Jonah: A Man Who Thought He Knew God

We’ll sing the wondrous story. So, words on the screen, stand and sing.

For those who don’t know, if you ever see the blessing box with the doors open, there’s a little latch. Windstorm on Saturday blew them open, and somebody did close it, and I thank them very much.

If you have anything to put in the bulletin, prayer requests, announcements, contact Angela. The online giving is available. There’s a place to go on the internet to get it all set up.

Let’s see. Palm Sunday, we’re having our cantata. Excuse me? Children are doing it. Okay, yeah. Children are going to be walking down, waving palms, making everything look nice.

And on Easter morning, we’re going to have a sunrise service. I’m not sure if it’s here, the old church. Old church? Okay, old church. I guess that is supposed to be the, yeah, 7 o’clock. That’s the second Sunday, but I don’t think we’re having a full breakfast. We’re going to have snacks and coffee. We’re going to have a shower afterwards. And then we have a regular 11 o’clock service.

Anybody got anything up? Did I not forget everything? Yes, I did. All right, let us pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you for this time you’ve allowed us to come together. We thank you for the many blessings. We thank you for the love that you give us to give to others. And we thank you for providing for the needs of all our families. Please use this day. Bless the words that are going to be said about you, said to us in hopes that we would be better stewards of your church. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

We’re going to continue to worship in song. Our next hymn is number 340, “He Hideth My Soul.” So words are up on your screen. Stand and we’ll sing.

And we do not have a children’s sermon this morning. So during the next song, we’re just going to power right through to the second one. The children can head out this way during “Serve the Lord with Gladness.” So here we go. Just stand and we’ll sing two back to back. 495. And this will be our offer to it. So verses 1 and 2.

All right. At this time, the choir is going to sing “Send a Great Revival.” It’s number 466, I believe, in your hymnal. If you want to sing along or just sit back and listen.

See all of you here. So many of you I know, and some of you are like a little reunion. Hollywood here for just a minute with some of you, but not everyone. But I do want you to know how glad I am, and how privileged and honored I am for you to have me here to preach for you today.

I retired from the pastorate, from pulpit, after 17 years with the last church, Harbor Lake Baptist Church in Goose Creek. And for five months I’ve not preached. And then Brother Al and I have been friends for maybe 15 years or more, I’m guessing. And he’s a dear friend to me. We have like minds. And the only thing that’s a lot different about us is he’s fatter than I am. I know this is not online, but you tell him I said that. And truthfully, he has a better golf game than I do. He beats me at golf all the time.

But we have the same beliefs and similarities in our preaching and what we teach about the Lord. And I am so grateful for Him. He preached my wife’s father’s, my father-in-law’s funeral a couple of years ago. And I wanted that because I knew that when Al preaches, you’re going to hear the gospel. You’re going to hear the truth of the book. And I love that about him. And that’s the way I am and always have been. And maybe that’s one of the reasons we get along so well.

But thank you again for being here with me here today. And before I get started, can we bow our heads and pray together if you wouldn’t mind.

Father in heaven, I thank you so much for Jesus and the cross and the blood. And Lord, I just pray today that you just speak words through me, Lord. I know that I’m not here by accident or incidents. I believe I’m here, Lord, by your appointment, by the Holy Spirit. And so, Lord, I pray that the words that I say today coming out of my mouth will be words that you would have me to speak. And, Lord, if I speak anything other than that, Lord, then stop it before it ever comes out of my mouth.

And be with all of us here today. May we look into Your Word today and find some things, Lord, that are going to be helpful. Find some things today, Lord, that will be an answer to some of the things we’ve been struggling with. Might give glory and honor to You forever and ever, and we ask it all in Jesus’ name, amen.

All right, today I want to preach a message to you entitled, “The Erosion of Godly Values.” Now, I have some PowerPoint slides, as you can see, and I think Donnie back there, or one of them, one of the little girl—I forgot your name. Who is it? Morgan—is going to be changing the slides. I do my sermons by manuscript, and so I—in case this happens, and when I go somewhere, I put little red marks on it when it’s time to change the screen, and so they’re going to do that today. But if they don’t, you don’t worry about it. You just pay attention to what I’m saying. That’s all that you need to do. But sometimes I know there are people in any congregation who are visual learners. They like to see things on the screen, and so I’m going to share some of that with you today.

