REFORMED WITNESS
Volume VIII, June 2000, Number 6
Exegesis And Preaching
A Graduation Address by Prof. H. Hanko
From the August 1, 1973, issue of The Standard Bearer.See more articles by this author
Also in this issue: Applicatory Preaching - by Rev. Carl Haak from the February 1, 1991 issue of The Standard Bearer
Introduction
It is to be hoped that this subject will be, first of all, of benefit to our graduates. I refer to the general decline in preaching in our day. I refer not so much to the fact that there is a drift away from the preaching as the center of worship services. I refer rather to a radical change in the content and the form of preaching. The two are related to each other. It is my intention to defend expository preaching. This defense requires a stress upon exegesis as being at the bottom of all sound preaching.
But it is to be hoped that some consideration of this matter will also be of benefit to all you who are in attendance this evening. This is not a subject of little or no concern to you; you are the people of God; it is for you that preaching is done.
The Scriptures
Expository preaching is preaching which is exposition of the Scriptures. In the Reformed tradition the relation between Scripture and preaching has always been obvious. This is no longer true today. There are many pulpits, perhaps the majority, where preaching no longer has much to do with the Scriptures. This has to do with the question of what preaching is all about, and of what, in the mind of the preacher, preaching ought to accomplish. Is preaching an offer of salvation? Is preaching a moral discourse intended to uplift men's minds? Is it a commentary on present day social and political problems? Or is preaching the power of God unto salvation? One's attitude towards the preaching will determine the relation between preaching and Scripture.
To get at the point that needs to be made, I can make use of an illustration. I recall that as a small boy I was aware of the fact that the minister in preaching concentrated his attention on all the details of the text: the individual words, the order of the words, the meaning of the words, etc. I had accepted this as being proper for preaching without ever giving much thought to the matter. But one day I read a parody written by an unbeliever in which he mocked expository preaching. He had constructed a "sermon" by means of exegesis of a nursery rhyme - I think it was "Old Mother Hubbard." He prepared a rather lengthy "sermon" with a theme and three points in which he went carefully into the meaning of each word and the relation between the words, expounding with diligence the meaning of the whole. I can recall that I was deeply shaken by this for a long time. It planted seeds of doubt in my mind that the careful attention to details which characterized a minister's sermon was really a kind of "playing church."
But there was one point I had forgotten or, at least, did not yet understand. In a sense, it is possible to apply exegesis to any written work whether it be a nursery rhyme of childhood days or a philosophical treatise of some learned man. The term "exegesis" means "to lead out"; and as applied to any writing, it means "to lead out of a writing the meaning." In a broad sense of the word, this is not peculiar to the Scriptures.
What then sets the exegesis of Scripture apart from the exegesis of any other book? The difference is in the nature of the book - the Bible as over against all other books in the whole world. The Bible is unique. It stands in a class by itself. If any book is relatively well-written, its meaning lies on the surface and it can be readily determined by anyone who reads it but once. But Scripture is not this way. This does not mean, as the Roman Catholics maintain, that Scripture is obscure, difficult to understand, a book only for trained theologians. Scripture is also clear. It is so clear that a small child can read it with understanding. But Scripture is like one of these pools in Yellowstone National Park. It is so clear that one can see very deeply into it. The longer one looks, the farther one can see into its depths. But yet, it is impossible ever to see the bottom. It is so deep that the bottom lies forever beyond our penetrating gaze.
The point is that the character of Scripture determines exegesis.
There are therefore certain elements concerning Scripture which are important to recall to mind. I do not propose to offer an exhaustive list of the attributes of Scripture tonight; it is my purpose to concentrate particularly upon those points which have direct bearing on our subject.
Scripture is truly a miraculous book. From whatever point of view one looks at the Scriptures, the truth stands out in sharp focus that Scripture belongs to the whole realm of miracles. Do you wish to examine its origin? Its origin cannot be explained except in terms of a miracle. Do you wish to know its character? Its character throughout is truly miraculous. Do you wish to investigate its preservation throughout the ages? and its power in the life of the Church? This can only be understood by understanding that Scripture is a miraculous book.
Scripture is a book divinely inspired. There are those who maintain this doctrine, but insist that there is what they like to call "a human element" in the Scriptures. The trouble is that they raise this human element to such a level of importance that the divine element is all but neglected. Divine inspiration means verbal inspiration. And, as far as exegesis is concerned, this means two things. It means that the very words and expressions of Scripture are of divine choice, the precise way in which the Holy Spirit chose to express Himself concerning the truths of revelation. The Holy Spirit is never arbitrary. He chose what He did with good reason. It is the work of the exegete to discover that reason. Divine inspiration means also that the exegete is always dealing with a book which carries the authority of God Himself in it. This instills in him a proper sense of reverence and awe as he approaches a book which is so completely of God.
