Discriminating Applicatory Preaching

Q: What does the Bible say about the importance of whole counsel in preaching?

The Bible emphasizes preaching the whole counsel of God to faithfully represent His truths and ensure believers grow in understanding. The Apostle Paul commanded Timothy to take heed to his teaching and ensure he proclaims the whole counsel of God. This concept is vital because it encompasses the full spectrum of doctrines, including holiness, sin, grace, and redemption, ensuring an accurate and comprehensive presentation of Christian truth. As Charles Bridges noted, neglecting any part of the doctrine can lead to an imbalanced understanding and a weak ministry. The beauty of divine truth lies in its harmonious display, and it is the responsibility of the preacher to faithfully teach every aspect of God's Word.

Q: How do we know that the desire for a balanced preaching style is a biblical principle?

A balanced preaching style reflects the biblical mandate to teach the full counsel of God without neglecting any essential doctrines. Balance in preaching is rooted in Scripture, where Paul urged Timothy to teach not only the truths that are popular but also those that are hard-hitting and necessary. The call is to communicate the whole counsel of God in proportion, which involves giving attention to various aspects of doctrine such as justification, repentance, and the law's role in salvation. Furthermore, the narrative of Scripture often highlights the totality and integration of God’s message, affirming that no single aspect should be emphasized disproportionately. This principle encourages a healthy understanding among congregants and leads to more robust faith.

Q: Why is the application of biblical truths important in preaching?

Application of biblical truths ensures that preached messages are relevant to the audience’s lives and can lead to genuine transformation. The practical application of biblical truths is essential in preaching as it connects doctrine to everyday life, making the message accessible and actionable. Paul exemplified this by transitioning from doctrinal exposition to specific exhortations in his letters, urging believers to live out their faith. Preaching should not only present theological truths but also guide congregants in how to embody these truths in their daily lives. This approach fosters spiritual growth, as believers learn to align their experiences with God’s Word, thus promoting transformation and sanctification through practical obedience.

Q: How can preachers apply truth with searching discrimination?

Preachers can apply truth with searching discrimination by recognizing the diverse needs of their audience and addressing specific issues relevant to different groups. To apply truth with searching discrimination, preachers should be aware of the various spiritual states of their congregation. This involves distinguishing between believers, seekers, and those who may be deceived about their salvation. Joseph Alleine's approach showcases how preachers can address both overt and subtle signs of unconverted states, ensuring that each individual hears a message tailored to their specific spiritual need. By applying truth in a targeted manner, preachers strengthen the effectiveness of their ministry, guiding listeners toward genuine repentance and faith in Christ.

