All right, so we're up to page number 43 now in our notes. And this is where this lecture will start for the second session. And we're now looking at the textual sermon. So in a nutshell, what's the topical sermon, Paul? We've dealt with the topical sermon. What is a topical sermon in a nutshell? the love of God and then going to the scriptures and searching from front to back to find all the relevant passages that explain what the love of God is and then you would highlight all your main, all the main points of what it is the love of God is essentially. Excellent, very good. Okay number two, the textual sermon. A textual sermon is one that is based on a particular text from the Bible. Whereas a topical sermon begins with a theme, a textual sermon begins with a text. So, topical, you come to the Bible with a biblical theme in mind, looking for scriptures on that theme. Textual, you start in with a text. Now, A, defining a textual sermon. A textual sermon is one in which the main divisions are derived from a text consisting of a brief portion of scripture. So underscore please or highlight the word brief or the words brief portion. All right, so a textual sermon is very often one verse of scripture. So for example, John 3.16. You're gonna preach a gospel message on John 3.16, that's a textual sermon. Or it might be John 3, 16 to 17. As opposed to expository where you're going to generally cover a little more than that. You know, half a dozen verses, 12 verses. Or, like Sunday night, we covered 37 verses, but that's because that was a narrative. See, when it comes to narrative, you cover often larger sections because you're dealing with a Bible account, biblical account or biblical story. and you need to look at the whole story in one hit. If you come into the doctrinal sections of the Word of God, it's going to be a lot less. In the Book of Romans, there were some messages where we covered maybe three, four, five verses. But you get to know after a while, okay, I can realistically cover this much in this message. Or what I find sometimes when I'm preaching through a book, I'll maybe start studying a section of 12 verses and realize I've got two messages, and all that does is puts me ahead for the following week. So, okay, I've got two messages here, I'll just do the first five or six, and then I'll cover the next lot next Sunday. So, a textual sermon is one in which the main divisions are derived from a text consisting of a brief portion of scripture. One, a text is usually from one to three verses as a rule of thumb. Two, the text can also consist of just one line of a verse. So you could go to Romans 1. I think it is the gospel of God. That's one phrase of scripture that you could preach a whole message on. A text might also be two complementary scriptures. Let's just look at that example there. 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and Acts 1, 3. So Acts 1.3 reads, To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And 1 Corinthians 15.3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how the cross died for our sins according to the scriptures. Just trying to work out what the connection is between those two there. Okay. basically two verses on a similar theme. I think that's what he's getting at there. The textual sermon is the most focused of the three sermon types, confining itself to a single main truth found within the chosen text. The word text comes from the Latin textus, which denotes something that is woven or spun, textile. A textual sermon is one in which the message is woven, developed, or constructed from the text. So that's a very focused message because you're often just dealing with one verse, like John 3.16, or you could do 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4, or something like that. B, selecting a text. So we've looked at the definition. Now, selecting a text. Cautions. Don't choose an obscure text. Its general meaning should be clear to all. B, don't avoid a text because it is familiar. Okay, sometimes we take for granted that everybody has heard John 3.16. Now, for those of us who have been raised in church, and particularly raised in a Christian home, John 3.16 is probably the most familiar verse to us. So we might shy away thinking, I can't preach in John 3.16, everyone's heard that verse so many times. But if you're preaching a special gospel service, and you've got someone sitting there from an un-Christian home, that might be the very first time they've ever heard that verse. Does that make sense? Especially in our society here in Australia now, you can't... I mean, maybe wind the clock back to my dad's era, and most people had probably been to Sunday school and knew John 3.16. But now, We're basically dealing with a pagan society. And even if people are familiar with it, every text of scripture is still precious, so we shouldn't shy away from preaching the more familiar texts of scripture, just because they're familiar. So he makes the points here. Originality for originality's sake is not the goal. There is always more to be mined from any text of Scripture, and the great texts of the Bible need to be preached today, and there will always be some for whom they are not familiar. C. Texts should be taken from all areas of Scripture. Avoid becoming a one-note preacher by frequently selecting texts about one favourite subject. Strive to be well-rounded. You don't want to be playing