The erosion of godly values. Would you take your copy of God’s Word and be turning it to the book of Judges, chapter 17, or if you’re looking digitally on your device, Judges, chapter 17. And I said earlier, I pray that we learn some things today that are going to help us as God’s people to bring back the glory to our families, to our nation, and to our God. And we’re going to be talking about the battles that we’re having in America for our values. In the last two generations in America, we’ve seen an unprecedented erosion of the values that made our nation great. What happens when a nation’s values begin to erode? It’s a good question.

And so, in reading here in Judges, chapter 17, we’re going to start with verse 1 and go for a little while. I hope to be able to show you, out of the New American Standard Bible, I hope to be able to show you how we can see ourselves in this as a nation, and how we can apply some of these principles into our own life, make application, so it’ll mean something to us as we leave out of this building.

So, Judges 17, verse 1: “Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.” And by the way, Micah there—the name Micah means “one who is like the Lord.” A man named Micah. And then verse 2: “He said to his mother, ‘The 1,100 pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.’” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son, the Lord.” He then returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a graven image and a molten image, and therefore I will return them to you.” So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols, and consecrated one of his sons, that he might become his priest.

Now, a lot of things going on there. Some of it may not even make sense to you as you read through that, but if you hang on, pay attention, I believe the Lord’s going to bless you this morning.

So now we come to verse 6, and let me just say this, and then we’ll talk about it: “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.” No authority, no authority except every man being his own authority and doing whatever he wished, and saying, “What’s right for me is right, and what’s right for you is right.” It might be different from what I think is right, but what’s right for each one of us is right. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

And you can mark it down, church: when the values of an individual or a family or a nation begins to erode, the line between what’s right and what’s wrong…

begins to vanish in direct proportion, and that’s precisely the condition of America today. Among other news magazines that I like to read, I still like to read the U.S. News and World Report online, and I came across an editorial piece in the archives that I read and catalogued, and I want to read a portion of it to you now. This is a secular magazine that I’m reading from; it’s not a Sunday school quarterly. The editors and staff are decidedly secular in their world view, and here’s the editorial. It’s entitled “Where Have Our Values Gone?” And I quote: “The fraying of America’s social fabric is fast becoming a national obsession. Three out of every four Americans think we are in moral and spiritual decline.”

Now, did you hear that? Three out of four people say that we’re on the way down in America. Let me let me go back. I quote again: “Two out of three think the country is seriously off track. Doubts about the president’s leadership have driven his standing in the polls down by 25 points. Social dysfunction haunts the land: crime, drug addiction, open borders, the breakup of the family, the slump in academic performance, and the disfigurement of public places by druggies, thugs, and so-called legitimate protesters. We certainly seem to have lost the balance between societal rights and individual freedoms. There are daily confrontations with almost everyone in authority: blacks against white power structure, women against patriarchy, feminists against feminism, gays against homophobia, children against parents, mothers against matrimony, and worse, mothers against unborn children, fathers against child support, church goers against the church, students against universities. Instead of a culture of common good, we have a culture today of common complaint.”

I’m still reading from this article, U.S. News and World Report: “Crime is sanctioned by the fact, real or imagined, that the criminal had an unhappy childhood and therefore is not responsible. Gone are the habits that America once admired: industriousness, thrift, self-discipline, and commitment. The combined effects of these sicknesses rooted in phony doctrines of liberalism has been to diminish our nation’s optimism and sap its confidence.”

And I continue to quote: “It’s the young who are strikingly vulnerable. They’ve been deprived, like previous generations, of the emotional comfort, moral nurturing provided by the traditional family. Instant gratification is the new order of the day. Personal impulses, especially sexual, are constantly stimulated by popular music, television, with other mass media not far behind. TV and music often seem to honor everything that the true American ethic despises: violence, infidelity, drugs, drinking, and to make a mockery of everything it embraces: religion, marriage, and respect for authority. No wonder it’s difficult to sustain parental values and parental continuity in this rapidly declining social climate.” Unquote.

