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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p.m. sermon Despise and Destroy the Magnificence of Today's Pastors Part II |
This is part 2. We’re looking at “Despise and Destroy the Magnificence of Religion” as such, the way those verses are being used there. And we’re going after the pastors; I’m going after the pastors.
Now, I don’t want anybody to think that I have this bitter attitude toward that kind of stuff, because I really don’t. That’s not the point at all. But they’re everywhere, what’s going on out there today. And we’re looking at what it was like in the Old Testament, when it said they had no shepherd. It’s like what we have today. Or, we have today what it was like, because they’re never called shepherds by Paul, people are never called sheep, and people have pastors all over the place, but they’re a dime a dozen. In some places anyway. And what is it about them that makes them so “popish” and so “beloved” as such here? We really have people all over religion, in the churches all over the country, who have pastors who are not pastoring. So these people really have no shepherd as such, so we’ll get to that one probably Wednesday.
Tonight we’re going to look at a couple of classic places where we find out that God was not pleased with the fact that his people had no shepherd, and what he says about it. So let’s look at Ezekiel 34. Here we go, verse 1, and let’s just go through the chapter. I don’t need to just read for you because you cannot read, but we’ll just make some comments as we go here. And remember, this is Old Testament, so I’ll tell you the pastors today better be, there we go, sorry. So, as we continue down here, we go to Ezekiel 34, which is pretty much the full chapter. And I’m not going to just read for you, but the pastors today ought to really be pretty thankful that they have the Psalmist back, right? Yep, should be. Should be pretty thankful that this is what God said about them in those days. And it’s not pretty.
So, here we, verse 1: “And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying.” See, now even just right there, we know that that’s how God communicated them, and the people today think that he does the same. You know, “God told me,” you know, that kind of thing, whatever. “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.”
Now we can look at that. Is that what’s going on today? Well, again, this is Old Testament stuff, so those that are, they went there to strengthen, they didn’t heal anybody, they didn’t fix anybody that was bound up or broken, they didn’t help anybody along that line, and “neither have ye brought again that which was driven away,” they didn’t go on and bring them back. “Neither have ye sought.” Didn’t even go looking for them. “But with force and with cruelty” — that’s how they were pastoring and shepherding them. “And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.” So here’s what takes place, see? We’ve got these people today that today, they have the pastors that don’t know what they’re doing, and are they leading with cruelty and force? I’m going to say yes, because the force is by guilt. I call it extortion, because they tell people that if you don’t do this, God is going to get you. And the cruelty? Sure. It takes the joy out of their day, it takes the joy of being a Christian away, and it’s cruel to teach them like they teach them — especially the young people, the kids. So they grow up and they find out that that really isn’t what it was, they’re gone. And they scatter. And because they scatter and are on their own, they become susceptible to the world’s ways, or to the religious ways. Or they just quit and bag and out through the god of this world.
So the comparison is there. But we’re going to go way beyond that. We’re not going to take this and use this to preach and put the guilt trip on people, we’re just going to see what it was like in the Old Testament. And we have another example in Jeremiah. And then, the next time we get together, we’ll talk about what Paul actually says is going on today.
So we’re not going to do the Old Testament guilt trip thing, which everybody so expects anymore. Verse 6: “My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.” OK, so there’s what the situation was. There was the problem. “Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD.” OK, because this is what you were and we’re not doing, here’s what God says to you: “As I live, saith the Lord GOD —” have you ever had anybody, have you ever had your parents say it like that? “As I live, I’ve never seen you do anything like that before, or whatever.” Have you heard that phrase? "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, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock.” He just kinds of reminds them. You know, here’s what we have here: “Because I live, because you guys have done it,” and he says it one more time: “Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.” God is against these guys now.
And we’ve got so many people who would say that what I’m talking about here is wrong, it’s just unloving, it’s bitterness because you’re not a pastor of a church anymore. No, I go back to all the pastors I remember, and — but we’re not going to talk about that this morning. Verse 11: “For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” OK, so God’s going to step in and take care of the situation.
