Effective Popular Preaching #5

Q: What does the Bible say about effective preaching?

The Bible emphasizes the importance of proclaiming truth in an understandable manner, as seen in 1 Corinthians 14:9. In Scripture, particularly in 1 Corinthians 14:9, we see a clear directive about effective communication in preaching. The Apostle Paul states that unless we speak in ways that are easy to understand, our words will fall into the air without being grasped. Effective preaching is not just about the truth being shared but also about how that truth is communicated. This underscores a key principle of our faith: clarity in communication fosters understanding and facilitates spiritual growth among the congregation. Biblical models of preaching, like those found in the lives of the prophets and the teaching of Jesus, are rich with imaginative and illustrative devices that serve to heighten understanding and engagement with God's truth.

Q: How do we know that illustrations are effective in sermons?

Illustrations are effective as they clarify truth and capture attention, enhancing understanding according to 1 Corinthians 14:26. The effectiveness of illustrations in sermons is documented throughout biblical teaching and historical preaching practices. In 1 Corinthians 14:26, Paul instructs that everything in the church should be done for edification, which includes using illustrations that clarify and enforce truth. Illustrations serve as powerful means to bridge the gap between complex theological concepts and the audience's understanding. The ability of humans to appreciate resemblances and contrasts allows illustrations to resonate on a deeper emotional level, making the abstract concepts concrete. Moreover, history has shown that notable preachers, from the Puritans to contemporary figures, have relied on illustrative devices to greatly enhance the communicative impact of their sermons; thereby affirming that effective preaching includes the judicious use of such devices.

Q: Why are literary devices important in preaching?

Literary devices like metaphors and similes are important because they help clarify and bring light to biblical truths. Literary devices hold significant importance in preaching as they enhance comprehension and retention of biblical truths. The primary function of these devices, such as metaphors, parables, and similes, is to clarify complex doctrines, making them accessible and relatable to the audience. This approach aligns with the 'God-given law of learning,' which posits that humans learn from the known to the unknown. In effective preaching, using these devices helps illuminate spiritual truths in a manner that allows for immediate understanding and application. Additionally, historical examples from great preachers exemplify their effectiveness as these figures employed vivid imagery and compelling analogies to engage their listeners, hence ensuring that the core message of God's Word is communicated effectively and memorably.

Q: How can preachers ensure their illustrations are appropriate?

Preachers can ensure appropriateness by evaluating whether illustrations clarify truth and are judicious for the context of the sermon. To ensure that illustrations in preaching are appropriate, the preacher must critically evaluate each one against the core objective of clarity and the context of the message. The principle governing this evaluation can be summarized in two questions: Does this illustration serve to illuminate the truth being preached? Is it sensitive and suitable for the congregation's context? Effective use requires discernment to avoid overloading a sermon with extraneous stories or irrelevant examples. Illustrations should engage and support the main message, not distract or detract from it. This careful consideration promotes an environment conducive to understanding and receiving the truth of God's Word, which is the ultimate goal of preaching.