Now, that’s about half of the editorial. I’m not going to read anymore; we don’t have the time. But church, listen, I want to remind you that’s not a Baptist preacher that you just heard that wrote those things. That’s a national secular news magazine that says that we as a nation are in trouble. Now, if you don’t believe that, if you don’t believe what I just read and you don’t think it’s true, then read this morning’s newspaper. Go to any city, major city, major city, and read their morning newspaper. America is sick, and unless we have a moral and spiritual renewal, we’re gone as a nation.

I wonder if we really understand that. I wonder if we actually really believe that in America today, and even particularly in our churches, do we believe that today? Oh, how we need to bring back the glory of God to America and to America’s churches, and what happened so long ago in Israel here that we just read some about, and recorded in the Book of Judges for us, so give us some inspiration. It’ll give us a lot of information so that we can make application into our life today. In that day, as in this day, every man did what was right in his own eyes. Let me say that again because I want you to know where this is coming from. In that day, as it is in this day, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Now, I know there are exceptions to that, but for the most part, that’s a true statement.

Now, number one, the thing that I want you to see is the result of eroding values, and what was the result of every man doing that which was right in his own eyes? Well, we’re going to look at three things. First of all, there were families without foundation. I just read Your story that took place in this family here in Judges chapter 17. And this man, Micah, his name actually means one who is like Jehovah. He had taken 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother, stole it. Now, evidently, she was pretty wealthy. So he went into her belongings and stole this money, the silver, from her. And she did not know that he was the thief. And so she pronounced a curse on whoever had stolen the money. And when her son Micah found out that a curse had been pronounced on the thief, he got frightened, scared, and he brought the money back. And he didn’t bring it back out of conviction. He brought it back out of fear. And he said, “Mama, look, I took those 1,100 shekels of silver. I’m the one that did it.”

Rather than scolding her son, her criminal son, she blessed him. And she was so glad to get her money back. And she said, “Son, I’m glad you returned the money. And now I’m going to dedicate that money to the Lord,” which was a lie because she didn’t dedicate all of it to the Lord, did she? She didn’t even give a tithe of it to the Lord. We’ll see in a minute. But she said, “I’m going to dedicate that money to the Lord.” Well, when you hear someone say that, it sounds pretty good on the face of it. She was going to give it to the Lord. But then she said this, “I wanted to make some idols out of that money. Wanted to make idols out of that money. And that’s why I dedicated the silver to the Lord. So we’re going to have some idols made, son. We’re going to have them put up here in the house.”

Well, just so we don’t miss it, I want you to see quickly before we move on, just how easily truth and error can be mixed to create heresy and false doctrine. That’s why the Bible tells us that we should have watchmen on the wall who can recognize and hear the false doctrine and the heresy and keep it away. That’s what Paul dealt with in the book of Galatians. There were Judaizers there who said, “Oh yes, Jesus Christ. You can get to heaven through Jesus Christ. But you have to add this to it.” And they added so many things. And, you know, half a truth is still a lie. Isn’t that right?

So, in verse 2, apparently the mother placed the curse on the thief. And let me ask you, where did that idea even come from? That it was fitting, that it was possible to place a curse on someone else. Where did that come from? Because that went directly against the scriptures in the writing of Moses. Balaam actually had it right after being hired by Balak to curse the children of Israel. He said in Numbers chapter 23 and verse 8, “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?” But this was a terrible result of the mingling of truth and error. And you can see how entrenched they were in it. The son was frightened over the curse. He believed in the curse, when it went against everything that Moses said and what was written in the Torah. The law.

Now the word Lord there, they’re going to have some idols to the Lord. The word Lord there is Jehovah in the original Hebrew language. And that would surprise all of us. They’re going to make idols to the Lord, to God, to Jehovah is what it says. It’s not a word there that refers to a pagan god. That’s not what the American god said. She’s not referring to a god of the moon or a god of the sun or a god of the harvest or a god of the earth. It wasn’t a reference to any of the sensual gods that were worshipped by the pagan nations around them in that day. It’s not the gods of sex and fertility that she wanted to make an idol to. No, she’s referring to our God, Jehovah.

