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[00:00:00] Some who have been greatly used of God, who couldn't do anything else but joke. I remember Lindsay Glegg the first time he ever spoke, years ago. And two or three who are here today got saved at that time.
[00:00:17] He began off by saying, do you know what the two bars of soap said to each other?
[00:00:26] One said, give me your palm olive. And the other said, not on your life, boy.
[00:00:32] It had nothing on earth to do with the message. All the young people freaked with laughter, and then he got on with preaching. The. Now, that was Lindsay Clay, but don't aim it. W. P. Nicholson was another man who was full of jokes, especially about the pope, always full of jokes, and everyone adored him because of his jokes. But the point was that someone in the end got hold of him and said to him, you know, you shouldn't, this is wrong, and so on, because, you know, Johnny Cochrane was saved through W. P. Nicholson's ministry, and he gave it up. And for four weeks he had no power. And at the end of those four weeks of lifeless powerlessness, he said to the Lord, I'm going back to jokes. And he went back to jokes and people started getting saved again. I mean, that's WP. Nicholson. But do be careful of just things like that for the sake of it. People often forget the teaching, but remember the illustration and therefore the teachings. Now, we have, of course, wonderful illustration of this in brother Nee, I think some of his illustrations, especially in sit, walk and stand, rivet some of the lessons in that book into one's heart. And, of course, also a normal christian life. But really good illustrations, there's nothing like them. And we need to be on the lookout for good illustrations. Now, some people are just unable to illustrate and therefore, with no much point saying too much there. But there are times when you're dealing with something where an illustration puts the whole thing into a nutshell, and as it were, the truth comes right inside to the heart. The Lord Jesus, of course, was marvellous in illustration all the way through. You find his Marvellous illustrations drawn from nature, from creation around and so on. And of course, there was Paul. He was always using the most amazing pictures to get over truth. Wrestling, fighting, the athlete, running. All these know, quite foreign, by the way, to the jewish way of doing things, because they didn't believe in athletics. So it's quite remarkable, really.
[00:02:55] Remember, above everything else, that you are to preach the word.
[00:03:00] Make sure that you are expounding, explaining, interpreting God's word, preach the word, and you are not just developing your ideas or man's theories, this is one of the great traps we can fall into. We get hold of a truth and we start to develop it. You see, then there's the second great danger, finding a scripture as a peg upon which to hang our ideas. People get an idea and they say, now, where can I find a scripture for that? And start look around, and they get a scripture which is really just an excuse. It's prostitution, of course, of the word of God. The real heart of the whole thing is to preach the word, because in preaching the word, you're preaching Christ, you're imparting Christ. And all these other technical matters are governed by their usefulness in making God's word clearer to other people. So if notes get in the way, out with them, if illustrations become something in themselves, out with it.
[00:04:10] All these things in question of technique, if you like, are simply to help us to make God's word clearer, help us in our presentation of it. Be careful of other things, too. Be careful of not being concise.
[00:04:28] We ought to say a few things about the conciseness of a message.
[00:04:32] Clarity and simplicity are vital.
[00:04:36] Clarity and simplicity are vital. Now, don't think the deep things have got to be put in a complex way. This is what christians have done for generations. They've taken deep things and made them as complex as they possibly can in phraseology and words, to the extent that people cannot understand them at all. And then everyone thinks, oh, it was so deep, but really deep things are utterly simple, profound, but really simple vocabulary.
[00:05:05] And I think we should seek to be clear and simple. Be careful of padding using complex words you don't understand yourself.
[00:05:16] Very careful of that. I can give you some screamingly funny illustrations, but I won't.
[00:05:21] Verboseness and so on. Just be careful of these kind of things. What is the amount of time? Now quote, this is a difficult thing to do, but what is the amount of time to be given to the whole?
[00:05:35] Well, generally speaking, an evangelistic message ought not to be more than half an hour.
