From Western South Dakota
No Other Place On the Earth Like It
Where the Great Plains Prairie & Grassland Meets the Rugged Badlands Wall


M Paulson
Kadoka, South Dakota
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Word-for-word transcription of the audio sermon - transcribed by Bob Harris

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 Despising and Destroying
the Magnificence of Today's Pastors"
Part 1

 Oh, here we are. At least I know it’s January this time. And it’s probably — I don’t have my calendar, I moved it — now where did I move it to? I need a desk. The 22nd. January 22nd.

 So, let’s get started here this morning. This is another different approach, and, you know, I’m going to sound — I suppose — bitter or something — and I’m not. I’m not happy that I’m not a pastor, and people are probably going to say, well, “He’s preaching this because he’s no longer a pastor. He’s failed at that so, now he’s going to go after the other ones.” No, that’s not the point at all here. Sure, I’d love to have a church family with people sitting out there and playing piano and singing like it was. But I know better that Romans 11:22 says that it’s going to get worse, people believing Paul’s teachings and following the risen Saviour before it gets better. So, in order to get back into that kind of a scene where I’m going to be playing the piano, we have the organist with my wife, you know, and everybody comes and sings, and everybody shakes hands and we have a good time, blah blah blah blah — all that kind of stuff — which is what all people really want, because you know their church is teaching some false doctrine in there. But they still just want that addiction to church to be fulfilled. But anyway.

 So we’re going to look at, this morning and tonight, we’re going to look at, turn to Acts chapter 19, we’re going to look at pastors. And we’re going to look at the Old Testament — for those who say we’re not in the Old Testament enough — we’re going to look at the Old Testament as well. And we’re going to look at this “no shepherd” thing. And, for almost the entire Bible, God’s people — the elect — were without a shepherd. They had their leaders, no doubt, and they had their prophets, but it didn’t all click at the time.

 You get into the Gospels, Jesus saw the people out there. He had compassion because they had no shepherd as such. And then Jesus warns about false prophets.

 And then what do we get into when it comes to Paul? What is he warning about these pastors today? And then one of these, tonight or Wednesday or something, then what is that a pastor is supposed to be doing, according to the Scriptures? And why? Why do you want to do this?

 Well, for one thing it’s been on my mind all week. Two, is I’ve met some of the local guys around here, and I’m sorry but I’ve never been a pastor buddy for a long time. When I first got involved in the ministry, I followed this man, this pastor down in Las Vegas, like he was God on this earth. I had never know anybody that would ever know their Bible like he did. I know that they were religious guys. My Lutheran pastor and all these guys that I’ve ever met over the years, you know — never did like them. I just never did. I never thought a man should be wearing some kind of a neck collar. I never thought a man should be wishy-washy and huggy-wuggy - and be like they were. It seemed like the only people who ever really followed those guys were the older ladies in the church, because their husbands were either dead or they were just susceptible to leadership of a nice man who’s their pastor. And I certainly would never have gone with lady pastors, even before I knew that that was a Scriptural thing that they’re not supposed to — I just, I never would have.

 And then, my mother said one time, she’ll finally quit the Lutheran church if they ever get a lady pastor. Well, they got a lady pastor, and she never quit the church. So ...

 When I first met a man who really, I thought, knew his Bible, I worshipped him. And that was wrong. And I saw how it destroyed me down in those years in Vegas when, just kind of the story of my life, different places we went. One day I found out his illustration book is “5,000 Illustrations of Pastoral Messages,” and all the funny stories he said he ever did, he never did any of them. They were all from an illustration book. He lied. That really bust my bubble about this guy.

 Which is fine, which is good.

 And then I learned about concordances, you know, and all this stuff. So, you know, these pastors were not my pope anymore.

 Then I followed the church, then I followed the Baptist church, then finally Ruckman, then I finally wised up and followed the Bible. Then I finally really wised up and followed the Bible rightly divided. And here we are — wherever that is.