Monteville, New Jersey. We come
this morning to the fifth axiom concerning all of our preaching,
found on page number 2.8, a third of the way down from the page,
axiom number 5, which reads as follows, the proclamation, explanation,
and application of scriptural truths Aided by legitimate and
the word judicious you'll find written in, legitimate and judicious
illuminating devices must be our constant labor. Now as it has been my usual pattern,
I will first of all take just a few minutes to exegete the
key words and phrases in the axiom. The axiom is concerned,
obviously, with what I have designated as illuminating devices. Now, to illumine means simply
to give light to, to make clear, to explain, or to elucidate. Therefore, this axiom is concerned
with those elements in the composition of our sermons calculated to
illuminate the solid substance of the sermon, whether in the
exposition or in the application of the truths proclaimed. Into this category fall such
linguistic devices as similes, metaphors, analogies, parables,
illustrations, anecdotes, and imaginative descriptions. And if the sermon has as its
raw materials the thick, reinforced concrete of biblical truth, then
these devices are the windows in the structure which let in
light and make the construction pleasant. A structure made only
of reinforced concrete is solid and safe, but rather drab and
dull. A structure made only of windows
may be bright and cheerful, but certainly not strong, and certainly
not a safe shelter. And therefore our goal should
be to have sermons that have as their fundamental structure
and substance the reinforced concrete of solid biblical materials,
responsible exegesis, but also to have the windows of simile,
metaphor, analogy, parable, illustration, anecdote, and imaginative description
in order to make them bright and cheerful and to illuminate
the very truths of which they, that house, that shelter, that
stronghold is made. Now, the qualifying words are
legitimate and judicious. Not everything which would clarify
and illuminate would necessarily be legitimate, that is, conformed
to established rules and standards. For example, an illustration
or an anecdote might simply consume too much time in the sermon. It might be too personal. It
might be too coarse for a mixed congregation. Furthermore, it
might be too sensitive in the light of certain pastoral situations
in the present state of the congregation. Furthermore, a series of similes
might increase clarity, but to pile one upon another could give
the impression that you're trying to show off either your mental
alertness and fertile mind or the breadth of your reading or
some other element that would make the use of those devices
illegitimate. And then not everything that
is legitimate may be judicious. Judicious means having a show
of sound judgment, wise and careful. For example, some things may
be so clear in themselves that to illustrate them is to insult
the intelligence of your listeners and to lose their goodwill. And
when you lose the goodwill of those to whom you are speaking,
it's very difficult to help them, to persuade them. At other times
there may be a steady attack upon the conscience, and just
as the victory is almost won, an illustration is used which
breaks the sobriety. It may have been legitimate in
the abstract, but it was injudicious in the concrete and specific
circumstances of that particular sermon. So we are concerned then
that in our proclamation explanation and application of scriptural
truths, that such exercises be aided by legitimate and judicious
illuminating devices, and this endeavor must also have the marks
of constant labor. There are few men for whom this
is not a laborious element of preaching if there is to be freshness
and a breadth of spectrum in the devices of this nature. Now then, following the outline
A, B, C on page 2.8 and D and E on page 2.9, I want to trace
out in a very cursory manner these five lines of concern relative
to these devices. First of all, I want to give
a demonstration of the desirability of these devices. Are they necessary? Should such an axiom be included
among the seven indispensable elements of effective biblical
preaching? Well, we begin, first of all,
with a demonstration of the desirability of these devices, and I set out
that demonstration along three lines. First of all, a God-given
law of learning. One of the most fundamental principles
in all of learning is that we proceed from the known to the
unknown. And while it is true that spiritual
truth can only be known by spiritual illumination, it is also true
that the spirit most often works by and with the natural laws
of learning, and not against them, and rarely without them. 1 Corinthians 14.9 is a clear
example of this principle. Here the Apostle Paul says, 1
Corinthians 14.9, so also ye, unless ye utter by the tongue
speech easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is
spoken? For you will be speaking into
the air. Now one does not need any dictum
of special revelation to know this truth. Common observation
of general revelation tells us that God is not placed within
the human ear some complex computer that can take the mumble words
of a man and make them clear to the mind of the listener.
God is not given some complex exotic instrument that can take
what I said was the mumbled words of indistinct speech and somehow
sort them all out in the inner ear. Furthermore, God has not
supplied people's ears with a 10,000-word computer that stores exotic words
and breaks them down into the thought patterns of the average
listener. A God-given law of learning is
that unless we speak that which is easy to be understood, how
