Solemn and sober commission to preach the word of Jehovah God! Who is sufficient for these things? Who can be a savor of life unto life and a savor of death unto death?

It is a commission. It is of God to that prophet upon whom God has first impressed his holiness, sovereignty, might, and glorious excellence. Who is a God like unto the thrice-holy triune God? Before him the mighty seraphim cover their faces with their wings. Before him the prophet is undone and becomes nothing. Before the exalted holiness of God’s tribunal, the prophet is made intensely and personally aware of his own sin and the absolute worthlessness of all his deeds. He is a man like other men and like the people to whom Jehovah will send him. None are worthy of the presence of Jehovah God. Every sinner must be consumed out of God’s presence. No man can approach unto Jehovah God as the seraphim—those sinless creatures—who must yet cover their faces with their wings before the incomparable holiness of God. The prophet—and every preacher—is a man of unclean lips who dwells among a people of unclean lips and that before the Holy One.

That one whom God has impressed with his own exalted holiness, Jehovah also comforts with the gospel of his salvation. That one is cleansed of his sinfulness; he is justified, and all his sins are forgiven; and he is consecrated in love to Jehovah. The prophet—and every preacher—must be intensely and personally aware that he stands before Jehovah God by God’s grace alone and that all glory for salvation belongs to Jehovah alone. Only such a one can bear the commission. He must bear it in the grace of God himself. No other man can speak the words of Jehovah.

Sober commission! “Tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not”!

Because this is the word of Jehovah about the preaching of his word, many a prophet refuses to go, refuses to speak the word of the Lord, and so also is confounded and undone in the fire of judgment along with the people of Jehovah’s judgment. Many suppose they have a better word and a better way. They have not been impressed with the awesome holiness of Jehovah that makes angels tremble. They have utterly forgotten that salvation is gracious. They deny first that they are men of unclean lips who dwell among people of unclean lips. Ignorant of sin—their own ongoing sinfulness—and equally ignorant of the way of salvation—intensely and personally ignorant—they reject this word of God about his word. They have never stood before Jehovah. They have never been undone. They know nothing—intensely and personally—of the perfect sovereignty of Jehovah God, who has mercy on whom he will have mercy and who hardens whom he will.

To the one whom God has undone and comforted in his grace, God says, “Go! Tell this people.” Sovereign commission of God. “Go to this people to whom I have sent you.” Not to all people but to such people to whom Jehovah himself has determined to send the prophet. Go to this people here and that people there, for Jehovah has a word for them.

Jehovah himself gives the prophet his word: “Tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat…lest they…understand with their heart.”

In that commission the prophet—minister—is wholly engaged physically, mentally, spiritually, and psychologically. But who can bear it? A word sufficient to crush any man. Is it true, Lord? Jehovah sent me to accomplish this purpose? Did not he send me to gather many people; to save many people; to keep many people; and to do that by instruction, warning, rebuke, and encouragement? Surely, not me, Lord! For me there will be a different purpose! But does not Jehovah, in fact, say that to every minister? When it happens, is it not devastating; and does not the prophet—minister—cry out with Isaiah, “Lord, how long?” A cry this is, indeed. Surely, he submits to this sovereign word of God. Surely, he is not rebelling against Jehovah when he asks that question. But he is stunned at his commission.

And is not the answer more stunning still? Will not Jehovah say, “Until this people bow and acknowledge my sovereignty,” or “Until this people learn a lesson,” or “Until this people turn to me”? But what an answer the prophet receives: “Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant…and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land”! Preach until the cities are laid waste and left without inhabitant. Preach until the houses are devoid of men, the fields are unplowed, and the vineyards are unkept. Preach until the hedges are broken down, the forests are chopped down, and the rivers are dried up. Preach until the ground is seared and burnt, until dust devils swirl across the forsaken landscape, until dragons and bitterns inhabit the land. Preach until the smoke from desolate cities and the stench from decaying bodies rise up to heaven and the laments of the dead for their dead fall silent. Preach until men, women, and children; young and old; rich and poor; bond and free are carried away captive and there is a great forsaking in the land. Preach until the scene in the land is one of utter desolation. Preach until death—individually, ecclesiastically, and generationally—is the result! Of the preaching!

Go! Tell this people. Preach to them and speak unto them in my name. Say to them, “Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not”!

Surely, God does not intend the prophet to repeat that specific message. The prophet might never say those exact words. The minister—like Isaiah—preaches the whole counsel of God. He preaches of God, God’s glory, God’s works, and God’s words as they are all given to him both to know and to speak. He speaks of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come. He speaks of wisdom and of salvation. He will speak of Jehovah’s excellent majesty and of his omnipotent power; he speaks of God’s promise and of his wonderful grace; he will call to faith and to repentance; he will open up heavenly things hidden in a mystery. Men will hear the very thoughts of God; men will see the wonders of God; and God himself will even come to them to speak with them, for the word preached by the prophet—minister—is in truth the very word of God. Mysterious.

