Choosing Bible texts for sermons

[Dieter Schneider]

How do PB members decide what to preach on?

 

[greenbaggins]

It is oh so easy for me. I preach straight through books of the Bible. All I have to do after picking the book I want to preach on next is to decide how far the text goes (how many verses I am going to do). I never have any anxiety that way, and it helps make the context much more important. It shows the people how important the context is.

 

[Contra Marcion]

Oh, how I wish more CRC's were like yours, Lane! I'm so tired of "Top 10 ways to have a happier marriage", or "My thoughts on improving self-estem"! I hope your people treasure what they have. Expositional preaching is fading from the CRC at an alarming rate. (Of course, how could you preach verse-by-verse, when 1 Timothy 3 gives your denomination fits?)

 

[Semper Fidelis]

It is oh so easy for me. I preach straight through books of the Bible. All I have to do after picking the book I want to preach on next is to decide how far the text goes (how many verses I am going to do). I never have any anxiety that way, and it helps make the context much more important. It shows the people how important the context is.

Same for me, but how do you choose the books?

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

It is oh so easy for me. I preach straight through books of the Bible. All I have to do after picking the book I want to preach on next is to decide how far the text goes (how many verses I am going to do). I never have any anxiety that way, and it helps make the context much more important. It shows the people how important the context is.

Plus it means that you preach on passages that you might be inclined to avoid if you had the choice.

If a man cannot preach expository sermons through the books of the Bible, then should he be in the ministry? Surely there are enough good commentaries and books on hermeneutics to equip the industrious man for this task.

 

[greenbaggins]

I consider what I think the congregation most needs to hear from the Word. Also factored in is what I have time to study. Romans, for instance, will have to wait until I have time to read all the myriad commentaries available. Job will have to wait until I finish plowing through Joseph Caryl. I also mix up the various portions of Scripture. I don't preach Genesis followed immediately by Exodus. Congregations need a balanced diet. So, I alternate OT and NT, and in the OT I alternate between Pentateuch, History, Wisdom/Psalms, and Prophets. In the NT I alternate among Gospels, Paul, and generals/Revelation. My plan is to preach through the entire Bible over the course of my ministry.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

It is oh so easy for me. I preach straight through books of the Bible. All I have to do after picking the book I want to preach on next is to decide how far the text goes (how many verses I am going to do). I never have any anxiety that way, and it helps make the context much more important. It shows the people how important the context is.

Plus it means that you preach on passages that you might be inclined to avoid if you had the choice.

If a man cannot preach expository sermons through the books of the Bible, then should he be in the ministry? Surely there are enough good commentaries and books on hermeneutics to equip the industrious man for this task.

I agree.

Lane - the context is so huge too. It's one thing for a man to pull a passage out of thin air and start teaching it but when you actually have to show how a writer builds his case for a thing it's pretty hard to do if the reader is paying attention. It's one thing to leap all over the Scriptures to make a point but, when you're sitting in the middle of an argument by Paul, it's pretty hard to be led astray by hunt and peck theology.

Over the last couple of years I've taught chapter by chapter through Romans and Galatians and now Hebrews. It is remarkable how much you learn when you do that.

I also taught a Book of the Bible per week last year for Sunday School at the pastor's behest. That was a TON of work just reading several books at once sometimes and trying to summarize the principles. I got a good overview through it and saw some interconnected themes but it's nothing like going through a book and spending some time to dwell on it.

 

[N. Eshelman]

Daniel

There is no RPW mandate to preach book by book, verse by verse. This will be my practice, but we must allow for the minister to choose according to what the congregation needs.

Spurgeon said to preach the 'great texts'- which helps explain the popularity of his preaching. (This has been my practice too as a student- we are more itinerant).

I think that we can say it is what is best- but each session will have to decide what they want out of their teaching elders.

Brother in Christ.

 

[fredtgreco]

Lane is right on here. Let me give a few thoughts, since I think this is an important subject and worthy of thinking about.

