies. There aren't many I'd advise you to see, but I may advise you to go to the movies and go see Fiddler on the Roof. I may advise you to go see Chariots of Fire.

64:15 I may advise you to see one or two other films that may help you to throw yourself into something emotionally and be able to respond to it in the dark where no one can see you and you won't be embarrassed if you shed a tear. Some of you men are terribly embarrassed to shed a tear in front of anyone. You feel naked. You feel as though you've been stripped naked if anyone saw you shed a tear.

64:36 And it's true, isn't it? I won't look at any of you and name names. I'll just, I'll just, I'll look at your foreheads, all right?

64:46 But now, that's not, you're not to be that way. That is not being like God. God in Jesus Christ wailed over Jerusalem. At the tomb of Lazarus he wept, the milder word.

65:02 But when he looked over the brow of Jerusalem, the literal rendering would be he wailed. He wailed. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. He wailed and he led his people and his disciples to see him wailing.

65:14 God wants to conform us to the image of his Son. And that means if there are some roadblocks to holy wailing, we've cut a deep with them. If there are roadblocks to other dimensions, the use of our voice, the full range of the use of the voice, we're going to be talking about some very practical things. And brethren, unless you understand this principle, the delicate interplay and interpenetration of the divine and the human, you'll find yourself in a place where you can see God and you'll find yourself in a place where you'll find yourself hung up on point after point.

Principle 2: The Spirit's Assistance is Most Evident

65:51 Well, let me hurry on. I think I can get through the material and then we'll stand, stretch our legs and have some discussion. All right? Second major principle involved in this department of concern is the presence or absence of the Spirit's assistance is most evident in the act of preaching.

66:11 The presence or absence of the Spirit's assistance is most evident in the act of preaching. Now here again I would be guarded. I don't want to set anyone forth on a sea of subjectivism. My Bible tells me the kingdom of God comes not with observation.

66:29 And we must never think that the measure of the usefulness of any given sermon is our own felt help or enjoyment in the preaching of that sermon. But having said all of that, we must be honest with the word. And when we go through the scriptures, particularly in the book of Acts, again and again, when there is any reference to a man being filled with the Spirit, it is generally in a context of speaking. Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, stood and said.

67:00 Saul, full of the Spirit, opened his mouth and said. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spake the word of God with boldness. Now brethren, we've got to be honest with that emphasis. Without moving in any way into the direction of Pentecostalism or second work of grace teaching or fanaticism, we must be honest with the Biblical data that brings into close proximity the fullness of the Spirit in the act of speaking the word of God.

67:32 And here Spurgeon, without any of the excesses of Pentecostalism, has perhaps some of the most helpful material I have ever read on the subject in his chapter on the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the book I recommend particularly page 139 in his lectures. Maybe I can just give you a sentence or two that will whet your appetites. Be yourselves clothed with the Spirit of God and then no question about attention or non-attention will arise. Come fresh from the closet and from communion with God to speak to men for God with all your heart and soul and you must have power over them. You have gold in chains in your mouth which will hold them fast. When God speaks men must listen and though He may speak through a poor feeble man like themselves the majesty of the truth will compel them to regard His voice. Supernatural power must be your reliance.

Principle 3: Convictions Revealed in Delivery

68:47 Are you not conscious sometime of being clad with zeal as with a cloak and filled to the full with the Spirit of God? At such times you had a hearing people an ere long a believing people but if you are not thus endowed with power from on high you are to them no more than a musician who plays upon a goodly instrument or sings a sweet song with a clear voice reaching the ear but not the heart. So brethren one of the great principles of preaching is this principle that the presence or absence of the Spirit's assistance will be most evident in the act of preaching itself and then the third major principle is this your fundamental convictions regarding the nature of preaching your fundamental convictions regarding the nature of preaching will be most accurately revealed in the act of preaching your fundamental convictions will be most clearly revealed or accurately revealed in the act of preaching now some of them will be revealed in your preparation but it's when you actually stand to preach that your fundamental convictions will surface with the greatest clarity