a one-stringed guitar. And this is, look, every one of us have particular topics or particular issues that are extremely important to us. We're not saying that they're not important. We are to preach the whole counsel of God. If it's in the Bible, it's important. We don't believe in chopping the Bible up into essential or non-essential. That's a new evangelical philosophy that's wreaking havoc in our churches. If the Bible speaks plainly and clearly, it's our business to preach it faithfully. When it comes to topical or textual, where you're going to get a message from sort of anywhere in the Bible, as opposed to preaching, or the discipline of preaching through a book, then both of those types are going to be more subject to the human side of the preacher, where you might gravitate to a particular subject that's very important to you. So that's what I, for me personally, my gift is profit in the New Testament sense, meaning to rebuke and to denounce sin, expose error. That's really my spiritual motivation. By preaching through books of the Bible, it actually helps keep my messages balanced. If I was just preaching textual or topical messages, My natural inclination would be to go towards exposing error, rebuking sin. Now that's important. It's absolutely important, but I could get stuck on that all the time and therefore not give the people a balanced diet. It's like feeding a family. You don't feed them just one type of food. You've got to feed them a variety of things in order for them to have a balanced diet and to properly grow. So people need rebuke, they need error dealt with, but they also need, at times, a message of encouragement, a message of comfort, something on the love of God or the mercy of God. And that's where I find preaching through books of the Bible helps maintain a bit more of a balance because, again, your messages are being dictated by the text as opposed to just it being up to your will and whim. Having said that, there are going to be times where you need to just preach a one-off message, a stand-alone message, topical or textual. Lord, what do you want me to preach for Mother's Day? Or like when I'm going to be over in Ghana. I'm not going to preach through a book of the Bible. In that context, it's going to be a series of messages, and they're going to be standalone messages. So there's no problem with that. But just be aware of that, that as preachers we don't get stuck on a one-stringed guitar. D, a text should be one that is easily and obviously divided. Sermon divisions need to be natural, not contorted. E, don't turn a text into a pretext. Some preachers have a habit of taking a text, then digressing to preach topically on whatever subject they desire. Like this, this has been described as bullfrog preaching, a croak and a jump. I've heard messages like this, and I'm not trying to be nasty to our American brethren, because I love them in Christ, but I've heard some, particularly American preachers, where they're just preaching because they're preaching, and they just launch off into all sorts of different things. It's all amen rousing, and everyone's shouting and screaming, and it's all lots of fun, but Sometimes I stop and think, what am I actually learning from this message? Is there actually really a lot of substance? Okay. Or are we just pressing the Amen button because it's fun, no? So yeah, we do need to be careful of that, of just taking it, and this is what some preaching is like. Look, even if the content is biblical, a lot of what they're saying may be correct, but you're thinking, does this really actually, are you giving me a faithful exposition of the text, or are you just using the text to launch off into all sorts of different areas? And again, you might be preaching sound things, but you're not necessarily you know, being an expository of the scriptures. What I really like, again about expository, is it really gives you a good combination of the teaching aspect and the exhortation aspect and the challenge aspect. because you're going to teach the scriptures, you've got to, you're trying to give a faithful interpretation of a passage. But then out of that teaching, out of that solid foundation springs your challenges, your exhortation to the people. So it's an excellent method where you're going to both do some teaching and you're going to do some preaching in one message. Right, so back to textual though. Okay, don't turn a text into a pretext. Okay, be careful of bullfrog preaching, a croak and a jump. Two, finding suitable texts. These we found, A, from one's personal studies. He suggests reading the Bible with a notebook on hand and keep a list of sermon seeds. Proverbs 30.25, the answer, people are not strong yet, they prepare their meat in the summer. There is something to be said of seed thoughts. My dad calls them seed thoughts. And have you had the experience where maybe even listening to a message you think, oh, that point there would make a really, you know, maybe it might spark a thought about a message. Or you might be just having your devotions and you read a verse of scripture and you think, well, that could be So these are seed thoughts. So my dad encouraged me, and I haven't always been diligent in doing this, of having some way of recording those seed thoughts. So whether it's just a file in your filing cabinet where you just write on a scrap of paper and put it in there, or