Now let's open our Bibles to
Isaiah chapter 56. I basically want to deal with the
last few verses of this chapter. I preached on the first eight
verses last time. And tonight I want to deal with
a subject that we might look at as very unpleasant, but it's
still a subject that's necessary. The title of the message is the
danger of false shepherds. The danger of false shepherds.
Now in these first eight verses there are several ways that you
could look at them and just as a way of a reminder here. But
tonight I want to show you that in those first eight verses I
believe you have spelled out the task and the commission of
God's true preachers. What is a true preacher to do?
I believe that's not something, when God calls a man into the
ministry, He doesn't leave that man to himself, his own wisdom,
his own ideas, his own purposes. God lays it down. When I was
preaching Sister Sue Terry's funeral yesterday, I made a statement
to the group there that in preaching her funeral, she gave me very
specific instructions. And she did. And if you all knew
Sue, you know what I'm talking about. She told me what she wanted,
and she told me what she didn't want, didn't she, Stan? And she
let me know that she wanted Christ on her. She didn't want me to
get up there and sing her praises. She wanted her Lord priest. She
wanted those people who were left to hear the gospel. And
that's what I tried to do. But she gave me very specific
instructions. Well, that's what the Lord does
with His ministers, with His pastors, his preachers. He gives
us very specific instructions. Now, I know when he calls various
men into the ministry, there are different personalities,
different styles. You may prefer one personality
or one style over another. That's human. And there's nothing
wrong with that in and of itself unless you let that be your standard
and guide of preaching and ministry. But you see, it's the same message.
It's the same purpose for all. And let me just divide it up
in this chat. We could go to a lot of other
passages, but I don't want to be that long, and you don't either.
And there's various ways of stating it. But let me just give you
three things that are prevalent here about what a true pastor,
a true minister should do. Number one, the true gospel pastor,
under Shepherd of Christ. what we'll call the Watchman,
because that's what he calls here in Isaiah 56. He points
sinners to Christ for all salvation. That's number one. If I do nothing
else, I must point sinners to Christ and Him crucified for
all salvation. I must tell you that we as sinners
have no hope of salvation. in ourselves, the worst of us
and the best of us. We have no righteousness, no
goodness, no power, nothing. We're impotent. Only in Christ
and Him crucified, His blood and His righteousness, I must
point you to Him. That's what John the Baptist
said. He said, I'm not the Messiah. He's the Messiah. I'm not the
way. He's the way. I'm not the light. He's the light.
I can baptize you in water like I'm going to baptize Brother
Chris tonight, but only Christ can baptize you with the Spirit
and in the Spirit. Only He can give you life, birth
you again. and regenerate you. Only He can
redeem you by His blood. I can't save you, can't save
myself, but I can point you to the only Savior. And that's taught
here in the Sabbath, in the first two verses of chapter 56. Christ
is our rest, He is our Sabbath. He did the work, He finished
it on Calvary, and He sat down, He was buried, rose again the
third day, He sat down at the right hand of the Father, He
ever lives to make intercession for us, and we, in our entire
eternal lives, rest in Him. Rest in Him. That's what salvation
is. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I'll give you rest. Secondly, the true gospel, pastor,
preacher, under-shepherd, watchman, is to preach the gospel of Christ,
not to whom He chooses, But wherever he has opportunity, I put it
this way, the true gospel pastor is to preach the gospel to anyone
and everyone who will listen, no matter who they are. Maybe
somebody that you've had problems with, you preach the gospel to
them. That's the only way you can express love to them in that
sense, in the preaching. And what we're to do is we're
to call forth Christ's sheep into the fold. All people, Jew,
Gentile, rich, poor, male, female, black, white. Anybody who listens. We're to preach wherever we have
opportunity. You know, I don't believe that
I have it upon any authority to turn down any opportunity
to preach the gospel anywhere I'm given an opportunity. And
I really believe that. That may sound a little extreme.