She took the money, well, not all of it, but she took the money that she dedicated to the Lord, took it over to the foundry there, and they made an idol. But here’s the error and the irony. The very God which she makes an idol of was the very God who said, “You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness or any image of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water underneath. You shall not worship them.”

or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, out of Exodus chapter 20. So listen, when truth is mingled with error, it always produces, always produces heresy that seems right. You know, it seems okay. Should be okay, we think and reason in our mind. But in the end, it’s disobedience, and that disobedience will bring destruction. Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 12 says, There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

So here he is. He’s got a shelf full of idols in his house, and he just adds this new silver idol to that collection. And then he says this. He says, You know, I need a priest. I need a priest. I’m going to make my son the priest in our house. And so he just appoints his own priest. Now, church, listen. All of that’s going on in this chapter. It’s unmitigated spiritual and moral confusion and compromise and mingling of truth and error.

Now, these people are truly thinking that they’re serving the Lord. They believe with all their heart they’re honoring the Lord. But instead, they have compromised and mingled the faith with the teaching of the pagan world. And as I said, the result is always despair, death, and destruction of families and of a nation. But the irony is, they have an aura of godliness about the family. Kind of weird when you think of it. And I see it today, and you do too. Here’s a family with coveting, stealing, cursing, blessing, dishonoring their parents and idolatry and all the rest of those things that are going on in their home. And yet, they say, well, this is the way we want to worship God. They see nothing wrong with it. They see nothing wrong with any of that. But they were morally and spiritually bankrupt. Idolatry is thinking they were serving the Lord.

Now, here’s what’s happening in America today. It’s not so much that we don’t have religion in America. We’re drowning in religion. We’re up to our ears in religion. But not Bible truth. Not Bible morality. Not Bible doctrine. You can say a prayer anywhere, anytime, on television, in this nation. And you can say, God. But the moment that you say, Jesus, in Jesus’ name, you’re open game for the liberals. And so this family was morally and spiritually bankrupt. And we are like that today in America.

In fact, in America today, we think we’ve been liberated. We believe so. America today, we think we’ve been liberated from the traditional family. There are alternative lifestyles. Alternative families now that are normal, they say. Women celebrate liberation from the home, from their husbands. Women celebrate liberation from their children. Some women celebrate liberation from having to bear children at all. And fathers are liberated from their authority and responsibility that they should have in the home. Children are liberated from limits and boundaries and rules. They don’t want any of that. The entire population is liberated from moral and ethical standards. And yet, the irony is that after all this liberation that has caused our traditional values to be so eroded, it turns out that these values were precisely what held our society together. Family values have been so scorned that we’re left with neither families nor values.

So what do we have now? What do we have now? Rampant illegitimacy. Sexual deviancy. Widespread divorce. First two generations of unloved, undisciplined, and uncared for kids. And the sad thing is that the lack of discipline and values and standards goes right down to the very best families in our churches.

In a small town in Missouri, a little dog wandered up to where two boys’ brothers were playing. And they were preacher’s boys, and they liked the little dog that came up. Little dog was friendly, solid black with a few little white streaks on its tail. And they took that dog to their home, to their preacher daddy, and said, Daddy, daddy, can we keep him? We really like him. Well, the daddy, the preacher, he liked the dog too. So he said, yes, boys, we can keep him.

Then a day or two later, they found out that a new family had moved into the community, and that family had lost their dog. Well, in fact, it was a black dog with a few white streaks on the tail. It was obvious that it was their dog. So they came looking for the dog. And the boys thought, well, we might lose this dog. So they took out some shoe polish, and they turned those white hairs on the tail into black on that dog’s tail. And when the family came by and said, “We believe that that’s our dog,” the preacher, Daddy, said, “Oh, no. How can that be your dog? You said your dog had some white streaks on the tail. But this dog has black streaks. He’s black all over.” And the family went away and said, “Well, that must not be our dog. That must be their dog.”

Now, let me tell you the names of those two preacher’s boys. You ready? Frank and Jesse James. You ever heard of the James Gang? I don’t mean the rock band some of you are thinking about. Perhaps two of the most notorious criminals America has ever known, Frank and Jesse James, preacher’s kids. And they had a dad who kept the dog, but he lost his boy.

