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And if you look at Jeremiah 23, in fact, this whole chapter is about pastors, it's about religious leaders, it's about preachers. And so this is the chapter directed to me, it's a chapter directed to all pastors, and I also, you know, this goes very well with the teaching that we looked at on this past Friday with the men's class, the leadership class, as I was teaching about the importance to make sure that you're factually accurate, that you're speaking the truth, and if you're not sure, better not cover that topic if you're not sure. You know, be sure that what you're saying is 100% accurate. And we start with verse number 1, which says, Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. The title for the sermon this morning is pastors that destroy and scatter. Pastors that destroy and scatter. Are there pastors that destroy? Do they have a testimony, a reputation of destruction? Do they have a testimony or reputation of scattering the sheep? Scattering the flock? You know, causing people to be unstable and get out of church and be wandering in the wilderness? Yes, there are pastors like this, and Jeremiah is preaching against these kinds of pastors. This was a major problem in the land of Judah at this point in time. The pastors were not doing their jobs. Alright? Verse number 2, Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people, notice that, feed my people. What is the primary job of a pastor? To feed the people. Okay? Not breakfast, not lunch, I'm not here to cook, I'm not here to put an apron on and start cooking in the kitchen. Okay? But we're feeding, supposed to be feeding, the Word of God. Alright? Pastors that feed my people. Look at this. You have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. Keep your finger there and please go to Luke chapter 11. Go to Luke chapter 11 because you may have different ideas of what it means to scatter the flock. Now obviously, a pastor that does a bad job may cause the flock to be scattered, okay? Because of poor teaching, because of a bad testimony, for whatever, you know, there could be various reasons. But Jesus Christ takes the same lesson about scattering the flock and He teaches us something in the New Testament. In Luke chapter 11 verse number 23, Luke 11 23, Jesus Christ says these words. He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. So when Jesus Christ is defining what it means to be a pastor that scatters, what is He saying? He is someone that gathereth not. Okay? And when we talk about gathering, talking about going out, what are we talking about? We're talking about preaching the gospel, preaching the gospel to the lost. We're talking about soul winning. You know, when we go soul winning, we're going there to gather the sheaves. We're trying to bring them into the house of the Lord. We're doing the work of evangelism. We're preaching God's word. That is also the job of a pastor. Okay, you know, this is something that drops, you know, I've seen this in many pastor's lives where maybe they were soul winning. Maybe they were actively giving the gospel, but there comes a time when they just drop it completely. Alright? Now it may seem like, well, I'm just dropping one part of the ministry because I'm picking up other ministries that I need to do. That's how some pastors justify it. But God is saying if you're gathering, you're not just leaving that out. What you're actually doing is you're scattering. You're part of the scattering. So a pastor that is not soul winning, okay, who's not actively doing that is one that scatters. You know, if you ever become a pastor, you have to be a soul winner. You have to keep getting out there preaching the gospel. I'll just read to you in 2 Timothy 4-5. This is Paul writing to Timothy, Pastor Timothy, Bishop Timothy in the church. He says in verse number 5, But watch now in all things and do our afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. What did he say? Do the work of an evangelist. We say, no, no, that's just the evangelist's job, to go out and preach the gospel. You know? No. The pastor is to also take on that role as an evangelist and be involved in the soul winning work. If they're not soul winning, he's a pastor that's scattereth. You know, if you find yourself one day not at Blessed Up Baptist Church, for whatever reason, find a pastor who is soul winning. If he's not gathering, he's scattering. Okay? Then you'll find yourself in a position like Jeremiah did in the days of Judah. Can you please now turn to John chapter 10. John chapter 10 verse 12. Now, this chapter in Jeremiah is a long chapter. We are going to spend a little bit more time in the beginning verses and we're going to maybe speed off as we get toward the later verses in Jeremiah 23. But if we start well, if we establish a good foundation, the rest of the chapter will make a lot of sense. John chapter 10 verse 12, please. John chapter 10 verse 12. Jesus Christ has other words to say about a pastor or a shepherd. You know, pastor means shepherd. Same thing, right? In John chapter 10 verse 12, it says, But he that is an hireling, what's a hireling? Someone that does a job to be hired and get paid. There's nothing wrong with being a hireling in and of itself. Okay? You do a job, you do it because you want to get paid. You need to provide those kinds of things. But what Christ is speaking about here is a shepherd that just does it for money. Again, another pastor you need to be careful of is a pastor that's in the ministry just for the money. Okay? Maybe he's too lazy to work some other job. You know, whatever reason. Or maybe, you know, he'll compromise the church standards to make money. This is a hireling. Look. But he that is an hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf come in and leaveth the sheep and fleeth. So what's another pastor you don't want? A pastor that runs away. A pastor that flees when there's difficulties. It says, and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. There it is again, scattering the sheep. Why is it that the sheep here are being scattered? Because the shepherd is not stepping up and defending the congregation. He's running away, you know, from the situation. And look at verse number 13. It says, The hireling fleeth because he is an hireling and careth not for the sheep. A pastor that tries to get into a position of authority in the church for money does not care for the sheep. Okay? He cares for money. Oh, it's too hard now. I'm going to run away. See you later. Okay? He's not a real shepherd. He doesn't care for the sheep. Obviously the one that cares for the sheep, that loves the sheep, that is not just doing it for some paycheck. He's going to hang around and fight the wolf. Okay? He's going to be there when the times are