electronically, you just keep a document where you just go in and if you get a good thought on a sermon, just go in, write it down, the scripture reference, whatever brief thoughts you might have, it might take you 30 seconds. And then later on, you might find some of it, probably not all of them, but some of those seed thoughts will germinate into actual sermons. So I commend that to you. We need to learn to develop fruitful minds as preachers and be alert for good thoughts, good sermon ideas, because I was just explaining to Paul in break time, Emmanuel, that in pastoring, it's a tremendous week-to-week discipline to preach the word of God to the people. If you're an evangelist, you can re-preach a lot of messages, and there's nothing wrong with that, and we're not putting down the biblical role of the evangelist. They have a lot of their own challenges with their calling or other challenges that maybe the pastor doesn't have. But an evangelist who travels around can re-preach and re-preach and re-preach a lot of their messages. But there is a tremendous discipline connected with the pastoral office because you're ministering to that one flock. and you need to be preaching fresh messages to them on a week-to-week basis. So, developing a homiletical mind, looking for good illustrations, eventually you might be just reading a book just for your own personal walk and blessing, and you might get something out of that. I read books usually with a pen or a pencil in hand, and I underline, and then in the back of the books, if I've read a really good quote or a good illustration, I go to the back of the book, usually there's a blank page or two in the back of most books, I write the page number and just a quick description of what I read in that book. And then sometimes when I'm preparing a message, I'll remember, oh, I read that book and there's a really quote that so-and-so said about this, and I can go to the back of the book, pull the book out, look at the back of the book, find the page number, and then I'll use that maybe in a sermon. So learn to develop in that area of seed thoughts and even if you're just on your phone, have a note or whatever, just make notes of any sermon ideas you have as they come to you and keep them because the Lord, when it comes, then when you're called upon to preach, you might go back over those notes and go, okay Lord, is there any of these that you might have me to preach? And they might germinate into a sermon. Take notes when listening to preaching, okay? So that can be a good practice too. Learn from other preachers. Listen to messages. You know, I see the construction of a sermon a little bit like, you know, somewhat similar to the work of an artist or a musician. A musician can learn a lot by playing other people's music. And some of those thoughts and ideas may eventually feed into their own composition of music. Now they're not going to copy exactly another song, otherwise there's no originality. But a good musician is going to learn musical concepts and musical themes and ideas by playing a variety of music from a variety of authors. And then that can help them. So it's the same with an artist. My brother Jeremy is a good painter. And he said, by painting another person's painting, you can learn a lot from that artist. So he's done this before, where he'll get a painting by, say, Thomas Kinkade, and then he'll just try and copy it. And by copying it, he's learning some things about what was in the mind of that artist. And then eventually, some of those skills that he's learned from that artist will play into his own compositions. So it's similar, I believe, with sermon prep. And there is the art aspect to a sermon, okay? It is an art. It's a calling, but it is an art. There are certain ingredients that go into a good sermon. So, as we read, it helps we learn from other men of God, maybe a good ways of saying things. Sometimes I will read something, now that's an excellent way of explaining that truth. Sometimes I'll actually sit, when I'm preparing a message, It's like, I know what the Bible's teaching, but then I actually have to sometimes stop and think, now, how am I going to actually express this in words? Or what words am I going to use to make this truth clear to the people? And that's a big part of it. You can understand, okay, I understand what that verse is saying, but then you have to think about our mode of expression and what words we're going to use and the way we're going to phrase certain things to get that truth across. So, by reading from others and listening to other sermons, we can learn... Again, you don't ever want to get to the point where you're trying to be a carbon copy of one particular preacher. Because God is going to use you as an individual. But at the same time, don't be afraid to learn good skills, good ways of outlining, good ways of expressing things from other preachers, and use that. And I do that, I listen to sermons by other preachers, and I might be like, that is a great illustration, or that's an excellent, that phrase you said there, that's an excellent way of explaining that truth. And so you're constantly learning. All right, then from One's Pastoral Insights. Is that your pet dog, is it? You right? Maybe you can preach a sermon to them on the text for without a dogs. Okay, all right, that's not a problem, that's fine. It's good to have a bit of a laugh halfway through. Okay, so