“And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.” Now, if you want to do this on a spiritual, you know, we can say something like, “See, God says, ‘Listen, the pastors are failing everybody in the church,’ so I’m going to give you guys the Bible, and I’m going to help you, if you just get into this thing, I’ll help you live in the promised, fantastic, good pasture of the land.” OK, so a guy could go there if he wanted. But we’ve got our Bible, to rightly divide this, but are we in a “good pasture”? Are we having a great time? Have we got everything that, you know — no, we haven’t got to this point yet.
So this is the problem with guys going back to the Old Testament and spiritualizing them. The illustration, the object lesson, is not 100 percent. If you’re going to kind of use something like that — no, we don’t want to do that. This is the way he was telling his people. And he was telling his people this — not the heathen. He was telling it to his people. And, you know, they did better in times, but it still wasn’t the greatest thing. The Millennium is coming, and they’ll get their chance, they’ll get their reward as such. But, until then, a lot of things are going wrong for these people.
Verse 15: “I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.” Now, when you “cause them to lie down,” that’s like, I just, it made me think of this here, when a dog jumps up to me, you know, to sleep with me or whatever, sometimes I have to say, “Listen, you need to lie down.” And then he looks at you with this dumb look. You kind of grab the collar a little bit, you kind of pull the collar down. And so anyway he goes, “I get the hint, I’ll lie down.”
And it’s just like, here’s this: “I will cause them to lie down.” He has to kind of make them lie down.
“I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment. And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. Therefore —” these “therefore’s” are always following some hard statement. “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.” I like his illustrations here. So, yeah, again, we could spiritualize and say, “Yes, we know, we’ve pulled away from the church, we’ve pulled away from these pastors as such. And God gave us this Bible that we can still follow.” So, I guess if you’re skilled in manipulating an Old Testament story, true as they are, into a modern kind of a guilt trip on people — no, we’ll do that with Paul. And it’s not a guilt trip; Paul just flat warns us about these guys.
“And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.” And it goes on with what they’ve got coming: “And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season —” there’s your “showers of blessings”: “there shall be showers of blessing.”
“And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD.” OK, so is this what’s going on today? Well, do people really believe that what’s going on in their “showers” of physical blessings, that he is the Lord? Now, if they would understand the spiritual blessings from their Bible, they would realize that, yes, he is the Lord, to be able to do all those things. But physical blessings? Again, that’s the Jew, that’s the Israel during this time. Yeah, they received showers of physical blessings, and they will in the Millennium. And, sure, their lives get better in the Old Testament story here, but never do they get to be like it says here.
Twenty-eight: “And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.” “Neither bear the shame of the heathen”? That’s us, the heathen, see, during this time of Gentiles.
“Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD.” The only way that you know that the Lord is our God and is with us is from your Bible reading. There are some people out there who get some pretty heavy-duty disease. There are some people out there that haven’t had a pastor, haven’t had a church to go to for years. There’s people out there that have just had it rough all the time. And they can easily say, “Where is God in all this?” You know, I’ve lost my kids, I lost my job, I lost my money, I am in debt, I am unhealthy, blah blah blah blah — and, where is God in all of this? Because, those people are expecting God to prove himself physically. Where is God today? Get in your Bible and you’ll find out where he’s at, and you’ll find out why things are the way they are, Romans chapter 2. I mean, Paul explains everything.
“And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture,
are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.” So there’s
just a chapter, one of the chapters that talks about the fact that these
guys have no shepherd, and what God thinks about it.
OK, let’s look to verse 9. “Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets —” this is Jeremiah talking, from this part; the other one was Ezekiel, obviously. So this is what Jeremiah now: Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the word of his holiness.” So here’s Jeremiah that understood who God was, understood his words. And he was shook — I mean. I mean, he just understood. This is God speaking here, that these people are rejecting the very words of God.
It says in verse 9, “Because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness. For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.” Here we go. “For both prophet and priest are profane.” Remember, if it’s not rightly divided, remember what it’s called? “Profane and vain babblings” in Timothy. “For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.” And again, people think that the church is the house of God, which we know it’s not. But the similarity is there. Within the church, the pastors have, the preachers have profaned the words of his holiness.
