Effective Popular Preaching #3

Q: What does the Bible say about preaching with clarity?

The Bible emphasizes the importance of clear communication in preaching to ensure that listeners understand and respond to the truth. The importance of clarity in preaching is highlighted in 1 Corinthians 14:9, where it states that if we do not speak in such a way that is easy to understand, our congregations cannot respond appropriately. This illustrates that clarity of form and structure is crucial not only for engagement but to adequately convey the biblical truths we seek to impart. Effective preaching requires a conscious effort to present scriptural truths with order and lucidity, enabling listeners to follow the trail of truth from beginning to end.

Q: How do we know perspicuity in preaching is important?

Perspicuity in preaching is vital for both the preacher and the listeners, as it fosters understanding and engagement with the message. Perspicuity, which means clarity and transparency in preaching, is paramount because it directly affects both the preparation of the preacher and the comprehension of the listeners. For the preacher, it ensures discipline and clarity in organizing the sermon. When the structure of a sermon is clear, it aids the preacher in delivery, allowing for a more authentic and spirited expression of biblical truths. For listeners, clarity makes the sermon intelligible, aesthetically pleasing, morally persuasive, and intellectually retainable. Thus, perspicuity shapes the overall impact of preaching on congregational life and growth in understanding God's Word.

Q: Why is structure essential in sermons?

A well-structured sermon helps convey the message effectively and enables listeners to grasp the main ideas easily. Structure is essential in sermons as it organizes the raw materials of biblical truth into a coherent presentation. Just as a builder must sort materials before construction, a preacher must discern the structure of his sermon early in the preparation process. A clear structure allows for a logical progression of thought, enabling the audience to follow the argument being made. When the message is presented with a solid structure, it aids in retention, helps listeners engage more deeply with the content, and is more likely to elicit a proper response. Ultimately, a structured sermon reflects the orderly nature of God and enhances the beauty of proclaiming His Word.

Q: How does clarity in preaching affect listener response?

Clarity in preaching is a major factor in how well listeners understand and respond to the message. Clarity in preaching significantly affects listener response by enabling them to comprehend the message conveyed. Clarity not only makes the sermon intelligible but also engages the audience aesthetically and morally. Without a clear presentation, listeners are likely to misunderstand or be unable to respond to the truth being preached. When preachers diligently strive for perspicuity, they provide an experience that encourages positive engagement with Scripture, leading to spiritual edification and proper responses to God’s call. A homiletical approach that emphasizes transparency in communication cultivates an environment where truth can be effectively applied to the lives of listeners.

Q: What is the cost of achieving clarity in preaching?

Achieving clarity in preaching requires discipline, mental toil, and a commitment to prioritizing the truth over personal opinions. The journey toward achieving clarity in preaching comes with significant costs. It demands a single-minded focus on the God-ordained purpose of preaching, which centers on the edification and salvation of souls. Preachers must be willing to submit to the labor of structuring their messages clearly, requiring ongoing mental toil and the courage to resist the opinions and preferences of those who may desire less direct preaching. Additionally, preachers need to commit themselves to the constant spiritual discipline of aligning their objectives with the Lord's purpose, ensuring that clarity is achieved not just for aesthetics but for the spiritual benefit of their congregation. Thus, the labor involved is not easy, but the fruit of clear preaching is invaluable.