But I just don't see it in the Word. Jonah proved that, didn't
he? God said, you go to Nineveh.
He didn't want to go to Nineveh. Nineveh would have been the last
place on Jonah's list of evangelism. And so he decided, well, I've
got a better idea. Well, how did it work out? There
was a whale that swallowed him and vomited him up on the shore.
He went to Nineveh. God had some people there. So
we're to preach to everyone. That's what these, that's what
in chapter 56, that's what verses 3 through 8 are about. This message
of grace, this message of salvation, this message of rest in Christ
is for all who live. Anybody who wants it. Now we
know man by nature doesn't want it, but God makes his people
willing in the day of his power. And that's not our business anyway,
is it? We're to preach it. But now here's
the third thing. The true gospel pastor is to
guide sinners in following Christ by His Word, not by their ideas
and thoughts and opinions, but by His Word as motivated by grace
in love and unity. I'll tell you one of the worst
things in the scripture that any man who claims to be a servant
of God as far as a pastor, an evangelist, An under-shepherd,
a watchman, can do is scatter the sheep. That's one of the
worst... I'm going to tell you something.
Christ takes it personally. Now, we may not, but Christ does.
It's what Jeremiah was saying there in chapter 3. Woe unto
the pastors that scatter the flock. Take that seriously. Now, whenever preachers lose
sight of these things, then there's trouble. Always trouble. There's heartache. And that's
what happened to Judah and Jerusalem throughout its history. And that's
what the subject of these last few verses in Isaiah 56 is. Look at verse 9. He says, "...all
ye beasts of the field come to devour..." That means to consume. "...yea, all ye beasts in the
forest." His watchmen are blind. They're all ignorant. They're
all dumb dogs. Isn't that something? a pastor
or a watchman, an under-shepherd, who's blind. He's a dumb dog. Now, dogs weren't looked upon
very honorably in Israel. Almost, you had swine, pigs,
and then up from that maybe one step was a dog. And that's why
they called Gentiles dogs, he said. Well, he says they cannot
bark. That means they're useless. sleeping
or dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. Verse 11, yea, they
are greedy dogs. Dumb dogs and greedy dogs. I
started to title the message, Dumb and Greedy Dogs, but I don't
know. But that's what it is. And he
says, which can never have enough. They can't be satisfied. And
they're shepherds that cannot understand. They look to their
own way. They all look to their own way.
everyone for his gain from his quarter. And come ye, say they,
I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink,
and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant."
Now, that sounds like, at the end of this chapter, he's just
switching the subject entirely. You know, he's been talking about
the Lord He commands us to keep judgment, do justice. His salvation
is near. His righteousness is near. He
says this is for all people. God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. God has a people. And then all
of a sudden, verse 9, all ye beasts of the field come to devour. Yea, all the beasts in the forest,
the watchman or dumb dog. It sounds like a complete switch,
but it's not. What he's showing here is this.
Here's God's purpose. His purpose is to save His people
in Christ. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. This is a message that we're to work together to
get out to the world. We have a brother here tonight
from England. Heard the gospel. He gets the gospel out on the
internet. That's what we're to work together. I'm not to look
over and say, well, who's that Chris Alderman think he is? He
didn't get my permission first. He doesn't need my permission.
And I don't need his. If God lays it on our heart to
preach the gospel, to get this message out, let's get it out
and work together to do it. I'm not in it for me. He's not
in it for him. We're not trying to get a little
group, have a little following, make a name, build a memorial.
We're trying to glorify God in the ministry of the gospel. And
God's going to call out some people. But here's the problem.