“In my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD. Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness.” OK, that’s preachable. They shall be driven on, and fall therein.” OK, you see that taking place in the Bible versions. “I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.” So now we’ve got to realize that God is not operating with the severity of God. Remember in Romans 11:22, he says, you know, “They have known the severity” — we’re reading about the severity of God. This is what he did to these shepherds that were taking his words and, you know, profaning them. He doesn’t work that way today. The goodness of God bringeth these preachers and pastors to repentance. If they could ever just get ahold of a rightly divided message here.
“And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.” OK, so, “I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.” Again, physical, Old Testament, physical.
Now, listen to these next couple of verses here: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain.” Did you see that? The people, the preachers are preaching today, they make these people vain; it’s a waste of time.
“They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.” So these pastors, as good and beloved and marvelous as they are, from their college degrees and such, they’re speaking what they think, not what the mouth of the Lord says.
“They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace.” These guys always talk about peace: “You know, just smile and be happy with everybody.
“Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.” Ever heard these pastors?
“For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?” Well, I’ve got his word right here. I stand in the counsel of the Lord with this Bible, I perceived his word, I heard his word — and I marked his word. Yeah, we can say that today.
“Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.” Again, this is the severity during Old Testament days.
“The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.” Here is some more; great verses here: “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.” All these pastors, who have a different Bible, wrongly divide the King James and everything — God hasn’t spoken to them. Well, the book’s got the truth in it. Sure it does, but they’re not reading it. You see the point there? As far as they’re concerned, God hasn’t spoken to them, but they just know, they think God has spoken to them, they don’t read their Bible.
“But if they had stood in my counsel —” I like this verse — “But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words —” that’s what the preachers are supposed to do today — “then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.” So, if these pastors would preach what God truly says, and cause his people to hear his words, then they would turn to Paul, to the risen Saviour through Paul. That’s the way. And it changes their walk. Sure — and Christ took care of the sin itself.
“Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” Come on, preachers, you can’t get away from me.
Here’s another one. This one’s fantastic; I should have this last week: “I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.” Thank you, Martin Luther King there. “How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart.” Goodnight, Bob. See, there it is. “They are prophets of the deceit of their own heart.” These verses, some of these verses really can be used in an explanation of what’s going on today.
“Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.” There it is again. “The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.” And that’s what we’re going today. We have his word; we’re trying to speak it faithfully. “What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.”
I like this comparison here: “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.” That’s what these guys are going; they are taking the word of God away from people.
“Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.” God didn’t tell them what these Bible versions are telling, are saying.
“Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness.” See, “by their lightness.” Paul would have us to be full; this is serious stuff we’re dealing with here: “Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.” So these pastors of these churches today, they’re not doing their people a favor at all.
So there’s what Jeremiah recognizes with the prophets, the preachers as such in those days. And so what’s going on today is nothing new; it happened to the people in Old Testament days. They just didn’t have different bibles; they had preachers and prophets as such say different and said, “God told me to say this.” No, God didn’t tell you to say that at all.
We’ve got guys with different bibles today who say, “You see, God told me to say this.” No, he didn’t tell you to say that. Psalm 12:6,7 is different in these new bibles. None of the new bibles say “rightly divide.” A lot of things are missing. You know, God didn’t say anything in an NIV; he spoke to me in a King James.
So, you just mark those lines up there; those are fantastic statements
that we could use, you know, for what’s going on today. “He
that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.” That’s
what a pastor’s supposed to do — be faithful to his words, not change them.
Oh, well.
Let’s go to Mark 6:34. It’s in Mark again. He says, “And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.” So Jesus cares about this stuff, but he gave us a Bible, and he says, “Here, read it. It’s written down.” You’ve got it there to study, you’ve got it there to review it, remember, mark it, underline line, you know, study this thing. We have his words in such a fashion that’s never been done in the past and will never be done in the future. Like we said in the Tribulation, we have a famine of hearing the word of God.