difficult. Alright? Now, keep that in mind. Okay? I don't want to be a pastor that's scattereth. I hope you guys, I hope as we go through this chapter, I hope it's not like, oh man, yep, that's Pastor Kevin. He's one of those bad prophets. I hope not. I hope you see the opposite, in fact. I hope that's the case. Go back to Jeremiah 23, verse number 2. Jeremiah 23, verse number 2. So we've seen what a shepherd does. You know, his job is to gather, alright, not to scatter. And he also said in verse number 2, ye have scattered my flock and driven them away, and have not visited them. So because this shepherd, this pastor, is not visiting the people that is under him, God says, behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doing, saith the Lord. You know, a pastor that does not visit his church does evil, according to this. And God says, I'm going to recompense the same evil that you have done to the flock. Now, brethren, when we had the lockdowns, and you guys know, last year, my flights were being cancelled, I was trying to get up here, in fact, I went to the airport one Sunday, sorry, one, one, I think it was a Sunday, and my flight was cancelled there, I was in the airport, my flight was cancelled, right? I mean, these things happen, and I tell you, okay, one week is okay, two weeks is okay, maybe a month, now it's getting a little bit tough. But as the time went on, I was burdened very heavily. And I said, I need to go and visit this church, I need to get there, okay? Now, I could have, literally, I couldn't have flown because the flights were cancelled, I could have driven if I really wanted to, but then to drive back to see my family, I would have to quarantine for 14 days. You know, that wasn't going to help anybody. And so I was in this tough place, okay? But then, look, what has developed out of that? You know, the fact that I couldn't visit you the way I should have or desired to, you know, started to put the seeds in my mind, well, maybe I need to temporarily relocate myself down in Sydney. Because a pastor is someone that is supposed to visit the flock, all right? Now, if I'm gone, I'm like, see you later, guys, it's much easier on the Sunshine Coast, you guys are dealing with restrictions, you guys just work it out, I'm just going to relax on the Sunshine Coast, hey, that would be a bad pastor. Okay, that would be someone that does not go and visit the flock, all right? And then what's God going to say? He's going to visit upon me the evil of my daughter. I don't want that from God, all right? But a pastor that cares for the sheep, that cares for the church, he's going to make the effort to get there, whatever it is, you know? If there are satellite churches, different churches around that he passes, multiple churches, he's going to make sure that he's available, ready and available and visiting the people that he needs to visit. Look at verse number three. Look at verse number three. All right, so we're looking at the promise of restoration. Now, I did tell you last week that the Book of Jeremiah is not always in chronological order. In fact, it's more thematic. And you'll see now that God is going to start talking about the restoration. Primarily, it's been about the destruction, about the judgment, but now we're entering into a period, well, maybe not just yet, but we're starting to get there, where God is going to be focusing more on the return. They're going to be in Babylon for 70 years and they're going to be brought back, all right? So God is saying he's going to regather the flock out of all the countries of the Babylonians. But notice what it says at the end of verse number three, and we'll bring them again to their folds. Now, if you're sitting here today, brethren, I would hope that you would look at Blessed Hope Baptist Church and say this is my fold. This is where I belong. You know, God wants you gathered together in a fold, okay? Now, we should have our own walk with God. We should have our own relationship with God and read in our Bibles, yes, but it's also important to have your own fold. Why is it so important to be part of a church? It says, and they shall be fruitful and increase. If you want to be fruitful and increase, you want to do well, be successful in your Christian life, you have to get plugged into a church. You know, if you say to me, Pastor Kevin, you know, I just, you know, Blessed Hope Baptist Church, just not for me. You know, I'm going to go somewhere else. You know, if you're just going to another good fold, you're going to another solid church that's soul winning, that's preaching from the King James Bible, that's doing the best they can to serve the Lord and preach the truth, I would just say to you, God bless you, brother. You know, I'm just happy that you're part of a fold, okay? But if you say to me, you know what, Blessed Hope Baptist Church, it's not for me, we're just going to get out of church and then we find out that you're not going to any church, you're just wandering around, you know, and you're maybe church hopping and going here, going here, going here, going here and just not happy anywhere, you know, I would be sad. I would be sad to think that one of the sheep that was part of this fold is now lost, okay? He's not going to be fruitful. He's not going to increase because he's not part of a fold, okay? So church is very important. Church is very important for your fruitfulness and for you to increase in what you do for the Lord. Verse number 4, then God promises this, And I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them. There it is again, what's the shepherd's job? To feed you, feed you God's word. And they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. So this gives me what I need to be doing as a pastor. All right, I need to feed you God's word. What else am I supposed to do? I'm supposed to help you overcome fear. They shall fear no more, nor be dismayed. I'm sure I'm there to stabilise you, not to preach the truth so you're not being tossed about with every window of doctrine being unstable. Neither shall they be lacking. I want to make sure that we have all we need, the resources, you know, everything that we need to be able to function as God's church and do well as God's people. That is the job of a pastor. Now again, you know, I think about, I look at these things and I think of the early days of Blessed Old Baptist Church. Why did we start this church? Why did we start this church? Again, because we had scattered sheep. You guys know the history, I don't want to go through it all, right? But we had scattered sheep, people that I loved, people that I cared about, people that were not sure what church they were going to be part of, you know, families that had left, you know, my sending church and all I saw was scattered sheep. And things are going well