We're in Isaiah 56 verses 9 through
12, and as I mentioned the title of the message is A Contrast
by Comparison. And as you've heard, as I just
read, this is a very sober, horrible few verses that we have at the
closing of this 56th chapter in Isaiah. We behold false preachers,
or the unfaithful shepherds of Isaiah's day. But, you know,
there are so many false preachers, false shepherds in our day. But
this problem, as you've seen in these four verses, is this
blight of a false gospel and its henchmen has been around
for a very long time. There's nothing new. Melinda
and I were talking about this the other day. There's nothing new. You know, when you had Cain and Abel, you've got two
children and one of them is a murderer. One of them believes in works
unto salvation and the other one was persecuted and murdered
because of their stand for the gospel of free grace. So this issue, this blight of
false gospels being preached by false watchmen, and it's worded
here in verse 10, his watchmen are blind. They're also called
shepherds in verse 11. So we we basically see some characteristics
of these false shepherds or pastors, bishops, preachers, whatever
you want to call them. We see some characteristics in these
four short verses. But before I get to that first
point. My question is why? are these charges against these
false preachers, preaching false gospels? Why are these charges
so horrendous, so vile, and so serious? Well, one, first of
all, because it comes from the Word of God. When God says you're
a false preacher, it's pretty horrific, it's pretty serious.
When Isaiah, writing this through inspiration of God, when he says
that the watchmen are blind, that means they're blind. So
that's why these charges are so serious and so horrendous,
because they come from the Word of God, God who is true and wise
and accurate. Can't lie. Another reason why
these charges are so serious and so important, because an
old preacher of grace many, many years ago in the 1500s, he said
these things. This is a quote. He said there
are four things that are impossible to be done. One, no one, no sinner,
no one can call upon Christ until he believes on Christ. You can't
call on someone that you don't believe on. Secondly, no one
can believe on Christ until he hears the gospel. Thirdly, no
one can hear the gospel of Christ without a preacher. And lastly,
no one can preach the gospel of Christ until he is sent of
God. Now, as nice as those four points
are, if they're not warranted out of the scripture, it doesn't
really matter who said them. But where this preacher of old
was coming from was out of Romans chapter 10, where Paul himself
says, the scripture says, whosoever believes on him shall not be
ashamed. for whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But how then shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe on him, that's Christ, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And verse 15 of Romans 10, and
how shall they preach except they be sent? So And studying
this, sometimes it's hard for me to stand up here and say a
few of these things because of being a preacher, but it doesn't
matter because the Word of God is clear. Blessed are the people
who have a God-called preacher to speak for them. And I've always
said that without the people, there's no need for me. So I'm
not saying that everything centers around me or centers around a
preacher, far be it, because if there's no sheep, there doesn't
need to be a shepherd. So God will have a sheep as he
does in Jackson. He's got a few here and a few
there. He's got some over in Tennessee and Kentucky and different
places. He's got his sheep scattered. But where the sheep are, he's
going to send them or raise up a shepherd. And the reason why
these charges are so serious and this is what this book says.
I'm not saying that God, you know, I'm not trying to put God
in a box and say that, you know, the reading of the word is not
important. The reading of tracts is not important. The singing
of songs of grace is not important. But I am saying that God uses
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That's what this book says from
one section to another. Linda and I again were talking
about this the other day. You look at the salvation experience
as it's revealed in this book. Especially, and of course it's
no different than the old and new, but actually, you know,
you look at the Ethiopian unit, he was reading the Bible, he
had been to Jerusalem, he had been to church service, and the
Lord uses these things to begin a work, but he brings a faithful
man, as he did Philip, and the eunuch said, how can I understand
what some man tell me? That's the means by which God
uses. I got an email not too long ago,
a gentleman won't know if we were prim and the Baptist. Well,
if I have my history served right now, I don't really, especially
since a long time since I've looked at these things, I believe
one thing that prim and the Baptist believe is that they don't believe
in evangelism. They don't even put signs up
to their church. Well, that's just unbiblical. That's just that's
not even God uses the preaching, the witnessing of his name, the
spoken word about the written word, which is about the living
word, Christ, to call his sheep out. You know, you look at everywhere
where Christ went. He spoke the word. He preached
the word. Paul, all the disciples that
followed Christ, they spoke. The woman at the well, the Lord
uses the verbal proclamation of this book. So this is why, one reason why
these charges are so serious is because these false preachers,
these hucksters, these religious for hire. They're not preaching
the truth. God's not going to use them.
