We have no say over whether someone will believe or reject the Gospel. Our job is simple: we are called to faithfulness. Whether they believe or not is not up to us. This should free us from any worry of performance, but also it should free us from any desire to alter the Gospel. It isn’t up to us to tell God what should or should not be included in the message. It has been around for two thousand years and it has successfully caused the church to thrive even though it contained hard truths like hell and sin.

God doesn’t need your help.

It is always a temptation for Christians to dilute the message of the Gospel. As I look at the people who shared God’s Word in the Bible, they seemed to be afraid to change or even not share the message that God had entrusted to them.

In Ezekiel, we come to know a new prophet of the Lord, and though he is a new one, he is the same as every other prophet. He has a simple job: to speak on behalf of God.

Ezekiel was told exactly what to say and who to say it to. If he withheld information, Ezekiel 3:19 tells us that God would still kill the people, whether they were warned or not, but that he would hold Ezekiel accountable for their blood.

Ezekiel didn’t have the luxury to tinker with the message. He simply had to relay it. He wasn’t the chef, he was just the waiter. He wasn’t the artist, he was the man that puts the paintings on the wall.

It’s important to remember that hearing the message is not what damns people. Whether they hear and reject, or whether they never hear makes no difference at all, Ezekiel 3:16-19 makes that very clear. They are already at war with God whether they realize it or not, but as a watchman, Ezekiel’s job was to relay God’s message to the ones to whom he was sent.

In the New Testament, there are countless examples of this, as well. Peter, for example, is told by the Pharisees not to preach the Gospel anymore, and after no consideration at all Peter and John reply,

“Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard’ ” (Acts 4:19-20).

Peter and John clearly understood the consequences of their preaching–it would possibly result in their death, and it would definitely make their life difficult. But they also understood another great truth. God had called them as ambassadors and therefore had called them to deliver the message he had entrusted them with. This meant that not only would they not be allowed to withhold the entirety of the message, but they were not allowed to withhold parts of it, either. In other words, the threat given to them should not keep them quiet, nor should it keep them from delivering the controversial parts.

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