But in Acts chapter 19 it says there, this is that part where Demetrius, silversmith, and he was making silver shrines for Diana, verse 24, and they were making big bucks with this thing. The King James Bible says ”no small gain.” And these guys got worried because Paul was turning people away (verse 26): ”... turned away much people ...” “... throughout all Asia.” Paul was getting some work done there. ”Saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands.” The idols and these little things and all that stuff.

 So here’s one of my favorite verses, but it makes me look like I’m this bitter, I’m hateful, I’m no fun to talk to, I don’t work well with other people. Where it says in verse 27, ”So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought.” So there goes their moneymaking junk:

“but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.” So here comes this Paul with this teaching stuff, and he’s taking away their bookstore profits, he’s despising the temple, the church of Diana, and the magnificence of this whole thing, this religion, this Diana, the magnificence — and it is, it’s magnificent stuff — should be destroyed. The ”magnificence should be destroyed.”

 And what we got going on today, as I talk to people about this Paul stuff, and we bounce it around, I don’t expect people to grasp it the first time, I don’t know why, but I didn’t, so how can I expect them to? And, now I tell you, these guys, they clink to their pastor something fierce. I mean, it doesn’t matter that they can be proven as false teachers. It doesn’t matter that they can be shown to be fallable. Well, everybody can be. Yeah, but see, they look to these pastors, they’ve got their education, they’ve got their degrees, they’ve got their nice suit coats or nice dresses or whatever, and they’ve got their experience, they’ve got their gray hair or no hair, and they’re sweet, and they’re wonderful. And they don’t want to strive — which is a Paul thing. But not striving doesn’t mean you have to be a marshmallow either. And I could take all day here and dig in through my stories and experience, tell you about all the pastors I’ve been around. Hyles, Ruckman, Matajevich, Sowell — I mean, you name all the big Baptist guys, the King James guys, who’ve been around, every one of them — and it didn’t take long for me to realize something’s wrong here. I mean, what these guys say is more important than what the Bible teaches, and it didn’t take long for me to recognize that. And I’m certainly not trying to claim any infallibility, but I better be preaching the truth, and the things that I say better be Scriptural, and they better be rightly divided, whether people follow them or not, or like them or not, or whatever. That part of it better be right.

 Knowing, of course, that everybody who listens to me or who has been around me in the church or whatever, they’ve all got a Bible. But the general observation I ever made was, no, you’re looking to me to be your Bible study person. Read your Bible yourself, and I’ll just add some stuff to what you’re reading throughout the week. And then I’ve got that sermon out, the “Niggerated Christianity,” where everybody turns to their pastor to teach their wife, teach their children, do the Bible studies for them, make the entertainment for them, give them something to do on Friday nights. You know, the whole bit. And you can dig that up — I’m not sure that it’s online, actually. But anyway.

So this morning, let’s look at “no shepherds.” And then expand it out, it’ll take a couple sermons, like my sermons always seem to do, we’re going to look at Old Testament, and Ezekiel, Jeremiah, look at the Gospels (which is still Old Testament) and look at Paul, what he says about these false teachers, these pastors today that we are really — to me — are to despise and to destroy the magnificence of them, because the key to that (false) church working is the pastor — not the truth, not the Bible. But that pastor.

 And, you know, when I look back at my years, how many people followed me and not their book. Whatever he says, you know. Because, before they got there, they believed that guy. When I got there, they believed this guy. Next guy comes along, they believe that guy. Does anybody crack open their book anymore and check it out? And if it’s wrong, ask somebody, especially the pastor? Go on and ask him. I wish somebody would ask me locally. Well, every now and then. And even back in those days, I wanted somebody to ask me. And it sounded like I’m never wrong. No, I’m not saying I’m never wrong. But the book that I preach is never wrong, and if I wrongly apply it, show me, and I’ll be glad to make a public withdrawal, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know. And I’ve done that. I’ve taught Baptist doctrine for, was it seven years, I think, before we got into that thing. And I still feel bad about it to this day. I’m glad most of it isn’t online.