finding suitable text. One's personal studies, one's pastoral insights, okay? A shepherd must know the state of his flock. Be thou diligent, Proverbs 27, 23, to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds. Obviously, in context theory, speaking about actual flocks or But the principle there is very important. We need to understand where the flock's at and that will influence what we're going to preach very often. Note, sometimes several textual messages can be brought from one verse or short text based on how one approaches the text. So you've got one faithful interpretation of a text, but you could approach it from a number of ways or preach it from a number of angles. and that will depend on how the Spirit of God is going to lead you at the time. So I talked about, for example, the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8, I believe it is. You could preach a message on Solomon focused on Philip in that account. Or you could preach a salvation message focused on the eunuch as a man who is seeking the Lord. So one passage of Scripture, but you could preach it from two different angles. Alright, next page. Page 45, we will wrap it up in about five minutes. Do you have a question? No, I was just going to say, that's what you've got here is the law of application. Scripture must be correctly interpreted before it can be applied. There is always one interpretation, but often many applications. Many applications, that's right. Alright, point C, what are some of the advantages now of a textual sermon? One, it focuses immediately upon the Bible rather than on a topic, which is good. You go straight to the text. This adds, rather than saying, today we're going to speak on the topic of such and such, now let's go to the Bible, you start with the text. Let me read John 3.16 for you today. Boom, you know, and it gives authority to the message. Two, it allows for variety in preaching. Three, a short text makes it easier to remember what was preached. Four, it is less distracting to the hearer than is topical preaching. This is because its focus is on a text rather than on verses looked up from here and there in the Bible. So it's a sharper, more focused sermon. It's not drawing from all over the place. People's thoughts are focused on one, two, three verses for the bulk of that message, okay? Five, it helps to develop and enhance a preacher's logical thinking skills. Six, it is amenable to preaching a topical series. So this is a collection of textual messages that fall under a single topic. So, for example, A, the seven sayings of Christ from the cross. In a sense, that's like a topical theme, but you could preach each one of those textually. Do a textual sermon on each of the seven sayings of Christ from the cross. Or the I Am's of John's Gospel. Believe there's seven I Am's. I am the good shepherd. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the door. I am the good shepherd, and so on. I am the bread of life. You could preach one textual message on each of those I Am's, but they end up falling under an overall theme. So on. Point D, the danger with a textual sermon. The main danger with preaching textual sermon is to ignore the context in which the text is located, thus violating the law of context. So similar to the topical message, we do need to be careful that we don't just wrench a text out of its context and just run with it to make it say whatever we want. E, preparing for a textual sermon. Having selected a text, the preacher must then carefully and thoroughly study it with all diligence, the purpose of which is to 1. Determine its context. It is easy to ignore context for the sake of using a text, quote, that will preach. Okay? It might preach, but you better just check first that what you're going to preach is not going to violate That's where, even with a textual message, it may be useful in your introduction to make a brief passing comment to the immediate context. Now, in this chapter, this is what's being dealt with, but today we're going to focus in on verse number such and such, and particularly this point about God's grace, or whatever. Two, discover its main point. This can be expressed by saying, this text is about, Okay, what is the main point of the text that I'm going to be dealing with? Three, derive its main divisions. All right, so these are to come from the key words, statements, truths, and principles found in the text they will point to and develop its theme. So what's the context? What's the main point of the text of scripture? And then how do I break down this verse into a workable outline? Okay, I'm just trying to think of an example. Oh, we've got some examples on the other side of the page here, which will show you what that's like. F, essential factors in writing textual sermons. One, a textual sermon must have one main point. Okay, as noted above, many texts can have more than one subject or important theme, so you need to decide what's the main focus of the message, what's the main theme you're going to Other themes might be mentioned in parsing as part of the introduction. See, however, only one thought should be developed in the outline. Consider, for example, some of the themes found in John 3.16. You could look at the theme of the love of God, or the gift of God, or eternal life. These are all themes that come out of John 3.16, and for a textual sermon, you want to take one of