A Word in Season: Who is Sufficient (2 Corinthians 2:16)

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I know that your preacher today can't do what he's supposed to do.

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However naturally capable he may be, however gifted in himself, however experienced in his work, left to his own strength and wisdom, he is going to fail.

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He is called to be, to God, the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

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To the one he will be the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.

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As he preaches the word of God, he is, in himself and by his message, going to make a distinction in those who hear him.

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Some will receive him readily, some will, their hearts turned toward God in Christ, heed the words that he speaks.

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To them, his ministry will be an aroma of life leading to life.

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To those who are being saved, he will prove a sweet fragrance of Jesus Christ.

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Others will dislike, disdain, even despise the message that he brings.

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They will perhaps listen with frustration. If he's preaching in a church building, there may be some outwardly very respectable looking people who will be resenting and resisting everything he says in their hearts.

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There may even be some people who've come in to see what's going on, and some of them may be disgusted with what they hear.

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Some may keep coming back almost because they like getting angry and they want to have a fight.

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If he's preaching on the streets, there may be some who will hear the word of life for the first time, and in their hearts they will turn to Jesus Christ, and trusting him they will find that this man and his words have become to them an aroma of life.

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But many will turn up their noses, they will sneer, they will spit, they will scowl, and to them he will be an aroma of death leading to death.

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And who is sufficient for these things? There is upon that man who preaches the word of God faithfully, this fearful pressure, that he speaks words that either bring life or confirm death.

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Words the reaction to which, from those who hear, are either a way of hope toward heaven, or by rejecting them become a path of darkness down to death.

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And in his own strength and by his own wisdom he cannot be that man and he cannot do those things.

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He's not peddling the word of God. He's not playing a game.

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He's pleading for souls. He's engaging on behalf of God as a co -laborer in the gospel with the

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Lord of heaven and earth to be the means in his hands and this will be his prayer of being a means of life.

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To that end he must be faithful as of sincerity, as from God, speaking in the sight of God in Christ.

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He is not sufficient to do these things in himself, but he is made sufficient by God.

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It is God in Christ who has formed him from the womb, who has equipped him for the work, who has commissioned him for the task, who has given him that word and who will uphold him in its delivery.

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It is God and God only who is able to make that weak and feeble individual a minister of the new covenant who is going to be bringing the letter and the spirit.

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Are you praying for your insufficient pastor or preacher?

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Are you praying for a man who in himself can do nothing? Are you praying for a man who can do all things through Christ who strengthens him?

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Are you praying for a man who will speak as of sincerity, as from God, in the sight of God in Christ?

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A man who will do that upheld by the Holy Spirit? Will you pray for him that he might not be cowed by the faces of men, that he wouldn't fudge the truth at those vital moments where he needs to bring it to bear on the souls of men and women?

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Will you pray for him that he might have fruit from his labours and that God would be pleased to glorify his great name because he is able to use this weak vessel for the honour of his own gospel and the exaltation of his son?

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He is not sufficient in himself, but sincerely speaking, by the grace of God, he can be what