 OK, so, let’s look at this thing about pastors. Let’s look to Mark 9:36. Let’s go to Matthew, I’m sorry, Matthew 9:36 — I think that’s what I said, Matthew 9:36, for this kind of a general start here. Again, I just kind of scribble all of this stuff down and put it together as we go anymore. Is it a time basis, or is it just how I want to do it? Matthew 9:36:But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” Then we hear this from the people today, now we hear this from the pastors today, verse 37: ”Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” Because, see they have no shepherd out there.

And so what do we have, we have kids and we have young men — we’ve ever got women now — they believe they are “called” into the ministry, and the harvest is just ready to be picked. Right. Are you kidding? Again, understanding rightly dividing, understanding Paul, we know in Romans 11:22, the harvest is ripe to be picked?  Just about nobody wants to hear about a King James Bible. And Paul? The King James guys don’t want to hear about Paul. And you’re not hearing (just) from Paul, you’re hearing from the risen Saviour. But you can still say Paul, because we’re following Paul. That’s what he says: “follow me,” you know, as he follows the risen Saviour, is what he’s talking about there.

 And there’s no harvest for that today. We all know that. So if I want to get a church, I’d drop all this Paul stuff. I could probably find one somewhere that doesn’t have a pastor. You know, “Hey, play the piano!” OK, well, here, have a guy come in because he plays nice piano, and gives us these nice little messages, and blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, but not only do I play piano, I can also tell you what's going on in your music program and your music. Well, there goes that job! So I’m out of luck. It’s not going to happen.

 So we’re looking at these people here, that are scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd in the Old Testament here. So let’s go to Numbers 27, back down to Numbers 27, Numbers 27, verse 17. Numbers is between Genesis and Matthew. He talks about, he’s got this phrase in there, Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in, etc., etc. Here’s a phrase: ”That the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.” So it’s not the Lord’s will that the people have no shepherd. It says, ”That the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.” OK. So, this isn’t the design; this is what happens, but it’s not his design.

 Now, we see in 2 Chronicles 18, 2 Chronicles 18, verse 16 — am I doing these verses too fast? I never know if anybody’s flipping through them, or they’re just listening, or if I’m too quick, or maybe I’m too slow. I can’t look out there and wait for the pages to quit flipping, so I don’t know what’s going on on the other side here. Don’t get any sandwich meat or Miracle Whip on your Bible, if that’s what you’re doing. OK, ”Then he said, I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master; let them return therefore every man to his house in peace.

 Now, if you want, you can look to this thing like, hey, we’ve got no pastors today that are teaching the truth, so I’m going to return back to my house in peace. Well, yeah, we can, no doubt. But what I want you to see out of this verse is the phrase, “They have no masters.” And we’ve got to remember, this is Old Testament, and these people had to do what these guys told them, these prophets, these people had to follow them. They had no book; there were Scriptures, but were they mass-printed to everybody? Of course not. So, keeping that in mind, people look to their pastors today as their master. There we go. Who is your pastor/master? And right away, without a doubt, they always go to — you know where — Hebrews chapter 13. You know the verses. Now we read Paul long enough; what is there to teach? I mean, there it is, saying the same stuff over and over, which I’ve been accused of.

 Hebrews 13:7:Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.” So, follow that man; he is to rule over you. Then you get to verse 17, it’s even worse: ”Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” And I’ve preached that verse a million times back in my old Baptist days. You know, “Obey your pastor; I’m watching for your soul. And I’m going to have to give account of my pastoring, and I better have a joyful account, because if not, you’re in trouble!” Boy, talk about a guilt trip! Again, Old Testament — but in this case, it’s Tribulational Old Testament. And we went over that; where is the source of truth in the Tribulation? Well, the King James Bible, but there will be a famine. But, anyway.

 So, we see here that pastors today are being looked upon in the Old Testament fashion. Or again in the Tribulational fashion. Make sense? They look to them like they’re a mastor.