shall it be known what is spoken? And that applies not only to
the sounds that we make, that is, distinct enunciation, accurate
pronunciation, sufficient volume to be heard, but also in terms
of the thought patterns and the manner in which we express them. The bridge from ignorance to
understanding is that of explanation. The bridge from ignorance to
understanding is that of explanation. And many of the materials that
build that bridge are these illuminating devices. And God has simply made
us this way. It is a fact of the way we learn,
a God-given law of learning. And the preacher who ignores
it, ignores it not only to his own peril as a preacher, but
he robs his hearers of the benefit of what otherwise might be effective
proclamation of the Word of God. Blakey, in his excellent work
on preaching, writes as follows, the capacity of the human mind
to appreciate resemblances and contrasts is one of its most
invariable characteristics, and it may readily be turned by the
preacher to valuable account. It enables him to lay stepping
stones along paths where otherwise he could not hope to conduct
the larger portion of his heroes. It lends bright hues to subjects
which would otherwise be too somber and catches the attention
that in cases innumerable would sure to be lost. It is in this
light that we speak of it now. When ordained to the charge of
his first congregation, the late Dr. Guthrie determined that whatever
he might fail in, he would compel his hearers to attend. Watching
in the course of his first efforts to discover what part of his
discourses seemed to be most attended to, he saw that it was
the illustrations. He accordingly resolved to cultivate
that department with peculiar care. Cultivate with peculiar
care, constant labor. and cultivated he did and with
great purpose for a greater master of illustration has never appeared
in the pulpit nor one who by means of it could more closely
rivet the attention of his audience and in our case you see it is
not that we are desirous simply to have their attention it is
that we might convey the substance of scriptural truth But unless
we speak words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is
spoken? By way of application, let me
say briefly, as I have sought to emphasize repeatedly, we must
always seek to honor the God of general revelation when handling
the sacred realities of special revelation. God is never contradicting
himself in general revelation with respect to what he has revealed
in special revelation and vice versa. Now granted, any observation
we think we have accurately made in general revelation must be
brought to the touchstone of special revelation But there
are many things, such as principles of effective communication, that
are not explicitly set forth in the Word of God, but they
are assumed. And here in this passage, we
see the Apostle Paul assuming it and using illustrations from
general revelation. Later on he speaks, or earlier
even, with respect to the sound of a trumpet and to the sound
of musical instruments. And therefore, brethren, I say,
if God has established this law of learning that these devices
are great elements in the bridge from ignorance to understanding,
any commitment that our people understand the truth of God will
find us laboring to use legitimate and judicious illuminating devices. But then I rest the case more
fully upon what I have described as the scriptural mode of preaching. If we are to proceed on the premise
that the Bible is an adequate guide for a theology of preaching,
as we mentioned yesterday, then turning to the scriptures, we
cannot escape the mass of evidence which supports this axiom. For example, What would Jeremiah's
prophecy be if stripped of its object lessons of the basket
of figs, the marred girdle, and the broken potter's vessel? What would Hosea's prophecy be
if stripped of the extended analogy between his unfaithful wife and
Israel's infidelity to Jehovah? What would Isaiah's prophecy
be if denuded of its vivid poetic imagery, its graphic imagery
of the nations as grasshoppers before God, like the drop on
the side of a bucket And God himself coming in the gospel
like a street hawker, O everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters. What would the prophecy be if
stripped of these legitimate and judicious illuminating devices? Can we even begin to imagine
the flatness, the saltlessness of the recorded messages of our
Lord Himself if we took out lost sheep and lost coins and wayward
sons and importunate widows and carefree birds and moats and
beams and houses built on sand and rock gnats and camels, seed
and sower, bride and bridegroom, mothers in the throes of birth
pangs, and a host of parables, metaphors, and verbal imagery.
How insipid would be the recorded ministry of our Lord if stripped
of these devices! And surely, if we are not prepared
to make the Lord Jesus the model preacher, pray tell, who will
be our model? and therefore I say the very
mode of preaching recorded in scripture in the prophets in
our Lord and even in the apostles and in the apostolic letters
underscore the axiom that we must seek by legitimate and judicious
illuminating devices to proclaim the word of God to our people
and then of course the book of the revelation And I think it's
a tragedy that the devil has clouded it with so much speculation
and confusion because under the vivid figures of horses and dragons
and strange beasts, God sets forth the age-long conflict between
the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent and the ultimate
triumph of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. But then
