Selection of Sermonic Materials

The Centrality of Truth and the Practical Question of Sermon Selection

0:01 Now, we continue our studies in the general theme of the essential ingredients for effective pastoral preaching. Having spent an entire year's lectures dealing with the man through whom the message comes, we have begun in this fall series to deal with the message, particularly in its content and in its form. And in the two previous lectures, I sought to establish the centrality of truth in the effecting of the saving purposes of God. And we saw from a number of texts of scripture that both in the begetting of divine life and in the nourishment and sustenance of divine life, the truth of God as embodied in the word of God written is central in the accomplishment of God's purposes. And then in our last session, we drew five...

0:54 five deductions from that overall principle of the centrality of truth. If truth is central in the purpose of God, then all of our sermons must be...

1:06 and then I gave you five lines of thought, and I'll only read them... painstakingly exegetical in their raw material, predominantly biblical in their essential substance, harmoniously theological in their affirmations of truth, intensely practical in their overall...

1:25 and pervasively evangelical in their overall climate. As I indicated in our last session, this was basically a treatment of the theory of preaching, the theory relative particularly to content and form. Now today, we begin a descent to the practical, intensely practical. And first of all, when we try to reduce this theory of preaching to the practical, we come head-on into this most...

1:54 most pressing issue, how shall I select themes for my sermonic exercises? Convinced that in whatever situation I am called upon to minister the word, whether as a Sunday school teacher, whether as one preaching occasionally in various circumstances, or one called to labor in the word and in doctrine with a given flock of God's people, the great and pressing issue, before we even deal with such subjects, is how to exegete the text, how to structure it, how to illustrate the truth, how to apply it, and all of these other details of sermonic exercise, the great and burning question is, how shall I discern the mind of God with reference to that portion of the truth of God to be preached to the gathered people of God in any given occasion? So we're going to begin today with what I'm calling principles relative to the selection of specific...

2:54 specific sermonic materials. Now that sounds like a massive verbiage, but it's as streamlined as I can make it to say what I want to say. Principles relative to the selection of specific sermonic materials. I have not given as a title to our lecture principles for the selection of a text, because there are times when your preaching is not primarily the opening up of a given text, one verse or a paragraph or a chapter, but rather it is the opening up of many texts which are related as to their basic theme and thrust.

3:35 And I would never say that thematic preaching is wrong. One would run headlong into the example of the apostles and prophets and our Lord himself. So I'm using this title purposely. Principles relative to the selection of specific sermonic materials.

The Undergirding Principle: Interplay of Natural and Supernatural

3:54 And I'm not going to go further than the mere selection of a text, but only within the framework of what has preceded, namely, sermonic materials that will be derived from the word of the living God. Now, to think our way through this subject, I have two lines of thought, or more than two lines of thought, but two frameworks within which to hold the many lines of thought. First one will be to enunciate the undergirding principle of selecting sermons, or the selection of sermonic materials. There is one great overarching principle.

4:30 And I want to enunciate that principle. There's the principle. And it relates to the selection of sermonic materials. And having enunciated that principle, I want to give some warnings based upon it.

4:49 That will be our Roman numeral one. The enunciation of this great principle. And then number two, I want to give four or five general maxims to guide us in the selection of sermonic materials. So, the undergirding principle of selecting sermonic materials.

5:07 Secondly, the general maxims for guidance in the selection of sermonic materials. First of all, then, the undergirding principle of selecting sermonic materials. And here's the principle. In this area, as in all areas relative to the work of preaching, there is a constant and delicate interplay of the natural and of the supernatural, of the earthy and of the heavenly, of the rational and of the supra-rational, so that we cannot approach the subject with a rigid set of rules.

5:44 Now, there's the principle. There is this delicate interplay of natural and supernatural, of earthy and heavenly, rational and supra-rational, so that we cannot approach it with a rigid set of rules. Now, let me explain what I mean by those words. The earthy, the natural, and the rational faculties of each man differ in degree and in expression.