First, I think it is important to understand your view toward the purpose of preaching God's Word, because the practical questions (what do I preach? how long do I preach it? etc) flow from that.

Here is something I put up on our website page relating to theology of ministry:

THE WORD OF GOD. The starting point for an ordinary means of grace ministry is the Word of God. The Word gives power and significance to the Sacraments, direction and guidance to prayer, and comfort and exhortation to the believer. The Word is the main means God uses to provide faith to sinners, both to show them their need of Christ (justification) and also to mature and grow His saints (sanctification). It is vital therefore, that the Christian partake of this means by: reading the Word diligently, memorizing the Word and especially attending on the preaching of the Word. In my ministry, it is my first goal to cultivate a love for the Word of God in those to whom I minister. Ideally, attendance on the Word should be a way of life, something that one makes an integral part of every part of his life. The Bible speaks about this in describing the manner in which children are to be instructed: “these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 6:6-9). This attitude of respect and desire for the Word can be encouraged in two ways, among others: (1) through a consistent and evident belief that the Word is sufficient for the believer’s life; and (2) through a respectful and diligent exposition of the Word. To this end, the preaching of the Word is an important focus of ministry. Sermons must be the fruit of careful work, not sloppy or hasty; they must be instructive in what the Bible says so that the people will understand the Bible better; and they must be applicable to the hearer’s life. Preaching should be a practical outworking of what the Shorter Catechism describes as what the Scriptures teach: “what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man” (WSC 3).

I advocate (and practice) systematic consecutive expositional preaching. What does that mean? It means that I preach through books of the Bible, allowing the Biblical text to set my "agenda" - Why did you chose to preach on the Sabbath, pastor? Well, it was the next text, in Exodus 16. It means that I can give my people the context of any passage relatively easily, without lengthy introductions. It means that my congregation can read ahead to the next week's sermon text. It also means that I don't spend time each week wondering what the "next best text" will be.

What does it not mean? It does not mean preaching every week on a word, or a verse, or even a couple of verses. You can do that - if the text warrants it, but it is not required. Different genres are conducive to different lengths. I just finished 1 Peter, where my average sermon text length was 3-8 verses. I am now in 1 Kings, and I am taking a chapter a time (50+ verses! ) Why? I don't want to break up the flow of the narrative, and I want to preach through 1 and 2 Kings in roughly a year. (If you think that is too fast, do a quick search and see just how many preachers have preached through both books. Almost none!) Derek Thomas gave me one of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten on preaching (to paraphrase) : "We live in a day of Biblical illiteracy. It is your job to get as much of the Bible in front of your people as possible. Most people get nearly all their Bible on Sunday morning. Use that."

I am also an advocate of the good (and hard to implement!) advice from Jay Adams: before you preach through a book, do your sermon work months in advance. The idea is you have sermons prepared for one series, and while you preach through that series, you are doing the bulk of the work for your next series. That way, by the time you are ready to preach a sermon, you have seen and studied the scope of the entire book. That doesn't mean that you don't update, change and revise based on circumstances, God's Providence, etc. But it means that 75%+ of the work is already done.

I also am an advocate of thinking through which books to preach through, based on congregational need, preacher's experience (woe to the man who preaches through Romans or Hebrews in his first few years of ministry!) and ministry needs. If the preacher is honest, and if he plans on staying in one place for a while (or if he doesn't want to be continually "recycling" the same material like some kind of exegetical Tour de France) he will quickly realize that he gets one shot at preaching through a book. The preacher needs to dwell seriously on that - it makes one sober about preparation (how can you avoid preparation, knowing that you will never get another chance at Ecclesiastes 12 or Genesis 12?).

