Preaching (99)
Hard words, if they be true, are better than soft words, if they be false. 
63 Volume Sermon Set - 1940.34
Charles Spurgeon
63 Volume Sermon Set - 1940.34
3.2K
We must not talk to our congregations as if we were half asleep. Our preaching must not be articulate snoring. There must be power, life, energy, vigour. We must throw our whole selves into it, and show that the zeal of God's house has eaten us up.Lectures to my Students
No man preaches a sermon well to others who does not first preach it to his own heart.
You are required to believe, to preach, and to teach what the Bible says is true, not what you want the Bible to say is true. Chosen by God, p. 12
Preachers should not give sinners what they desire; but give them True Food until, by the Spirit, they taste and see that the Lord is good!
Let us beware of despising preaching. In every age of the Church, it has been God's principal instrument for the awakening of sinners and the edifying of saints. The days when there has been little or no preaching have been days when there has been little or no good done in the Church. Let us hear sermons in a prayerful and reverent frame of mind, and remember that they are the principal engines which Christ Himself employed when He was upon earth. Not least, let us pray daily for a continual supply of faithful preachers of God's Word. According to the state of the pulpit will always be the state of a congregation and of a Church.Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 1, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986) 128, 129
Saying, 'Preach the gospel daily, use words if necessary', is like saying, 'Feed the hungry, use food if necessary.'
A man's nose is a prominent feature in his face, but it is possible to make it so large that eyes and mouth and everything else are thrown into insignificance, and the drawing is a caricature and not a portrait: so certain important doctrines of the gospel can be so proclaimed in excess as to throw the rest of truth into the shade, and the preaching is no longer the gospel in its natural beauty, but a caricature of the truth, of which caricature, however, let me say, some people seem to be mightily fond. The Spirit of God will teach you the use of the sacrificial knife to divide the offerings; and He will show you how to use the balances of the sanctuary so as to weigh out and mix the precious spices in their proper quantities.Lectures to my Students
In order to get attention, the first golden rule is, always say something worth hearing.Lectures to my Students
In the Bible, "remembering" is more than mental recall. It involves emotion and volition as well as cognition. It not only touches the past; it also articulates with the present and the future, helping a person connect previously acquired wisdom to current and future decisions. .. Bruce Waltke says simply, "Remembrance equals participation."Preaching as Reminding, 13
it is common for modern preachers to use the proverbial "we" in an effort to place themselves, humbly it is thought, within the mass of those needing the same message. Although there is a nugget of truth to this modern approach, it nevertheless undermines the basic essence of preaching--the prophetic.Deep Discipleship, 24
Not infrequently will one hear that we should just "preach the gospel" and then let the Spirit do his work in believers. Of course, this statement can be taken in a number of ways that even the staunches opponent of antinomianism could agree to. But often there is such an overreaction to "moralizing sermons" that preachers fail to give appropriate, soul-searching application in the form of commands. Direct and specific application in the form of commands. Direct and specific application is something that Paul does not omit in his letters. For example, he reminds the Thessalonians to love one another and then urges them "to do this more and more" (1 Thess. 4:10).Antinomianism (Loc 829/ Kindle)
He is your friend who pushes you nearer to God.
the crucial way to fight against false teaching is to preach the gospel of Christ well. Good News for Anxious Christians (190)
Many good sermons are lost for lack of much prayer in study.
Sermons of hell may keep many out of hell.
Ministers must not flatter, preach pleasing things, sow pillows under people's elbows, or throw sugar on them, when salt is necessary.
Preaching and hearing are relatives. If there is a necessity on us to preach, by the same rule there lies a necessity on you to hear.Union and Communion
I am very glad to see pastors wake up to the antinomian overcorrections of the "gospel-centered" movement.
Every sermon had to be:
The Bible says to do X.
You can't do X.
Jesus did X for you.
End of sermon.
But you don't believe the Gospel rightly until you obey Jesus.https://twitter.com/Brian_Sauve/status/1744192523592196597
no man preacheth that sermon well that doth not first preach it to his own heart-If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us
for the Jerusalem dialect has this one distinguishing mark, that it is a man's own mode of speech, and it is the same out of the pulpit as it is in it.Lectures to My Students, 113
I wonder how long we might beat our brains before we could plainly put into words what is meant by preaching with unction; yet he who preaches knows its presence, and he who hears soon detects its absence;Lectures to My Students (p. 50).
None are so able to plead with men as those who have been wrestling with God on their behalf.Lectures to My Students (p. 45).