The prophet—minister—must speak the word of the gospel. It is the word that abases man as without good in himself. That word comes condemning man. It warns that there is no peace of God to the wicked. It threatens with eternal damnation all who do not turn to the living God. The gospel ever is the preaching of the promise of God to all and sundry, wherever God in his good pleasure sends it, to this people and to that people. The gospel sets forth Jesus Christ in the glory of his person, natures, and work. The gospel declares that God’s promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. The gospel calls all men everywhere to repent and to believe in Jesus Christ. Ever the same. Ever the heavenly message of good news concerning Jesus Christ to a sin-cursed people of unclean lips and unclean hearts with no way out of their condemnation. Always the call is to come to him. Always the message is that Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ alone, is the way, the truth, and the life. Always the promise is that all who do turn from their sin and believe in Christ will be saved. The promise is of salvation, of righteousness, of escape from judgment, and of blessed fellowship with the living God forever and ever in Jesus Christ alone to those who are wholly and completely unworthy of it. Always the promise is that all who do not come to Christ shall be damned, the absolute certainty of the eternal destruction of the ungodly, whose souls Jehovah hates. A beautiful sound that all hear. A beautiful sight that all see. And that over against the ugly cacophony of their own wickedness as heard in the preaching and over against the ugly sight of their own iniquities laid so clearly before them.

And in all that speaking, God will say to this people who hear his word, “Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.” With whatever word of the prophet—whether a sober message of man’s depravity or a joyful recounting of the faithfulness of Jehovah; whether a somber declaration of the vanity of all things or a fleeting glimpse in a few words of the glory of heaven—whatever the message, in all of the prophet’s speaking, Jehovah God will say to this people, “Hear, but do not understand; see, but do not perceive.”

This people must hear. There is no hiding of his word. There is no speaking by cryptic words or in mysterious phrases. Emphatically, they must hear. They must hear all that Jehovah has to speak unto them. This people must see. Emphatically, they must see. Jehovah gives the sights of heaven and hell to them in order that they might see them. They must see with the eye of the mind and so also comprehend in the natural sense of the word what the prophet—minister—is saying. They must be enlightened and taste the heavenly gift, the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come. The minister—prophet—must preach the word of God with crystal clarity so that wherever and to whomever God in his good pleasure sends his word they hear the word of God and know it to be the word of God, and they see with the eye of the mind all the sights that God will have them see.

And because Jehovah says, “See and hear,” they hear and know, and they see and understand. Absolutely, they know: there has been a prophet among us. Did not Christ himself explain his parables in this way? He taught them in parables so that the meaning of his words and the heavenly content of his messages could not be misunderstood. It was so clear that a child—or an idiot—could understand it.

In Jesus’ parable there are three types of unfruitful ground. A hard path where the word makes no impression, but the birds—the devils—steal the word away from those hard hearts. The hearers turn from the word with hardly a thought, pass by Christ, and pass on through their lives into eternal perdition. Thorny ground in which the word springs up but is choked by the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world, and the hearts of the hearers become unfruitful. They hear the word. Emphatically, they hear the word. They themselves testify that they have heard the word, that Christ has been among them, and that the doctrine they have heard is true. They will even say, “We believe in Christ; we do not reject Christ.” But when the Word—Christ—says, “Me or your business; me or your friends; me or your comfortable lives that you have established for yourselves in the world,” then they choose the world and its deceitful riches. When Christ calls them to forsake this world and to come heavenward, then the cares of this world win out in their hearts and minds. Turning their backs on Christ, they go one to his farm and another to his merchandise, and the rest take Christ’s servants and entreat them spitefully and slay them. The stony ground where the word is received by some with what appears to be instant and rich joy, but they have no root. The hot sun of persecution arises, and by and by they are offended and scorched. The word they had heard and received—because it will cost them in gold, in friends, in standing, in name, and, indeed, their lives—becomes the most hateful word in the world, a word they cannot get away from or send out of their country quickly enough.

And about all those hearers Christ says, “Speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive” (Matt. 13:13–14).

