41a) Preacher's Emotional Constitution/Activity #1

The Underrated Importance of Sermon Delivery and Emotional Expression

0:04 Excuse me, would one of the brethren please get me some water? I'm going to be struggling with the remnants of this cold. Now this morning, brethren, we address ourselves once more to the vital issue of the preaching ministry of the man of God. And we've been emphasizing all along that as we take up this matter of the act of preaching itself, that we dare not underestimate the issue of the actual delivery of the sermon.

0:33 Because we are committed to the objectivity of inscripturated truth, the matters of accuracy, of exegesis, balance, and theological perspective are crucial issues to us, and they must always remain such with us. But in our commitment to those things, we would have a tendency to denigrate or to think less of the issue, thank you, of the delivery of the sermon than we ought. And in introducing our subject again, this morning I want to read from one of the old masters, a man by the name of Ripley, who wrote a book entitled Sacred Rhetoric. And he writes,

1:13 The importance of a good delivery cannot easily be overrated. Not only is an indifferent discourse well delivered, more profitable to the hearers than a good one badly delivered, but also a discourse well delivered is often, better understood, and is more interesting to the hearers than if read by them in private. Ambiguities of style, which would occasion inconvenience to a reader, may, by virtue of the speaker's manner of utterance, pass wholly unnoticed. Emphatic words and clauses receive a more just treatment.

1:56 The peculiar significance of certain words or sentences is rendered instantly obvious, and their impressiveness increased by the speaker's tones and expression of countenance. In an assembly occupied with an interesting discourse, the hearers act insensibly on each other, and their mutual sympathy contributes much to the effect of the discourse. The institution of preaching is founded, therefore, in human nature. Men need to be excited and impelled.

2:33 Public address secures, better than any private methods, the action of divine truth on their minds. Hence, God has made preaching his great ordinance, as Richard Cecil defines it, the chief means of bringing and keeping the gospel before the minds of men. Nothing could supply its place. When the gospel was introduced, such was the state of the world that no means of establishing it by human agents, or by human agency, could have been at all comparable to preaching.

3:08 And in those Christian communities which are best instructed in the gospel, and the most imbued with its spirit, to relinquish preaching would be to make a wilderness of a garden. Preachers of the gospel ought then to feel a special obligation to conform to this part of the divine plan, and assiduously, a good word not in many working vocabularies today, but assiduously to cultivate their power of impressively communicating as well as that of acquiring religious knowledge. And then this closing question,

3:50 for who can think lightly of divesting the gospel of half of its power by the manner of presenting it? Now this is not someone who has a contrary view, divine monergism in the work of grace, the supernatural nature of the sanctifying influence of the spirit of God brought home by the word of God to the hearts of his people, but he is highlighting the tremendous importance of the very subject that engages us this semester, namely the act of preaching itself.

Introducing the Preacher's Emotional Constitution in Preaching

4:31 Now having underscored for you the importance of this division of our study, and some of the perspectives that shape our approach to it, I then proceeded to give you an overview of the five categories that we will cover as we deal with this matter of the act of preaching. We dealt first of all with the act of preaching in terms of the preacher's present relationship to God, and now we're in the midst of opening up the second major division, the preacher's relationship to himself in the act of preaching. And under this heading, last week, albeit by tape because of my indisposition due to a vicious cold, we dealt with the preacher's physical condition

5:16 and appearance and bearing with special emphasis upon his general physical condition, his clothing, his grooming, his posture, and even his facial expression. Now today we proceed to the second subdivision of the preacher's relationship to himself, namely his emotional constitution and activity in the act of preaching. And brethren, again I say, having worked through this material afresh, and having sought to reread some of the authors who have greatly helped me in the past, I come to the subject with an internal disposition of trembling, because it is a vast and a complex issue.

The Vital Place of Emotions in Oral Communication: Scriptural and Experiential Evidence

6:00 And though there is a paucity of available literature, on this subject of the emotions in relationship to preaching, we dare not be reluctant to address the issue with some degree of thoroughness. And if you ask the question, why do we not, can we not afford the luxury of ignoring it, I answer that a cursory analysis of our God-created humanity clearly reveals the vital place of the emotions in living, oral, communication. Think of a little girl who comes into her bedroom and finds her sobbing. And she comes over to her and says, Sweetie, what's troubling you?