thirdly, I rest my case upon the history of preaching itself. A third powerful argument for
the use of these devices is to be found in the history of preaching
itself. The men who preached effectively
in past generations were, for the most part, men whose preaching
bristled with the use of these illuminating devices. While some
were stronger and more at home with illustration and anecdote,
and others were more inclined to simile and metaphor, and others
to vivid imaginative description, nonetheless, reading those who
held congregations to the spiritual profit of those congregations
over the long haul, whatever has come down to us, and there's
much that has not, but whatever has come down to us, almost without
exception, indicates that men who were popular preachers, and
I use that term in its right sense, the sense in which it
is said of our Lord, the common people heard Him gladly. Those
who were popular preachers were men whose preaching, I say, bristled
with these devices. When we pick up Watson's Body
of Divinity, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer, Sibbes,
Manton, Goodwin, Flabel, Gurnall, Matthew Henry, and old John Bunyan,
what shall we say of these men but that they use these devices
profusely? And it's Bunyan's great mark
of genius that he took one of these devices and turned it into
two masterful treatises, indeed more than two, but the two that
have come down to us and been such a legacy to the Church of
Christ for several hundreds of years. In a masterful little
book that emphasizes the characteristics of the preaching of those men
greatly used of God in the 18th century, the book by Ryle called
18th Century Leaders, he says of Whitefield these very perceptive
things. Another striking feature in Whitefield's
preaching was his singular power of description. The Arabians
have a proverb which says he is the best speaker who can turn
men's ears into eyes. Whitfield seems to have had a
peculiar faculty of doing this. He dramatized his subject so
thoroughly that it seemed to move and walk before your eyes. He used to draw such vivid pictures
of things he was handling that his hearers could believe they
actually heard and saw them. On one occasion, says one of
his biographers, Lord Chesterfield was among his hearers. The great
preacher in describing the miserable condition of an unconverted sinner
illustrated the subject by describing a blind beggar. The night was
dark and the road dangerous. The poor mendicant was deserted
by his dog near the edge of a precipice and had nothing to aid him in
groping his way but his staff. Whitfield so warmed with his
subject and enforced it with such graphic power that the whole
audience was kept in breathless silence as if it saw the movements
of the poor old man. And at length, when the beggar
was about to take the last fatal step which would have hurled
him down the precipice to certain destruction, Lord Chesterfield
actually made a rush forward to save him, exclaiming aloud,
He is gone! He is gone! The noble Lord had
been so entirely carried away by the preacher that he forgot
the whole was a picture. I was reading yesterday, and
again I had for the sake of time to pass over it, an incident
of one of the old Puritan preachers, and they described him in a situation
where he was having a dialogue between the people of God and
God himself. and how God in judgment will
take away privileges despised. And the biographer was describing
this interaction. And here the creature was impersonating
God and the nation that had despised his word. And they said alternately
he would stand and speak as God. You have despised my word. You
have spurned your privilege. I will take away my word. And
then they said, actually kneeling, kneeling. terribly histrionic. He took the posture of the brokenhearted
nation that said, Oh God, take away anything, but do not take
away your word. And then he stood again and God
spoke to this apostate nation and the nation pleaded, Brethren,
what happened to these men? They were so taken up with spiritual
realities and so concerned that they impinge upon men in such
stark naked reality that they didn't care about elegance. They
didn't care about the critic who might sit there with a jaundiced
eye and say it's all a bunch of histrionics. They were so
possessed by the truth and so convinced that the man in the
pew is not so much impressed by accurate philosophical statement
as he is by vivid imagery, by these legitimate and judicious
illuminating devices that they threw themselves into preaching
in such a way that these devices were scattered throughout their
ministries to the profit of their hearers. Well, I hope if that
case doesn't carry it, or say, if that doesn't carry the case,
then I don't know whether or not it would be wise to try to
add anything else. So we move very quickly now to
an explanation of the manifold functions of these devices. What
are the functions of these devices? Well, number one, they are often
an excellent means of gaining or regaining I'm sorry, the primary
function. I'm trying to use the terminology
that is in your notes and then moving to the substance in my
notes. As it was already suggested in
the first heading, under the desirability of these devices,
their primary function is that of clarifying truth either in
its explication, opening up of the truth, or in its application. Since we are commanded to let
all things be done unto edification, and since only what is clearly
understood can edify, that's the whole argument of 1 Corinthians
14. Untranslated tongues cannot edify. Prophets all speaking
at once cannot edify. Why? Because the common denominator
