What all variations of affable chatter share in common is that the preacher does not do justice to the most salient fact about him and his hearers: They are dead men walking.
Baxter is concerned that much of the Church’s preaching has become either too moralistic or too spiritualized. What’s his answer to this problem? Expository preaching.
A solid structure, a lively skeleton, inarguably makes your messages more life-giving. They will be clearer, more interesting, and easier both to follow and to remember.
Behind the preacher stands Christ Jesus. Preachers listen to Jesus so that, in turn, they may preach Him, and their congregations may hear the voice of the Good Shepherd from the mouths of their pastors.
The outward sins we do all begin with Sin hidden in our hearts. But we cannot see that, it has to be revealed to us by a spiritual scan, an MRI from above.
The ancients had a process for preparing to give a speech that has come down to us as the so-called “canons” (or stages) of rhetoric, which continues to be useful for orators of all kinds, not least preachers.