at New Life Baptist Church and I felt sad. I felt how is it that I can have this solid church, great people here and the people that I care for so much be scattered, okay? Well God promised us here and I will set up shepherds over them that shall feed you. What this gives me confidence knowing is that I do belong here as a pastor even though, you know, right now I'm full time here but I'm not going to be full time. You guys know toward the end of the year I'm going to go back to the Sunshine Coast. But listen, God says that he's going to set up shepherds over them. And so do I believe that the decision to start this church was a decision that God wanted? Do I believe that God sent me here, put me here to pastor this church? Absolutely, okay? Because this is what we see, we see scattered sheep and God setting up pastors that will feed you God's word, all right? Again, that's the primary job of a pastor. As we keep reading through this chapter you'll notice that the religious leaders, the teachers are not feeding people the word of God. Or they're actually feeding people lies. They're feeding people their own words and not God's words and this gets God extremely angry. Verse number five, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. Now does anybody want to take a guess who that is about, verse number four? The Lord Jesus, absolutely, okay? I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper. So this is speaking about the millennial reign of Christ, okay? And we also know that Christ in John chapter 10 verse 11, he says, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But what we see in verse number five is not Christ's first coming but second coming when he's going to come and reign over the whole earth. Notice what it says at the end of verse number five, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. If you recall last week's sermon, last chapter, God was telling the kings, if you just execute justice, righteousness and judgment, you're going to continue. The land's going to continue. Well, we know they failed. So that promise says, I'm going to send a king that will execute judgment and justice, that will not fail in that regard. And of course, that's speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse number six, it says, in his days, that's the days of the king, David the righteous branch, in his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. So that king that's going to be set up, who is it? The Lord. It's not just the Lord, it's the Lord our righteousness. Why? Because salvation is not by your righteousness. Salvation is by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We go to heaven, not because we are such good people and we're keeping all the commandments. In fact, you're not keeping all the, neither am I. None of us are keeping all the commandments. None of us are righteous. But the moment that you have believed on Christ, the Bible tells us that Christ imputed righteousness comes upon us. In James chapter 2, 23, it says, Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. So how is it that we have this imputed righteousness? We believe God. We believe the gospel. Salvation is simply by faith. A lot of works, not by your own righteousness. God has come to give us his righteousness. That's why you can never lose your salvation, no matter how bad you mess up in life. Because it was never your performance, it was never your righteousness that got you there. If you could lose your salvation, you're saying that Christ's righteousness is not enough. That Christ was not righteous enough to get us to heaven. That would be blasphemy. We can never lose our salvation because we stand in the righteousness of Christ. Verse number 7. Now I'm not going to explain all this because you just have to go back to Jeremiah 16 if you really want to know. Verses 14 and 15 is basically the identical words. But basically, God is saying that they're going to come out of the land of Babylon, they're going to be back on their land, and they're no longer going to be talking about how God delivered them out of Egypt and they're going to have a more current situation, a situation that they've lived through, where God has brought them out of Babylon and brought them out of the land. So that's going to be the conversation of the lips. More than some past victory that God had for the people of Israel. Verse number 9. Now these are, I believe these are the words of Jeremiah, but they could be the words of the Lord. Verse number 9. But it says, My heart within me is broken because of the prophets. Now I'm not going to spend time differentiating here between the prophets and the pastors. I mean, generally speaking, it's just we're talking about people that are supposed to be preaching God's word, teaching God's word. We're talking primarily about people that are supposed to be religious leaders. So let's just lump it all together and let's take the lessons that we can here. But here's what we learn. We learn if you have a bad pastor, if you listen to bad prophets, bad preachers, your heart will be broken. They're going to break your heart. What else do we learn? All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man and like a man whom wine hath overcome. So a bad pastor is going to make you as though you're drunk. Spiritually drunk. You're not going to have your senses. You won't be able to differentiate between what is right and wrong. You'll be confused. A drunken man is confused. A drunken man sometimes gets forgetful about what he's done and so this is the effect of a bad pastor. Please be careful about who you listen to. Be careful about what kind of fold you belong to. Be careful about the past that you put yourself under. It keeps going. It says because of the Lord and because of the words of His holiness. And so I believe it's Jeremiah. He's feeling horrible about all these bad prophets that are in the land. And brethren there are a lot of bad prophets. There are a lot of bad pastors in Australia today. I'm not here to say I'm the only good one. I'm not. You guys know. If you guys know me well enough I try to get along with other pastors. Even though I don't see eye to eye on them on certain things. As long as they're saved. As long as they're preaching the right gospel. As long as they're King James only. I'm more than happy to get along with these pastors. I don't think I'm the only guy. Which is why if you ever told me I feel like finding another church I'd be like God bless you. If that's what you need to do. I just hope you get into a good church. Another good church. I'm not here to just say I'm the only guy. I'm not. But at the same time there are a lot of bad preachers. There are a lot of bad pastors. They're going to break your heart. They're going to make you drunken. Spiritually drunk. What am I up to brethren? Verse number 10. For the land is full of adulterers. Is Australia full of adulterers? Absolutely. For because of swearing the land mourneth. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. And their cause is evil. And their force is not right. Alright. So again Jeremiah is saying look he's upset because this land is full of adultery. You know adultery should be something that upsets God's people. It's not something like that's just the way it is. That's just the way Australia is. That's just the way the world is. You know you have teenagers you know just go out there and you know. Try before you buy and you know just leap around as much as you want. Make sure you choose the right person by the way they make you feel in that sense. That's horrible. That should upset us. Jeremiah is frustrated. He's upset not just by the bad preaching. Bad pastors but by the sin of the land. By the adultery of the land. Verse number 11. And it says this. For both prophets and priests are profane. Yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. So now we have the words of the Lord here. But the Lord is saying the prophets, not just the people of the land are wicked. But the prophets, the religious leaders, they're profane. They're doing wickedness. They're committing adultery. And they're not just out there committing adultery. Look where are they doing it? Yea, in my house have I found their wickedness. In the house of the Lord they're committing fornication or adultery. In the house of the Lord they're doing wickedness. Okay, in the temple of the Lord they're taking advantage of whatever space they have and doing all manner of wicked things. And this should wake me up. Because I'm a sinner, you know. And I realise here, you know, God has a high standard for religious leaders. He has a high standard for pastors and prophets. You know, this is why whenever you get up to preach Brethren, if you're getting up to preach, get right with God before you preach. God, I'm sorry for my sins. Get right with God. Apologise. Lord, fill me your Holy Spirit. Don't let there be something that will stop me from preaching your Word with boldness. Get right with God and preach God's Word with all that you have, the Spirit of God. Verse number 12. Wherefore, their ways shall be unto them as slippery waves in the darkness. They shall be driven on, this is the false prophets or the bad prophets, and for therein. And I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. Remember we're talking about the visitation, the year of the visitation? We're talking about how that's about the Babylonian captivity. And so God has a special judgement for them, for the religious leaders when the Babylonians come. I guess things are going to be worse for them. But God says, look, you know, the judgement that falls upon bad preachers, bad pastors, He's going to make their way slippery, okay, so they're going to be unstable, you know. What else? Slippery waves in the darkness, okay. So they're going to lack spiritual vision, these pastors. It says they shall be driven on and fall therein. These same pastors are going to have great falls. They're going to fail significantly in their ministry, okay. These are bad people, these are bad pastors. And if you see this happen to a pastor, chalk it up that he was a wicked pastor doing wicked things and God has come in and put His judgement upon that person. Verse number 13. And again, you know, as I'm reading through this, as I'm studying through this, this is the chapter for pastors, okay. So I'm reading through this and I'm going, man, I better not. And I better not mess up. I don't want my ways to be slippery. I don't want my vision, my spiritual vision to be darkened. I don't want to have this great fall. I don't want to fail in my ministry, you know. So this is yes for me, this is for anybody that may desire to get into the ministry one day. This is for the men that come to preach on a regular basis, okay. And this is for you, again, if you don't find yourself at Blessed or Baptist Church in the future for whatever reason, how are you going to measure your pastor? Well, next time you can just turn to Jeremiah 23 and measure that man compared to what you're reading here in this chapter. Verse number 13. And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied in Baal and caused my people Israel to err. So here's another bad pastor, okay. He causes the people to err. He causes the people to sin, okay. Now this can look, you know, this is not just, all right, you want to go and steal, you want to go and commit adultery, you want to go and just lie and not tell the truth. Go ahead, brethren, go ahead and do that. I don't think that's the kind of, I don't think that's what they mean by this, you know. I mean, if any pastor were to start saying those words, I think the majority of people would go, man, you're a false prophet. You know, you're a wicked man and take that person down, okay. But there is a way that pastors can cause people to err. That's by not preaching against sin. Not preaching about God's judgment. Not preaching about God's anger. You know, not pointing out certain sins that we need to overcome in our lives. Why? Because then you come to church, you hear God's word. You're going to hear beautiful things and lovely things and you're going to think I'm right with God all the time. And, ah, my sins, oh, well, God is not bothered by that. And, you know, and then, you know, you're just going to go out there and you're going to err. You're going to commit sin, you're going to do wrong. Because you're not being challenged by God's word. That's how I think most pastors cause their people to err. Because they only preach the lovey-dovey stuff and they don't preach the judgmental God that we see here in Jeremiah. Verse number 14. I have also seen in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing. They commit adultery. Boy, if you ever become a pastor, don't commit adultery. What's this? A horrible thing. I know pastors that have committed adultery. It's so sad. You know, pastors that I've looked up to that have committed adultery. It's so sad. It says, And all of them unto me are sodden, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. Listen, a pastor, a religious leader that's in sexual perversion, God says, you're just like a reprobate homosexual. You're just like a, you're just like the sodomites. You're just like Gomorrah. That's how God thinks of a pastor that is involved in sexual perversions, okay, that cheats on his wife, that commits adultery, alright. If that's in your heart, don't become a pastor. Okay, you're going to destroy your ministry, you're going to destroy your family, you're going to destroy the people of God, you're going to be a shepherd that scatters. You're not going to be a shepherd