Lecture 2: Mechanics of Expository Preaching - Dr. Steven Lawson

I need to open it up and let you ask any questions at this point so it's just not all me but during the break different guys come up and we talk and probably a couple things would be helpful for me to say that that I feel like I need to say one if you're working while you're going to seminary you're not in sin okay I I don't I don't want to give that impression that was me I was a single guy I did not have a wife to provide for I did not have children to provide for as a single guy I could just beg my way you know I could just show up at someone's house at night for a meal and literally invite myself in and so if I had been married and then on top of that if I had had children as some many of you do and there are the responsibilities that come with that and if a man does not provide for his own household he's worse than an infidel so just to balance this whole thing out I don't mean to give that impression and the one who came up didn't take it that way but I don't want to anyone to have a feeling of guilt unnecessarily for me it was all about priorities and for me it was all about why why am I on this earth and what am I supposed to do with my life and what started out as a good thing for me became a bad thing and in and of itself it was an all moral thing but it was too much of a good thing in it and it just took over my life and I needed to get back to the basics and the old saying the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing and now if in any way any of you feel that hey maybe I do need to make a mid-course correction then that's between you and the Lord but not based upon me that would be based upon what the Lord has for your life second thing a very good question was asked about as we preach it's christ-centered to what extent do we take that and you know there's there's some people who tell us that Christ is in every verse in the Bible III don't think Christ is in every verse in the Bible they point to Luke 24 in the road to Emmaus and Jesus showed himself to them in all the scripture and my response to that was well Emmaus was just down the road I mean you know I mean they weren't walking to the North Pole and and and we had five months now to talk about this I don't know the exact number of miles it was to Emmaus at that point but it didn't there wasn't that much time to go through every verse of the Old Testament okay it was hitting the high points but one way that even in text where Christ is not directly mentioned in our preaching nevertheless Christ can become the example on how this has worked out in our lives Christ can be the illustration for what this would look like in my life Christ can be the wisdom for how this would be applied in my life Christ can be the grace that is necessary for me to fulfill what this proverb requires or what this text in an obscured text in the Old Testament scripture I mean Christ is always at my right hand as I preach he was always seated at the right hand of the pulpit and he is always within arm's length in fact the Scots used to say there need to be two in the pulpit the preacher and Christ in Christ in the the preacher but we are always using Christ for application Christ for illustration Christ for motivation Christ for power Christ for grace etc so those are two things that that I that I wanted to mention let me just open it up on what we've talked about this point if anyone like to ask question or has a thought yes yeah I just recently preached someone yeah there's not a there's not there's not a direct reference to Christ there's just a contrast between the godly and the ungodly yeah and given that sadhana's wisdom literature like it's Christ the example like is either the psalm one man or like you do we fall under the category of the wicked where we're centered and that judgments come upon us and yeah I'm surprised we could receive you know the blessings of how would you go about yeah it's a great question and Psalm one is soap reachable I mean it's placed there for a reason wasn't the first some written but it's placed there number one well several things I would want to begin by looking at the New Testament to see what are obvious fulfillments first of all in Psalm one there's the way of the righteous and the way of the of the wicked and Jesus says in John 14 verse 6 I am the way and the truth and the life so Christ is this way this this narrow path that is being laid out in in Psalm one that's very carefully defined second Christ is the lawgiver the one who meditates on his law day and night will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water and so Christ is the author of this law and so it is his commands and his precepts in his instruction second or third Christ is the very center of the law and the law is pointing to Christ fifth the one who meditates on his law be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water Spurgeon says in Treasury of David at that point on Psalm one that that is a beautiful picture of regeneration that this tree didn't start out here this tree was transplanted and and moved here this tree was previously living someplace else and by comparison with Jeremiah 17 wherever that is it once living as a bush and a desert in a wilderness but now it's planted by streams of water and that is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and that is the power to save of the Lord Jesus Christ I would also say sixth or seventh as Jesus begins his public ministry the very first word that we have coming from his mouth in the first sermon of which we have the record of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are they who mourn blessed are the meek blessed are they hunger and thirst for righteousness Psalm 1:1 how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked stand the paths enter sit in the seat of scoffers I think that there is an obvious allusion here between Psalm 1 the beginning of the Psalter and Christ the beginning of his public preaching ministry he's come to bring not cursing and he's come to bring blessing even John 3:17 says that that he's come not to judge but to save the inevitable result of not receiving a salvation as you will be judged by him but but even at TYIN and I think you could go on even the judgment of the wicked will be by Christ every knee will bow every tongue will confess John 5 all judgment has been committed by the father to the hands of the Sun and when the the wicked will not stand in the judgment it will be before Christ before whom they will stand so I I think that you know that we would preach Christ from Psalm 1 though he is not directly mentioned or named in Psalm 1 but as we put our arms around the New Testament we have I think great license and and and liberty in fact obligation and to preach Christ so that's a great question and we all need to go out and preach someone what a great sum that is when I spoke at the graduation for the master's college I preached Psalm 1 and just love that that Psalm yes uh-huh my guys really unsure how would you yeah how did you go about explain or helping them come to the conclusion or have some clarity yeah yeah and I and I realize there there is some subjectivity to that again I don't want to put anyone on a under a cloud of guilt although I do want to motivate and I do want to urge and to exhort and