The Golden Hammer Preaching Institute

Well, friends, we are in our International Preaching Institutes, and as we go into these sections on the message, I'm assuming you're already capable in some capacity of sermon construction. Our focus will be to strengthen your expository preaching and encourage you to do more doctrinal preaching, which we will help you with that as well. And that's the subject matter of our first two preaching institutes in this section of the Institute called The Message.

And please, brother pastor, don't give in to a lazy ministry by using AI to write your sermons. God will not honor that. How can he honor something that the Holy Spirit is not in? Well, I will take you through a master class this morning on sermon preparation given by two masters.

I will give you a jewel in building an expository sermon that was taught to me by my homiletical mentor, Dr. Steven F. Elford, and it was taught to him by his homiletical mentor, Dr. W. Graham Scroggie. If you're not familiar with Graham Scroggie, friends, allow me to introduce you to him. Dr. Scroggie served five churches, a church in Leytonstone in East London from 1899 to 1902, Trinity Church, Halifax, Yorkshire from 1902 to 1905, Bethesda Free Church, Sunderland, from 1907 to 1916, and Charlotte Baptist Chapel, Edinburgh, Scotland from 1916 to 1933, and finally, Spurgeon's Church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London from the war years of 1938 to 1944, when he was the pastor, when the church was destroyed by a bombing raid, one of the last of the war, in fact, in his diary, he states that he preached a sermon on Sunday, June 29, 1941, where he writes, a service of witness amid the ruins, the Metropolitan Tabernacle having been destroyed by the Germans on May 11th.

Well, let me read you some keen insight to Graham Scroggie, friends, provided by Dr. Ted S. Rendell from the preface of Oldford on Scroggie. Here's his words, it is instructive to learn that he was dismissed from his first church because he opposed theological liberalism, and from his second church because he opposed worldliness. Dr. Scroggie underwent a profound experience of meeting with God through God's Word, where for two difficult years, he was without a regular income, except for occasional gifts, where he gave himself unreservedly to the study of scriptures, in which was during this period, he laid the foundation of all the subsequent teaching and preaching of God's Word from a personal testimony he gave in 1950.