6:10 Therefore, their part will differ as they come to play in the selection of sermonic materials. For instance, some men by nature are far more of a poetic cast in the way their minds work, very imaginative, as opposed to structured and logical. Therefore, because the natural faculties the earthy, the natural, the rational faculties enter into the selection of sermonic materials in any given two men, since those faculties are different in kind and in development, they will differ in their method of selecting sermonic materials. And because every man is an individual, we cannot expect that a rigid set of rules would be most natural and helpful for every given individual, so we cannot expect that a rigid set of rules would be more natural and helpful for every given individual. For example, if we think of the same kind of rules as God makes all creatures, with the same kind of mental cast, with the same measure of poetic imagination, with the same measure of consistent logical progression of thought, until God does that, then let us never say in the name of God that there are a set of rigid rules to govern men in the principles of selecting sermonic materials. We can never expect rigid rules because the ways of the Spirit are like the wind, and wherever God's at work, throw your rules out. We must allow God the element,

Warnings Derived from the Undergirding Principle

7:38 if I may say it reverently, of exercising His own sovereign prerogatives as He moves upon the mind and conscience and thought patterns of a preacher seeking to know what is the burden of the Lord for the people of God at any given time. So then, here's our principle, because you have the interplay, of the heavenly, of the suprarational, of the spiritual, with the earthy, with the natural, with the rational, and because in any given man these things are different, and in any given case God is free to blow where He wills, we cannot expect a rigid set of rules. And in the light of that principle, let me give you four bewares. Number one, beware of the ironclad rule makers. There are those who say a man is not worth his weight in salt, who does not have as his basic preaching method preaching through one book of the Bible after another and doing so in a certain form and manner, one paragraph at a time, extract the main thought of the paragraph, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam. Beware of the ironclad rule makers. You have those who are committed to consecutive preaching, and because that's the way God made them and gave some measure of blessing to them, they want to make it the law of the Medes and the Persians.

9:04 On the other hand, beware of dear, godly men like Charles Spurgeon, who got his sermons like a prophet got his message to Israel and said everyone else ought to get it the same way. He literally waited until the text came, until the Holy Ghost gave it to him, almost a form of direct revelation, and he almost makes that a rule for others. Or you have others who say you ought to map out your preaching schedule for a year ahead and stick to it. Whenever I read those things, a few things get me really angry, but that's one.

9:35 It's a good thing whoever writes those things is not around when I read them, because I just want to get him and shake him and say, now look, man, you really don't mean that, do you? I mean, you just weren't thinking when you said that. You see what it's saying? It's saying we're all cookie cutters as men, and God the Holy Ghost is bound to a certain method.

9:52 In the light of this principle, the delicate and constant interplay of the natural and the physical, the supernatural, the earthy, the heavenly, the rational, the suprarational, all men different, God always sovereign, beware of the ironclad rule makers. And at any point today that I seem to move into ironclad rules, then just don't listen to me. Start chewing gum or stuff your ears or something else, all right? Second beware that grows out of the establishment of this principle, beware of a legalistic inflexibility with your own general plan.

10:28 You'll find after you're engaged in the work of teaching and preaching that you hit, as it were, your own stride as to how you select sermonic materials, and you'll feel comfortable in your niche. But now the danger is that you start making a rule of your own normal method by which you bind your own conscience. For instance, I find myself most comfortable as a preacher and a pastor when I'm engaged in regular consecutive expository preaching, primarily of a book, and working my way through. However, if I ever get to the place where God the Holy Ghost can't sidetrack me, where I'd feel guilty if for a period of weeks I just, as it were, went to the old Spurgeonic method of waiting for individual texts to grip me or going to my file that I'll demonstrate a little bit later in which I have texts and outlines of things that have gripped me in my own devotional reading, we never want to get in the place where we, on the one hand, look to the ironclad rules of others but on the other hand, where we begin to make an ironclad rule for ourselves. We are Christ-free men. We are bondservants of Christ, not of our own method or someone else's. Thirdly, beware of copying others.

11:42 Beware of copying others. Pastor Blaise and I were talking about this the other day and he said as an early Christian, having been young Christian, having been helped so much in his early Christian life by Spurgeon's lectures to his students, he tried desperately to get his sermons the way Spurgeon did and it almost drove him bananas. And I was sharing with him how it almost used to drive me bananas when I was in the itinerant ministry and I'd go away sometimes literally for two and three hours of wrestling and waiting for some text to grip. And at the end of that time I had nothing but my frustrations to show for all of my efforts.

12:21 So, we must beware of copying others. What may have been a valid method for Charles Haddon Spurgeon may not be the method for you. And what may have been the method for Dr. Lloyd-Jones or someone else may not be the method of God for you.