those who are called to preach the words that I said I hope would be wind in their sails and urge them on and does not call to preach here that it would even be a caution not to to lay hands on that to which they have not been called to help the clarity of it meaning whether or not one is truly called to preach first of all I'd go to the library and Xerox that chapter out of lectures to my students and anytime I have a young might young man in our church come by and talk to me my secretary just Xerox that and hand it to them and read this come back and we'll talk I think that's one thing I think also if there is a desire to preach I think the more that you preach there will be confirmation or I don't think that is what I'm supposed to do but as long as you're just reading about it talking about it thinking about it I think there will always be some uncertainty it's not until you jump in to the pool can you really have clarity on this and I remember the first time I preached and it was it was the most bizarre of circumstances and I had no idea I would preach I was in the service and the pastor calls me out to come up to preach and and and I I was so flabbergasted hardly even knew what to say and it was just a very unusual set of circumstances to say the least but and I had such a fear of public speaking I would have never done that except Providence really just threw me into the the mix of it but I remember when it was over it was was like wow that I mean I it's almost like that line out of Chariots of Fire when I run I feel his pleasure and I mean I sense God's pleasure that I was a round peg in a round hole that I was doing something that I wanted to do more of and that I would have never done it if I hadn't been thrown into this it could have been the other way it could have been one sin it I'll never do this again so I think you have to put your toe in the water a little bit to see is this what I'm called of God to do or not called of God to do but until you do it would be hard to have full clarity in your mind but that's a great question yeah yes preacher talking for sermons and topical a topical sermon be exposition yes there is a topical expository sermon for example you could preach a sermon on repentance and you could go to eight different passages of Scripture you know for from the Old Testament for from the New Testament one from John the Baptist one from Christ one from Peter one from Paul and in that sense that's a topical message in that you are addressing a topic you're bringing the full counsel of God to bear upon this one topic that's a very biblical expository message what you must do is you just must actually expose it those individual verses as you come to them now obviously you cannot give us much historical background and do as many word studies and etc etc as you would if you were only preaching that one particular verse but like pearls put onto one strand to make a necklace so all these different texts can be strung together to make a very beautiful God honoring Christ exalting expository sermon now some of the greatest series that MacArthur has done here have been topical expository series I mean he's done a series on how to glorify God and tied together eleven different passages that speak in different ways on how to glorify God and we glorify God by confessing Christ we glorify God by believing upon upon Christ we glorify God but by obedience we glorify God by suffering I mean he just strung all those together so that's a legitimate expository message and III think what Spurgeon did for the most part can be called expository and those messages where he would take a passage in and open it up and a slightly different nuanced than then we would and sometimes he would go too far with almost allegorized rue it just didn't come from that verse but worse things could happen to us then we end up being Spurgeon you know so the key is that it's biblical and and that you explain and show in a logical ordered fashion as you move from text to text to text I try to like let's just say it's it is repentance to take those verses in the order in which they're found in Scripture to help give a coherent logical progression of thought is one way to do it chronologically sequentially through the scripture but yes and I think dr. business has given it shepherds conference of a workshop on the topical expository sermon now that's a great question James Montgomery boys some some of the his greatest sermons were topical expository messages and he's known for preaching through preaching through Romans preaching through John preaching through Genesis preaching through the Psalms but he also liked that book foundations of the Christian faith he preached through Calvin's Institutes of the Christian religion and just took those main headings but you know would preach systematic theology that's that can be done in an expository fashion well what would not what would what would be topical but not expose Ettore okay would be to preach the culture to preach politics to preach a book review to preach morality to preach anything that does not originate out of the Word of God does not stay with the Word of God and does not end up in the Word of God so there's a lot of political Pro America messages that are not expository and some would even like read a passage but just rip it out of context and and do injustice and so in that sense it's not expository because it's not a true explanation of a passage of Scripture I think a lot of the emphasis on just the culture today is just pulled outta thin air it's it's not pulled out of really texts of scripture that have a historical setting and what that what was the authorial intent and how did those recipients take and understand that message so I think you know I I can remember when I was in college hearing a Baptist preacher preaching on like a movie he had just seen and using that as an allegory of you know Christian life and I mean it had no basis in Scripture whatsoever so anyone yes sir you talk about the role of Prayer and your personal consecration well sure I mean it's it's just being alone with God and I take you know Matthew six that general outline of progression as Jesus taught his disciples how to pray and to pray through those main headings as well as take various Psalms and just pray verse by verse through those Psalms as well as to pray through my sermon notes and preach them to my own heart and confess to God where it's not there as well as live in a sense of desperation before God needing His grace to do the things that I'm about to do as well as afterwards giving glory to God and giving thanks to God for those things that he has done as well as keeping short lists of things that you would repeatedly pray for as well as because I spend so much of my life preparing messages that pray for illumination and enlightenment as Paul prayed for the Ephesians in the just that they would come to understand that I need to understand and as those verses in psalm 119 so you know that would be just in general an overview yes sir how would you approach impromptu sir mmm-hmm meaning not time for preparation yeah sure sure I'm sure in the Providence of God there there are times that we find ourselves in those situations a couple things number one I think it requires that you draw from a deep well that you have been digging digging digging