We read of this ministry transformation, these are the words of Graham Scroggie, can I ever forget the time long ago, when my whole life and ministry were suddenly challenged, when it was revealed to me that I was little more than a middleman between my books and my people, when it dawned upon me that I was more anxious to be a preacher than to be God's messenger, that my master passion was not the accomplishment of the will of God at any cost, and that my ruling motive was not the love of Christ in that hour, the edifice I had been building lay in ruins about me, and for a while, all was dark in despair, but into the woods my master came, and finding me there in his mercy, he brought me out into newness of life, out into fullness of service, well I will stop there friends, if you want to read more, you have to get a copy of Oldford and Scroggie, or retitled, Oldford Studies Scroggie. When Dr. Oldford and I were writing the book together, he would get excited and say to me, pastors will give the right arm for this book, but Dr. Scroggie's biggest legacy was his pen ministry, he is the author of many books, including the big hard cover, the unfolding drama of redemption, and his bible commentary, a guide to the gospels, both of which I recommend friends. Now, I'm going to give you a real treat in regard to sermon preparation, it is time for us to take a detailed analysis of Scroggie's Golden Hammer, as given by Dr. Stephen Oldford, here now are Stephen Oldford's teachings from that book, and here are his words, he was at the missionary training colony in upper Norwood, London, where I was first learned about Dr. Scroggie's Golden Hammer, to open up the text of the word, the Golden Hammer is as follows, one, what is the dominating theme, two, what are the unifying thoughts, three, what is the motivating thrust, well here now is a breakdown of the Golden Hammer friends, Dr. Scroggie invariably started with a helpful preamble, for example, he would insist that I was to read the passage in question over and over again, then research the passage in question, observing three principles, the historic principle, the contextual principle, and the grammatical principle, regarding the first of the three, the historical principle, the setting, or historical background, I must ask the questions, why, when, where, and by whom were the words spoken, this is important, regarding the second, the contextual principle, no verse or passage of scripture should be interpreted out of context, not the focal and total context, thirdly, the grammatical principle, every effort should be made to understand precisely what the words mean, as they were employed by the author, even if he is not named, all words, verbs, tenses, pronouns, and syntax should be researched for meaning and clarity, next, we must relate the passage in question, and this is where the Golden Hammer was put to use, to relate a verse, or preferably a unit of scripture to my audience, three questions need to be asked and answered, number one, what is the dominating theme, the bible is so rich and full of meaning, that it is possible to preach more than one sermon from the same passage or verse, so I must be selective, and to quote Dr. F.B. Meyer, the secret of preaching is not saying seven things, but saying one thing seven times, Stephen Alford then writes, so I was exhorted to select my theme, my subject from the passage before me, number two, the next question is, what are the integrating thoughts, every subject or dominating theme must have supporting or qualifying evidence, in a sermon, the breakdowns of this theme from the context constitutes the headings and subheadings of the main proposition, I need to ask, what are the integrating or unifying thoughts, and thirdly, and lastly, what is the motivating thrust, with the careful consideration of the dominating theme and integrating thoughts, I then come to the motivating thrust, which in turn becomes the doctrine or challenge of the sermon, I will pause here now friends, to say, when Dr. Alford would teach us students how to preach, he would always give us a hands on exercise, to demonstrate what we had learned, we will do that now, as we turn again to the teaching on preaching, now, let me take these questions and illustrate them briefly, from a passage in Romans 1 verses 1 through 17, read these verses carefully, and note, A, the dominating theme, you can't read through these 17 verses, without being impressed with the recurring theme of the gospel, as seen in verse 1, the gospel of God, verse 9, the gospel of his son, verse 15, the gospel, verse 16, the gospel of Christ, so we see the dominating theme is the gospel, now let's take a look and identify the integrating thoughts, number 1, the supremacy of the gospel, verse 16 states, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, Paul is here referring to the supremacy of the God of the gospel, the gospel of God, our text says, next, we see subheadings, under this, the supremacy of the gift of the gospel, as we continue reading, verse 16, the gospel is the power of God, unto salvation, to everyone who believes, the next integrating thought, is the gospel mediates saving power, it is the power of God, unto salvation, next, we find that the gospel generates saving faith, everyone that believes, the second integrating thought, is the simplicity of the gospel, in verse 27, we read, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed, from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith, in the corresponding subheadings of this, we discover our A, it is revealed by faith, verse 17, therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, and B, it is received by faith, in verse 17, the just shall live by faith, and that brings us to the last part of the golden hammer, the motivating thrust, from the dominating theme, and integrating thoughts, we learn, what is the motivating thrust, and we see, that it is twofold, A, we must serve the gospel, Paul says, he was separated unto the gospel of God, as an apostle, verse 1, and he served the gospel with his spirit, verse 9, next, B, we must share the gospel, verse 15 declares, so, as much as in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome, this is a simple illustration of how to analyze and sermonize a passage of scripture, when we have the subject, the structure, and the substance of an expository sermon written out in full, it must become incarnational before we can deliver it, the manuscript must become the message, this incarnational experience can only come about as we pursue the following disciplines, first, we must pray fully, review the sermon, next, we must pray fully, relate the sermon, finally, we must pray fully, rehearse the sermon, all this before we mount the pulpit, so to summarize our instruction today, the golden hammer helps to break down the subject, the structure, and when amplified and organized, the sermon, which God would have us preach from any given part of holy scripture, we must remember that the Bible contains narrative, poetry, doctrine, prophecy, and other literary forms, but in the final analysis, everything we preach must have a dominating theme, integrating thoughts, and a motivating thrust, this is where the golden hammer proves its worth, well, friends, that's the end of Stephen Offord's masterclass on expository preaching, employing Scroggie's golden hammer, we trust these teaching points will be a help to you as you preach the God-centered gospel to your generation in your country, the nice thing about these international preaching institutes, you physically don't have to travel to Tampa, Florida, to learn these in an institute form here physically, you can listen to these through sermon audio, you can listen to them in India, in Singapore, in England, in Germany, in Wales, in Scotland, in Australia, all over the world, it makes no difference, our next preaching institute, friends, will cover doctrinal preaching, well, I hope you will absorb and apply what we have learned today to the good of God's people and to the glory of God, amen.