Introduction: We know virtually nothing about Nahum, other than that this prophet was a magnificent poet. We have his name, this short masterpiece from him, and the fact that he was probably from Judah, from a town called Elkosh. He prophesied after the fall of Thebes (3:8) in Egypt (664-663 B.C.) but prior to the …
Heart of the Matter
The preacher “should find the hiding-place of power, in the revealed ideas of God’s personality and mercy, and man’s responsibility and guilt” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 81).
Effectual Door
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #197 “Now I will come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia: for I do pass through Macedonia. And it may be that I will abide, yea, and winter with you, that ye may bring me on my …
No Rock Without a Quarry
“The human mind . . . was made to receive truth into itself, and not to originate it out of itself. The human mind is recipient in nature, and not creative; it beholds truth, but it does not make it . . . The oratorical power of the preacher depends upon his recipiency; upon his …
The Real World Gives Traction
[A preacher’s] “power lies, therefore, in that objective world of truth and of being, over against which he stands as a finite and dependent subject. In simple and common phraseology, which so often, however, contains the highest philosophic truth, man’s strength is in God, and the mind’s strength is in truth” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral …
A Sermon for Five
Introduction Written decisions of our Supreme Court justices are called opinions. Justices who differ with the majority may write a dissenting opinion. But in contrast to all such opinions, the Scripture requires preachers to declare the very oracles of God (1 Pet. 4:11). This is a responsibility that no man should ever take up lightly, …
Personal and Accountable
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #195 “And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. And if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with me” (1 Cor. 16:3–4). …
A Flaying Hatred
“In the midst of all this clamor for fine writing and florid style, the preacher should be a resolute man, and dare to be a plain writer . . . This determination will affect his whole sermonizing . . . It will appear in the composition and manner, in a stripping, flaying hatred of circumlocutions, …
Surveying the Text/Micah
Introduction: Micah was a younger contemporary to the prophet Isaiah, and ministered across the reigns of Jotham (c. 740 B.C.) and Hezekiah of Judah (who died 687 B.C.). Other contemporaries would be Amos and Hosea, which accounts for similar themes—they were all confronting the same kinds of cultural problems. The two great ones were idolatry …
Simply Plain
“The preacher should toil after this property of style, as he would toil after virtue itself. He should constantly strive, first of all, to exhibit his thoughts plainly. Whether he shall add force to plainness, and beauty to force, are matters to be considered afterwards. Let him in the first place begin at the beginning, …