into Scripture such that if called upon you know someone could open a a Bible and put it in front of you and you begin to give explanation and application of that passage you know there have been a few times in my ministry because of emergencies that I've had - like on a Wednesday night you know preach with virtually no preparation simply because of a death or something like that and I will say God gives extraordinary grace in those situations and quickness of mind and even to the point that my my wife and children said I ought to do it more often and you know it's like I'm the one up on the tight wire you're down in the seats I mean that's no way to live in this without a safety net and you know and they're taping you as well so you wouldn't want to live that way but I think you need to be ready to to to die that way to do that and and we we do find ourselves at times I mean I'll be on the road and someone would you mind coming and speaking to this group as long as you're here and you want to be used and so there there are times I've found myself in that position and I think that I have felt extraordinary freedom in some ways there there are some pluses as far as eye contact as far as the the pace with which you speak and not being sometimes overly structured and a natural development of thought and a natural progression of thought and when you are spontaneous sometimes you're more emphatic so those you know are some things that you know come to mind and I've have certainly done that I I just couldn't do that on an ongoing basis and for there to be depth of ministry but I I think it's almost more like the the desert you can't live all live off desert but you know you want the meat and the potatoes but there's a time and a place for the desert and there can be a time in a place for that and I can go with that yeah as you preach first by this and you come across a passage which relates to an area which you're struggling with in your own life how do you approach that you mean as far as personal growth and development I said to preach it anyway I mean if I waited until I'm perfect in order to preach a text I'll never preach and I just have to preach that first to the Lord in prayer that God you know and I know that my life has not been all that it should be I mean I just preached I think twenty one sermons on first Corinthians 13 now there's 15 virtues of love and some more sermons before and after verses 4 through 7 I promise you every time I walked into that pulpit I I even said it I'm the last person in the world to be preaching on 1st Corinthians 13 if this was a text on justice I'm there this is a text on sound doctrine I've got it in spades but you know this kind of love I can't get past love is patient love is kind love does not take into account a wrong suffered love hopes all things bears all things believes all things I would just have if if I couldn't preach it until I had all this resolved first of all Romans 7 tells me I'm never going to have it all resolved and then second if I had to wait till I had it resolved I would just go from chapter 12 to chapter 14 and the church would know that I passed over this I think there's a sanctifying effect in the life of the preacher to have to preach those verses that I'm forced to deal with it in my own life even more so and I think sometimes we preach even more humbly in those settings in those times and more dependent upon God when the reality is is is not there in one's life to the extent that you would want it to be now that's not a hall passed to to to to not deal with things in your life and it's not a free pass to be living an immaturity or carnality but I mean you're just going to preach on I mean you can't preach every other chapter in the Bible yes sir time with preaching and constantly with areas east that counseling or the preaching yeah I think first of all is a general principle I think God has given different gifts to different men and even among those who preach is the pastor teacher and I I don't do as much counseling as as other pastors I'm kind of more from the al Mohler school of counseling he has three questions number one what is your problem number two what does the Bible say number three why are we still talking so it kind of works for me I mean I now I realize that there's more to it would be long-suffering come alongside and there are knots to untangle and it's not as simple as that although I think some counseling gets way out of hand and I mean it just becomes a matter of sheer you know are you going to obey God are you not going to obey God are you waiting for a feeling or I don't know what you're waiting on but until you come to this point of repentance I don't know that we have a whole lot to talk about thou art the man so I don't do as much counselling but that is not to say that pastors shouldn't and that there are others others who do more than I do that's a part of their pastoral ministry most of my counseling really is with other pastors as I travel and as I preach in conferences and whenever I'm picked up at the airport whoever takes me back to the airport whoever drops me off at the hotel whoever greets me at the door I mean I'm just always met with problems and I'm just counseling people and especially pastors and with emails and phones and cell phones and airplanes and most of my counseling is just and I'm more with other pastors and elders and young men going into the ministry but that's just the time in my life it wasn't that way 15 years ago and it wasn't even that way hardly 20 I mean 10 years ago so you know there's a shifting of focus of ministry forming by and large that I'll just give you a general principle I would give my morning's to God I'd give my afternoons to men and I would give my evenings to my family and I would try to keep that as rigidly as I can for me one hour in the morning is worth three hours in the afternoon so I want to give God the best hours of the day not the leftovers and I don't want to give man the best hours I want to give God the best hours the most important strategic thing for me to do in the life this church is to preach the Word of God and so I give my mornings to God and I don't answer phone calls I don't answer emails I don't even have a computer so I mean I'm locked up with God and I can be reached but it needs to be like you're about to jump off of a building and and unless you talk to me you're going to jump and I'll send my wife and usually with people this problem didn't happen overnight and it's not going to be solved overnight and so you know the tyranny of the urgent is usually not that things have a way of working themselves out with time also and then I would give my afternoons to two men to meeting with people to counseling to staff meetings to return phone calls to write letters to etc etc to plan meetings to be in meetings to be in committees and do that in the afternoon and whenever there is a block of time then give it to God and then give your evenings to your family you're going to be gone on Sunday anyway and probably on Wednesday night and Saturday night you're kind of not you know all there you know with your family when you are there and so that just leaves you know for other nights so I just try to give my family those evenings but I'm pushing it hard in the mornings and in the afternoons that's just a general you know lay