a year or so ago, I was privileged
to participate in the ordination of a young man to the Christian
ministry and asked to bring just a very brief charge. And I wrote
up the substance of that. It was on the text that we've
been using as our basic guideline for our weekend together. And
any of you fellows that would like one, I believe there must
be, oh, 50 or 60 copies. And then at the bottom, I have
put the names of two, four, six, eight books. which have some
excellent sections dealing with the areas of truth that I've
been seeking to cover this weekend. And in fact, had I had more time,
again this matter being selective, I would have read some very excellent
quotes from these books to further whet your appetite. Perhaps I
ought to mention them now, I won't get opportunity later. Charles
Spurgeon's lectures to his students is one of those, I think if I
had to whittle down to twelve books, this would be one of the
twelve. To read and re-read, I think I've gone through at
least twice, some sections more than that. Very helpful, all
the way from the preacher's self-watch to the use of gestures. And with
Spurgeon's typical wit and penetration to the core of the issues, This
will be a lifetime companion, and then the book from which
I'll be quoting several times this afternoon, Charles Bridges,
a man in the establishment of the Church of England, back in
the 1800s, I believe, The Christian Ministry. Excellent section here
on the right use of the law in the Christian ministry, and how
to preach the gospel, and the aspects that I'll be touching
this afternoon, of speaking with discrimination and with application
of truth. an excellent lifetime companion
to the minister and then my secretary either I didn't speak too clearly
on the dictation or she got three letters of John Newton it's supposed
to be the letters of John Newton of a little paperback by Banner
of Truth Trust in which John Newton has some very helpful
material on the call to the Christian ministry I would say outside
of Mr. Clowney's book on this subject
for something brief which brings into focus the principles that
are operative in a valid call to the ministry. Mr. Newton does
an excellent job in this area. Some helpful suggestions on people
who are grappling with the truth of election. He writes to someone
who was having problems in this area and gives some very judicious
and helpful advice. And then the Reformed Pastor
by Richard Baxter. And then a new book I understand
you have at the bookstore, The Forgotten Spurgeon by Ian Murray.
And then a little paperback, Words to Winners of Souls, a
little manual that in periods of dry spiritual experience,
take a day or an afternoon, go off with your Bible and that
little book, and with dependence upon the Lord, I'm sure you'll
come back refreshed. And then another excellent book
by Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry. which contains twelve of the
lectures Spurgeon delivered for some twenty-five years, when
the men who graduated from his pastor's college would come back
for a yearly convocation, and he would charge them as sort
of the elder-elder amongst the flock, sort of the bishop of
that gathering. Very helpful material, and so
I commend those books for your reading. You might purchase them
as soon as possible, and then make a lifetime companion of
those books. Now as we turn to the Word of
God, may we once again just pause in prayer and ask the Lord by
His Spirit to assist us and teach us through His Word. Our Father, we lift up our hearts
with grateful praise for the opportunity that has been ours
this weekend of exercising our minds and our spirits in the
light of revealed truth. We thank you for the sense of
your presence, for the times when we've been able to exchange
thoughts, one with the other. And now we pray that you would
not leave us at the mercy of our own resources as we come
to this last hour together. Be pleased to quicken the one
who speaks, that he may speak as the oracles of God, and that
we who listen may be instructed of the Holy Spirit. Give us discernment
to prove all things, to hold fast to that which is good. Make
us, we pray, to be like those at Berea who received the word
with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to see whether
these things were so. Give us that noble spirit, we
pray. Answer us in our petition. For
we ask these favors through him who loved us and gave himself
for us, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We began to consider this morning
the second aspect of Paul's command to Timothy, take heed to thyself
and to thy teaching. And in this matter of taking
heed to our teaching, two main divisions of thought the content
of our teaching, that which we communicate, and then we're going
to touch later on for a few minutes at the close of our study, the
manner in which we communicate that content, this matter of
communication and how we teach the word of truth. Under the
first heading of the matters which we communicate, take heed
to thy teaching, We are considering, first of all, take heed to your
teaching that you teach the whole counsel of God. I have now Luther's
quote that I'll read verbatim. If I profess with the loudest
voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of
God, except precisely that little point which the world and the
devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however
boldly I may be professing Christ. where the battle rages, there
the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady in all
the battlefield besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches
at that point. And so we sought to bring into
focus at least five or six of those areas where the battle
is raging for the souls of men, and in which we must engage ourselves
with diligent sober thought and then with anointed proclamation
if we are to serve our generation by the will of God, giving proper
place to the law of God, by the grace of the Lord preaching the
whole Christ to the whole man, giving a clarion call to repentance,
spelling out the basis of biblical assurance, teaching the true
doctrine of the perseverance as well as the preservation of
the saints, and seeking to set before men the distinguishing
traits of true conversion. Now not only must we take heed
to our teaching as far as its content is concerned, that we
teach the whole counsel of God, but now in the second place we
must take heed to our teaching that we teach the whole counsel
of God in proportion. Have you ever thought of what
beauty is? It might be interesting to try
to get some definitions of beauty. Perhaps that will help keep us
awake. This is a bad hour. I don't envy teachers who have
to teach during this hour of the day. This is most people's
drowsy period. Would someone like to venture
a definition of what beauty is, in any realm? What is beauty? All right, would someone like
to add to that? Yes. All right. So we have the concept of symmetry. leading to a whole, something
to do with that which is a composite unit, alright? Anyone else want
to add anything to that? I think we have, yes? Beauty
is that in the creative realm which reflects the beauty of
God. Alright, that which reflects
the beauty of God. Well, what is there in the character
of God that in the purest, most noble sense makes him a thing
of beauty? The holiness. Would His holiness be beautiful
apart from His justice and His love? Which is the outshining
and harmonious display of His perfection. Don't we come back
to that again? I don't want to squeeze your definition into
my notion here, but do we come back to that? Alright, someone
else. I think that it's an ultimate
thing. I mean, you can describe aspects of it, but I don't think
you can give it a definition. You can't do it in contrast with
something else. All right, now we could begin
to do some philosophical hair splitting, and that would take
more time, probably, than we can warrant, than it warrants.