The spiritual, the heavenly, the saving worth and meaning of the word of the gospel they never come to. Professing much love for this truth and that truth, coming to church and singing and giving and praying, they do not believe. They are not saved by the word. Many prophets and righteous men desired to see what they saw and to hear what they heard! When Christ himself is the prophet—or comes through a preacher today by Christ’s Spirit—and though he does so many miracles before them—or speaks so clear a word unto them—yet they believe not on him. They do not receive the blessed knowledge of and saving fellowship with Jesus Christ and with his Father. They never know Christ’s righteousness and go about to establish their own; they never know the power of his resurrection; they never know the blessed fellowship of his suffering.

Shall we say that men rejected the word? Oh, yes, indeed, they consciously, deliberately, and maliciously, oftentimes with violence, rejected the word. This people do that, even Israel and the church, as the earthly manifestation of God’s people, as those to whom God sends his prophets—and preachers.

Terrible sin, for in so doing they reject salvation, which is to reject Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father and to reject the Father himself, who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. Special kind of sin! The heathen hold under in unrighteousness the truth of God manifested in creation and bring upon themselves the wrath of God revealed from heaven against that form of unrighteousness and ungodliness. But what shall we say of those who have heard Christ speak to them, who crucify to themselves afresh the Son of God and put him to an open shame, who have trodden underfoot the Son of God, who have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing, and who have done despite to his Spirit of grace? Cursed people.

And how is it to be explained that men reject so beautiful a sight as God in Jesus Christ and such beautiful strains as the sweet music of the gospel? Did not Christ say, “This people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed” (Matt. 13:15)? And so Paul warns the Jews of his own day, “Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers…the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed” (Acts 28:25, 27).

A fat heart stuffed as a fat person with many rich things. Engrossed by the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Engorged with the abundance of this earth, having more than heart could desire, and loving mammon, the heart of this people has no taste for heavenly meat and drink, no hunger and thirst for righteousness, and no desire to see God. 

Their ears are dull of hearing—hard and insensitive ears—and have no power to discern the truth from the lie, blessing from cursing, or the word of God from the word of man. Like the atonal ears of the musically incompetent who cannot discern the various notes of the tune and cannot carry a tune in a bucket, so these theologically atonal souls cannot discern between the blessed sound of the gospel and the oppressive lie of Satan. Indeed, it is worse; for they desire the sound of the serpent, and the beautiful music of the gospel is an utter weariness to them, as the worldling prefers the cacophony of the world’s music to the singing of the psalms.

Their eyes are blind, and so they have no capacity to see anything spiritual in the preaching of the gospel. The minister—or prophet—so gloriously portrays Christ before their eyes, crucifying him among them; arrays their sins before their eyes; and illustrates the peril in which ungodly men stand; and it is no different to them than if one would hold a painting before a blind man. He will tire of it and be unmoved by it.

The natural man can only ever reject the word of God and react against it with opposition and rebellion. The natural man does not and cannot receive the things of the Spirit any more than the blind eye can perceive sights or the deaf ear can hear sweet music or the heart of the dullard can understand science. Surely, as man by nature exists in the sphere of sin and ungodliness and as he thus is devoid of grace, this is all he can do with the word.

And yet this people, hearing and seeing, also close their eyes and shut their ears and make their hearts fat. There is a hardening that takes place under the preaching of the word, a going from bad to worse. The more clearly, sharply, emphatically, and persistently the word of God comes, the more clearly, sharply, emphatically, and persistently that word beats upon their ears, stands before their eyes, and divides asunder their hearts. Then those wicked, ungodly, unbelieving hearts are exposed, and the more clearly, sharply, emphatically, and persistently they set themselves against the word of God with all its power. The carnal Israelites were hardened at the sound of the revelation of God’s word in the Old Testament—by means of sacrifices and ceremonies and prophecies and predictions—until in vile hatred they killed the prophets. Those who rejected the word of God in the Old Testament were cut off and cut down. How much more is that true when God speaks by his Son—whose voice is ever heard in his church and ever hardens the ungodly and unbelieving church member and officebearer—until they cast him out, as they crucified him in his own day.

Both Paul and our Lord, both Isaiah and the Holy Ghost come in their explanation of the word to God. And John—especially John—said of Jesus, “Though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him” (John 12:37). Christ had testified to the Jews of the kingdom of heaven, of the fulfillment of all righteousness, and that all things that the patriarchs saw and the prophets foretold were being fulfilled before their eyes. He confirmed his testimony with powerful wonders from heaven: healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, making the lame to walk, cleansing the lepers, and raising the dead—so many miracles! Yet they believed not on him. Terrible unbelief! “They could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart” (vv. 39–40). They could not believe. It was not possible. The astounding unbelief of the Jews of Christ’s own day, of the nation of Israel in Isaiah’s day, and of the church of our own day—to whom Christ speaks as the Son from heaven by many infallible testimonies of the Holy Spirit—is to be explained by God. God blinded their eyes, shut their ears, and hardened their hearts. God did not will that they believe. God did not will it according to his eternal and sovereign counsel of reprobation. In appointing a remnant to salvation, he passed by many with the grace of election and appointed them to eternal condemnation. So they could not believe!