out some people study better at night and you know they're not as sharp in the morning and usually that's in your youth and the older you become the more you become a morning person but I became a morning person early on just out of necessity I just had to because of all that I was doing so I don't know if that's helpful or not I think the key is discipline I mean you've got to be disciplined and I mean that's one thing I think I learned from athletics and sports that I mean you just have to be disciplined great preachers are disciplined great students of Scripture great theologians are disciplined great commentary writers are disciplined and you know an athlete tells his body what to do you don't allow your appetites or your tiredness or whatever to dictate to you you dictate to your body you push yourself and I realize that we run by grace and not just self will but I think that first Timothy four seven and eight discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness that's a key factor the busiest man I know is John MacArthur you know he's just driven he does the work of twenty people does the word a thirty work of thirty people I'm part of it is discipline and drive and dedication and determination so I'm it's kind of like a secret is there's no secrets I mean you just have you just do it by God's grace of course started out in ministry yet were the preachers that influenced me the most yeah well when I was in seminary I would say the two greatest Baptist preachers over the last hundred years I sat under both of those men we'd sit on the front row and just listen to them preach the first would be Adrian Rogers from Bellevue Baptist Church I was the first young man sent out into the ministry under his preaching at Bellevue I bear the stamp and the imprint of his preaching I still have never heard a stronger gospel preacher than Adrian Rogers if you ever can listen to any of his tapes get the early years I mean every Sunday morning every Sunday night every Wednesday night I mean it was heaven come down it was powerful and I learned from him what it I'd never sat under biblical preaching that so that's what it would look like to work through a passage of Scripture that's what an outline would look like that's what exhortation would sound like that's what it would feel like that's what a gospel appeal would sound like the other was waa crystal who was at First Baptist in Dallas and you know when MacArthur's 35th anniversary here at Grace I mean they were there was no one else they could invite who had such a stature to bring in for his 35th anniversary but W a crystal and I mean people still talk about the sermon that he preached that's Sunday so those two men left a very strong impact on my life for preaching and a love for God's Word at the same time I was I was in seminary I would I would go to - to church services on Sunday morning I'd go to the early service to hear Chris well get my car and then go and hear a man named s Lewis Johnson at a church called believers Chapel and that was the first time I had ever sat under verse by verse sequential theological doctrinal exposition through books in the Bible with with grammatical syntactical care and and so God was preparing me and positioning me to have emphasis on preaching but then the emphasis on exposition and then immediately after that came under the influence of dr. MacArthur and and and his powerful exposition of Scripture and back then I said I'm just like a halfway house between the strong preaching and then this very careful exegetical theological exposition and then I had two other influences James Montgomery Boyce actually came and preached for me as a young man on two different occasions and preached through Romans Romans 1 through 4 and then Romans 5 through 8 in my church and I ate every lunch and every dinner with him and in fluid will Adelphia and he had an enormous influence on my life as a young man and and that was a slightly different style of exposition without a structured outline but a very homiletically pleasing presentation and very theological and then when I went to get my demon degree I had just read the holiness of God by RC Sproule and I found out he was at Reformed Theological Seminary so that's where I went to study just so I could take every class that he offered and sit under dr. Sproul and God's goodness became a friend of his and so those six influences to Baptist to independent and to Presbyterian and and I and I think this I think if only one preacher is influencing you it's going to lead to an imbalance and I don't think you'll ever grow and reach your maturity I think you need multiple influences and examples and and there are things to learn from each man and y'all saying you eat the meat and spit out the bones and there are things that you take and things that you that you do not emulate if you only have one man you'll just end up emulating everything but there needs to be a cross-section and and I think that you know even Paul says imitate me as I imitate the Lord that there are godly men who are given as examples that we do well to draw from those influences so you know I'm very grateful to say that I knew all six of those men and had a direct influence from them on my life and I feel a real sense of accountability with what has been entrusted to me in that kind of a cloud of witnesses with regards to the lovers of the breach how do you encourage or challenge those preachers who wants to to spend more time in preaching the end lesson studying how would I challenge men who want to spend more time in preaching and less time and study well I mean you can't preach without studying I mean if you did you would just be hot air I mean there there would be no depth to your preaching leaders are readers and the day you stop learning is the day you stop bleeding is the day you stop living is the day you stop really preaching I can't imagine for example if you just preach the same thing over and over and over and over and over and I mean it's kind of like being a John 3:16 preacher I mean I love that verse but you couldn't preach that every Sunday for the rest of your life you you would become shallow even with a profound verse like that and so you would be doing your church and in serve and injustice you would be doing yourself and injustice as we broaden our study I mean we're expanding our own heart in our own knowledge of God in some ways I do my best study as I know I'm about to preach and I retain and remember what I preach sometimes I just read things and I forget it but as I've had to mark it up underline it write it cut and paste it highlight it arrow it internalize it pray over it and then stand up and preach it and then people come up and are saved by it or encouraged by it I mean it has a way of just sealing it to your own heart that you own this now and so if you were just only preaching without studying I think you would be very shallow yeah yes sir greatest present we face frustration or and my greatest encouragement when I face frustration or discouragement well you know I can be discouraged my wife is a straight line and I'm a roller coaster and when I'm up I'm things are like seem better than what they really are and when I'm down I mean things are like worse than what they really are and it's like Spurgeon said of reading the Psalms he said I've never been so