Why Superficial Preaching is Wrong -Part 1

I have wanted for some time to share with you John MacArthur's list of why superficial preaching is wrong. They are taken from his book Preaching: How to Preach Biblically. Since it is lengthy it is will come in a series of posts. I may provide added commentary, but for now I'll just post the excerpt. John MacArthur writes,

"I recently hosted a discussion at the Expositors' Institute, a small-group colloquium on preaching hosted by the Shepherds' Fellowship. In preparation for that seminar, I took a yellow legal pad and began listing the negative effects of the superficial brand of preaching that is so rife in modern evangelicalism. I initially thought I might be able to name about ten, but my list had sixty one entries. I have distilled them to fifteen by combining and eliminating all but the most crucial ones. Here they are, roughly in the order they occurred to me. This is what is wrong with superficial, marginally biblical preaching;

1) It usurps the authority of God over the soul
Whether a preacher boldly proclaims the word of God or not is ultimately a question of authority. Who has a right to speak to the church? The preacher, or God? Whenever anything is substituted for the preaching of the Word, God's authority is usurped. What a prideful thing to do! In fact, it is hard to conceive of anything more insolent that could be done by a man who is called by God to preach.

2) It Removes the Lordship of Christ from his church
Who is the Head of the church? Is Christ really the dominant teaching authority in the church? If so, why are there so many churches where His Word is not being faithfully proclaimed? When we look at contemporary ministry, we see programs and methods that are the fruit of human invention, the offspring of opinion polls and neighborhood surveys, and other pragmatic artifices. Church-growth experts have in essence wrested control of the church's agenda from her true Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Puritan forefathers resisted the imposition of government-imposed liturgies for precisely this reason: they saw it as a direct attack on the headship of Christ over His own church. Modern preachers who neglect the Word of God have yielded the ground those men fought and sometimes died for. When Jesus Christ is exalted among his people, His power is manifested in his church. When his church is commandeered by compromisers who want to appease the culture, the gospel is minimized, true power is lost, artificial energy must be manufactured, and superficiality takes the place of the truth.

3) It hinders the work of the Holy Spirit
What is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses to do His work? The Word of God. He uses the Word as the instrument f regeneration (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23). He also uses the Word as the means of sanctification (John 17:17). In fact, it is the only tool he uses (Eph. 6:17). So when preachers neglect God's Word, they undermine the work of the Holy Spirit, producing shallow conversions and spiritually lame Christians, if not utterly serious ones."