Let’s look at Matthew 26, and I’ll show you something. Matthew 26. Matthew 26:31: “Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.” Here we see all these examples of scattered Israelites. And yet the Lord knows that when he comes, he’s going to offend everything, and it’s going to smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. See, he knows he’s the cause. So that, “All ye shall be offended because of me this night.” He knows what’s going to happen here. And everybody’s going to take off and run and hike. We’ve got a King James Bible, and yet this King James Bible has done more to cause division in the churches, because they won’t go with it. These people should not have been offended because of Christ; he was their Messiah. But they were and they scattered because of it. People should not be offended by this King James Bible, but because they are, you have all these different churches and denominations and bible versions and books and musical piece — you know, the whole thing. It’s a mess.
That’s why this Web site basically, you know, is there for the scattered Christians. This brings us back together into this King James Bible. It helps us get back to unity again. We don’t have a building to go into, but this place is for the people that are scattered all over this country and world who know this King James Bible is the word of God and need to learn about rightly dividing it, learn how to follow the risen Saviour through Paul, and that’s why this is for those that are scattered everywhere.
Remember, we had a church, and the church came apart because of it. Went some places and tried to start a church based on Paul. That wasn’t going to happen. So what’s left is a bunch of scattered people that are looking for the truth, and they find it, not in my preaching, but in a rightly divided King James Bible. So you can sit down, all by your little self, you and your Bible, and hear from the words of God and be faithful to the very words of God. It’s that simple. And if you can hang in there, you will recognize religion, and you will despise and destroy the magnificence of it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
So, just because of him and just because of the King James Bible, everything is just falling apart, and yet that should bring everybody together.
Let’s go here to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Here’s what we have today. Even what they had those days we’re still going to have today, but we’ll let Paul take care of that Wednesday night with the sermons about that thing. John chapter 10, verse 12: “But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.” So hirelings are what we’ve got in the pulpits today. Now, again, this is sheep, the sheep are being eaten, da da ta da, and we know again that Paul does not call Christians sheep, and the pastors are not shepherds. This is the Gentile bunch; we’re not, you know, Jew clones. But they are like a hireling; they preach out there, and they teach, because they want to get the money, they want to get the job. And I understand how important it is to get the money, you know, I realize that, that the money is still a necessity. You have to preach about the money once in a while because the pastors need it. The church needs it. This Web site needs it. We do need it, but that is not why we’re doing this. If this is just a hireling, we could care less about what happens to the people. You know, when the wolf shows up, the hireling leaves. See, as far as I’m concerned, the wolf shows up is pastors. That’s why I want to teach and preach about this thing, about the pastors today. I’m not jealous, I’m not bitter as such. It has nothing to do with just one place I was at. This is from my experience, that I’ve seen what these pastors will do the people. And, like I say, Paul will be much more specific than I’m trying to be tonight. We’re just looking at how this is nothing new happening in the Old Testament; it’s going on in the Gospels, and we will see what Paul has to say about what we have in pulpits today.
So far as I’m concerned, the wolves have arrived. The wolves are even in the pulpits. They destroyed the pastors, and now they’re destroying the people, and they’re destroying the children. And we have a religion that’s all set up just waiting for the Antichrist, and the people are going to love every bit of it.
Anyway, so there’s the hireling stuff here.
Let me show you something before we get back into something else. Let’s go to Hebrews of all places. Now, remember, Hebrews — Jews — this is not to us. Hebrews 13:10 — it’s hard to do a message when your nose is about to sniff here. Hebrews 13:10 — Hebrews 13:10. I don’t think I’ve got the right — maybe, it must be 12:10, maybe? OK, why do I have Hebrews 13. Let me check out something really quick on my concordance thingy here; I’m missing something here. Hebrews 13:20, there we go. What did I say? Hebrews 13:10. No, Hebrews 13:20: “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” We’re looking at words to the Jews, to Hebrews.