Verse 9, the pastors, the watchmen, the prophets, the false prophets
that is, and the priests and the leaders of the people, they've
dropped the ball. They've messed up. They're not
doing what a watchman of God, a good watchman, and a good under
shepherd should do. They've dropped the ball. Now,
I've told you what it is for the God-called pastor, evangelist,
to preach the gospel to all. What is the task of the hearer? What is your task? Now, I'm standing
up here preaching, you're sitting there listening. What is your
task? Well, the Bible's clear on that. It tells you to test
the preachers. 1 John 4. Test the spirits. You don't believe me just because
I'm me. You don't believe me just because
I've been in it for 20, 30 years. You don't believe me because
you like me. Or you don't disbelieve me because you don't like me. You test me by the Word of God. Isaiah said that back in chapter
8 when they were bringing forth their dreams and their visions
and their ideas and their experiences and their thoughts and their
philosophies and their explanations. And here he settled it in one
verse, Isaiah 8.20, he said, "...to the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, there is what? No
life in them." So they must speak according to this word. So you're
to test the preachers by the word. You're to be a noble Berean.
Acts 17.11, who when they heard Paul, and I believe it was Barnabas
there, preach, or Silas, I can't remember which one, but when
they heard him preach, They went and they searched the Scriptures
to see, is this true? And that's a good thing. That's
why God said they were noble in that sense. Well, in Isaiah's
day, he mentions a watchman in verse 10. The watchman. He mentions
shepherds in verse 11. The watchman are the prophets.
Prophets were those who were to tell forth the Word of God.
They were to teach the people, guide the people. They were to
preach God's Word that God revealed to them, to the people. And let
me tell you something, they were to warn the people. And watchmen
were the same way. They were like watchmen on the
walls. And if danger would come, they
were to warn the people. I had a man tell me one time,
he said, you know, he said, whenever there's trouble in the church,
he said, the best thing that I've found to do is to ignore
it. and not even mention it because people won't have it on their
minds. Let's just preach positive things. Well, tell the watchman
to do that on the wall when he sees the enemy attacking. Well, I don't want to be negative.
I don't want to wake him up. I just want to preach positive
things. But the enemy's attacking. Now I wish that I could stand
up here before you and every message just do nothing but just
preach positive, happy things. But you see, we live in a world
that is totally opposed to the gospel that we believe. Satan
is our enemy and he attacks. And I'm going to tell you something,
every one of you who are here tonight who are saved by the
grace of God, you're sitting right there, right with an enemy
within you, the flesh. Am I right? And it's a warfare. And when it attacks, when Satan
attacks, when the world attacks, I have to be a good watchman.
And I'm going to show you why tonight. Now, first of all, look
at verse 9. Here's the imminent danger. There
is an imminent danger. He says, "...all ye beasts of
the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest."
Who's he talking about? That's a word of God to the beasts
of the field. Come to devour all ye beasts
in the forest. You know what he's talking about
there? He's talking about those who would attack his people.
There are people in that day who were set to attack Judah
and Jerusalem. Just like devouring beasts. You
know, Peter called Satan one who was seeking to devour whomever
he could. 1 Peter chapter 5. Paul told
the elders at Ephesus, he said, take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock. When the church is pictured as
a flock of sheep, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers. Paul telling the Ephesian elders
this, you're an overseer. God has put you here in this
position with this responsibility, he's saying. And he says, you
take heed that you feed that flock. You don't scatter that
flock. You don't divide that flock. And you don't beat that
flock. And you don't confuse that flock. You feed the church of God because
it's His church. He purchased it with His own
blood. It's not my church. This is not my church. This is
God's church. He purchased it with his own
blood. I don't own you. Christ owns you. He owns me. And then Paul went on to say
in verse 29 of Acts 20, he said, For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves, just like beasts of the field,
who come to devour, grievous wolves enter in among you, not
sparing the flock. They don't care about the flock.
All they care about is getting fed. And they've got an appetite
that will never be satisfied, he says here, Isaiah 56. Not
sparing the flock, as also of your own selves shall men arise,
speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. See
that? And he says, therefore watch,
just like the watchman, therefore watch, be on guard, and remember
that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one
night and day with tears. Did you hear what Paul said there?