And you know, today, there are, I always call them, I guess I’m dating myself when I say this, but fuzzbuster dads, you know, teaching their boys how to break the speed limit. They may not even have that. You probably got an app for your phone for that now. But there are moms and dads taking kids to the movies, or they used to. They lie and say, tell them that you’re only 10 when you’re 12, or tell them you’re 12 when you’re really 13. And that way we’ll get you in free or get you in at a lower price. We teach our kids to steal.

And if you find a $10 or $20 or maybe a $50 bill in the Walmart parking lot, you say, “Woo, it’s my lucky day. Look what we found.” And God has smiled on you. You even praise the Lord for something like that. But listen, it’s not your lucky day. It’s someone else’s unlucky day. They lost the money. Maybe it was a widow on a fixed income. And that money may mean that she goes without food or without some sort of medicine that way. The right thing to do, now listen, the right thing to do is not keep that money. Take it back to the manager. Let him keep it and pray that the person who dropped it will come back and inquire about it.

Folks, I’m telling you that if we just had a generation of families today or children today who are being raised by moms and dads who had ethics and morals, our nation could change overnight. Even the church suffers from all of that.

So to make it worse, the second thing that’s taking place in this chapter is that not only families without foundation, but we have pastors without principles. Pastors without principles. You know what it means when a Baptist preacher puts his watch on the pulpit, right? Nothing. Pastors without principles. I’m sorry to say that. It grieves me to say that, but we have that.

Look at verse 7, if you will. Same chapter of Judges. “Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah of the family of Judah who was a Levite, and he was staying there.” Now who were the Levites? Let’s stop there for just a minute. Who were the Levites? They were the priestly people. They were the clerics of their day in the Old Testament. They were the counterpart to today’s pastors and ministers.

And so let’s read on verse 8. “Then the man departed from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to stay wherever he might find the place.” Wherever he might find the place. “And as he made his journey, he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah.” Now we know Micah, right? We remember him. We’ve already met old Micah, the thief and the idolater.

“And Micah said to him, verse 9, ‘Where do you come from?’ And he said to him, ‘I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m going to stay wherever I might find the place.’” Micah then said to him, “Well, dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes, and your maintenance.” So the Levite went in. The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah. And then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as a priest.”

All right. That’s amazing to me. Can I tell you what that is? That’s a preacher without a job is what It is. He’s trying to find some food, trying to find a place to stay. And remember now, the Levites were there to help in the priesthood. According to the law of God, they were there to assist the priest. They were to teach the law. They were to lead in praise and worship. And there’s a young Levite without a place to do any of that. Doesn’t have anywhere to do that. He needs food. He needs clothing. And Micah says, like Bob the Tomato, “Hey, have I got a deal for you.” Those of you who have grandchildren, you know all about VeggieTales, right? Y’all all right? Y’all okay? We’ll make sure you’re awake. But he says, “Have I got a deal for you?” He says, “You come live in my house. You come dwell in my house. Be my personal priest. And if you will be my priest, I’m going to feed you. I’m going to pay you. I’m going to dress you well. I’m going to maintain you. I got you covered.” And so he hired him. According to verse 10, he hired him to be his own priest. Here’s a man of God agreeing to become the appointed priest of an idolater and wicked man purely for money and things. My wife calls it stuff. You know, stuff that you accumulate for a lifetime. But you all know that you can’t take it with you when you go. You’ve never seen a U-Haul behind a hearse, right? You can’t take it with you. But your children, your grandchildren are already in your house saying, “Man, that’s going to look good when he gets in my house. I already got a place picked out for it.” Right? He was a man who was hired. He was hired. There’s no doubt about it. He was a hireling. And if you want even further reference, go to chapter 18, look in verse 4. Here’s the words of the Levite. Out of his own mouth he said to him, “Thus and so has Micah done to me and he has hired me and I have become his priest.” So he was a hireling. Not a man of God. He was a hireling. And what does Jesus say about that? What does Jesus say about a hireling? Well, in John chapter 10 verses 12 and 13 He said this, “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and he leaves the sheep and he flees. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and he is not concerned about the sheep.” Well, do you know what happened as a result of the erosion of our value, which is the result of everyone doing what is right in his own eyes? We now have new prophets, and I’m spelling it P-R-O-F-I, prophet, right? They’ve not been called out by God, and I know some of you are thinking, “So, Brother Jimmy, wait a minute now, you don’t think pastor ought to be paid?” That’s not what I’m saying. Don’t misunderstand what I’m not saying. All right? Of course he ought to be paid. Pastor has to be paid. Bible says that so also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 5:17 on your screen there says, “The elders, that is the word for pastors, who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.” But listen, no man has a right to be a hireling. Isn’t that right? A professional in the ministry, if you will. Here was a man here who forsook, if he ever had it, God’s calling and God’s authority. Being a hireling. He told the people what they wanted to hear. That’s what a hireling does. Look in Judges chapter 18 and verses 5 and 6. Turn there now. It’s going to be up on screen but you just look in there and see it with me. There were some people who wanted to go about something that was very, very wrong in that day. God wasn’t in it at all. The man was a hireling and we’re going to see that as we go on. And so they went to this priest and look if you will there in verse 5 of chapter 18. They said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be prosperous.” The priest said to them, this is their hireling, their personal priest. The priest said to them, “Go in peace. Your way in which you are going has the Lord’s approval. Now remember, this is the hireling, and he says, “Go in peace. The Lord’s going to go before you.” And then in verse 7, the five men departed and came to Laish. I’ll talk about that a little bit later. And they said, “But he said, surely God is with you. Peace, peace, go on in your wicked ways. It’s fine. If it’s right in your eyes, then do it. It’s good with God. It’ll be okay.”