We confess also that Scripture is perspicuous. It is often said that one can hear many sermons on a given text - even by many different ministers; and all these sermons are different. This is not because a minister can make a given text teach anything he wants, not if he is honest with his text. But it does mean that no one hundred sermons will exhaust the riches of any given text. This in itself has always been to me one of Scriptures' most wonderful characteristics. A child of three or four years old can hear his father at the table read: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"; or: "And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger." Such a small child will have no trouble understanding such a text. He knows what it means. It is child-like language. A preacher of thirty years experience can preach his tenth sermon on this text and firmly believe that he has not pulled from its well of living water the last bucket. There are depths there too profound for his understanding.
We confess that the Scriptures are a unity. They have as their underlying theme: Christ, the full revelation of Jehovah the God of the salvation of His people. Or, as a Bible teacher of mine once expressed it, wherever Scripture is cut it flows with the blood of the Lamb. But, and this is a remarkable fact that I cannot fully explain, the whole of the Scriptures comes into focus in every single passage. Truly, Scripture in every passage moves from Paradise to Paradise. Every truth of the whole of Scripture is implicit in every text. The trinity, sovereign predestination, total depravity, divine providence, particular atonement - these and all the rest are to be found implicit in every passage of the Word of God.
We confess that Scripture is a spiritual book. It is not an interesting collection of ancient writings; it is not a textbook for a literature course. It is a profoundly spiritual book. Beware when you come to it. You walk on holy ground. In a very real sense Scripture is a closed book to the unbeliever. And it is open only to the man of faith.
The Exegete
With this book the minister has to do. This is the heart of his calling. Many other tasks may be placed upon him - important tasks indeed. He may be called upon to give lectures and speeches. He may assume responsibility to write for the Standard Bearer. He may have to take part in the work of various committees. He may be called upon to print the bulletin for his congregation. But he is above all an exegete, whose work it is to exegete the Holy Scriptures. He is a preacher of the Word. And to be a preacher he must be an expositor of Holy Writ.
It is not my intention tonight to give a brief and condensed course in exegesis. But there are a few remarks which seem to be essential to the subject. These have to do especially with the fact that an exegete works as a son of the Church. I want to stress this fact tonight because I consider it to be of singular importance.
What does this mean?
It means surely that a minister of the gospel is a product of the Church. He was, as a general rule, born and raised in a covenant family where from childhood on he was instructed in the Scriptures. Paul makes quite a point of this, e.g., in his letter to Timothy. He was spiritually nourished in the Church for there he received all his instruction. He was taught the Scriptures not only in his home, but also in his school, in catechism, and under the preaching of the Word. And particularly, he was prepared for his task in the Seminary.
Now all of this implies that the exegete is a man who comes to Scripture with basic presuppositions. Before he ever begins to preach he has received the whole system of the truth. He has received a system of the truth which was not the invention of his parents and his pastor, but a truth structure which has come down to him from the earliest history of the truth. He has received a truth structure which is the fruit of the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church throughout the ages. He has been instructed in this in such a way that it has become his own peculiar heritage and confession. To him is committed what Jude calls "the faith once for all delivered unto the saints." He has received this of grace, by the operation of the Spirit within his own heart. And particularly he has received this through the confessions of the Church. It is with this truth structure that he comes to the Scriptures as exegete. It is very important that he should do this. He must not be, as some are today, embarrassed by this. This is his life and safety.
And from this it follows that he is a servant of the Church. This must not be misconstrued. He is not a servant of the Church in the sense that the pew determines the pulpit, that the man in the pew determines what he must preach. He is a servant of the King of the Church, the Lord Christ. He owes obedience to no one but Christ. But as a servant of Christ, He is a servant of the Church, for the Church is the body of Christ.
Thus he may never be isolated from the pew.
There is danger of this. I warn you of it. It is possible for a minister to assume that he is a learned man who enjoys studying abstruse and esoteric subjects for the mere pleasure of study. The knowledge of the truth is then for its own sake. He engages in learned and wise discussion with his fellow theologians of like faith or differing faith and finds his delight in the mere knowledge of difficult problems and the intellectual stimulation which comes from studying and discussing them. The danger of this is readily apparent. It leads to the idea that there is a certain area of the knowledge of the Scriptures which belongs to the learned, and another area which is the province of the unlearned.
