On Reading Sermons

From time to time I make an appeal to each of you to become readers of good sermons. Note I said sermons. True, there are many books written about God’s Word that are very useful and edifying.  But sermons are in a particular class of there own. For instance, our lives are filled with regularly hearing sermons. We may call them messages or teachings or subjects, but they are ideally sermons. 
A sermon is a word. It is a word or message from the Lord to us. And unique to Christianity is this divine method of preaching a message. It is a word from God to us. And there is something stirring and life changing about that. To this day, outside the Holy Spirit applying the Bible directly (which He does), nothing seems to speak more deeply to me on a regular and almost guaranteed basis than the effect of reading a good sermon. So I want to commend the reading of sermons to you. Last Wednesday evening I read several titles to the young people of sermons (granted these were more like good advise from a father than expositions) by George Lorimer spoken to young people. Some of the titles were “Overvaluing Athletic Sports,” “Keeping Bad Company,” “An Honest Use of Time,”
“How to Achieve Worldly Success,” and many more. Pulling down any sermon book and reading the titles of the sermons is intriguing and inviting. So I will do that. I will simply take one first one that catches my attention. Here are a couple of titles. “The Art of Giving Encouragement.” “The Enemies of Spiritual Life.” Or “The Gulf Stream of Human Life”. 
Here are some titles from another sermon book:  “Sowing & Reaping:” “Now, now - not by and by.” “Why Christians believe in Everlasting Punishment.”
Or “The Immortality of the Soul.” I always like the titles of G. Truitt’s sermons:  “Why Souls go away from Jesus.” “The Doom of Delay.” “The Peril of Resisting God.” One more and I am done. 
T. D. Talmadge’s titles are the most striking (and sermons):  “The Ministry of Tears.” “Shams in Religion.” “The Ear.” “Whisperers.” “Gnats and Camels.” “Paul in a Basket.”
“A Dumb Prayer Answered.” Is that enough!  Listen, brethren, become a reader of good sermons. If all else fails, God will speak to your heart and life through a good sermon. 
That is a guarantee, Lord willing! O, what a wonderful thing to have God speak to us through His Word by His Spirit. And sermons will just that almost upon request. 
Praise God for the memory and the sermons! of the just - from the past. Take advantage of them. Let me know if want to look at some titles.
I have approximately 200 books of sermons and the library has several. The Lord is waiting to speak a word to you!

From time to time I make an appeal to each of you to become readers of good sermons.  Note I said sermons.  True, there are many books written about God’s Word that are very useful and edifying.  But sermons are in a particular class of there own.  For instance, our lives are filled with regularly hearing sermons.  We may call them messages or teachings or subjects, but they are ideally sermons.  A sermon is a word.  It is a word or message from the Lord to us.  And unique to Christianity is this divine method of preaching a message.  It is a word from God to us.  And there is something stirring and life changing about that.  To this day, outside the Holy Spirit applying the Bible directly (which He does), nothing seems to speak more deeply to me on a regular and almost guaranteed basis than the effect of reading a good sermon.  So I want to commend the reading of sermons to you.  Last Wednesday evening I read several titles to the young people of sermons (granted these were more like good advise from a father than expositions) by George Lorimer spoken to young people.  Some of the titles were “Overvaluing Athletic Sports,” “Keeping Bad Company,” “An Honest Use of Time,” “How to Achieve Worldly Success,” and many more.  Pulling down any sermon book and reading the titles of the sermons is intriguing and inviting.  So I will do that.  I will simply take one first one that catches my attention. Here are a couple of titles.  “The Art of Giving Encouragement.” “The Enemies of Spiritual Life.” Or “The Gulf Stream of Human Life.  Here are some titles from another sermon book:  “Sowing & Reaping:.” “Now, now-not by and by.” “Why Christians believe in Everlasting Punishment.” Or “The Immortality of the Soul.” I always like the titles of G. Truitt’s sermons:  “Why Souls go away from Jesus.” “The Doom of Delay.” “The Peril of Resisting God.” One more and I am done.  T. D. Talmadge’s titles are the most striking (and sermons):  “The Ministry of Tears.” “Shams in Religion.” “The Ear.” “Whisperers.” “Gnats and Camels.” “Paul in a Basket.” “A Dumb Prayer Answered.” Is that enough!  Listen, brethren, become a reader of good sermons.  If all else fails, God will speak to your heart and life through a good sermon.  That is a guarantee, Lord willing!  O, what a wonderful thing to have God speak to us through His Word by His Spirit.  And sermons will just that almost upon request.  Praise God for the memory and the sermons! of the just - from the past.  Take advantage of them. Let me know if want to look at some titles.  I have approx. 200 books of sermons and the library has several.  The Lord is waiting to speak a word to you!