33b) Argument of a Textual Sermon, Part 2

Disciplines for Attaining Sermon Goals: Initial Steps

0:02 Having considered together, brethren, the goals that we should have in mind in seeking to develop the argument or the body of a textual sermon, we come now in the second place to consider the disciplines essential for the attainment of these goals. If those goals are valid and they are set before us, what steps can we take in order to attain them? Well, I've tried to break down these disciplines or these steps into three categories. The initial steps, and then over on to 3.8 on your notes, the intermediate steps and the concluding steps.

0:43 The initial steps, once again, we ought always to begin with earnest prayer for the presence and assistance of the Holy Spirit. When we actually come to the desk to do the work of preparing, preparing a specific discourse upon a specific text with reference to a specific opportunity of ministry, it is essential that the mind and spirit of the preacher be brought into an elevated frame for the task that is before him. Shedd, speaking to this issue in his work on homiletics, writes on page 115,

1:26 the very perceptible, Probably, therefore, no better advice can be given to the preacher in respect of which we are speaking than the same advice which he gives to the common Christian when he asks for the best means and methods of quickening his religious affections. It has been said by one of the most profound and devout minds in English literature that an hour of solitude passed in sincere and earnest prayer or an hour of silence passed in sincere and earnest prayer. For the conflict with and conquest over a single passion or subtle bosom sin will teach us more of thought and more effectually awaken the faculty

2:11 and form the habit of reflection than a year's study in the schools without them. If prayer and Christian self-discipline do this for the habits of thought, most certainly they will do the same for the habits of feeling. If an hour of serious self-discipline, self-examination and self-mortification, or an hour of devout meditation and earnest prayer does not set the affections of a preacher into a glow, probably nothing in the way of means can. The greatest preachers have consequently been in the habit of preparing for the composition of their sermons by a season of prayer and meditation.

2:55 Augustine says, Let our Christian orator who would be understood and heard, with pleasure, pray before he speaks. Let him lift up his thirsty soul to God before he pronounces anything. And then he goes on to elaborate on that theme. And then Professor Murray, in his Collected Writings, Volume 3, page 212, has an excellent statement on the function and ministry of the Holy Spirit and the careful exegetical theologians, theologian, yet godly, saintly man, writes as follows.

3:34 We may not suppress the distinctive way in which the disciples were partakers of the Holy Spirit, but there is also the continuous function of the Holy Spirit for our appropriation. The greatest task of a teacher of the Word is to understand the Scriptures himself. There can be no communication without understanding. There will be in the discharge of your tasks, blood, sweat, toil, and tears.

4:02 The mass of Christian literature is yours to aid you in understanding, but I suspect that as a faithful steward of the mysteries of God, the mass of interpretation will sometimes, if not ofttimes, be your embarrassment rather than your escape. Oh, I would plead this great doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and particularly this prerogative of the Holy Spirit as His glory, to lead into all truth. I do not say that in your desperation you fall back on the Holy Spirit. I urge that in all your researches you realize your complete dependence upon Him for light and understanding,

4:43 and that in communication you may know the sealing witness of the Holy Spirit and the empowering of His demonstration in the delivery, so that the faith of men, the full assurance of understanding, will not rest upon the wisdom of men, but upon the power of God. Every sermon true to the word is the voice of the Spirit, but may there be not only the voice, but the power of the most perceptive. Every sermon true to the word is the voice of the Spirit, but may there be not only the voice, but the power of the Spirit. And the tap-roots of unction in the proclamation

5:27 is the cultivation of the Spirit, the spirit of dependence upon God in the study and at the desk. And so I would urge here, as I did with respect to the construction of the body of a topical sermon or series of sermons, the first and most fundamental initial step is earnest prayer for the present assistance of the Holy Spirit. Then secondly, as initial step, what I have called attentive and repeated reading of the text in its native setting. Attentive and repeated reading of the text in its native setting.

6:11 There is no substitute for the general acquaintance with the overall pattern of thought within which the text is found. This will make your dealings with the context both accurate, artful, and confident. If your acquaintance with the context is only surface, you won't have that certainty. You'll be bound to your notes.

6:35 But if by repeated reading, the general setting of your text is already stored up in your mind, then you're going to be much more confident as you explicate the setting of that text. And then the third initial step is careful analysis of the text itself. And you begin with the grammatical construction. I was glad to hear that one of the brethren carried into his ministry this summer what he was taught in one of his classes about diagramming sentences.