Listen, I want to tell you, I’m convinced there’s not much in America. There’s not very much in America that couldn’t be, wouldn’t be radically, dramatically, and quickly changed if we just had a generation of leather-lunged preachers who would stand up in their pulpit and without fear or favor, wanting favor, preach the word of God with the anointing of the Holy Ghost on them. I’m telling you, we need it. I pray that way during these days because it seems to me, and I know a lot of people call me an old dinosaur, but I came out of the days of leather-lunged preachers who stood up in the pulpit. Whether you liked it or not, this is what the word of God says, and you ought to get right according to that.

They weren’t hirelings, right? They need to, these guys today need to stop winning, trying to win popularity contests. They need to be listening to what God says to them and preach the things that God says, what the book says we ought to be preaching today.

Now, what’s the difference between a man of God and a hireling? Simple. A hireling is committed to the one who pays his salary, and a called-out man of God is committed to the one who called him, the Lord God.

Now, I want to say this carefully because you know that I’m a retired pastor. I was always grateful for what the church paid me. But in the truest sense, the church doesn’t pay the pastor, and the pastor is not responsible to you. Now, that makes you angry. You come up to me after the service is over and apologize, and I’ll forgive you. But listen, here’s what I’m saying, and you’ll get it. You give your money to God as an act of worship. Isn’t that right? You’re worshiping the Lord. You don’t give your money to the preacher. You’re not worshiping the preacher. You’re worshiping God, and your giving is a reflection of that worship of holy God. And then God pays the pastor. You see the difference?

Now, no pastor is ungrateful for what a congregation does for him and for his family, especially when they’re very loving and very generous. But listen, church, a pastor, not a hireling, but a pastor, is not committed to you. He’s committed first to Jesus Christ. And then all of the rest of that will flow down to you. He’ll be committed to you then. And listen, you’ve not hired him to be a Christian on your behalf. The pastor, you know, he’s not your gospel gunslinger, if you will. You know that. You can’t hire anyone to serve God on your behalf. You’re going to serve God, and no pastor can be your surrogate. He’s not a paid mercenary to serve God for you. He can’t do your witnessing for you. He can’t do your praying or your praising for you.

And Jesus says that the hireling flees. The good shepherd is the one who gives His life, life for the shepherd, for the sheep, excuse me.

Now, I said all that to say this. Today, I believe we have a generation of man-called preachers rather than God-called preachers. And because of that, they’ll not preach the whole counsel of the Word of God. They just will not. And listen, real God-called preachers of the book probably won’t be elected man of the year. Real God-called preachers of the book won’t even be clergymen of the year. Even among their peers, they’re not going to be elected clergymen of the year. As a matter of fact, you know what they’re going to be? They’re going to be seen as troublemakers. Troublemakers.