If you have your notes before
you, brethren, we are right at the bottom of 2.4 as we take
up in this hour the third axiom pertaining to the content and
form of our sermons. And let me say at the outset,
in addressing this axiom, there is another lecture that I am
simply going to pass over. You have the notes. If you want
the class lectures, they're available on tape. But if we're going to
stick to the schedule and get through at least a cursory treatment
of all seven axioms, it would have been impossible to park
and to work through some of the mechanics of form and structure
as I do with the men that puts us into the realm of more of
homiletics proper and even some of the principles, the proven
principles of the science or the art of rhetoric, and for
any of you who have the motivation and desire, that material is
available on tape and you'll have the outline of it as well. But hopefully we want to address
this morning the first half of this axiom, that the proclamation
Explanation and application of scriptural truths with perspicuity
of form and structure must constitute our continuous conscious endeavor. Now some of these axioms may
seem rather loaded with strange words and there is a method in
my madness. I've chosen the words carefully,
I've tried to choose words at times that are not so much a
part of our ordinary vocabulary that they cease to have any meaning,
and so I want to spend just a few moments on the definition and
explanation of the terminology in this axiom. We are dealing
in this axiom with the form and with the structure of our sermons. In other words, we are coming
into the realm of the order and arrangement of the raw materials
of the biblical truth which form the substance of our preaching. This brings us into the realm
of such matters as division, progression, transitions of thought. All of these come under the general
heading of form and of structure. Anatomy is the science of the
structure of animals. And when we do this with plants,
I think it's called, is it morphology? I'm not sure. Human anatomy focuses
on the arrangement and relationships sustained by the component parts
of the body. When you look at the body, it
has not only hands and arms and a torso and legs and a backbone,
but it has all of the parts in the right place if it is a properly
functioning body. So when we talk about form and
structure, we are talking about the raw materials that come out
of our exegesis and are now to be put into a form that will
make them suitable to be presented and understood by others. And
now the key word is perspicuity. And the word means transparent. It comes from the Latin perspicere,
meaning to see through. And what is perspicuous then
is lucid, it is easy to be understood. And so I'm asserting in this
axiom that in effective popular address, the order and arrangement
should not only be good and latent, but it ought to be good and patent,
that is, perspicuous to the average listener. He ought to know where
you've begun, where you're going, and when you get there. He ought
to be able to separate the tail from the ears of your sermon.
He ought to be able to change the imagery to know when he's
nibbling at his corn, when he's cutting up his meat, and when
he's biting off a chunk of his roll. And if the poor man wonders
if the roll and the corn and the meat have all been ground
up and thrown in a blob of homiletical hash on the plate, woe be unto
such listeners who must constantly come to such a diet. Now I've
asserted in the axiom that such preaching with perspicuity of
form and structure must be our continuous, conscious endeavor. And in the use of those words,
I'm underscoring the fact that preaching and teaching marked
By these qualities of perspicuity of form and structure is not
something that just happens. There must be sustained and conscious
effort directed to this goal. just as surely as exegetically
accurate sermons as to the substance of content do not just happen,
but are the result of a conscious commitment to the task of being
honest with the text of scripture, so preaching marked by perspicuity
of form and structure does not just happen. Regardless of the
measure of a man's native gift and cultivated abilities, it
will still require to the end of his days continuous conscious
endeavor if his sermons are to be marked by perspicuity of form
and of structure. Now having stated the axiom and
given a definition and explanation of the key words in the axiom,
we come now to take up the importance of perspicuity of form and structure,
first of all for the preacher himself, and then for the listeners. Why is clarity of form and structure
important for the preacher himself? Now I cannot underscore too forcefully
or with too much repetition how crucial this is for the preacher
himself. Raw, formless globs of truth
are better than symmetrical, well-structured error and froth. But the best is to serve up the
pure truth of God in such a way that no reasonably intelligent
and careful listener could fail to follow the trail of truth,
knowing where it began, where it was going, and when the destination
had been reached. Now for the preacher himself,
it's important for two basic reasons. Number one, it will
impart discipline and clarity in the detailed preparation of
the sermon. After the spade work of exegesis
has been done, If you do not, very soon in the process of developing
the sermon, see the basic form and structure, your ongoing preparation
will not only be difficult, but it will make organization even