But I think we're moving in the direction that I believe is valid,
that beauty involves something of a composite an interrelationship
of things that perhaps in themselves are not too intrinsically attractive,
but together with other things they form a whole. You see a
person who perhaps, if you just took a picture of the ear, you'd
say that's a well-formed ear. And you look at the chin, you'd
say that's a nice sculptured chin. And all of these independent
characteristics, but put them together, they might not necessarily
form what we call a beautiful person. There may be other people
that every feature is pleasing, but maybe they've been blessed
with an unusual nose, like one that sort of turns up on the
end, or one that perhaps, like Dr. Rudolph, turns over like
a hawk on the end. And so, if all the other features
are pleasing and in proper proportion, if there's one that's out of
whack, that person, we say, is not beautiful, would be beautiful
if it were not for, and then we mention that characteristic.
So in the preaching of the truth, that truth which we're called
upon to display, the whole counsel of God is beautiful as God has
given it to us. There is a harmonious interrelationship
of divine truth. And as we seek to take heed to
our teaching, that ideal to which we must press, no man at his
best will ever attain it, but he should make it as his goal,
is that we not only declare the whole counsel of God, but that
we declare the whole counsel of God in due proportion. This quote from Bridges. Many
are confined to favorite doctrines, neglecting others of at least
equal importance. Some are continually employed
in detecting the delusions of a false profession. Others, in
fulminating the terrors of the law. Others, in painting the
awful condition of the unconverted. others in general invitations
to Christ, or in dispensing indiscriminately the promises and the consolations
of the gospel, or others in an abstract exposition of practical
obligations. Some seem to forget that the
Church, as well as the world, needs a quickening ministry. And then he summarizes what should
be the whole spectrum, the beauty of that display of divine truth.
the guilt, corruption, and ruin of man by the fall, his free
and full justification through faith in the atoning blood and
meritorious obedience of the Redeemer, his adoption by faith
into the family of God, the holy nature and evidences of this
faith, the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit in the work of
regeneration, progressive sanctification in all his offices of holy and
heavenly consolation, the harmonious working of the three sacred persons,
each in his specific office, in the economy of redemption,
these are the cardinal points in the ministration of every
scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven." And so this must
be our goal, that we not only declare the whole counsel of
God, but declare it in due proportion. Now I'm personally convinced
that God blesses His Church in giving gifts not only to men,
but giving men of particular disposition and bent of mind
that certain facets of his truth might be brought out into unusual
brilliance through that individual in order that they may be incorporated
into the life stream of the church. It's more natural that a young
man in the flush and fervor and zeal of his youth will be a son
of thunder than he will be an aged John, the apostle of love.
Now, I must be true to my God-given identity. Nothing is more disgusting
than to see a man of twenty trying to talk like a man of seventy.
Talk like a man of twenty! Be yourself, yielded to the Spirit
and disciplined by grace, and give vent to the truth of God
through your own God-given personality. Let's not allow our personality
and our temperament to put such a stamp upon the truth and upon
our emphases in declaring the truth that it becomes a caricature. And you know what a caricature
is. It's taking that most unique characteristic of an individual
and blowing it up to out of proportion so it becomes the earmark of
that person. In the 64 campaign, all you saw
everywhere was what? Dark horn-rimmed glasses. That
was the caricature, you see. Or you saw the long Texas nose,
the caricatures of our friend, Mr. Johnson, our president. And
so in the presentation of the truth, we must aim toward presenting
the whole council, but in its proper proportion. We could labor
that point, but we'll simply mention it to move to some other
areas that we'd like to expand in a bit more detail. And then
thirdly, under this matter of taking heed to thy teaching,
the content of that teaching, not only the whole counsel of
God, the whole counsel in proportion, but in the third place, the whole
counsel in proportion and applied. And this is where I want to sit
for a few minutes. When you and I stand to teach the truth of
God, it's like the tailor, and this is the only suit I've ever
owned that has a valid illustration. A tailor made this. The tailor
takes the fabric off the boat, and according to the measurements,
he then cuts that fabric, sews it together, and he makes it
into a garment that is suited to me. But now the whole end
of all of his labor is not that this might sit in a showcase
so people come by and nod and say, isn't that a pretty jacket?
The whole end is that I might put it on and find its use in
terms of my own needs in the realm of clothing. Now we spent
hours, I trust, laboring in the Word and in doctrine. We've sought
under God to know the sense of that passage, which is the next
passage in our regular exposition, or which God has laid upon our
hearts, or that particular topic. And we've prepared, we've sought
to be true in our exegesis, not twisting the Word, nor handling
the Word of God deceitfully, manipulating it to fit our own
conceptions, but we're letting the text lead us down any path
that an honest exegesis in comparison with the analogy of faith will
lead us. Now when we've done all of that, we are not finished. By simply holding up this fabric
that is woven together out of the bolt of our study in terms
of exegesis and comparing commentaries, we've got this wonderful garment,
and then we hold it up to our people, and then we let them
go looking at a garment! No, we must, under God, seek
to get them to crawl into that garment. Isn't this what the
Scripture means when it says, that we are to tell men to adorn
the doctrine of God in all things. Not only instruct them in that
doctrine, but teach them how to adorn themselves with that
doctrine. And this is the pattern the great
apostle followed. Paul, I was going to say Paul
and followed, and I got felled. After laying out the great doctrines
of the Word of God in those first eleven chapters of Romans, he
says, I beseech you, therefore. He didn't stop and say, well,
I'll trust the Holy Spirit to tell them what to do, now that
they've heard the truth. He said, this is what you ought
to do. He lays out those great truths in Ephesians 1, 2, and
3. Then he comes to chapter 4, "...I beseech you therefore to
walk worthily of the Lord." Period? No! Then he takes three chapters
to tell them what it means to walk worthily of the Lord. He
didn't say, I'm going to trust the Holy Spirit to tell you what
that means. He began to tell them. He began to tell them.
And so you find this pattern in the apostolic letters where
there was the setting out of that fabric, weaving it together,
and then seeking to get men to adorn that doctrine. Again, my
prejudice for the Puritan expositors, I don't want anyone to think
that I'm beginning a cult of antiquity worship or something.
I don't want to be any part of that. But where you get help,
you can't help but want others to come to the same stream. And
after the Puritans expounded the text, you know the pattern
they followed, there was exposition, Then there was the doctrine involved,
and they'd lay out the doctrines, then it was use 1, use 2, use
