PREACHING (LECTURE)

 

Dr. W. A. Criswell

 

1 Corinthians 1:21

 

09-10-97

 

 

I have chosen a text for the sermon—for the lesson today.  1 Corinthians 1:21: “… It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

“By the foolishness”—moria—and one of the forms of that substantive is “moron.”  And “moron” refers to a foolish and stupid somebody.  That’s what God has chosen to convert the world: the stupid, moronic choice of preaching.

So, it refers not to the subject, but to the method: preaching.  God could have chosen an angel of heaven to go through this world and present the message of the Lord Jesus.  He could have displayed a demonstration in the sky to convince us of the marvelous ministry of the Lord.  Or, he could have had a burning pit and dangled the unbeliever over that fire.  But, instead, the Book says that God chose preaching to save those that are lost.

We shall discuss first the place of the preacher.  It is overwhelming when we realize that God had only one Son and he made Him a preacher.

Tragically, we have lost out on biblical and expository ministry.  We exalt worship, but not preaching.  There are seminars and courses on drama, on dance, on the use of audio-visual aids.  But, with some glorious exceptions, we do not train men to preach.  We create an atmosphere in which the sermon may be almost expendable.

In his book, Preaching and Preachers, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones sounds a clarion call.  He writes: “Ultimately, to me, the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone could ever be called.  In relation to that, I would say that the most urgent need in the Christian church is true preaching.”  And that’s why you’re here in this class.

The sermon addresses questions that arise in every human heart and mind: Why am I here?  What are the supreme values in life?  What can I do?  What are my relations with others?  What is the universe?  How was it created and why?  If I know I have sinned, how can I find peace and righteousness?  Who and what and where is God?  What is my duty before Him?  What might it mean to be out of harmony with the Lord God?  What awaits me after death?  Who, actually, is Jesus?  And what is to be my relationship with Him?

Those questions are a part of human nature.  And for the preacher to stand up there in the pulpit and bring answers to those questions is one of the great callings of heaven itself.

Now, the preacher has to be more versatile than the Sunday paper, more interesting than a baseball game, more attractive than the movies, better informed than the latest book, more interesting and enticing than a drugstore window that is filled with all kinds of alluring aromatics.  You’ve got a calling ahead of you, I tell you.

So, we’re going to speak about the preacher.  Today, the preacher confronts an age and confronts an age more absorbed with material comforts and mechanical gadgets than any generation before.  Caught up in interest in autos, radios—luxuries, world without end, the people he addresses are caught up in “get rich quick,” and they have a prejudice against religion.  They think of faith as opposed to science and they think of the Bible as a collection of discredited superstitions and unbelievable tales.

Actually, it is true that the preacher is dealing with life first-hand and he is dealing directly with the human soul.  Great preaching is more than entertainment or information, or even physical well-being, for it meets a man at the point of his greatest inner needs in life. 

Great preaching has always been born out of great convictions about God.  Great preaching on fire with the Living God is sure to come about from reading the inspired Word.  The Christ of the Gospels has come back to us and we see the great Galileean as Peter and Andrew saw Him.  We know Him today as “one who speaks as never a man speaks.”

Bishop Sanders of Alabama, writing on the need to improve the quality and priority of preaching, wrote: “In the multiple tasks of a pastor, his identity as a preacher and the priority of preaching may be lost.  The quality of preaching may be dry.  The discipline required for preaching and the confidence in the superior efficacy of preaching may fade, as other interests may seem to be more redemptive. 

“History proves, however, that the church may exist without liturgy, without buildings, without choirs, without Sunday schools, without professional clergymen, without creeds, without even women’s societies.  But, the church cannot possibly exist without preaching the Word.

“Preaching has power like nothing else the church has or does.  Moreover, preaching reaches more people than anything else the preacher could do, whether it is teaching, visiting, administering or counseling.  The time has come to restore preaching to its rightful place and primary position in the work of the ministry.