So preparation is key. It takes three steps:

1. Spend some time (a few days or more), ideally on a study leave week thinking through which books you would preach through. That does not mean you are a slave ton the results, but you can much more effectively makes changes and modifications to a plan you have. Plan, plan, and plan some more!!!
2. Before you begin a series, plan out how many sermons it will be. Break the text up into "preachable" chunks. Try and come up with "workable titles" for every week. They can be changed; they don't need to be perfect. But it will help. The young preacher often spends valuable time (1 hour?) thinking of "catchy" or good titles that frankly are forgotten by the people within a month (or week!). No one says "Can I get a copy of your sermon 'The Campaign for King'?" NO. They say, "can I have the sermon on 1 Kings 1?"
3. Work through the text, and organize the text into a discernible outline.

To see an example of how I do step #2, you can go to our website and see the various sermon series. Those lists were done in the first week or two of each series. Sometime next week, the entire series of titles for 1 and 2 Kings will be up (they are written, but I may not have time to update the webpage).

For step #1, I have a plan for morning and evening through 2012. It is very intentional. For example, in the morning, I wanted to start my ministry in Katy with the fundamentals of the Gospel (Galatians), and then wanted to move to missions in a post-modern world (Ecclesiastes) and then to take a more pastoral approach (1 Peter) followed by how God works within Covenant theology (Kings), to be followed how a church is united (we will be in a new facility and hence having new members - Philippians), and then how a Christian is to respond to the world around them as they minister (Daniel).

You may also notice the OT/NT variation, as well as the genre variation (epistle, narrative, prophecy, etc). This is intentional. You can do this by the seat of your pants, but I find it much easier to plan out. You can always modify (I delayed Habakkuk in the evening to allow our Associate Pastor to preach a good evening series through the membership vows).

I hope this helps.

 

[Pergamum]

eeny meeny miney moe....


just kidding


I never get past the very basics it seems

 

[KMK]

eeny meeny miney moe....


just kidding


I never get past the very basics it seems

Me too.

I remember how awesome it was when I first started attending Calvary Chapel and the pastor taught chapter by chapter through the Bible. (That is one of Calvary's distinctives)

I am just a beginner (I've only preached 140 sermons) and I would like to start at the beginning of a book but the HS keeps bringing things up among the flock. Questions that they have. Issues that directly affect our particular church. Weaknesses that need to be addressed. I find myself being led, like Spurgeon, to the 'great texts'. Right now I am in the middle of a series on 'saving faith' inspired by Sermon 4 in Durham's "Christ Crucified".

I see a great deal of fruit when I do a series based on the catechism. I did that with the 10 Commandments and The Lord's Prayer.

 

[Barnpreacher]

Who can argue with Spurgeon's method of topical preaching? Yet the more I preach the more I find myself drawn to expository preaching. I am preaching through the Book of Romans this year. I also enjoy listening to preachers like Joel Beeke preach through the catechism. I think there is a time and a season for all of those types of preaching.

 

[KMK]

Who can argue with Spurgeon's method of topical preaching? Yet the more I preach the more I find myself drawn to expository preaching. I am preaching through the Book of Romans this year. I also enjoy listening to preachers like Joel Beeke preach through the catechism. I think there is a time and a season for all of those types of preaching.

I too am preaching through the book of Romans but only about once a month. In two years we have finished the first 10 chapters. We had to take it slow through 8 and 9 as the doctrines of election and predestination were largely unheard of. I want to handle those issues very carefully.

 

[toddpedlar]

I consider what I think the congregation most needs to hear from the Word. Also factored in is what I have time to study. Romans, for instance, will have to wait until I have time to read all the myriad commentaries available. Job will have to wait until I finish plowing through Joseph Caryl.

So you'll be preaching on Job in, er, 2012?

I also mix up the various portions of Scripture. I don't preach Genesis followed immediately by Exodus. Congregations need a balanced diet. So, I alternate OT and NT, and in the OT I alternate between Pentateuch, History, Wisdom/Psalms, and Prophets. In the NT I alternate among Gospels, Paul, and generals/Revelation. My plan is to preach through the entire Bible over the course of my ministry.