 Now, not to jump the gun here, but let’s just, as long as we’re talking about that, let’s see if I can find it here. Look to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and let’s just skip all the rest I’m going to say here this morning, and here’s where we are today. This is what it’s supposed to be with Paul. And we’ll go back and we’ll do the whole hamburger between two buns here. Verse 12:And we beseech you, brethren, to know them —” to know them! ”— which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord.” Now that doesn’t have anything to do with submit so, or rule over you. It just says they’re over you in the Lord. They’ve got the time, they’ve got the accountability, they’ve got the responsibility, but nowhere does it say they are our masters; nowhere does it say we are to submit to them like that. ”And are over you in the Lord, and admonish you.” They’ve got the right to do so. They’re the pastor. You know, the hardest thing for people to realize is, listen, he’s the pastor of the local church. Well, sure. He’s the CEO. He’s the boss of the building, the organization. What he says should go in that building, in that church. I don’t have a problem with that. I used to come up with rules all the time in the church, back in Touchet, with you guys, because somebody’s going to run around, and they’re going to run into Goldie. Or somebody’s going to run through there, and they’re going to break another spring door, or window, or somebody’s going to choke on the bell cord, or your baby’s crying, it’s been crying for 20 minutes, would you take the screaming little and take him out please? I never was big on that sort of a thing. We got rid of the nursery at one time. Anyway, that’s my job as the pastor. Run the ship. That part of it — the physical ship, you know. Mow the lawn, trim this kind of stuff, and fix things. But then, Bob, you knew also how I fix things, ha! You know. I suppose that, is the stove still there in the fellowship lounge? I suppose that stovepipe is still at about a 35-degree angle, coming out of the roof, you know. But that was my job, to oversee that place.

 And the people? Yeah, I was over the people in the Lord, and I’m supposed to admonish. And I — as well as pastors, proper ones — are to be “esteemed” (verse 13) ”very highly in love for their work’s sake” because of what they’re doing, what they’re preaching, what they’re teaching. ”And be at peace among yourselves.”

 We’ve got 'peace' among themselves in the churches today because their pastor is wishy-washy, doesn’t put the screws down on them, doesn’t preach to them, doesn’t teach them anything, doesn’t teach them anything about preparing for the Judgment Seat of Christ, doesn’t teach anything about Paul rightly divided, and it doesn’t teach Genesis to resolution, that stuff is still there for them. But they’re “nice people,” they’ve got the degrees, and I think probably the hardest thing for the people is, they’re just “nice people.” How can you leave the church when they’ve been so good to you? They brought you food, they visited you in the hospital — maybe — maybe they’ve given you some clothes. But, see, that’s the Mormon trick. And the Mormons, they’ve got this great big Deseret ministry, where you go to Salt Lake City or these Mormon towns and you’re a visitor, or you’re having a hard time — man, they’ll take care of you. But then they’re buying you, too. And all these cults are better at taking care of people than we ever were. We tried. I had a lady telling me one time when I first got there, “I don’t believe in your preaching. I come to this church because I need to help with the men.” Got rid of her quick. I’m not going to put up with that stuff.

 And if people don’t like what the pastor does for the church, the church organization, the church place, well, you go do it then. Right, Bob? Ha! If you guys didn’t like how I fixed something, it was a race to make sure that either you or Louie or Jerry or somebody would fix it before I did. That way, it was actually fixed. And that what you do. Instead of complaining about it, you go do it yourself. And that’s what you guys did for awhile.

 So, anyway. The ladies didn’t like how I did the garden, they brought in the flowers — well, you put them up there then, that’s fine.

 I was pretty deadly with my Weed-eater, ha! Some of those flowers didn’t make it more than two or three weeks, but, you know, when you get these tulips that pop up in the middle of the yard, and all the ladies say, “Oh, aren’t they pretty?” What? They’re in the middle of the yard — they go poof! — they’re gone, then you’ve got all that to deal with. It didn’t take much to offend people. Anyway, I was still proud of that yard, though. That was a pretty yard. I made it to be part of our testimony.

 Let’s get back to our thing here. And I spent money, church money, offering money on the yard, on fertilizer, although even I did fertilizer every other two feet — remember that year, Bob? Grandma? Ha! I missed every other path coming back, till I had part of the lawn was really green and part of it in stripes was not as green. You know, stuff like that.