3, use 4, use 5. And they never ended with exposition
or doctrine, but they always came to that third area of teaching,
use 1, use 2, use 3. They told people what it would
mean if they began to appropriate this truth in the area of practical
experience. I'm convinced that this is one
of the secrets of the power of their preaching. You were never
left hanging there with a mystical look upon your eyes and saying,
isn't that marvelous? No, after being caught up into
the heavenlies as the truth of God was laid out, your eyes were
again turned earthward and homeward and shopward. and marketplace
word, and you are told what this truth will mean in those specific
areas if you are to adorn the doctrine of God in all things. Now, in what specific ways is
this to be done? If we are to take heed to our
teaching and let its content not only be a declaration of
the whole counsel of God and that counsel in due proportion,
but the counsel of God applied, how is this to be done? May I
suggest two things? It's to be done with specific
application and secondly with searching discrimination. We
are to make specific applications of the truth. We find the scriptural
pattern in the life of our Lord. When he was applying truths to
individuals like the woman at the well, she wanted living water. He didn't give her some obtuse
dissertation on the fact that those who would drink of living
water must be ready to honestly face their sins. He said, call
my husband. That put the matter very simply.
Lord, give me this water so that I don't need to come again. He
said, you want water? All right. Call your husband.
But Lord, I don't have a husband. He said, that's right. I know
all about your sordid past. You want living water? You've
got to face that sordid past and be willing to face it honestly
in my presence. I know all about you. Now that's
about as specific as you can get, isn't it? The rich young
ruler. Our Lord parried with him. Touched
peripheral issues. What must I do to have eternal
life? Matthew 19. The Lord said, well, you know
the commandments. Gave them. He said, well, I have all these
things that I kept from my youth up. The Lord said, all right,
I'll go to the heart of the matter. One thing thou lacketh. And he
didn't give some, again, some distant, unrelated lecture on
the danger of idolatry. He said, son, take your riches,
sell them, give them to the poor, follow me. He said, you've got
an idol in your heart and there's no sense kidding ourselves. That
idol is your consciousness. Go on out and smash your idol.
He went right to the core of the issue. Right to the core. The Apostle Paul did this in
his writings. He said in Galatians 5.19, the works of the flesh
are manifest, and He didn't say, and you know what they are. He
said, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these?
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, and then He mentions
anger, wrath, pride, and after all that list He says, and the
list isn't finished, and such like. He said, I've just started
the list, now you complete it. Our Lord did this when He said
in Mark 7, 21, for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed
sin, period, no, proceed, then he mentioned the sins, specific.
1 Timothy 1.9, Paul said, the law is good if a man use it lawfully,
for we know that the law is not made for the righteous, for the
good man, but for, and then he names them, all the different
forms of lawbreakers, gross sins, and after completing that list,
he says in verse 11, I believe it is, he said, and if there
be any other thing contrary to sound doctrine according to the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Specific naming of issues. And
frankly, I have very little patience with some of my brethren who
say, well, I don't name the issues. I just set out the principles
and I trust the Holy Spirit to apply them. What a pious way
to cover up an unwillingness to follow out the mind of God.
Let's be careful of being specific where God is not. And I'm sure
most of us have laughed often when people have talked about
the famous five, but never forget When Paul finished his list of
the works of the flesh, he said, there are some I have not mentioned.
And in any given generation and in any given culture pattern,
there are issues that are clearly coming under that category of
the works of the flesh, which we have an obligation to name
in the application of other biblical principles. Specific application. One of
the ways we can do this is with the use of questions. This is
something that fascinated me as I sought to understand some
of the mechanics of the great creatures of the past, and I
noticed something. That those who were used of God
to move the hearts of men, I'm not talking about those who were
used, I don't know whether of God so much, but who were noted
for their pulpit oratory, but I'm talking about those who were
known as being fathers in Israel, ones who could say, though you
have ten thousand instructors, yet have I begotten you through
the gospel. I'm talking about men of the
stripe of Whitefield and of John Wesley. Though I don't embrace
a lot of his theology, certainly God used him to call many into
his kingdom. Jonathan Edwards. You will find that these men,
almost without exception, in their specific application of
the truth, used series of questions with great and devastating authority. After their hearers were exposed
to the doctrine and its general truth, then they would turn to
their hearers and apply questions to the conscience to make men
reflect upon that truth in the light of their own experience.
Joseph Ilion, in his famous work, An Alarm to the Unconverted,
a book worth mastering, sometimes has whole paragraphs of questions,
seeking to drive his hearer to reflect upon the truth in the
light of his own experience. Bridges says something about
this that I think is very incisive in its insight. He said, we must
interest people in the truth by calling upon them to observe,
by asking them questions to answer silently in their own mind, by
every prudent incitement to follow us closely. Now notice this statement. We must not expect our hearers
to apply to themselves such unpalatable truths. So unnatural is this
habit of personal application that most will fit the doctrine
to anyone but themselves. I've often said there's only
one place where the human heart is not naturally selfish. That's
when it comes to applying truth. Everybody's a benevolent Santa
Claus when it comes to applying truth. By nature, the human heart
is a grasping, clutching thing. Our babies are born with their
fists clenched, and we go through life that way. Gimme, gimme,
gimme. My, my, my. But when it comes to applying
the truth, why we become so benevolent, and we've got truth to throw
away like Rockefeller had dimes. And everybody can have his portion,
and poor me, I've got nothing left for me. This is what Bridges
is talking about. He said, men will not do this.
And so we must, by the enablement of God, and by grasping some
of these principles, seek to make them apply the truth to
themselves. This is where the illustration
breaks down. I was glad to step into my tailor-made suit. But
a truth which is unpalatable to human nature, men are going
to run from it. And under God, we must seek to
press them to apply that truth to their own conscience. And
so, to teach the whole counsel of God in due proportion and
with application. There must be a specificness
in our application. And then secondly, with searching
discrimination. Whenever I stand to preach, I
always assume that if it's a group of any size whatsoever, that
I have at least three or four different classes of people there.
Now I'm not talking about a group like this. Here I would assume
basically maybe two or three classes. But when I stand before
my congregation on a Sunday morning, I assume that I have there, as