7:07 And in preaching through sections of a given epistle, he started with the work of the grammatical construction. The main, the finite verbs, the participles, the coordinating conjunctions. The grammatical construction is crucial and we must begin there. And then secondly, we will examine the key words.

7:28 This is where we'll do our word studies. And I need not go into details. Suffice it to say, for these disciplines, we will use our linguistic aids, such as our concordances, our lexicons, the concordance of the Septuagint if we're preaching in the New Testament. Many times a word is simply not used enough in the New Testament to get a feel for its usage.

7:58 And there will be illustrations of its use in the Septuagint, which we will find to be most helpful. Our grammatical aids, our more technical commentaries, and I will not give you a list of those. You will get those in the various exegesis courses. And over the years, as you begin to build up your library, what I've done, rather than trying to get the best commentaries on all the books, and I may never really use them, when I come to preach through a given book, then enhance my library with the best commentaries on that particular book and try to have a good collection of both the more technical commentaries that will discuss such matters

8:42 as textual problems, go into the technicalities of grammar, and then more, I should say, the balanced commentaries that have the technical background and yet are more popular, such as Hendrickson's and Lenski's and then those that may even be collections of sermons, so that you'll see how someone moved from exegesis into homiletics and the actual preaching of those things. And, for example, when preaching through Philippians, I found Johnstone's commentary tremendously helpful. And anything that you're preaching on that John Brown has written on, you have a marvelous example of someone who went from his technical linguistic studies into the realm of homiletics

9:26 and lays out the truth in a very clear and convincing manner. Now, while you're doing this, as I suggested last week, have several sheets of paper before you, your exegesis sheet, where you're looking at the grammar and the word meanings and you're writing down your findings. Have your homiletical sheet where, as you're studying, suggested outlines may begin to come to mind as you see the structure of the text and you begin to write down those thoughts at random. And this can be your miscellaneous thoughts where various applications, illustrations may begin to come to your mind

10:10 and you write them down. But have some paper in front of you. There are few men who can work efficiently without conserving the fruit of their labors at this stage in some visual way. And I would say at this point, I'm not sure how I would handle all of this if I became convinced of going in the word processing direction.

10:35 I don't know how I could have four screens all in front of me at once. Now, I imagine if I were a wealthy man, that would be possible. But I think at this point, my method is even more efficient, though it's doubtful it's more efficient when it comes to actual composition. Bart and I will have to discuss that in our running debate over the advantages and disadvantages of people who write with their pen and people who write with electrical impulses on the screen.

Intermediate Steps: Reducing and Arranging Divisions

11:02 All right? But seriously, brethren, keep before you some method of conserving the fruits of this level of your investigation into the careful analysis of the text itself. Then we come to the intermediate steps. The initial steps behind us, what are the intermediate steps?

11:25 Well, I suggest, excuse me, three of them. The intermediate steps are, number one, reduce the materials to their natural divisions. Here we come to the crunch time in sermon preparation. We believe we've got a grasp on the fundamental major ideas of the text, the structure of the text, the meaning of the words.

11:50 But now, how do we make the bridge from exegesis analysis of the meaning of words into homiletics? And this is most difficult, to take the raw materials and separate the foundational from the framing to the finishing materials so we can construct a house that will be called a sermon. And in preaching a textual sermon, you must allow the text to determine the divisions and not force unnatural divisions upon the text. Let the text determine the divisions.

12:27 Now, Lloyd-Jones spoke very precisely to this issue, or wrote, on page 207 in his Preaching and Preachers in the Chapter The Shape of a Sermon. He said, let us turn to something more important. The important thing about these headings is they must be there in your text, and they must arise naturally out of it. This is vital.

12:51 The actual division into headings, as I'm going to show you, is not as easy as it may sound. Some people seem to be gifted with an unusual facility in this respect. It used to be said of Alexander McLaren, the Baptist preacher in England at the end of the last century and beginning of this, and whose volumes of sermons are still being reprinted, that he seemed to have a kind of golden hammer in his hand with which he just tapped a text, and immediately it divided itself up into inevitable headings. However, it is not given to many of us to have this golden hammer.

13:26 But we must always make sure that these divisions arise naturally out of the text. Let me put this negatively, because it's so important. Never force a division. Do not add to the number of divisions for the sake of some kind of completeness that you have in your mind, or in order to make it conform to your usual practice.