It is a marvel to me how men continue at ease in preaching year after year without conversions. Have they no bowels of compassion for others? no sense of responsibility upon themselves? Dare they, by a vain misrepresentation of divine sovereignty, cast the blame on their Master? Or is it their belief that Paul plants and Apollos waters, and that God gives no increase?Lectures to My Students (p. 32). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Abhor, dear brethren, the thought of being clockwork ministers who are not alive by abiding grace within, but are wound up by temporary influences; men who are only ministers for the time being, under the stress of the hour of ministering, but cease to be ministers when they descend the pulpit stairs. True ministers are always ministers.Lectures to My Students (Kindle Locations 256-259). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
the greatest problem that any man who preaches the gospel ever has to face is that while he is preaching he is in danger of looking at himself and watching himself and always being conscious of himself.Spiritual Depression (125)
I'll tell you a story. The Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1675 was acquainted with Mr. Butterton the [actor]. One day the Archbishop . . . said to Butterton . . . 'pray inform me Mr. Butterton, what is the reason you actors on stage can affect your congregations with speaking of things imaginary, as if they were real, while we in church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?' 'Why my Lord,' says Butterton, 'the reason is very plain. We actors on stage speak of things imaginary, as if they were real and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.' Stout, Divine Dramatist (239-240)
All the simplicity in the world can do no good, unless you preach the simple gospel of Jesus Christ so fully and clearly that everybody can understand it. If 'Christ crucified' has not His rightful place in your sermons, and sin is not exposed as it should be, and your people are not plainly told what they ought to believe, and be, and do - your preaching is of no use! Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 1, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986), 128, 129
It is incumbent on ministers to stand as zealous champions for the doctrines of God's grace.The Zealous Christian
the experience of Furz was probably no worse than that of John Nelson, who coolly says, "But when I was in the middle of my discourse, one at the outside of the congregation threw a stone, which cut me on the head: however, that made the people give greater attention, especially when they saw the blood run down my face; so that all was quiet till I had done, and was singing a hymn."Lectures to my Students
We must be ready to give up anything and everything for the sake of the principles which we have espoused, and must be ready to offend our best supporters, to alienate our warmest friends, sooner than belie our consciences.Lectures to my Students
To be burning at the lip and freezing at the soul is a mark of reprobation. God deliver us from being superfine and superficial: may we never be the butterflies of the garden of God.Lectures to my Students
There are preachers who in their sermons seem to take their hearers one by one by the button-hole, and drive the truth right into their souls, while others generalise so much, and are so cold withal, that one would think they were speaking of dwellers in some remote planet, whose affairs did not much concern them. Learn the art of pleading with men.Lectures to my Students
Habitually to come into the pulpit unprepared is unpardonable presumption: nothing can more effectually lower ourselves and our office. After a visitation discourse by the Bishop of Lichfield upon the necessity of earnestly studying the Word, a certain vicar told his lordship that he could not believe his doctrine, "for," said he, "often when I am in the vestry I do not know what I am going to talk about; but I go into the pulpit and preach, and think nothing of it." His lordship replied, "And you are quite right in thinking nothing of it, for your churchwardens have told me that they share your opinion."Lectures to my Students
A pastor who goes to the church-meeting in the spirit of his Master, feeling sure that in reliance upon the Holy Spirit he is quite able to answer any untoward spirit, sits at ease, keeps his temper, rises in esteem on each occasion, and secures a quiet churchLectures to my Students
A very useful help in securing attention is a pause. Pull up short every now and then, and the passengers on your coach will wake up. The miller goes to sleep while the mill wheels revolve; but if by some means or other the grinding ceases, the good man starts and cries, "What now?" On a sultry summer's day, if nothing will keep off the drowsy feeling, be very short, sing more than usual, or call on a brother or two to pray. A minister who saw that the people would sleep, sat down and observed, "I saw you were all resting, and I thought I would rest too."Lectures to my Students
It is God's way to let ministers try all their strength first, and then He Himself comes and subdues the hearts they cannot.
