The Supremacy of God in Preaching

According to Warren Wiersbe, The Supremacy of God in Preaching “calls us back to a biblical standard for preaching, a standard exemplified by many of the pulpit giants of the past, especially Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon.” This newly revised edition is an essential guide for preachers who want to stir the embers of revival. Piper focuses his study on the example of Jonathan Edwards as an illustration of a leader who submitted to God.

Favorite Quotes

  1. People are starving for the greatness of God (15).
  2. God will hide from you much of your fruit.  You will see enough to be assured of his blessing, but not so much as to think you could live without it (25).
  3. Lloyd-Jones, he said, brought him “more of a sense of God than any other man” (27).
  4. The goal of preaching is the glory of God in Christ reflected in the glad submission of his creation (34).
  5. …you can’t be something in the pulpit that you aren’t during the week – at least not for long (65)!
  6. Jesus is the great example for preachers – the crowds heard him gladly, the children sat in his lap, the women were honored, and no one in the Bible spoke of hell more often or in more horrible terms (68).
  7. The theologian I have devoted myself to is Jonathan Edwards (70).
  8. [Speaking of Edwards] Everything was calculated to optimize his efficiency and power in study (73).
  9. The answer is that he does make behavior his aim, namely, by aiming to transform the spring of behavior – the affections (87).
  10. Most people do not easily see the connections a preacher sees between his words and the words of the text he is preaching from (90).
  11. The spirit we long to see in our people must be in ourselves first (103).
  12. …God’s great end – grand design – in creation is not only to glorify himself but to communicate himself (116).
  13. Explaining great truth is a path to great understanding – in the pastor!  And pastors are charged to explain the greatest things relentlessly (138).
  14. Only a few diagnose the longing beneath every human desire – the longing to see God (148).