Now, let's note some of these horrific qualities of false shepherds.
But I'm not going to leave you there. We're going to go through
this and we're going to look at the true shepherd. We're going
to look at the comfort that he has, wherewith he comforts his
people. But we're going to deal honestly with this text here
this morning. Verse 9, one characteristic and
quality of these false preachers, and they're not all this way,
there's some of these qualities that every single false prophet
would be accurate, and there's others that it's It's not necessarily
so, but God declares it to be, so we'll look at it. All ye beasts
in the field, come to the devourer. One characteristic or quality
of these false shepherds is that they devour. That is, they consume
those that they pastor. Whether it's financially, emotionally,
or otherwise, they spend everything. They tear apart whole churches
with their tactics. That's what the devourer, that's
what the word devourer means, to consume. And you see it time
and time again. Preachers come in, They do all
that they can. They either tear things apart,
they melt the people dry, and they leave. Verse 10, he says
these, his watchmen, Satan's watchmen, they're blind. They're
blind. They're like the Pharisees were.
Christ said, you're blind leading the blind. And if you go in the
ditch, the person that's following you is going to go in the ditch.
And the interesting thing about the Pharisees is that they memorized
the Word of God. They were the keepers of the
law. They memorized this book and
they were still blind. You remember what Christ said
to Nicodemus? He said, you're a teacher of Israel and you don't
even understand the things that I'm saying. A man must be born
again. He says, how can a person enter into the womb a second
time? And Christ says, You're a teacher of Israel, you're a
leader of Israel, you're teaching Bible class, teaching Sunday
school, you're high-ranking church official and you don't understand
these things? And such is the charge to every false shepherd,
as they are blind, just like the Pharisees, no matter how
religious they are. And Christ said very specifically,
if you go into the ditch, everybody else is going to follow you.
That's why these charges are so serious. He says again in
verse 10, his watchmen are blind. They are ignorant. Paul says
the same thing. Turn back to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. This is nothing
new. Paul says the same thing. Romans
chapter 10 verses 1, 2 and 3. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I think
he's pretty clear saying that they're not. That they might
be saved. He desires that they would be.
But he's drawn a line in the sand. He says, for I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. And you go up to somebody who's
been in church their whole life and you tell them that they don't
have a zeal for God, and they're not dedicated to their God, small
g, perhaps, you're going to get in a fight. Because they'll pull
out their record, and they'll pull out their Sunday school
attendance, and they'll pull out their offering, and they'll
pull out the tax write-off for donating to charities. They'll
do all these things. We're not saying they don't have
a zeal. We're not saying that these people aren't sincere. And they wouldn't even perhaps
die for their cause. We're not saying that. And Paul's saying
the same thing. They have a zeal of God. But it's not according
to knowledge. They've missed the mark completely.
Verse 3, here's the whole point. For they being ignorant, just
like these false preachers in verse 10 of Isaiah 56, they are
ignorant of what? Of God's righteousness. That's
the whole thing. We must have God's righteousness
or we've got no righteousness that he'll accept. And another
problem is not only are they ignorant about God's righteousness,
what He requires of sinners, what was required of a sinner
to make it to heaven, which is to have Christ's righteousness,
they're going about to establish their own righteousness and have
submitted themselves under the righteousness of God. That's
the problem with us by nature and false preachers. Feed on
this? Oh, you're not that bad. You're
okay. Yes, you're kind of a sinner,
but not as bad as that kid that killed all those people in West
Virginia. You're not as bad as this person, as that person.
No. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of our Lord, has to
be saved the same way that Rahab the harlot. It doesn't matter.
Sinners in the eyes of God are violent, corrupt, and unrighteous. You start comparing yourself
to other people, most of the time you come out pretty good
because we'll pick people who are lower, as we would say, than
us. But the person in the pew who goes every Sunday has to
be saved the same way that the harlot in the gutter. Because
we're all sinners. There's no difference. But those
who are ignorant of God's righteousness go about to establish their own
righteousness and say, you know, all you've got to do is come
forward, sign this card, be baptized, or if you were sprinkled as a
little kid, that'll suffice it. If you've been catechized, if
you've been to communion, if you've memorized some things,
they put all these things as what God would accept, or keep
the Ten Commandments, or whatever it might be, it's ignorance. And Paul says his desire is that
those people would become unignorant, and that is they would understand
what the righteousness of God is. And we're not saying by any
means that we understand this book any better than anybody
else. If we understand anything, it's because He has revealed
it. And there's the humbling factor.
We cannot brag about not devouring or not being blind or not being
ignorant because we were every one of these things. And if God
doesn't keep us, we'll go right back to it. Well, again, in verse
10, another characteristic of these false preachers is that
they are described as dumb dogs, which they cannot bark. Sleeping,
lying down, loving the slumber. A dumb dog that can't bark. Well, that's probably about as
useless of an animal as you can get, because a dog that can't
bark cannot sound a warning. They're no help or protection
to you in a time of danger. And thousands upon thousands
of people will gather this morning and will listen to a false preacher
who is likened to a dumb dog. And they just sit there and he's
just talking and they hear what he's saying, you know, he's just
sitting there. And they're in danger of hell and damnation,
but everything's fine because They're listening to a dog who
can't bark. It's useless and unable to sound
the warning. He says also they love, another
characteristic is that these love to slumber. Two words, they're
overpaid and underworked. Oh, he's only got to prepare
a message a couple of times a week. So what's the, you know, so he's
under work or they spend all their time visiting people and
making that the ministry instead of the preaching and studying.
And reading the Word of God and delivering God's message, they're
also called, verse 11, yea, they are greedy dogs which can never
have enough. They're greedy for gain. Turn
to 2 Peter, chapter 2. Peter talks about this same thing.
The book of 2 Peter, chapter 2, verses 1, 2, and 3. But there were false prophets
washmen, shepherds, also among the people, even as there shall
be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring indamnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken
of. And through covetousness There's
your greedy game. Shall shall they with feigned
words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long
time lingereth not and their damnation slumbers not covetousness
making merchandise of people. They're greedy for gain. You
know, the people who have lots of money in the church, they're
going to they're going to cozy up to them and usually make them
deacons and elders and whatnot. Well, another characteristic
of those false shepherds, it says they are shepherds, verse
11, that cannot understand. They all look to their own way.
Now this would be a characteristic of every false preacher. They
look to themselves and their own way. And this book in Proverbs
tells us that the way of man, it seems right, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. What they're preaching is man-made
doctrines and traditions Free will, not free grace. Partial
death in the garden, not total ruination and depravity in the
garden. They preach universal love and
not what this book so clearly teaches, sovereign, particular,
discriminatory redemption. They preach easy believism and
decisionalism for Jesus. Instead of what this book says,
Christ says, you didn't choose me, I chose you. Christ starts and continues this
thing of salvation, sanctification, and glorification. False preachers
and teachers make it that, oh yeah, God starts to work, maybe
they might say, or most of them are never going to admit that
it works. But then when you listen to them
say, you've got to do A, B, and C, and D in order to be saved.