Look at 1 Peter, which everybody thinks 1 Peter is written to us. No, it’s not. We’re not supposed to be getting preached Peter, that’s Tribulational stuff, but Peter says in 1 Peter 2:25: “For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” That’s Old Testament, that’s Jews. How many of us Gentiles have “returned”? We haven’t returned unto the Shepherd, we were never there. Again, that proves that Peter is written to the Jews, and this is to Christians during the Tribulation.
And also look at 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 4: “And when the chief Shepherd shall appear” — and he’s going to come when it’s a Jewish, of the Tribulation, see, “— ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” That’s not written to us, that’s not one of our crowns. We’re not “returning” to the Shepherd; we never were there in the first place.
So all this “shepherd” “sheep” thing is all Old Testament Jewish talk.
Now, let’s finish up here with Matthew chapter 7. Go back to Matthew 7:15; Jesus warns his people. Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” We’re going to find out that Paul says the same similar thing, and he just doesn’t compare them to sheep, because the Gentiles are not sheep. And yet the preachers are preaching the Great Commission, they’re preaching the Gospel message, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — that’s Old Testament. They’re preaching Jewish doctrine, so, yeah, why not call everybody sheep? But that’s not what Paul says we are.
Matthew 24. We know that chapter, Matthew 24, verse 11: “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” We know that; look at verse 24: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Well, “the very elect” are the Jews, not the Gentiles. So, again, Tribulational stuff, when the Jews are the ones being aimed at here.
Mark 13:22, the same thing. Mark 13:22, we’ll stop here, Matthew, Mark. Look at Mark 13:22: “For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.” We’re not “the elect.” OK, so what we know here is — yeah, this would be a good spiritual preaching about warning of the days when there will be false christs and false prophets et cetera, et cetera, and we know that’s happening.
But do these guys that preach this stuff today realize that they are the ones that Paul preaches against? Because they’re teaching a false message. They’re teaching — yeah, they’re preaching signs and wonders — they’re preaching a gospel message according to Mark 16, that if you preach the Great Commission, you’re supposed to have signs and wonders and miracles, et cetera, et cetera. And everybody’s being taught that, to know if God’s alive is when God does something in your life. That’s a physical sign.
The meat to get to is, what does Paul say about pastors today? And they’re not going to touch him with a ten-foot pole. They don’t dare get into Paul’s teachings, because they will be exposing themselves for what they are and who they are. And, like I say, everybody loves their pastor. And I’ve got so many people hear what their pastor is teaching is wrong, and they accept it and realize it — but they still love the guy.
Then you’ve got these pastors who put, “Touch not the anointed,” or something like that — “touch not the anointed one” — no, God is telling you to get away because your pastor is lying to you, lying to your children, lying to your family — get away from that.
And so many people who like what we preach and teach here, but they still go back to that church and they still let their pastor lie and deceive them, because their wives and their children just can’t imagine not going to church someplace. They’re going there for the wrong reason — for the music, for the teens, to go for the music, or the hillbilly music, or the whooping and a hollering, and the, you know, the Hyles graduates, or what they are, and the Ruckman guys or what they are, or the Landmark guys or what they are — nobody’s going to church for the truth. Because, if they did, they would find out a fantastic doctrine, according to the risen Saviour. Then they would find out that the word “W-A-L-K” is nothing but a four-letter dirty word to them. Because Paul teaches us that we can walk to please God. But it takes a living sacrifice of our bodies to do so, and who wants to hear that? Even the Paul guys don’t hear that. They just get the marvelous doctrine about imputation, maybe, and they find out when the church really began, is all they care about.
Anyway, I won’t get into that stuff.
So there’s the first two-thirds of the message about despising and destroying the magnificence of the pastors today that are going on this religion that’s going to carry right on over into the Tribulation, and the coming of the Antichrist. And Paul and the risen Saviour expose it all.
Which we will do Wednesday night, which most of you will not be — ahh, you guys will be Wednesday to hear that, so there’s the stuff. And I’ll fall asleep and wake up two minutes after I’m supposed to be there. Won’t be quite so yawny and sniffly, hopefully. So let me turn off the video thing here.