13:49 The headings should be natural and appear to be inevitable. Now, it's interesting. I constantly keep at hand Leupold on the Psalms. This is one volume I'd urge all of you brethren to purchase.

14:02 Leupold on the Psalms. And because I'm continually reading through the Psalms as part of my devotional exercises, I keep Leupold with those choice devotional materials on the top of the filing cabinet near my reading and praying chair. And again and again, as I've read Leupold, to get a feeling for the background of the Psalm I'm about to read and its structure, I find him referring to McLaren. And saying after I've plowed through all of the various approaches, perhaps I can do no better than borrow from Alexander McLaren.

14:35 And here's this Lutheran continually borrowing from McLaren, validating this point that we've made. And so I've been wondering where I could sit McLaren in my library now that I have some more bookshelves and when I see the goodbyes they have on it from the outfit up there in Massachusetts, I'm getting very close to taking the plunge and purchasing McLaren. But then I've drawn back and said maybe it'll make me lazy because the little I have read in McLaren, his divisions are so clear that once you read him, you say how in the world could you divide it any other way? And I'm fearful he might become a crutch to me.

15:10 And that's one of my greatest fears in my more ripe years is coasting and getting lazy. But be that as it may, that's a little bit of my own struggle in this area, but reducing the materials to their natural divisions. Now I trust, going back to the example of Isaiah 53.6, that you can see that both of those approaches that I've taken with that text in the evolution of my preaching on it are natural.

15:35 There's nothing forced. If you take the three divisions, the statement of unreasonable straying, then the statement of unbending self-will, and then the statement of God's gracious intervention, those are natural divisions in the text. But really the more logical approach is the one I'm taking now in which the first two statements really focus upon man's condition. And just as in Ephesians 2, the first three verses show what man is, and then you have the transition in verse 4, but God, you can cause people to feel the weight of that transition much more when you say to them in preaching that text, here's what we have done.

16:14 We've gone astray. We've turned to our own way. Bad news, bad news, bad news. And the Lord.

16:21 The minute we start reading of God's activity, that's good news. Take our eyes off what we are. Well, you see, the force of the text I think is felt more in that second arrangement. And it's a natural arrangement.

16:35 So there was more than one way to handle a given text, but they ought to be natural divisions. For example, if you were preaching on Luke 5, 31 and 32, where Jesus says, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, obviously, some of the natural divisions are that Jesus gives, however you would call it, a common observation.

17:08 They that are healthy have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. That's just a common observation. No one would debate that. Healthy people don't need doctors.

17:18 Sick people do. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Here is a glorious affirmation of the purpose for which Christ came that has both a negative, I am not come, but the words I am come assumed to call sinners to repentance the positive. So any natural division of this text would have to divide the common observation, they that are healthy have no need of a physician, but they that are sick, and then the glorious proclamation of our Lord, which has both a negative and a positive.

17:52 Now, however you express that, in whatever verbal structures, those are the natural divisions of the text. And so you must reduce the materials to their natural divisions. Long before you may have a proper verbal description of that division, know what those divisions are. Even before you have constructed a way to express them, here is where the divisions lie.

18:15 However I am going to express it, this is where the dividing line must come. Or take another example. If you were preaching on the Pauline description of conversion, 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 9, They themselves report of us what manner of entering in we have unto you, how ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son. Now, linguistically, doing your grammatical analysis, you would see that the central thought is they turned unto God.

18:56 All right? Subservient thoughts are they turned to serve and to wait. So that any treatment of the text with natural divisions would have to show that emphasis, that the heart, the essence of conversion, is a turning unto God. According to verse 8, it is a turning in faith.

19:17 Every place your faith to God word is gone for, it is a turning explicitly in repentance. You turn to God from your idols. So you have the essence of conversion, a turning unto God with a disposition of repentance and faith. Then you have the inevitable attendance of conversion, to serve and to wait, a turning with a disposition to become the willing servants of the living and the true God, and then to be those whose hearts and affections are set upon the age to come.

19:51 So any division of the text, that is true to the linguistic structure, is natural, would have to reflect that. Now how you worded it, what headings you gave, that's where individual taste, capacity, inclination, cultural differences, all of those things will come into play. But certainly any division that is true to the grammar and to the emphasis of the text itself, must reflect those divisions. So reduce the materials to their natural divisions.