I engaged in a discussion with another professor concerning this matter but a few weeks ago. He was deeply steeped in the area of New Testament criticism, and he kept wanting to engage me in debate over very involved and difficult textual problems. Finally I asked him concerning a question he brought up in connection with the Scriptural narrative of Jesus' conversation with the Syro-Phonecian woman, how he would discuss these problems of textual criticism on the pulpit. Oh, he assured me, he would never think of bringing these problems on the pulpit. I asked him why not. His answer was that these were areas of Scripture reserved for the theologian; they were of no concern to the man in the pew. But they are matters of Scripture. Is Scripture then to be divided into two categories? that which belongs to the trained theologian and that which belongs to the man in the pew?
This same idea has even led so far that it is claimed that there are different meanings in Scripture - one for the theologian and one for the laymen. For the theologian, e.g., it is obvious that Christ did not really rise bodily from the dead. But we must nevertheless teach this to the layman. For he can only understand picture truths. As one man so aptly observed: "I'm sure if I had to produce picture-truths to a parishioner in great anguish or under fierce temptation, and produce them with that seriousness and fervor which his condition demanded, while knowing all the time that I didn't exactly believe them myself, I'd find my forehead getting red and damp and my collar getting tight."
This whole idea must be reprobated. And yet it is, e.g., the very issue in the so-called Report 44 of the Christian Reformed Church which deals with the question of Biblical authority. Only a trained theologian can understand that report, and there are serious differences of interpretation even among them. The exegete is a servant of Christ for the sake of God's people in everything he does. All his labors are to that end. You may take it as a rule of thumb that if you stumble on an idea which enamors you but which you would be hard pressed to explain to any single child of God, you have stumbled on an idea which is false.
As a servant of the Church the exegete does his work, for he is a preacher.
The Preaching
There is a problem which remains and to which I call your attention in conclusion.
We are agreed that true preaching is preaching of the Word. Only in this way can a minister be a servant of Christ. Only in this way will the sheep of God hear the voice of their Shepherd when they hear the preaching. But expository preaching means preaching which explains the text. Does not then a preacher, in his explanation of the text, interject into the Word of Scripture his own word. Or, to put it another way, is it not better simply to read Scripture from the pulpit to be sure that only the words of Scripture itself are heard? Is not exegesis, exposition, always man's work?
It is my concluding thesis that true preaching is indeed expository preaching. It would not be true preaching for a minister to read selected passages of Scripture in place of a sermon. The Reformers were correct when they divided in the liturgy the reading of Scripture itself and the sermon which was based upon Scripture. Both are important.
There are especially two reasons for this.
First, preaching, because it is expository preaching, is always explaining Scripture with Scripture. It lies in the nature of Scripture that he must do this, for Scripture is a unity, an organic whole. But it is precisely in this way that he does not come with his own word, but lets the Scriptures themselves speak. This is most important. It is exactly why heretics always fail. They come always with isolated texts. In this way it is possible to prove anything from Scripture; but the very character of Scripture is denied. The true preacher preaches in such a way that the whole Word of God shines through and must be made to shine upon every text.
Secondly, preaching brings out the truth as it lives within the consciousness of the Church. There is the operation of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the people of God. This operation of the Spirit brings the whole Word of God to God's people. That is, the very truth of the Scriptures itself is the work of grace wrought within the hearts and lives of God's people. Do the Scriptures teach the forgiveness of sins through the blood of the cross? But this same truth is a work of grace wrought within the consciousness of the people of God. The very truth of the Scriptures is the objective testimony of what God has given to His people in Christ. That truth is therefore the confession of the Church - a confession in all life's experiences. And so the believers of God find themselves and the work of grace in their hearts in the preaching. This is the great wonder of preaching the Holy Scriptures. And so God has given to us this calling to preach the Scriptures. The very authority of that calling lies in the authority of the Word itself. This has been and is today more than ever the strength of our Churches. May God give grace that that preaching is preserved among us.
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Applicatory Preaching
By Rev. Carl Haak
Editorial from the February 1, 1991, issue of The Standard Bearer.See more articles by this author
In assigning me the topic of applicatory preaching, the committee did not, I am sure, intend for us to discuss the composition of sermons preached after the Lord's Supper, as if the application of the gospel is limited to those occasions. Rather, they had in mind that all true biblical preaching is to have an applicatory flavor and thrust to it.