I generally do, visitors who probably have never confronted
the gospel with any clear note whatsoever. This is all perfectly
new to me. There are others who are awakened, there are certain
ones that I know have begun to show an interest in the things
of God. Perhaps I've spoken to them in pastoral calls and they've
begun to search the scriptures and we're feeding them literature,
evangelistic literature that we're trusting will be God's
instrument to bring them to faith. Then there are those who, because
they made a decision in the dim, murky past, they think they're
saved, but there are no evidences of life. none whatsoever over
a period of knowing them for four years they come Sunday morning
and that grudgingly and no real interest and so in the light
of the word though you're not God you have serious concern
that perhaps these people are deceived professors then there
are those new babes who come and hang upon every word to whom
the Lord Jesus is a precious burning reality and then there's
that other group that mature saint who's known what it is
to go through the fire of affliction You've got all those people before
you as a pastor, and you've got to give a due portion in Caesar. That's no task for the indolent.
And I think it's an insult to God where He has given us, within
His Word, the prescription for each of those classes to simply
give out one dose and say, take what you need. I don't believe
God would have us do this. As you read the New Testament
letters, You find that there was this discrimination. At times,
Paul is talking to people who are apparently deceived. He says,
don't be deceived, 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Don't be deceived. You
who think that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of
God, don't be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor effeminate, etc., shall have any inheritance in the kingdom
of God and of Christ. John writes in 1 John, I've written
unto you, children, young men, fathers, He was discriminating.
He realized he had different classes. And so we must, in the
application of truth, seek to apply it with searching discrimination. In Joseph Eilean's book, An Alarm
to the Unconverted, in that first, second section where he gives
the marks of the unconverted, he gives what he calls ten marks
that some people carry in their forehead. And he mentions profaners
of religion, open lawbreakers, rejecters of the gospel, those
who obviously are not the children of God. Then he says, but all
many of you here listening to my voice or reading this book,
you don't have the marks of your unconverted state upon your forehead.
You carry those marks within the secrets of your heart. And
then he gives 12 secret marks, hidden marks of the unconverted,
like secret enmity against the strictness of true religion.
secret reserves in closing with Christ. I'm quoting some of his
Puritan terminology. And after he's done, he's given
22 classes of unconverted people. And he has not butchered or twisted
a text of Scripture to do it. It has all emerged from the Word
of God. And if God has put those classes
there, then I believe He expects us to discern who they are and
what they are, and in His name and by the power of the Spirit,
to apply the truth with that searching discrimination. In
order to discipline myself to do this, I've sought in the regular
exposition of any section of the Word, after having laid out
that exposition, tried to get it in some kind of order and
illustrate it so there'll be little windows of light into
the souls of men, I write down deliberately on my initial worksheets.
They look like this. They cover the x-ray plates.
A lady who works in an office gets these for me in a doctor's
office. And I put down, application, apply. Long before anything's
come to my mind, and some of the most arduous thought and
prayer goes into this matter. How am I going to apply it? There's
that high school kid. He sits over there every Sunday.
Now what are his problems? What does this passage say to
the typical teenager? I've got to have a portion for
them. Then I've got all those students from that Bible school,
would-be missionaries and pastors. What does this passage say specifically
to them? And then there's dear old Mrs.
Blair, who lost her husband a year and a half ago, who longs to
go home to be with the Lord, not with a morbid longing, but
a tender, gracious spirit, 85 years of age, witnessing to the
people in the old folks' home where she lives. What does this
passage say to her? And then there's Bud out there,
Awakened? Made a break with the Roman Church?
Seeking? Reading the Scriptures? What
would God be likely to use, perhaps, to lead him over that line into
conscious embrace of Christ? And with all those people and
their needs upon your heart, you begin to seek to apply the
truth of God with discriminating application. Well, you say you talk like the
whole job is yours. My job is to take heed to my
teaching. The Holy Spirit alone can open
the eyes of that man and enable him to embrace it, but let it
never be said there was nothing to embrace because of my indolence,
because of my carelessness, because of my unwillingness to cultivate
and work at the art of searching discrimination in the application
of divine truth. And now, I mentioned for the
last part of our consideration this afternoon, we want to consider
not only taking heed to ourself in the content of our teaching,
but take heed to thy teaching in the manner of communication. And I have here just two suggestions.
We want to take heed in this matter of the manner of our communication,
take heed to our teaching that we teach first of all with studied
simplicity, No, I have three points, I'm sorry, I worked one
in just before coming over here that I hadn't thought of. With
satisfactory orderliness and with spirit-wrought compassion
and urgency. First of all, take heed to thy
teaching that in your communication you communicate with studied
simplicity. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 has
a very instructive word for us. 1 Corinthians 14, that chapter
in which Paul is dealing with the abuse and proper use of the
gift of tongues within the church at Corinth, and he says in verse
9, referring of course to the matter of tongues, but there's
a principle that applies to us, So likewise ye, except ye utter
by the tongue words easy to be understood, How shall it be known
what is spoken, for ye shall speak into the air?" And I'm
convinced many a sermon has been a disturbance of the airwaves. That's all. Because the words
spoken have not been easy to understand. It said of our Lord,
the one in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily,
The one in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
that the common people heard him what? Gladly. Why? Because he communicated with
studied simplicity. Sitting on a hillside, he wants
to illustrate. He points to the birds. Behold
the fowls of the air. Look at them. Look at the lilies of the field.
A young would-be disciple, the Lord says, see the little fox
out in the field? The sun begins to go down, he's got a little
hole he can call his own, doesn't he? He sure does. Because the
son of man has nowhere to lay his head. All little monosyllable
words, studied simplistically. He who could have baffled the
learned, the common people heard him gladly, and he did baffle
the learned with the power of truth. It wasn't obscured by
a mass of meaningless verbiage. It studied simplicity. Now, we agree,
I trust. I trust you believe this. that
there must be a supernatural work of the Spirit in the realm
of divine illumination before a man can ever understand the
truth of God in a way of feeling and knowing its power. The natural
man, 1 Corinthians 2.14, receives not the things of the Spirit
of God, their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them.
Now, granted that we are convinced that the Holy Spirit must give