is the words cannot be understood. That's the baseline of Paul's
concern in 1 Corinthians 14. And therefore, since all things
must be done unto edification, and only what is clearly understood
can edify, then these devices must be regarded as subservient
to that great end of edification by means of clearly perceived
truth. As one author has said, reasons
are the pillars of the fabric of a sermon, but similitudes
are the windows which give the best lights. Now, if we always
keep this fact before us, that is, that the primary function
is the clarification of truth, either in its explication or
application, we will have a built-in monitor to help us with such
vexing questions as, how much shall I illustrate in any given
sermon? What kind of imagery would be
most appropriate at one point or another in the sermon? Should
I or should I not use an anecdote? What anecdote? Is it appropriate? Is it judicious? The answer lies
in putting all of these questions to the test of this more fundamental
question. What decision will best serve
the interest of truth? What decision will best serve
the interest of truth? Furthermore, this fundamental
question, constantly considered, will keep us from many of the
abuses to which these devices are liable. Anecdotes which distract
the mind from the truth being explained or enforced will be
excluded. We'll never tell a story for
the sake of telling a story. Flights of imagery which would
attract attention to our own imaginative faculties or our
facility with words will be studiously avoided and deliberately mortified. Similes and analogies so coarse
and crude as to disgust and turn our hearers against us will be
avoided. This, then, is the fundamental,
the primary function of these literary devices of anecdote,
simile, metaphor, parable, analogy to clarify and to enforce the
truth. Let your soul burn, brethren,
with what the old writers called disinterested love, that is,
selfless love for your people, and let your mind and spirit
be permeated with the truth And then you will have an excellent
monitor to keep you in line with respect to the judicious and
legitimate use of these devices. The truth has gripped you. It's
warming you as it enters into friction with your own mind and
spirit in the act of preaching. But there's that long-ago and
faraway look on the eyes of your people. You don't see that look
of delight. What is delighting you has not
yet been comprehended by them. Well, you'll fish on your feet
for a simile, an analogy, an illustration that you had not
realized might be needed at that point. And it's amazing how many
things the Spirit of God enables you to do in the act of preaching.
Your mind is filled with the truth. You know where you are
in the track of your argument or your application, and yet
when you get that glassy stare, you're praying, Lord, give me
an imagery, give me an analogy, give me an illustration. And
your mind then, at an unusual rate of speed, will flash by
all the possible ways, and you'll fish for an imagery, you'll fish
for an illustration, you'll make one up on your feet that may
be crude in terms of of literary polish, but if it turns that
glassy stare into, I see it, then it's worth it. Who cares
about elegance? It's truth that we want our people
to grasp. It's truth that we want our people
to feel. And so it's in that obsession
with the primary function of these devices that we will have
the best monitor of personal casuistry in preaching with reference
to their usage. However, there are some secondary
functions of these devices. Secondary functions. And I've
listed four of them. First, they are often an excellent
means of gaining or regaining attention. Spurgeon, in his chapter
on illustrations in preaching, and Broadus, in his chapter on
illustrations, have some excellent material on the secondary functions
of these literary devices. And while they both emphasize
that the main function is indeed that of clarifying the truth,
they do not ignore nor despise the secondary functions. And what are some of them? We've
already indicated. They are an excellent means of
gaining or regaining attention. Often, an analogy A parable,
an anecdote used in the introduction, will immediately gain the attention
of your hearers. Or when the minds of your people
are weary with following the track of a closely reasoned line
of argument in the opening up of a text, and many times you
will have to do that because the Holy Ghost has spoken many
places in closely tight-knit lines of rational argumentation,
and you cannot present that passage accurately and break it up into
unconnected thoughts. You're not being true to the
mind of the Spirit. But when you're people who are
not trained and accustomed to think for hours in these areas
of closely reasoned argumentation, and they followed you very diligently
and very faithfully for 15-20 minutes, then you need to give
the mind an ability to relax without in any way injecting
the ludicrous, that which would grieve or quench the spirit,
and often a judicious illustration, a well-chosen anecdote that buttresses
and supports that which you have been opening up, can be used
to gain or to regain waning attention. But then another secondary use,
they can be made a powerful means of making a surprise attack upon
the consciences of men. People who are often calloused
in their consciences toward God are still vulnerable to feelings
at the level of human relationships. And you can make a surprise attack
upon the conscience at that point of vulnerability. And there are
examples of this in the scriptures. You see the prophet speaking
to a people who become indifferent and hardened. And what does the