Also, I did not take the subject to be synonymous with what is commonly called "practical preaching." Personally, I have not yet understood what is meant by practical preaching. I often get the impression that people feel practical preaching merely tells them what to do (what others ought to do?), thus relieving them from their calling to think and reason for themselves under the preaching. Believers are to engage in the earnest work of applying the Word preached themselves, and to themselves.
By applicatory preaching I understand simply this: what is the Holy Spirit saying to me from the Word which has been expounded in my hearing?
I would like to divide the subject under the following heads.
The Necessity of Applicatory Preaching.
The Word of God is to be applied by the preacher to the mind and heart and life of those that hear him. Exposition of the text is to include application of the text to our life. Preaching is incomplete without this. Our commission is not only "to disciple all nations," but to "teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:18-20). Doctrine and Truth are not simply to be set before us as subject material, but we are to hear in the preaching how they will be seen in your and my life. This is no easy matter for the preacher. It requires diligent and heart-rending work in the preparation of the sermon. Application makes the sermon distinctive, pointed, personal; something which sticks with the hearer. Preaching without application is preaching "which aims at nothing and hits nothing" (J.C. Ryle, Simplicity in Preaching).
Our Confessions reveal that this is the characteristic of Reformed and biblical preaching. Lord' s Days 32 and 33 of the Heidelberg Catechism teach that the converted walk and must walk in all good works. This arises from the innermost work in the renewed, who are given a "sincere joy of heart in God, and with joy and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works." Implied is the truth that the preaching is the power for this conversion; that is, preaching which tells us not only what we are to believe, but also what we are to be. Lord's Day 44 emphasizes that the commandments are to be "strictly preached" for this reason: "that we constantly endeavor and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, till we all arrive at the perfection proposed to us, in a life to come." Through preaching, which applies the standard of the law of God to us as the rule for our lives, we are conformed to the image of God.
Article 11 of the third/fourth head of the Canons of Dordt teaches that the Holy Spirit by the preaching not only "illuminates their minds . . . that they may rightly understand and discern the Spirit of God," but also "pervades the inmost recesses of the man; he opens the closed, and softens the hardened heart . . . that like a good tree, it may bring forth the fruits of good actions." (See also Art. 14 of the fifth Head of the Canons.)
What is Applicatory Preaching?
Application is "an act of putting to use, a practical inference to be derived from a discourse" (Webster's Dictionary).
I would offer the following statement on the nature of applicatory preaching: Applicatory preaching spells out how the renewed child of God will live in every department of his life as a necessary consequence of the truth of God made known to him. Applicatory preaching will make clear how we put off the old man of sin in his concrete forms and how we put on the new man in very deed and truth. More, applicatory preaching is not only admonitions and exhortations, but also consolation as well. We must beware of one-winged birds. To limit application just to admonition is to put asunder what God has joined together. Applicatory preaching both admonishes and comforts. It shows us how God would have us walk in obedience, but also how God would have us live in trust. Both these aspects are to be found in applicatory preaching. For we read in I Timothy 3:16 that Scripture is profitable "for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness"; and we read in Romans 15:4 "that through patience and comfort of the Scripture, we might have hope."
It is well to remember that really all true preaching is spiritually useful and beneficial (applicatory) because it is the declaration of the living Word. The Word will stick to the renewed heart and bring forth fruit; it can never return to God void but must accomplish the purpose for which He sends it. We must leave the impression that the importance of all the things we preach from the pulpit are beyond expression in worth, and is to be known, loved, obeyed, and trusted by the people of God. Not only must preaching touch directly upon our walk, but every second spent in the pulpit we are to make the Truth of God known, and that is eternally useful, beneficial, of inestimable worth.
More specifically, applicatory preaching touches upon our lives. And it does that, not by vague generalities, but by concretely and tangibly showing what God says to me in this passage, how it both instructs and comforts me.
Never can we forget that the basis of applicatory preaching is to be found in the truths of justification and sanctification. Only when it lives in our minds that God has redeemed His people in the obedience of Christ, and now by the renewing of the Holy Spirit calls them to walk in all good works to His praise and to their own assurance before Him, can we have the true and healthy spiritual framework in which applicatory preaching is to be done. We set those truths aside at our peril. All attempts at application which are not performed in their context will result in teaching men to go about to establish their own righteousness before God.
How is it to be Done?