6:45 And the little girl with red eyes and tears streaming down, and her lower lip quivering, can barely mumble out her grief. Mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy, what is it sweetheart? My favorite doll, look! And the mother looks down, and there are the fragmented pieces of the doll's head that was somehow crushed in an accident in the home.

7:06 Her emotions. Are dictating the mechanics, the nature of her oral communication to her mummy. Half hour later, tears dried, red eyes gone, the same little girl comes bursting through the back door. Mummy, mummy, mummy, come see what I found!

7:26 And the mummy goes out and she says, Look, and there in the bushes, around the side of the house, are three little just hatched house wrens. And those little just hatched birds with no feathers, and they look all eyes and beak, have fascinated the same little girl. And the substance, the manner, the whole ethos of her communication, is radically affected by what? The contrasting emotional state that she was in, just a half an hour before.

7:57 So if ever the apostle would say, Doth not nature itself teach you, surely with respect to this intimate relationship, between the emotional, constitution and activity of the preacher, and the act of preaching, a cursory analysis of how God has made us, demands that we address this issue, with some degree of thoroughness. Furthermore, the scriptures make abundant references, to the emotional attendance of oral communication, including the proclamation of the word, or the utterances of divine truth. One cannot read, through the prophets,

8:41 without seeing how the spirit of God, has highlighted in many instances, the emotional state of the preacher, and the substance and manner, of what he communicated. The classic example, the prophet Jeremiah, Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep, night and day, for the slain of the daughter of my people. And in what to my mind, is a watershed passage, that we'll consider, later on in the opening up of this subject, in subsequent lecture, that incident where God came to the prophet Ezekiel, and told him, that in the face of the sudden and untimely death, of his wife,

9:25 who was yet the desire of his eyes, he was not to weep. That in his refusal to weep, in the face of the death of his wife, God might convey, by means of his emotional constitution, a vital truth, that that generation of apostate Israelites needed to hear. And then finally, our own experience confirms, along with the history of preaching, the vital relationship, the powerful influence of the emotions, in respect to preaching, both as it touches the one who preaches, and those who listen.

10:06 As one seeks to ask and answer the question, from the human perspective, what was the secret of the great, and unparalleled power of Whitfield as a preacher? No one has addressed that question, with any degree of understanding of Whitfield, and of human nature, as it is set forth in the scriptures, without highlighting this element, of the emotional content of Whitfield's preaching. When you ask the question concerning McShane, remember the words of that humble woman, when someone asked her, what is the secret of McShane's power? He preached, she said, as if he were dying, to have you converted.

Navigating the Dangers of Emotional Extremes in Preaching

10:50 Well, how was that conveyed? Not simply by saying, my heart yearns for your conversion, but by the emotional energy, of felt yearning, that throbbed through the man's ministry. Now, in the light of these things then, brethren, I say, we dare not skirt this issue, because of its difficulties, nor can we afford the luxury, of dim and indistinct views, concerning the legitimate, and the illegitimate place of the emotions, in the act of preaching. And this is peculiarly necessary in our day, because on the one hand, we have a climate in society,

11:33 in which man's emotions have become ultimate. I feel, therefore I am. And even morality, is determined by the fact, it feels so good, it cannot be bad. So we have that to contend with, on the one hand.

11:48 And then we have the charlatanism, of popular preachers, many of whom have misused, the matter of their emotions, and the emotions of their hearers. And we can be filled with a sense of fear, and dread, that we're going to be put into that category, if we manifest legitimate expressions, of emotional energy, in our preaching. So we have an unusual burden upon us, to make sure, that we have thought through clearly, methodically, and above all, biblically, with respect to this matter, of our emotional constitution, and its activity, in the act of preaching. Now what I propose to do this morning, is to set before you, what in reality,

Outline of the Study: Defining and Describing Emotions

12:33 are some introductory perspectives, regarding the emotions, and their function, in oral communication, and then next week, God willing, to give you some specific, and practical directives, for the regulating, and the cultivation, of wholesome emotional dimensions, in our preaching. So in the allotted time today, this hour, and the subsequent hour, we'll cover the first three headings, and God willing, next week, the last three. This morning, we'll take up first of all, a working definition, and description of the emotions. Secondly, the origin, the moral quality, of the emotions, and thirdly, the strategic place, and function of the emotions, in oral communication,

