Now we turn back to 2 Corinthians
chapter 2. My subject, God's preacher, leaves
a trail of death and life. Who is God's preacher? Who is the prophet talking about
here when he says, to the one we are the smell of death, to
the other the smell of life? Who is this preacher of God? Well, verse 17 identifies him. First of all, he is not the religious
huckster who uses religion for his own gain. He says in verse
17, we're not as many. who corrupt the Word of God.
God's preacher is not the religious huckster who corrupts God's Word
and makes the souls of men just so much merchandise. We're seeing
that on every hand in this day. Religious hucksters who are making
merchandise of the souls of men and who corrupt the Word of God.
Then secondly, God's preacher is a man of sincerity. Paul says
in the next line, not only are we not as those who corrupt the
word of God, but we are of sincerity, with pure motive. We prevail
till Christ be formed in you. It is not followers of ourselves
that we're seeking. We preach not ourselves, but
we preach Christ the Lord. It is not to build up our denomination
or our churches, but we're seeking that those who hear us should
know him whom to know is life eternal. And then God's preacher
is not only one who preaches of sincerity, but he is one commissioned
and sent of God, as of God. We preach, Paul said in another
place, in Christ's stead. as the ambassadors of Christ.
Christ speaks through us. He said, Pray ye that the Lord
of harvest, that he would raise up workers and laborers to enter
the field. How shall they hear without a
preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent? So God's
preacher is a man of sincerity, of purest motive. He is a man
commissioned and sent of God Now notice the next line. And
he preaches not to please men, but in the sight of God. If I
please men, I'm not the servant of Christ. Paul said we preach
in the sight of God. It is in his presence that we
stand. It is to him that we are accountable. Our message must come from him.
We must not fear men, nor what men can do unto us or even for
us. We preach in the sight of God. And then look at the next line.
And his message is Christ. We speak in Christ, or of Christ,
or for Christ. Christ is our message. There's no shame and no false
program here. It's calling sinners to Christ.
That's our message. It is that lost men and women
might come trembling to the feet of Christ. That's the message
of God's preacher. There you have it. Who is God's
preacher? He is not a religious huckster
who corrupts the Word of God, who seeks his own gain, his own
profit, who makes merchandise of the souls of men. That's not
God's preacher. He is not the man who seeks to
please you. He speaks of sincerity. He wants
to please God. He is the man who is commissioned
and sent of God to deliver God's message. He preaches not in the
sight of men, but in the sight of his Father, of his Master,
in the sight of God. And his message is Christ. That's
his message. Now then, look back at verse
14. I'll tell you something else about God's preacher. He always
is victorious, always. Verse 14 says, Now thanks be
unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. We always are victorious. God's preacher, if he's preaching
under the power of God's Spirit, will never fail. If his message
is the one God gave him, delivered in the sight of God, with boldness
and courage, without fear, he'll never fail. He'll never fail. For God opens the door. Look
back at verse 12. Paul said, When I came to Troas
to preach Christ, that's why I came. I came to preach Christ. I didn't come to win applause,
popularity, or fame. I came to preach Christ. Christ's
gospel, Christ's good news. That's why I came to preach the
good news of Christ. That was my object, and that
was the goal for which I came to Troas, and a door was opened. God opened the door. The door
was opened unto me, for me, and it was opened of the Lord. So
when you have this ingredient, when you have God opening the
door supernaturally, according to his purpose, and the opening
of a door may be going to a new area. It may be going to an old
area. The opening of the door may be
the persuasion on the part of a believer to get someone to
come to church with him. That may be the opening of the
door. The opening of the door may be You're being exposed to
this particular minister's message and coming to hear him. That
may be the opening of the door. But the opening of the door is
to give entrance into your presence, or into your home, or into your
attention, the minister of God. God brings you together. That's
the opening of the door. In some way, God brings you and
his messenger together. That's God opening the door.
not just a casual acquaintance or passing on the street, but
it's God bringing you and his preacher together, like he brought
the woman at the well into the presence of Christ, like he brought
Zacchaeus into the presence of Christ, like he brought the Ethiopian
eunuch into the presence of Philip, like he brought Cornelius into
the presence of Peter. God opens the door. When his
messenger, who is not a religious huckster, who's not going to
deceive you, who's not going to make merchandise of you, who's
not going to seek your possessions, but when God's minister comes
of sincerity, with Christ's gospel, commissioned and sent of God,
and God opens the door for that minister, he's going to be victorious. You may not be saved, you may
not be converted, but he's going to accomplish what God sent him
to do. God's not going to fail. Turn to Isaiah 55, verse 1. Now
this is, what I'm preaching this morning is serious. Isaiah 55,
verse 1. Or rather, verse 11. God says in Isaiah 55, verse
11, "...so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth."
