Isaiah chapter 56, again he's talking about preachers who will not warn people, they will
not preach what needs to be preached, they want to preach a positive only message, they
want to preach what people like.
Look at Isaiah 56 verse 10, he says his watchman, of course the watchman is a metaphor that
he constantly uses in the book of Ezekiel and elsewhere about a preacher, about a prophet,
someone who is watching and warning of the danger.
Think about what a watchman is, he sits on the wall, he stays up all night long and he
sees the enemy coming in business, he sounds the trumpet, he warns of impending danger.
God likens his prophets unto a watchman.
He likens them here unto a watchman and also unto a watchdog.
He says in Isaiah 56, 10, his watchmen are blind.
Can you imagine a blind watchman?
When your whole job is to watch for somebody and you're blind, that's not a good career
for you, okay?
You need to pick a new job.
It reminds me of I was in Oregon, and you know in Oregon you can't pump your own gas,
who knows what I'm talking about?
In Oregon and New Jersey, those are the two states where it's illegal to pump your own
gas.
So they have a guy there or a girl to pump the gas for you.
So Scott and I pull into a gas station in Oregon, and this girl pumps our gas, and you
know we pull out five minutes later the check engine light.
And I say to Scott, she didn't put the gas cap on right, because at first we're like
oh man what's wrong with the engine, do we need to pull over, do we need to do something?
And I said no, you know what, she didn't put the gas cap on.
Now it's pretty sad when that's your whole job.
All you do all day is just undo the, whatever you call it, what's it called again, undo
the gas cap, pump the gas, you know, hand the receipt, close it up, I think you'd get
it right, you know.
I was thinking to myself, you know, we need to get back in California where I can pump
my own gas, put the lid on right, but you know if you're a watchman and you're blind
you're in the wrong line of work, he's saying his watchmen are blind, and if you're a preacher
who's spiritually blind you need to get another job, you know if you can't see the bad things
coming, if you can't see negative consequences to people's actions, then you're in the wrong
line of work, but he says here that these watchmen are blind, ignorant, and that's even
worse, an ignorant preacher, and by the way you young men who want to preach some day,
you better learn and learn and learn, study to show thyself approved unto God, and need
it not to be ashamed, rightly divided the word of truth, because if you don't know the Bible
you have to be ashamed of yourself, you're going to get up and call yourself a preacher.
The Bible, you don't know what they're talking about, you need to read and read and read,
it's more important to swing from the chandeliers, but you better know that what you're saying
is right, and so you got to learn the Bible, don't want to be blind and you don't want
to be ignorant, and then he says this, they're all dumb dogs, dumb meaning unable to speak,
he says they're all dumb dogs, cannot bark, lazy he says, lying down, loving to slumber,
yea they're greedy dogs, it's all about money, it's all about the paycheck, which can never
have enough, they are shepherds, of course the word pastor means shepherd, that's what
it means, it comes to the same root word as the word pasture, and they are shepherds that
cannot understand, they all look to their own way, everyone for his gain from his quarter,
and here's what they'll tell you, ye say they all fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves
with strong drink, and tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant, this is what
they'll tell you, everything's fine, let's eat, drink and be merry, and tomorrow everything's
going to be fine, after the service, everything's going to be fine, doom and gloom, people all,
this is the young people, something a little more uplifting, positive, okay, and so let's
have a beer with them, let's reach them where they're at, okay, let's sit down with them
and just kind of rap a little bit, you know, let's just talk, you know, and in fact we're
going to get rid of the pulpit and replace it with a bar stool, and I'm going to sit
up on a bar stool, just kind of, in fact we're going to, we need two pastor, you know, so
we'll get like two of us up here, ok. I'm on a bar stool here, Brother Dave's on a bar
stool, so we can kind of format it, kind of format it out like a radio talk show, you
know, there's like two hosts and they kind of, and I'll just be kind of like, so Dave,
what do you think this passage means, Brother Dave? He'll be like, well, let's go back to
the Greek, you know, you know, kind of analyze it and go back and forth with it and everything
like that. You see, Dumb Dog Baptist Church, ok, pastor's asleep at the wheel, not warning,
he loves money, he's ignorant, and he wants you to think that everything's gonna be fine
next year is gonna be just like this year, and hey, it might even be better. You know
what I mean? Like, it'll be as this day, and hey, why not? Much more abundant. I might
as well just tell you it's gonna be really warning, sin, you know, as preachers, as Christians,
and warning, and sometimes it's a negative message that people don't want to hear, and
that's why it's always spoken against. I mean, think about it. If all was sweetness
and light, who would speak against it? I don't think that there's anybody in this world who's
against loving your neighbor as yourself. I don't agree with that. You know what I mean?
Go to the Mormons, and the Catholics, and the Muslims, and the Buddhists, they'd all
agree with that. Mormons don't agree with that? Love your neighbor as yourself? Good
idea. Have a problem with that? You think the Hindus have a problem with that? Does
the Navajo traditional religion have a problem with that? You start preaching the Bible.
People when we go out solving, don't even really have a problem with the gospel message
of just Jesus died for our sins, he rose again. But then you start saying well he's the only
way to heaven. Then they start having a problem. Say well if you don't believe, go to hell.
Think about it. He said I'm the good shepherd. All that came before me are thieves and robbers.
But I'm the good shepherd. Savior of the world. That's what he said. He claimed to be a savior
or a messiah. He's been a liar. The same type of thing as what he was saying there in 2003.
He'd basically be saying Buddha was a liar. Saying Joseph Smith was a liar. He'd tell
you that Mohammed was a liar. He'd have been married to a nine-year-old girl, the pervert.
He would tell you he's a pervert and a pedophile and a polygamist. He starts with a P that's
weird. You know, Joseph Smith was like that. Mohammed was like that. And they tell you
the truth about it. And that's where you start making people go to two nursing homes when
we started this church. On Sunday afternoon. And I preached there for about six months
each. And I got thrown out of both of them after about six months. And it was for the
same thing. I had a couple of sermons in there. But you know what got me thrown out? Preaching
that Jesus was the only way to heaven. The stuff I preach, you know, I'm expecting them
to say it was this, it was this, it was this. It's just, no, you can't preach this is the
only way, you know, and that any other way is wrong. They said it's too exclusive. You
know, it's got to be an inclusive message. And I said, you know, I can't preach an inclusive
message. It's not true. You know, I got, I got thrown out. I cry about it, you know,
but that's life. And you know, it was really sad because the people in the nursing home,
they loved it. The harder I preached, the more they liked it. They said, they said faithful
word Baptist Church is our church. You're our pastor. And they would come, they'd dress
up and come and they loved it. The staff, what happened was why one of them be there
on a Sunday, some people, and I'm thinking to myself, well, the Catholic mass you guys
offer probably offends some people too. It offends me. I think the needs to wear pants.
It offends me that he doesn't wear pants. Dressed like a man. Wear a skirt. Okay. And
I'm sure people are offended by the non-nominational service. No, their desire is to never offend.
I'm offended by the NIV. I'm offended by a lot of things about it. But the point is,
you know, the truth is going to offend people. Truth causes division. Because when the truth
is preached, some believe it's said in Acts 28, and some believe not. When nothing is
preached, everybody just nods their head and smiles, and says, "Oh, great, I'm the phony
preacher." Some of those liberal churches, if we visited one of these liberal churches,
we'd probably agree with 99% of what's said. There's just not much being said. It's just
a lot of generic, general things, and it's not what they say, it's what they don't say
that's the problem. That's the problem. The prophet is the truth. He only tells you the
positive stuff, which a lot of it's good stuff, but that's all he tells you.