 Well, too many funny memories back there with that yard and all that stuff. The day that I fell underneath the riding lawnmower, and I was stuck under there, and I was yelling out, “Help! Help!” I mean, the mower wasn’t running or anything, but nobody knew that. And the guy next door, remember, Hansen’s, he was the — sorry, folks, just memories here — Hansen’s, he was the emergency guy, the 9-1-1 guy in town. He came — no, it was her — she came flying out of her house, because here I am stuck under this lawnmower with  my beneath the blades, ha! Anyway.

 I kept trimming those trees higher and higher and higher. Bothered Louie, but I wasn’t going to slap my face with tree branches all the time I’m mowing. Right, Bob? Yeah, Amen, Bob says. Ha! Oh, I could to through so many stories with the property there. And that was my job. That’s the pastor, you know.

 And it’s the people’s place, not a problem. That’s where he’s the ruler, I guess, he’s the boss of the place, the organization. But that’s it. Not over them in their homes.


All right, let’s get back to the trail, here. Now, let’s go to Ezekiel, let’s go to Zechariah, we’ll go to Zechariah first here. Let’s go to Zechariah. I say what I needed to say on that stuff yet? They’re not rulers, but they are over you. That’s not a ruler.

 OK, let’s go back to Zechariah. Too bad your Bible’s not alphabetically put together, right? Zechariah 10. Verse 2. ”For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock.” OK, we can look into that later if we want to, probably some good stuff in there. But I want you to see here it was says, ”They were troubled, because there was no shepherd.” So these people had no shepherd, and as a result ”they were troubled.” Now, we have people today that are troubled because they have no pastor. I don’t think we need to be “troubled” because we have no pastor. Once you realize what you can do with that Book. And I don’t want to say, “don’t need a pastor,” but if we look at Ephesians chapter 4, I really believe this is what this is meaning here. He says in verse 11, Ephesians 4:11, this is a whole little series of what the purpose of the church is, the local church, and one of the comments he says in verse 11: ”And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” Everybody, we’re not guaranteed a pastor. Doesn’t hurt to have one. I think it’s — I forgot where it’s at, I mean to help people get an understanding. Paul’s a helper of our joy. Paul is not a helper of our joy that we know how to play video games better, or we know how we go to car races. We have things we can do. That’s not what he’s talking about joy — that’s happiness, more or less anything.

 But joy — Paul helps us with joy because he teaches what Christ has done for us and to us. And he teaches us the doctrines. He teaches us how to have joy even if we try to follow Titus and Timothy. When Titus was to show up for those people, those people were happy to see him. And how many people, when you turn to the book of, “Today’s sermon is out of Titus chapter 2” — oh, no, here we go. Or, “Let’s go to Timothy chapter 5, about the women working,” “Let’s go to Timothy chapter 2, the modest part” — oh, gosh, is he going to go over that again? That’s all he talks about. Has this guy got a problem or what? As you sit there in shorts or a low-cut blouse or a thin blouse or loud, mouthy women or men that are just not doing anything other than playing or spending money to make big toy heaven, or wives’ work so they can buy bigger toys, I mean, you know. And you get all over the pastor: “Oh, is he going to talk about Titus again.” No, Paul says that when Titus shows up those people were happy! When you turn to the Book of Titus, you should be happy. Well, good, this is how I’m trying to walk as a Christian. This is the place I go to help me earn the Judgment Seat of Christ rewards. This is where I go to please God. We’re supposed to be happy with that.

 And all I ever hear anymore is just people that are going backwards, going, “I just can’t do this. I’m not doing anything wrong really. I’m just, I’m just, you know, I’m still covered.” What about “shamefacedness”? Shame-faced is beyond modesty. What about — ahh, get that same stuff going again. How many pastors are going to preach that? How many pastors are going to teach — they’re not going to take you to those parts of the Bible. The Paul guys don’t even do that. They’ll take you to Ephesians, they’ll take you to Philippians and Colossians — fantastic doctrine in there. Romans 4, imputation. Five and 6 about sin, how he took care of sin. It’s not that we stop sinning; it’s just that is there, “All things are lawful.” Who doesn’t want to hear that? But, if all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient, what? You know, all things are lawful, but you’re not supposed to cause somebody to stumble — what? All things are lawful, but you’re still not supposed to do it if it’s an occasion for the flesh — what are you talking? I can do this — no, really, you can’t. You can, but you shouldn’t. You mean, I believe all things are lawful, so I can go kill somebody? Well, I don’t blame you for having that desire, but, no, you really ought not to. You know, it’s still not right. It’s still going to blow your testimony as well as give you a lot of years in the jail.