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I sent it." It's going to prosper. God's
preacher is always victorious. He never fails. If God's in this
thing, it cannot fail. If God opens the door, if God
sends a messenger, if God brings you to an encounter with his
message and with his servant, if that servant is in the sight
of God, a faithful minister to your soul and of God's gospel,
he's not going to fail. He can't fail. Thanks be unto
God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. God's going
to call out his sheep. Paul said, I endure all things
for the elect's sake. I take whatever people shall
out to me said. I take whatever they deal my
way. I take whatever comes for the
elect's sake. I'm looking for people. They're
God's people. And my sheep, Christ said, shall
hear my voice and they will follow me. God's preacher cannot fail. You will find that all the way
through the Word of God. When God sent a prophet, now
there are many who run who are not sinning. There are many who
preach who have no message. There are many, Paul said, many
who corrupt the Word of God, not of sincerity, who seek their
own. It doesn't matter what they preach,
God's not going to bless it either way. But his preacher is not
going to fail, whoever he is. Now the next thing about God's
preacher is that he is a dependent, humble man. Look at verse 16,
the last line, and who is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient? Our sufficiency is Christ. We
are not sufficient. We lay no claim whatsoever to
any natural gifts. That's the reason in olden days,
in the days of religious oppression, many feeling the importance of
the minister of God and those who speak for God, and taking
that importance to the extreme, developed a pride and an arrogancy
and a dictatorship over the house of God. Paul could have done
that, but refused to. He had power, and he had the
power of God. He was a man of authority, who
usurped authority, who was the overseer of the house of God.
Some carried this to a most unhappy conclusion, but Paul didn't.
He said, I'm not sufficient for these things. My sufficiency
is Christ. And God destroys the proud, but
he giveth more grace to the humble. So God's preacher, whom God blesses,
will be a dependent man, not upon men, but upon God. Now let's
look at verse 16, the importance of God's preacher. Now we know
this before I read verse 16. There can be no faith or unbelief
without knowledge. There can be no faith or unbelief
without knowledge. Faith receives the message. Unbelief rejects the message. Now the message is sent by God
through his preacher. And faith receives that message. It believes that message. Unbelief
rejects that message, the message of God's preacher. So God's preacher,
when it comes down to it, God's preacher shuts men up to life
or death from his message when his message is delivered. Now,
as I said, don't go out and say that I said that every preacher
who preaches that people live or die as a result of their treatment
of his message. That's not so. true preacher,
God's preacher, who meets these requirements right here, who
is sent of God, commissioned of God, who has his message from
God, whose door is opened by God, who preaches with a boldness
and fearlessness of men, and who preaches in the sight of
God, and who preaches Christ's gospel. That minister cannot
fail, and from his message and from his work comes an odor up
to the nostrils of God, comes a smell. Now look at verse 16,
and I'll show you what that odor is. He says in verse 15, we are
a sweet smell of Christ. the incense of holiness and of
faith, which is well-pleasing to God in them that are saved.