If true religion lies much in the affections, we may infer, that such a way of preaching the word . . . as has a tendency deeply to affect the hearts of those who attend . . . is much to be desired.Religious Affections
It is possible to preach with exegetical accuracy but not reach the heart. Reminding may seem to be primarily a cognitive function of preaching, but it actually has just as much to do with emotion as cognition. This is because an act of reminding assumes that the listeners already know the content of an utterance, but their knowledge slumbers and must be aroused. It smolders and must be ignited.Preaching as Remembrance, 57
Like Moses and the prophets, Paul and the other New Testament letter writers regularly reminded their hearers of what they already knew and believed. The Epistles show what preaching to believers probably sounded like in the first century—not preaching for evangelism (Acts illustrates that), but preaching to the faith family within the walls of a house church. In such preaching we overhear the apostles stirring memory. Their Epistles show us that we are not forced to communicate something novel each week.Preaching as Remembrance, 53
Ministers must learn to stir memory, not simply repeat threadbare platitudes. We must rouse that which is already present within the child of God: knowledge of our Father's love and majesty.Preaching as Reminding
one of the preacher's main callings is to make knowledge, values, and experience present once again. Ministers must serve as the Lord's remembrancers because things learned can be buried, lost, amputated, or corrupted.Preaching as Reminding, p6
God hath appointed . . . preaching . . . as a fit means . . . to stir up the pure minds of the saints, quicken their affections by often bringing the great things of religion to their remembrance, setting them in their proper colours, though they know them, and have been fully instructed in them.
Of all preaching in the world, (that speaks not stark lies,) I hate that preaching which tendeth to make the hearers laugh, or to move their mind with tickling levity, and affect them as stage-players use to do, instead of affecting them with a holy reverence of the name of God.
I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.
Congregations are lifeless because dead men preach to them.
Strictly speaking, it is the Word as it is preached in the name of God and in virtue of a divine commission, that is considered as a means of grace in the technical sense of the word, alongside of the sacraments which are administered in the name of God.
The preacher must be a serious man; he must never give the impression that preaching is something light or superficial or trivial.
What is the chief end of preaching? I like to think it is this. It is to give men and women a sense of God and His presence.
To love to preach is one thing, to love those to whom we preach quite another.
God has entrusted to us the ministry of the Word, not its results.
Application is the preacher's highway from the head to the heart.
The proper aim of preaching is to mediate meetings with God.
Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal preaching that will save Christ's sheep.
If God's words determine reality, then of all the things a pastor does, speaking the words of God to the congregation is the most important.
It should not be forgotten in this connection that the minister's duty is increasingly that of an apologist for Christianity. The general level of education is much higher than it has ever been. Many young people hear of evolution in the high schools and in the college where their fathers never heard of it except as far as a distant something. If the minister would be able to help his young people, he must be a good apologete, and he cannot be a good apologete unless he is a good systematic theologian
He who has ceased to learn has ceased to teach. He who no longer sows in the study will no more reap in the pulpit.
It is desperately essential in this hour that preachers recover a soaring vision of the supremacy of God. Life-changing, history-altering preaching will come only when pastors reclaim a high view of God's blazing holiness and are overshadowed by His absolute sovereignty. Towering thoughts of God's transcendent glory must captivate preachers' souls.
The blessing of heaven will not accompany the preaching that is done in a worldly manner.
It matters to God what is preached. And it matters to Him how it is preached. No man is free to preach whatever and however he so chooses.
Expository preaching consists in the explanation and application of a passage of Scripture. Without explanation it is not expository; without application it is not preaching.
May I beg you carefully to judge every preacher, not by his gifts, not by his elocutionary powers, not by his status in society, not by the respectability of his congregation, not by the prettiness of his church, but by this—does he preach the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation?
As you preach, stay in the text, give honor to Christ and He will use you
I used to tell young preachers, in order to preach you've got to have the power of God on your life. Now I tell them, in order to tie your shoes you've got to have the power of God on your life.
The broader problem is that a great deal of popular preaching and teaching uses the bible as a pegboard on which to hang a fair bit of Christianized pop psychology or moralizing encouragement, with very little effort to teach the faithful, from the Bible, the massive doctrines of historic confessional Christianity.
Windows greatly add to the pleasure and agreeableness of a habitation. and so do illustrations make a sermon pleasurable and interesting. A building without windows would be a prison rather than a house, for it would be quite dark, and no one would care to take it upon lease; and, in the same way, a discourse without a parable is prossy and dull, and involves a grievous weariness of the flesh.Lectures to my Students
That sermon has most learning in it that has most plainness. Hence it is that a great scholar was wont to say, 'Lord, give me learning enough, that I may preach plain enough.'