[00:05:41] Very much. Again, depends on the preacher. For instance, the Billy Graham preacher is nearly always 40 minutes, and I've never, ever felt bored by listening to Billy Graham. I've never found unsaved people bored by listening to Billy Graham. But you can be very easily bored by others who go on just that much too long. So I think that's an important point, especially in evangelism, if we're new to it, and so on. Well, the shorter the better, in one way, not too short, but nevertheless, it's better to be shorter than longer. When it's to God's people. Well, of course, on a Sunday morning we really can't give more than half an hour. We start quarter past. We try to enter quarter. Fact of the matter is that, generally speaking, you can speak longer. If it's a Bible study, it can be a little longer than that. What should be the proportion that you give? Really terribly technical, but just as a guide. But they do love a laugh. And the saints are quite fore to the fore in this matter. And so just remember this on the question of tone, though, the one great thing about concerning tone in speech, your introduction. Or do be careful of spending half now your introduction and five minutes on the most. Five minutes on the introduction. And I think you need about five on the conclusion. You can sometimes be longer on your conclusion than your introduction, but all this ought to be then the 20 between your headings there. That's only a very rough guide. You can't always go by that because sometimes God may give you something on this much more. The other two points may come out of that first one, but that is a very rough guide for those who are wondering about it. Now. On the other hand, do be careful of abruptness. Not enough explanation using terms others are not quite sure of without any explanation. For instance, you can talk about body life. Body life. And you say, of course the great need is body life. And of course, a whole lot of people don't know what you're talking about. The other danger is that a lot of people start to say, oh, body life, body. They don't know what they take on the phrase without understanding it.
[00:08:09] Now explain if you should ever use such a term, explain what you mean. It's always good to take it that all God's people agree.
[00:08:22] Teaching is like that. Err on that side. Don't take for granted that everyone understands because to your utter surprise, you will find that those you sometimes think ought to understand very well don't understand when it comes to it.
[00:08:39] Reiteration. How much should you reiterate? Repeat yourself. English is a marvelous language. It's quite unique in this sense that we can say the same thing four or five different ways and it not appear to be so. Now, that's why when you come to be interpreted into, for instance, one of the scandinavian languages or German, you suddenly find that you have said one thing and you get interpreted and then you say it again and they look at you blankly and then they sort of have to say the same thing more or less again. Then you say it again and then they sort of look at you. And sort of.
[00:09:23] I knew one translator who got so used to the english style of preaching that he used to preach something else altogether different.
[00:09:32] Get off the first point and say a few other things after that, you see and keep the thing going, sort of thing, because it is so difficult. English is such a rich language, and in this sense, we are able to say one thing, three, four different ways and get it into people's hearts. Now, I think there's a right and wrong reiteration.
[00:09:54] Well, now, just. I think in coming to an end, there are some other particular matters we ought to talk about. One is speech. Speech.
[00:10:07] Now, obviously, God does not ask you to preach a message without some concern about the speech you use.
[00:10:17] What point is it if you stand up and mumble so that two thirds of the congregation can't understand you?
[00:10:25] Diction is very, very important indeed.
[00:10:31] The greatest need is clarity of diction. And if people say to you that they can't hear you, or if you find people always saying to you, what did you say? What did you say? You need help, and you ought to ask for help. In other words, from someone who can teach you some basic, basic elements of elocution or something like that, you need help.
[00:10:58] It is really important to be clear in your diction to use your lips. Most especially men. The trouble with most of them is they do not use their lips. Some of them have got a stiff upper lip. That's where it comes from. We never use the upper lip. The result is that very often our addiction is. I remember once one person, I could never understand how anyone understood a single word that came out, because they use neither the top nor the bottom lip.
[00:11:29] Got something out. But it is amazing if you don't use your lips. Now, dictionary is very important. And then next to this comes vocabulary. See that you use simple, clearly understood words. It was spurgeon, of course, who changed the whole way of preaching in this country, thank the Lord. From terribly latinized type of preaching previous to him, to anglo saxon preaching. He used to go on and on and on about good anglo saxon words.
[00:12:06] And therefore he began to use simple, clear vocabulary. Now, do remember this. One of our problems is that sometimes we have an inferiority, and we tend to feel if we're going to preach, we must use big words.
[00:12:25] And this can often completely put the people who are listening into a fog. So try to use simple and clearly understood words. Avoid any air of great learning.
[00:12:39] See that you understand the words you use.
[00:12:42] Look them up in a dictionary if necessary. If you're not quite sure.
[00:12:47] Be careful of mixed metaphors and other things. You can get some glorious mix ups.
[00:12:58] Well, we won't go into them, but they can cause everyone to scream with laughter. And the thing they remember about the message is the faux par that was made and not the message. It's completely lost, much to everyone's delight. Now, this, unfortunately, is particularly when you're beginning.
[00:13:17] People are not cruel, but they do love a laugh. And the saints are quite fore to the fore in this matter. And so just remember this on the question of tone, though, the one great thing about concerning tone in speech is a variation.