a supernatural gift of illumination before a man can be saved, let's
not make it necessary that He also give a supernatural gift
of interpretation before a man will be saved under our ministry. Let's not make it necessary that
God give a gift of interpretation before men know the substance
of what we're saying. And this demands a studied simplicity. We've had a problem with my oldest
child, my boy. Never had a boy's appetite. I suppose one day I'll wish for
these days back again when he begins to eat me out of house
and home. But Joel's always been a picky eater. Too interested
in our conversation and too interested in going back out to play. And
so usually about 45 minutes before we get the meal down, we get
it down. Now, I could turn to my son one of these evenings
when he's not eating too well and say, son, daddy'd love to
have meat in the morning. He'd say, well, daddy, why don't you, why
do you want me to eat? And I could say, well, son, if
you don't assimilate a sufficient supply of nutritional concomitants,
you will undoubtedly be plagued with chronic anemia and physical
debilitation. Now, I could say that. But I
wouldn't be communicating. I say, son, if you don't eat,
you get sick. Now we've laughed, and rightly
so. I believe God's given us the
gift of humor. But listen, if I had some people at my table
whom I was trying to impress, I might impress with my command
of words, but I'd fail to convince my son, who might be physically
harmed if I don't communicate. And what is the pulpit? Not a
place to display anything but the truth! And Paul said in 2
Corinthians 4, 1, by the full display, the manifestation of
the truth, and he didn't put a mask of high-sounding terms
between the truth and his ears, but he sought to speak in plain
speech that men might understand. Along this line, a very practical
problem that you will face is you've got to develop two If
you're going to do the kind of reading that will keep your mind
sharp and disciplined, you've got to be reading. I never read
Mr. Murray without my dictionary.
Never. I always have my dictionary there.
I didn't know there were so many words in the English language. And my vocabulary is not as limited
as some would be, and yet I find I've just got to use my dictionary.
And that's necessary. If you're going to develop your
mental powers as well as your spiritual life. There should
be a consistent, parallel reading, outside reading. I wish I had
more time to go into this. Perhaps in the question time
after we can touch this, the minister and his reading habits.
Completely unrelated to direct sermon preparation. But you're
going to have to develop that vocabulary which will be your
study vocabulary, but you've got to learn to develop a communicating
vocabulary. And it's frustrating at times
because words are precision instruments. And there's a time when there's
a word you want to use that is just, it hits the nail right
on the head, but it won't hit anybody's head there. You see? So you've got to learn that discipline
of using a word that even in your own thinking is not quite
as precise. But a word is simply a vehicle
of communication. And so we must study simplicity. I would say that you men, privileged
to be in the school that you are, to be under the academic
disciplines that you are, will have an unusual temptation in
this area. Learn to take heed to your teaching,
that it be with studied simplicity. Again, may I quote from Bridges
on this, he has an excellent word. I hope I've whetted your
appetite to get hold of Mr. Bridges. Luther tells us when
asked by Dr. Albert the best way of preaching
before the elector, I said, quote, let all your preaching be in
the most plain manner. Look not to the prince, but to
the plain, simple, and unlearned people of which cloth the prince
himself is also made. If in my preaching I should have
regard to Philip Melanchthon or other learned doctors, I should
work but little good. If I preach in the simplest sort
to the unskillful, And the same giveth content to all. Vanity will make a man speak
and write learnedly, but piety only can prevail upon a good
scholar to simplify his speech for the sake of the vote. Oh,
do you get that, men? Listen to it. Vanity will make
a man speak and write learnedly, but piety only can prevail upon
a good scholar to simplify his speech for the sake of the bold. Such a preacher, though his worth
may be overlooked by the undiscerning now, will one day have a name
above every name, whether it be philosopher, poet, orator,
or whatever else, his most revered among mankind. And now I'm really
going to stick my neck out. It's getting toward the end of
the day, so I can do it. With no reference to those of
you who are called to the teaching field, because I would never
in any way seek to pass judgment upon you or read your motives.
I'm sure they're clear before God. But speaking to you young
men, who have your lives before you, your value, what shall I
be? How can I best serve the interest of the kingdom of my
Lord Jesus Christ? Frankly, I'm disturbed when I
move about in schools, Christian colleges, and I find so many
saying, well, I feel God's called me into the classroom to be a
teacher. Now we need godly teachers, such as you're privileged to
have in your school and other schools. But I'm disturbed by
the lack of young men who say, God has laid necessity upon me,
I must preach, and I want to serve him in the focus and realm
of the local assembly. I fear that in an age that deifies
academic attainments, that the motivation perhaps unrealized
by many young men is the status symbol of erudition that comes
with the classroom. Any of you young men who aspire
to a teaching position, I plead with you in the name of my Lord
Jesus Christ. You go down before God and ask
Him to search out your motives. Any man who has the mental gifts
to be of use to God in the pastorate and all the demands that are
upon him in just this simple area of trying to be discriminatory
in his application of truth, a man with that bent of mind
could be a scholar if he sought to be. in the sense that he could
move in academic circles. There comes a time when a man
must forego that in order to best serve the interests of the
kingdom of Jesus Christ. And so I solemnly charge you
men who have your lives before you to soberly weigh that issue. Vanity will make a man speak
and write learnedly. That doesn't say all who speak
and write learnedly are vain. No, not at all. But this may
be the motive in some But piety alone can make a man right claimant. And then he says this that I
think is so true. Education has formed our minds into a mold
so different and given us a language so remote from familiar usage
that there must be a great and possibly an uncongenial change
in our flow of thought and composition. And yet without losing that vigor
and liveliness necessary to arrest the tension. We must condescend
to men of low estate to study their minds, habits, and phraseology. Never use a hard word where a
plain one can be found. Joel, eat your food or you'll
get sick. Giving proper words in their
proper places, short sentences, I get stung every time I read
that, and specially simple ideas, for many will comprehend or successfully
guess at the meaning of a hard word who would be baffled by
a complex idea. Parenthesis and circumlocution,
it is just a remark, deprived expression of its edge. And the idea, attenuated by frequent
tropes and figures, arrives at the mind of a hearer like an
arrow spent in its flight. It's not difficult to make easy
things appear hard. You know what that's like. You
got a paper to deliver and your study's been kind of thin. And
you try to sort of beef it up. with some vocabulary. It's not
difficult to make easy things appear hard, but to render hard
things easy is the hardest part of a good orator and a preacher. That's true. And so take heed