But then after that, oh, you've got to do this, this, and that
to keep yourself. Well, that's looking to self. That is, they
look to their own way. Everyone for his gain from his
quarter. And lastly, What they're saying
is Tomorrow is going to be just like it is today verse 12 come
ye say they I will fetch wine We will fill ourselves a strong
drink and tomorrow Shall be as this day and actually much more
abundant What they're saying there is they're proud and sure
of all they say and do and that God will not interfere with them
We just keep on going like we're going now Not necessarily me,
and though I agree completely. These are vile men, and now women,
in the pulpit. How sad, and yet how true. It's
nothing new. Isaiah said it right here. It's
nothing new under the sun. But let's move on to the only
comfort that you and I, the bride of Christ, has, and will ever
have. We've seen these false shepherds,
we've talked about these greedy dogs, these ones that cannot
bark, these blind, these ignorant, false shepherds, false preachers,
false teachers. But let's talk about contrast
by comparison, the true and faithful shepherd, not me. I'm an under
shepherd, but let's talk about the true and faithful shepherd
who does place pastors after his own heart. to protect and
care for his people. Look at that, turn back a few
pages to Isaiah 27. Christ the true and faithful
shepherd. Isaiah 27 verses 2 and 3, he's
speaking about his church here. In that day, Isaiah 27 verse
2, in that day, sing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine. Vineyard the churches can is
often spoken of as the song of Solomon's his vineyard verse
3. I the Lord do keep it. I Will
water it every moment Lest any hurt it. I will keep it night
and day What a contrast what an absolute contrast from the
four verses that Isaiah Previously spoke of In here, we see the
true and faithful shepherd, the husband of the vineyard. He promises
in verse three, he will keep it. He will keep his church.
He will keep his people. Without fanfare, without pageantry, he
simply keeps his sheep. He also says in here, I will
keep it, I will water it every moment. To me, that's sustenance.
He will take care of us. He will sustain us. And he says
that lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. There
is the keeping sovereign reigning grace of God. You don't want
to know why some some like a system of theology and the old writers,
which that's fine. That's fine. They categorize
things, but it's the work of men. But you want to know why
we adhere to the everlasting security of the saints? Some,
I think another would call it, once saved, always saved. These
different words that people use. If it's not found in the scriptures,
just throw it out. But here he says, I will keep
it night and day. He has his sheep in his hand
and no man can pluck them out. There's another passage that
we see. No harm unto us, that is eternally, because you know
and I know that believers go through as many or more trials
than any human being, any other human being on this planet. But
we will not be eternally harmed. We will not be eternally harmed.
Turn to John chapter 10. Had to go here, John chapter
10, where Christ is our great shepherd. John chapter 10. The Lord is our shepherd, we
shall not want. We could have went there. We're
going to go to John 10. John 10, starting verse 11, look
at the qualities of this true shepherd as compared to the qualities
of the shepherds that we spoke of for self and for gain. Look at John 10, the quality
of the great shepherd. I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd gives life. for gives his life for the sheep. The other shepherds, they just
wanted to fleece the sheep. They were in it for filthy lucre,
for gain, making merchandise of the souls, but this shepherd
will give up his life, and he did, for the sheep. Not for the
world, for the sheep, not for the goats, for the sheep, whoever
they may be, and however many there are. They're called the
elect, and in other places, the remnant, the Israel of God, But
he says, but he that is a hireling, now that's another word for these
false shepherds, false preachers, pastors and bishops, and not
the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not. The hireling sees the
wolf coming and he leads the sheep and flees and the wolf
catches them and scatters the sheep. The hireling flees because
that's all he'll ever be is a hireling. He cares not for the sheep. We
know because he cares for himself. A hireling will never be another
shepherd. That's all it will be is a preacher
for hire. Mercenary. The Christ says, I
am the good shepherd again, and I know my sheep and am known
of mine. as the father knows me even so
I the father and I lay down my life for the sheep he says it
again and other sheep I have which are not of this fold that
is this time that he's writing this the fold of Israel inside
that group of that nation he's got other sheep which are the
Gentiles we saw this last week them also I must bring and they
shall hear my voice and there will be one fold And one shepherd. In these passages we see other
qualities and characteristics of the blessed good shepherd.