And we must observe a distinction in this work of God, for some perish never having heard the word, without excuse for their inexcusable madness of holding the truth of God in creation under in unrighteousness. Yet in order to make sin exceedingly sinful, the hatred of men exceedingly clear, the hardness of men most plain, and the sovereignty of God in salvation and damnation perfectly clear, he sends the word out with crystal clarity; so that one would say that if salvation were in any sense in the power of man, by the will of man, or by the running of man, surely this people would believe. For God sent to them Isaiah and Jeremiah and many of his servants the prophets, and at last he sent his Son. They murdered his servants and crucified his Son. Now also God sends out the word of the gospel, of rebuke and reconciliation, and of sin and salvation. The Son speaks now from heaven with a clarity that no man can deny. And seeing they do see, and hearing they do hear. But they do not understand. They do not convert and are not healed. Astounding unbelief! For salvation is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. Jehovah is the potter, who is able to make of one lump one vessel to honor and another to dishonor.

The Lord gave the word. Great was the company that published it. The word carries out the will of God. He sent the word for this very purpose, for does not God say to Isaiah in that sober and solemn commission, “Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest [in order that, for the purpose that] they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed”? Make, the word is make! Oh, yes, there is an operation of sin and of wickedness in those hearts. They are not the objects of grace, and so they operate solely and exclusively in the sphere of sin and wickedness. But you may not say merely that they closed their hearts, and so in response God hardened their hearts. There may not be so much as an inkling of the idea that they first rejected the word or that God first made to them an offer, and only after they rejected—or received—the offer, the call, or the command, then God worked—whether to harden or to bless. God is absolutely sovereign in the preaching of the word. Such is the astounding word that in causing them to see and to hear, he also makes their hearts fat and their ears heavy and blinds their eyes. Regardless of the particular subject of the prophet’s—or minister’s—message. God will speak unto them in his wrath, “Seeing do not see; hearing do not hear. Let your hearts be fattened for the slaughter and your ears hardened against the word and your eyes blinded to the wonders of the gospel. Do not understand and do not perceive and do not convert. I do not will it. I will not heal you.” They could not believe. For that very purpose the word was sent unto them.

Who is sufficient for these things? To be a savor of death unto death: perhaps to a friend, a lover, a dear companion, a family member, a fellow church member, nearly an entire congregation, a denomination, or a generation. One could wish himself accursed for his brethren according to the flesh. Great tears of grief fall: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you had only known the things that belong to your peace!”

How long, O Jehovah? Until the cities be wasted… Many congregations; many denominations; many families and generations; many hundreds, thousands, and millions fallen away! Powerful word. Infallible purpose. Just severity. Solemn commission. “Go! Tell this people!” Who is sufficient? I think that with that word we have entered the darkness of Golgotha. What desolation the Word brought when he himself came to speak in the flesh. The word so hardened the Jews that they crucified the Lord of glory, and in his crucifixion not only Israel but also the whole world and the entire universe were plunged into desolate darkness. Cut down and cut off.

Yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return. Always the remnant is saved according to Jehovah’s eternal good pleasure. Like a great tree is cut down, so the people—a denomination, a congregation, and a generation—is cut down to the ground. But the holy seed is the deep life and imperishable root of the tree. The holy seed, who is Christ. The holy seed, which is all those who are elect in Christ and are infallibly engrafted into Christ by a true faith. The holy seed, which is eternally precious and dear to Jehovah God. The tenth is the remnant according to the election of grace, and so the full number of those appointed by God to salvation shall be saved.

The announcement of their salvation out of desolation is a ray of heavenly grace radiating to the earth from the awesome glory of divine sovereignty. A resurrection from the dead. Jehovah will not utterly cast off. A stump is left when the tree is cut down, the root still in the ground. Christ. He arises. He is its everlasting life; no matter how often it is cut down—Israel, many churches, many denominations, many families and generations—life is always in the stump. Israel grows as an organic whole in the world; so also the church grows as an organic whole; the earthly manifestation of the people of God is a tree that springs up out of the root. But it is full of dead branches; indeed, the whole trunk and all the branches are dead, consumed by a loathsome disease. Finally it is cut down. The life is only in the root beneath the stump that is left. This is Christ and all those who are Christ’s.

And even that tree shall be eaten; infected already with the disease that will eventually devour it again as it springs up.

Go! Tell this people…

Until the final judgment.