more difficult because the mass of raw materials is being multiplied. and you will get into a state
of mental confusion and paralysis before the sheer size of the
pile of the raw materials. Let me illustrate this way. If
a builder arrived at a building site and found a jumbled pile
of two-by-fours, two-by-sixes, coils of electrical wire, kegs
of nails, and a host of other building materials, what would
his first task be if he were to have any hope of building
a house? Well, the answer is he'd have
to have a sorting-out party. He'd have to sort out all his
two-by-sixes and put them here, and his two-by-fours here, and
his two-by-tens there, and the six-penny nails here, and the
eight-penny nails there, and the ten-penny nails there. He
would have no hope of taking those raw materials and constructing
a symmetrical house if he did not early in the process sort
out into the various categories these raw building materials. So then, in preaching, and here
again, it pains me not to quote Broadus and to quote Shedd and
some of the old masters who are bold enough to say that if we
do not give ourselves to this matter of form and structure
early in the actual development of the sermon, we are doomed
to fail in terms of developing clean homiletical habits and
setting forth God's truth with perspicuity of form and structure. So the benefit, first of all,
to the preacher himself is it will impart discipline and clarity
in the detailed preparation of the sermon. If he begins to see
its form and structure early, then as it grows, the various
components grow in their proper place and do not simply add to
this growing pile of jumbled thought. But then it's also important
for the preacher because it will greatly assist freedom in the
actual delivery of the sermon. It will greatly assist the preacher's
freedom in the delivery of the sermon. A man unsure of his path
must continually look at his map and at his compass as he
makes his journey. One who is walking down a familiar
path, who knows where it takes a right angle to the left and
a 45 degree angle to the right, can lift up his eyes from the
path, from his map and his compass, and enjoy the scenery. And all
of the old masters of preaching, when they address the subject
of how much manuscript shall I use in preaching, how little
shall I use, how much reference should I make to it, in this
they are all agreed, though the disagreement and the debate on
this issue is both amusing and in itself perplexing, but on
this they are all agreed, in the actual delivery of the sermon,
A man cannot experience true liberty of utterance who is bound
to his paper for his thoughts, even though he may have a full
manuscript before him. If the form and structure of
the sermon is not embedded on the walls of his own mind, so
that he himself knows where he is and where he is going and
when he has arrived, he cannot, as it were, give his own spirit
to be carried along by the truth that he is conveying to others.
And if true spirit-filled eloquence is anything, It certainly has
to do with the mind and spirit of the preacher feeling the heat
that comes from the friction of truth upon his own heart. And that simply cannot be known
if what the old rhetorical teachers taught, the sub-processes of
being attached to the paper as my map and compass, are that
which so possess the mind and the spirit that the spirit cannot
enjoy its own friction with the truth that it is delivering to
others. Furthermore, If the sermon is overloaded with
a complex system of subdivisions and sub-sub-subdivisions, very
intricate as we find in some of the Puritan works where they
are not good models of homiletics in certain areas, there can be
very little freedom in the actual delivery of the sermon. because
there is simply too much. It's like some of the old ornate
filigree that you see on some of these Victorian buildings
where there is all of this intricate carving and the lines are not
clean and simple. Likewise, then in preaching,
if we are to know freedom in the actual delivery of the sermon,
the sermon must be marked by perspicuity, clarity of form
and of structure. But it's not only important for
the preacher, but for the listeners. And I've listed four things in
which clarity of form and structure will be helpful to the listeners.
First of all, it is a major factor in making what we say intelligible. I've used the words major factor
with purpose. Other things are great aids. and helps to making what we say
intelligible. Our vocabulary, our figures of
speech, our illustrations, and our animation in delivery, the
paralinguistics, are all part of making what we say intelligible. However, clarity of form and
structure are a major factor in making what we say easy to
be understood. And the scriptures tell us that
if we do not speak in such a way as to make our speech easy to
be understood, 1 Corinthians 14 9, then men will not be able
to render a proper response. And so if we would have our people
know the delight of grasping what we say without placing too
great a burden upon them in the process, then there must be clarity,
perspicuity of form and of structure. But then secondly, it's a major
factor in making what we say aesthetically pleasing. Who gave us an appreciation for
the orderly and the beautiful, as well as a revulsion at the
disorderly and the ugly? Was it not our God who is himself
beautiful and orderly? And if anything should be beautiful,
it should be the preaching of the truth of God's word. Why
should it be ugly when it can be made aesthetically pleasing? We want the offense to be in
