Who Speaks for God In These Days

Jeremiah 23 29 is not my word
like as a fire Saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh
the rock in pieces Now our Lord warned of false preachers and
false prophets. I'm not being uncharitable now
And I'm trying not to be critical We are to preach the gospel.
We're not to preach about the Aaron about false preachers,
but there's some questions need to be answered and dealt with
along this line. And our Lord warned about false
preachers. He said, beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing,
but within they're ravening wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. And then in the book of second Peter, chapter two,
the apostle Peter warns about false prophets and false preachers. 2 Peter 2 verse 1, listen to
this, But there were false prophets also among the people, even as
there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall
bring in damnable 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 even evil spoken up and through covetousness shall
they with feigned words make merchandise of you. Preacher
told me while I was in Georgia this week that a father called
one of the Baptist preachers in town there after the morning
service one morning and he said Have you preachers lost your
minds?" And the pastor said to him, I don't understand, what
are you talking about? He said, my son, who is seven
years old, has ridden five church buses in the last two months,
and he's come home with a wet head every Sunday. Did you baptize
my son this morning?" The preacher said, yes, he made a profession
of faith and I baptized him. He said, preacher, that's the
fifth time that boy's been baptized in two months. This is what Peter's
saying here. Through covetousness shall they
with feigned words, verse 3, make merchandise. They're making
merchandise, even the little children. Making, Barnard used
to call them hucksters, religious hucksters. whose judgment now
of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not." Now, 1 John 4. John warns about false prophets
and false preachers. 1 John, chapter 4. Now, our Lord
warned about them. Beware of them, He said. And
Peter says they're hucksters. They make merchandise of people.
People are not important to them. The individual's soul and welfare
with Christ is not important. You're a name, you're a number,
you're an addition. And 1 John 4, John says, Beloved,
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they
are of God. Because many, many false prophets
are gone out into the world. Now look back at Jeremiah 23,
and our Lord pronounces a condemnation upon these pretenders. These
who pretend to speak in his name. He said in verse 25, I've heard
what the prophet said that prophesy lies in my name. They say I've
dreamed. This is a revelation I've gotten.
This is a thought that I've received. They preach not the word of God,
they preach their dreams. They preach their visions. They
preach their imaginations. They preach the way that seemeth
right to them. This is the way I see it. That's
what they preach. Now look at verse 30. He said,
Behold, therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the
Lord, that steal my words, every one from his neighbor. And then
verse 31, Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord,
that use their tongue, and say, God said, see that capital H
in he, he saith. They say this is what God said,
but God said I didn't say that. And in verse 32, I'm against
them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tale them,
and cause my people to err by their lies and by their likeness.
And he said, I did not send them, and I did not command them, therefore
they shall not profit these people. Their words are not going to
profit, their message are not going to profit at all. Now,
secondly, the Lord gave a test. Now, that establishes this introduction. The Lord says, beware false preachers,
false prophets. There are many pretenders in
Jeremiah's day, and our Lord warned about them in his day,
and Peter warned about them, and John warned about them. And
then the Lord gave us a test, right in the middle of this chapter,
by which the true message can be distinguished from the false
message. How do you distinguish? Well,
our Lord said, by their fruit shall you know them. Well, that's
the false prophet's converts. The fruits of the ministry are
the converts, the people who profess to believe, the people
who follow the minister. His converts, his fruit will
reveal he's a false prophet. But here's the key here. Here
in verse 28, look at it. The prophet that hath a dream,
let him tell his dream. Go ahead, if that's what you
want to preach, your dreams and your visions and your personal
revelation, let him go ahead. But he that hath my word, let
him speak my word faithfully. For what is the chaff to the
wheat? And that's the difference. The word of God is the wheat.