12:36 And then fourthly, beware of the two great dangers in this whole area of principles to guide us in the selection of sermonic material. In the light of this principle that we've established, beware of the two great errors. On the one hand, there is the error of enthusiasm. I'm using it in its old medieval sense, in the sense that it came to be used in the days of the Reformation.

13:03 The enthusiast was the one who was claiming direct revelation, who lived his life on the basis of present and immediate spiritual impotence. He was sort of the blank blotter waiting for the dew of heaven to drop in certain places and then he'd move. Or he was like the receptor, the radio receiver waiting for his signals and whoo, spirit moved me and off he went, you see. Well, beware of this matter of enthusiasm.

13:29 You see what enthusiasm is doing? It is recognizing the element of the heavenly, the element of the suprarational, the element of the divine in selection of sermonic material at the expense of the full recognition and operation of the natural and the earthly and the rational. The mind is thrown into a subjective neutralism, waiting for divine impulses, you see. Now that's a tragic error into which generally only the extremely lazy or the extremely sensitive to please God can fall.

14:09 The person who's too lazy to think will just wait. He's going to wait for some impulse. He doesn't want to sit and reason through what the needs of the flock are, what the present development of his own mind and understanding is. It's much easier to wait.

14:28 Or he may be the one who's so dead in earnest about wanting to have the mind of God for the word of God, for the people of God on that given occasion by God's appointment that in his earnestness he slips over into enthusiasm. Beware of enthusiasm. The suprarational, the heavenly, the divine is always found in full interplay with the natural. Philippians 2, 12 and 13 run the greatest principles of the Christian life.

14:59 God is at work in you to will and to do. You work out with fear and with trembling. Now the other side of the coin is that cold rationalism that says, alright, there is the operation of the natural, of the earthy, of the rational. Therefore, this person does not expect any specific guidance from the Holy Spirit.

15:24 He does not expect his heart to be enlarged in prayer and drawn out in a given area of spiritual concern as reflected in a specific passage or principle of the word of God. He becomes the cold calculating rationalist who can sit down at the end of one year and map out his preaching for the next year and there it is, all laid out. And when you question him, he says, well, God expects us to use our good horse sense. Yes, that's true.

15:51 But there is always the interplay of the suprarational, the divine surprises, the elements of the unpredictableness of God and of his ways with the sons of men. So then, this principle, I say, is foundational. It undergirds any of our thinking relative to this whole subject of the selection of sermonic materials. There is the constant and delicate interplay of the earthy and the heavenly, the natural and the supranational, the rational and the suprarational.

Maxim 1: Consistently Prayerful for Divine Guidance

16:25 Therefore, there must be no rigid rules and in the light of that, beware of the ironclad rule makers, beware of bringing yourself into bondage to your own normal method, beware in the third place of copying others and beware of these two great dangers of enthusiasm and of rationalism. All right, having established the first general principle and derived some warnings from it, we come now to some general maxims for guidance in selection of sermonic material. General maxim. M-A-X-I-M-S.

17:06 Because I said beware of the rule makers, I didn't want to use the synonym of maxim, which is rule. It's general maxims for guidance in the selection of sermonic material. There is a method in my madness of the choice of synonyms this afternoon. All right?

17:22 The first one is this. Seek to be consistently prayerful for divine guidance in this matter. Seek to be consistently prayerful for divine guidance in this matter. When the thought grips you that the state of the flock of God is greatly affected by the diet given to it by its teaching elders, this is enough to put any man on his face in the presence of God.

17:52 Enough to put him on his face crying out, who is sufficient for these things? To think that the diet of the flock, the condition of the flock, is in great matter determined by the diet it receives in the public exposition and application of the word. Isn't this enough to cause a man to develop something of a consistent spirit of prayer for divine guidance? He's affecting the climate of homes because the heads of the homes are there under the exposition of the word week after week.

18:25 He's affecting the whole perspective of segments of God, segments of God's people in their places of legitimate calling, the ramifications of what is expounded and applied in the public assembly. Well, it's frightening. Or they are frightening. And it's at this point that two familiar texts of Scripture will stand you in good stead again and again and again in the work of the ministry.