 

[beej6]

And there is certainly nothing the matter with "interrupting" the consecutive exposition if there is a need perceived by the session and/or the pastor.

 

[fredtgreco]

I consider what I think the congregation most needs to hear from the Word. Also factored in is what I have time to study. Romans, for instance, will have to wait until I have time to read all the myriad commentaries available. Job will have to wait until I finish plowing through Joseph Caryl.

So you'll be preaching on Job in, er, 2012?

Maybe not, but I'll be preaching on JOb in the evening of 2009!

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

Daniel

There is no RPW mandate to preach book by book, verse by verse. This will be my practice, but we must allow for the minister to choose according to what the congregation needs.

Spurgeon said to preach the 'great texts'- which helps explain the popularity of his preaching. (This has been my practice too as a student- we are more itinerant).

I think that we can say it is what is best- but each session will have to decide what they want out of their teaching elders.

Brother in Christ.

That is questionable; Paul told Timothy to "preach the word" - what part of the word of God should not be preached. Surely every congregation needs expository preaching, and were not the epistles written systematically which would imply that they are to be preached through? While there does seem to be some warrant for preaching on individual texts on some occasions, I think we can say that they ordinary preaching should consist of systematic exposition of the Scriptures.

"So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading." (Neh. 8:8)

 

[Eoghan]

Systematic MUST be the mainstay of preaching

I honestly believe that systematic preaching has to be the mainstay. As Mark Dever points out in Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, if a preacher focuses on his pet hobby horse what ever that is then he will bring his congregation up to his level. He basically shapes the congregation to his own mould.

If however he preaches systematically (and here I have to insist on attention to the text!) he will discover truths he is unfamiliar with and educate himself AND his congregation. This latter pattern will conform/mould both himself and his gongregation to conform to the mind of God rather than himself.

I was discussing with one of our teenagers the sermon and explained I was distracted by the text. She felt this was secondary to what the sermon was. Last week (Mark 2:1-12) I explained that the reason Christ forgave the paralytic his sins BEFORE healing him was in the context of his preaching. What was He preaching? Well that was covered by a previous text 4:17 when we are told that on hearing of John the Baptist's death Christ began to preach "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand". This was somewhat hidden in our pastors assertion that sometimes you need forgiveness before healing? And there was me thinking "that you may know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins... " was the purpose!

There is definitely a place for thematic preaching (gathering together related biblical texts) but the bread and butter has to be systematic exposition of the text.

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

...Job will have to wait until I finish plowing through Joseph Caryl.

I know this is slightly but this post makes me want to ask the following important question:

Does anyone know if there is an online link to Caryl's complete work on Job? I have been able to find various quotes and excerpts, but not the entire work.

Thank you.

 

[greenbaggins]

...Job will have to wait until I finish plowing through Joseph Caryl.

I know this is slightly but this post makes me want to ask the following important question:

Does anyone know if there is an online link to Caryl's complete work on Job? I have been able to find various quotes and excerpts, but not the entire work.

Thank you.

What you need to do is buy the set. With the good Scriptural index in the back, the reprint functions as a commentary on the whole Bible. You can buy the whole set here. However, you can purchase a cd version in pdf file for much cheaper here.

 

[greenbaggins]

eeny meeny miney moe....


just kidding


I never get past the very basics it seems

Me too.

I remember how awesome it was when I first started attending Calvary Chapel and the pastor taught chapter by chapter through the Bible. (That is one of Calvary's distinctives)

I am just a beginner (I've only preached 140 sermons) and I would like to start at the beginning of a book but the HS keeps bringing things up among the flock. Questions that they have. Issues that directly affect our particular church. Weaknesses that need to be addressed. I find myself being led, like Spurgeon, to the 'great texts'. Right now I am in the middle of a series on 'saving faith' inspired by Sermon 4 in Durham's "Christ Crucified".

I see a great deal of fruit when I do a series based on the catechism. I did that with the 10 Commandments and The Lord's Prayer.