1. Textually:
"The application dare not, however, be anything alien imported into the text, as though the preacher needed to add to the contents of the text something of his own. He must on the contrary take God' s Word, whose meaning in the past he has ascertained, set it unaltered and unabridged, with all its winsomeness and all its severity, in the midst of the present, and let it say to the men of the present what it said to the men of the past" (Reu, Homiletics, p. 361).
The point to be stressed is that application is not only to be Scriptural, but above all textual. The main thought of the text must be the main thought of the application, and whatever is subordinate in the text must be subordinate in the application. Application is to be tied to exposition, in the sense that it is taken directly out of it. This is the compelling force of preaching. It is never what you and I deduce from certain religious principles, but what God Himself plainly says to us from the Scriptures. We are to hold fast to the text. "The preacher' s business is simply to take what he finds in the Scriptures, and as he finds it, and press it down upon the understanding, hearts and consciences of men. Nothing else is his business as a preacher. The die is just so sharp and hard, so large and perfect as God would have it. He judged it was the right die to produce the impression he intends" (Dabney, Discussions, Vol. 1, p. 596).
To be able to apply the text, the preacher must first clearly understand the text. "If you begin in a fog, you may depend on it that you will leave your people in the dark" (Ryle, Simplicity in Preaching). The application then will not shoot over their heads, to the right or to the left, but be as an arrow finding the mark, being shot out of the Lord's own arsenal.
This means that we will not drag out of the text meanings which the Holy Spirit never intended to put into them, or that we begin by looking for intricate and subtle meanings to show how clever we can be. Whatever we draw out of the text, our people ought to be able to put back in. If we see it in the text, when our listeners are back at home, they ought now to be able to see it too. "Never venture to expound it to the people, unless you are sure that you have the meaning intended by the Holy Spirit, and offer then no other than that!' (Dabney, Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric, p. 253).
This results in the lively preaching of the Word. First for the minister: he stands convicted that what he says has God' s authority attending it. There is then a freshness to the application as well as the certainty that it arises not out of the preacher's frustrations with his congregation, or his own leanings, but from the Ring of the Church Himself, for whom the minister stands as a herald. Second, the blessing of strictly textual application extends to the congregation as well. They will gladly receive it, even though it may hurt and prick, because they see that the application, instead of being imposed on the text, is the outgrowth of it. They see the application coming, and it is sealed upon their hearts as a message from the Lord. They are led to examine themselves in the light of the Word.
Application divorced from the text, and not clearly grounded on the Scriptures, is powerless, or, worse, oppressive and thus damaging. Application tied to the text and resting on the Scriptures binds the conscience, compels the will, and sinks into the heart.
2. With a Knowledge of the Congregation:
The Word is to be applied within the walls of a local congregation, taking into account the conditions existing, the character of the hearers, and the place and time where they live. The preacher must inquire as to how the text speaks to the need of his congregation, and how it can best be brought home to them.
This requires an intimate knowledge of the congregation, acquired by faithful pastoral care. We ask ourselves: How do they think? What is their life like? What objections and questions will be raised? What temptations do they face? The stimulus for applicatory preaching is when the Pastor listens to his people in their conversations, asks them questions about their lives and struggles, lives in the congregation with a discerning eye for the needs of his flock. Pastoral care and applicatory preaching are inseparable.
This would also imply that there is not just one sermon for one text. Though the truth of the text never changes, the exact shade of application which the Pastor brings can. The Pastor prepares his sermon according to the needs and struggles, joys and sorrows, temptations and sins which are present with the flock at any given time.
3. Personally:
First for the preacher: here we must be first partakers of the fruits. As Ezekiel was commanded to eat the book and found it sweet, so must we prayerfully ponder the text in our own heart, being not a stranger to it. When preaching on sin and misery, let us be conscious of the plague in our own hearts. When expounding on the deliverance that is ours in Christ, let us with the apostle make all our boasts in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. When exhorting unto a life of gratitude, let us make diligent search of our thoughts, words and deeds, that they have the approval of our Master.
"The sermon that we preach to our congregation is worthless unless we have first preached it to ourselves. If we cannot always point to the effect of renewed repentance and faith on the part of the congregation, we must be able to point to it at least on the part of the preacher. The preacher who, while preaching to others, himself becomes a castaway, who demands repentance and faith of others and himself refuses them, deals only in high sounding words" (Reu, Homiletics, p. 385).