the content of what we convey, not in the sloppy manner in which
we convey it. And we will have far more assurance
that negative reaction to the Word of God is indeed negative
reaction to the Word of God if what we are saying is set forth
in such clarity as no one can justly charge it with being marked
by mental chaos. And therefore, if we would have
our people pleased in the right sense with our sermons, then
they ought to be marked by perspicuity of form and of structure. But then thirdly, with respect
to our people, it is a major factor in making what we say
morally persuasive. Now let me be understood that
I am not dabbling in the heresy of moral suasion, a Pelagian
error that teaches that conversion occurs when we appeal powerfully
enough to men's sense of justice and rightness and get them to
decide for Christ. But I'm thinking of such text
as Acts 26, 28, when Agrippa said to Paul, almost thou persuadest
me, to be a Christian. In 2 Corinthians 5.11 where Paul
declares, knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade
men. Now when Agrippa was almost persuaded,
what had Paul done? Well, if we look at the context,
we see he had given a wisely constructed testimony and an
appeal called in verse 24, a defense. On another occasion, it was his
reasoning concerning righteousness, self-control, and judgment to
come that caused a man to tremble. Acts 24 and verse 25. You see, it is God who has made
men's minds that faculty of perception to feel the weight and the pull
of clear, logically structured, biblical reasoning. It is one
thing to know that God alone can regenerate the sinner and
therefore to cry to God that he would do that work, to preach
in conscious dependence upon the Holy Spirit. It's quite another
thing to expect the Holy Spirit to sort out and make compelling
in the minds and consciences of men that which is disorganized,
convoluted, and confusing. Don't expect the Holy Spirit
to sort out your disorganized, convoluted, and confused line
of reasoning that is not compelling. Rather, in persuasion, we recognize
from general revelation the way God has made us, that as surely
as I stand before you and start numbering 1, 2, 3, You've already said 4, and if
I say 7, I'm either doing it for shock effect, or I show that
I'm violating the natural laws of the human mind. If I say 2,
4, 6, you've already said 8. If I say 2, 4, 6, 13, I've thrown
a curve at you. I've either done something to
shock your mind into listening more carefully, or I have violated
your sense of propriety in the progression of those numbers. And we see examples of this everywhere
in scripture. One of the clearest examples
is Romans 10, 13 to 15. That closely reasoned argumentation
of the Apostle Paul, having stated that whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved, he then begins to ask
some questions. How shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him
whom they have not hurt? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? And you see, it's that progression
of sound, simple, common sense logic that carries our judgment
and makes us feel the weight of Paul's argument. Similarly,
in 1 Corinthians 15, 12 to 19, he takes the fundamental premise
of those heretics that were seeking to infect the church at Corinth,
denying the reality of the bodily resurrection. And he says, if
your premise is true, that there is no such thing as bodily resurrection,
then Christ is not raised. If Christ is not raised, then
If Christ is not raised, then. And you feel the force of the
logic. Why? Because he has used the
ordinary laws of the human mind, and he has, as it were, taken
the truth of God and saddled it upon those laws, seeking to
ride the truth into the theater of the human conscience. And
if we want to have sermons that are morally persuasive, that
carry the judgment of men, and make them either stand against
themselves in the court of God, or stand with Christ for them
in the court of God, our sermons must reflect this clarity of
form and of structure. And then fourthly, it is of benefit
to our people because it is a major factor in making what we say
intellectually retainable. Now, there was a time when I
used to be very burdened with the fact that Many of the people
who sat and listened to me on Sunday could not give me back
even the first head or two of what I preached by Wednesday.
Then I made the discovery that oft times I couldn't do it myself. It's a very humbling thing on
a Wednesday to say, what were the heads of my sermon on Sunday?
If you have to try it, try it. You see, the great benefit of
preaching is not in the ability to go back and to repeat the
heads a week after it was preached. It's the cumulative effect of
the Word of God taking root in the hearts of your people. I
fully understand that. But at the same time, the more
they are able to retain the truth, not only in terms of being able
to turn to the passage and say, yes, this is what I understand
now that it was expounded in my hearing, but to have the pegs
on which it was hung, it will help them to become the blessed
man or woman of Psalm 1, to meditate on the Word of God, day and night,
so that driving to work, and at the workbench, and behind
the kitchen sink, and whatever the circumstances are, when our
people's minds are not necessarily occupied with other things, they
can think back to the ministry of the Lord's day. And what they
think back upon was not this jumbled mess of homiletical hash. But they can think in terms of