I believe that the majority, and I’ll say this, not all, not all, but most inside and outside of our churches, most, those who come to church and those who don’t, most I’m saying, they don’t want to hear the gospel truth. Let me feel good on a Sunday morning. I came and I paid homage to the Lord, and the rest of the week is mine. I don’t want to be troubled with anything from the book or anything from what God says my life ought to Reflect. They want us to tell them what they long to hear. They just want us to tickle their ears. That’s what Paul told Timothy. They just want to talk about God’s love and God’s forgiveness. Talk about how God doesn’t mind if we are too busy for worship. Talk about how God understands if we can’t be as committed as others might be. They don’t want to hear about accountability, responsibility, sin, and God’s inevitable judgment on that sin. They don’t want to hear about the darkness and pain and separation of hell. Just tell us about God’s love.

Vance Abner, great evangelist in our convention many years ago. Vance Abner said that a lady came up to him after one of his revival sermons and said, “Why don’t you stop preaching about hell and all that judgment and that horror and that pain and all of that when we die, if we go to hell, and start preaching about the loving and lowly Jesus?” Vance Abner said, “Well, it was from the loving and lowly Jesus that I got most of my information on hell.”

So, you know, we need to be able to hear that because that’s part of the book. We don’t close part of the book, cut out part of the pages because we don’t want to hear it. It’s best. I’ll show you that in just a minute why it’s best that we do hear it. But nothing they want to hear that causes them maybe to change the lifestyle or reset priorities.

So those who preach true to God and His Word, the God-called preacher, they become enemies of the compromisers. Even within the church, they become enemies. I’ve even been called by church members as cruel, cruel for preaching sin according to the Bible. But the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 25 or 27, excuse me, verse 5, says this: “Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.”

Listen, I’d rather be called cruel for being kind than kind for being cruel. But there’s nothing more kind. You can’t do anything more kind and loving to anyone, to one another, than to tell the truth about sin and death and hell and judgment. And then share the unsearchable riches of God in Christ Jesus. How He solved a problem that He didn’t have. And you had no solution to that problem that He solved. Preacher didn’t want to hurt your feelings or make you mad, though. And so they’re not going to preach the gospel today. That’s what is happening in many of our churches that are being planted today. Say that.

God-called preacher has to stand before the people and preach the entire counsel of God. And the people have the opportunity to respond when that entire counsel is given. People have the opportunity to respond. They know the facts. They know the truth. To repent, to be saved from hell, added to the Lamb’s book of life.

The Apostle Paul said to the Galatians in chapter 4, “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” Ecclesiastes chapter 7 says, “It’s better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than for one to listen to the song of fools.” People are flocking to churches today hearing the song of fools. Men who are hirelings. Men whose responsibility it is to tell the truth. But they’re more responsible to the people who pay their salary, they think, than they are to Almighty God.

Now, let me say this. I know I’m not going to have time to finish all of this. I have one more point I wanted to get to. But I want to just say this about your pastor, Al. He is not a hireling. As you know that. You know that already. He’s going to share with you sometimes some uncomfortable truths. Uncomfortable things that you need to know. I’ve known him for a lot of years. As I said, he preached my wife’s father’s funeral. And we’ve been in revivals together through the years, preaching together. And he is not a hireling. He is called out by God. And you know it when he stands in the pulpit.

Now, I’m going to try to move through some of this a little quicker so I can get you out of here in about five or ten minutes. I told Al, though, by the way, I do have an excuse. I told Al, “Does he ever let you out a little bit early?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Well, I’m going to count up all that time you let him out early. And I get that as my extra time today. And he looked at me like I was crazy. I said, “No, don’t do that.” “Well, I want you to read. I want to read to you what one preacher in California said.”

Dead now, but I want you to read what he said, which I think is a travesty to Christendom. Listen to what he said: “I don’t know of anything that’s been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and hence counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.” Unquote. If I called his name, you’d know who it was. He’s dead now. He pastored a mega church. He also said this: “My number one role is that I don’t want to do anything that would turn somebody off so they’re not open to listening to my invitation to accept Jesus Christ now, listen to this, as their best friend.”

