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Preaching to the conscience means something concrete. It means explaining the listeners’  obligations to God, their failure to meet those obligations, their impotence to make up for that failure, the eternal consequences of that failure, and God’s astounding grace offered to all who will humble themselves, repent, and believe the good news.  In other words, preaching to the conscience is provocative. It seeks to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed…. The great obstacle to this kind of preaching is when  the conscience is awakened, people react. The humble repent, rejoice, and enter God’s kingdom. The proud become angry: “Who are you to tell me I am a sinner?” or “This is not the God I learned about in Sunday school.”  Men dominated by the fear of man will not preach to the conscience. If you’re seeking a reward from men as you preach the gospel, you may get it, but that’s all—you won’t get anything from God.  The world needs pastors who fear God,...

The best preparation is not to be too anxious about it. Anxious care hinders liveliness and efficacy. It leads to too little dependence on the Spirit. Be not didactic. Aim at the conscience as soldiers aim at the faces. Consider I may be preaching my last sermon. This leads to setting forth Christ as The Way, the Truth and the Life . .. Make Christ the prominent figure…Pay less attention to dear self. JOHN NEWTON

If the hammer does not break, it makes the iron into steel. Every blow makes it harder. If the fire does not melt, it hardens the clay into brick, as hard as stone. If the medicine does not heal, it poisons. If the word concerning Christ does not break your heart, it will make it like the nether millstone. ROBERT MURRAY McCHEYNE (Source : From the Preacher’s Heart) There is a non-neutrality involved in listening to the Word of God. It is a blessing to our souls or a curse. It is either healing our souls or condemning us to Hell. We listen to sermons, but they never leaves us neutral.

I recently stumbled on a booklet by Al Martin, What is wrong with preaching today? at the Evangelical Library (London). It is 24 pages filled with excellency. You can get the electronic version for free at   Grace Gems .  Here are a few quotes that struck me from it: "All failures in preaching today are basically the failure either of the man who preaches or of the message he brings" "The soil out of which powerful preaching grows is the preacher’s own life" "The more you and I are known by our people, our influence will increase or diminish according to the tenor of our lives"

It is in the context of secret prayer that the eternal verities to which we give constant mental assent become living realities. I find, and this is somewhat of a confession as well as an exhortation, that my own words mock me too often when I preach — when I can say the word ‘hell’ and not feel the horror of it; when I can speak of heaven and not be warmed with a holy glow in the light of the fact that this is the place my Lord is preparing for me. I find no answer to this problem but to meditate long upon the passages that speak of these spiritual realities, and ask God the Holy Ghost to burn them into my heart. I plead with Him to make real to me that the very people that I look at may hear those terrible words, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.’ I find I must plead with God to make real to me that the people whose voices will say to me at the door, ‘Thank you for the sermon, pastor’, are the very voices that may one day be uttering those cries and groans of the d...

It may scarcely be needful to commend to you the sweet uses of private devotion, and yet I cannot forbear. To you as the ambassadors of God, the mercy-seat has a virtue beyond all estimate. The more familiar you are with the court of heaven, the better shall you discharge your heavenly trust. Among all the formative influences which go to make up a man honored of God in the ministry, I know of none more mighty than his own familiarity with the mercy-seat. All that a college course can do for a student is coarse and external compared with the spiritual and delicate refinement obtained by communion with God. While the unformed minister is revolving upon the wheel of preparation, prayer is the tool of the great Potter by which He moulds the vessel. All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness compared with out closets. We grow, we wax mighty, we prevail in private prayer.  C H SPURGEON (Source: Lectures To My Students)

If true preaching does not subdue us, it is sure to exasperate us. The better the preaching is, the more it is either a savour of life or a savour of death to him who hears it. ALEXANDER WHYTE ( Source : Lord teach us to pra y)

Editor's note : A very helpful article from Hershael York on preaching. The version belong is from the Gospel Coalition though the link apears to have been removed. The original article was in fact posted on Sermon Central. I often have to answer the strangest question anyone could ask a preaching professor: "Do you think preaching can be taught?" I always want to respond, "No, I'm just going through the motions for the money." Of course I never do, not only because it's best not to say the smart aleck things I sometimes think, but because I know what they mean. It's not actually an unfair question. No one denies that a preaching class and some coaching can help anyone become better. What we question is the possibility that someone with no natural giftedness and ability can be taught well enough that he can become really good.

Eric Mckiddie put together   -    40 Lessons I’ve Learned About Preaching After My 400th Sermon . The lessons are so amazing that I have duplicated them below because I want to keep coming back to them. 1. Progress.  You don’t have everything about preaching figured out after 400 sermons. You’re just getting started.  This short video  does a great job of summing up what is going on in your first few hundred trips to the pulpit. 2. Feedback.  Your best sermons are ones you get feedback on  before  you preach them. Let someone you trust go to town on your outline in the middle of the week. 3. Sin.  You don’t have a sermon until you know what sin you’re preaching against. Until then, it’s either a lecture, or a devotional. 4.   Pray, pray, pray. 5. Illustrations.  The four keys to getting good at sermon illustrations are: 1) knowing  where to find them , 2) knowing...