Intermediate Steps: Wisely Arranging and Wording Divisions

20:22 Then secondly, wisely arrange the divisions. Wisely arrange the divisions is the second of the intermediate steps. Here you may choose to alter the order in which they appear in the text. In the lecture on form and structure that I give in the previous semester, you are not always bound to treat the text in the manner in which it is set up.

20:55 In fact, before you, you may have good and wise reasons for taking up the latter part of the text before you come to the first part of the text. So that in a wise arrangement of the division, here the creative and the artistic and the pastoral element may come into play. You might want to say, here is a people that if you were to come into their midst, you would find them serving in the true God with a heart fixed on the age to come. Now how in the world, after explaining that, did they get to be such a people?

21:34 They got to be such a people because they turned to God from their idols. And then you would open up, you see, and you could stand the text on its head while being true to the teaching of the text. And those were the elements, you see, of pastoral concern, of keeping variety in your sermon construction. There may be a number of reasons.

21:59 And you would still be true to the mind of God in the text itself. Wisely then arrange the division, the wisdom being bound up in the purpose for that particular sermon, the state of your people, your own interaction with the text, etc. All right? And at this point, don't become discouraged.

22:26 Don't attempt the perfect arrangement or you'll be sitting there when the bell is about to toll to preach and still have no arrangement on which you're settled. And when you've hit the wall and just feel you need help, check with others. See how they handle the text. And then give due acknowledgment if necessary.

22:45 I'm greatly indebted to Charles Spurgeon for the manner in which I'm going to handle this text. In seeking to wrestle with the outline, I finally in desperation turned to see if Spurgeon preached on the text. He did, having looked at his outline. I can't come up with anything better, so here we go.

23:03 But it's your sermon and you just give acknowledgment that you're indebted to Spurgeon or to Ryle or to Matthew Henry. Don't despise the outlines there in Matthew Henry. I mean, very, very helpful. Sometimes, especially with your subheadings, you'll find Matthew Henry very, very helpful.

23:20 All right? Then after wisely arranging the divisions, carefully word. The divisions. This is the third intermediate step.

23:30 Carefully wording the divisions. If at all possible, try to use parallel constructions. And by parallel constructions, I mean, for example, going back to the text that I've been using to illustrate this. If you're talking about the statement, all we like sheep have gone astray, you call it a statement of our unreasonable straying.

23:57 And then a statement of our unbending self-will. And then a statement of God's amazing intervention in grace. Try to have some use of language in which there is parallel construction of the headings. To have your first heading made up of two words and your second heading made up of 17 words, it's not likely that it's going to stick very forcefully and very long in the minds of your people.

24:28 So seek to use parallel construction wherever possible. Try to have parallel use of adjectives, nouns, and verbs. Don't be afraid of alliteration if it comes naturally. But don't strive for it and waste a lot of time because that can become very artificial.

24:47 And here I urge you, if at all possible, to obtain a copy of Rodale's Synonym Finder if you're going to be preaching in English, if you're going to be preaching in Spanish, I don't know what could be parallel to Rodale's Synonym Finder. But I rarely prepare a sermon that Rodale doesn't help me when I come to carefully wording my divisions. But some kind of a thesaurus, I'm sure there are things available in most of the major languages of the world in this area. And I wish I could tell you men some simple formula to developing efficiency in this area,

25:32 but I can't. It's a matter that you and I must constantly labor at and work at carefully wording our divisions. I probably have crossed out more words on my worksheet where I come to this sheet, homiletics, how I'm going to word the divisions. And I may get two heads that are linguistically parallel, but I can't get a third, so I say, well, let me take the third, and see if I can work that structure back into it.

25:59 Cross out, cross out, cross out, cross out. It's just plain work. But that's what we're called to do in order that when our people sit there, they say, oh, yes, I see that. It follows very naturally.

26:11 And your joy is in seeing that look of perception in the eyes of your people as opposed to that look, what's he saying? How did he get there? That's the most discouraging thing. If they've got that look of bright, encouraging responsiveness that they're following you and they see it, then it makes all of that labor worthwhile.

Concluding Steps: Illustrations, Applications, and Transitions

26:34 Then we come to the concluding steps. The concluding steps. In the concluding steps, I suggest three things. Work in the illustrations.

