“Cows need to be killed, butchered, cut up, cooked, cut up into smaller pieces, then dipped in steak sauce, chewed and swallowed before they deliver nutrition. We must avoid serving up theological terms ‘on the hoof'” (Hughes, Expository Preaching With Word Pictures, p. 70).
Nothing Wrong With Clarity
“God has commanded you to preach the word; but the command, ‘Be thou difficult to understand,’ does not exist” (Hughes, Expository Preaching With Word Pictures, p. 65).
An Imagination Miller
“Thomas Watson’s excellence as a preacher hinged on his ability to take abstract truth and run it through the imagination mill, so that it could be seen, experienced, and understood” (Hughes, Expository Preaching With Word Pictures, p. 50).
With Word Pictures As Bullets
“We want the people in the pews to understand and remember as much of our sermons as possible. We should not be content with firing over people’s heads, but with aiming at their hearts” (Hughes, Expository Preaching With Word Pictures, p. 44).
No Showboating With the Subjunctive
“There must of course be no parade of acquaintance with the original languages, and there should be no morbid fear of being charged with such parade” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, pp. 146-147).
The Right Place for It
“Zeal in a minister is as proper as fire on the altar” (Thomas Watson, in Hughes, Word Pictures, p. 28).
What It Means to Open
“What nobler work than that of ‘opening’ the Scriptures, as Paul did at Thessalonica? (Acts 17:8)” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 146).
How Sin Gets a Beat Down
“St. Paul’s preaching was not with enticing words of wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power (1 Cor. 2:4). Plainness is ever best in beating down sin. When a wound festers, it is fitter to lance it than to embroider it with silk or lay vermilion upon it” (Thomas Watson, as quoted …
Untying Knots
“Some of the most important doctrines of the Bible are in general very imperfectly understood; those who receive them need clearer views of what they profess to believe, and those who object to them are often in fact objecting to something very different from the real doctrine” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 144).
Sermonic Crib Notes
“The books of ‘Sketches and Skeletons’ which are so often published and so widely bought, are an unmitigated evil, and a disgrace to the ministry of the gospel . . . There is no excuse for such books, and no minister should suffer one of them to remain in his library” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, …