13:18 in general. And you men, have before you, what none of the other classes have had, and that is, instead of just the three headings, that were put together, in about two inches, you've got a lot more substance. I felt I would be cheating you, if I didn't give you fuller notes, and so I bent my head, and dictating machine, and put them to work, yesterday, so that you might have those fuller notes, and I trust you will find this helpful, so that you won't have to be rushing, to scribble as much, I won't have to repeat as much, and hopefully, there can be more engagement of eye, and of soul, as I seek to cover this material. First of all then, a working definition,

14:01 and description of the emotions. As I've stated in letter A, man, is not only a rational creature, who thinks, perceives, and receives information into his mind, nor is he exclusively, a volitional creature, who wills and makes choices, he is also an emotional creature, who has a capacity to feel. Now no person in his right mind, would debate such a simple affirmation. He can no more deny, the reality of his feelings, than he can deny the reality, of his existence.

14:45 However, how shall we define, our emotions? Well, I have found an article, in the Baker's Dictionary of Theology, quite helpful, and I want to quote from it. Emotions, like sensations, elude precise definition, all the philosophers notwithstanding. As the idea of sweetness, sourness, or bitterness, can be conveyed, only by reference to an object, which possesses these qualities, so the meaning of a specific emotion, can be communicated to another, only by a reference to that emotion.

15:25 So if I'm going to say, something is sour, I'll say, it's as sour as a lemon. See, just thinking about it, is making some of you salivate. It's as sweet as, it's as bitter, this is what the, composed this wonderful, very helpful article, not wonderful, but helpful article, on the emotions, is written. Everyone knows, what is meant by love, fear, anger, worry, etc.

15:56 But it is most difficult, to convey the meaning, of any one of those emotions, by an attempted definition. However, all emotions have in common, the general idea, of being stirred up, excited, now, carrying on from that, think of the definition, found in Webster's dictionary. The state or capacity, of having the feelings aroused, to the point of awareness, that is our emotions. When feelings,

16:37 to the point consciousness, that is our emotions. Now for the purpose, of our study, I'm going to define our emotions, as the diversified, conscious, sensibilities, or feelings, of the soul. The diversified, conscious, sensibilities, or parenthesis, feelings, the soul. Now in an excellent essay, entitled, Spurious Religious Excitement, by R.L. Dabney,

17:17 in volume three, of his discussions, that's where you will find, that essay, Dabney says, and here I quote from page two, I present a discussion, of the psychology of the feelings, in the Southern Presbyterian Review, of 1884. I wish to recall, a few of the fundamental positions, there, established. The function of feeling, is as essential to the human spirit, and as ever present, as is the function of cognition. Right, you see what Dabney is asserting, the function of feeling, is as essential to the human spirit,

18:01 and as ever present, as is the function of cognition. That is of understanding, of perception. The two are ever combined, as the heat rays, and the light rays, are intermingled in the sunbeams. But the consciousness, intuitively recognizes, the difference, of the two functions.

18:24 So that it is superfluous, to define them. You see what Dabney is saying? Don't try to define what is obvious, work with it. And then, this very helpful little, quotation, and I don't know where it comes from.

18:37 Feeling, is the temperature, of thought. Now I can't find a more helpful, workable, definition and description, of the emotions. Feeling, is the temperature, of, thought. I can think, about my next door neighbor, and have some feelings, of, respect, a measure of love, a yearning for their salvation.

19:10 But if I think, about my wife of 40 years, a whole different complex, of emotions, comes into consciousness. It is registering the temperature, of my thoughts, concerning, my wife, and, my neighbor. Feeling, is the temperature, of, thought. Feelings are to the soul.

19:36 Emotions, I'm sorry, what sweetness is to the taste buds, and what light is to the eye. Feelings are, to the soul. Emotions are the feelings, aroused, to consciousness. Now within this broad definition, and working description, can be placed such things as, joy, grief, love, anger, envy, pathos, enthusiasm, and all other like states, of the conscious, sensibilities, of the soul.

The Divine Origin and Moral Quality of Emotions

20:08 That's the working definition, and description of the emotions, and I would urge you, sometime, maybe during one of your breaks, over the vacation period, or if you're looking for some, helpful Sunday afternoon reading, I've noted in your notes, to consult the essay, by Dabney, and that will help to reinforce, some of these perspectives, and amplify them, as well. Now we come to what is crucial, if we're to think, properly about, this matter of our emotions, as they relate to preaching, the origin, and the moral quality, of the emotions. It should be abundantly clear, that the emotional, constitution of man, is a created, reality.

