The Voice of Christ to His People

The Voice of Christ in Preaching

Have you heard the voice of Christ?

I hope you have. We hear the voice of Christ through His Word, and we hear the voice of Christ through the preaching of His Word. Herman Hoeksema, he's a Dutch Reformed theologian from the 1900s, he says, through preaching you do not hear about Christ, but you hear Him.

He goes on to say, a preacher is not a person who merely speaks concerning Christ, but one through whom it pleases Christ Himself to speak, and to cause His own voice to be heard by His people. A preacher, therefore, must proclaim the whole counsel of God unto salvation as contained in holy writ.

That's Herman Hoeksema. The Westminster Larger Catechism says this, it is required of those that hear the Word preached that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer. Examine what they hear by the Scriptures.

Receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind as the Word of God. That is, they are to examine, to make sure he's preaching faithfully, but as they hear the Word of God being preached, they are to receive the preaching of the Word of God as the Word of God.

The Second Helvetic Confession, 1566. It says, the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. Daniel Doriani. Martin Luther said, Every honest pastor's and preacher's mouth is Christ's mouth, and the word which he preacheth is likewise not the pastor's and preacher's, but God's.

Similarly, John Calvin said, When a man has climbed up into the pulpit, it is so that God may speak to us by the mouth of a man. So Doriani continues. So preaching is God's Word in some sense, yet the preacher's words are human, too, and therefore often garbled, weak, or even false.

But the Spirit makes the broken human words become a living Word of God to the hearers. Okay, here's what I'm saying, and it's not just what I'm saying, it's what I think the text is saying, and of course I would issue a caveat of caution.

But I believe that the text is telling us that when we preach the Word of God rightly, we are preaching the very voice of Christ.