prophet do? Under the guidance of the Spirit,
he takes images that would touch the heartstrings of every mother.
Can a mother forget her suckling child? Can a bride forget her
ornaments or her bridal gown? What did Nathan do to get to
the seared, or at least if not seared, to the dulled conscience
of David? He told a parable that found
a chink in his emotional and ethical armor. He still had the
ability to be stirred to anger in the area of social injustice. And he told a parable which stirred
him up. And having done so, he then turned
and said, Thou art the man. Likewise, our Lord Jesus, in
the midst of Pharisees, ready to catch him in his words, He
drew out of them self-condemnation without them knowing it. He told
the parable of the householder and the vineyard and all of the
terrible things they did. And he said, what then shall
the Lord of the vineyard do? And they shouted out, why he'll
come and miserably destroy those people. The Lord said, I'll take
your own words now to condemn you. God is going to take away
the kingdom from you and give it to another nation. This is
what I mean by a sneak attack, a surprise attack upon the consciences
of men. Oh, that God would make us wise
in that holy art of seeking to know how to make such surprise
attacks upon the consciences of men by the judicious use of
these devices. But then another secondary use
is they tend to make our sermons more interesting Pleasurable
and attractive. Now, does that sound strange
and carnal? Well, it's very interesting.
I don't have time to read it to you, but I commend what Spurgeon
says in his lectures to his students on this point, that our sermons,
our preaching should above all other things in the world be
that which is pleasing and attractive and pleasurable. Even though
in its substance it may wither carnal desires and perspectives,
God Himself is the sum of all that is pleasant and proportionate
and beautiful. I love those words of that hymn
we sing, how wonderful, how beautiful the sight of Thee must be, Thine
endless wisdom, boundless power, and awesome purity. In that sense,
should not our sermons reflect something of the image of God?
Never must they be interesting, pleasurable, and attractive at
the expense of truth, but in the service of truth. The truth
has enough of its own inherent offensiveness. Let us not make
it doubly offensive by dull, lifeless, unilluminated sermonic
exercises. that are like elephants plodding
through the jungle, knocking down trees that are in their
paths. We may stand in awe of the great
beast, but no one will ever write poetry about its beauty. And
brethren, our sermons ought to be, in so much as they can be,
without sacrificing truth or our fidelity to the souls of
men, interesting, pleasurable, and attractive. And then these devices, in the
fourth place, tend to aid the memory. Broadus says a most interesting
thing, but time won't let me quote him. But you know as well
as I do, long after people have forgotten your outline, they
have forgotten what you thought were some of those finely tuned,
precise statements of truth that you think could be printed alongside
Professor Murray's works. They'll say, you know, Pastor,
I never will forget that illustration you used three months ago when
you were preaching on such and such, right? Now, who made us
that way, God or the devil? God did. And one of the great
ends in seeking to work these into our preaching is that they
tend to aid the memory. And when people remember the
illustration, if we've properly used it, it will carry in its
train the truth which it was intended to illustrate and enforce. And therefore we bring this natural
tendency of the human psyche into the service of truth and
the salvation and the edification of our people. And there's another
use that I didn't list that I ought to list. It's just come to my
mind, so I'm going to practice what I preach. An illustration
will often convince where logic does not. I remember when teaching the
series on pre-adult membership, laying out all the exegetical
materials, and I could still sense that some people in their
sentiments felt, well, if my darling is saved, why can't they
be baptized and be made a church member even though they're only
11 years old? So I ended up with two simple
illustrations. One of them was, about the young
man who has really shown marks of being a converted young man
from the age 12 and he's now 14 or 15 years of age. He's coming to puberty. He's
feeling all the 300 horsepower pressure of his emerging sexuality. He's struggling with purity of
mind. He's struggling with masturbation. He's seeking to keep himself
pure in body and mind and he's praying and crying to God And
in his devotions that morning, he comes to first Corinthians
seven. And he reads that and he understands it, and he comes
running out of his room and says, Dad, Dad, look what I discovered
this morning. I don't need to burn with passion
anymore. God says, let every man take
a wife. I can take a wife. And then he
begins to talk to his dad and mom about marrying Susie, who's
been his little sort of crush and sweetheart since age 11. And mom and dad say, whoa, son,
wait a minute. Wait one minute. You're only
14 and a half years. But the Word of God says! Well,
what do you tell him? Everything in its time. Everything
in its time. 1 Corinthians 7 must be brought
against the backdrop of other considerations, of a man's fitness
to take on the responsibilities of a wife. And so you do not
discourage his zeal to do what the Scripture says, but you say,
everything at its right time. And then I used a similar illustration
of a country at war and a 12-year-old young patriot going down to sign
