In the area surrounding 1 Peter 3:10, the apostle Peter gives a wonderful set of exhortations on keeping your lips from speaking evil, and your mouth from telling lies. His section on avoiding a life of deceitfulness is a quotation from the Psalms (Ps. 34:13). But for those who are over-scrupulous about such things — …
David as Patsy
Introduction This tragic story follows immediately after the David and Bathsheba tragedy. Details and names change, but we have a beautiful woman, fulfilled lust, and then murder. The Text: “And it came to pass after this, that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of …
Earning Respect Through Being Opaque
[The minister must be] “a plain preacher, suiting his matter and style to the capacity of his audience (1 Cor. 14:19). Some ministers, like eagles, love to soar aloft in abstruse metaphysical notions, thinking they are most admired when they are least understood. They who preach in the clouds, instead of hitting their people’s conscience, …
Because Most Word Pictures Don’t Even Have Hands
“Do not try to hold your word pictures by the hand. Put them out there and let them do their work” (Hughes, Expository Preaching With Word Pictures, p. 146).
Assumed With Authority
“Yet in preaching we need not act as if everything had to be proved. Some things cannot be proved; some do not need to be, and others have been sufficiently proved before, and should now be taken for granted” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 160).
You Are the Man
Introduction David sinned grievously, but his repentance went as deep as his sin had gone. We see complete forgiveness in this portion of the story, offered to David, and received by him. We also see that the reality of ongoing consequences is not the same thing as lack of forgiveness. We must learn to stop …
And Should Therefore Be Ransacked
“The wisdom literature contains the largest yields of metaphor and simile found anywhere in the Bible” (Hughes, Expository Preaching With Word Pictures, p. 115).
In the Real Thing
“Men delight in argument — not in its forms, but in its reality. You will see a light in the faces of unlettered rustics, when an argument drawn from matters within their range of thought or suited to their taste, is presented in terms so plain, so vigorous, so interesting, that they take hold of …
With Cudgels
“Exhortation, without implementation, can soon become a verbal beating” (Hughes, Expository Preaching With Word Pictures, p. 112)
Symbols Matter
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #127 “For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for man” (1 Cor. 11:8-9). We will return in the next verses to …