Do you hear that? I don’t want to do anything that’s going to turn people off from not hearing about Jesus Christ and accepting Him as their best friend. Well, here’s what I say to that: that kind of watered-down gospel presentation—and it’s not even gospel, it’s a watered-down presentation—though it’s causing the downfall of our churches, which causes the downfall of our nation. Because listen, we’re sinners. We’re sinners first and foremost. We need a Savior before we need a friend. Jesus has to become our Savior, our Lord, and then He becomes our friend. He can come, He will become our friend at that point. In fact, what would it matter? What would it even matter if He were your friend, Jesus, but not your Lord and your Savior? How will that count for all eternity? You’re not going to stand at the gates of heaven—I suppose you know that’s not really going to happen anyway—but you won’t stand there one day and, “Why should we let you in here?” “Oh, I have a friend in Jesus.” “Yeah, but is He your Lord? Is He your Savior? Did He die for you personally? Have you received Him as your Lord and Savior in your life? Has He become what you live for? Has He become the most important thing in your life?” Not just friend. Once He becomes your Savior, then you can have Him as a friend, and what a friend we have in Jesus, no doubt about it.

Mark 8:36 says, “For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” Listen, I have probably much more than I should have written, but let me give you the last point: that you’re going to have families without foundations, pastors without principles, and then it’s on page 28 if y’all are looking up there, it’s government without God. Government without God. Now, I wish I had time to expound that because that would blow your mind about some of the things I found out in studying for this, but time is not going to permit me to do that. So maybe another time when Pastor Al might be out of town, if he would be so kind and gracious, and you’d be so kind and gracious to have me back, I’ll preach the end of that because that’s a sermon within itself. So you can see how long it would take me to do that, right?

But before we close today, I have always believed in my heart, taught to me by men like W. A. Criswell, Dr. Adrian Rogers, who people I sat under, that there’s no place for preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ without giving the people an invitation, a chance to respond. And so I want to do that now. I don’t know how you all do that around here, whether you have music for that or not, but I want to give you just a few minutes here. You can come to this altar, you can come kneel down on the front, you can stand if you’re not able to kneel. But if you don’t know—first of all, if you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you’ve never said, “Lord, forgive me, and I repent, I turn away from the sin in my life, and I turn to You, turning away from sin, I’m turning to You.” If you’ve never done that, today you can be saved, and you can mark it down today, because the Bible says when you make that decision In your life that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, you’ll be saved, and there’s no eraser on that pen. By the way, it’s written in blood, right? Amen. So you come today if you don’t know Christ as your Lord and Savior. Maybe there’s—maybe you are a Christian, and there are just certain things going on in your life that you just want to ask the Lord about. What better place on God’s day, with God’s people, in God’s house, to ask God about it and give it to Him and ask Him to help you with it? Maybe you’re just visiting today, and you had the unfortunate chance of walking in here with a visiting preacher, but you’re looking—maybe you have been here before, I don’t know. Maybe you’re looking to join this church. Today would be a good day for you to come down here, and one of these deacons—Buck, one of you—would come down here to receive people if you’re looking to do that.

So let me pray, and then we’re going to have a little brief invitation before we go. And Donnie, if you want to come on up here and lead a song, you can do that. And you’re already over there, son. She’s way ahead of me. Let’s bow our heads. Father in heaven, we give this part of the service to You, Lord. We believe with all our hearts, Lord, that You have spoken into our hearts. You’ve spoken in the hearts of many in here, and Lord, help folks to be able to respond. Help them, Lord, make decisions. Keep them, Lord, from giving in to Satan, who says, “Don’t go, don’t go, don’t go down that aisle.” The Lord, call them out and bless them, Lord, and whatever it is on the hearts of the people and whatever is on their minds today, Lord, just use it for Your glory, and we’re going to give You that right now in Jesus’ name, amen.

All right, we’re going to close with number 318, “The Nail-Scarred Hand.” So you’ll stand, we’ll sing. Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand. Are you—[inaudible] right? Place your hand in the nail—place your hand.