Preaching to the heart, then, is not merely a matter of technique or homiletic style. These things have their proper place and relevance. But the more fundamental, indeed, the more essential thing for the preacher is surely the fact that something has happened in his own heart; it has been laid bare before God by His Word. He, in turn, lays his heart bare before those to whom he ministers. And within that context, the goal he has in view is so to lay bare the truth of the Word of God that the hearts of those who hear are opened vertically to God and horizontally to one another.Feed My Sheep
Pride is without doubt the chief occupational hazard of the preacher.
Great preaching always depends upon great themes. Great themes always produce great speaking in any realm, and this is particularly true, of course, in the realm of the Church. While men believed in the Scriptures as the authoritative Word of God and spoke on the basis of that authority you had great preaching. But once that went, and men began to speculate, and to theorise, and put up hypotheses and so on, the eloquence and the greatness of the spoken word inevitably declined and began to wane.Preaching & Preachers, 18
There is an Athenian love of novelty abroad, and a morbid distaste for
anything old and regular, and in the beaten path of our forefathers.
Thousands will crowd to hear a new voice and a new doctrine, without
considering for a moment whether what they hear is true.--There is an
incessant craving after any teaching which is sensational, and exciting,
and rousing to the feelings.--There is an unhealthy appetite for a sort of
spasmodic and hysterical Christianity. The religious life of many is little
better then spiritual dram-drinking, and the "meek and quiet spirit"
which St. Peter commends is clean forgotten. ( 1 Peter 3:4.) Crowds, and
crying, and hot rooms, and high-flown singing, and an incessant rousing
of the emotions, are the only things which many care for.--Inability to
distinguish differences in doctrine is spreading far and wide, and so long
as the preacher is "clever" and "earnest," hundreds seem to think it must
be all right, and call you dreadfully "narrow and uncharitable" if you hint
that he is unsound! Holiness, Introduction
Especially is it the Holy Spirit's work to maintain in us a devotional frame of mind whilst we are discoursing. This is a condition to be greatly coveted - to continue praying while you are occupied with preaching; to do the Lord's commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word; to keep the eye on the throne, and the wing in perpetual motion. I hope we know what this means; I am sure we know, or may soon experience, its opposite, namely, the evil of preaching in an undevotional spirit. What can be worse than to speak under the influence of a proud or angry spirit? What more weakening than to preach in an unbelieving spirit?
Lectures to My Students (p. 193).
In order to get attention, make your manner as pleasing as it can possibly be. Do not, for instance, indulge in monotones. Vary your voice continually. Vary your speed as well-dash as rapidly as lightning flash, and anon, travel forward in quiet majesty. Shift your accent, move your emphasis, and avoid sing-song. Vary the tone; use the bass sometimes, and let the thunders roll within; at other times speak as you ought to do generally-from the lips, and let your speech be conversational.Lectures to my Students, 132
moralistic application doesn't work in the long term. I'm afraid a sermon that just tells people they should be generous because they have to is not dealing with the fears, false hopes, and lusts for approval and control that make people unwilling to give more. So they might give more once or twice but not actually become more generous... Unless you get to Jesus, you are just beating on their willsPreaching, 240
Do not as a rule exert your voice to the utmost in ordinary preaching. Two or three earnest men, now present, are tearing themselves to pieces by needless bawling; their poor lungs are irritated, and their larynx inflamed by boisterous shouting, from which they seem unable to refrain. Now it is all very well to "Cry aloud and spare not", but "Do theyself no harm" is apostolical advice. When persons can hear you with half the amount of voice, it is as well to save the superfluous force for times when it may be wanted.Lectures to My Students, 116
Without the help of the Holy Spirit, I believe all of us tend naturally toward being mainly warm and gentle or mainly forceful and authoritative in the pulpit. We must recognize our imbalance and seek the Lord for growth into the fullness of his holy character.Preaching, 200
Hughes Old shows us that the original preaching of the church in its first five centuries used the lectio continua method - consecutive, verse-by-verse exposition through whole books of the Bible, taking years to bring the congregation through great swaths of biblical material.Preaching, 39
the systematic explanation of Scripture done on a week-by-week... basis at the regular meeting of the congregation
[Hughes Oliphant Old] names five basic types of sermons that he discerns over the centuries, which he calls expository, evangelistic, catechetical, festal, and prophetic.Preaching, 29
The Word of God alone is to be preached, in it's perfection and inner consistency.The Art of Prophesying
In the course of expounding a biblical text the Christian preacher should compare and contrast with the foundational beliefs of the culture, which are usually invisible to people inside it, in order to help people understand themselves more fully. If done rightly it can lead people to say to themselves, Oh, so that's why I tend to think and feel that way. This can be one of the most liberating and catalytic steps in a person's journey to faith in Christ.Preaching, 19-20
we must watch the spiritual state of our people, and if we notice that they are falling into a backsliding condition; if we fear that they are likely to be inoculated by any mischievous heresy or perverse imagining; if anything, in fact, in the whole physiological character of the church should strike our mind, we must hasten to prepare a sermon which, by God's grace, may stay the plague.Lectures to My Students (p. 88). Zondervan
The minister who does not earnestly pray over his work must surely be a vain and conceited man. He acts as if he thought himself sufficient of himself, and therefore needed not to appeal to God. Yet what a baseless pride to conceive that our preaching can ever be in itself so powerful that it can turn men from their sins, and bring them to God without the working of the Holy Ghost.Lectures to My Students (p. 48).