18:51 The promise of God in James 1, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given. Let him ask of God, spreading his helplessness before his God and acknowledging that he knows not as he ought to know. And then that grand old text promising not direct revelation but specific guidance. And only an enthusiast believes in direct revelation, but a true Christian believes in specific guidance.

19:26 And you say, well, what's the difference? Well, there's a lot of difference. And specific guidance is promised, in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.

19:37 Lean not upon thine own understanding. He doesn't say don't use it. He says don't lean upon it. Your understanding is part of the image of God.

19:45 He gave it to you. And in Christ it's been quickened to new ability and strength and now is seized upon by the Spirit to be sublimated to God's purposes. But don't lean upon it. Don't become a rationalist.

19:59 In all thy ways acknowledge him and he will. And he will direct thy path. I'm convinced that many a congregation is living under the curse of a prayerless parson who gets his impulses for sermonizing from the winds of his own sad spiritual state rather than from a prayerful waiting upon God. And I plead with any of you young men who in time will be proven to be adequate, biblically qualified, teaching, ruling elders in the flock of God, seek to make a part of your regular prayer discipline crying to God for light and direction in the selection of your simonic materials. For often God must say to me, my son, you have not, because you ask not. And we're cast about in a sea of uncertainty as the just judgment of God for our carnal confidence. We have not earnestly sought a place for divine guidance.

Maxim 2: Aware of the Needs of the Flock

21:04 Second general maxim for guidance in the selection of sermonic materials is this. Seek to be aware of the needs of the flock of God. In Acts 20 and verse 28 we have that profound charge of the Apostle Paul that brings within its compass the entire scope of ministerial duty. Acts 20 and verse 28.

21:27 Take heed, that is, pay close attention to yourselves, and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops. And that's a weak translation. To feed, that Greek verb, as many of you I'm sure are aware, means literally to shepherd the church of the Lord. The shepherd must feed, but he does more than that.

21:51 He guards, he guides, he disciplines, he governs, gives direction to, as well as provides sustenance for the flock of God. Now in the light of this clear responsibility to feed the flock of God, to shepherd them, to feed them the food that is needful for their present state, how essential it is that we be aware of the need of the flock. If I am to regulate the diet, woe be unto me if I am not familiar with the dietary needs of the flock. And the admonition of Proverbs 22, 23 has a tremendous application in this very context.

22:35 Proverbs 22, 23. Not 22, 23. Here it is. It's 27, 23.

22:52 I knew it was on the right hand side about so far up. Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flock and look well to thy herds. I think it has a good analogical application to us as under shepherds. Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flock.

23:14 Now, of course, the Apostle Paul and our Lord are the great example of true shepherds to the flock. The Apostle Paul said in the words that were read in our public worship this morning, besides all of these things, that which cometh upon me daily, anxiety for the churches. Paul was a shepherd to the churches. Now, what do his epistles show?

23:36 They show that he was not fighting in uncertainty. He knew of specific needs to which he addressed himself with specific instruction and exhortation. He opens up 1 Corinthians with these words that have been reported unto me of the household of Chloe. He didn't say the Lord gave me a revelation in the middle of the night.

23:54 That would have sounded very spiritual. But he said someone's done some sanctified gossiping. They've passed on truth and they've passed it on for your good to a person who ought to receive it, an apostle charged with the oversight of the churches in the apostolic era. He said it had been reported unto me of the household of Chloe.

24:13 There are divisions among you. And he goes after the whole subject of divisions and expounds the principles of the word of God relative to that need. The book of Colossians is the response to Paul's awareness of the need of that flock. There was the infectious influence of the Gnostic heresy.

24:33 And so the apostle Paul addresses himself to that situation. When he gives directives to Timothy and Titus, you see the same thing. First Timothy 1.3, he said, I've left you in Macedonia.

24:44 Why? Because I know the need of the churches is that someone be present to neutralize the effect of these Judaizers, that men may be taught not to hold a different doctrine. And then he exposes these Judaizers who are infecting the churches. Titus 1 in verse 5, he says, I've left thee in Crete to do what?

25:04 To set in order the things that are lacking. They need instruction in church order and government. And so he gives them a manual concerning the qualifications for elders. Now what do we learn from this?

25:15 We learn that the apostle in his preaching, whether preaching verbally or by letter, was sensitive of the needs of the particular flocks to whom he ministered. And then of course our Lord is the classic example. The Sermon on the Mount is an enunciation of the principles of the kingdom he came to establish in contrast to that decadent apostate culture of the kingdom erected by the scribes and the Pharisees. And so you have that constant ye have heard that it was said but I say unto you.