to thy teaching, whether it's in Sunday school class, a mother
sitting down with a child, a father with his children, a pastor with
his flock, a teacher in his classroom. Let us Seek with studied simplicity
to communicate the truth of God. One of the most rewarding things
is that when you've labored over a thing like this, Lord, how
can I, without taking an edge off the holy aura that surrounds
a certain doctrine or truth, without in any way cheapening
it, lessening its dignity, how can I communicate this? And as
you pray and labor and a burst of light comes upon your own
soul, and then you give that truth out and someone comes and
says, That's something I've been wondering about for years, but
God made it so plain to me through your ministry this morning. And
all the sweat and labor is worth it. It's worth it. Because you've
been an instrument of conveying divine truth with studied simplicity. And then secondly, with satisfactory
orderliness. Don't get in bondage to artificial
outlines and patterns of preaching And some of these men, they can't
even greet you without an alliteration. You ever meet those kind of people?
Good morning, my friend, my fellow, and my... something or other. They'd have another F there.
I said they probably proposed with three Ps or something else
when they proposed to their wives. And this becomes artificial,
and it'll do something to your congregation. It'll put them
to sleep. If they know that your first point is a P, know what
they'll be doing? Instead of thinking of that first point,
they'll be thinking, well, how could he get a P into his second
point and a P into his third point? Now maybe I'm just throwing
off the roguishness of my own carnality in the area of my thinking
on others, but when I sit under the ministry or listen to someone
who's bound by that constant alliteration pattern, three points,
two or three sub-points, illustration, all the rest, There's an artificiality
because the Bible wasn't written that way. But let us, turning
our backs upon that, let us seek to communicate and to teach with
satisfactory orderliness. Let's try to think, now if I
were sitting where my people are sitting, and I made that
first point, what would be the question I would ask? We'll try
to anticipate that question and answer it before it's even asked.
And follow that thought progression which is most natural to the
average person. And so your teaching then will
fall into some orderly pattern. Some men have more gifts in this
area by nature, but they don't have much illustrative gift.
So they've got to work on the matter of illustrations to be
little windows of truth to let some light in. Others, illustrations
pop into their mind like wildfire, but then when they try to teach,
it's like buckshot. Everything just comes out at
you at once in a big fan instead of like rifle shots striking
specific marks. And so I would urge upon you
to seek, to take heed to your teaching continually. May I say,
you wives can be a great help to your husbands here. I hope
you husbands aren't so thin-shelled that your wife can't touch you
without having egg ooze out all over the place. Can your wife criticize your
preaching and teaching? My wife's my sephiris critic.
In fact, I know times when I just don't have it. If my wife's there
I feel miserable because I know though perhaps I'm the tongue
now standing and playing the hypocrite but you're communicating
somehow your tongue feels about that thick and your mind like
it's got gooey molasses in it and you just can't seem to get
it across. Mr. Adams you've had that experience
once or twice I'm sure in your years of pastoral experience. Well I know when I go home my
wife will look at me and say dear She said, you had a hard
time this morning, didn't you? I said, yep, I had a hard time
this morning. And then she'll seek to help
me. If I'm willing to listen, and I usually am, you can be
a help to your husbands in this way, you wives. You say, well
dear, speaking now from the standpoint of a wife, that first point you
had was tremendous, but then you just sort of left me hanging,
and you sneaked up behind me and hit me with a third point,
and I just didn't know where you were going. and then work
with your husbands. Work with them. Seek to be in
help, neat, or answering to their needs, even to this need, to
have someone who loves them and can honestly evaluate and criticize
in a constructive way of the ministry. If you use too many
big words, or your wives catch it, talk to your husbands and
seek to help them in that area. So let's attempt to communicate
with satisfactory orderliness, and then last of all, In taking
heed to our teaching in the manner of our delivery, not only should
we deliver the truth with studied simplicity, some measure of orderliness,
but with spirit-wrought compassion and urgency. The Paul who wrote in 1 Thessalonians
1 that the gospel came to you in power, not in word only, but
in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance, ends that
verse with something that puzzled me for years. Will you turn in
your Bibles for a moment and look at 1 Thessalonians 1. 1
Thessalonians 1. Verse 5. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were
among you for your sakes. There was a direct connection
in the means God used for the salvation of these Thessalonians
between the lives of the servants of God and the effect of the
message that they brought. He said the word came in this
way as ye know what manner of men we were and what manner of
men were they. As they delivered the gospel
and the effectual call of God was operative in the lives of
many of these people, In what climate did they speak that gospel?
Well, verse 4 of chapter 2, we were entrusted of God with the
gospel. We spoke, not as pleasing men, but God. We didn't use flattering
words. We weren't after your money.
We didn't seek glory from you. Now notice what he says in verse
8. So being affectionately desirous
of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel
of God only. We didn't come merely to deliver
some truth. but also our own souls, because
ye were dear unto us." Paul said, as I communicated the message,
you know, your very conscience is bear witness that I would
have given my very self to you. You became dear to us. And it's
amazing how the common man, even the unregenerate, sense when
the man is simply grinding out his professional oration And
when he's pouring out his soul, seeking to gain their good, temple
and eternal, they sense it. And it's amazing what people
will take from a man who can say, I want to give you not only
what I've gleaned in my study, but my very soul because you
were dear to me. It's amazing what people will
take from a man that they know loves them. It was McShane who said to his
people, never forget it, the man who loves you most is the
man who tells you the most truth about yourself. And when that
truth is spoken with studied simplicity, with some measure
of orderliness, and embodies the whole counsel of God in its
symmetry and interrelationship, it's amazing what people will
take when they know you love them. It's amazing. The searching,
prying, cutting, wounding truths, if they know that the man who
delivers that truth wields the sword of the Spirit in love,
speaking the truth in love. For if I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. And again, I've sought to study
some of the men whom God used to bring people to spiritual
birth. I'm not talking about some of the great pulpit orators.
I don't look at a man whose sermons are a model of preaching exhibition. But I try to find the men whom
God honored with true success. People who were brought into
the kingdom under their ministry, who were built up into vigorous
piety and usefulness. One thing that you notice about
every one of them, they were men with large hearts. Large hearts. Men who had a capacity to feel.
Men who could weep, if not outwardly, inwardly. It would be simply an external
