I can forgive a man for a bad sermon, I can forgive the preacher almost anything if he gives me a sense of God, if he gives me something for my soul, if he gives me the sense that, though he is inadequate himself, he is handling something which is very great and very glorious, if he gives me some dim glimpse of the majesty and the glory of God, the love of Christ my Saviour, and the magnificence of the Gospel. If he does that I am his debtor, and I am profoundly grateful to him.

Be natural; forget yourself; be so absorbed in what you are doing and in the realisation of the presence of God, and in the glory and the greatness of the Truth that you are preaching, and the occasion that brings you together, that you forget yourself completely. That is the right condition; that is the only place of safety; that is the only way in which you can honour God. Self is the greatest enemy of the preacher, more so than in the case of any other man in society. And the only way to deal with self is to be so taken up with, and so enraptured by, the glory of what you are doing, that you forget yourself altogether.

There is all the difference in the world between preaching merely from human understanding and energy, and preaching in the conscious smile of God.

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.

What is preaching? Logic on fire! Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A true understanding and experience of the Truth must lead to this. I say again that a man who can speak about these things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit; and should never be allowed to enter one.
Topics: Preaching, Theology, Truth
Source: Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p. 97.

The work of preaching is the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called.
Topics: Preaching

The big difference between a lecture and a sermon is that a sermon does not start with a subject; a sermon should always be expository. In a sermon the theme or the doctrine is something that arises out of the text and its context, it is something which is illustrated by that text and context.
Topics: Preaching
Source: Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, pg. 71,

That is what preaching (the Bible) is meant to do. It addresses us in such a manner as to bring us under judgment; and it deals with us in such a way that we feel our whole life is involved, and we go out saying, "I can never go back and live just as I did before. This has done something to me; it has made a difference to me. I am a different person as the result of listening to this."
Topics: Preaching
Source: Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p. 56.

Preaching the Word is the primary task of the Church, the primary task of the leaders of the Church, the people who are set in this position of authority; and we must not allow anything to deflect us from this, however good the cause, however great the need.
Topics: Preaching
Source: Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p. 23.

I have always felt when someone has come to me and told me that he has been called to be a preacher, that my main business is to put every conceivable obstacle that I can think of in his way.
Topics: Preaching
Source: Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p. 108,

Avoid cleverness and smartness. The people will detect this, and they will get the impression that you are more interested in yourself and your cleverness than in the truth of God and their souls.
Topics: Preaching
Source: Preaching and Preachers, Zondervan, 1972, p. 209.

Any true definition of preaching must say that that man is there to deliver the message of God, a message from God to those people. If you prefer the language of Paul, he is 'an ambassador for Christ.' That is what he is. He has been sent, he is a commissioned person, and he is standing there as the mouthpiece of God and of Christ to address these people.
Topics: Preaching
Source: Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p. 53.

A man who feels he is competent, and that he can do this easily, and so rushes to preach without any sense of fear or trembling, or any hesitation whatsoever, is a man who is proclaiming that he has never been "called" to be a preacher.
Topics: Preaching
Source: Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p. 107,

You can have knowledge, and you can be meticulous in your preparation; but without the unction of the Holy Spirit you will have no power, and your preaching will not be effective.
Topics: Knowledge, Preaching, Holy Spirit
Source: Preaching and Preachers, Zondervan, 1972, p. 319.

There is a very real danger of our putting our faith in our sermon rather than in the Spirit. Our faith should not be in the sermon, it should be in the Holy Spirit Himself.
Topics: Faith, Preaching, Holy Spirit
Source: Preaching and Preachers, Zondervan, 1972, p. 230.

Practice what You Preached

“It is well to preach as I do, with my lips. But you can all preach with your feet and by your lives—and that is the most effective
preaching! The preaching of holy lives is living preaching! The most effective ministry from a pulpit is that which is supported
by godliness from the pew! God help you to do this!”—1895, Sermon #2432

Gospel

“If you hear a real Gospel sermon, it directs you to look to Jesus Christ. That teaching which leads you to think of the priest and
to think of the church, whatever there may be about them that is good, is not ‘the doctrine of God our Savior.’”—1895, Sermon
#2416

Letter for the Teachers

“Dear Sunday school teachers, wait upon God for that which you are to teach—take it warm with love out of the very mouth of
God—and then speak it for God out of your own mouth. Good will surely come of such teaching as that!”—1892, Sermon #2286

Preaching — Awesome Responsibility

“Often, when I come in at the door and my eyes fall on this vast congregation, I feel a tremor go through me to think that I should
have to speak to you all and be, in some measure, accountable for your future state. Unless I preach the Gospel faithfully and
with all my heart, your blood will be required at my hands. Do not wonder, therefore, that when I am weak and sick, I feel my
head swim when I stand up to speak to you, and my heart is often faint within me. But I do have this joy at the back of it all—
God does set many sinners free in this place! Some people reported that I was mourning that there were no conversions. Brothers
and Sisters, if you were all to be converted tonight, I should mourn for the myriads outside! That is true, but I praise the Lord for
the many who are converted here. When I came last Tuesday to see converts, I had 21 whom I was able to propose to the
Church—and it will be the same next Tuesday, I do not doubt. God is saving souls! I am not preaching in vain. I am not
despondent about that matter—liberty is given to the captives and there will be liberty for some of them, tonight! I wonder who it
will be? Some of you young women over yonder, I trust. Some who have dropped in here, tonight, for the first time. Oh, may this
first opportunity of your hearing the Word in this place be the time of beginning a new life which shall never end—a life of
holiness, a life of peace with God!”—1894, Sermon #2371