that gathers the flock. This is a serious thing. These things are in the Bible because it happens. These things are in the Bible because maybe one day I might be tempted. Other pastors might be tempted. So you're reminded here, don't do it because it's a horrible thing. You're going to destroy everything around you when you do that. Verse number 15. Now look at this. Harken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you. So is it important to choose what pastor you listen to? What preachers you listen to? Yes. God is saying, look, if they're anything like this, if they're a scatterer, if they're wicked, if they don't visit the flock, don't listen to them. I don't care how good their preaching was before. I don't care how accurate you think they are. Listen, if they're wicked people, just stop listening to them. That's the commandment of God. Why? They make you vain. They speak a vision of their own hearts and not out of the mouth of the Lord. We have another lesson here. If you want to be a faithful preacher, faithful pastor, you must preach out of the mouth of the Lord and not out of your own heart, the vision out of your own heart. And this sometimes can be challenging because in our heart we have our thoughts and our desires and our opinions. And just be careful. If your thoughts, desires, and opinions are consistent with the Bible, there's nothing wrong with giving your opinion. But I always say make it clear that it's your opinion and separate that from God's word. You say, look at God's word, I see this, and I also believe this can be applied here. This might be my opinion. You may even disagree with me about this opinion, but it's fine to differentiate between those two things. You want to make your opinions, the feelings of your heart doctrine. That's what the Pharisees did. Jesus Christ would call out the Pharisees for taking the traditions of men and trying to make them the commandments of God. Verse number 17. They say, still unto them that despise me. The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace. And they say unto everyone that walketh under the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall come upon you. For who have stood in the counsel of the Lord and have perceived and heard his word, who have marked his word and heard it? All right, so what are the false prophets preaching? Peace. It's all good. Don't worry. Go ahead and sin. Australia's wickedness, who cares? God doesn't care. It's all going to be fine. It's all going to be peaceful. I can't promise you that. In fact, if anything I've been preaching lately, it's been about tribulations coming, challenges come. Hey, but rejoice in your tribulations. Find what it is that God is trying to work in your life to make you a more complete Christian. But no, the false prophet's going to preach you peace. It's all good. Just go on. Carry on with how you do things. Verse number 18 I believe is a rhetorical, like rhetorical questions. For who have stood in the counsel of the Lord and have perceived and heard his word? Basically nobody. Who have marked his word and heard it? Nobody. Basically it's saying that the people that listen to false prophets, they're not hearing God's words. Okay? They're not taken in the counsel of the Lord. Okay? They've deceived themselves to think they are, but they are listening to these bad prophets, bad pastors, and so they're not hearing from the Lord God. Verse number 19. Verse number 19. 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. The anger of the Lord shall not return until he have executed, until he have performed the thoughts of his heart in the latter days, ye shall consider it perfectly. So God is angry at the religious leaders. God's going to bring judgment upon them and he's not going to stop until they're taken into, like in the latter days, ye shall consider it perfectly. Again, that's the latter days of the Babylon captivity. Once they're taken into that land, that's God's judgment completed against these wicked people. Verse number 21. Look what God says. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. What do we learn here in this passage? We learn another two characteristics of a pastor or preacher that will destroy and scatter the sheep. What do they do? In verse number 21, it says, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. He's a bad pastor, a pastor that rushes to take on the office. He rushes into it. He runs into it. You know, from the time that I... I'm sorry to speak about myself. I don't mean to do it. I'm not trying to boast. I'm just giving you examples. But from the time that I identified the Sunshine Coast, that was 2012, that this is the place I want to go and start a church, to the time we started the church, 2017. It was five years. Five years. Now, before that, I wanted to be a pastor. And I don't remember exactly what it is, but it took me about 10 or 15 years. From the time that I wanted to become a pastor to the time it happened, it took me that long. I wasn't in this rush. In fact, if it took longer, it took longer. That's how I felt. But you know, there are some people that are just rushing to get into the ministry. This is why churches have pastors that are unqualified. Are there pastors that don't have kids? Yep. Isn't faithful children a qualifier of a pastor? I've got to get into the ministry. God's calling me into this ministry. If you don't have kids, God's not called you into the ministry. At least not yet. Maybe you're going to have kids later, praise God. Then you can look into the ministry. But God uses the family, uses the children, uses the wife, uses the workforce to get you prepared for the ministry. When you skip those things, you're rushing. You're running into the ministry. That's a bad pastor. You're going to be one that scatters and destroys the flock. In fact, we have a couple of people that have left the church in Sydney because ultimately their pastor was unqualified. He rushed into the ministry. He ran into the ministry even though God did not send him. And he destroyed his ministry. And then they found themselves here at Blessed Up Baptist Church. Praise God, they're here. But this happens. I'm not happy doing anything. Listen, if I could not be a pastor, I promise you that I'd be happy doing anything else. As long as I'm providing for my family, as long as I'm working a job and doing what my function is, and I can be in a good church, I promise you, I would be happy. I don't have to be the pastor. It's not like, oh man, I just have to be a pastor. And if I'm not a pastor, I'm not going to be happy. No. Praise God, I took my time. God found the right time for it to happen. But a bad pastor will rush into these decisions. They're not going to care for the qualifications that are there in the Bible. We even have qualifications for