“In preaching, there is power: the power of the Spirit; the power of the Word.  As the Word is proclaimed, the Spirit is working in the minds and hearts of the hearers.

“Rise up, O men of God, and preach!  There is something to preach about that sets men’s souls on fire: if you trace that through, it is the administration of the truth of God in His holy Word, the living Bible.  And it has confronted mankind in the days of St. Francis, John Bunyan, the Pilgrim Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi and a multitude of others.

“What a privilege and a responsibility to be a preacher!  The preacher is aware of this great responsibility.”

Now, I have written down here the characteristics of a good preacher.  The first I have written down here is humility.  The true preacher must always give evidence of true humility.

To quote Barclay: “It is not the man who approaches a task with a tremor who does it really well.  It is the actor who is wrought up before the performance.  It is the preacher whose heart beats faster as he waits to speak.  The man who shows no tension before any task may give an effective and competent performance.  But, it is the man who has the intensity of anxiety who is able to produce true greatness which competence alone can never achieve.”

And if I can take a leaf out of my own life: no matter when or where, if I have an assignment to preach, I am absolutely overwhelmed with timidity and anxiety and interceding with God to help me and take care of me.  And I don’t care how I struggle against it, for the 71 years I have been a preacher, I have never gotten away from that trembling before I stand up to speak.

In this connection, we do well to remember the words of Paul in his second letter to the Corinthian church: “Most gladly—most gladly, I will glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me”—that in 2 Corinthians 12:9.  Paul understood that only when he was weak could he be strong.  Thus, I say that the first characteristic of a good preacher is humility.

The second characteristic is simplicity.  Simplicity, of course, characterized our Savior’s sermons.  Read through his messages in the Gospels and you will be impressed all over again at the simplicity and directness of His language. 

No wonder that Paul cautions his readers that, through subtlety, the Devil could corrupt their minds from the simplicity that is in Christ.  That is in 2 Corinthians 11:3.  I do not know of any word that more aptly characterizes our Savior: “the simplicity that is in Christ.”

Now, another characteristic of a wonderful preacher is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.  The secret of his humility, simplicity and authority is: “Ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you”—Acts. 1:8.  This is the anointing of the Spirit.  It is more than the filling, even though it includes the filling—an anointing which gives the ability to appreciate, and love, the words of God.

Today, our danger is preaching over the heads of people.  The philosopher has a jargon of his own.  And the physical scientist has a jargon of his own.  Alas, the preacher has a brand of his own.

If God is to won the message, then it has to be delivered in language understood by the people and in words dictated by the Holy Spirit.  This is implicit in that statement of the apostle, where he says, in 1 Corinthians 2:13:

These things we also speak, not in words taught by man’s wisdom, but which the Holy Spirit teaches.

Paul continues:

My speech and my preaching were in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

            This word here “demonstration” is used only here.  It, literally, signifies “a showing forth” and has the force of conviction carried by the Holy Spirit.  What a wonderful demonstration of the authority of Christ!

            In Scripture, there is always a balance between the Word and the Spirit.  Right from the first chapter of Genesis, they work hand-in-hand as God says and the Spirit was moving over the face of the water. 

            We are to be true to the Word and, then, the Spirit will drive home His message in individual lives.  It is not unlike the moment in the Old Testament when Elijah is contesting with the false prophets.  After he had made all the preparation that was necessary, and had prayed, then the fire fell. 

Only God can bring the fire.  Only we can do the preparation.  An ill-prepared sermon should not expect the fire to fall.  And a sermon studiously prepared without prayer may be beautiful and eloquent, but quite dead.

So, Paul brings the exhortation to Timothy, with a challenge: “Preach the Word”—2 Timothy 4:2.  The command suggests a very definite commitment.  It is to be an ongoing ministry.  He is to make it the ongoing work of his life.

That is one of the greatest needs for today.  There can be no substitute for the dynamic proclamation of the truth.