20:52 As such, it is a vital part, of man being, the image of God. God is a God, who has emotions, He is a God, of feelings. He is not a God, of pure, undiluted power, and energy, or of unmixed light, of mind, and knowledge. He is a personal God.

21:21 God who is not only, infinite in His power, infinite in His knowledge, but a God who has an, infinite capacity, and faculty, to love, to hate, to rejoice, and to grieve. I will rejoice over them, with joy. I will sing over them, with singing. Grieve not, the Holy Spirit of God.

21:50 Genesis 6, God beholds, the state of the world, and it grieved Him, at His heart. He said, I will bluff the face. Now in contemplating, such things brethren, the safest path, to walk, in order to avoid, entangling ourselves, in non-edifying, philosophical, subtleties, and distinctions, is to remember, that the God, whom we worship, and serve, is the God, revealed, in the person, of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And here, I have noted, two pivotal texts, out of the book of John.

22:28 In John chapter 1, we are informed, in categorical language, that the God, who is God, is the God, whom we worship, and serve, is the God, in categorical language, John chapter 1, and verse, no man, hath seen God, at any time. Only begotten Son, or God, only begotten, and there is some strong, textual evidence, that that's the proper rendering, who is in the bosom, of the Father, He has, and as you know, the Greek word, for declared Him, in its transliteration, is the word, from which we get, the word, exegesis. He has exegeted Him.

23:13 What is God like? Behold, God, only begotten, in the setting of John, the Word, who has become, flesh. Meaning, what He had always been, as the eternal Word, in the beginning with God, face to face with God, the Word, does not cease to be the Word, the Word, becomes flesh. He begins to be, what He never had been, without ceasing to be, what He always had been.

23:44 And it is this One, who exegetes, the Father. Well, if we're asserting, that we must take our starting point, in a proper, philosophical, and theological perspective, on the emotions, as they relate to preaching, surely we must start, with the great reality, that our God, and particularly, God revealed in Jesus Christ, is a God, who, inherent in His very being, are to be found, what we call, emotions. And then in John 14, we remember the setting again, that Philip, has said, Lord, show us the Father, and that will satisfy us,

24:27 that will suffice us. And Jesus said to him, have I been so long time with you, Philip, and you do not know Me? He that hath seen Me, has seen, not a limited representation of, or a partially distorted, and categorically different, reflection of, the Father. He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.

24:55 Without entering into anything, bordering on modalism, that would blur the distinction, between the persona of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet our Lord Jesus, says in seeing Me, you see the Father. And I have no sympathy, for those that would relegate, to His humanity, as those aspects of our Lord, that they feel uncomfortable with, in this detached God, who is looked upon, apart from Jesus Christ. Some of you know, that this is what hyper-Calvinists do, with Jesus sobbing, literally Luke says, wailing. The same verb is used,

25:38 is used of the professional wailers. They did not merely weep, as John says of our Lord, by the graveside of Lazarus. He wept with controlled, restrained weeping. But he wailed over Jerusalem, saying, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I, and you would not.

25:59 Oh that, that's the human nature, of Jesus. That's not a reflection, of the yearning, weeping heart of God. I have no sympathy, for that kind of Christology. And I trust, you have no sympathy for it.

26:15 He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. And in the sobs, and in the heaving breasts, of our Lord Jesus, is a revelation, of the heart, of God. And therefore, as we come to consider, this subject of the origin, and the moral quality, of the emotions, we start with, what is foundational. We are made, in the image of God.

26:36 We are, the image of God. A God, a God who revealed, in Jesus Christ, is a God, who possesses, inherent, in his very being, emotions. Now in his masterful essay, on the emotional life, of our Lord, B.B. Warfield,

26:54 has demonstrated, that the full range, of emotional capacity, function, and activity, is displayed, in our Lord, as he is revealed, in the gospel narratives. If you've never read, that narrative, I mean that essay, again, I commend it to you. I read it, periodically, and never, failed, to be tremendously, edified. Warfield's thesis, is this, that the, gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, had no sympathy, for the idea, that we must somehow, psychologize, Jesus.