One, he gives us eternal life, free pardon, and everlasting
forgiveness. He says he will not leave us. He says he will comfort us. He
said he will feed us with good things for the soul. That's what
the shepherd does. All will be saved in his time
by his call through grace and faith by the preaching of his
word. I stress this again, the preaching
of his word. I stress this because Paul stressed
it in numerous places. I'll just read one. Ephesians
chapter one, verse 13. Verse 12 that we should be to
the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ in whom in
Christ you also trusted after That he heard the word of truth. What's that the gospel of your
salvation in whom also after that you believe? You were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise. You see you heard the word of
truth the gospel and essentially the importance of of the preaching
of the gospel and being where the gospel is preached. You know,
there's something to be said about the parable of the pearl
of great price. Sell everything and get it and
be where it's spoken of and be where it's, you know, I know
sometimes it's difficult and we can't do these things, but
other times we can do a lot more than we say. There's the importance of the preached word, the importance
of being where that is proclaimed. Sheep are gregarious. Sheep are
gregarious animals. And I won't say more about that. Let's turn to Isaiah 40. Let's
look more about this shepherd. Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40 and verse 11, we see
another characteristic of this beautiful, glorious, sovereign,
good shepherd. And he says, he shall feed Christ. Verse 10, we see who he's talking
about. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand and his
arms shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. He that is our shepherd Christ
shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with the young. Now, look at the difference.
Look at the contrast by comparison of our great, our good and our
glorious shepherd, the true and faithful witness, he's called.
As compared to the to. The religious hamsters of our
day. He says in this verse many things that show the characteristic
of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he will do for us. We will
be fed by his word of grace. Feed my sheep. Peter, you're
going down a path that you don't need to be going. Do you love
me? Yes, I do. Feed my sheep. That's what you're called to
do. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. And he does so using men, just
common men, nobody extraordinary, nobody with degrees and pedigrees
and all these different things, though he does use some learned. But the beautiful thing that
they confused the Pharisees in their days is that they noticed.
What does this act say about the disciples? He said they noticed
that they were ignorant and unlearned men as far as the letter of the
law. But they took notice that they'd
been with Jesus. You know, that's that says a
whole lot right there. He feed, but he's shepherd. The
chief shepherd uses under shepherds to feed his sheep by the word
of grace. It also says a characteristic
of the shepherd is that we will be secure in his sovereign, all
powerful arms. I like how that's worded there
in verse 11. He shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry
them. Carry them in his bosom. Now
he's not carrying, he's not walking, you know, you know how You know how some people hug.
They hug and they don't want to be close to somebody but the
other person wants to hug so they kind of reach out. There's a big space gap in between
them. But then there's those that just grab somebody's big
hug and a squeeze. He said he has us up by his bosom. It's not a far away thing. It's
an intimate, a delicate, a beautiful Embrace, we're secure in his
sovereign, all powerful arms. And he has us right up against
him. So in order for us to be gotten to, we've got whatever,
whoever and whatever is going to get to us has got to go through
his arms and through his grasp. And he says he carries us. Look
at this. Look at this. and shall gently
lead those that are with young. He will gather them with his
arms and carry them in his bosom, carry them in his bosom. So I
guess, I guess that little ditty that's being written, footprints
in the sand, I guess you can just tear that up and burn it.
Because he got two sets of footprints. And then all of a sudden there
was one set of footprints. And I realized, when I was in trouble,
in the Harvard Harvest Worded, he carried me. Now, I'll tell
you this gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. It is that
Christ carries us from Alpha to Omega. From the first to the
last. He says in the Gospels, he says, without me you can do
nothing. From me is your fruit found.