The preacher must be a faithful student of the Word of God.  Study the Word!  The great preacher, Lionel Abbott, never attended a seminary—the greatest prophets, also the greatest teachers and preachers, in planning the Sunday service, all say, first: consider the sermon.

The Old Testament, as well as the new, was accepted as inerrant, inspired by Jesus, by Augustine, by Athanasius, by Tyndale, by Wycliffe, by Hus, by Aquinas, by Luther, by Calvin, by Knox, by Newton, by Tasker, by Wesley, by Spurgeon, and by many others down through the centuries.  You don’t have to feel that you are out there—idiotic and without understanding—when you stand up there in the pulpit and proclaim the inspired and inerrant Word of the Lord.  And God’s Spirit will work with you.

Now, I have a word here about the calling of the preacher.  The preacher is called to be a faithful expositor of God’s Truth.  There, the amazing promises of Scripture will be set in context. 

We should build on the rock of the Word of God, for any other foundation will, ultimately, collapse.  At the heart of all worship should be the preaching and the airing of the Word of God, without which acts of worship could rapidly—rapidly—become mere repetition.

Another thing concerns the vital presence of content.  What is essential in preaching is, first of all, content.  It is what Paul called “the unsearchable riches of Christ” in Ephesians 3:8. 

In a verse that has meant much to me personally, Paul calls himself, and other first century preachers: “stewards of the mysteries of God”—1 Corinthians 4:1.  He sees himself as entrusted with a vast deposit of truth, which he must dispense to others.

We repeat: what is essential in preaching is, above all, content, what Paul calls “the unsearchable riches of Christ” in Ephesians 3:8.  In 1 Corinthians 4:1, Paul says we are “stewards of the mysteries of God.”  The preacher is entrusted with a fabulous deposit of truth.

The Roman Empire was buried in evil and it was multiplied in the cities.  How could Paul reach it?  How could he change it?  It seemed impossible and unassailable.

But, then, Paul remembered the words that he spoke, characterizing the gospel, in 1 Corinthians 2:4.  You don’t have to be afraid or feel condemned when you stand up to preach before this generation.  The power of the Word of God is yours.

These are the marks, therefore, of a good sermon.  It must have content—it must have a message.  It must have variety.  It must have a text.  It must have a good introduction.  It must have a logical outline.  It ought to be imaginative.  It must be definite and concrete.  It must be spiritual.

It is a wonderful thing if it has brevity.  But, it must not be too short, either.  The sermon must make people conscious of God.  The preacher must make God real to the people.

Expository sermons derive their content from Scripture itself.  They borrow their structure and thrust from a certain passage and translate it with direction and urgency to contemporary life.

Most preaching lacks biblical content, causing those in the pews to drown in words, while starving for content.  A professor at Calvin Seminary puts it well: “Preachers who rummage through the Bible for texts on which to hang sermons are often guilty of ignoring the Word of God.  This often results in trivializing our preaching.”

I have never forgotten my ordination and the Bible I received as a mark of the authority I would operate under.  “Preach the Word,” Paul says—2 Timothy 4:2.  Why a minister would turn aside from that, I cannot understand.  Make the basis of your message that Book and give yourself to its exposition—its meaning, its permanence.  In this description of what you ought to be and say and do, there is not anything comparable to having that foundation on which to stand when you preach: namely, the Word of God.

I now speak on pulpit manner.  If subject matter is vitally important, so is pulpit manner.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones asserted: “A dull preacher is a contradiction in terms,” adding that, on one occasion, he witnessed a preacher talking about God as if he were sitting on an iceberg.

The preacher must know the subject matter so thoroughly that he believes he believes it intently and feels it with abandon.  Gripped by his message, he becomes transported by it.  Living in it, he becomes captivated by it, with an unconscious surrendering of himself--mind, spirit, emotions and body—to the compelling force of the truth he proclaims.