 So, the pastors today are doing everything they can to get people to come back to the church. They’re changing their doctrine, they’re trying to preach the whole Bible as application in a Biblical counseling fashion, they’re trying to get you involved in the community, because maybe people will come if they like you. Well, in order to get involved in most of the things going on in the community, you’ve got to drop your standards, you’ve got to drop your modesty, you’ve got to drop what you do and don’t do. You’ve got to start social drinking, you’ve got to start laughing at some of their dirty jokes, you’ve got to get involved with their schools and let them teach your kids what you really don’t want your kids to learn. But, you know what? You don’t care anymore because you found out that home schooling is really a lot of work, and you just don’t want to do it anymore.

 And I go to these staff meetings and I hear what the schools are doing. They’re making it interesting to get the parents involved. And they want the parents to think they’re involved. And yet it’s these curriculums and these programs that we’ve been handed down from the state and the government, the national standards — parents have no clue. So their kids are happily going to school now again, and they home school them for awhile. Everybody — if you’re happy, that’s all people care about. If the pastor’s got a happy bunch of people, that’s all he cares about. If you want to come back to church next because you want to come back, because it’s fun, that’s all he cares. If it’s a gain, then it shows that they’re godly. We know that’s not true in 1 Timothy 6. But it’s this modern pastor who thinks gain is godliness. I’m just winging my thoughts, I’ll make comments, so put up with, I guess. Like Paul says, “Bear with me.”

 You know, what do I care? Am I a fallen pastor? Am I a pastor that preaches himself out of the pulpit by preaching the truth? Is it because of how I preach? Is it because of what people thought was going on? Is it what people didn’t want to hear? I wan’t itching their ears? Is it because we ran out of money? Is it because a certain man in the church destroyed it because he got so bitter and angry? No, that’s not the point. The point is, we are supposed to despise and destroy the magnificence of this Diana stuff, and one of the biggest culprits in that Diana stuff is the pastor. And again, they’re nice people. This has nothing to do with that. There are some idiots out there and some jerks out there and some mouthy ladies out there, and there are some ladies that attract the men to their church because of the appearance, if you know what I mean, and all this kind of baloney. Is it those marshmallow preachers, this milque-toast preachers. I used to have milque-toast every time I’d get the flu. Mom would give me milque-toast to see if I could hold it down. I guess that’s what it is in churches. If you can hold down what those guys are preaching when you are as sick as you spiritually, if you can hold it down what they’re preaching, then that’s a milque-toast preacher.

 That’d be a good sermon, but mind you, my sermons are never that short.

OK, let’s go to Ezekiel now. How we doing for time? Oh, wow, this might be more than a two-dayer!

 Let’s go to Ezekiel 34, Ezekiel 34, not Isaiah, of course, Ezekiel, there we go. Ezekiel 34. Don’t you hate it? I’ll do this again, when the preacher says, “Turn to Psalms,” and you’re in Matthew, and you go to the right — oh, I’ve got to go to the left — and you think everybody in the world saw you not knowing where Ezekiel is, you know. Remember the days when you’d flip back to the Table of Contents? “Well, I don’t know where Nahum is. Where is that? Is that in the Bible? Is that a verse in there? What is this? Oh, yeah, there is one right there, look at that! Wow! I didn’t know that!” kind of stuff — people watch you. No, they don’t. They couldn’t care less about you. Well, I should take that back. They probably do watch you because if you can’t find it makes them feel better that they can’t find it either. It’s always good to find somebody dumber than you, you know it?