And the false prophet's dreams and visions and revelations,
that's the chaff. That which the false preacher
preaches is but worthless chaff compared with the word of the
living God. Now we may hear men preach and we find that their
messages are interesting. We may hear men preach and we
really say to ourselves what fine oratory, what a beautiful
sermon, what great thought, what eloquence. One time a couple left this country
back in the 19th century, in the latter part of the 19th century,
and went to England to hear Mr. Spurgeon. And they couldn't get
in the tabernacle. The tabernacle only seated 5,000
people, a little more than 5,000, and sometimes it was packed out
and nobody could get in except those that had tickets. And so
they secured a ticket to hear Mr. Spurgeon that night, but
that morning they went to hear another preacher. And when the
couple came out of the church after they had heard this other
preacher, he was a great orator. He was a very eloquent speaker.
He was a very powerful speaker. And the man said to his wife
as they left the church, my, what a great sermon. What a great
sermon. Well that night they went to
hear Mr. Spurgeon. And when the couple
left the church, the man turned to his wife and said, what a
great Savior. What a great Savior. Now that's
the difference. God says in verse 29, my word
is like a fire. My word is like a hammer. The
word of God does not come to us only as a thing of beauty,
it is a thing of beauty. There's no words in all of literature
as eloquent and as beautiful as the Song of Solomon or the
Psalms. But God's word is not only a
thing of beauty, it does not come to us only as a beautiful,
eloquent picture, but it comes to us as a force, he said, as
a fire. That's the difference. My word
is like a fire. God's word does not only come
to us as an interesting fact. That's the way we hear much preaching.
Well, that's very interesting, or that's very beautiful. But
God's word, it is an interesting fact. There's nothing more interesting
than the history of Israel. But the word of God does not
come to us as an interesting fact. It comes to us as a fire,
as power, with a force. The word of God is not only to
be admired, But the Word of God is to be obeyed. The Word of
God does not come just to tickle our ears and to please us, but
the Word of God comes to break our hearts. The Word of God comes
not to be looked at and to be argued about, the Word of God
comes to deal with us personally, individually. The Word of God
comes not to entertain, but to convict, to reprove, and to rebuke. My word, he said, the prophet
that hath a beautiful dream, or a glorious vision, or a good
idea, let him preach that. But he that hath my word, let
him preach my word. My word's like a fire. My word's
like a hammer that will break the rock to pieces. The false
prophet came with flattering words, pleasing words, crying
peace, peace, when there is no peace. The true prophets Preaches
God's Word. That's like a force like a hammer
like a power and human nature doesn't like it But human nature
feels it and deals with it and his message like a hammer breaks
the heart and crushes the wheel That's what Paul is saying over
here in first Thessalonians. Listen to Paul in first Thessalonians
chapter 1 He says in verse 4 first Thessalonians 1 knowing brethren
beloved your election of God. Our gospel did not come to you
in word only, but how? Power. Power. Our gospel came to you in the
Holy Ghost. Our gospel came to you in much
assurance. So here's the difference. The
false prophet hath a dream. It may be a beautiful dream.
It may be an eloquent dream. It may be an interesting dream. But the preacher of God comes
with God's Word. And that Word, like a fire, burns
into the soul and burns into the heart. That Word, like a
hammer, it deals with the sinner. It deals with the preacher. It
deals with the deacon. It deals with the Sunday school
teacher. It deals with the unsaved man. It deals with every person.
God's Word crushes and burns and comes with force and power.
And that's the difference. Look back at the text. My Word
is like a fire. Now I'm not talking about the
words that I use about His Word. I'm not talking about the Word
that the preacher preaches with illustrations and poetry and
eloquence and logic and reason. I'm talking about the Word itself.
