The temptation of relevance

In Preaching to Convince, Ben Patterson speaks of five deadly temptations in the ministry, the last of which is to try to "make Scripture relevant" in our preaching:

This particular temptation used to be the sole province of the liberal theological tradition. But in the past few years, it has gained a number of victims in the evangelical community…The sin courted in this temptation is the presumption that it is the Bible that is dead and we who are alive…

Is the Bible relevant? Dr. Bernard Ramm once remarked, "There is nothing more relevant than the truth." The longer I preach, the more convinced I become that the best thing I can do is simply get out of Scripture's way.

(quoted in Michael F. Ross's Preaching for Revitalization)