the various components of the sermon and the way it was laid
out, and though they may forget the exact headings, they'll remember
the units of thought. They'll remember that you opened
up to them, that here is the central imperative of the passage,
and here are the motivations that follow, and as you expounded
the Word of God, with perspicuity of form and structure, it is
much more likely that what we say will be intellectually retainable,
and in the light of Psalm 1, the blessed person is the one
who meditates upon the law of God day and night. And then that text in Ecclesiastes
12, 11, which ought to be a motto for each one of us in our preaching,
Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 11, the words of the wise are his
goads, and as nails well fastened are the words of the masters
of the assemblies which are given from one shepherd. And when the
One Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, is ministering His Word through
us, what a blessed thing when our people can say that we have
ministered that Word as masters of the assembly and caused the
Word of God to be as nails, not merely tapped, but well fastened,
driven, and sunk into the two-by-four of their brains. Well, perspicuity
of form and structure is of great help to the preacher. It is of
great assistance to our listeners, but it will come only at a great
price. And I want to address in the
third place the price of perspicuity of form and of structure. And I've listed three things
under this heading. Number one, It will cost you
the price of maintaining a single eye to the God-ordained end of
preaching, and there ought to be there a dash, the salvation
and edification of men. When we ascend the pulpit week
by week, what is the great end we have in view? Well, the great
end we ought to have in view in the language of scripture
is let all things be done unto edification, not our edification,
but the edification of our people. And then also recognizing that
the proclamation of the Word is the great means of God for
the salvation of His elect, we are in earnest that God would
use our proclamation of the truth as the means of bringing some
to repentance and faith. And therefore our goal is not
rhetorical elegance, It is not the promotion of our reputation
as good preachers. It is not conformity to current
ministerial fads of what it means to be a quote, good communicator. We are bent and obsessed with
this one passion, optimum edification and the salvation of the never
dying souls of men. And if you are to be marked as
a preacher with all of your own fingerprints unashamedly smothering
your preaching so that it's distinctively yours and no one else's, but
nonetheless marked by perspicuity of form and of structure, it
will cost you the price of keeping that single eye, week after week,
month after month, year after year, asking yourself when you
sit at the desk, what am I doing? I am seeking to lay hold of this
passage, this theme, this section of the Word of God, and so to
present it. that there will be optimum edification
of God's precious people, and the likelihood that the Spirit
of God will use what I say to awaken the conscience of the
indifferent, to give instruction to those who are interested and
concerned and hopefully to be a means in God's hand of enabling
some sinner upon whom God has already been dealing in mercy
to lay hold of the Savior even under the proclamation of the
Word. And brethren, to keep that single eye over the long haul
is not an easy thing. We can get so accustomed to what
we're doing, and there is no erosion of confidence in the
Word of God. There may not even be a backing
off in our laboring. But to keep that single-eyed
goal constantly before us, it can only be kept before us. by
a constant spiritual discipline, allowing no other goal to enter
in and become influential in our preparation. But then secondly,
it will cost you the price of constant death to the opinions,
wishes, and tastes of those who do not want perspicuous Bible
preaching, the end of which is to pierce them with the ethical
implications. And here I've quoted two texts,
Galatians 1 10, if I should yet please men, I should not be the
servant of God. and Paul says it's a little thing
if I be judged if you are of man's judgment for he that judges
me is the Lord therefore judge nothing before the time until
the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of
darkness and then shall every man have his praise from God. Brethren To be clear and to be
plain, to be perspicuous means that people cannot misunderstand
what we say unless they make a very, very hard effort to do
so. It means, therefore, that the
pressure of the Word of God, both in its consolation and in
its conviction, both with its bringing home the provisions
and promises of God as well as the demands and the threats of
God, that they will feel the weight of that truth because
what we say is as clear as the pane of glass in the church window. And therefore, If you are not
settled in your own heart, that you are prepared to receive whatever
the fruit of that kind of ministry will be, then you will not give
yourself to it over the long haul. Because the clearer you
make God's truth by perspicuity of form and structure, the more
patent it will be that you're a saver of life unto life and
death unto death, and that even among the people of God there
will be those who will welcome you as an angel of God And on
that very day there will be others who because of the activity of
