“Such a man is verily guilty before God if he does not honestly strive to understand that which he interprets, and give forth its real meaning and no other” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 52).
Judas Went and Hanged Himself . . . Go Thou and Do Likewise
“If we take the passage in a sense entirely foreign to what the sacred writer designed, as indicated by his connection, then, as we use it, the phrase is no longer a passage of Scripture at all. It is merely words of Scripture, used without authority to convey a different meaning” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, …
A Book, Not a Screen
“To interpret and apply his text in accordance with its real meaning, is one of the preacher’s most sacred duties” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 51).
Context Matters
“The sayings of uninspired men, recorded in Scripture, ought not to be used as texts unless we know from other teachings of Scripture that they are true, or unless we propose to find instruction in the fact that those men made the statements given. Many such sayings found in the Bible are in themselves utterly …
Go Everywhere
[On text selection] “Do not habitually neglect any portion of Scripture” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 47).
New From Old
“Do not avoid a text because it is familiar . . . He who will turn away from the tradition of the pulpit as to the meaning and application of such passages, and make personal and earnest study of them, will often find much that is new to him and his hearers” (Broadus, Preparation and …
Our Central Business
“The primary idea is that the discourse is a development of the text, an explanation, illustration, application of its teachings. Our business is to teach God’s word” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 39).
Nature Learning Natural
“The danger of artificiality in speaking is very great . . . As one unaccustomed to riding on horseback must learn to sit naturally, and feel at ease, in the saddle, so very many speakers, perhaps all, have to learn to be natural” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 29).
Crowned With Blessing
“Now the things which ought most to be thought of by the preacher, are piety, and knowledge, and the blessing of God” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, p. 27).
Homiletical Common Sense
“There will therefore be cases, and as regards some rules many cases, in which one may violate the rule and yet be really conforming to the principle, these being cases in which the principle would bend, and adapt itself to peculiar conditions, while the rule cannot bend” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 26).