But also from our contact with the unbeliever, from our encounter
with the rebel, comes an odor too, and that is to the one we
are the smell of death. when the messenger preaches Christ,
the gospel of Christ, the good news of Christ, and men receive
that message. And they receive it with a conviction
of sin and with a humility before God. When they receive it and
they are brought to true repentance and faith in Christ, not faith
in the minister, Paul said, we preach that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, not becoming men-followers, but
who are broken before God, and who receive God's correction,
and who receive God's promises in Christ, and who receive God's
word of grace in Christ, and they receive it. There's a sweet
fragrance, like the burning of incense. in the tabernacle of
old, which comes up unto God. It's the savor of life unto life. It's the smell of flowers and
the smell of incense and the smell of sweet perfume. The cleansing
of the blood of Christ as it puts away the guilt and puts
away the filth, like you come into a room and clean that room
up and put flowers on the table and you walk into the room, it
smells so good and so fresh. But God says, when my messenger
preaches the gospel of Christ in my sight as of God, the door
opens supernaturally, and that messenger preaches Christ and
meets with rebellion. And when he meets with unbelief,
the stench, the smell, the odor of death, that filthy room that
refuses to be washed, that filthy room that refuses to be aired,
that filthy room, that filthy heart that is filled with envy
and jealousy and hatred and lust and malice and covetousness and
idolatry, the smell of death, the smell of doom, the putrid
odor of corruption and rebellion. He says it comes up to the nostrils
of God. Look at it. We are the smell
of death to the other, the sweet fragrance of life. He can't make that mean anything
else. God's preacher does not deal in trifles. Of himself,
he's nothing. Paul said, who is Paul? Who is
Apollos? Who is Cephas? Nothing. Nothing. Nobody. But they've
been commissioned, they've been anointed, they've been sent as
God sent Levi and Aaron and his sons to represent him, to speak
his message. God's not going to write the
gospel in the clouds. He's going to deliver it through
the lips of a man. God's not going to speak the
gospel to you in the dead of the night. By the voice of an
angel, he's going to deliver it to you through the voice of
a man. And when God opens that door,
it's an awesome, fearful message that that man brings. It's the
fearful message of righteousness. It's a glorious heaven-sent earth-changing,
hell-shaking message of deliverance. He is under you, the minister
of righteousness and mercy, of law and grace, of heaven and
hell, of condemnation and salvation. God speaks. God speaks. Thanks be unto God who always
causes us to triumph. Always. He makes us the smell
of his knowledge in every place. We are under God, the sweet smell
of Christ. The smell is not from your holiness. If you believe the gospel and
receive Christ, the odor, the fragrance that comes up to the
nostrils of God is not your goodness. It's the sweet smell of Christ.
It's not your merit, it's not your righteousness, it's not
your goodness, it's the sweet smell of Christ who has been
brought by the Holy Spirit to cover your nakedness and give
life where you were dead and to cleanse your guilt. And that's
the smell that comes to the nostrils of God. It's the sweet smell
of Christ. Now then, that odor of death,
that's you. That's you. Christ is absence.
The healing balm is absence, and the cancerous odor comes
up to God. That's you. The cleansing blood
of Christ is absence, absence, and the smell of doom and death
and unbelief, that's you. That's what comes up to God. God's preacher does not deal
in trifles, and those who do are not God's preacher. You say your messages are heavy.
Tonight I'm preaching on when God, when men call and God won't
answer, when men pray and God won't hear. Your messages are
heavy. They're supposed to be heavy.
We're dealing in a heavy, important subject. Your relationship with
God, your eternal life or eternal doom. All right, what is the
preacher's message in closing? His message is the holiness of
God. That's his message. Turn to Isaiah
6, verse 1. Here's his message. It's not
himself. His message, number one, is the holiness of God.
His message is not do this and do that and live. His message
is the holiness of God. His message is not you You've
got to find the right church with the right credentials, with
the right background. That's not his message. His message
is Christ and his holiness. Look, Isaiah chapter 6, ìIn the
year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, I saw the Lord, I saw
the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple.î Above it stood the seraphims, each one
had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered
his feet, with two he did fly. And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." The character
of God is holy. God cannot lie. You and I ought not lie, but
God cannot lie. You and I are commanded not to
lie, but God can't lie. Why? He's holy. Holy and reverend
is His name. God's character, God's presence
is holy. The scripture says, who can stand
in His presence? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. His presence is holy. His law
is holy. It demands inward as well as
outward perfection. It demands inward as well as
outward obedience. Anger becomes murder, God's law
is so holy. Covetousness becomes idolatry,
God's law is so holy. Imagination becomes adultery,
God's law is so holy. His character, His presence,
His law, the holiness of God has caused the most righteous
of men to fall back in dust and ashes. The presence of God changed
Moses' face, though he had not even looked on God. And yet when
he came down from that mountain, the people of Israel implored
him to put a veil over his face. They couldn't even look at Moses'
face. He'd been in the presence of
God. The presence of God broke Isaiah
to cry, O woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips. The presence
of God sent righteous Job to the dust and ashes. The presence
of God made John fall on his face as a dead man. Oh, the holiness
of God! The preacher's powerless to speak
of the holiness of God with any intelligence at all because there's
no grounds for comparison except to cry, let God not speak to
us lest we perish before His awesome presence. God is so holy that I warn you
as his minister, do not deal with an absolute God. His presence and his law is so
holy that I crown to you as his minister, don't approach God
at all unless you have a fit mediator. Don't give it a try. Now that's right, don't give
it a try. What is the message of God's
preacher? Secondly, his message is the
holiness of God. The holiness of God. God is holy. Holy, holy, holy. God's messenger has a message
which also declares not only that God is holy, but man is
sinful. Who is sufficient for this task?