The pulpit is no place for iceberg squatters.  So, the manner of the preacher has a lot to do with the evidence of power or the absence of it.  Oh, to know the power of the Spirit, which brings with it the humility, simplicity and authority that it is go with preaching.  For the preacher to stand up there in the pulpit and be dead is, to me, unthinkable—unthinkable.  Be alive!

I have often said, in speaking with preachers, if you want to double your fist, double it up.  If you want to pound the pulpit, pound the pulpit.  If you want to stomp on the stage, stomp on it.  If you want to kneel down—if you want to raise your hands—if you want to walk down in the congregation, don’t hesitate.  Be alive up there and move!  I can tell you, if you will do it, it will add dynamic and power to your message.

I speak of the effect and help of a crowd.  The crowd—the congregation—has an immediate psychological effect on a speaker.  Regardless of the amount of study and preparation, every preacher is familiar with the flash of inspiration that occasionally sets him on fire while he is in the pulpit.  His mind suddenly begins to work like a well-oiled machine.  His tongue and lips articulate with the clarity of a trumpet.  Clusters of words and phrases soar like a meteor. 

Congregations have quite an effect on you.  Words that you have struggled with for hours suddenly crystallize into a single sentence.  Thank God for the congregation! 

Now, what do you want to say?  Do you have any observations to make or any questions to ask?

Yes.  All you have to do is call my secretary.  And I’ll give you her name and number.  Her name is Elaine—E-L-A-I-N-E—and the number is 969-2400.  You call and I will send you a copy of these lectures.  And of course, Dr. Allen has them on video up there—he’s taking them down.

 

Well, being a preacher, I think he missed a great opportunity.  Singing is fine.  God’s message is, often, pointedly, movingly, brought to us in such a way.  And a man’s testimony is fine.  But, I don’t think there’s anything to take the place of the Word of God.

I so well remember—you’re talking about a camp—I so well remember, at a state camp in Oklahoma, called Fall’s Creek, there would be several thousand in attendance at Fall’s Creek.  And you will find there the executive leadership of the Convention, and all of those people out there who head those associations—a very wonderful and select group of people—as well as several thousand young people and adults.

I have preached there, in these years past, several times.  And I remember one time, when I preached there at Fall’s Creek—and I always, no matter what—I always expound the Word of God—and I did that morning, at the 11:00 preaching hour.  I opened my Bible and expounded the Word of the Lord.

And you wouldn’t believe it.  At 2:30 0’clock, we were still there, in that service—2:30.  The Holy Spirit came down.  And there was commitment, conversion, the presence of Jesus.  There were tears—oh, dear.  It was one of the highest experiences of my life.

I have a little brief word to say about our present services at the Church.  There’s so much singing, I just lose the service.  I like singing.  But, I don’t like it ad infinitum.  I think we go to church to hear the Word of the Lord.

 

How do I prepare a sermon?

 

Son, when I spoke about the preparation that I make for my pulpit ministry here—in the last session here—I say, this is my thinking and my persuasion.  And it’s personal, but I sure do believe in it.

When a preacher goes to a church, the first thing he should do, in delivering his first message, is to say, “I want to be left alone with God every morning.”  In the afternoon, I’ll go to any kind of a meeting.  In the afternoon, I’ll take part in any kind of a program.  In the evening, I’ll make my contributions to whatever the church feels belongs to an organization like this.

But, in the mornings—every morning—I want to be left alone.  I don’t want anybody to telephone.  I don’t want anybody to call.  I don’t want anybody to come by the house.  I don’t want anybody to see me or expect to visit me.  I want to be left alone.  I want to be with God.

And that’s when you earnestly supplicate—when you pray for power.  That’s when you go through that Book and expound its message.  That’s when you and God talk together.

Well, you say: “My land, look at that.  All the things you could be out there doing while you’re there in your study, in the morning.”