deacons. Even a deacon is supposed to be married with children. And yet, I know churches where deacons are not doing that. Where deacons are rushing into the ministry, no wife, no kids, completely disregarding God's word. Hey, they're going to be a bad religious leader. They're going to be bad at the job. They're going to hurt people. They're going to scatter the sheep. They're going to destroy the ministry. What else do we learn here? It says, another characteristic, because it says in verse 22, If they had stood in my counsel and caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from the evil way and from the evil of their doings. So, another thing, I really kind of looked at this, but a pastor that does not seek to cause you to turn from your sins, to turn from your evil way, is another pastor that seeks to destroy his people. Again, they try to comfort you in your sins. Oh, it's alright, brother. Yeah, you committed this sin, but that's okay. It's fine. That's not what we need. Sinners need to be called out for their sin. Look, we all sin. I'm not going to ever bring your name up and just call you out for your sin, unless I'm kicking you out of the church or something. But the pastor's job is just to preach what God's word says, and we know whatever gets preached, as long as it's God's word, we're preaching against sin, it's going to touch somebody's heart, okay? It'll convict you, it'll move you to say, well, maybe I need to fix this, I hope I need to fix this in my life, and do something about it, okay? But a pastor that does not preach against sin, they're a bad pastor. They're a bad prophet. Verse number 23. Am I a God at hand, save the Lord, and not a God afar off? Again, rhetorical question. Am I, am I present? Am I at hand, or am I not? We know God's everywhere. Because then he says in verse number 24, can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, save the Lord? Do not I feel heaven and earth, save the Lord? It's not on his God near, he's everywhere. That's one of his characteristics of God. He's on my presence. He can be at all places at all times. He feels heaven. He feels earth. Okay? This is a wonderful God that we serve. Verse number 25. I have heard what the prophets said. Notice that. Again, I'm not trying to have a go at the preachers because I want men to come up here and preach and think about these words. So when you preach, when you get behind the pulpit, men, God says to you, I have heard what the prophets said. Now that should make you fear a little bit. I better say the right things. I better double check what I'm about to say. Okay? Because God's hearing us. You know, it's not like this roof, your voice just bounced off this roof and just stays here. No, God feels all of heaven and earth. He hears it. God is here right now. Christ is in the midst of us right now. Christ is listening to this service. Christ is listening to the singing. Christ is listening to the preaching. Now when you remember that, doesn't that change your heart with how you're going to preach? Doesn't that change your heart how you're going to sing for the Lord when you think about God is right here listening to what I have to say, listening to my voice of praises to Him. So it's a fearful thing. You know, it ought to bring a little bit of fear when you stand behind the pulpit. It ought to be a little bit nervous. A little bit of butterflies in your stomach. Okay? This is a big job. You don't want to mess it up. I don't want to mess it up. I've lost my place again, Brevin. 25. 25. Oh yeah, I started it. I've heard what the prophet said. Look at this. That prophesy lies in my name. Saying, I have dreamed. I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own hearts, 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. So we've got to be careful not to prophesy lies. Careful not to prophesy lies. That was the whole teaching on Friday, if you were here. Alright? We were talking about how when we read through the Bible, there's one truth. We're looking at it again. That one truth. Let's get that truth right. And then many applications. If you get your application wrong, okay, you got it wrong. But the truth ought to be correct every time. Use the time you have to double check, triple check, and if you don't know, you don't know. Don't preach it. That's it. Just move on. There's plenty of things to preach in the Bible. Plenty of things to preach in the Bible. I'd rather you preach a simple sermon that's true than a very deep and complicated sermon that wows the audience, but then it was lies. Simple, truthful sermons are the best. Remembering that it's the law that hears and God hates it when prophets lie. And as we looked on Friday, for those that were there, sometimes it's out of good intention. It's just out of ignorance. We did not do the research properly. We did not check properly. And we accidentally said a lie. Therefore, we are human beings. We can make mistakes. We understand this. But be mindful. Minimize the errors. Try to get them out of your sermon completely. It's important what we preach. Verse number 28. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream. God's really attacking the prophets that say, I dream, I dream. And now God is saying, well, if someone says they dream, let them say what they dreamt. What we're looking at in verse number 28 is the comparison between a false prophet and a true prophet of God. So God is not trying to stop the false prophet. He says, look, just let them say what they want to say. Then he says this. And he, so this is the other one, this is the good one, and he that hath my word, let him speak my word, let him speak my word faithfully. Okay, so how do you determine the difference between a good preacher and a bad preacher? The bad preacher, I dream this. I think this. I believe this. The good preacher is like, oh, this is God's word. This is what God's word has to say. Okay? There's a big difference between this is what God, thus saith the Lord, this is what the Bible says. This is why we use the Bible. This is why we look at verses. God gave me a vision. That's a false prophet. God is comparing these two things, right? And then he says, in verse number 28, what is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord. So the wheat, you know, you get the grain, and the grain is wrapped in the chaff and, you know, as you're trying to refine the process, the chaff blows away by the wind. God is saying, look, the bad prophet is like the chaff that blows away, and the good prophet is wheat. Why wheat? Because it's the prophet's job, the pastor's job to teach you God's word. You need the grain. You need to be fed God's word. So God is saying, look, you should be able to easily distinguish between a true pastor and a false pastor. A true prophet and a false prophet. A pastor that