He didn't say, I just come to you and just said, happy, happy,
happy. He said, I warned you night and day with tears. You know what? That's what a
watchman does. That's what God's watchmen do. Here's these beasts
of the field. They're going to attack. Don't
think they're not out there just because you may be in a moment
of solace. And peace, they're there. The
world is not our home. The Lord said to his disciples,
he said, marvel not if the world hates you. They hated me before
they hated you. He said they'll throw you out
of their synagogues. The church is going to be under attack from
these beasts in the forest to consume the church. Satan would
love to destroy the church. Now we know Satan cannot do that.
Thank God. Why? Because of Christ, our rock. Upon this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of hell will not prevail." But let me
tell you something, he's going to attack. The world's going
to attack. And that's what verse 9 is teaching
us. There's an imminent danger as long as we're in this world
as a witness to the glory of God's grace in Christ, preaching
the free, sovereign grace and mercy of God. preaching salvation
and justification before God based solely upon the shed blood
and imputed righteousness of Christ without the works of men,
as long as we point out to sinners that their best efforts to save
themselves and to make themselves righteous before God is wicked
and evil, and proves their lawlessness, the world is going to hate Christ
and His church. And they will attack. Well, in
the next verses, he shows the failure of Judah's leaders. Now,
you know, we've read in Isaiah how Judah was under attack from
Assyria. Later on, they were going to
be under attack from the Babylonian Empire. We know that was the
judgment of God against their sin. But the leaders had dropped
the ball. The leaders had failed. Now,
let me tell you something about the failure of the leaders. The
failure of the leaders will lead to the destruction of the people.
Well, what's the problem? Well, look at verse 10. His watchmen
are blind. They're blind. Now, what are
they blind to? Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
4. Well, they're certainly blind
to the danger that's coming. It may be that they may be willfully
blind. That's usually what it is, isn't
it? They see it, but, you know, they don't really believe it's
that big of a deal. You know that kind of thinking has gotten
more people into trouble, started more false churches and false
denominations than anything I know? Well, I know he preaches this,
but it's not that big of a deal. Just let her go. And you know
what the scripture says about that, don't you? A little what? Leaven. Does what? Leaveneth
the whole lot. You can't ignore it. Now, If
I ignore it as a watchman, what does that say of me? It says
I'm blind, you see. But look here in 2 Corinthians
4, look at verse 3. He says, But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves."
Now remember back over here in Isaiah 56, they do preach themselves. They're blind. What are they
blind to? He said, Paul said, we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your
servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
unto us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's what they're blind to.
They're blind to the glory of God. in the face of Jesus Christ. They're blind to His glory and
grace. They're blind to His person,
who He is, and what He did, and why He did it, and where He is
now. They're blind to how God justifies the ungodly, how God
saves sinners by His grace and mercy in Christ. They're blinded
by their pride. Do you remember when Nicodemus
came to Christ? Now, Nicodemus was one of the
main leaders of Israel, Jerusalem, in that time. He was a well-respected
teacher. And he didn't know the gospel.
And Christ said, you must be born again or you cannot see
the kingdom of heaven. You haven't got spiritual eyes.
You're blind, Nicodemus. He was one of the leaders. He
was one of the watchmen. He was one of the under shepherds.
And he didn't know Christ. He didn't know the grace of God
in saving a sinner through the blood and righteousness of Christ.