high but that I read in the Psalms David was yet higher in his praise for God and he said but I've never been so discouraged but that David was not lower than me also I think the more I focus upon the Word of God concentrated study of the word of God the more I preach I'm encouraged as I exercise my gift I'm encouraged as I read church history and read Christian biography to see that everyone without exception whom God ever used in a great way was faced with great adversity and great trials and that no one whom God has used greatly has ever had an easy life so I'm encouraged to read William Tyndale I'm encouraged to read Calvin Luther I'm encouraged to read you know men that that in fact one time when I promised discouraged I've ever been in the ministry I just rearranged all the books in my library and I just gathered all my church history books and I moved him right behind my desk just so I could just reach out and touch them and it was like for me and it was just in my mine but it was though they were looking over my shoulder as I studied and as I prayed and he knows Jonathan Edwards one of his resolutions was to think of the death of the martyrs constantly and it has a maturing effect it has a sobering effect it also has a way of putting things in the right perspective I've never had a bad day I mean compared to the death of the martyrs I've never been strapped to a stake I've never had my children pulled away from me I've never heard the crackling of the wood around me I've never smelled my own flesh burning I've never had gunpowder tied around my neck I've never had the hangman hangman's noose brought out so even my very discouraging times in ministry need to be put in right perspective also preaching through the Psalms I see times of great discouragement in David's life and beginning as early as Psalm 3 in Psalm four it at the very outset and that I see how he worked through it and he begins solo and ends up so high from the beginning to the end of of one psalm and you know Lloyd Jones's book on spiritual depression is written from his reading of psalm 42 and needing to preach to your own heart why are you discouraged on my soul have hope in God and I'm strong and preaching to others I need to preach to myself I need to proclaim the truth to my own ears silently and hear my own sermons and hear the truth of God's Word that and I have a ipod that my brother downloaded my favorite hymns on - III have 25 versions of a mighty fortress is our God just back to back to back to back I'm obsessive although he did it but so you just listen to 25 versions of a mighty fortress is our God non-stop for you know two hours and I mean if that doesn't have an effect on ya I don't know what would and then to read about Luther's writing of that in 1527 the dark year of his life and the Black Plague sweeping through Saxony and and people fleeing from bitten burg and he decides he will stay in his house will become a hospital and his own son almost dying and him feigning at the table and repeatedly having carried to his room and I mean that drives you deeper into the Word of God I mean it's one thing to go to the library and study the Bible it's something else to be drowning and to cling to it as the only thing that will keep your nostrils above water and so I don't know that has a way of helping and you know probably some other things as well usually it involves people and people in the church and you said to consider the source as well I mean a lot of its people are nobodies at work and they want to come and be somebody at church and nobody will pay attention to Matt the church and they're told what to do and the church is the one place that they can you know speak up and act up and but you just have to kind of consider the source who this is that's saying this and doing this and acting like this I mean if if this wasn't my job and I just walked in I mean you'd be laughing that this person would have any sway over your emotions that helps anything else yes sir Oh what passages would you preach to a church and web passages that you would not reach into evisceration well I think we could preach anything to a dead church all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable well I mean I've preached to a dead church you know I came to realize of a few years ago not my present church but I was pastoring an unconverted Church so I mean that's what literally a dead church is is an unconverted church so they didn't need John 3:16 they'd had that over every Sunday I preached first John and the necessary marks of the new birth the distinguishing marks of one who is born of God and a dead church has got to come alive in Christ and to begin with and so I mean I saw over a hundred adult conversions in one year just among church members coming to faith in Christ so preaching first John was it had power that it works in the South you know where everybody thinks they're saved that there are necessary evidences of the new birth and without these evidences you can be assured you're not saved and then you said well and then if a church was just languishing I don't know I might go to the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 I mean there's some there's some kick in those verses and those those verses and those letters you know from but I have this against you you've left your first love to but I spew you out of my mouth I mean I mean that's just kind of a wake up call right there and then everything in between but I have this against you you tolerate this woman jezebel you have a name but you're dead the church at sardis so maybe those immediately come to mind plus the demands of discipleship from christ except the men hate his own father and mother and brother and sister yes even his own life i mean i would want to jolt them a bit off the fence help them see their their lost condition or just their languishing and backsliding a right diagnosis is half the Cure and help them see where they where they are so my question is on the preacher in a pastor uh-huh article christians completely leighton called we got to list their legal password I don't think that every person in the body of Christ is called to preach not in a formal way where you stand that first of all women are not allowed to preach to men now they could to other women I think but and not in a formal way of reading the text explaining the text and exhorting with the text so I would refer even to lloyd-jones and his comments on lay preachers etc I would want those that the elders have laid hands on to be before the church and preaching a tell me the other part of the question then yeah okay sure now I think we're all called to witness and we're all called to testify but I don't think we're all called to stand up before the body of Christ on the Lord's Day and take the Word of God and to and assume a posture of spiritual leadership and influence over the entire flock I mean that would be just too much of a um I don't know what movement that would be but I I don't see that in Scripture first of all thank you very much for coming and serving us here my question is what comments or counsel would you give to a man who finds himself in a church let's say he's convinced in keeping the main thing the main thing but he's up against opposition to that in the church maybe amongst people who are I mean a congregation or perhaps other