is trying to gather and a pastor that's trying to scatter. Okay? And you can determine that by how they preach. Do they preach God's word or do they preach their own opinions and dreams and wild imaginations? And then God says in verse number 29, So here's another distinguishing thing of a good preacher. He's going to use God's word like a fire. He's going to use God's word like a hammer. Okay? And again, we looked at this on Friday. We talked about the word of the Bible is as a two-edged sword. Right? It's quick. It's powerful. What's the other one? Quick, powerful, sorry. Sharper than any two-edged sword. Alright? And so when you get up to preach, you know what you're doing? You're taking that sword of the word of God and you're slain. You're going to war. You're taking up battle when you go and preach God's word. And again, it's not to destroy God's people. It's not to scatter God's people. But it's to go and destroy, you know, the old man. It's to hurt the old man. It's to preach against sin. It's to preach against the devil. It's to preach against this wicked, ungodly world. When you get up to preach, you're going to war. You're going to battle. You're taking a hammer to destroy this rock in pieces. You're taking up the fire of God's word. Verse number 30. What's another sign of a false prophet? Someone that steals God's words. So, this is a pastor that will skip passages in the Bible. Pastors that skip important information because they don't want to offend the people. Well, when you skip things, what are you doing? Aren't you stealing God's word away from the people? This is another sign of a bad pastor. Okay? A good pastor will preach the whole Bible regardless of how uncomfortable he makes the pastor feel, regardless of how uncomfortable he knows the people in the church are going to feel. But the good pastor who loves you, who's trying to feed you God's word, will preach every verse, every chapter. Okay? He's not going to try to skip things that he feels people are going to be uncomfortable about. He's not going to try to skip things that he thinks, well, this family is going to leave my church over. That's a bad pastor that preaches like that. Okay? The good pastor will preach you everything. This is why we go chapter by chapter for the Bible. Verse by verse as much as we can. Verse number 31. Behold, I am against the prophets saith the Lord that use their tongues and say, He saith. So you've got to be careful. Okay? Differentiate between this is what God's word says and this is what I believe. There's nothing wrong again with your own personal opinion. Nothing wrong with it. As long as it's consistent with God's word. But differentiate it. Don't say God said something when he did not say those words. Okay? Verse number 32. 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 so if you look at lies and by their lightness that's the next one I want to look at. We'll look at that soon. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them therefore they shall not profit these people at all saith the Lord. So we've seen that these prophets lie and if they lie, they have lightness. Okay? What's another bad prophet? Another bad pastor? A pastor who preaches no heavy sermons. It's light. You know, it's surface level. It's always the milk of God's word. Okay? Is there anything wrong with God's word the milk of God's word? No, nothing wrong with that. In fact, sometimes we need a piece of meat. You know, I think the sermon maybe is a bit of a piece of meat today. Sometimes we need a bit of milk. You know, we need to be able to you know, we need all of God's words. Sometimes it is light. Sometimes it is heavy. But the pastor there only preaches light sermons. Okay? There's a reason why I like preaching the chapter by chapter on a Sunday morning. Usually Sunday mornings we have more people in church. It's just the way it is, you know. That's how it is in most churches. And so I want to give you something heavy. Okay? Because some people a lot of pastors do this. They preach the light sermons Sunday morning to most people. Because we don't offend anybody. So let's just do the light sermon. But a lot of people, that's just the only service they go to. Okay? And so they're going to go through the week with just this light meal that they had. I'd rather just, okay, most people come on Sunday morning let's just hit them with the heavy stuff. Let's just go chapter by chapter through some book of the Bible. Okay? Because if you don't turn up for whatever reason the rest of the week, at least I know I fed you something heavy that's going to get you through the week. Okay? But pastors are called to, you know, and something that is heavy, yeah, is stuff that may offend you. But it's about digging deep into God's Word. It's teaching God's Word, right? Making sure that you walk away and go, man, I was fed by that sermon today. Okay? But light preaching, just light preaching. Light, light, light. That was me in the Baptist Union Church when I grew up. Now I know my parents meant well and they tried to get me into the best church they can. But I tell you, every service, light, light, light preaching, light preaching. I'm like, what am I, I'm not learning anything. I don't know anything more about the Bible. Now thank God it just caused me to read my Bible because I'd get more by reading the Bible than I was getting out of the preaching of God, you know, supposedly of God's Word. But it was light preaching. Like it says here, therefore they shall not profit this people at all. Light preaching alone will not profit you. Verse number 33. And when this people, or the prophet or a priest, shall ask this saying, so these people are asking Jeremiah, okay, what is the burden of the Lord? Okay, so they're preaching lightness and now they're going to Jeremiah, can you tell us about the burden, like something more heavy? Can you tell us what, you know, what is weighing heavy on God's mind right now? So they recognize that Jeremiah is a preacher that preaches burdens. A preacher that preaches deep and heavy material not just lightness. So they're going to Jeremiah, can you tell us what God has to say, alright? What's burden in God's heart right now? Now, I find it funny how God tells him to answer. Thou shalt then say unto them, what burden? It's like, if you don't want to hear it, then I'm not going to tell you, okay? And yeah, you may have been a burden in the past, but now what does it say? What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord. So this is why you're not a burden to me anymore, because I've made the decision to forsake you. It's done. You're not on my mind anymore. You're going to be destroyed. Judgement's come in and the burden's gone. Okay? So it's unfortunate, you know, that these people come to Jeremiah seeking something deeper from