He didn't know anything about Christ crucified, the suffering
servant. who would successfully put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. He didn't know that as taught
in the Old Testament. And you remember Christ told
him, he said, when Nicodemus didn't understand what he was
talking about in the new birth, you know, he equated it with
physical birth. He said, how can I, when I'm old, go back
into my mother's womb and be born? That's impossible. And
remember what Christ said, are you a master, a teacher in Israel,
and you don't know these things? You're blind. Christ said to His disciples
of the Pharisees, He said, let them alone, they be blind leaders
of the blind. And listen to this now, He says,
and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Not just the blind leaders, but
both shall fall into the ditch. Blind leaders do not point sinners
to Christ alone for salvation. Blind leaders do not point sinners
to rest in Him for all eternal life and glory. Blind leaders
do not promote obedience by grace and love alone. Blind leaders
will divide brethren because they don't know where they're
going. Look back at Isaiah 56. The next
thing he says of these watchmen is they're all ignorant. You
see that in verse 10? They're ignorant. Well, what
are they ignorant of? Well, look over in Romans chapter
10. Now, we can talk about being
ignorant of a lot of things, but we're talking about issues
of salvation tonight here. That's the issue now. When we
talk about the watchmen and the under shepherds of today standing
in the pulpits of this country and the pulpits of England and
Europe and all over the place, this whole world, We're talking
about the issues of salvation now. It's just like you. If you were at home in your house
tonight and you saw somebody attacking your home, you'd say
something to somebody. You'd dial 911 or something. Well, we're talking about salvation
here. Now, this is eternal life. This is more important than our
physical homes. More important than our physical
lives. But look at Romans chapter 10, verse 1. He says, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. They need salvation. For I bear
them record, they have a zeal of God. They're religious. That's
what that means. But not according to knowledge.
It's religious ignorance. That's what he said over in Isaiah
56, 10. They're all ignorant. And so he says, "...they have
a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God." Now, if you want to know how God defines
salvation, this is one of the main phrases in the Bible. It's
to be submitted to the righteousness of God. Now, don't you think it would
be well for all of us to make sure that we understand from
God's Word what the righteousness of God is. Don't you think that? It would
be well, wouldn't it? But what is the righteousness
of God? Well, Paul had been talking about it all along here. But
look at verse 4. There it is. For Christ is the
end, the fulfillment, the finishing of the law, precept and penalty,
for righteousness to everyone that believes. The righteousness
of God is Christ and His finished work of Calvary. You know there
are men today who are arguing over that point? Can you believe
that? They sure are. What is this righteousness? Whose is it? How do you get it?
Isn't that something? I'm the watchman, I'm going to
tell you. That's exactly right. It's the
righteousness of Christ that God lays to the account of every
one of his people. That we stand clothed in, the
scripture says, that is the ground of our whole salvation, even
the work of the Spirit in us to change us, our minds, our
hearts, our affections, our will. There's no question in the Bible
about this. And men raise questions and bring
doubts, and they want you to look inward to find it. I'm going
to be a watchman tonight. Don't do it. That's danger. The beasts of the field are coming.
Prepare for the attack. I'm telling you. That's the only
way to look at it. He says they're ignorant. Look
back at Isaiah 56. He says they're all dumb dogs.
Now, basically, that's what he says. They cannot bark. We got
a dog across the street that barks all the time. And I'd love
to just... I'd love to call it a dumb dog.
But here he's talking about a good barking. He's talking about a
watchdog that lets you know when a stranger's coming, when danger's
coming. And that's what he's saying about
their dumb dogs. They can't bark. They're useless. They're no good
for anything. You see, They're blind, ignorant,
they know not, they know nothing, they don't know the scriptures,
they don't know the meaning of the scriptures, they don't know
the gospel and the doctrines, they're just useless dogs, they
cannot sound the warning. It's like the Pharisees. They
couldn't tell the people anything that was worth anything. And
this may describe those who call themselves ministers of the word
and yet either cannot or just will not preach it. Those who
see danger that must refuse to warn. And then he goes on, he
says, they're sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. They're
lazy. What he actually means there
is they're like dreamers. Turn over to Jeremiah 23 again. Look at this with me. Whenever
the scripture speaks of preachers, watchmen, prophets, dreaming, it doesn't necessarily mean that
they're just too lazy to do any work or to study. It means that their laziness
is when it comes to the Word of God. They're going to tell
you what they think and their ideas and not be true to the
Word of God. They're dreamers. When they sleep,
they dream, and they like their dreams better than they do the
Word of God. Things they come up with. And look here at Jeremiah
23. Look at verse 25. He says, I have heard what the
prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have
dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the
heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets
of the deceit of their own heart, which think to cause my people
to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to
his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.