So we have no fruit on our own because we're born in sin. And
when we bear fruit, if there's fruit so-called, It's fruit of
grace produced by Him in us through the new man. So just take that
footprints in the sand stuff that somebody got emotional religious
again. It's kind of your will and God's
will and we combine and there's that free will stuff again. It's
junk. It's written by false prophets,
false shepherds. Throw it away. Because this book
says He carries us. There's no two footprints. He
carries us. I remember I told you years ago
when I started getting religion, I'd been brought up religious,
but I got started getting a little bit more religious. Somebody
gave me a little thing. It's called like a cross in my
pocket or something. And it had a little big wooden
cross glued to like an index card and it was a cross in my
pocket. And I never really looked at it. And one day I was, when
I was in college, I was somewhere by myself and I started, the
Lord started showing me His sovereign grace and His electing and redemptive
glory. And that He's the one that, and
I started reading some good books, you know, I started understanding
some things I was reading. I started reading some Spurgeon
and Pink and some of these other men. And then seeing what they
wrote, if it was true in the scriptures. And I hadn't looked
at that thing for a long time. And I'm sitting in a place by
myself, and I'm reaching around my pocket and in the wallet,
and there's this thing. Oh, let's see what this is. And
I read it all the way through. And when I got down to the last
part, it's something like, He's my Lord if I will let Him be. It was worded like that. Something
that I had to do to let Him into my heart type thing. Well, I
ripped it up, went into the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.
And that's the best place for something like that, because
he carries us when we preach and when we talk about what this
book so clearly declares. Grace. That means unmerited favor. That means he chose us. We didn't
choose him. That means he sought the lost
sheep. We didn't seek him. That means he cleansed the leper
by his word of power and grace. We couldn't clean ourselves.
That means that we were dead in trespasses and sins and couldn't
make one decision or step towards Jesus. But then he had to freely
forgive all our debts and give us his righteousness. and clothe
us with his humility and his beauty and his peace and his
mercy and then we will be saved then we will be accepted and
then we desire to do those things which please him not to gain
his favor because we're already in his favor that's what grace
is free favor too but grace produces grace and
that's what we mean when we say salvation is all of grace he
carries them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that
are with him. He leads us. He leads the sheep. He doesn't drive the sheep. Now, that's an issue that I have
with most. That's if I give myself a hot
water here, reformed theology of this day. I'm not going to
necessarily say some of the men that I read because I wasn't
around then, didn't know their characteristics, but many reformed,
I call legalists, they might have their five points, all tulips
right in a row, but they're usually they drive people. They peep
at people. They spy on people. They're looking
at people. And some of the some of the folks
that perhaps are listening right now have been through that type
of stuff. I know we have, I know I have.
You know, somebody says something about the doctrines of grace,
so you get all excited. And then you start, and this,
the doctrines of grace, but my, this is what you need to do,
the doctrines of grace, and this. And we're going to do this to
your children. And you better be doing this at home. And you
better be praying so many times. And they start, there's all these
strings attached. And I know God's people will
do And will behave as old Donnie Bell says, they'll act like believers,
a believer will be a believer. But who keeps the sheep? Who
leads the sheep? Yeah, he uses his pastors and
elders to to lead his people, but not to drive them. Not to
drive them. He leads, he doesn't drive his
sheep. So back to our text, and close. Brethren, may we thank God for
sending true undershepherds to his flock. May we thank God for keeping
us, caring for us, and sustaining us every single day. May he give you grace to come
to this shepherd, not to me. to this shepherd, the true and
faithful, the only true and faithful shepherd, the only one that can
ever keep promises, the only one who has promises and gives
promises and shall fulfill all those promises. We are his by
blood bought purchase. And we would have it no other
way. We would have it no other way because the alternative is
what we've looked at in Isaiah 56 being devoured And it wasn't
too many years, that's where we were at. The history of this
church in Jackson, we know quite a bit about false preachers and
false shepherds. But even through all that, God,
one, knew what he was doing. Two, was doing everything on
purpose to sift and to weed and to bring forth his people out
of the fire. To be more like him and to be so thankful that
may be few in number, but it's a whole lot better to
be few in number and to have the truth than to have a whole
bunch of people and confusion therein. Let's close in prayer.