26:45 Now that you have the basic structure of the sermon before you, go back over and ask yourself, where is the going rather dense and heavy? Where will I have been heavily didactic for five or ten minutes without any illustration to relax the minds of the people and to make the point that I'm trying to establish shine and become pleasant to the mental eye? You don't ever want to have an illustration for the sake of an illustration. The use of the illustration is not only to make the truth more clear, but sometimes to make the truth more palatable.

27:28 And if you can, by an illustration, secure people's judgment and affections and set them up to go after their conscience, then we ought to wisely and prayerfully do so. Work in the illustrations. Work in the specific applications. You've had your miscellaneous sheet where various applications from different parts of the text have come to mind as you studied and labored over it.

27:53 All right. At what point, then, shall that application be worked in? As we were discussing last week, would it be wisest after establishing this first truth? For example, if you were preaching on the Isaiah 53-6 passage, should I work in the applications with reference to man being a creature who has strayed and turned to his own way?

28:15 Should I work in some dense applications on man's sinfulness after that first head before opening up God's provision in the suffering servant of Jehovah, or should I, in this particular situation of preaching, open up the text as quickly as possible and then have dense, concentrated, the last half of the sermon, hortatory and applicatory and urging and pleading and seeking to convince? And here again, it will differ from sermon to sermon, situation to situation, but don't leave the applications to the moment. Trust that the Spirit of God may give you applications on your feet. You hadn't thought of in the study.

28:57 But don't come into the pulpit just saying application and then blank, trusting that God is suddenly going to flood your mind with applications while you're on your feet. And then again, I emphasize this, work in the connections and the transitions. How does head one lead on into head two? When I'm leading head one, let me let the people know we're taking a bend in the road.

29:25 Don't let them be out in the cornfield and discover, hey, he went right there and I went straight ahead and I'm stuck in the cornfield and he's a half a mile down the road going west. Well, between that time that they catch on that you've moved half a mile down the road going west, you may have said something very vital and they may lose it. As we bring this first thought to a conclusion, that boom-diddy-boom-boom-boom, we shall now turn our attention to this aspect of the text. You've told them we're taking a bend in the road and we're going west.

30:01 Work in the connections and the transition. Don't put sermons together with invisible glue or transparent mortar. Now that's my imagery. That's original with me.

30:17 Don't put the sermon together with invisible glue or transparent mortar. What is the mortar on those bricks outside the window? It's the stuff that holds the bricks together. It shows the transition between one brick and another, but also the connection of the two.

30:34 That's your transitions. And don't construct sermons with invisible glue or transparent mortar. The glue holds the two pieces of wood together. Let people see the glue.

30:48 Those are your transitions. Those things constitute the mortar. And that concluding step of working in the connections and the transitions, again, sometimes may be done very simply. There are other times when it will demand more careful thought.

Miscellaneous Suggestions: Exposing to Good Models

31:08 And again, there are no fixed rules with respect to this issue. Now then, coming very quickly in the third place, having left the goals envisioned, the steps to attain the goal, initial, intermediate, and concluding, now, thirdly, some miscellaneous suggestions. Concerning the construction of the discussion or the argument of a textual sermon. And I have three concluding miscellaneous suggestions.

31:37 Number one, seek to expose yourself to a variety of good models of textual preaching. Now, why do I say this? For the simple reason, brethren, that whatever else effective preaching is, and whatever else goes into making it, it is essentially an acquired, imitative, spiritual art form. And I've chosen my words carefully.

32:09 Effective preaching is an acquired, imitated, spiritual art form. And as with any art, one must observe the masters of the art or the craft at work. In this way, impressions are made, critical comparisons are undertaken, skills are observed in their working, and assimilated, and then expressed through our own redeemed humanity. And if there's one thing I wish I could go back and do more of, there are many things,

32:52 but among the many things I should say that I wish I could go back and do more of, would be the reading of sermons. I find the older I get, and the more I'm challenged, the more I'm challenged by so much that's elusive in preaching, the more I find myself reading the sermons of men who were used of God in their own generation, and listening to sermons on tape, to try to expose myself not only to the benefit of the content, but also to observe how men who mastered this spiritual art form went about their task. And when you ask, well, among all the sermons, which I can't read everything, what would you suggest?

33:35 Well, don't ever outgrow reading Spurgeon, not only for the blessing that the content will bring, but for an example of someone who was a textual preacher of the first rank. Spurgeon had much to say about why he didn't preach series of sermons and expound whole books of the Bible. Almost invariably, he opened up a given text often that became a topical sermon with that text as his springboard. But some of his preaching of texts is nothing short of absolutely masterful, many of the texts.