Who can make me see my vileness or make you see your guilt? Who
can make me see my corruption or make you see your inability? Come forth, Job. Bring us a message
on the sinfulness of sin. You're a wise man. God calls
you a righteous man. What have you got to say about
man's sinfulness? I hate myself. I hate myself. I repent in dust and ashes. David, you're a man after God's
own heart. God blessed you above all your
fellows. God elevated you from the shepherd's
staff to the scepter of the kingdom. God put a crown on your head
and made nations fall at your feet. What have you got to say
about yourself, David? My sins are ever before me. I was born in sin, shapen in
iniquity, brought forth speaking lies. What about you, Isaiah? God used you to write the gospel
of the Old Testament. God used you seven, eight hundred
years before Christ came to deliver to Israel the glad message of
redemption by the blood. What have you got to say? I'm
a man of unclean limbs. Woe is me. Peter, they made you
the first pope. You were so great and so grand
and so glorious, you were the spokesman for the apostles. Christ
made you the preacher of Pentecost? What have you got to say? I am
a sinful man. What about you, Paul? You wrote
14 of the 27 books in the New Testament. You were the greatest
preacher since Christ. You founded churches all over
the world. You were the first missionary.
God let you go to the third heaven and see his glory and sent you
back to earth. Give us a message, Paul, about
man and about yourself. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? My friends, the mercy
of God will never be good news to a man or to a woman until
that person is totally, completely broken under the load of guilt
and the load of sin. Until you and I see the holiness
of God and the sinfulness of ourselves, we'll never rejoice
in the good news of reconciliation. It can't be done. God save it
such as be of a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.
Those who have some sense of God's holiness and some awareness
of their vileness, those who quit justifying themselves and
feeling sorry for themselves and pleading their own merit
and who have pleaded guilty, guilty, guilty, not only before
the courts of God but before the courts of men, those who
have learned the righteousness of the law and the inability
of their souls, those who are terrified of the consequences
of sin and the judgment of God, those who have come to know that
unless an almighty, suitable Redeemer is found, that they
are eternally doomed. God will never raise you until
he makes you fall. And God will never clothe you
until he strips you. And God will never exalt you
until he humbles you. And God will never mend your
heart until he breaks it. And God will never bring you
back from the dead until he slays you. and he slays you with the
law. What have you got to say, preacher?
Here's what I've got to say. Here I stand, a traitor who casts
my lot with Satan against God. Here I stand, my hands dripping
with the bloody gore of God's Son. Here I stand, my heart the
seat of iniquity. Here I stand, my soul clothed
with filthy rags of self-righteousness. Here I stand, my mouth an open
sepulchre. Here I stand, my tongue giving
off the sparks that set the fires of hell. Here I stand, my feet
muddied from the paths of iniquity. Here I stand with no plea but
guilty." How about you? Guilty. What is the message that
God's preacher delivers that is such an awesome message? What
is the message that God's preacher delivers that is so fearful and
awesome that the result thereof sends up to God's nostrils the
smell and fragrance of life and the smell and fragrance of doom? What is that fearful, awesome
message that separates men, that divides them, makes them those
on the right and those on the left, those who believe and those
who refuse? What is this awful, fearsome
message that seals a man's doom when he hears it, or else opens
the door of life? It's the holiness of God. It's
the sinfulness of man. It's the sufficiency of Christ. Paul said, I came to Troas, verse
12, to preach Christ's gospel. 2 Corinthians 2, 12. I came to
preach Christ's gospel. I came to tell you God's holy.
I came to tell you you're a sinner. But thank God I came to tell
you Christ's gospel. The word gospel is good news.
That's the good news of Christ. I have good news for you. I have
good news for you. No matter your station, you may
have salvation. I have good news for you. We
need someone. We need someone. who can meet
and satisfy this awesome holiness of God, don't we? We're not going
to change Him. God is holy. You're not going
to change Him. If you bring Him down and compromise
His holiness, you'll have to suffer for it. God's going to
stay holy. He's not changing. And neither
can you change that are accustomed to doing evil, any more than
a leper can change his spots or the Ethiopian his skin, the
sinfulness of man. We're not going to change that.
