“What, really, do we preach about? Man—man and his religion, his needs, his problems and his responsibilities; for all the world as if man was the most important being in the universe, and the Father and the Son existed simply for man’s sake. This is an age of great thoughts of man and small, sentimental thoughts of God, within Evangelical Christendom hardly less than outside it. Simeon would tell us that we have things topsyturvy; nor can we expect God to honour our preaching unless we honour Him by giving Him His rightful place in the centre of our message, and by reducing man to what he really is—a helpless, worthless rebel creature, saved only by a miracle of omnipotent holy love, and saved, not for his own sake, but for the praise of his Saviour. He would tell us that we can only expect great blessing on our preaching when our sole concern is to do what he himself was solely concerned to do—to magnify the great God Who works all things to His own glory, and to exalt His Son as a great Saviour of great sinners.”

From Preach the Word: Essays on Expository Preaching: In Honor of R. Kent Hughes edited by Leland Ryken, Todd Wilson