As part of the Basics of the Reformed Faith series, Alexander contributes this booklet on preaching. It is helpful in its brief attempt to explain what preaching is, what it is supposed to do, and how we should respond to it. Noting that the true work of preaching can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit, Alexander quickly points out that this must not encourage laziness by those who speak nor idleness from those who listen.

The rises and falls of the church’s history are really a reflection of the presence or absence of faithfulness and power in the pulpit. Times of reformation and revival are marked by a rediscovery of the priority of preaching. [6]

Left to ourselves, we may do many things with a congregation. We may move them emotionally. We may attract them to ourselves personally, producing great loyalty. We may persuade them intellectually. We may educate them in a broad spectrum of Christian truth. But the one thing we can never do, left to ourselves, is to regenerate them spiritually and change them into the image of Jesus Christ, to bear His moral glory in their character. While that is the great calling of the church of Christ, it is essentially God’s work and not ours. So it is possible to be homiletically brilliant, verbally fluent, theologically profound, biblically accurate and orthodox, and spiritually useless. [11]

Our preaching must have a teaching content, and the exposition of Scripture is the essence of that. It is significant that the old order of sin makes its appeal through the senses and the appetite (Gen. 3:6), whereas the new order in Christ makes its appeal through the mind and the understanding (Rom. 12:2). [14]

One of the great tests of expository preaching is that people should be able to go back to the Scriptures when they are at home and dig out for themselves precisely what the preacher has dug out for them. [19]

When the unction of God is upon the preacher of His Word, people will go away saying, not ‘What a great preacher!’ but rather, ‘Truly, God is in this place! How great and glorious He is!’ [31]

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Written by preachers for preachers, this instructive work details the value of proclaiming God’s Word -- as it is written -- without ceding to the temptation to modernize or minimize what it says. It also addresses what makes preaching effective and what must be avoided. As with any compilation, some chapters are more helpful than others, but the whole volume remains a benefit to those called to preach (or to those wondering what biblical preaching entails).

If only God can save, then to whom do we turn to see our friends brought to salvation? The logical answer is, “To God!” The awkward question that sometimes follows is: “Then why is it that in most ministries and churches, prayer is supplemental rather than fundamental?” [124]

The fear of the Lord is the proper reaction of creatures to God’s infinite majesty and of sinners to God’s infinite holiness. As we grow in the knowledge of God, we learn to tremble before His great glory and burning purity; this fear is the beginning of wisdom. [125]

The Scriptures affirm that both repentance and faith are gifts of God. But we should be quick to add that God does not repent or believe for us. He implores us and earnestly appeals to us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is we sinners who exercise saving faith, having been enabled to believe by God. [129]  

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