histrionic effect to try to imitate this, but I believe there's a
principle that's valid. Someone came to a woman who had
heard the great Mr. Whitfield and said to this woman,
What do you feel is the secret of the success of this man? She
said, I've heard him preach three times today. As I've pressed
near to the preacher as he expounded the gospel three times today,
I have been made wet with the tears that have splashed from
his cheeks. Oh, that's extreme, is it? But
to God I could know one hundredth of his usefulness. and had his extremity, if that's
the price. Someone was visiting the church
where McShane preached with such usefulness. The old sextant was
there, who had been there when McShane preached. And taking
him into the study and then up into the pulpit, this man asked
the sextant what was the secret of McShane's power from the human
side. He told the man to ascend into
the pulpit, and he did. He said, now lean over the pulpit,
and he did. He said, now stretch out your
hands, and he did. He said, now weep. He said, there's
the secret. Men with heart. Men with heart. The Apostle Paul who wrote that
great exposition of God's absolute sovereignty in the realm of grace,
in all of its inscrutable mystery, He begins that chapter by saying,
I have continual pain and sorrow in my heart. For I could wish
myself a curse from Christ for my kinsmen, my brethren, according
to the flesh. He says in Philippians 1, I tell
you often and now with tears that these are the enemies of
the cross of Christ. 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. The promise
in the psalm, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious
seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his
sheaves with him. Doesn't necessitate actual water
coming down from the eyes, though it wouldn't do any harm to have
a little of that, I'm sure. But it's speaking of that attitude
of heart, having a feeling heart. a feeling heart. With some men,
that feeling will be expressed differently. I was thinking of
this in terms of what is pulpit passion. With some men, because
of their personality and the rest, the way God has stamped
them and molded them, their pulpit passion and fire is like the
fire in the fireplace when you first light it. The tongues of
flame flash and leap and dance. It's true fire. Others are like
a big log. No dashing flames, but just that
deep red glow that exudes a continual heat and warmth. And so, because
your personality may be such, there'll never be the leaping,
flashing expression of pulpit passion and fire. In God's name,
let's not be content to simply be bricks. But let's seek to be glowing
logs, that when men get nearest, they'll feel the heat. of a spirit-touched
heart. A ministry that has spirit-wrought
compassion and urgency. Charles Spurgeon said that when
he preached and unloaded all the guns of gospel truth, and
men seemed to be impervious to that fusillade of truth, he said,
I put myself in the gun and I shoot myself at them. Now what did
he mean? I think he meant precisely what
Paul's talking about here. We would have imparted our very
souls to you. Brethren, if that's extreme,
if that's fleshy, if that's mere emotionalism, then we've got
to write off Jeremiah, Paul, and our Lord himself, who beholding
a reprobate city wept on. I shall never forget when I was
wrestling with these matters of the doctrines of grace, and
had nobody to guide me in my reading or to talk with who understood
these things, just to mention the name of the word, election,
or predestination, the areas where I moved was next thing
to cursing. I determined this. I said, God,
I know enough that McShane was what would be called a Calvinist,
David Brainerd, Jonathan Edwards, these mighty men, And Lord, if
I ever come to that position, if your word ever leads me down
that path, by your grace, put me in that stream. Put me in
that stream! This kind of reformed theology
that sits back and simply debates about the decrees and lets the
world perish! From such may God deliver us. From such may God deliver us! Let's not debate the decrees.
For believing He's decreed to save an innumerable company of
men, let us be men of heart and passion, to go out with a broken
heart and communicate that message which is the message of life.
Let's take an afternoon a week, men. Move on down. the streets in Philadelphia armed
with some tracks and try to find some people we can talk to about
the law. You do you more good than debating ten hours on the
order of the decrees. So you end up a supra or infra,
so what? How about that fella down the
street, has he heard the word of life from your lips? That's
the issue. Know what supra, the implications
are. Know the implications of infrasure. But let's take heed to our teaching
that we communicate with passion, with heart. I think that's biblical, isn't
it? You want to be Bible Christians?
Then let's seek right here and now, not wait out yonder, to
a lot sometime in our schedule when we're going to get out in
the mainstream of human life where men are living with all
their problems and their ignorance and their sin. And it's when
you get near, dark and center, you begin to feel for it. You
ever try to get a burden for souls in your closet? I've never
gotten it yet. You know where it comes? You go on out where
people are. Say, Lord, burden me, then get
out where they are. It says when Jesus beheld the multitude, He
was moved with compassion when He saw them. When He saw them. And if the Holy Son of God is
a true man, needed the bowels of compassion to be stirred through
exposure to men and their lostness, then how much more do we who
by nature are selfish, our Lord was not. But if His selfless
disposition needed to have the sight of those milly multitudes
to bring forth those bowels of compassion as a man, then we
need them. May God find us this year out
among sinners, learning how to communicate to them. You want
to know how relevant that course is in theology on the effectual
call? Some of you say, no, I don't believe that. I believe the sinner
can begin by wiggling his finger. Why don't men talk to some of
them? If anything will convince you
that God must open their blinded eyes, talk with a dozen of them
in an afternoon. And try to get them seriously
concerned about heaven and hell and judgment. And you go back
to your closet saying, oh God, I believe you've got to do the
work. You see, then your theology will be wedded practical concepts
and experience and application. Take heed to thy teaching. The content, the whole counsel
of God. The whole counsel in due proportion,
the whole counsel of God applied. Specific application, searching
discrimination. Take heed to thy teaching, the
manner of communication with studied simplicity. With some
semblance of orderliness, and with spirit-wrought compassionate
urgency, let us persuade men, knowing the terror of the Lord. Let us unite our hearts in prayer.

Discriminating Applicatory Preaching

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the importance of whole counsel in preaching?

How do we know that the desire for a balanced preaching style is a biblical principle?

Why is the application of biblical truths important in preaching?

How can preachers apply truth with searching discrimination?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Discriminating Applicatory Preaching

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the importance of whole counsel in preaching?

How do we know that the desire for a balanced preaching style is a biblical principle?

Why is the application of biblical truths important in preaching?

How can preachers apply truth with searching discrimination?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

More from Albert N. Martin

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Suggested for You

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book