God, but it's too late. God's forsaken this nation. God's bringing judgment upon this nation. Okay? You know, this is kind of like the idea of Christ when he I won't go into it too much, but you know, he says don't cast your pearls before swine. You know, you have valuable things of the word of God, but they don't want to hear it. They don't take it in. I hate saying this, but I've had people like that where they're constantly asking me questions, constantly, Bible questions, this, this, this, this, this, and I tell at the beginning, you know, I'll tell them, man, so you know, spend time, explain Bible to them, but it's just they're constantly contrary. They're not taking it in. It's like they're trying to find an argument. At that point, I realize, man, this guy's swine. I'm casting God's pearls before swine. I need to stop doing that. It's like, what burden? Okay? You know, at some point, you're going to find that, you know, some people just waste your time, and you're just going to move on. You know, that person, you know, God, you know, has forsaken, you know, with the knowledge that we have in his word. Verse number 34. And as for the prophets, and priests and the people that shall say the burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man in his house. Verse number 35. When you say everyone to his neighbor and everyone to his brother, what hath the Lord answered? And what hath the Lord spoken? And the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more, for every man's word shall be his burden, for ye have prevented the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts our name. So if you don't preach the burden of God, you don't preach the deep and heavy things of the Lord, God's going to remove that knowledge away from his people, okay. And the burden that they seek will be their own burden, you know, their own words. They're not going to prop from their words. It's going to bring them judgment. They're going to bring upon their own burden because they did not want to hear and listen to the burden of the Lord, okay. They have perverted. They don't say prevented. They have perverted the words of the living God. Verse number 36. Verse number 37. Thus shall they say to the prophet, what hath the Lord answered thee? And what hath the Lord spoken? But since ye say the burden of the Lord, therefore thus saith the Lord because ye say this word, the burden of the Lord, and I have sent unto you saying ye shall not say the burden of the Lord, therefore behold I, even I will utterly forget you and I will forsake you and the city that I gave you and your fathers and cast you out of my presence. And I will bring an everlasting reproach unto you and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten. And I've said this before, I want blessed up Baptist Church to continue till the blessed hope. That's what I would like. What's the blessed hope? The coming of Christ. I want this church to continue till Christ comes back, okay. But if we don't teach the burden of the Lord, if we don't teach deep things in the Bible, God says in verse number 39, I will utterly forsake you, forget you and I will forsake you. You know, this is the same instruction that God gave to the church in the book of Revelation where he says, you know, if you don't repent and do the first works, it is going to remove the candlestick out of its place. A lot of churches exist today but they are not a light unto the Lord. They are not a candlestick. God is not there. God has forgotten them. God has forsaken them. There's a lot of churches like that, okay. Why? Because they don't want to teach the deep and meaningful things that come from God's word. It's all light and soft and wonderful and butterflies and rainbows. Not your rainbow brother, but you know, you know what I mean. No, we've got to learn. We've got to know what God has, what is, what is on the, what burdens God's mind? What burdens God's heart? And if our sin is a burden to God, we need to learn that and overcome those things. You know, if we're not doing the works that God wants to do, the service that God wants us to do, isn't that going to be a burden on God's heart? We need to preach about these things, to encourage God's people to serve Him. Oh, He's going to forsake this church. I don't want that. I want blessed hope to continue to the blessed hope. But we learn something in verse 40 about the bad pastors. This is why you've got to, you know, if you're going to get into the ministry, you better really think hard about this. Because God says about these pastors, He says, I will bring an everlasting reproach unto you, okay. Reproach means like disgrace, everlasting You're going to ruin your testimony. Okay. Forever. Okay. Well, at least till you die, you've got a heaven, you've got a new body, then everything's different right then, okay. But for your whole life, you're going to have a ruined testimony. Okay. If you're a bad pastor, if you're a bad preacher, okay. And then it says, and a perpetual shame. Perpetual shame. A never ending embarrassment. You're going to be a disgrace. Better. You know what? It's almost better. I'd like to be a pastor one day. I just don't know if I, you know, I'm up for it. It's just better, you know, just work a full time job, get married, have kids, serve the Lord, go soul winning. Just be a strong member in the church. Be a support to your pastor. It's better to be that way than to, oh man, I got into the ministry, rush into the ministry, you know, I'm a pastor now. I can preach God. I'm somebody now. And then you become this horrible bad pastor that scatters the sheep. You're going to ruin your testimony. You're going to ruin your reputation. You're going to be embarrassed for the rest of your life. For messing up God's ministry. Be careful about becoming a pastor if that's on your heart. Consider these things that are in God's word. And I'm not trying to tell you, don't do it. You know, I encourage you, but understand what it takes. Understand how God feels if you do a horrible job at it. Okay. You know, I would like to start other churches. But if I can't visit them, I don't want to do it. Because I don't want to mess up God's ministry. Okay. Like, you know, right now, these two churches are enough for me. You know. Because I can have time to visit both. You know. But I don't want to be a pastor that scatters the sheep. Please, brethren, be careful about the kind of pastor you put yourself under. I'm not trying to talk myself up. All I'm doing with this chapter, I'm trying to challenge myself. Am I living up to what God wants me to do in this church? And if I'm falling into certain areas, I need to fix that about myself. And again, a reminder for you. Please be careful about the kind of preachers, pastors you put yourself under and you listen to. Let's pray.