As a follow up to our previous post, here is a sermon excerpt from Mark Driscoll. This is from a sermon from the book of Ruth, in which he explained in a little more detail the reasons why he hates religion. Pastors preach the Gospel of Redemption not Religion!
I was thankful to hear Dr. Billy Graham say, when addressing some six hundred ministers in London in November, 1970, that if he had his ministry all over again he would study three times as much as he had done. “I’ve preached too much and studied too little,” he said. The following day he told …
“You may say a great deal about and around the gospel, and never preach the gospel. Religious truths are not the gospel, except in proportion as, like John the Baptist, they point to the Lamb of God.” -Charles P. McIlvaine, Preaching Christ: An Address to Those Entering the Christian Ministry (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2003; …
Evidently then, my brethren, it is a most serious question to be always studying, how we may so proclaim the truth committed to us in Holy Scripture, that in the sense of the Apostles it may be said of us in our whole ministry, that ‘we preach Christ crucified.’ -Charles P. McIlvaine, Preaching Christ: An …
I must admit that I was saddened and maddened (if that’s a word) when I saw this video on Timmy Brister’s blog. With a little research, I found this video attnended to in much more detail here. I’ll not go into great detail in this article, but will simply assert that this is a problem …
“As we will see a little later, apostolic boldness is something people are not likely to understand until they actually hear it, and then they are not exactly sure that it is what they wanted after all!” -Roger Wagner, Tongues Aflame: Learning to Preach From the Apostles (Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus, 2005), 40. HT: …
Preaching that avoids head engagement will lead to blindness, and preaching that ignores heart engagement-the emotive realm of the believer’s existence-does so at the cost of boredom and dullness, which prevents the result of an engaged hearing for a transformed life. -Source: Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances
“Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal preaching that will save Christ’s sheep. The preacher’s job is to proclaim the faith, not to provide entertainment for unbelievers–in other words, to feed the sheep rather than amuse the goats.” -J. I. Packer, A Quest For Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian …
“I say that good preaching is ‘saturated with Scripture’ and not ‘based on Scripture’ because Scripture is more (not less) than the basis for good preaching. Preaching that proclaims God’s supremacy does not begin with Scripture as a basis and then wander off to other things. It oozes Scripture. -John Piper, The Supremacy of God …
“If a minister has light without heat and entertains his [hearers] with learned discourses, without a savour of the power of godliness, or any appearance of fervency of spirit, and zeal for God and the good of souls, he may gratify itching ears, and fill the heads of his people with empty notions; but it …