remaining sin will rise up and buck against the truth. I had
a classic example of this a few weeks ago. I came here on Wednesday
night, went to my letter file in the church office to take
out any letters that demanded that they be read last minute
in the prayer meeting. And there were two letters, hand-delivered
obviously, no stamp on them, had my name on the outside, and
I opened them and one was a letter from one of the saints who's
had a background in which there's been horrible abuse of pastoral
authority. And in this section of the manifesto
where I was dealing with the job description of church leaders,
I had opened up the concept of shepherd. This brother wrote,
how thankful my wife and I are to see these things opened up
from the word of God. Just wanted to write and encourage
you and thank you for your labors. It has helped to clarify issues.
It was a letter of great encouragement. The other letter was a resignation.
said after Sunday's message it's very clear that my congregational
views are not welcomed around here and therefore I don't belong
here. Well, it went like a knife to
my heart. Why? Hours have been spent with
the couple that resigned. Pastoral labors all coming to
naught. That's grievous. That's grievous. But the silver lining in it was
that it must have been so clear that it blessed a confused sheep
on the other hand and flushed out a bucking sheep on the other. The same message brought a resignation
and a loving commendation and word of appreciation. And the
consolation in all of that was, well at least it wasn't so muddled,
it neither blessed nor blasted. And if you're going to preach
so as to bless those who are hungry for the truth and to go
after those entrenched in pillboxes of error where remaining sin
has caused them to be indifferent or calloused or perhaps even
hostile to certain dimensions of God's truth, then if you're
going to be committed To having a ministry that precipitates
that response, it will cost you constant death to the opinions,
wishes, and tastes of those who want something other than preaching
that is clear. And then thirdly, and this I
would underscore most forcefully, it will cost you, and I've chosen
the word carefully because it's a good New Testament word, agonizomai. The Apostle uses it with reference
to prayer, with reference to his ministry in general in Colossians
1. It will cost you the agony and
toil of incessant mental labor. And if ever you will feel your
job description in 1 Timothy 5.17, it's in the commitment
to clarity of form and structure. Those of us who are privileged
to be set apart to labor in the Word and in doctrine, if kapi'o
means anything, to labor unto toil and pain, you will know
it, peculiarly in this area. There are times when exegesis
is sheer spiritual delight and you sit at your desk and say,
can it be that I'm getting paid for doing this? rooting around
in the Word of God, in the green pastures of God's truth, and
you say, it's too good to be true. I'm putting bread on my
table doing this. What a privilege! Sold to labor! But then, you take those raw
materials, and the moment of truth comes and you say, ah,
now the time has come to say firstly, secondly, thirdly, here's
the tail, here's the body, here's the head, And you say, how do
I sort all of this out? And you strike out on one course
only to scratch it all out and throw that piece of paper away.
And then you start out on another course and you come almost to
the verge of despair. And you say, Lord, how can I
organize this stuff? It's blessed my soul. There's
rich truth here. There's marvelous spiritual reality. But Lord, I don't know how to
sort it out. And one hour merges into another
and into another and you know the moment of truth is going
to come. It's labor. It's labor. Brethren, it's labor. And there
are times when you just wish you could turn the clock back
two days and say I just can't. But the clock isn't going to
be back. And Sunday morning is going to come. And you must stand
before the people of God. And brethren, if you are not
prepared for the agony and toil of incessant mental labor, really,
you have no business being set apart for this ministry. Because
you're set apart to labor in the Word and in teaching. And
because God has not given us some infallible manual Even with
all the advanced computer technology, God's not sent down from heaven
some homiletical software that tells us how to break down a
passage. And God have mercy if you buy
that tripe that you can purchase for so many dollars a year of
52 exegetical sermons. All the outlines all done, my
respect for Stephen Olford tumbled when I saw that he allowed himself
to enter into that kind of trafficking in the Word of God. I've had
such esteem for him as a true man and a good preacher, but
when I see advertised in poop it helps that I can buy his expository
outlines. What a horrible thing. One of
the advertising letters came to me and said, we all know that
it takes a man at least, I'm not kidding you now, at least
four to five hours to produce a good expository sermon. And
the busy pastor who's doing this and that, how can he find four
to five hours? Therefore, don't starve your
people by my outlines. Well, somebody's keeping those
guys in business. I hope none of them are here.
If they are, I hope the flush of embarrassment on your forehead
will betray you before you, brethren, and bring you to repentance.
Brethren, we are called to labor in the Word and in doctrine.
Now, am I saying that if in our labor and in our desperation