[00:13:41] Now, often people are not conscious that they are intoning or that they are monotonous. And there is nothing more terrible than a monotonous preaching. You get a sort of thing gradually. Everyone's lull to sleep. However great the message, you try to listen to it, but after 20 minutes, it really is too much. Now, very much, of course, again is inhibition. Sometimes it's nerves, a person's nerves, they'll take hold of them. That instead of speaking normally. And when you speak normally, unless we are terribly inhibited, there is a natural variation of tone, and that's how we can listen to each other.
[00:14:31] It is our variation of tone which makes it so much more easy. If a person's completely monotonous, it's very difficult. Be natural. If there are defects concerning your intonation, seek help. Ask someone who is a good friend and who's not just going to grind you into the ground. Ask them, could you tell me if I'm monotonous? And so on, because again, it's a thing that can be overcome with help.
[00:15:02] Another point is speed, quickness, slowness. There again, you've got to have the same variation. Sometimes you speak quickly. I remember a preacher when I was a boy that was always called in the company. I was in the headache preacher. This was because he had a most unfortunate way. He'd obviously been taught in college when he was young. I won't give you his name. It's quite well known, although he's gone to the Lord now. He had been taught when he was young that you should at times lift your voice and at times drop it to a whisper. But unfortunately, he always shouted at the point, which was not important, and whispered the point that was important. And it was the most extraordinary sight for us youngsters. We used to love him coming because, first of all, all the older ones got a headache. And secondly, when we sat, we watched the whole congregation all straining forward to hear as it came out. He would sort of shout some quite unimportant point, whoa, he would say, just when you are absolutely. And then he would whisper something tremendous.
[00:16:12] Of course, again, Anglicans are not good preachers.
[00:16:21] Well, I mean, we have to say this when we take all thing real speaking, of course, Presbyterians are without any shadow of doubt the finest orators in the so called in Christendom. For some reason, whether it's celtic blood or what, I don't know, but it's something to do with it.
[00:16:40] That's where you get the finest art trait. But Anglicanism has developed the most marvelous way of preaching, which is if you're speaking over the garden wall to a neighbor and you speak about the death of Christ and the agony of Christ in a completely impassive conversational manner.
[00:17:03] In fact, it was taught in anglican colleges that you shouldn't be carried away or show any emotionalism of any kind. Well, now, the question I think that we can say about speech altogether is to seek to be yourself always, although trained and corrected. We do need training here. We do need correction in all these matters of speech and vocabulary and tone. But be yourself.
[00:17:31] Now, what about behavior in preaching?
[00:17:36] Well, there are a number of things here. First of all, do look smart and do look clean. And if you have a beard, see that it looks trimmed. And for those of us who've got beards, do turn out well. Remember, you are preaching. You're preaching the word of God. Now when you're be turned out well seekers. Partner, we've not all got money, but we can all look clean and we can look tidy. After all, we're speaking for God and that's the point. I think we ought to think there's something offensive about people who are bringing the word of God to us in a grubby, dirty, unkempt vessel.
[00:18:19] Nature itself tells us we feel unhappy about it. Now, how to stand and where to stand. Well, avoid eccentricity. Whatever you do, avoid eccentricity, it will always distract from the message.
[00:18:38] I remember a preacher we had in the good old days at Duke street who used to always preach like this. And then every now and again he would come up and go down again.
[00:18:50] Now we as kids always thought of him as those ducks that go back into water.
[00:18:58] It was an eccentricity which, if only it could have been ironed out when he was younger, would have helped us to hear his message.
[00:19:07] As it was, we always waited for him to jump up and then to go back down again.
[00:19:14] How to stand? Well, I think it's an important point, generally speaking, stand in a way that is natural to you at all. And stand firmly normally. Where to stand? Well, obviously, normally behind the table. Not here or in front of it and so on. But generally speaking, in the normal place. Otherwise you draw attention sometimes, unless you are such a great teacher, that preacher, that people completely forget you where you are. And that can happen otherwise, generally speaking, with the lesser run of mortals. People are so conscious of this eccentricity that they're continually thinking, what's he doing and why is he there? And why did he stand like that? And they're not really listening to the message.