elders who don't see the same the Ministry of Prayer the word in the same way that sure that you'd be convinced it sure I've lived that I mean I've done that in spades at more than one Church so a first of all it's always right to do right and so whatever God would have you to do I mean we're going to do it regardless now we may have to be more patient and more long suffering then we would like to be we need to remember that we're trying to take this church from where it is to where it needs to be and that's a process and that we're not turning around a rowboat we're turning around a battleship and that's going to take a little bit longer we could I you know I could go in and be impulsive and make over-the-top statements in the way I couch the truth and really just cut myself off and so that there there is wisdom and grace and patience that is needed but at the same time I would have my strategy the first thing I would do would be to have a a men's Bible study and meet on Friday morning or whenever and have all the hot hearts there and to be reaching them and that's what I've done and you know while there would be some who was resistant I mean I'm just piling on the coals on other hearts and and God is building a nucleus and God is building a consensus and if you have strong men who'll stand with you you can withstand a lot and so I would have a men's Bible study and I'd pour myself into that and and it would be we're going to study theology where we're going to study the word I mean we're going to this is going to be an adult deal this is not going to be a chest pumping male bonding little group here I mean this is going to be we're going to go down deep and the word and III think that that's one of the greatest things that you could do and then second I would keep on preaching systematically through books in the Bible and III literally would plant my flag there and if I die I die and if I live I live and let it be what the Word of God makes it to be I would also try to be as gracious and in dear and bridge-building as I can be in relationships to people so I don't need to be thumping people in the chest or stiff-arming them I need to be reaching out putting my arm around them to help overcome some of this so I can't have an attitude that kind of thing I'd have people over to my home I would intentionally mix who's coming over and some people who are really excited about this church what's going on and some people who can't handle what's going on in this church and let those people hear the excitement in a closed setting I mean I've had that in my den multiple times and it's like I mean what can what can they say when they see fuller you know I was just saved I just came to Christ we're never seeing God this big we've never known such grace in our lives you know that those are the things that immediately you know come to mind well maybe but maybe we ought to hop back in I see we've got an hour and I guess we just did this for an hour so trying to do the math on this let's do a couple more headings and then we'll take our hour break and then we'll finish this off we go in till when 5:30 okay all right five okay we're doing this till six until five because the national championship game is it is tonight so now I'm with you I'm with you so you know tonight it's the Catholics against the cousins okay so the Catholics against everyone that's married among themselves so it's an Alabama joke I live there so I can do that alright we're talking about what is expository preaching and and honestly before we can even talk about how to do it we need to understand what it is that we're trying to do and so I'm just trying to lay a foundation maybe taking a little bit longer than then we should but just to remind ourselves what is expository preaching and I'm reminded to that I know it's different at this school but IIIi did the week of chapel messages on expository preaching at a very well-known Seminary in our country two years ago and I remember the head of the systematic theology department telling me Steve most of these men have never even sat under expository preaching and this isn't a bad seminary this is kind of a good seminary and so they don't even know exactly what it is I mean it's it's a trendy term that they hear I went in the bookstore and they asked me which book should they have out for the students on expository preaching and I gave my thoughts and I remember the bookstore managers saying I don't think they'll even know I mean they'll know the name they've just never read them I think these books will just stay in here we will have to return what we've ordered I know it's different here and this is a more narrowly defined not just in doctrine but in methodology but I think we need to be clear when we say the mechanics of preaching I mean we're not talking about devotional chats we're not talking about spiritual pep talks we're not talking about even lecturing on the Bible we're talking about expository preaching so it's textual it's Trinitarian third it's theological and by theological I mean we mean several things I mean first of all it is gospel centered preaching and in all of the elements that surround the guy possible of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ everything from repentance and lordship to the free offer of the gospel to the narrow gate to the call to deny yourself and take up a cross and follow Christ to redemption to reconciliation propitiation adoption regeneration justification I mean all of the glorious soteriological doctrines that that surround and the Christological doctrines that surround the the very epicenter of what is the one true saving gospel of Jesus Christ expository preaching is fiercely gospel centered gospel driven and we also need to remember that gospel is good news that we offer good news to people and if they remember us for anything that we are those who have come and offered good news to those who are far away certainly the Ministry of Christ exemplifies that certainly through the book of Acts we see that read through the book of Romans second under that heading it's very doctrinal as well not just those doctrines surrounding the gospel but to build that out we really are theological expositors we are doctrinal expositors we are we are teachers of sound words and we as we work our way through passages we extract the gold of a doctrinal truth out of those texts and we tie it together with the rest of the Bible on these glorious truths and we show other related doctrines as well that if we preach on Redemption I mean we preach on the fall we preach on the curse we preach on grace I mean we preach on those other doctrines that make this doctrine stand out and shine like a powerful Beacon Paul said until I come give attention to the public reading a scripture to exhortation and teaching but the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching and there is this content of teaching that is very much at the heart of our expository preaching Titus 2:1 speak the things that are fitting for sound doctrine so there's theological clarity about our preaching and then also I would Center that there's a plymouth edge to our preaching as well we are refuting sound we are refuting false doctrine we are exposing false doctrine and we are not naive and we do not want our flock to be naive and we we call into account that which