I have a suggestion, Ken. If there are specific questions that need answering, then have a 2-3 minute "question box" time in the service where you answer those questions directly. That way, you don't have to mess with the expository series. Tenth Presbyterian did this in the evening service.

 

[greenbaggins]

I consider what I think the congregation most needs to hear from the Word. Also factored in is what I have time to study. Romans, for instance, will have to wait until I have time to read all the myriad commentaries available. Job will have to wait until I finish plowing through Joseph Caryl.

So you'll be preaching on Job in, er, 2012?

Maybe not, but I'll be preaching on JOb in the evening of 2009!

I don't feel the need to plan ahead quite so far as Fred does. I usually have the next two series planned out. I am not disciplined enough to have the sermons written that far in advance. Plus, I read too many commentaries to make that practical. I don't know when I will start Job. I just know that I absolutely could not keep up in Caryl if I were reading him as I preached. He often has over a hundred pages on the text I would be preaching. The way I get the entire context in while writing sermons as I go is to read plenty of introductions to the book before the first sermon, and actually preach an introductory sermon. Furthermore, I am trying to read regularly through the text of the entire book ahead of time in the original language. So far, I haven't found that I disagree with my earlier sermons after finishing the series. In the Genesis series I have done, I think my earlier sermons were a bit immature. But then, that was my very first sermon series. You have to start somewhere!

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

Spurgeon said to preach the 'great texts'- which helps explain the popularity of his preaching. (This has been my practice too as a student- we are more itinerant).

It should also be kept in mind that CH Spurgeon also done an exposition of Scripture in addition to his main sermon on a particular text.

 

[KMK]

eeny meeny miney moe....


just kidding


I never get past the very basics it seems

Me too.

I remember how awesome it was when I first started attending Calvary Chapel and the pastor taught chapter by chapter through the Bible. (That is one of Calvary's distinctives)

I am just a beginner (I've only preached 140 sermons) and I would like to start at the beginning of a book but the HS keeps bringing things up among the flock. Questions that they have. Issues that directly affect our particular church. Weaknesses that need to be addressed. I find myself being led, like Spurgeon, to the 'great texts'. Right now I am in the middle of a series on 'saving faith' inspired by Sermon 4 in Durham's "Christ Crucified".

I see a great deal of fruit when I do a series based on the catechism. I did that with the 10 Commandments and The Lord's Prayer.

I have a suggestion, Ken. If there are specific questions that need answering, then have a 2-3 minute "question box" time in the service where you answer those questions directly. That way, you don't have to mess with the expository series. Tenth Presbyterian did this in the evening service.

Good idea!

But the kinds of questions I was referring to are things like: "Can women be leaders in the church?" "Can sodomites be leaders in the church?" "Do we choose Christ or does He choose us?" "How do I know I am saved?"
"Why don't we have a 'prayer walk' at our church?" These are questions that require more than a 'yes' or 'no' answer.

What would be nice is to have some kind of Bible Study/catechism class where these issues are addressed but we are not quite there yet. We have a long way to go.

But I will definitely think about the 'question box' idea, but how does that fit in with the RPW?

 

[greenbaggins]

Me too.

I remember how awesome it was when I first started attending Calvary Chapel and the pastor taught chapter by chapter through the Bible. (That is one of Calvary's distinctives)

I am just a beginner (I've only preached 140 sermons) and I would like to start at the beginning of a book but the HS keeps bringing things up among the flock. Questions that they have. Issues that directly affect our particular church. Weaknesses that need to be addressed. I find myself being led, like Spurgeon, to the 'great texts'. Right now I am in the middle of a series on 'saving faith' inspired by Sermon 4 in Durham's "Christ Crucified".

I see a great deal of fruit when I do a series based on the catechism. I did that with the 10 Commandments and The Lord's Prayer.

I have a suggestion, Ken. If there are specific questions that need answering, then have a 2-3 minute "question box" time in the service where you answer those questions directly. That way, you don't have to mess with the expository series. Tenth Presbyterian did this in the evening service.