25:49 When our Lord gave sermons on humility, when did he do it? He did it in the presence of disciples arguing about who's going to be big shot in prime minister in the forthcoming manifestation of his kingdom. When he's about to leave and go back to his father, does he give an eschatological lecture concerning the destiny of the wicked? No, he says, let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me.

26:13 In my father's house and many dwelling places if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. Well, obviously he was going for other reasons but this was the particular emphasis they needed. He says, I've told you these things and I know that sorrow has filled your heart and take courage the sorrow will not be forever. What's our Lord doing?

26:32 He's showing us what it is to be a true pastor. To have a heart sensitive to the needs of the flock. Having now established the principle biblically let me break it down into three areas. First of all, be aware of the overall or general needs of the flock.

26:48 Secondly, be aware of the specific or critical needs and thirdly, be aware of the occasional needs. Now what do I mean by the overall or general needs? Well, if you go to a church that in the past has been fed a constant diet of dispensationalism or has been taught to be more technical verticalism and approach to the scriptures that sees things in hard fast vertical categories and people have had very little appreciation of the continuity of God's dealings with men in grace why then it's obvious that your preaching ought to counteract the baneful tendency of this other form of teaching. However, if you go into a church that's been fed good solid doses of reformed doctrine in fact they've become a little bit hyper in their perspective and they're sitting on their fannies waiting for the Lord to sovereignly do His work you don't go in there and start expounding Romans 9 you don't start preaching in Ephesians 1 you give them a good stiff dose of the book of James blast them out of their complacency. You do it in love but blast them. You can love and still blast it's dangerous but it's possible both for you and for them. So seek to be sensitive to the overall or the general needs of the flock.

28:10 If you have a flock of God made up primarily of young people saved out of the typical background with no family structures no appreciation of the dignity of labor no understanding of the doctrine of creation and creation ordinances the sanctity of sex and of marriage well you'd be a fool to strike out immediately dealing with a series of lectures on the two natures in the person of Jesus Christ something of this kind. No, no. And I'm amazed how it seems that something happens when people get their hands laid on by a group of other elders that utterly purges them not of indwelling sin but of indwelling good horse sense. I don't know what there is.

28:50 Some strange occult power goes through the fingers of the elders who lay hands on young preachers that so many times they just plain are not being sensitive to the overall or the general needs of the flock in terms of the general condition of that flock. All right? But then our selection of sermonic materials will also be governed as we seek to be aware of the needs of the flock by what I'm calling the specific or the critical need. A crisis arises in the life of the congregation.

29:23 Those of you who are part of this congregation will know exactly what I'm speaking about when I say when we faced the crisis of several weeks ago and had to engage in this very serious act of corporate discipline why a preacher would be heartless who did not seek to give his people clear biblical instruction both to fortify them for the trauma of that experience as well as to illuminate their minds as to their responsibilities in it. Again, illustrating from our own congregational life a year and a half ago when they had that tragic flood in the Lewisburg area what more appropriate time than to say to the people of God here we have an opportunity to show Christian benevolence and to show some priests and sermons on 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Your selection of sermonic materials being dictated by the condition of the flock not in its general sense but in this specific or critical sense. Perhaps you have an unusual number of deaths close together back to back and a sense of dread has come over the people of God. Well here's a good opportunity to expound portions of the word that speak of the Christian's confidence in the face of death the uncertainty of life or if people have been sober here's a time to come through with a series of sermons on the reality of death and hell and judgment and press the thing home when god by

30:49 providence is saying listen what a foolish thing for you to distract the mind from the very thing that god is calling the attention to in providence let providence and the word strike in the same direction together you see and then there are what i'm calling the occasional needs you're facing a flock of god in a funeral situation i've questioned the sanity of any man who said well i've waited on god and god has laid upon my heart to speak on the relationship of the active obedience to christ to the justification of a believer in a in a funeral service now it may be true that the truth of the active obedience of christ and i'm aware that that is not an exegetical term but a theological term and i'm using it in that sense to identify an element of biblical truth historically i would not question that this may have really gripped a preacher's heart but if he goes to a funeral to speak on this it shows that there's something wrong with his ability to be sensitive to the need of the flock that is before him at funerals you speak of the sobering issues of death and judgment and resurrection and the brevity of life because people's minds are naturally engrossed in those matters at weddings uh... you take wedding themes and the bible is full of them and you seek then to use the natural inclination of the mind in the direction of that particular wedding ceremony to seize it as a gospel