is in contradiction to the Word of God we are we are defenders of the truth we are warrior preachers as came out of Scotland many years ago we are known not only for what we embrace but we are known for also that which we reject and we can't we must have it both we can't only just be for upholding the truth we must also be exposing the lie now there must be a proper proportion to that and then the fourth thing that I would say after theological preaching and that's why we need to be steeped in systematic theology and biblical theology and even his historical theology sharpens that edge even more the fourth thing I would say is triumphant preaching we need to be bold we need to be passionate we need to be compelling we need to be persuasive the word bold simply means to tell it all all speech that we don't hold back we are passionate we were not monotone we're not lectures we are fervent we are zealous we are impassioned as we preach there's a fire in our bones because the truth it it's it's not only taught but it's also caught we're to be contagious and our preaching bugs are drawn to a fire and people are drawn to a fire when it's in right proportion when a man is burning for the truth and we are to be compelling when we preach we're not just putting it out there and you can take it or leave it when we preach we are trying to be as persuasively as we can legitimately be without being manipulative without crossing that line but we are we are presenting evidence for what we're saying we are building a case so we bring things into the sermon that go beyond just what the word studies are and the grammar and the syntax in that passage we are giving proofs for what we say we are building our case we are like lawyers presenting evidence and calling witnesses to the stand to testify to the truth we are continually bringing cross-references and and various other passages as well as logic and we are persuading people of the truth and we're trying to win you over to the truth and we are to do it in a triumphant way we're not to browbeat people we're not to put them on a guilt trip we're to be upbeat and and triumphant and for them to be swept in to the truth so again I want to say we're not just leaving the matter with them we're trying to win you over I mean it like a man courting a young woman and trying to to woo her and and win her over to win her hand so by way of analogy we're trying to win people to Christ that's what first Corinthians 9 says we're to win people to Christ and to win them over in this we're to be compelling and then finally transformational we preach for Souls we preach for a harvest or what fisherman wants to go off fishing and never catch anything what farmer wants to spend seasons sowing and tilling and planting and watering and never has a harvest we do this for a reason we do all of this that there will be a harvest that there will be fish that will be caught even so we we preach that men and women would be dramatically changed by the Word of God so there's a bottom line and we know it's in God's hands we can't save anyone we can't sanctify anyone but we're not passive about it either we're not hyper-calvinist we're red-hot for the souls of men and we want people we want their lives to be dramatically changed so therefore our preaching has has certain elements about it that we are we're drawing the net we're not just casting the net we're drawing the net how many preachers just state the gospel but they never make an appeal we need to be assaulting the will of people we need to be calling them to commitment to Jesus Christ I mean we're not like a store that just has merchandise out but there's no cash registers anywhere you can't ever buy anything around here all we can do is just look at things the church is not a museum for us just to look at truth and there we're to be a narrow gate by which people are entering into the kingdom and and we are to be taking people from where they are to to where they need to grow and what they need to become in there and their spiritual growth and so our preaching comes across in a certain way then as we try to connect with with with people I mean we are trying to to move you to urge you to bring you along again we're not hyper-calvinist we're not waiting for people to first come under conviction of sin and run us down in the parking lot before we say anything you know we're I'm after you I'm after your children I'm after your family I am I'm after your well I'm not play-acting up here I'm not waiting for you to hold up cards and give me style point numbers I'm trying to win you to Christ I'm trying to win your family to Christ I'm trying to urge you to Christ I mean listen to Jesus preach come unto me all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest enter by the narrow gate the gate is small in the way is broad that leads to destruction I mean he was he would preach in the imperative mood not just the indicative you get to the imperative and really to many people in our camp are just all indicative you're just encyclopedic you're just mr. Wikipedia there's no open arms there's no open gate paradise is not open the gates must be swung open and urging people to come through them MacArthur says the preacher needs to be like the lawyer first he calls his witnesses then he presents his evidence but then he calls for the verdict and too often we don't call for the verdict sometimes we're just too proud to beg and were too concerned with rejection it was said of Jonathan Edwards preaching that in the doctrinal part you know he had the old Puritan headings the doctrine or the text the doctrine and then the application that in the doctrine all he was doing was lining up his guns and the doctrine all he was doing was lining up the cannons and the doctrinal section all he was doing was putting the ammo into the cannons but it was in the application that he fired those cannons I think too often all we do is line up our little cannons and we never get to firing them and connecting it to people's lives so expository preaching let me just say one more time is not expository lecturing that's another gift that's another office that's another place we need lecturing but lecturing only goes so far lecturing is teaching the choir we've got to get to the to the aspects of preaching yes sir everything I think immediately that comes mind like you know calling for a person to raise a hand or something like yeah yeah no I'm not talking about that but like what I'm talking about in your heart I'm just saying like how does that pose I practically flushed out from the pulpit like you just say hit you by the narrow gate well I mean how does that work I mean I don't give a public invitation to get up out of your seat and come forward at the end of the service I mean my whole sermon is that right where you're seated you move from the indicative to the imperative and sometimes you use the interrogative in between to call for self-examination I mean first you state the truth but then you call for commitment to the truth and until you do the bridge isn't built all the way across to where people are so I mean I mean you teach I mean last Sunday I preached on heaven and hell I just said it's been too long since I've preached on heaven and hell so I'm preaching today on heaven in hell and we all need it I need it you need it and but I didn't