[00:20:03] One or two things. To never preach with your hands in your pocket. This was the great habit of certain folks. To preach with at least one hand in your pocket. And even worse, to jangle money or keys inside the pocket. Now, always watch that, because nerves do this. And you can jangle a key. And then everyone's saying, listen to the key going up and down while he's preaching away or something. It's terrible. So be careful of that. Gesticulations and mannerism. Everyone has them, but seek to correct the excessive ones.
[00:20:40] We had a preacher, I remember, who had excessively long arms and very big hands.
[00:20:46] And what he used to do was he used to. When he was preaching, he used to go like this.
[00:20:54] We all used to look at these enormous hands. I mean, they were like plates of meat.
[00:21:02] And he wasn't such a big man. But when his hands went like this, it was the weirdest gesticulation and mannerism you've ever seen. And you couldn't listen to what he was preaching. You just couldn't listen to what he was preaching. Because you were absolutely amazed at these hands.
[00:21:23] This brother had heard that Spurgeon said that you should preach with your body. Now, as a man himself, he was a very dear brother. As a man himself, he was a quiet man. And he'd got this notion into his head that you should preach with your body. And so he'd been trying to do it, you see. And the result was something so weird that it.
[00:21:45] Well, you know, there are things to avoid awkwardness in any form.
[00:21:52] Pouring out water, for instance, if you can. If you are the kind of person like myself, who needs a sip of water before or after, pour it out before. You'll often find your nerves are so great. And by the way, this is a fact that when you come to pour it, you pour it all round the glass, much to the amazement of the whole congregation. Now, the matter of nerves is a point. Now, people think that you get over nerves. People often think, for instance, myself, I have no nerves. But you always have nerves. If you are a nervous type of person, highly strung, you will use a very large amount of nervous energy when you're speaking. Now, when you're used to it, what happens is this, you become used to your nerves and you don't realize it's only when, for instance, you'll hold a piece of paper up that it can be seen that you're trembling.
[00:22:55] You will tremble to the end of your day. You will be used to it and therefore it doesn't worry you, and therefore you're more relaxed and so on. But you're still using nervous energy. Now, try and cut out any awkwardness like that. Too tight a shirt.
[00:23:17] If you're going to preach a lot, get a size collar, half a size larger than you need. Now, I tell you why. Have you all seen the kind of preacher who does like this?
[00:23:33] I won't tell you who, but not in this company. But a way ago, we had a preacher who was always going, and it was most unfortunate because it came at times and he was speaking about the death of Christ.
[00:23:52] And there was that so awful that you really.
[00:23:57] Well, we used to wonder what on earth was wrong with the man because he had a too tight collar.
[00:24:04] Just remember this. This kind of thing needs to be watched. And anything else that's too tight as well.
[00:24:15] Then, of course, there's ostentation.
[00:24:18] That's another point to watch. People do get sort of a kind of ostentation. Now, again, we must watch these things. Don't worry. In a company like this, someone's bound to tell you. And if it really is an ostentation, you will hear about it before very long. We need to be careful of emotionalism or sentimentalism. When it's natural and spontaneous, it's marvelous, but when it is artificial, it is awful.
[00:24:51] I can think of some things that I better not mention here, but I do remember my own famous occasion when, at a Keswick in Richmond, when I was a boy, we had two speakers and the second speaker was a very, very well known anglican canon.
[00:25:13] And he preached and preached and preached. Much to our boredom, we couldn't get tail. And finally ended up with a story which was supposed to move us to the nth degree. It was about this chinese lady, this Dorcas, this woman, full of good work. She was lying on this Kang chinese bed, dying, you see. And what he did was he went all around the world and came back, said. And there she was dying.
[00:25:42] And then he said. And then he went on and went out of good works. Then again, and there she was, dying. He did this four times at the end of a tremendously long second message.
[00:25:55] And we youngsters couldn't bear it anymore. And of course, I did the unpardonable by finally saying out loud, oh, lord, let her die.
[00:26:04] And of course, cannon, I won't tell you his name, sort of a.
[00:26:10] And he looked at the congregation, whether they have never to this day know whether he thought it was a voice from God. But the pastor knew exactly where the voice came from. I got into terrible trouble afterwards.
[00:26:25] From him, I will say I was only 14.
[00:26:28] But the fact of the matter is, you see, that that kind of thing doesn't do anything.
[00:26:34] It just doesn't do anything. It just doesn't move anybody. Because it's so artificial that instead of actually being the climax of a message, the finish of a message.
[00:26:47] Well, all right, there are other things, too.