32:17 opportunity and likewise i think uh... dr lloyd jones has a good case for being sensitive to what we would call the uh... occasional periods in the calendar year in which men are thinking in a given direction new year's christmas is seven now of course we have uh... examples of this in the ministries of many men i will not weary you with such examples let me just try to give one personal anecdote that may help to show the difference in these areas we've dealt with the matter of the general needs of the flock when i first came to this congregation some twelve years ago and realized they've been fed on the typical diet of easy-beliebism and a non ethical type preaching positionalism as it has sometimes been called the best thing to do is start with the book of first john preach on what a real christian is

Maxim 3: Sensitive to God's Dealings with Your Own Heart

33:07 give them an ear for expository preaching and at the same time zero in on that most fundamental of issues and then along the way when there are critical periods in the history of the church i can remember a few years ago when we had a number of deaths uh i felt i should prepare a series on this very subject will your christian experience stand the test of death and of judgment they were all professing christians sitting there but one after another had been snatched away in a relatively short time and you couldn't help but wonder when you came the next sunday who'll be next now we ought always to think that way but we we don't and sometimes it takes a rash of deaths in succession to sober us up now's the time to strike in all right so we have these first two principles or maxims to guide us we are to be consistently prayerful that god will guide us we are secondly prayerful that god will guide us we are secondly prayerful that god will guide us we are secondly prayerful that god will guide us we are secondly prayerful that god will guide us we are secondly to seek to be aware of the needs of the flock thirdly seek to be sensitive to god's dealings with your own heart and your own mind seek to be sensitive to god's dealings with your own heart and your own mind as you're reading the word devotionally as you're reading through books of the bible as you're meditating upon verses there are sections of the word of god that will

34:30 come home with fire to your own bosom themes in the word of god that will come home with fire to your own bosom themes in the word of god that will come home with fire to your own bosom and there's a sense in which we can then say with the prophet jeremiah thy word was in my heart as a fire shut up within my bones thy words were found and i did eat them there are many times all you can do is gum chew on them but when god enables you to eat them so that you feel them breaking down under meditation and assimilating themselves into your very spiritual bloodstream very often those are the truths that god will give you and you will receive them god would have you to convey to others as you read the masters in israel mighty preachers of the past you'll find that certain things will grip you truths that they open up that you've looked at all your life suddenly in the hands of a master and under the blessing of the spirit of god that truth as it were fastens itself upon the conscience and upon the heart upon the whole being well keep a record of those things when god by the spirit flashes light upon the text when god by the spirit lays a theme upon the heart keep a notebook or keep a file and don't think it irreverent to get up off your knees where you're praying and meditating to jot some things down i have a file that i call sermon ideas in rough outlines and uh sometime when i'm casting

35:55 about for what to preach i've got one thing on the back burner now the last thing hebrews 3 13 and 14 the ultimate evil to be avoided falling away lest there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the living god the intermediate evil to be guarded against an evil heart of unbelief the subtle cause of both the deceitfulness of sin the means ordained to prevent them watchfulness take heed brethren and then exhort one another there's the four points of the structure of a sermon needs a lot more work to be preached but that thing gripped me i trembled inwardly before god in the light of that verse how i've been reading through again for the fourth time this time on my knees not because there's any sacredness about the position but i just find i'm so earthy it helps me to remember i'm having dealings with god and not with sermon preparation reading through volume six of row of owen and when he was dealing with that verse and every verse he quotes i try to look it up and meditate upon it that thing gripped me well when god grips us with a verse like that many times his purpose does not terminate upon our own sanctification and our own salvation and our own salvation and our own salvation and we accept the commandments because it gives us time to saliva why do we break our

37:09 escuches if you have so much Drummond seed to Titus a little in the Ming class b operator God's not onto him had quarter o'clock a man with a pastor's heart can read through that and not say, I've got to preach through that starting next Sunday. I mean, it's the kind of thing that it's so helpful and practical that you just feel, I've got to share that with my people. I don't know how a man can read through Precious Remedies by Brooks and not say, I've got to preach that to others or read through Owen, Volume 6, and not say, I've got to preach that to others. Now, it doesn't mean everything that grips you that way must be preached. But a true preacher is never a man who's casting about for something to say. It's the luxury of too much to say and the discipline of having to make the choice of the one amidst the many. And that's why