The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell his dream. And he
that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is chaff
to the wheat, saith the Lord? Is not my word like a fire, saith
the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh a rock in pieces? Therefore,
behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my
words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets,
saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, he saith, he
saith. That's what God says, you know. Behold, I am against
them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them,
and cause my people to err by their lies and by their likeness.
Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them, therefore they shall not
profit these people at all, saith the Lord." That's who he's talking
about over here. These sleeping, lying down, loving
to slumber dogs. Down in verse 11 of Isaiah 56,
he says, they're greedy dogs which can never have enough.
They're self-serving. They have great appetites. They're
never satisfied. They can never have enough. They
don't know anything about fullness. They're always looking for something
else, something new, some other twist on things. You'll hear
him say quite a bit, I've seen something I never saw before.
Now listen to me. That's possible. Because we grow
in grace and in knowledge. But whenever you hear a man say
that, be careful. Be careful. Whatever he's seen
that he didn't see before, it may deny what he's seen before. And that's, that's the greedy
dog that can't be filled. He's always looking for some
new twist on things, some new way of saying things. I told
a fellow one time, I said, you know what? You think your words
better than the Holy Spirit. You think you can say it better
than the Holy Spirit said it. I told him, I said, you should
have been there with Christ when he walked on earth. You could
have corrected him at every turn. That's the way he thought. That's
the greedy dog. Oh yes, he craves more. It's
not necessarily money, it can be. There's a lot of them who
are after the almighty dog, the filthy lucre. But it could be
after a name. He's greedy to make a name for
himself. Greedy to have a following for himself. Greedy to create
a memorial for himself. But here's the point now about
the greedy dog that can never get enough. Strong of appetite
now, not to be satisfied. Here's the point. Christ is not
enough for him. Christ in Him crucified is not
enough. The Gospel is not enough. The
Word of God is not enough. It will not satisfy His appetite. You see, if you're truly convicted
by the Holy Spirit of your sin, and you're hungry for the bread
of life, you know what? When you hear Christ preached,
when you see Him glorified and honored in all His redemptive
glory, you're filled. You walk away filled. And you'll
get hungry again, just like you do physically. But all it takes
to fill your hunger is what? Just hear Christ exalted. Just hear Him lifted up. Just
hear the glory of His person and the power of His finished
work. When I get down and see my own
worthlessness and my own sinfulness, just tell me about His blood
that washes away all my sins and His righteousness that gives
me a perfect, eternal, unchangeable standing before a holy God. And
that fills me to the brim. And I want to hear it again.
And if I ever hear anything else that exalts the flesh, I'm going
to walk away empty. And you will too, if you know
Christ. And that's what happens here. Go on there in verse 11.
It says, "...and they are shepherds that cannot understand." Well,
they're without understanding. The natural man cannot understand
the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2.12 says, He cannot
receive those things which are freely given. You see, those
things are freely given. What is that? That's grace. That's
salvation by grace. I like to hear salvation by grace,
don't you? You know why I like to hear it
so much? Because I know who I am. These preachers go around here
putting conditions on sinners. If you'll do this, if you'll
do that. The only ones who can feed upon that are those who
really don't know themselves. I want to hear grace. I want
to hear about Christ and my rest in Him. Jeremiah 50 and verse
6, let me read it to you. He says, My people have been
lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them
to go astray. They have turned them away on
the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have
forgotten their resting place. Don't ever forget your resting
place, Christ, and Him crucified. And why don't they understand?