34:16 And I would urge you to make yourself acquainted with Spurgeon. Anyone who, under the blessing of God, could hold 5,000 people morning and evening for several decades is no mean preacher, especially when he was an unashamed Calvinist and didn't even have an organ, didn't have special music. What he had to say about organs is really funny, about filling up the pipes with concrete, etc. He just had a presenter, a man who had a little pitch pipe, and they sang their psalms and their hymns a cappella, and he would stand and open up the Word of God.

34:52 McShane is a marvelous example of simplicity in his preaching. So in the memoirs and remains, of Murray McShane, still in print, a good example of beautiful simplicity. His headings always very natural and simple. You know why the little children love to hear him.

35:15 Ryle is an excellent example of clarity of structure. In his expository thoughts, you see how he can extract the basic principles from a passage and lay them out in clear, simple headings. And they're even printed in italics in most of the reprints of Ryle's expository thoughts. Very, very helpful in this area.

35:41 I have found the sermons of Griffin to be very helpful, and these have been reprinted. The two volumes, The Life and Sermons of Edward Griffin. Manton, for textual treatment. If you can get hold of a few volumes of Manton, very helpful.

36:02 And then coming down into more recent times, I've already alluded previously, but I'm so delighted to see Faith in Life by Warfield reprinted in such a good, substantial binding. And then the newer reprint, The Savior of the World. Both of these are collections of sermons preached to the students at Princeton on Sunday afternoon in the little Puritan chapel that still exists there on the campus. And these are wonderful examples of good preaching, especially I commend to you how he combined the explication of the setting of a passage as the introduction.

36:44 I read very quickly earlier this morning some of the introductions of the sermons in The Savior of the World, a book I've not had, and so I've only read, I think, one of the sermons in here completely, but I just looked very quickly at some of his introductions and a wonderful example of the principles I've been trying to elucidate. This one on Hebrews 2.9. The words I've chosen as a text form a part of a great passage, the proximate purpose of which is to set in clear light the surpassing glory of Jesus Christ.

Miscellaneous Suggestions: Reading Homiletical Authors

37:20 And then in a few sentences he summarizes the whole thrust of chapter 1 and then brings you right into the background of why he is doing this, but just takes you right in, in what could be, if not presented this way, rather dull stuff, but he makes it very interesting and captivating, and so I would urge you to continually expose yourself to a variety of good models of textual preaching. Then secondly, continually read those authors who've written on the subject of textual preaching. Don't ever assume that you've peaked and can't improve, as in all aspects, let your goal be 1 Timothy 4.15

38:05 and 2 Timothy 2.15. Give thyself wholly to these things that thy profiting or thy progress may be manifest unto all. It's a great text to set as a lifetime goal.

38:19 Give thyself wholly to these things that your own progress as a preacher, as a good textual preacher may be evident unto all. In 2 Timothy 2.15, do thine utmost to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, handling aright, cutting a straight course in the word of truth. Just this week, a friend of mine who for years has kept his eyes open for books, old books on preaching and pastoral theology, sent me a manual of preaching by a man named Fiske, and this man Fiske was professor of sacred rhetoric

39:04 at Chicago Theological Seminary and after teaching homiletics for 25 years, he put his lectures into print in 1893. As far as I know, copyright in 1884, so this must have been a second edition. Yes, second edition. As far as I know, it never went through another edition.

39:26 And I have, I don't know how many books on my shelf by men whose names are completely unknown in our day, who gave the fruit of their training of men for the ministry in this type of a book. And it was very interesting as whenever I get a book, first thing I try to do before I can read through it is read the table of contents. If it has a summation of the chapters, to read that, plug it into my head and that way then I'll say, oh boy, Fiske had something on that. And in going over today's lecture, it's very interesting.

40:00 I looked up, came to lecture number 11. The division, ground rules, extent, order, announcement, form. The end in view should give law to the division. The rules of the division should embrace all the materials to be used in the development of a subject.

40:18 Should include no more materials than are necessary to a proper development of a subject. Should have the principal heads coordinated. Huh, I said hey, I'm in good company. An artificial method of division should be avoided.

40:31 Let them be natural. That's it. I said hey, I'm in good company. An extent to which division in the sermon should be carried, determined in the view of the subject, the audience, and the occasion.