But, I can tell you this.  If you will do that, when you stand up to preach the following Sunday, they’ll know you have been with the Lord.  It will be a different kind of a sermon.  It will be a different kind of a message.  It will have the power of God in it.

I live, of course, in such a world, contacting so many, many people.  And I’ve been at it so long: 71 years as a preacher and a pastor. 

Here’s what I have found out.  The average length of a pastorate in the South is about two years.  Now, here’s what I have found out: if you will give yourself to the ministry as I have described it—in the mornings, you’re going to spend it with God, in the books and on your knees, O dear God, if you’ll do that—forget about everything else—if you’ll do that—this is my experience—they will come knocking at your door.

I cannot tell you how many churches have sought me to come and be their pastor.  Institution after institution has invited me to be its president—and I don’t what else out there in the world.

I have given myself to that morning with God.  Forget about all of that out there.  It will take care of itself.  If you will just be aflame for Jesus—that changes your life, if you will do it.  And God bless you, as you keep that morning holy before the Lord.

Anybody else want to make an observation or ask any question?

 

Dr. Allen, what would you say to that?

 

I think you’re correct in that.  I will take the boldness—and I want the Lord to forgive me, if I’m wrong in this—Look at our own pulpit.  You’re too young a boy to remember Dr. George W. Truett.  You never did see him. 

But, I grew up practically worshiping Dr. Truett.  There was nobody like him in the earth.  And he was a hero of every preacher of my generation.

And I heard him time and again.  Truett was stately.  He stood behind that pulpit and never moved.  He never gestured.  He had an incomparable voice. And he moved the hearts of people by his voice.

Well, I may be foolish in making such an observation as I’m going to make.  But, when I came here—there was only one month between the death of Dr. Truett and when they called me as pastor—when I came here, I think one of the reasons I succeeded in the pastorate, and was so blessed of God in that pulpit, was that, to this day, nobody has ever compared me to Dr. Truett—nobody.

My land!  I scream and holler and pound the pulpit.  And I move around, not, as he described it, to call attention to that when the people are not listening to what you’re saying—but, they’re watching you and what you’re saying.  But, the emphasis—the emphasis—that I place upon the Word of God—oh, dear.

And while I’m talking about that, I ought to mention something that I said in my lecture before.  When I was pastor in Muskogee, just before coming here, I began preaching the Bible.  Where I left off Sunday night, I started the next Sunday morning.  Where I left off that Sunday morning, I started that Sunday night.  And I expounded the Word of God—and I preached the Word of the Lord.

When I came here to Dallas—after I had been here about a year, I announced that I was going to preach through the Bible.  I would start with Genesis and go clear through to Revelation.

The people had never heard anything like that.  Truett was a topical preacher.  He never preached an expository sermon in his life.  Every sermon he ever preached was topical.

When I made the announcement that I was going to preach through the Bible, the deacons gathered around me.  And you have never heard such lugubrious prognostications in your born days.  They said to me, “You’re going to kill this church.  Nobody’s going to come hear somebody expound on Zephaniah or Zechariah or Haggai or Nahum.  They don’t even know where it is in the Bible.”

But, I had committed myself to that kind of a pulpit ministry up there in that pulpit.  So, I started in that church, expounding the Word of the Lord.  And we had a problem, I do admit.  But, the problem was that you couldn’t get into the church house.

The people jammed that place.  And that’s when, many years ago, we started having two services Sunday morning, because of the throngs that came to church.  To do what: just to hear an exposition of the Word of God?

So, son, to answer your question, you need to be yourself.  But, don’t be ridiculous.  Don’t call attention to yourself.  Just stand up there in the power of the Holy Spirit.  And if the Lord tells you to pound on the pulpit, do it.  If it comes from the Lord, do it.  But, don’t be ridiculous.  Don’t be extreme, where they are no longer listening to what you are saying, but just watching what you are doing.

Does anybody else have any word to say—any comment to make—any witness?  Back here—son?