Take heed to yourselves lest you should be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach; and lest, while you proclaim the necessity of a Saviour to the world, your hearts should neglect him, and you should miss of an interest in him and his saving benefits. Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish while you call upon others to take heed of perishing,The Reformed Pastor (?)
I suspect it would be a great gain to the Establishment if a huge bonfire were made, and myriads of dull, essay-style sermons were dragged out of parsonage studies, thrown into the bonfire, and burned!... How far a man may travel before he hears a really striking sermon! How few clergymen command the attention of their congregations! How many forget that 'the foolishness of preaching' is not foolish preaching!Can the Church Reach the Masses (412)
Unholiness in a preacher's life will either stop his mouth from reproving or the people's ears from receiving.
The person of the speaker is wretched, miserable, and nothing to be regarded, but things that were spoken are the infallible and eternal truth of God.The Mighty Weakness of John Knox (49)
Unless your preaching stirs up strife and brings down persecution and contumacy upon you, there is something seriously lacking in it.The Life of Elijah (chap 30)
If you preach the Gospels, you have the history of Christ. If you preach the Epistles of the New Testament, you have the theology concerning Christ. If you preach the Revelation, you have the eschatological presentation of Christ. But it's always Christ!
If any of you wish to preach a gospel that will be pleasing to the times preach it in the power of the devil and I have no doubt that he will do his best for you.http://www.spurgeon.org/misc/aarm11.htm
In group Bible studies generally, participants are led to look directly for personal devotional applications without first contemplating the writers' points about the greatness, goals, methods, and mystery of God. In putting together Christian books and magazines for popular reading and in composing, preaching, hearing, and thinking about sermons, the story is the same: it is assumed that our reaction to realities is more significant than any of the realities to which we react.Grounded in the Gospel (11)
I never work better than when I am inspired by anger; for when I am angry, I can write, pray, and preach well, for then my whole temperament is quickened, my understanding sharpened, and all mundane vexations and temptations depart.
If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified. Godcast(36)
We worship a guy who got murdered. The cross is an offense. And if it is not occasionally proclaimed in an offensive way then we might be false teachers. Sermon - Christ Controversy and Cutting words
Sound doctrine is not meant to silently collect dust on a church's web page its supposed to be boldly proclaimed http://twitter.com/#!/piratechristian
it will grieve your heart to realize that so much of preaching today is really but stories of the preacher and often times larger then life stories. Stories meant to make the hearers believe that here finally is the great hero that we've all been waiting for. So that when all the preaching is over instead of all the people going home with great thoughts of a great saviour they go home with great thoughts of a pitiful man. Rezolution 2010 - Christ and Him Crucified (http://www.rezolution.co.za/Messages.html)
the divine authority given to a preacher of the gospel: you're a beggar giving other beggars nothing less than Christ, the bread of life. Good News for Anxious Christians (172)
God will hide from you much of your fruit. You will see enough to be assured of his blessing, but not so much as to think you could live without it. For God aims to exalt himself, not the preacher, in this affair of preaching. The Supremacy of God in Preaching (23)
[the aims of genuine preaching] to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God. The Supremacy of God in Preaching (23)
Top Authors
1. Charles Spurgeon (107)
2. J.C. Ryle (103)
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4. John Piper (80)
5. John Calvin (76)
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7. Louis Berkhof (62)
8. C.S. Lewis (49)
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2. J.C. Ryle (103)
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7. Louis Berkhof (62)
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15. Abraham Kuyper (40)
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1. Sin (138)2. Prayer (106)
3. Preaching (99)
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