 OK, Ezekiel 34, this whole chapter. We’re going to go over this whole chapter here in a minute. But let’s just look specifically at verse 5 before we do pretty much the whole thing. This is as far as we’re going to get. Verse 5: ”And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field.” Now, there you go. In the Old Testament days, these Jews — by the way, Paul never mentions the word “shepherd.” Paul never compares us Gentiles to sheep. He compares what’s happening to us as to slaughter of the sheep, but never compares us to sheep. And our pastors are never considered to be shepherds. This is Jewish talk — this is Israel talk — this is “the elect” talk. So, anyway.

 These people that had no shepherd in the Old Testament days, they became meat to the beasts of the field. There was nobody there to take care of them, so they got eaten up.

 What’s going on today? If somebody doesn’t have a pastor, and there’s no excuse for being eaten up by the other pastors that are out there, by the other beasts of this world, because you have a Bible. And I’ll be as honest as can be, I wonder what, if I would have run across all this stuff, if I wasn’t a pastor for awhile, I mean the responsibility of becoming a pastor was a thrill for me, and when I went back to South Dakota to tell my family that I was going to be the pastor here at Touchet, for example — I’m just yakking here — I said, “Listen, you can stay back here, you can sell the house,” you know, “because I’ve got a family. We’ve got a family now. I’ve got to get up there and do my job as their pastor, they don’t have a pastor. I need to get up there.” I felt just part of them, instantly.

 And so, when we don’t have somebody like that, then we’re susceptible to beasts of the field. So, anyway.

 Look at Ezekiel 34, look at verse 8. “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field —” why? ”— because there was no shepherd.” And it gets even worse: ”Neither did my shepherds” that he did have ”search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock.” Now, again, this is Old Testament, and Paul tells us to go back to the Old Testament to learn from it, to be admonished from it, so we can see here how this is, you know — on an application basis? No, we don’t throw this on anybody, because there’s no reason that, if there is no shepherd, there is no reason, you still have got a Bible. There’s no excuse. When you get to the Judgment Seat of Christ and God says, you know, “Well, what happened?”

 “I don’t know, I didn’t have a pastor to tell me what to do.”

 “Well, didn’t you have a Bible?”

 “Well, I had about six or seven of them, but I don’t know what to do with them.”

 Well, you know, in some ways that’s possible. I used to give out Bibles at the fair booth all the time until I realized I’m giving these people something they have no clue what to do with. They’re just going to read it from beginning to end — if they read it all. Or, if they’re somewhat serious, they’re going to start at Matthew. Nobody’s going to start with Paul. So we tried to teach them, when we gave out a Bible, we tried to tell them, “Here’s how you read this thing.” We’d get some fantastic conversations out of the deal, and a lot of them said, “Oh, yeah, man, I’ve got to go back and talk to my pastor.  I don’t think he’s ever heard this before."

 “Well, now, sir, I’ll never see you again.” What are you talking about? Your pastor’s heard about this King James Bible stuff; he’s heard about this stuff; he’s been taught to deny it; he’s been taught how to take you away from it.

 “Oh, not my pastor. He’s a marvelous man.”

 No, you’ve become a prey. You’ve been eaten by the pastoral beasts of modern America. You don’t have a shepherd. Your shepherd doesn’t care for you, and the shepherds they feed themselves, and are making big bucks and could care less about you, just so you come and pay them money for the parking lot.

 You know that thing in Hebrews 13:17, by the way, we’ll talk about it one of these days, a pastor today is not concerned about your soul. The pastor today is concerned about your walk, and your Judgment Seat of Christ. If you are saved, which we want people to realize they need to be saved, and we’re concerned about their soul in that fashion, that you haven’t got another Jesus. Of course we’re concerned about that. But once you claim that you’ve got that right salvation, you don’t need to hear a salvation message every morning in church. Especially if you don’t have any visitors. You can pop it in; you want to remind somebody that may be not truly saved, another Jesus, sure, I never had a problem with that. But, if you’re saved, I don’t need to worry about your soul. Your soul is fine, there’s nothing you can do to spoil it, there’s nothing you can do to mess it. We’re concerned about your walk.

 Timothy and Titus - Bob and Marilyn, you know what happened. I got into Timothy and Titus, and my brain went nooky. It still does with people. It’s not my problem, it’s not my business.

