To my fellow ministers of the Word:
Look at how Paul starts his letters,
- “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” (Rom 1:7).
- “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” (1 Cor 1:2).
- “To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia” (2 Cor 1:1b).
- “To the churches of Galatia” (Gal 1:2b).
- “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus” (Eph 1:1b).
- “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons” (Phil 1:1b).
- “To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae” (Col 1:2a).
- “To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes 1:1a).
- “To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thes 1:1b).
- “To Timothy, my true child in the faith” (1 Tim 1:2a).
- “To Timothy, my beloved child” (2 Tim 1:2a).
- “To Titus, my true child in a common faith” (Tit 1:4a).
- “To Philemon our beloved fellow worker and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house” (Phile 1:1b-2).
- (Bold font all mine).
There are a couple of themes to notice, which I’ll address further down, but the thing to which I’d like to draw your attention is that Paul knew to whom he was writing. His audience was clear in his head.
Now, this may seem obvious. Of course he knew who his audience was, he was writing a letter. If you write a letter to Grandma, you write “Dear Grandma” in the upper left hand corner, and hope she’s the one who reads it.
Paul, however, was writing to groups of people, and his letters were knowingly sent around. This made it even more important for him to make clear precisely to whom he was writing.
It is the same with the other New Testament epistles.
James wrote “to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (James 1:1b).
John writes a few chapters into his first letter “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13, emphasis mine).
His second letter starts “The elder to the elect lady and her children” (2 John 1a), and his third begins “The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth” (3 John 1).
Perhaps most helpful to the subject at hand, Peter wrote to “To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Pet 1:1b) and “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1b).
These men knew that audience mattered. They knew that both sheep and goats came to eat the same grass. They knew that wheat and tares grew up side by side, both of which would be sickled in the end.
As they wrote, they wrote to men, women and children who were filled with the Spirit of God. Now, would imposters hear these letters read? Certainly (Gal 2:4-5). Would there be people in their midst who would hear the words of the Gospel proclaimed in the letter to the Romans, repent and be saved? Without a doubt. Nevertheless, Paul wrote to “those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints”. This was his audience.
He would go on to describe spiritual and physical realities. As we know from scripture, the spiritual reality for a lost man, is very different from that of one filled with the Holy Spirit (Matt 13:30).
Imagine if Paul had written the letter to the Ephesians to the lost. Firstly, where would he find a captive audience of lost people who were ready to listen to his letter? And if he did, think about what would happen to that opening paragraph:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1:3-10).
This paragraph would vanish. None of this is true of a lost man.
Yet, lost people would certainly hear this letter read. How can he then speak so plainly in the second person about such things? He can do so because he’s already told them that he’s speaking to the saints- the faithful in Christ Jesus.
A lost man can read Ephesians and see the truths about those found in Christ, but he will also see a distinction between himself and those addressed. He can either think, “This is a load of hogwash,” or he can think “this is magnificent, how can I have this?” He cannot think, however, “What a great thing I have,” because his conscience testifies to him that he is not a saint. He is not faithful to Jesus Christ. He has not received forgiveness for his trespasses. Therefore, the contents of the letter are not directed toward him.
Now, when a saved man hears this letter, he is filled to the brim with hope. He is edified. He is equipped to weather the battles before him.
Who are the adopted sons of God?
We are. You and me.
Who has redemption and forgiveness through the blood of Christ?
We do. You and me.
This is profound, and cuts all the way through the bone. It has the teeth to do so, because the audience knows that they are being directly addressed.
So, does God care about who you address from the pulpit? Did he say anything about it?
Yes.
Ephesians 4:11-14 says, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (emphasis mine).
This is the audience.
The saints. Holy people. People devoted to the glory of God.
The body of Christ. The people who are living stones in his temple. The people to whom the Spirit gives gifts “for the common good” (1 Cor 12:7).
These people are tasked with the “work of ministry” (Eph 4:12). Your job is to equip them for this task.