The truth which is revealed in this wonderful book, the truth
which the Holy Ghost is pleased to reveal to us, God's Word. His word is like a fire. Well,
let me give you five things that a fire will do. First of all,
a fire can be felt. A fire can be felt. On a cold
day, such as today, you come in from the cold, you're covered
with snow, your feet are cold, your hands are cold, your ears
are cold. You come in the cold, and you lay your coat aside,
and lay your hat down, take off your boots, and sit down in front
of a fire, and you feel it. You feel its warrant, and you
delight in its presence. It is not that so of every believer
when God's Word is read. I mean, I ask you personally,
when you sit down and someone reads to you the Word of God,
or you read it yourself, doesn't it thrill you? Does God's Word
delight you? Does God's word warm you? Men
might laugh at us and say we have a sweet tooth for certain
doctrines, and I must confess I do. I do have a sweet tooth
for certain doctrines, but you know, even a dog knows when he's
well fed. The ox knows his owner and the
ash knows his master's crib, and I'd be dumber than a beast
not to know when I feel something. While ago in the study, Ronnie
read Psalm 61, and there's a phrase in there that we sing, one of
the songs in this book, lead me to the rock higher than I. And that just blessed me. Oh
God, lead me to the rock that's higher than I. A shelter from
the storm, a shade from the sun, a place to rest. It thrilled
my soul just to hear that. I delight in God's covenant grace.
I like to read Ephesians 1 where it talks about God chose us in
Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinated us
to be conformed to the image of his son. I'm warned by his
electing love, knowing that I'd never love him if he hadn't loved
me first. I delight to read about the atoning
sacrifice of Christ. how that he shed his blood for
the remission of my sins, and how that his blood puts them
away and cleanses them and separates them from me as far as the east
is from the west. I'm warmed and I'm delighted
and thrilled when I hear about Christ's intercessory work at
the right hand of the Father, just to read God's word. He says
my word's a fire, it can be felt. And when a man preaches God's
Word, if the Spirit of God is in the preaching and the Spirit
of God is in you, you will feel that Word, you will thrill to
that Word, you will be delighted at that Word. It can be felt.
Nobody can go to sleep listening to God's Word any more than a
man can go to sleep with his hand in the fire. It can be felt. The second mark of fire is this.
Fire not only can be felt, But fire comforts. When you come
in from the cold, how comforting is the fire. And I'll tell you,
life is not easy. Life is difficult, and I believe
the older we get, the more trials and sorrows that we feel and
the more failures we encounter. But his word, his precious promises,
comfort me. I got a great deal of comfort
out of the message that God gave me this morning. I'm the chief
of sinners, but He's my Redeemer. I'm weak, but He is strong. I'm
a failure, but in Him I'm accepted. My plans go astray, but all things
work together for good to them who love God. His Word is my
sole source of comfort. And I'll tell you this, I suppose
the most difficult time that that I've ever gone through in
all my life was when our son was killed and Darcy and I were
down in Florida and just to receive, just a man walk in and say your
son's dead. Now that, that is a, that's a
trial that I do not, I wish, I hope all of you can be delivered
from. And you know, you try to say
something to each other and then you, Friends come in and you
delight at their presence. You're just so glad they're there
you they just mean so much But it's just one place you can find
any real comfort When your heart is just literally destroyed when
you feel like that everything is against you there's just one
place and that's this book and I can truthfully say that during
that time that I said I was sustained by the Word of God and And I
received my comfort just from the word of the living God. The
word of God comforts, and no matter how dark the road is,
and no matter how heavy the burden is, and no matter how cloudy
the day is, and no matter how heavy the load is, his word will
give you the strength and comfort you need. My word, he said, like
a fire, it'll warm when you're cold. It'll comfort when you're
distressed. My word will do that. And then
the third thing about the fire is this. A fire will hurt. Now if a man comes in contact
with fire, I've never been burned before, but I just imagine that
it could be a very terrible experience. It'll hurt. If a man comes in
contact with a fire, it's going to hurt him. He'll know that
he's been in contact with fire. And I'm saying that, and I believe
the Lord's saying here, He says, now these false prophets, they
speak beautiful things. They speak dreams, and they speak
visions, and all these things. But the true prophet speaks my
word, and my word like a fire. It'll be felt, it'll comfort,
and it'll hurt. And if you sit under a minister,
and you are unconvicted, and unmoved, and untroubled, If you
can sit under a minister and be satisfied and pleased with
yourself, you haven't heard God's Word. If it's God's Word, it'll
make you unhappy with yourself. That's what Isaiah said, woe
is me, I'm a man of unclean lips. It'll make you unhappy with your
surroundings. I'm in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. It'll make you unhappy with your
sins. It'll startle you. It'll awaken
you. It'll convict you. It'll disturb
you. It'll trouble you. It'll drive
you to Christ. The Word of God hurts. It hurts. And as we read it or we hear
it preached, the Word of God will operate on us. And then
fourthly, a fire melts. I worked for a little while in
the steel mill. I worked in the hot strip mill.