 Well, it’s supposed to be. These pastors are getting off the hook by saying, “Well, you know, you’re sick in the hospital? Oh, I’m sorry.” I mean, what can you do for somebody in the hospital? Well, you can go and pray with them, sure you can. That gives them some comfort, but they can pray without you. You just go to visit them. What if they’ve got a sickness or disease that’s kind of embarrassing? “Oh, he’s my pastor, he’s OK, ladies.” No, the pastor doesn’t need to — I know, it’s a whole different thing here.

 You go there to help somebody. Remember, Bob, you stayed up there with your dad all night, and when Ashley was sick, and all that stuff? Yeah, there’s purposes for that stuff.

 But these shepherds didn’t do that in the Old Testament days. He said right there, they fed themselves, didn’t even search for their flock, didn’t go looking for people that were messed up. “The flock has become a prey, they’re troubled, and they’re meat to the beasts of the field.”

 So, anyway, how we doing for time? Well, should we start 34? I think that we’re going do is we’re just going to get into this thing. You can hear what you can do, you know, I mean, really. Read Ezekiel 34, read Jeremiah 23, and then get your concordance out, look up some things in the Gospels, we’ll do that tonight. And you can be pretty advanced, so if you fall asleep from my ramblings of my stories, you’ll still know what the sermon was about.

 And then Wednesday, I guess it will be, we’ll look at what Paul says these pastors today that are lying to people. Boy, he says a lot of stuff, I’ll tell you, that’s worth the week in itself.

 And then, one of these days, when we get done with this thing, we’ll look at what pastors are supposed to be, what pastors are supposed to do. Why? I don’t know. Because you’re not going to find them anywhere. They’re just hard to find.

 And I’ll say this. I sound like I’m the only guy that’s got it together. That’s not true. I don’t mean to sound like that at all. But I’ll tell you, the Paul pastors that I’ve run across so far skip Timothy and Titus. They skip that stuff. I remember looking at the sermons and reading commentaries from my Baptist big popes, you know. Read the commentaries — oh, this guy skips some of these tough verses. Anybody can write a commentary on the obvious stuff; how about some of these tough verses? I couldn’t find anybody on it. Everybody skips the tough stuff. Why? Well, maybe that’s why I’m in Kadoka, South Dakota — I didn’t skip the tough stuff. Ha! I don’t know. I don’t know.

 So, anyway, we’re going to start with Ezekiel 34, and we’ll kind of do a review, and get my head back straighter from my rambling story, sorry about that, and we’ll get back in some more meat of this stuff here. We kind of hung around the buns today. We’ll have to get down to the meat tonight, a little bit more. But I gave you an assignment; there you go. Read Ezekiel 34, make your marks, Jeremiah 23 has always been one of my favorite chapters. And it sounds so much like — both of these do — what’s going on today. Well, it’s the same thing. But we don’t go to Ezekiel 34 and Jeremiah 23 to preach to people; we learn from it. We go to Paul, and we’ll find that out Wednesday night, if most of you can come, we’ll find out Wednesday what he says about today’s preachers. And he doesn’t mince any words, and he’s very lengthy. He knows what’s going on. And, again, this is all part of my personal despising and destroying the magnificence of the local church today, because they’re liars, they’re teaching a false gospel, they’re taking the people that were once part of Paul and getting them involved in things they shouldn’t be. They’re not feeding them the right kind of food, they’re playing games with them — and the people are like dumb sheep, but were never compared to dumb sheep because we don’t need to be. We’ve got a Bible. But we’re just lazy, and we’re addicted to playing the church game. And for those that aren’t, here’s the stuff. And for you and God to have that one-on-one relationship, this is what it takes. It’s not about me; it’s about you and your Bible and God.

 

M Paulson
Kadoka, South Dakota
Trying to do the work of an evangelist by teaching Paul's gospel of the Risen Saviour!
www.scatteredchristians.org


The entire King James Bible is written FOR us, but it is not all written TO us!
We learn from the "For" and we learn to apply the 'TO!"