27:30 That they, never recorded, his internal disposition, unless he speaks, of it. I am meek, and lowly, of heart. Or, of emotional condition, was so manifestly, influencing the manner, in which he looked, or spoke, or acted, then and only then, do they record it. And he says, with that tremendous, limitation, there is yet, in the gospel records, a marvelous panorama, displaying, all the full range, of those human emotions, that are familiar, to us.

28:05 In our Lord, in the gospel narratives, We see joy, we see grief, we see anger, we see disappointment, fear, love, passion, and they are recorded without embarrassment with respect to our blessed Lord as the perfect revealer of God. And I've placed in your notes as recommended resource material something that was not available in print to us until a relatively recent time, the reprint of Octavius Winslow's masterful work on the sympathy of Christ. It really should be called the emotional life of our Lord.

28:47 And then a number have spoken to me over the years saying they found my series, Broader the Singles Retreat, on Christ as the pattern for our emotional life to be very helpful, and therefore I've listed that as well. Now, as we continue to think through the origin and moral quality of the emotions, we start with who God is. Who God is revealed in Jesus Christ. And then we go to what man was when he came from the hand of God, perfect creature, a creature, but a perfect creature without the stain of sin.

Emotions Before and After the Fall

29:24 In his pre-fallen state, Adam's mind had an accurate, though not exhaustive, and certainly not a divine perception of reality. He was not coming from the hand of God omniscient. His understanding was not infinite. He was to learn.

29:42 He was to grow in intellectual capacity. As he fulfilled the mandate to subdue the earth, he would penetrate the mysteries of the physical laws that God had woven into the fabric of his creation. In his pre-fallen state, Adam's mind, though not the mind of God in the extent of its perception, accurately perceived the reality, that impinged upon him by all of his senses as well as his con-created state being created in righteousness and in uprightness. There were no cognitive tricks in Adam's mind.

30:26 Furthermore, perfect attitude, every volition he made, every volition that he expressed was virtuous. And added to that, Adam had perfectly, immeasurable, immaculate, and perfected his own spirit. In the Genesis account we see Adam, whom God calls the woman. Adam says, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.

30:53 There was excitement and joy! As he beholds what he could not see in all the other animals. He analyzes them. He identifies them by placing a name upon them.

31:04 But the scripture says, After that task accomplished, there was found no helper. answering to his needs. And now when he awakes from God's anesthetizing of him, minus a rib, but with this blessed addition of Eve, can you imagine Adam saying, huh, only my bone, bless my flesh, now let's get on with our task. You see, you can't read that passage and feel that you're doing justice to the inerrant word of God without seeing it suffused with some discernible elements of excitement and joy and wonder.

31:46 There was delight in the labor assigned when God said subdue the earth, put him in the garden to dress it and to keep it. One cannot imagine Adam going out with the signals, dejection and reluctance of going to his work with delight and with a sense of excitement and wonder as the task is laid before him. And when God says, in the day that you eat, dying you will die, Adam could not contemplate those words without feeling the emotion of fear and of dread. So Adam, in his unfallen state, along with his accurate perception of reality in his cognitive faculties,

32:31 and the rectitude and uprightness of his will in the volitional faculties, so in his emotions, all of them fully active, were in, impeccably holy. But with the entrance of sin, every faculty of man has undergone a radical disruption, and when we speak of total depravity, we do not mean that man is as base and vile and degenerate as he could become, but that there is no faculty of what he is as man that has not been stained and polluted by sin. And just as his mind,

33:14 darkened so that he doesn't perceive reality as reality exists, as his will is perverse, the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. A will that should be choosing the will of God is set against it, so the emotions have likewise been involved in this tragic apostasy from God and this horrible plunge into pollution and into sin. And so, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, and in this, into spiritual degeneration. So that man now, instead of loving what he ought to love, he loves what he ought to hate.

The Restoration of Emotions in Grace and Sanctification

33:53 He has a positive affinity, an affection, an emotion of love that he loves what he ought to hate. And he hates what he ought to love. He's stirred and excited by error. And he's apathetic in the presence of truth.