38:17 I seriously question people who just pick up the shibboleth and say, oh, the Puritans are dry and hard to read and they're pedantic. A man is just displaying his ignorance. I don't mean to be unkind, but it's true. A man's displaying his ignorance. Anyone who can read the things I've just mentioned and not say, with those two on the road to Emmaus, did not our hearts burn within us? The problem's not Elizabethan English. The problem is the deadness of his own heart and his unacquaintedness with experimental religion. If you're struggling on your way to the celestial city fighting with your sins and you pick up Volume 6 of Owen, I had another man this week tell me the same thing. He said, I just felt who in the world turned him loose in my heart with a notebook for three weeks. That uncanny sense that that's my condition being described before me. In the words of that mighty master in Israel. Well, when those things grip you, you see, sensitivity to God's dealings with your own heart and mind will in part guide you in the selection of materials to give to your people. All right? Maximum number four, seek to be

Maxim 4: Sensitive to Your Present Development as a Preacher

39:23 sensitive to your present development as a preacher and a teacher of the Word of God. And there's a very significant phrase along this line in Romans chapter 12 dealing with the whole subject of the Word of God. And it's a very significant phrase along this line in Romans chapter 12 dealing with the whole subject of the Word of God. And there's a very significant phrase along this line in Romans chapter 12 dealing with the whole subject of the Word of God.

39:36 Recognizing and exercising the various gifts in the church and having exhorted us not to think more highly than we ought to think, then we are told if we discern that our gift is prophecy, teaching or preaching. Verse 6, having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith. That is, according to the measure of our confidence. God's gift to us and the present development of that gift. I shall never forget the shock that came to me when a few years ago, at that time he was my favorite operatic tenor, Richard Tucker. He no longer is. He's been supplanted and replaced by our Swedish-Russian hybrid,

40:34 Nikolai Gedder. He's now my present favorite. He's number one in my ratings of dramatic tenors. But there was a time when I was in a position where I was in a position where I was in a position where I was quite a Richard Tucker fan and happened to hear that there was going to be an interview with Richard Tucker on, I think, WOR. And one of the things that amazed me at that time, many heralding him as the greatest of the tenors singing Italian roles, he was asked why he didn't sing such and such a role. And here he was at that time, just about 50. I think he's 55 now. He was just in his late 40s anyway. And he said, well, I'd love to, but I don't feel. I don't know. I'd love to do that role. And he said, well, I haven't received even a part of it. I don't know if I'm gonna have a part of it. But, in fact, he had a great deal

41:21 of it. And I think this is what he was talking about, is that there was a huge, enormous effort for all of us to basically stop forward and to say, well, I hope these tenors are great, I hope they keep on playing, and I hope your voice is matured enough yet to handle the role adequately. The role is too big for me. I've never forgotten that. Here's a man heralded all around the world, already been singing at the Met. They had his 25th, celebrated his 25th anniversary of his debut a couple of years ago at the Met. Been singing all those years Granted. And the moment he loses that sense of inadequacy, God have mercy upon him.

41:47 But at the same time, good sense will tell him that there are certain things that he should not attack as a novice. For instance, the man who plunges right in to preach through the book of the Revelation when he's only been preaching for three years ought to have his head examined or burn his charts, one or the other. If he feels confident, it's because he's got his charts. And if he feels confident because he's got his charts, then something is terribly, drastically wrong in the overall perspective.

42:19 Be sensitive to your present development as a preacher. And if you find you're in over your head, tell your people that. I used to have a lot of pressure. Why don't you preach through, do some biographical preaching?

42:30 I've been preaching for some 15 years or so before I did anything in a real concentrated way. I said, well, I don't know if I've got the gift of it. To really handle these things. To handle these things properly and not just use your imagination to keep up interest.

42:45 And after some pressure from the outside and sort of fearful, I gave my first try at it in that series and preaching through Elijah. But I felt confidence to do so because I was flanked on the one hand with Krumacher on Elijah and Pink on Elijah. And behind and beneath them, from which both Pink and F.B. Meyer also drew heavily, F.W. Taylor on Elijah.