Look at verse 11 again. It says, they cannot understand,
they all look to their own way. We read it in that Psalm. God's
going to teach His people His way. And what is His way? His
way is the way of grace in Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. But they
look their own way. And as long as they look their
own way, they're not going to understand the right way. He says, everyone
for his gain from his quarter. In other words, he speaks for
his own gain. It might be the gain of religious
works. It might be gain of materials. But it's out of his own heart,
his own evil heart. Everyone for his gain, just like
the Pharisees who devoured with us houses, who make merchandise
of men's souls. They seek a following for themselves.
Look at verse 12. Come, ye say they, I will fetch wine, and
we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and tomorrow shall be
as this day, and much more abundant. Now, certainly, any preacher
who would go around promoting drunkenness would be a false
preacher. We know that. But that's not
what this is talking about. The false prophets and the priests
of Israel were not going out trying to get all of Judah to
be drunk every day on wine, literal wine. It was their false doctrine. That's what it's talking about.
Drunk on their false doctrine. Drunk on self-righteousness.
Drunk on religious pride. Drunk on works. And you see,
that's what happens when a man rejects Christ and Him crucified. And he seeks to establish his
own righteousness. If that's what he truly believes,
if that's where he's at, pretty soon his mental capacity is like
it's under a stupor. And he feels like, I'm okay.
You know, most drunks won't admit that they're drunk. You just
about have to knock them out to take the keys out of their
hand, don't you? Oh, I'm not drunk. I can drive. And that's
the way it is with religious people who don't know Christ.
They're drunk, spiritually. And you can't convince them.
It takes the Spirit of God to convince them that they're on
the wrong path. But here these false preachers,
they tell them, now, tomorrow shall be as this day and more
abundant. Everything's going to go on fine
and it's even going to get better. That's what they tell them. It's
going to get better. But it's not. Well, I want to
close, turn to Ezekiel 33. I want to read this passage.
about the watchman. Just part of it. I won't read
the whole verse. But let me tell you something. Now, he talked
about the beast of the field coming to attack the church.
Let me tell you something, folks. Now, there is a danger, and it's
a continual danger, and I'm going to tell you exactly what it is.
It's sin. All right? Now, how are we going
to turn back? What is our defense, rather?
from this danger of sin. There's only one defense. Christ
is my defense. When Satan accuses me, Revelation
12, we turn him back by the blood of the Lamb. And our testimony,
our testimony is my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. We need watchmen and under-shepherds
who will tell us the truth. Now Christ is the one true and
faithful shepherd of the sheep. He is the Great Shepherd, the
Good Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd. He laid down His life for the
sheep. But He has under-shepherds that He's put over His flock.
And here's what He says. Now look at Ezekiel 33, and I'll
conclude with reading this. He says again, verse 1, The word
of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children
of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon the
land, a land, if the people of the land take a man of their
coast and set him for their watchman, If when he saith the sword come
upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people, then whosoever
heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the
sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own
head." If the watchman sounds the trumpet and you don't listen,
it's your own fault. That's what he's saying. But
listen to this now. He says, verse 5, He heard the
sound of the trumpet, and took not warning, his blood shall
be upon him, but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
If you listen, you'll be delivered. Listen to the gospel. Now listen to verse 6. Now this
is to me. What I'm reading to you now is
to me. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not
the trumpet, and the people be not warned, If the sword come
and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his
iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand."
You see, if I don't warn you, what does that say about me?
That's a responsibility. Do you know that? He says in
verse 7, "...so thou, O son of man, I have sent thee a watchman
unto the house of Israel. Therefore thou shalt hear the
word at my mouth, and warn them from me." And when I say unto
the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die. If thou dost
not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man
shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy
hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the
wicked of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn from his
way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.
Therefore, O thou Son of man, speak unto the house of Israel.
Thus she saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and
we pine away in them, how should we then live? Saying to them,
As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn
ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house
of Israel?" That is a plea to look to Christ for salvation. You can read the rest of that.
But I hope that's been helpful to you, the danger of false shepherds. And I pray every day, and I hope
you pray for me. Lord, don't let us fall prey
to such false shepherds.