So what we've got to find is a Redeemer. We've got to find
a mediator between this valley, this depths of death, and this
glorious heights of holiness. We've got to find somebody. who's at home up there and at
home down here. We've got to find somebody who
can do something about this and who has access to him. You're not going to press down
this aisle and shake my hand and straighten all that out. You're not going to come before
a priest or a minister and get a little water thrown in your
face and straighten all that out. You're not going to turn over
a new leaf and quit your meanness and straighten all this out and
get heaven and hell compromised and reconciled. It takes more than that. You're
not going to run around until you find a preacher that agrees
with you or a church that satisfies your whims and straighten all
that out. This is awesome. God is holy. Man is foul. How can man be just with God? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? And he's got to be clean. God's
not coming down. Man's got to come up here. Or
somebody's got to bring him up here. Hebrews 4. Let's see who can
do it. Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4, verse 14. Watch it now. Here it is, Hebrews
4, 14. Seeing then, seeing then that we have a great
high priest that's passed into the heavens. Uh-oh, here it is.
There's a man who's gone into the heavens. High priest is a
representative. A high priest is a mediator. And who is it? It's Jesus, the
Son of God. Verse 15, we don't have a high
priest who doesn't know anything about our infirmities, who cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, who knows nothing
about our sin and our guilt, but he was in all points tested,
tried, tempted like as we are, but he didn't fail, yet without
sin. Let us therefore, because we've
got a high priest, there's one God and there's one mediator
between God and men, and that's the man, the man Christ Jesus,
who knows something about this cesspool. He was down here He
was made like unto us, took on himself the likeness of sinful
flesh, was tested and tried in all points as we are. He's our
representative, and he's gone yonder into the presence of God
for us. Therefore, let us come boldly. Let us wretched, vile, filthy,
guilty sinners come boldly right to the throne of God. and we'll
receive mercy through that mediator. Look at Hebrews 5, 9. Listen
to this. Hebrews 5, and being made perfect. That's who he was, he was perfect.
He walked among us, but he didn't partake of our wretchedness.
He was one with us, numbered with the transgressors, but he
never received by birth and by imputation through his father,
impartation, our guilt. Being perfect, he became the
author of eternal salvation. Look at Hebrews 7.25. What's
this? Hebrews 7.25. Wherefore he is
able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God,
the holy God, by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens." There's your representative. He's higher
than the heavens, and yet he's one with us. One with us. He is our righteousness. He's
our sin-bearer. He who knew no sin was made sin
for me. God's holiness demanded my death. Christ stepped forth and took
my sin and took my death. He's my sin-bearer. He's my sacrifice. And God's preacher's message
to you is if you'll confess with your mouth Jesus to be Lord,
and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you'll
be saved. Hebrews 11, 6, listen to this. But without faith, but without
faith, it's impossible to please God. He that cometh to God must,
must believe that he is, and that he's the rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. But God's opened the door and God sent his messenger. And his
message to you is his holiness and your defilement But his message
is the good news of reconciliation. That a redeemer, a ransom, has
been found. That God has sent that ransom
and God has supplied that price in the person of his son. Will
you believe it? And the sinner says, I believe
it. I receive him. I trust him. Nothing in my hands
I bring, sent it to the cross of Christ, I clean. Could my
tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know?
These foreseeing could never atone. Christ must save and Christ
alone. I rest in Him. I trust Him. I
commit my soul to Him. To God be the glory through Christ
the Lord unto Him who loved me and washed me from His sins.
And God says a sweet fragrance comes up to the nostrils of God,
the fragrance of life. But somebody else sits there
and says, I don't believe that. I'm not
going to cast my soul or my lot with Christ. I think I'll be
all right. I'm not bad as some folks. I'm
not an extortioner, I'm not an adulterer, and I'm not unjust.
I haven't done too much, too serious. I'll go my way. and hope for the best. And God
says, when that preacher gets through and that's your reaction,
a smell of doom, a smell of death, a fatal odor. The filthy, rotten
flesh of man comes up into God's nostrils. The flames and fires
of Gehenna, that's where they burn the trash, that's where
they burn the dead bodies. That's the smell. That's the
odor. Our Father, who is sufficient
for these things? Who is sufficient? What an awesome,
fearful responsibility. But Thou hast spoken to us through
Thy Word. The messenger is nothing He is a dying man speaking to
dying men. He is the neediest of all the
creatures. Let no man take a refuge behind
him or behind a like or dislike for him. Let no man hide or seek
refuge in the fact that he is not as sinful as someone else. Let us all in the open valley
of dry dead bones own our part. in our participation and cry,
O breath of God, breathe on these dead bones and let them live. Let thy blood, O Christ, be propitiation
for us on the mercy seat. May the sweet fragrance of Christ
come up in the nostrils of our Heavenly Father. instead of our
putrid, decaying, sinful flesh. Look not upon us, but look upon
him, and receive us for his sake. In his name we pray. Amen.