Second, personally applied to the congregation. "So unnatural is the habit of personal application, that most will readily fit the doctrine to anyone but themselves" (Bridges, The Christian Ministry, p. 284). The applicatory sermon is not one which allows the hearer to go out saying: "The preacher hit hard on others, and hard on other churches." But it is the sermon which hits hard on me, that is, shows me my misery, my deliverance in Christ, how I shall show forth my thankfulness. It brings me to know my only comfort in life and death. This in no way diminishes the duty of defending the faith against false doctrine in the preaching. Nor is this to be understood that the minister aims his sermons at individuals in the congregation. Rather, applicatory preaching must seek to cause the hearer to turn his eye upon himself, in order that he might come to grips with the sin that dwells in his own flesh, find the comfort he himself needs, and be encouraged in a walk of sanctification.
Some of the Pitfalls
1. Being all Application:
"Then there are those who need to be warned against mere exhortation. So often men seem to think that preaching is just extended exhortation. They start exhorting their people at the beginning of their sermon; it is all application. They do not present the truth first and then make the inevitable application. They spend the whole time getting at their people, and slashing them and exhorting them, calling them to do this and that and forcing them" (Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching, p. 258).
We are concerned with the glorious gospel of the blessed God; that it be reflected in the lives of the saints. Our concern is not simplistic moralisms or presenting four or five easy do-it-yourself steps to a happy life. Our themes deal with sin and guilt, salvation by grace alone in Christ alone, repentance before God, the majesty and sovereignty of God, all leading to the one conclusion in the renewed heart: "Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. Who would not fear thee, O Ring of nations?' (Jer. 10:6,7).
2. Speak Nothing Less and Nothing More:
Nothing less: There is the carnal inclination to draw back from the sharpness of the Word. This is brought to bear upon us in overt as well as subtle ways. Always the danger exists that we blunt the sword of the Spirit, that we faint in the day of battle. Only a conceited and reckless preacher would deny it. Well do we meditate day and night on our calling to give account to Him for all that we have spoken or failed to speak in the pulpit. Only when we stand in the consciousness of faith that we are not the servants of men but the servants of God are we made bold to speak.
Nothing more: This is equally pernicious. There is today a concerted effort from the far left, religious modernism, to compel us to preach for doctrine the commandments of men. The attempt is made to make the Reformed pulpit feel guilty if it does not champion social causes such as apartheid, revolution, redistribution of wealth, and what not more. To this the pulpit must respond; we receive for doctrine the commandments of God and will not bind our hearers with any man-made causes.
What is often forgotten is the threat from the far right, ultra-conservatism. This is felt by the preacher especially in his applicatory preaching. Then there are those who have a good deal to say in criticism of the church and the worldliness of others in the church, insisting that the church ought to be conformed to their mold. To consent to this in the preaching is to bring upon the people of God burdens too heavy to bear, and subject the church to the scourge of legalism. Our response to this pressure must be as emphatic as to liberalism; we preach for truth God's Word, and not the commandments of men.
"They forget that it does not follow, because a man has drawn his weapon in the King's armory, that therefore he is fighting the King's battle; soldiers have sometimes used the sovereign's arms to fight duels with each other... When the minister appears in the pulpit he appears not as a messenger of man but as God's herald" (Dabney Discussions, Vol. 1, p. 597).
3. Not All To Be Left for the End of the Sermon:
Application should not wait for the end and give the appearance of being tacked on as something which does not belong to the core of the sermon. A third point which brings the sermon to a focal point leaving the congregation with one thought is proper. But the truth ought to be applied as we go. Once having opened the truth of the text, do not let it grow dark, but strike while the light yet bums. When we preach and feel the force of the truth coming out in the exposition, we must not wait for the end and try to pick it up again, but then and there bring out how it bears on our life.
Conclusions:
1. Preach the Gospel:
All the application in the world can do no good unless we preach the gospel of God. Christ crucified and risen must ever have its central place. God's people must be taught what they should believe, and thus what they should be and do. The motivation for every point of application, whether it be exhortation or consolation, must be that of gratitude and praise to our God for so great a salvation.
2. Rely upon the Holy Spirit:
This goes without saying. No preacher, be he the most eloquent and persuasive man ever to stand behind a pulpit, can bring so much as a gram of truth home to rest in the heart of man. The Holy Spirit must do this. So we must preach looking for God to make His Word effective unto salvation and in lives abounding to His glory.
God will faithfully remind us of this. "What preacher, worth anything, but has often seen his best work fail of appreciation, and on the other hand his feeblest crowned with encomium, of which he must in solitude be deeply ashamed?" (Van Oosterzee, Practical Theology, p. 343). For preachers it is written, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain" (Ps. 127:l).
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