Good idea!

But the kinds of questions I was referring to are things like: "Can women be leaders in the church?" "Can sodomites be leaders in the church?" "Do we choose Christ or does He choose us?" "How do I know I am saved?"
"Why don't we have a 'prayer walk' at our church?" These are questions that require more than a 'yes' or 'no' answer.

What would be nice is to have some kind of Bible Study/catechism class where these issues are addressed but we are not quite there yet. We have a long way to go.

But I will definitely think about the 'question box' idea, but how does that fit in with the RPW?

I think a two or three minute answer would be more than a "yes" or "no" answer. You could get quite a bit of answer in there. I think that Tenth's were about five minutes in length. As to the RPW, what you would be doing is application of the Bible's teaching as a whole to a particular issue. This is what you're doing now anyway, though taking a great deal more time to say it. There is nothing wrong with having a second mini-sermon in the service, is there?

 

[Dieter Schneider]

May I ask again since my question has not been answered? How do PB choose what to preach from? I am in agreement with expository preaching, but how does one pick a book / theme? Does it depend on events, the spiritual condition of the congregation? M Lloyd-Jones speaks of an impulse which prompted him to preach a series of sermons on 'Spiritual Depression'. I just wondered how godly men decide what to pick, e.g., for a series. I am interested to hear what PB members have to say. Just recently I intended to preach on a text I had prepared for, but on entering the pulpit I preached 'ex tempore' from another text which had been weighing on my mind for weeks. I do not necessarily recommend it, but it proved to be a blessing, judging by what was said to me after the service.

 

[fredtgreco]

May I ask again since my question has not been answered? How do PB choose what to preach from? I am in agreement with expository preaching, but how does one pick a book / theme? Does it depend on events, the spiritual condition of the congregation? M Lloyd-Jones speaks of an impulse which prompted him to preach a series of sermons on 'Spiritual Depression'. I just wondered how godly men decide what to pick, e.g., for a series. I am interested to hear what PB members have to say. Just recently I intended to preach on a text I had prepared for, but on entering the pulpit I preached 'ex tempore' from another text which had been weighing on my mind for weeks. I do not necessarily recommend it, but it proved to be a blessing, judging by what was said to me after the service.

Dieter,

With respect, I answered this question in detail in my post above.

 

[JohnTombes]

May I ask again since my question has not been answered? How do PB choose what to preach from? I am in agreement with expository preaching, but how does one pick a book / theme? Does it depend on events, the spiritual condition of the congregation? M Lloyd-Jones speaks of an impulse which prompted him to preach a series of sermons on 'Spiritual Depression'.

You need to know your sheep. A few weeks ago, I realized a lot of people were spiritually depressed over the past two years. I paused at sermon #219 in the life of Christ (I've paused quite often to preach topically) to preach from Psalm 130 on the topic of 'The Remedy for Spiritual Depression'. It remains amazing to see how the Lord used that one message in our folk and through sermonaudio.com.

Trust him for his grace, know the flock and shepherd them according to their real spiritual needs, not their felt needs. Tomorrow is all about Jesus telling the Greeks, disciples and Jews, that his soul was troubled (John 12:27-33). I'm sure many will relate to the perfect humanity of our Lord.

Preach well my brothers,

Mike

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Some advice from the Westminster Assembly (Directory of Public Worship):

Of Publick Reading of the Holy Scriptures.
...
All the canonical books of the Old and New Testament (but none of those which are commonly called Apocrypha) shall be publickly read in the vulgar tongue, out of the best allowed translation, distinctly, that all may hear and understand.

How large a portion shall be read at once, is left to the wisdom of the minister; but it is convenient, that ordinarily one chapter of each Testament be read at every meeting; and sometimes more, where the chapters be short, or the coherence of matter requireth it.