34:11 You have a classic example of how the emotions can be perverted in the spirit passage that I've cited in your notes James chapter 4 and verses 8 and 9 draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded be afflicted and mourn and weep now notice let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness they were experiencing the emotions of joy to such a heightened conscious degree that

34:54 it was affecting that which triggers the mechanism that makes us laugh and he said you have no moral right to those emotions you're experiencing them laughter and joy but you have no moral right to them given your true moral condition you are double minded and you are sinners and in the light of those realities you ought to be mourning look upon the realities with clear cognition and then the emotions appropriate to that accurate cognition will follow in their train man's emotions as they were in the innocence of Eden and how they've been affected

35:38 by the fall however in the restorative recreative work of grace that work that begins in regeneration and is carried on in sanctification as you well know it touches the whole man the mind the will and the emotions and so much is this true that no little part of that work of restorative and recreative grace is described in its effects in terms that are highly emotional in their substance for example when our Lord opens his mouth to pronounce those

36:23 blessings of the well-known Beatitudes where does he begin blessed Matthew chapter 5 and verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit is the kingdom of heaven blessed are they that mourn poverty of spirit is a disposition of the inner man that cannot be existing in reality without some emotional overtones and fruition blessed are they that mourn how can there be any genuine internal mourning

37:07 in the light of what we are as sinners in utter destitution of any righteousness to commend us to God that mourning is not just an intellectual grasp upon the doctrine of sin it is the felt emotional result of a proper understanding embraced by the heart likewise in verses 11 and 12 speaking of blessedness upon the persecuted blessed are you when men reproach you and persecute you what are you to do rejoice and be exceeding glad experience emotions appropriate to reality reality is that though this world preach you as dumb what they're doing every time they cast reproach

37:52 upon you is they are placing capital in the bank of heaven on your behalf that's reality our Lord says now the mind grasping that reality there will be an appropriate emotional response rejoice and be exceeding glad you remember that in the section dealing with the whole question of Christian liberty and eating and drinking of things indifferent and the keeping of days indifferent the apostle in drawing his arguments in dealing with that subject to a semi-climax in Romans chapter 14 and verse 17 makes this very helpful statement the kingdom of God the essence of that kingdom

38:36 is not concerned with the issues of eating and drinking eating and drinking it is a kingdom that brings us into a realm that far transcends rules and regulations about what we eat and drink and what we don't eat and don't drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit yes in kingdom blessing being involved in the dynamics of the kingdom it is the Holy Spirit whose ministry produces these things in the hearts of God's people but while we may debate the issue of what is this righteousness we cannot

39:21 debate that peace and joy not carnal peace and joy but peace and joy rooted in the dynamics of grace ministered by the person of the Holy Spirit within the hearts of the sons of the kingdom peace and joy cannot be realities without emotional involvement and then in Galatians 5.22 think of the nine fold fruit of the spirit the fruit of the spirit is love and whatever love is at the cognitive and volitional level does it exist without an emotional dimension joy can you think

40:05 of love joy and peace stripped of anything that registers at the level of emotion it's impossible to the spirit in other words the spirit's work in all those who are united to Christ having crucified the flesh with its passions and lust thereof will register in the emotional constitution of the one thus blessed by God's grace love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith trustful trustworthiness meekness self-control whatever emotional elements may be present in those subsequent ones certainly the first three love joy

40:48 peace indicate that where the spirit of God is present there will be this emotional dimension of his work and then I've cited Romans 12.15 where in giving general directions to ordinary believers the control and sanctified emotional empathy is set forth as a duty to all believers we are commanded rejoice with them that rejoice weep with them that weep can you just turn on your happy button can you just turn on your sad button no but what you can do is draw near to your brother and with your cognitive faculty seek to really

41:31 understand what's making him shouting happy and so enter in by an operation of the Holy Spirit in which we're delivered from our crass selfishness in which if I'm shouting happy let the rest of the world go its sad or merry way my feelings are ultimate and ought to percolate through everyone around me or I'm sad I want the whole world to weep with me said no in the dynamics of grace we come to the place where my brother is feeling is important to me and he's not neutered emotionally he doesn't have an unbiblical notion that if he's shouting happy he ought to appear very bland does someone think him a fanatic he's rejoicing and his emotional state is affecting his demeanor