The Presenting Problem
Many preachers, however, will miss this and try to speak to everyone with a broad mic. They cannot. So, they fall into speaking to a Frankensteinian atrocity made up of the skin, skull, eyes and fingernails of a Christian, grafted onto the skeleton, organs, and back-hair of a lost man. This creature is called the ‘carnal-Christian’: the default audience of a careless preacher.
Who can relate to this creature?
Not the lost man. They don’t care for the things of God. They are dead in their sins, and cannot please God. In fact, they do not even seek for God (Eph 2:1, Heb 11:6, Rom 3:11).
Not the Christian. He does not love the world or the things in the world. His sins are forgiven. He knows God. He has overcome the evil one. He is strong (1 John 2:12-15).
It seems that the only person in the whole world who can relate to the carnal-Christian is the preacher himself.
“We tend to hate the word ‘holiness’,” he says.
You do?
“We think of the Bible as an old boring book,” he claims.
You do? Aren’t you the pastor?
In this case, either the preacher is disqualified, and shouldn’t be preaching, or he is bearing false witness against himself from the pulpit, which is an abomination.
Do you see the mess? But I digress.
When the carnal-Christian is the audience of a sermon, no one is spoken to directly. The lost man is not confronted. No arrow is aimed at his heart, and thus none will strike. Dying to himself, and rising with Christ isn’t even on the table.
The saint is not edified and equipped. The sermon is not for him. And with this given task missed, the people of God starve. They are left as dogs feeding from the crumbs that fall from the slaves’ table. Week in and week out they are promised a feast, while tossed scraps- chased by a thimble of gladless “wine” and a dwarven oyster cracker.
They are meant to be taught to obey everything that Jesus commanded them, but are left wondering what a Christian even looks like. And no wonder– their pastor wouldn’t know a Christian if he slapped one on the other cheek.
What’s the Solution?
As always, obedience to God’s word is the solution. Edify those saints in your care, by washing them with the word. Talk to them like they love God’s law. Talk to them like they love their master. Talk to them like they hate sin. If you do, your speaking will match reality.
This will have the added benefit of exalting your people into further maturity and holiness, instead of dragging them around in the carnal mire. Isn’t this exactly what Paul says the goal is? Equip the saints until they attain to “mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13).
This will also result in the lost man beholding the glory of Christ. What does Paul say about prophecy? “But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” (1 Cor 14:24-25). Can your cajoling of the “carnal-Christian” do that?
Preaching to saints as saints exalts Jesus Christ. This act acknowledges that his finished work on the cross is effectual in regenerating his elect, making them new. Preaching directly to the body of Christ is an act of obedience, which is what he desires more than sacrifice (1 Sam 15:22). When we preach to Christians we mirror scripture, and as we do this, His people are continually washed– sanctified. His bride and glory is prepared for her wedding day. She will be most pleasing to Him.
Your fellow pastor,
Jonathan Helvoigt
Reformed Baptist Church CREC SBC Calvinist Family Integrated Post Millennial Evangelical Bible Believing Elder Complementarian Expository Preaching Outreach Community Festival Faithful Small Friendly Historic Conservative Fundamentalist Trinitarian Gospel Centered Reformed Baptist Church CREC SBC Calvinist Family Integrated Post Millennial Evangelical Bible Believing Elder Complementarian Expository Preaching Outreach Community Festival Faithful Small Friendly Historic Conservative Fundamentalist Reformed Baptist Church CREC SBC Calvinist Family Integrated Post Millennial Evangelical Bible Believing Elder Complementarian Expository Preaching Outreach Community Festival Faithful Small Friendly Historic Conservative Fundamentalist Trinitarian Gospel Centered Reformed Baptist Church CREC SBC Calvinist Family Integrated Post Millennial Evangelical Bible Believing Elder Complementarian Expository Preaching Outreach Community Festival Faithful Small Friendly Historic Conservative Fundamentalist Trinitarian Gospel Centered