And once in a while I'd go out the mill where they were melting
steel, melting iron. I'd look into those furnaces,
you know. They are hot. They will melt that iron. And
just as the fire in a blast furnace will melt the hardest iron, If
it's the Word of God when it's preached, it will melt the hardest
iron. These preachers down in Georgia
were talking to me about discipline, discipline of church. I say this,
that if a preacher preaches the Word of God, the Word of God
will discipline him and discipline the church. It will melt an unforgiving
heart. A man cannot sit with an unforgiving
heart under the Word of God. It will melt it. Just like that
fire melts the heart of steel, the Word of God will melt an
unforgiving heart. A man cannot sit with a selfish
spirit under the Word of God. It will melt his selfish spirit.
A man cannot sit with a proud will under the Word of God. It
will melt his proud will. A man cannot continue with an
uncontrolled, unholy temper under the Word of God. It will melt
his bad spirit. If God's Word comes in the power
of the Holy Spirit, hard, self-centered, proud, selfish, unforgiving men
will be melted before its heat and then fed. A fire not only
is felt and warms and comforts A fire not only hurts and not
only melts, but a fire will consume. You drive down the highway and
you see a chimney standing. And around that chimney, the
burned, charred, blackened remains of a house. And you know what's
happened. You know that the fire has come
and consumed all the wood, all the hay, and all the stubble,
and left only one thing standing, that which is rock, that which
is permanent. And this is what the Word of
God does as its priest over the months and over the years. It
burns away our filthy rags of self-righteousness. It burns
away the stubble of tradition. It burns away the wood of legalism
and ceremonialism and custom, and all these false hopes And
all these fleshly confidences are consumed, but they're only
consumed by the Word of God. These false traditions and ceremonialism
and legalism and custom and self-righteousness, these things are fed by the preachers
of dreams and they're fed by the preachers of vision. But
those who preach God's Word, when they preach, the fire consumes
it. Turn to Matthew 17. I want you
to look at a scripture here. Our Lord and three of his disciples,
Peter, James, and John, went up on a mountain. He left the
other disciples behind. He went up on that mountain,
and the scripture says he was transfigured, in verse 2, before
them. And his face did shine as the
sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there
appeared unto them Moses and Elijah. There was the Lord, there
was Moses, there was Elijah, talking with him. Then answered
Peter and said to Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here.
If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee,
one for Moses, one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a
bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the
cloud which said, This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well
pleased, hear ye him." And when the disciples heard it, they
fell on their face and were so afraid. And Jesus came and touched
them and said, Arise, and be not afraid. Now watch this next
verse. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save
Jesus only. I believe that is the place to
which God is bringing every one of us by his words. where we come to the place where
we see no man, we see no human strength, we see no human foundation,
we see no human glory, we see only Christ Jesus. The Word of
God is just like that chimney standing there. Used to be a
big house there and behind it a barn and all these fences around
it and everything. Now everything is consumed and
blackened and destroyed and the only thing you see is that chimney. And I believe when the Word of
God does its perfect work, like a fire, it's going to destroy
all of our denominational prejudices, it'll destroy our sectarianism,
it'll destroy our legalism, it'll destroy our self-righteousness,
it'll destroy all these things, and in our hearts, and in our
preaching, and in our singing, in our conversation, in our church,
just Christ Jesus. Just Christ Jesus. The rock that's
higher than us. One of my favorite stories, most
of you have heard me tell it again and again and again, but
Bob's never heard it, so I'll tell it again. But Brother Barnard
was pastor out in Texas when he was very young. This was his
favorite story, too. I've heard him tell it so many
times. I always get a blessing when I heard him tell it and
when I try to tell it. But he said he was a young pastor
out in Borga, Texas. He started that church, pastored
there two or three years. And he said he had an old deacon
there, old believer, white-haired gentleman named Brother Burke.