just do word studies on Hades I mean you have to get to the point where five seconds after you die where will you be it's appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment you do realize you have an unbreakable appointment with God to unbreakable appointments with God unless Christ comes first and you're down to one death and judgment those are coming have you made preparation you know you can settle out of court you need an advocate you need someone to represent you there's only one the Lord Jesus Christ I want you to know he's never lost a case have you committed your life to Him and you just begin to ask questions and and soul-searching and could it be that you're just here because your spouse could it be that you are a teenager here you've grown up in this church but you've never yet come to own the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Lord and Savior could it be and bump up up up up up up and then you go from the interrogative to the imperative I call you this day I bear the witness of heaven believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved this very moment the second give your life to Christ what would hold what prevents you from giving your life to Christ are you waiting for a feeling can you imagine what you'll feel in Hell or are you waiting for tomorrow what a fool you would be if you were to die today while you're waiting for tomorrow tomorrow is the devil's day today is God's day behold now is the accepted time behold today is the day of salvation and you you you you begin to hedge people in I mean you you be persuasive with them it's the way it is in one-on-one witnessing it's not just like reading a little booklet which circle represents your life which one would you like to represent your life would you be willing to sign the back of this I mean you you you you you you begin to be persuasive with them can you give me one reason why you would not commit your life to Christ you realize the offer that's being made to you this moment do you realize you may never have this offer being extended to you again like it is right now now in order to preach like that you've got to do more than read commentaries I mean you've got to do more than word studies I mean you you you you've got to you've got to read great preaching you've got to hear great preaching you've got to sit under great preaching to even learn how to draw the net in a way that is biblically right you know go read Spurgeon go read Whitfield go read Robert Murray McShane III read a McShane sermon last week and really my thought was I've never preached a day in my life I've just been shadowboxing that's preaching read great preaching it'll it'll bring it'll elevate your game it'll it'll it will cause you to be dissatisfied with where you are in a good way and want to reach higher for God as far as greater effectiveness in preaching so I mean that's what I would say on that I mean you've got to hear it you've got to read it you've got to see it but you've got to feel it and if you've never seen it never heard it never felt it then it's hard to you know to totally I'm going to be like handing me a computer I mean I wouldn't even have it upside down and like where do you put the 8-track into this and I mean you you've got to see it and hear it and feel it and and know it in order to do it out of nothing nothing comes I mean you you you so that's the value of of drawing from other great preaching you go that's what it sounds like that's what it looks like I mean you're not going to just emulate that but you take those principles you take the effectiveness of that and you you integrate that into your arsenal now I mean I've got a war chest now of ways to come at it I mean when we get to application I think later in this outline I think I've got like 20 different approaches all with cross references from scripture on how scripture applies truth I mean we just need to know what what all is in our arsenal how many arrows do we have in our quiver I mean what can I pull to put into my bow to fire one thing would be helpful just get them all out on the table there's one sermon by Spurgeon you you've got to read it it's entitled compel them to come in from Matthew 20 to go out of the highways and the byways and compel them to come in I've never preached a day in my life after reading that and he goes through like eight or nine different approaches like roads up a hill different approaches to urge someone to commit their life to Christ everything from holding before them the Grace and the glory of God threatening them with wrath the urgency of the moment to just on and on and on and on I mean we're just like too one-dimensional but we get stuck in a rut and just keep repeating the same words at the end of a sermon if we ever even have the appeal in a rut so it expands your repertoire so it's kind of it's a big world out there of men who have gone before us and who have preached the gospel and been mightily used by God again this class is about preaching the mechanics of preaching so you know we need to get to the point of choose you this day whom you will serve for me in my house will serve the Lord well let me just conclude packer despite his goofiness with the gospel itself the true idea of preaching is that the preacher should become a mouthpiece for his text opening it up and applying it those are the those are the two elements we open it up and we apply it think of first Timothy 4 verse 13 I think it really matters to God how his word is preached and I don't think we're free to preach however we want to III think that there is a basic overlay a template that scripture gives on how to preach not only we are not only are we supposed to preach the word but we are to preach the word as the scripture prescribes he says until I come give attention to the public reading of Scripture that's number one we read the text he says to exhortation and to teaching like just flip-flop the order of those last two you read the text you teach the text meaning explained the text and then you exhort with the text we know what exhortation means you know the old perkele oh you come alongside with the teaching I'm in the pulpit and I am explaining the authorial intent of this text in the analogy of Scripture giving it's God intended meaning I am teaching the text and then with the exhortation it's as though I am walking out of the pulpit and coming alongside the person in the pew and I'm putting my arm around them essent in essence or I'm tapping them on the shoulder and putting my hand into their hand or into their pocket or whatever I'm coming alongside of them in order to connect this teaching to their lives and to show the the implications of this for how you should live and urging them and at times encouraging them and consoling them and comforting them and rebuking them and reproving them I mean all of the elements it cuts both ways it's been well said we should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable and we're doing it both ways so that's where we're headed

Channel: The Master's Seminary

Views: 102,814

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Keywords: The Master’s Seminary, Dr. Steven Lawson, Expository Preaching, Sermon Preparation, Mechanics of Preaching

Id: CJ54Kthhfcg

Length: 86min 12sec (5172 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 06 2015