"Return , O faithless children, declares the LORD......And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding." Jeremiah 3:14-15
The essence of our Christian walk is in God's Word.....the Bible. It is one possession that dwarfs everything else. Our lifeblood is in our prayer. The power in God's Word....and in our prayer....comes from the Holy Spirit....who enables us that we might glorify the Son! Our very being is to glorify and magnify our King....our Savior....and our Good Shepherd. The primary way that the Holy Spirit empowers us is through the preached Word of God. The primary way that God uses to chastise us when we stray....is to withdraw His Spirit....where God's Word is as a closed book....and we know not even what to pray for....and the preaching has no unction and no power of the Holy Spirit....and that is where the evangelical church in general is at today! That is why America is what it is today....in trouble....with no leadership....its people straying so far away from God that although we boast of being a Christian nation....we are no better than Judah and Israel during the time of Jeremiah!
Having said all the above....I would imagine that few agree at all with me. This is because discernment is gone. How can I say that? Well I'll tell you....when the average Christian man literally wastes his time....bundles of time....on the absolute absurdity of grown multi-millionaires....doing this or that with a leather or pigskin or cowhide....whatever.....as their nation literally crumbles before their eyes....then that tells me that spiritual laziness at best....and full-blown idolatry at worst....has blinded those eyes....and that means the eyes also of the shepherds....now unable to spot wolves or prowling lions.
I remember a story that John MacArthur once gave on one of his Grace To You programs. As he told it....and as best as I remember it....a cult....he did not name the cult....had swayed one of the young men in his congregation. That young man was about to move away to join that cult. MacArthur was mad. He got in his car and drove over to the young man's House....where the young man was loading his car....and MacArthur took his keys and threw them in the nearby lake! MacArthur said.....once again as best as I remember...."No one steals one of my sheep!" Trump stole the sheep on a thousand hills and hardly any shepherds said a word!
We today valiantly and stoutly defend....our pastors. They have been a friend....and are good men....and have probably helped us with many things. These men for the most part....may have gone to Bible college or seminary....and studied books on and were taught how to preach. Who am I to say that they are not preaching? Well its like this.....speaking metaphorically here....I have been in this army for upwards of forty years. I have watched Gentlemen's Quarterly generals....fat colonels....hero wannabe captains....and snotty second lieutenant 'victory' pastors give their time and energy to state of the art sound systems....and air-conditioned soft pew sanctuaries....all the while having medals pinned on their chests....while the sheep are shaved and then butchered for veal cutlets....only to have new recruits brought in under the auspices of the gospel of Jesus Christ to fatten up!
Over the course of those forty years I came across real shepherds who know how to preach....and real generals who know how to lead....and I've seen the sheep strengthened not fattened. Most of these men are from ages past....Spurgeon and Ryle and Martyn Lloyd-Jones....but they are around today also....John Piper being one....you just have to have patience and find them!
So I have heard these preachers preach....these preachers from the past....and preachers today who preach like preachers from the past....and they were at times saying the exact same things that I have in this post....but I'm supposed to just sit back and watch the sheep sheared....to fatten these church coffers? Instead I have chosen to be a messenger. Go to these men who I so often write about. Defend the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ over defending these men who have no desire to even glean from those who God had used so mightily in the past.
You have a glorious Lord whose presence in the preached Word is joy unspeakable. Do not let anyone keep this from you! Until you can find a faithful shepherd....wherein you might be blessed....and he might be given needed encouragement....listen to these sermons from the past....for effectually it is no different than if you were taking off your tweed cap in the church to listen to Spurgeon or Ryle or Lloyd-Jones....on a Lord's Day morning in London.
Note: Please reference my post titled....A Month Of Sundays....two-thirds of the way down on the archive to the left....for a list of sermons from which you can start.
