The Message and the Man of God
The world is fallen in sin (Gen 3). Satan has wrested dominion from man (Acts 26:18), and the adversary has enslaved humanity under his reign of sin and death (Rom 6:6). Evil is the way of the world (Jn 3:19), and only One person has overcome the rebellion of the enemies of God, He being like them, yet without sin (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15).
Sinful man is a thief and a robber. He steals glory from God and ascribes it to idols, the work of his hands. The external corruption of humanity is sourced in his heart (Jer 17:9), which is only inclined to evil all the time (Gen 6:5). Man’s heart is hardened by sin. The machinations of his mind are futile (1 Cor 2:13; Eph 4:17). The only intention of his enslaved will is to sin against God (Rom 1:18–32; 3:10–12, 23; 8:7).
Apart from the mercy of God (Rom 9:15), all people would be judged justly and punished forever in fiery hell (Mt 25:41, 46; Jude 7; Rev 20:14–15). This remains the end for most people. The father of lies deceives his unwary subjects into thinking there is no cosmic conflict between Yahweh and Lucifer. Man lives out his vaporous existence oblivious to the consequences of his sin nature and practice (Eph 2:1–3; Jas 4:14).
It is the devil’s duty to misrepresent the one, true, Triune God. The Lord of all has made His existence evident by the things He has made, even the wicked for the day of evil (Prov 16:4). God is God and there is none beside Him (2 Sam 7:22; 1 Chron 17:20; Is 44:8; 45:21).
We proclaim Him (Col 1:28). He is God our Savior (Titus 1:3; 2:13; 3:6), the Redeemer of Israel, His chosen nation of people from every tribe and tongue (1 Pet 2:9; Rev 5:9; 7:9). He has spoken to us through the prophets of Israel and even more recently through His only begotten Son (Heb 1:2), who is the Word of God enfleshed (Jn 1:14) and now glorified.
The Son of God was sent from the throne of God in heaven, in order to save God’s elect people from their sins (Mt 1:21; Eph 1:4–5). Jesus means, “Yahweh saves.” He delivers His people from the wrath of God to come against sin, Satan, and the world in rebellion (1 Thess 1:10).
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven (Rom 1:18), and it is a righteous display of justice. The redeemed, elect people deserve God’s wrath as much as the reprobate. God’s mercy was displayed on their behalf, however, when the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus, the Lamb of God, at the cross (Jn 1:29). God punished all of the sins of His chosen ones, in the body of the sinless Son of God (2 Cor 5:21). He bore our sins in His body in the tree (1 Pet 2:24). His precious blood was shed for the remission of sins (1 Pet 1:19). He cancelled our debt of sin (Col 2:14).
God’s love for His people is displayed in the man of sorrows, who served as the substitute sacrifice, an atonement for sin. He laid down His life for His beloved church, the bride of Christ (Eph 5:25). He was pierced for our transgressions (Is 53:5).
The true Christian preacher is a truth teller in a world of lies. He is a light bearer in the darkness of the world’s domain (Col 1:13). The Word of God, the Bible is the preacher’s source material (2 Tim 4:2). He tells the old, old story of God’s eternal love for His beloved saints (Jer 31:3).
The preacher is a slave of Christ (Eph 6:6), constrained by the love of Christ (2 Cor 5:14). The man of God knows the One he believes (2 Tim 1:12). The One who saved the preacher is the One who sent His Spirit to cause him to be born again (1 Pet 1:3), to cause him to know the covenant (Ps 25:14), to cause him to walk in God’s statutes (Ezek 36:27). The preacher is indwelt with the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of truth (Jn 14:17; 16:13; Rom 8:9, 11; Gal 4:6; 2 Tim 1:14).
It is this Spirit of truth who teaches the man of God to know the Word of truth, that is, to know Christ and the power of His resurrection (Phil 3:10). In time, the preacher knows the power of the Bible, in the demonstration of the Spirit through Gospel preaching (Rom 1:16–17; 1 Cor 2:4). The light of God’s Word is empowered by the heat of God’s Spirit (2 Cor 4:6). The Word of God burns in the bones of the preacher (Jer 20:9), who cries out, “Woe to me if I do not preach (1 Cor 9:16).”
The burden to preach Christ and Him crucified is too great (1 Cor 1:23), even when the people to whom the preacher is sent will not listen to him (Is 6:9–10). The stiff-necked hearers are foolish virgins (Mt 25), pretending to belong to Christ and the kingdom of heaven. One man hears the preacher, and he repents of his sins (Acts 5:31; 11:18). Another man hears the preacher and he ignores the Gospel call (Jn 8:47). He rejects the Gospel truth. He exposes himself as a hypocrite (Mt 23). Still, the preacher has a stewardship entrusted to him (1 Cor 9:17).
The mystery of the Gospel is the power of God for those who believe. The true believer knows the One who loved her and laid down His life for her. She loves to hear the man of God expound the verses of Scripture one by one. She hears the Word preached and the Spirit causes her to believe that which others say is foolishness (1 Cor 1:18; Phil 1:29). By this, she knows her salvation is all by grace from God (Eph 2:8–9).
Here is the impetus for the preacher to continue his labor as unto the Lord. As it was in Corinth for Paul, the Lord has more chosen people to call and gather into His church (Acts 18:10; 2 Tim 2:19). The preacher’s labor is never in vain because the Word of God never returns void (Is 55:11). The preacher’s solemn charge is to preach the Word (2 Tim 4:2), so he sets his heart to study it (Ezra 7:10), that he might show himself approved, as a workman in the midst of a labor of love (1 Thess 1:3; 2 Tim 2:15).
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
May 4, 2022