and in our crying to God, we've hit the wall and we say, well,
maybe someone else handled the passage in a way that I'll find
helpful. And so we turn to the textual index in Spurgeon's works
and we see here's how Spurgeon handled it. And we turn to another.
We go to John Brown and we see something that helps us. Am I
saying it's wrong then to come before our people and say in
the breaking down of this passage, I've been greatly helped by Spurgeon? No, not at all. All things are
yours, John Brown and Spurgeon and Calvin, but not ours to avoid
the agony and toil of mental labor, but ours to assist us
in the midst of it. And I trust, brethren, that by
the grace of God we will never be marked by that laziness that
serves up amorphous globs of truth to our people and then
walks away saying, well, it's God's truth and the Holy Spirit
will bless it. That's presumption. And don't
presume upon the Holy Spirit's ministry as a cover-up for your
own laziness. well that's what I wanted to
say and got through it in just about the right amount of time
and what constitutes perspicuity of form and structure you'll
have to look through the outline and if you want the lectures
as I say they're available for you and may the Lord help us
let me simply say as I do close that like so many other things
you'll get far more help by seeing it as you read sermons that are
perspicuous in form and structure, and listening to sermons, than
by reading even the best of the writers and homiletics who give
you the theory. This is an aspect of preaching
that is more caught than formally taught. Now if we had had in
our early education, as was true in previous days, courses in
logic and rhetoric, that might not be true. But most of us are
the products of an educational system that had no place for
logic, for rhetoric, and for some of these things that would
have helped us in this dimension of the content and form of our
sermonizing. But because God has put us into
the ministry and we have a heart to serve Him and serve His people
to their edification, the Spirit of God will indeed equip us in
spite of those deficiencies in our background and it's been
my experience and as I've tried to listen to men who've been
helped that I believe it's accurate to say that in this area one
example is worth a thousand words and you can read all of the various
ways of analyzing perspicuity of form and structure in the
old homileticians but read Spurgeon, read Ryle read McShane's outlines
and sermons, listen to men who have a clear preaching style
and say what are they doing and why are they doing it and then
you will begin to absorb the mental disciplines which will
help you by God's grace to proclaim, to open up and to apply the truth
of God with perspicuity of form and of structure. Let's pray. Our Father, we confess in your
presence that this whole matter of the proclamation of your word
in many ways is such a mysterious thing. As the wind blows where
it wills, so you often take our most pathetic efforts and bring
the greatest measure of blessing. And yet we would not presume
upon you, we do desire to open up your word in such a way that
the average serious listener will not be confused or frustrated
or even irritated because of our laziness. But oh God, help
us so to labor that our people will long to come and sit under
our ministries, knowing that whatever we are going to bring
them, It will not only come out of the crucible of honest, serious
dealings with the text of Scripture, but will come to them in such
a way that they will be able, with mental comfort, to follow
the line of thought, the development of argument, the progression
from one stage to another, as we seek to lead them into the
green pastures of your Holy Word. O Lord, we do not ask that you
would raise up an army of men whose names would go down in
church history books, but O God, raise up an army of men who will
go down in the hearts of your people as helpful, clear preachers
who, by their helpful, clear, biblical preaching, made them
fit for heaven and better able to serve you in their earthly
pilgrimage. O Lord, deliver us from every
carnal motive to become better preachers, but may we be impelled
by righteous motives to become the best possible preachers we
can be, that sinners may be saved and saints edified, and our churches
built up and that the bad name preaching has been given in our
day may be wiped away as men see multitudes flocking to our
assemblies because they know the word of God is to be preached
in the authority and power of the Spirit and with clarity of
form and of structure by men whose lives embody the truth
Hear our cry, we plead, and help us for the sake of your dear
son. Amen.

Effective Popular Preaching #3

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about preaching with clarity?

How do we know perspicuity in preaching is important?

Why is structure essential in sermons?

How does clarity in preaching affect listener response?

What is the cost of achieving clarity in preaching?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

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Effective Popular Preaching #3

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about preaching with clarity?

How do we know perspicuity in preaching is important?

Why is structure essential in sermons?

How does clarity in preaching affect listener response?

What is the cost of achieving clarity in preaching?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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