up with the Marines. and how he would be treated by
the recruiting sergeant encouraging his disposition of patriotism,
but discouraging him from going into the trenches where there's
real bullets and real blood and mud and gore and the horrors
of war. Well, I could see people who
weren't at all convinced by the biblical arguments. Those illustrations
got them, and it locked them in. Well, you say, shame on them. Well, maybe shame on them, but
live in the real world, brethren. And in the real world, some people
are simply not persuaded by argumentation, but illustration that has valid
feet to it will, under God, be used to enforce the truth. Now,
very, very quickly, having tried to set out the primary function,
the secondary function, I want to give a word of warning and
caution concerning these devices. I'll just read the heads because
my time is gone. Do not overload the sermon with
any of these devices. If a man spends in a 45, 55 minute
sermon, 30 minutes of storytelling and 20 minutes of opening up
a text, he's profaning his sacred office. He's profaning it. Don't overload the sermon with
these devices. Secondly, don't ever use them
for their own sake. I abominate this notion that
the only way you can prove to kids if you speak in a school
chapel that you're a nice guy is to stand up and tell a joke.
It's an insult to their intelligence as well as a denigration of the
sanctity and sacredness of your office. Don't ever use these
things for their own sake. Thirdly, do not use them unless
they clarify truth to the average hearer. Don't make analogies
and references out of Greek mythology. Most of you people ain't read
no Greek mythology. And if you use them, you probably
borrowed them from someone who did, and you never read it yourself.
And then fourthly, don't ever use them for mere filler. Don't
ever use them just to fill up the time. Some suggestions as
to the means of cultivating facility in the use of these devices,
you can read the outline as well as I. Indirect means, seek to
employ them in ordinary conversation. Brethren, I found this a great
help. You see, the patterns of speech we develop in ordinary
conversation, if preaching is to be truly incarnational, as
we'll see in the next lecture, God Helping Us, the more I can
adapt in my ordinary conversation the patterns of speech I will
use in the pulpit, the more my preaching will be natural, it
will be speaking to the people of God. So try in your ordinary
conversation to use imagery, to use analogy, to bring in metaphor. And the more you cultivate this
in ordinary conversation, the more likely it is to come out
naturally in your preaching. Then labor it using these devices
in the instruction of your children. Family worship is a marvelous
place to cultivate the use of these devices. Thirdly, sustain
much general reading as a means of impression and acquisition. Someone wrote a question for
the question time, how can I glean illustrative material? To me,
the best way is our general reading, rather than picking up a book
of illustrations that is indexed. As you read biography, as you
read theology, as you read church history, you will see things
Illustrated images, specific incidents will strike you as
illustrative of truth, and even if you do not formally file them
away, they are filed away in the mind and will come to your
remembrance in your preparation. And then fourthly, expose yourself
to and analyze living models. Someone asked the question, what
can we learn from men like John MacArthur and Swindoll and others
who are holding the ears of a lot of people? And while we may not
embrace all of their theology, or in some cases very little
of it, we can still learn from them. And we ought to learn what
is it and what are they doing in this area that we can emulate
and bring to the service of what we know to be the truth. Why
should our preaching not be more captivating and interesting than
the part and partial truth that other men are preaching? And
then the direct means Read these things on your own. Consider
them when the sermon is fairly well formed. Go over it and note
the places where these devices are most needed. Think through
the sermon as one who's listening to it and say, at what point
would I feel need to have relief from the pressure of closely
reasoned thought? There I must seek to bring in
some one of these devices that will relax the mind of the people
without distracting it. from the truth that I am seeking
to convey, and then seek to analyze statements which could be made
more interesting, clear, or forceful with the use of these devices. And brethren, it's something
we must labor at, and continue to labor at, and by the grace
of God, in the language of Paul to Timothy, give thyself wholly
to these things, that thy progress may be manifested unto all. Thus ends the gallop through
axiom number five.

Effective Popular Preaching #5

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about effective preaching?

How do we know that illustrations are effective in sermons?

Why are literary devices important in preaching?

How can preachers ensure their illustrations are appropriate?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

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Effective Popular Preaching #5

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about effective preaching?

How do we know that illustrations are effective in sermons?

Why are literary devices important in preaching?

How can preachers ensure their illustrations are appropriate?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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