40:42 I said oh good, well I'm emphasizing I've got good company. So just by reading through, I said good, I'm on safe ground. Here's some of the old masters. And then when you get into this stuff, you say hey, wait a minute, he's emphasized something I hadn't seen.

40:56 He clarifies it and then a little slip will go into this lecture so the guys who are here, if the Lord spares us all, next time around, we'll have some additional material that includes some quotes out of Fisk and pick up this stuff. This particular preacher got this stuff out of a library being sold by the pound. So he picked up a few pounds worth of books for a pittance and sent this one to me. At the same time, I was browsing in the bookstore and I saw, oh, William Cunningham, sermons, 1828 to 1860.

41:29 I didn't know that any such thing was in print. So I sat down and I caught my eye and I read one or two of the sermons and I said, man, this great theologian, historical theologian, was a marvelous preacher. He was a three head man and he had a firstly and a secondly and a thirdly unashamedly and the stuff is powerful. And then I find out in reading the introduction and background to this in the preface that these were sermons that he preached in the early years of his ministry.

42:04 And they represent the man in the flush and zeal of his youth with that great mind and reverence for the word of God. And I can't wait till I get through this volume not only for, again, the benefit of the subjects dealt with to my own soul. What is it to search the scriptures and the reasons for doing so? The humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ, a risen Christ and not another Christ, faith, its meaning, source and power, the folly of self-righteousness.

42:36 But I look through and I notice that every sermon I've looked at by just sort of flipping through the pages he has a firstly, a secondly and a thirdly and everything is laid out in such clear headings and subheadings. I say, here's a good model. I want to read him and absorb something of his method and of his spirit. So when I say continually read the authors who have written on the textual preaching and exposure and expose yourself to a variety of good models I'm just illustrating how I'm trying to do this right up till this morning.

Miscellaneous Suggestions: Receiving Criticism Judiciously

43:11 And then thirdly, welcome and judiciously receive the criticism of competent critics on your efforts. Welcome, do that with anyone who comes to criticize you but then judiciously receive the criticism. If you take everyone's criticism at face value as though it's accurate in all of its parts you'll get into terrible bondage. So let it be known that you're approachable, that you welcome constructive criticism but then judiciously weigh that criticism.

43:49 Bounce it off a trusted confidant. Don't get to the place where you're so insecure that word gets around. Don't ever offer any constructive criticism to our pastor. He's very touchy about his preaching.

44:02 That's a horrible thing. Welcome, welcome it but don't swallow everything. Don't swallow everything or you'll get into terrible bondage because the same sermon someone will say well there was just I just feel that the divisions were just not clear. Someone else will say that's the clearest sermon you ever preached and who are you going to listen to?

44:24 So you've got to work through these things. So have a spirit and an attitude and let it be known that you welcome constructive criticism but then judiciously receive the criticism of competent critics. Of your preaching. Don't let someone who doesn't know anything about preaching the best critics are those usually are not those who can give a technical analysis but it's those dear saints who have a feel a gut feel for what real preaching is and they know when you've preached and when you haven't and some of those mature saints who have a feeling a gut feel for what real preaching is and they know when you've preached and when you haven't and some of those mature saints will be your most helpful critics and you'll feel safe

45:09 in opening yourself to their criticism because you know from the patterns of their supportiveness and their love and their encouragement that they're not out to get you. Some people it's hard to take their criticism because you always have a suspicion founded on the fact that you can do something right for a decade and they never say thank you but drop a stitch once and they're right there to pounce on you. It's awfully hard to take and you're going to have people like that and you've got to learn to live peaceably with them brethren. It ain't easy I'll tell you but God can give you grace and then you just say well Lord thank you for a few people like that to be sandpaper on me and just welcome their influence and they will.

45:52 I mean you can do something right week in and week out and they never so much as grunt at you with a smile but do something wrong. Have a rough day when you know maybe you've been up all night with a sick kid and in the morning you've got your second and your third heads stood on their tails and everything and they will let you know that you weren't up to par and you just got to smile and say thank you and just pray for me because I was very conscious of having lots of trouble this morning too and then just inwardly say Lord give me grace give me grace but you'll have those we've got such people and welcome the input though and God will use even the unwarranted criticism

46:36 to help sanctify you if not to make you a better preacher as to your homiletics it'll make you a better saint as to your walk before the Lord. Well that's what I wanted to say and I got it all in in time so we can conclude at that point. Alright?