 

Yes.  Yes.  I feel, and I always have, that the man who preaches, preaches for a verdict.  When you expound the Word of the Lord, there ought to be an appeal in it.  And I think God will give you that appeal.

Let me tell you something that is a miracle.  I have preached out there, at that First Baptist Church, for 53 years—53 years.  And those years that I was the Pastor, I preached three times every Sunday: twice on Sunday morning and once on Sunday night.

I preached there 53 years.  And in 53 years, I have never preached there but that God gave me a harvest—always, never failed.

When I get through preaching, I present that appeal.  And it has never failed.  There has been a response every time I have ever preached there at that church, in 53 years.

And I very much believe, son, when a preacher gets through preaching, he has taken his sermon and made it a basis for commitment to God—to Christ.

 

No.  Isn’t that strange: that I can’t remember why?  Gloria, back there, when I was in my teens—back yonder, when I was in my teens, I distinctly remember getting down on my face, getting down on my knees, and saying to God: “O God, I’m going to preach without notes.  And please, God, bless my mind.  Bless my memory.  O God, do it.  I’m going to preach without notes.”

So, when I started out, at 17 years of age, I opened my Bible and I preached from the Word of God.  I have never used notes.  And for 71 years, I have preached like that, never using notes—never using notes.

And once in a while—once every 20 years, I might stumble in my mind at the second point.  But, I just keep on preaching.  And in just a moment, it will come back to me.

I would commend that to you.  But, I am very careful to say, “You don’t have to preach like that.”  If you want to take notes up there, like O.S. Hawkins—half of that message, he’s got it laid out in that notebook—at least half of the message—if you want to preach like that, fine.  God bless you.

But, it sure is something that I personally gave my life to: preaching without notes.  And that’s a part—that’s a part of my preparation for that sermon.  I spoke of it in that lecture.  That’s a part of it.

About half of the effort—half of the time I spend in the preparation—the creation—of the sermon.  Then, the other half I spend in getting it in my soul, getting it in my heart—just getting ready to stand up there and deliver the message of the Lord in all the power that I have.

All right, son.

 

I did, all through the years, until we came to the Revelation.  And when I came to the Revelation—I preached three years in the Revelation—that was after 16 years, there were so many people—there were a lot of transfers—they would come to the 8:15 service and, if I preached another sermon on the Revelation, they would come to the 10:50 service also.  So, when I came to the end of the Bible, I had to preach the same sermon at 8:15 that I did at 10:50.

And then, I learned something.  Crazy me, it took me over 15 years to learn it!  I learned: I don’t need to prepare three sermons.  I would just prepare one sermon and preach the same sermon at 8:15 and 10:50.

 

Only in the sense that I preach without notes.

 

That’s right.  That’s right.  That’s right.  When I stood up there and preached without notes, I had a message that I delivered at 8:15 for that crowd—how it was in my heart.  Then, when I preached at 10:50—the 11:00 hour—why, the great substance, the outline, of the message would be the same.  But, I’m sure Gloria would be there at those services and see the difference in the delivery of it.

 

Gloria will tell you that, many times, what has bothered me more than anything else in that Church is that clock up there.  Just about the time it seemed like to me that I got wound up, the time was just about up. 

So, I said, in the millennium—the glorious world that is yet to come—God is going to remake this whole world.  He says so.  And when He does it, I want the Lord to give me a planet of my own.  There’s billions of them out there.  I want the Lord to give me a planet of my own. 

And I’m going to get me a soapbox.  And I’m going to stand on it.  And I’m going to preach.  And there’s not going to be any clock.  There’s not even going to be a calendar.  I’m just going to preach forever the glorious good news of the Lord Jesus.

Oh, you sweet kids!  Well, Dr. Allen, I’ll turn it over to your capable and gifted and dedicated hands.  And I’ll see you next Monday.

 

Amen.  Amen.  You’re a sweet friend.

 

 

 

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