43:07 Plus all my exegetical aids. So I said, well, I...

43:10 I've got an awful lot to keep me from sinking. I've got some pretty good-sized life preservers here to help me and to guide me. And I ventured out. And again, I only use that as an illustration.

43:21 Seek to be sensitive to your own present development as a preacher. Prophesy according to the proportion of faith, not the proportion of presumption that says, oh, trust the Holy Ghost and you'll help me to preach anything. And the poor people sit there and they can't tell whether you're in Dan or Beersheba or under the Red Sea or up on Mount Pisgah. And the poor people are tortured.

Maxim 5: Sensitive to the Reaction of Your Flock

43:43 Seek to be sensitive to your present development as a preacher. And then, last of all, and this may get me in hot water with some people, but that's all right. If I can't say what I want to here, I can't say it anywhere. So I take liberties here that I wouldn't elsewhere.

43:57 Seek to be sensitive to the reaction of your flock to your preacher.

44:04 Now, we are not men-pleasers. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2, 4, As we are proved of God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak. Not as pleasing men, but God who tries our hearts. We're not to tickle men's ears.

44:18 That's the mark of a degenerate age. The time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine, but after themselves will heap upon themselves teachers having itching ears. But on the other side, we're shepherds to the flock. And if we have a flock of God's people in whom the Holy Ghost dwells, who have an appetite for the Word of God, it's stupidity for a man to begin to empty himself.

44:43 In the church of people who, in the judgment of charity, we can call Christians and say, Well, they just don't have an ear for the truth. What it is, it's his plodding, uninteresting, pedantic manners in the pulpit that simply are not helping the people of God. He's choosing things that are totally irrelevant to their needs. He's scratching them where they never have itched in their lifetime and perhaps never will itch until they die.

45:11 And then he draws in... And says, Well, it's simply because these poor non-initiates can't understand and see the great things that I understand and the great things that I see.

45:23 And here is one of the great blessings under God of cultivating true, godly elders who share in the oversight of the flock with you. Because if you develop the right relationship with them, they will feel at liberty to say to you, Now, Pastor, I feel that maybe it might be well for a little change of pace. Some of the folks have come. They haven't wanted to be nasty.

45:45 But they've indicated that maybe, you know, it's a bit long. It's been three years now, and you aren't out of the first three verses of such and such a book. You know, and they're just...

45:55 And if they say the sermons are too long, listen to them. Listen, you say, Well, you're a great one to talk. Listen, brethren, there are times when the Holy Ghost isn't with me, and I know it, and the people know it, and I get through my outline and shut up. I've preached more than one half-hour sermon.

46:14 There's the sense that... The Holy Ghost is present, and the Word is coming with freshness, and God is capturing the ears of the people, and they're attentive.

46:27 Why, then, time becomes a secondary matter both to you and to them. But I know some young preachers that think the standard of orthodoxy is a one-hour sermon.

46:36 Brethren, if you can't hold people for an hour, shut up.

46:40 If you can hold them for a half-hour, and that's all the Holy Ghost gives you grace for, well, then hold them for a half-hour. Then be done. Have sense enough to sit down. It's not a standard of orthodoxy to preach 45 or an hour.

46:52 It's not a 45-minute or hour-long sermon. And if the criticism comes back past you, you're too heavy. Don't immediately assume it's because they don't want sound doctrine. Maybe you're presenting it in lead-clad armor.

47:05 Rather than having it float to sea in the bright sunlight, vivid imagery, and some illustration, don't have such a high opinion of yourself. That's what I'm trying to say.

47:16 Admit that maybe the people can make a valid observation that you're too heavy, too pedantic, too long, too involved, too complex. You get an outline that's got sub-sub-points under the sub-points under the sub-sub-sub-points, and the poor people, they just get hopelessly lost, and they can't hang it all together. Now, don't blame them for that. That's your fault.

47:35 And we'll get on that when we come to the matter of a clear, uncluttered structure to our sermonic material. So then, I leave you not with rules, because that would be to break one of my warnings, but I leave you then with these five maxims relative to the selection of sermonic material, and trust that God will be pleased, to help you as you seek to implement them, as in His providence you have opportunity to do so in the course of preaching and teaching the Word of God. All right, we have time now to entertain your questions or observations.