[00:26:51] Lots of little, small things. There are mannerisms which you cannot cure. Alan Redpath was always boxing things. When he preached, he used to say, and we must do it, and so on. He was always doing this, you see. Another famous one of his was always to go like this all the way to the message he went. It was the mannerism, and it didn't matter. It was his manner, you see. Nerves will come out.
[00:27:23] I unbutton my jacket, not my shirt, but I always button a jacket up and button it and unbutton it and button it and unbutton it when I wear one.
[00:27:43] It is nerve, as you see. Your nerves have got to earth themselves. They've got to earth themselves. It's like electricity. It's got to be earth. You've got to find some kind of outlet. And as long as your mannerisms are not too extreme or excessive, all is well. But you must watch those mannerisms. We had a preacher, Duke street, who, since gone to Canada, who always wore tails when he preached. He was our co pastor. And what he did was he used to swing them first that way and then that way, then that way and then that way. And, of course, I mean, we all used to watch this. We never listened to what he said. We used to watch the tails swinging that way and then that way.
[00:28:33] These are things. There are mannerisms which take people's minds off the message and we have to watch them. But there are other mannerisms which are not.
[00:28:43] Do be careful of scratching yourself, as another very unfortunate habit that some people have where they scratch themselves on their behind, or even worse, they go like this.
[00:29:00] Now, those are things we all have to help each other over. And when we see such a thing, it's best to just go and say, brother, do you know?
[00:29:10] Because it's better for us to say something than for others outside to say where to look?
[00:29:19] Where to look. In the good old days, you were taught in Bible college to fix your eyes on a suitable point about 15ft or so above the congregation. This was all part of the mystique of preaching, because you looked like an angel. As you preach, you always looked up high, and somehow other that you get those wonderful old statues of someone preaching, always looking up, you see, it's the upward look.
[00:29:51] I don't think it's so good, really. Should you look up? Should you look beyond the congregation? Should you look down?
[00:30:00] Where should you look? It was always considered very bad in certain school of colleges to look at the congregation.
[00:30:10] But personally, I think that really you should.
[00:30:16] There are, of course, some of us who are too hawk like of eye, and the congregation can seriously disturb us.
[00:30:27] When you see someone going, or you see someone every now and again, it sort of quite puts you off your message.
[00:30:41] Now, the fact that they might always do that, even if the apostle Paul came, is no comfort, really, for you. You watch these people sort of dropping to sleep and then waking up and so on. Or you sometimes watch people who seem to have a thoroughly bored expression on their face. And some are positively antagonistic look upon those, only to find that they're not the least bit antagonistic, have really received something from the Lord and be greatly blessed. So sometimes looking at the congregation can be a fearful business.
[00:31:14] Nevertheless, I think on the whole, it's better to look at the congregation than to fix your eye beyond and sort of go on imperviously of them.
[00:31:27] Well, I don't know many other things we can say. Of course, you know that Lindsay Gleg once reminded us every time George Whitfield preached, he always looked at the congregation, and at least two people got convicted because he had a squint in his eye. And there were always two people who felt that the eye of his, they were brown eyes, were fixed on them. So always, at least, they always said, at least two people were always convicted after George Whitfield preached. Nevermind. What again can we say? The key is to be true to oneself in preaching, although there may well be things about oneself which will have to be corrected and trained. Well, now I think perhaps we ought to lead up. I have been given a whole number of questions which are in many ways excellent.
[00:32:21] I've got here 27 questions on the matter of ministry. And all I can think we'll do is leave it now and take it up another time. What we could do is this. I wonder whether all of you will now cooperate.
[00:32:42] Would you please take either psalm 27 or psalm 23, the 23rd psalm or the 27th psalm?
[00:32:58] And will you take from that one verse or two and be ready to give a short word on Friday?
[00:33:13] A short word. Now, when we say a short word just so, we shall spend most of Friday actually preaching to one another, and we will then learn from our mistakes. Now, don't be put off by that. Don't be afraid.
[00:33:35] Take from either psalm 27, psalm 23, one or two verses. And if you will come ready to preach, if you are called upon to do so, then we shall be able to. Don't feel that you've got to get tremendous spiritual content into your verse. The point that we want to get at now is to see if we can learn from our own experience some of these mistakes. That's all. Whether it's often this is the best way we can learn these things.
[00:34:13] Now, shall we bow together in prayer and commit ourselves to the Lord?