It is requisite that all the canonical books be read over in order, that the people may be better acquainted with the whole body of the scriptures; and ordinarily, where the reading in either Testament endeth on one Lord's day, it is to begin the next.

We commend also the more frequent reading of such scriptures as he that readeth shall think best for edification of his hearers, as the book of Psalms, and such like.
...
Of the Preaching of the Word.
...
Ordinarily, the subject of his sermon is to be some text of scripture, holding forth some principle or head of religion, or suitable to some special occasion emergent; or he may go on in some chapter, psalm, or book of the holy scripture, as he shall see fit.

Let the introduction to his text be brief and perspicuous, drawn from the text itself, or context, or some parallel place, or general sentence of scripture.

If the text be long, (as in histories or parables it sometimes must be,) let him give a brief sum of it; if short, a paraphrase thereof, if need be: in both, looking diligently to the scope of the text, and pointing at the chief heads and grounds of doctrine which he is to raise from it.

In analysing and dividing his text, he is to regard more the order of matter than of words; and neither to burden the memory of the hearers in the beginning with too many members of division, nor to trouble their minds with obscure terms of art.

In raising doctrines from the text, his care ought to be, First, That the matter be the truth of God. Secondly, That it be a truth contained in or grounded on that text, that the hearers may discern how God teacheth it from thence. Thirdly, That he chiefly insist upon those doctrines which are principally intended; and make most for the edification of the hearers.
...
He is not to rest in general doctrine, although never so much cleared and confirmed, but to bring it home to special use, by application to his hearers: which albeit it prove a work of great difficulty to himself, requiring much prudence, zeal, and meditation, and to the natural and corrupt man will be very unpleasant; yet he is to endeavour to perform it in such a manner, that his auditors may feel the word of God to be quick and powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; and that, if any unbeliever or ignorant person be present, he may have the secrets of his heart made manifest, and give glory to God.

In the use of instruction or information in the knowledge of some truth , which is a consequence from his doctrine, he may (when convenient) confirm it by a few firm arguments from the text in hand, and other places of scripture, or from the nature of that common-place in divinity, whereof that truth is a branch.

In confutation of false doctrines, he is neither to raise an old heresy from the grave, nor to mention a blasphemous opinion unnecessarily: but, if the people be in danger of an error, he is to confute it soundly, and endeavour to satisfy their judgments and consciences against all objections.

In exhorting to duties, he is, as he seeth cause, to teach also the means that help to the performance of them.

In dehortation, reprehension, and publick admonition, (which require special wisdom,) let him, as there shall be cause, not only discover the nature and greatness of the sin, with the misery attending it, but also shew the danger his hearers are in to be overtaken and surprised by it, together with the remedies and best way to avoid it.

In applying comfort, whether general against all temptations, or particular against some special troubles or terrors, he is carefully to answer such objections as a troubled heart and afflicted spirit may suggest to the contrary. It is also sometimes requisite to give some notes of trial, (which is very profitable, especially when performed by able and experienced ministers, with circumspection and prudence, and the signs clearly grounded on the holy scripture,) whereby the hearers may be able to examine themselves whether they have attained those graces, and performed those duties, to which he exhorteth, or be guilty of the sin reprehended, and in danger of the judgments threatened, or are such to whom the consolations propounded do belong; that accordingly they may be quickened and excited to duty, humbled for their wants and sins, affected with their danger, and strengthened with comfort, as their condition, upon examination, shall require.

And, as he needeth not always to prosecute every doctrine which lies in his text, so is he wisely to make choice of such uses, as, by his residence and conversing with his flock, he findeth most needful and seasonable; and, amongst these, such as may most draw their souls to Christ, the fountain of light, holiness, and comfort.

This method is not prescribed as necessary for every man, or upon every text; but only recommended, as being found by experience to be very much blessed of God, and very helpful for the people's understandings and memories.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

See also "What to Preach" by Thomas Murphy, Pastoral theology; The pastor in the various duties of his office, pp. 155-179.