those themes and develop it. So it's good, actually, the examples we've been given here. So you could look at the love of God. and see how we're breaking down the verse phrase by phrase. The love of God. One, the source of love, for God. God is the source. Two, the fact of his love, so loved. Three, the object of his love, the world. Four, the proof of his love, that he gave. Five, the son of his love, his only begotten son. Then, the scope of his love, that whosoever. The terms of his love, believe in him. The prevention of his love should not perish. The provision of his love have everlasting life. So, can you see how he's taken the theme of the love of God from John 3.16 and then phrase by phrase broken it down into an outline. Okay, so this morning we're talking about the love of God as expressed for us here. In John 3.16, the first thing I want you to see this morning is the source of this love. The source of this love is God Himself for God. So loved. And then you preach on that. Then look at the fact of His love. So loved. The object of His love. Who are the objects of God's love? The world. That's you and me. That's all of us. So you can see how that theme just unfolds beautifully in the verse. Or you could look at the theme of the gift. It's a love gift for God so loved. A universal gift, the world. A sacrificial gift, gave his only begotten son. A free gift, that whosoever. A conditional gift, believes in him. A saving gift, should not perish. A lasting gift, but have everlasting life. So you get the picture. Or you could look at the eternal life, the giver of it, the object of it, the price of it, and so on. Does that make sense? Page 47. Number two, the main divisions of a textual sermon are taken from the text. So we're looking at these essential factors when writing textual sermons. One, it needs to have one main point. Two, the main divisions of a textual sermon are taken from the text. They are derived from or suggested by the text. They may be a list of the truths or principles found in the text. They may come from the key words in the text. Look for comparisons and contrasts within the text. They must all relate to the main point or theme of the sermon, and they should be arranged in logical or chronological order. So you're looking for the main divisions from the text. Take one or two verses, and then you're going to break those verses down around that theme that the text speaks about. 3. The subdivisions may be taken from other passages of Scripture. And this is what I mentioned before, your textual sermon is kind of like a hybrid between topical and expository. It's like expository in the fact that you're going to anchor your sermon on one main text and all your main points, that's the 1, 2, 3, 4, is going to come out of that one text. It's like the topical in that you're going to also draw in for your sub-points, your supporting points, the points that are going to support those main divisions, other scripture from elsewhere. Whereas expository is pretty well exclusively confined to one passage with the odd reference here or there from elsewhere. Okay, does that make sense? So textual sermon, main points, so for example, John 3, 16, your main divisions, your main headings, your main points, that's Roman numeral one, two, three, is gonna come out of the text. But your sub-points, A, B, C, D, will come from, some of them might come out of the text, but then you can draw others in as well. It's a combination. Expository, main points, Roman numeral 1, 2, 3, 4, comes out of the text. Sub points, A, B, C, D, E, all from that same passage. Then the sub points of the sub points, you might have a supporting scripture here or there. But all your main points, all your main sub points, are all coming out of one passage of scripture. That, strictly speaking, is expository preaching. All right, so we'll hold it there for today. We've covered the two first main types of preaching, the topical sermon and the textual sermon. There are more class exercises on page 52, but again, you don't need to do those at this stage because you've got enough work to do with what I'm giving you. So, Lord willing, next week we will get into a study of the expository sermon. and we'll go from there. And there's also a few other sermon types that are less used that we'll also look at. And then we're back to some more study questions. So, your homework for next week, just to summarize, you've got your textbook readings, as usual, with your associated review questions for the preacher and his preaching, and quotes for the other one. then you are to have by next Wednesday the first sermon done for me, which is on page 191, a gospel message, okay? So I want to see a gospel message for me next Wednesday. On the specifics, the length, the target audience, the text, I'm flexible on that. We've got some indicators there, but I want you just to think about I'm preparing a gospel message. There's going to be unsaved people at church, whether it's an evangelistic meeting, a Sunday service. I just want you to get a clear gospel message together for me based on a clear text. As far as the type, I'm happy for you to use topical, textual, or expository. I'll leave that up to you for the Gospel message. You might just go to one section of Scripture. You might like to preach a more topical message based on, you know, the Romans Road or something. It's up to you. Okay, but I will