And he said they'd have prayer meeting, and every once in a
while they'd have some testimonies, and he said invariably Brother
Burke would stand up and he'd turn to the pastor, stately old
gentleman, tall, nice-looking, white-haired, and he'd say, uh,
Brother Pastor, he said, did I ever tell you how the Lord
saved And Brother Barnard would say, no, Brother Burke, you never
did. Why don't you tell us? Well, he had many times, but
they all just sat back and listened because it blessed them so much.
Well, he said, you know, he said, Pastor, he said, I was a wicked
young fellow. Oh, so wicked. I hated God. I hated the word of God. I hated
the church. But my wife was a godly woman.
She loved Christ. She loved the church. And he
said, she went to this little country church not too far from
where we live, but they didn't have services but once a month.
Some preacher was riding on his horse, circuits, you know, and
he'd come by once a month, preach on Saturday night and twice on
Sunday, and then he'd ride on somewhere else. Well, he said,
I never did go. But he said, one Saturday night,
my wife was getting ready to go to church, and I came in and
taking care of the chores, and I said, I believe I'll go to
church with you tonight." He said, I don't know why, but I
just wanted to go to church with her. Well, she was delighted. So I got my clothes on, the best
we had, you know, and he said, we hooked up the horse to the
buggy, and we went to church, and said, I went in and sat down
beside my wife, and he said when they finished the song service,
that preacher got up to preach, and said he took out on me from
the time he opened his mouth the first word. And he told those
people everything I'd ever done, everything I'd ever thought,
everything I'd ever said. He didn't preach to anybody there
but just to me. And he said, I sat there and
I got so mad. I got so angry. He said, I just
couldn't wait till he got through. I wanted to get out of there.
And he said, when the preacher finished, I just got up from
my seat and tore out the door and went out there and I sat
in the buggy with the lions in my hand waiting on my wife. I
was mad. And said, she came out and sat down beside me, and I
said, well, I ain't coming back no more. She said, it'll be all
right. It'll be all right. She knew
what was happening. Well, he said, I'm not coming
back. He said, it's not right for a man to pick on a fellow
right in front of all his neighbors and tell them everything he'd
ever done or said and everything he'd ever thought. Said she wouldn't
say anything, but it'll be all right. Said we came on home,
said the next morning, finished the milking and things I had
to do, Said I came in she's getting ready for church Said I went
over and took off my old clothes put on my Sunday clothes She
said where you going? Well, he said I'm going back
to church with you. She said thought you wasn't going back
He said I'm going one more time But he said I'll tell you this
if that preacher gets on me this morning said me and him gonna
have it I'm with him and she said well, it'll be alright And
so they got in the buggy and went to church. And he said,
I sat down. They finished the song service. Said he started
right in where he left off the night before. And he worked me
over again. And he said, I was so mad. I
was so upset. And he said, I stomped out there
again, you know. Well, he said, that night, I
determined I wasn't ever going back to church. No more. She'd
never get me back in a church house. But he said, all afternoon,
I was disturbed by what that man had done, what he had said.