70:17 am I a messenger of God or am I an ecclesiastical parent am I speaking things of eternal weight in a manner commensurate with their substance or am I playing word games am I convinced that I must be heard or am I content simply to fill up the time I love to sit and listen to a preacher who's obviously determined he's going to have a hearing and to see him go to work at getting people's ears and once he's got them of keeping them and then having gotten the ears and is keeping the ears to keep them to the end that means he knows when to shut up when he senses he's beginning to lose the people and he knows it's a lost cause he has sense enough to quit I admire a man like that because it tells me something about his convictions concerning preaching well your convictions about preaching brethren will be most clearly and accurately revealed in the very act of preaching I can remember back when I tried to believe the deeper life teaching in the place where I was taught it was taught in what I call the funnel theory of the Christian life and that's the way you live your life and you try to get so yielded so yielded that you no longer have any conscious acting of your own will your own mind your own emotions Jesus Christ

71:46 literally lives his life through you now that's the teaching now some of you are going to smile but this is the truth I tried to preach in the light of that to teach and I said now if I feel myself getting excited that's the flesh because that is a conscious manifestation of my emotions that's me therefore that must be neutered and if I felt myself getting to the place where something wanted to move a hand or a foot no no no no that's the flesh that's carnal that's me I must get to that place where the Lord preaches through me I took it seriously I took it seriously and it meant an almost neutering of what was distinctive to my own God-given humanity and I'll never forget how liberating it was when God brought me to see the fallacy the sheer fanaticism of that approach to the Christian life it was like peeling those layers of leather off my heart and I was free to be a whole man again in preaching as well as in many other areas and so your fundamental convictions regarding the nature of preaching brethren will most accurately be revealed in the act of preaching and then fourth and final principle that we'll be working with again and again is your basic

Principle 4: Spiritual State Influences Preaching Quality

73:15 spiritual state as a Christian man your basic spiritual state as a Christian man will very powerfully influence the quality of your actual preaching now again there is some influence in your preparation yes but the greatest influence of what you are as a Christian man is your practice in your actual preaching out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak Paul could say I believed therefore I spoke and I recently read at the suggestion I forgot who it was oh yes it was Pastor Hofstetter recommended that sermon of Warfields in faith I have not read this particular sermon on 2 Corinthians 4 13 the spirit of faith and it is a powerful sermon dealing with this fact that what we truly deeply spiritually believe is that which we must preach and preach in such a way that men will know we are convinced of the truth men often say of some element of the gospel I can't preach that

74:44 sometimes they mean that the world will not endure this or that sometimes they mean they cannot so preach this or that as to win the respect or the sympathy or the acceptance of the world the gospel cannot be preached cannot be preached it can be preached if you will believe it here is the root of all your difficulties you do not fully believe this gospel believe it believe it and preach it so God has not sent us into the world to say the most plausible things we can think of to teach men what they already believe he has sent us to preach unpalatable truths to a world lying in wickedness apparently absurd truths to men proud of their intellects mysterious truths to men who are carnal and cannot receive the things of the spirit of God shall we despair certainly if it's left to us not only to plan and water but also to give the increase certainly not if we appeal to and depend upon the spirit of faith let him but move on our hearts and we will believe these truths and even as it is written I believed and therefore have I spoken we also will believe and therefore speak let him but move on the hearts of our hearers and they too will believe what he has led us

76:12 to speak to the world that the house is a fire it is a disagreeable thing to say scarcely to be risked in the presence of those whose interest it is not to believe it but believe it in how quickly you rush forth to shout the unpalatable truth so believe it and we shall assert that the world that is lost in its sin and rushing down to an eternal doom and that in Christ alone and through the spirit alone can men receive this redemption what care we if it be unpalatable if it be true for if it be true it is urgent there's Warfield the preacher he says the problem is simply you don't believe it and you see if you as a man before God are living in the closet in the lives outwardly over the souls of your people if in the closet you are yearning for them and travailing that Christ be formed in them brethren that will condition the whole flavor of your public ministry in your preaching there'll be no take it or leave it mentality in your preaching there will be no harsh calling of your people there will be no saccharine sinful fawning

77:41 of your people there will be no loving tenderness of faithfulness of pathos of compassion at times of coming with a rod other times coming with the glove that is just marked by its dough like softness all of that will be present if that's what you are as a man before God in the secret place with respect to your people so in the act of preaching what you are a pastor in the act of preaching those things will most powerfully influence the nature of your preaching ministry and in the act of preaching they will be revealed so you see why this department of our study is so vital a thing although so many aspects of it are elusive and so difficult to articulate we cannot emphasize enough the importance of our subject and I hope this sort of mystery of miscellaneous perspectives given this morning has whet your appetites for the further consideration of this subject all right let's take a break