42:15 and bearing and I said man you obviously are having a happy fit what's it the root of it well let me tell you what the Lord's done for me and it may be right in the area where you've been pleading with God and he ain't done it for you and you're so delivered from your native selfishness that you can with the cognitive faculties perceive his reality to such an extent that the emotional energy that flows out of it into his soul flows into your soul you rejoice with those who rejoice and lo and behold a week later God answers your prayer in the same area it answered his and you go to tell your brother but upon approaching him you see that his countenance is down and what's your

42:57 first say brother get that sad look off your face you know what God did for you we were rejoicing about a week ago let me tell you what God did he said no you seek to find out what's brought his sad countenance what reality has put him into a baptism of grief and enter into that reality until your emotions share the appropriate expression of that reality now when you get both brethren wanting to do this might end up having a fight you see a holy war saying look brother I'm to weep with you please let me weep yeah but God says I'm to rejoice with you and you obviously have approached me with a countenance that says you're shouting happy well obviously

43:40 in the application of this there are matters of how we apply it that need to be fine tuned but you see the point for our purposes this morning that for anyone to denigrate the place of the emotions in the Christian life in general and in our constitution as image bearers of God is just to sweep away a whole block of biblical teaching and to render us unable properly to understand and apply these many portions of the word of God in the light of just this cursory sampling of but a few of the text that could be brought into service we see that grace does not neuter the emotions it purifies them it puts them back in a right

44:25 relationship to enlightened understanding and to a rectified will and that's crucial in grace God does not batter and neuter our emotions but he puts them back into a right relationship to an enlightened understanding and to a rectified will now in the scheme of grace the emotions are always to be influenced by the truth as they are they are then holy emotions and never to be despised finally as we leave the subject of the emotions as to their origin and moral quality we must remind ourselves that

Remaining Sin and the Need for Emotional Watchfulness and Mending

45:09 remaining sin still influences the emotions so that watchfulness for excesses and prayer that our emotions ought to be rightly regulated in the light of truth are always in order and furthermore and this is an area where some of us may need particular help our remaining sin may be seen in that certain emotional circuits have had the wires crossed or disconnected we had a man in the church some years ago he's no longer here thankfully he didn't leave disaffected but God took him away in his providence by a job relocation and given the way

45:54 he was reared the climate of his home he was in many ways emotionally neutered when he would sit with his family and watch fiddle around the roof he couldn't weep with Tevye's frustrations he couldn't laugh at Tevye's interactions with Golda he couldn't chuckle when Golda says do I love you? you're upset in the town go lie down take a nap he'd sit there analyzing in order to critically assess every nuance of the storyline to his children and one of the elders who was trying to help him said look I'm going to give you a homework assignment I want you to go to the church and I want you to go to the church and I want you to go home

46:37 put Fiddler in the Roof in your VCR and I want you to do nothing but throw yourself on the crest of the sanctified innocent emotional content of that film you are short circuited in your emotions now that was an extreme case but most of us to one degree or another given the outcroppings of sin in the nurturing process of those that were molding and shaping us we may have circuits that need to be mended we may have an internal mechanism that when certain realities begin to grip the soul and ought to create certain emotions that in turn ought to naturally create certain

47:21 visible signs of that emotion we draw back why? because we feel to go to there to there is somehow wrong it's unmanly the whole notion men don't weep who says so? the God man wept the men don't show disappointment the holy one showed disappointment oh faithless and unbelieving generation how long shall I bear with you? bring him to me was that sinful?

47:57 did he stoically say well sorry fellows you didn't make it no he showed disappointment in his disciples what could you not watch with me? one hour? he didn't come out and say couldn't you watch with me one hour? that would have been sinful do you think he came and said could you not watch with me one hour?

48:18 you say no there's something in common with me why? because the emotion has its signals on the face in the way we say the words and surely there must have been something at least approaching this ethos when Jesus came out from his wrestlings over the great trial that lay before him and he said what? Peter James and John my inner circle my intimate confidants could you not watch? you see even as I seek to give myself my soul to feel that my emotions are stirred my tear ducts are beginning to open right here in the pulpit

49:02 are those the tricks of a play actor? no that's part of what God has made you as an image bearer and if that is not brought into play in our view of preaching we are stripping a vital nerve out of the very essence of preaching as the God ordained means of bringing his truth to the hearts of men in conclusion let me heartily commend to you along with the other things I've mentioned Dabney's essay in volume 3 religious excitement