So that night, she was feeling kind of poorly. said she told
him she wasn't going to church but said I started getting ready
and she said where are you going he said I'm going back but now
he said I'm telling you before I go he said that fell out not
done that Saturday night and this morning said I'm going back
and said maybe he'll talk about somebody else so he said I went
back and sat down and he started in again he said he wasn't preaching
to nobody but me nobody but me you see what I'm saying No, the
fire of God burned just like a hammer. It breaks the heart,
breaks the will, singles us out. And he said he got about halfway
through that sermon, he said, preach, I stood up and I said,
that's enough. And I went down that aisle and
I fell on my face and I cried unto God to save me. Asked the
people to pray for me that I needed Christ. Well, he said the Lord
did save me. I found faith. And he said, I
got in the buggy and I started home. And he said, the wind blowing
through the pine trees seemed to say, glad you're saved, Brother
Burton, glad you're saved. He said, I was so happy. It was
just a burden rolled off. And he said, I put the team up
and put the buggy up and walked up the path and opened the gate
and started up the walk and stepped up on the porch. He said, my
wife was lying in there in the front room feeling bad. And when
I walked up on the porch, she said, the Lord saved you, didn't
he? And he said, I walked in the
room and I said, how'd you know? She said, I heard you coming
from the barn singing Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me. That's what he's saying. Let
those that dream dreams preach dreams. Let those that have visions
preach visions. Let those who seek the glory
of men preach the glory of men. But let him that hath my word
preach my word. For he said, My word is like
a fire. It can be felt. My word is like
a fire. It comforts. My word is like
a fire. It hurts. My word is like a fire. It consumes and it destroys. My word. And it's like a hammer. It'll break that old hard heart.
It'll crush that old stubborn will. It'll destroy that old
unforgiving spirit. My word. And then again he said,
My word. will not return unto me void,
it shall accomplish that whereunto I sent it. Like the rain that
comes down from the heaven and waters the soil and brings forth
the bud, well, it'll bring forth some thorns and it'll bring forth
some chaff and it'll bring forth some tares, but it'll bring forth
some flowers like the rose of Sharon that'll bloom for the
glory of God. Our Father, we do thank Thee
for Thy Word. What strength in our weakness,
what grace in our guilt, what beauty in our ugliness, what
righteousness in our unholiness, what power, Lord, in our inability. Thank Thee for Thy Word. Thy
word that has, we feel it, we love it, it thrills our souls,
the precious promises of the living God. Oh Lord, we have
felt its power in our own hearts and we feel it every day and
we pray that thou would take thy word and use it daily that
we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ our Lord.
We pray that Thou would bless the messages today. Let us not
forget what Thou has spoken to us, what Thy Holy Spirit has
taught us. But, O Lord, let it bring forth fruit in our hearts.
Bless this church. Make us a prayerful people. Make
us a people who love one another, who love Thee. Make us a people
who are united in spirit for one chief end, and that's the
glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. Make us a missionary people with
hearts broken for those, not only in our household, but those
down the street and those throughout this land and those throughout
the world who know not Christ. And make us a generous people.
And, O Lord, make us a thankful people. Let our hearts always
sing a song of gratitude to the living God. Deliver us from murmuring
and complaining and finding fault with our providence. But make
us a people who are appreciative of the Lord's grace and the Lord's
mercy through thy blessed Son. Bless each one who's come here
tonight and bless thy word. Give us thy word to pray. And
Lord, let it not go forth in word only, but in power, in the
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. Speak to us, and by thy grace,
if it please thee, speak through us. And we pray for the television
messages tomorrow night. Lord, anoint us with thy Spirit,
and let them be preached in power. Use it for thy glory throughout
this region. will give you the praise and
the glory forever without worthy of all praise and all glory in
christ's name ronnie lee is in a closing him please let's sing four fifty six let's stand please So precious is Jesus, my Savior,
my King His praise all the day long with rapture I sing To Him
in my weakness for strength I can cling For He is so precious Oh, he is so precious to me. Oh, he is so precious. to me. Tis heaven below my Redeemer
to know, for He is so precious to me.

Who Speaks for God In These Days

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