be looking at clarity of presentation. In my mind, your structuring and your formatting is a big thing. And then we'll be looking at content the content as well as eventually then also the actual delivery of the message will be graded on that as well. What I might do is I'll try and give you a breakdown on the grading structure for those sermons, okay? So I'll probably allocate a percentage to each each of those factors. So I'll allocate a percentage to your format, your outline, your structure, a percentage to the content itself, and probably a percentage then to the actual delivery which will come off of your critique sheets that we're going to do when you deliver these sermons. So by next Wednesday, have that message submitted to me. I will then grade the message looking at its structure and content. I will give you some feedback so that you can, if necessary, fine-tune it a little bit more, then we will organise a time for you to deliver that message. Paul for you here, probably on a Wednesday night, something like that. For Emmanuel, I'll have a chat with the pastor there to see if he can arrange something for us. Any questions? Yes, so select me a closing hymn. If you're preaching, if it's more of a practice preaching session where, for example, you're gonna do it on Wednesday night to believers, I still want you to preach as if there's unsaved people there. Okay, it's an exercise. Rather than doing it, I could get you to do it here while I sit there, but I think it would be more, it would be better if you can deliver it to an actual audience because that'll bring out a bit more of your personality and what have you. So, it's pretty hard preaching to one person, particularly if it's your pastor, okay? So what I want you to do at the end of your sermon, in the conclusion, give me a closing hymn. On the actual night, we may not actually use it, but I want to just see that you've picked a hymn that is suitable to the message. So select closing him. For you Emmanuel, it will depend on what Pastor Miguel is happy to arrange. I'll be in contact with him. And I mean for you there, if you're preaching for maybe the outreach ministry or something, it's going to be probably a lot more real in the sense that you may actually give an invitation. Okay. And on the length of 20 minutes, I'm flexible on that depending on the context and where you're going to be delivering the message. Okay, so for you Paul, I will get you to keep it to 20, because I'm going to do a Wednesday night, okay? For you Emmanuel, if you're actually going to be preaching where there are lost people present, and you need to preach for 40 minutes, that's fine. It'll just depend what gets arranged with Pastor Miggle over there, okay? And if you could work out a way to record it, at least so I have an audio that you can send to me. You can often on your phone there's a recording app where you can download them very easily and you can just pop it on the pulpit when you preach. Perfect. So first step is to get that message finished and sent to me by next Wednesday. I will then look at the structure and the content, give you any feedback as needed. You will then refine that and submit it to me again, and then we will line up dates for you to preach them. Okay? Clear? All right, so there's no review questions for next week, there's no test. All you have to work, the main thing you've got to work on is your readings as usual and that sermon. Third thing I do want you to just have a quick look at is could you look at the example outlines in the notes for both the topical and textual. All I want you to do is just give them a brief skim read, that's all. Okay, so between now and Wednesday, I just want you to have a look over them just to get a bit of an idea of what what they look like, okay? So just go back to the notes, because we didn't have time to read the actual sermons in class. Just have a quick scan over them, just to get a bit of an idea of what a topical message looks like, what a textual message looks like. Now every preacher's formatting and messages are going to look slightly different, but at least it just highlights in a simple way a little bit what they're about, okay? All right, so we will leave it there. Thank you for your time, and we'll have a closing word of prayer, shall we? Let's pray. Dear Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do give you thanks and praise again for this day. We thank you, Lord, again for the privilege of being able to study this very important topic. Lord, I just uplift again to you these two men. Thank you for their desire to train and to prepare for the ministry you've called them to. Lord, we pray that you would help them to learn these important principles. And Lord, for all of us, that we may Just be faithful preachers and teachers of your word. Give us the skills and the wisdom to rightly divide the word of truth. Lord, to be accurate to the scriptures. Lord, not to preach our own thoughts, but to lift up high the thoughts of God as expressed in the scriptures, Father. And Lord, the great need of this hour is for Bible preachers, men who will open the word of God and declare the truth. in a world that is just ever more confused, Lord, lost in darkness, how they need the light of the truth. So make us, we pray, effective communicators of the truth and grant us your power to do so, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.