49:44 it's an exposition of 1 Corinthians 3 10 to 15 the whole subject of the day shall try every man's work of what sort it is and in it he shows some of the most penetrating insights to this whole area of the world to this whole area of the world to this whole area of the world of the emotions and particularly how they influence people in a group setting let me whet your appetite by concluding this hour's lecture by just giving you a sampling from page 558 the first fact to which we'd call attention is that all excitements about religion are not therefore good and that all, I'm sorry, are not good or pious or sanctifying

50:28 it may be supposed that the things so obvious would need no remark, but it is amazing how blindly multitudes of Christians credit any strong emotion about religion as being of course wholesome and beneficial emotion that the man feels acutely that he has been profoundly disturbed and has attained to more comfortable emotions seems to be all these good people demand in order to think well of him and any excitement about religion is hailed as a precious religious revival any difference in our day AP Super, you passed me on the road this is our day

51:09 men, stadium and a promise keepers meeting God is doing a marvelous thing among the men of our day you read the Christian periodicals this is hailed as the closest thing to the days of the great awakening Dabney faced it in his day it's forgotten that grace is supernatural while a multitude of religious emotions are very natural the word religion has been so long used as the same with Christianity that men have lost sight of the fact that there's a multitude of religions, some bad, some vile and only one good and that all mankind down to the

51:53 basest pagan tribes have their religious systems religious fears, anxieties, joys and triumphs emotion merely religious may be compatible with the most depraved and atrocious state of character and with creeds utterly false to think of future welfare to be goaded by a guilty conscience to be full of feeling and passion about eternal realities may be just as congruous with paganism as with Christianity Turkish dervishes, Hindu fakirs or Indian medicine men have their religious revivals just as truly as our ill judging churches that is they have their seasons of prevalent and contagious religious

52:37 emotions agitating at once large masses of men have you not seen on a National Geographic documentary how the medicine man can bring the whole village into an intense religious frenzy an exalted state of emotion and psychic sensibility this is what Dabney's talking about since these things are so would it not be reasonable to suppose that pure human nature may frequently be subject to these spreading impulses of merely natural unsanctifying feelings about religion in our Christian lands as well as in heathendom and that there's probably a great deal of feeling here also about the soul which yet does no good to the soul

53:22 indeed these contagious accesses of feeling are so natural to the human race that they may occur about many other subjects besides religion we've seen our political revivals fostered by inflammatory speeches songs, badges, processions, national conventions of this past fall, past summer and what does he say he said they're worthless it's not enough then to produce feeling about the soul, we must aim to produce right feeling and this is only produced by revealed truth intelligently presented to the understanding and applied

54:06 by a supernatural agent that's the key statement in this are holy emotions produced by revealed truth intelligently presented to the understanding and applied by a supernatural agent, God the Holy Ghost, all else no matter how genuinely warm or intense is only that sorrow of the world that works death and needs to be repented of the whole labor of the wise minister therefore will be to replace this natural religious feeling by the supernatural and then he goes on to amplify how we know from general revelation

54:50 God has made us emotionally contagious creatures and he masterfully treats that, we are emotionally contagious, I think of the illustration I've often used with men as a kid, we had very few records, we weren't cursed with the glut of media stuff available in our day and somehow someone put in our hands what was called the laughing record have you ever heard the laughing record? it was an old 78 thing and you put it on and a group of people sitting in the room and a guy starts and he starts laughing and the more he laughs and before long, five minutes, you'll have a whole living room of people falling off their chairs in dales of laughter now it isn't a Bill Cosby

55:34 telling clean and funny things in which men are able to look at themselves and see the incongruous and laugh at themselves while they laugh at the funny situation, no, it's just a one guy laughing and then someone else pitches in and before long the contagion of laughter, not one thing has touched the cognitive faculties well you see it underscores the thesis of Dabney, however though that is profaned and prostituted by charlatans and by the master deceiver of whom we were reminded in the previous hour you see God does not circumvent that in the operations of grace in general and in the communication of his truth in particular

56:18 and therefore I come back to our fundamental thesis, we better have clear solid, biblical views concerning origin and moral quality of the emotions in general as we seek to relate them to all communication in particular and then seek to bring all of that down the narrow end of the funnel and see how it applies to the act of preaching in all the noble dignity of that exercise under the blessing of God. Well let's take a break brethren and we'll come back at 20 after and seek to finish up, alright?