Jeremiah chapter 8 please. Jeremiah chapter 8. I'm going to have you look at Jeremiah 8 and then we're going to also turn to Isaiah. Jeremiah chapter 8 verse 10, the Bible says, Therefore will I give their wives unto others and their fields to them that shall inherit them. For everyone from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness from the prophet, even unto the priest everyone dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Now if you would please turn to Isaiah and chapter 56. Isaiah chapter 56. The Bible says in verse 8. Isaiah chapter 56 and verse 8. The Lord God which gathereth the outcast of Israel saith yet will I gather others to him besides those that are gathered unto him. All ye beasts of the field come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest. His watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough. They are shepherds that cannot understand. They all look to their own way, every one for his gain. from his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine and we will fill ourselves with strong drink and tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant. I'd like to preach on the subject this morning of worthless watchman. Worthless watchman. We are living in perilous times. I don't have to tell you that. We are seeing our nation as it, I believe, takes its final turn toward destruction. Professing ourselves to be wise, we have become fools as a nation. Because we've decided to cast out God, I believe he has given us up to vile affections. And I'm thankful for every preacher that preaches the truth this morning. These are days that will ultimately try churches and will try pastors. There will be some who decide to let things go by and say nothing. They will be, as the watchman in Isaiah's day, they'll be dumb dogs. Dogs that will not bark. Churches and ministries Pastors and church members will soon have to decide where they stand. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, we're standing on the precipice of where preachers have been saying we're going to land for 50 years. I've heard this my entire adult, well, actually my entire life, ever since I've been in church as a young person. I believe the preachers warned us back then, this is the way the country's going, this is the direction the country's going. If something doesn't change, we're in trouble. And now we're, I believe we're here. We're here. Those preachers back 40 and 50 years ago warned us that as a nation we were heading toward destruction. And I believe that One of the things that they may have been mistaken about, I believe they had some misguided notions about eschatology. In other words, I think they sometimes indicated to people and told people, maybe not straight out, but implied that, don't worry, you're going to get raptured out before it gets too bad. I'm here to tell you today, that's not so. You might be here when it gets too bad. J.C. Ryle describes the conditions in the 18th century England, and it sounds a lot like our day. He said, Christianity seemed to lie as one dead. Morality, however much exalted in pulpits, was thoroughly trampled underfoot in the streets. There was a darkness in high places and darkness in low places, darkness in the court, the camp, the parliament. darkness in the country, darkness in the town, darkness among the rich, darkness among the poor, a gross, thick, religious, and moral darkness, a darkness that might be felt. The churches existed, but they could hardly be said to have lived. They did nothing. They were sound asleep. That was the days before the revivals, how dark it had become. And that quote does two things. It shows us what a shape we're in, but it also gives us hope for revival. It's an apt description of Christianity in our day. Because our church is like the power of God, we resort to entertainment. That's what churches do today, they entertain people. They don't preach the Word of God a lot of times, they entertain people. Whatever it takes to draw a crowd, that's what they do. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul? Give me your imagination a minute. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul having a haunted house, or a puppet show, or a motorcycle stuntman to draw a crowd? Now, don't get mad at me. Just use your imagination. Could you see the apostle Paul doing those things? I don't think your imagination is that good. We have resorted as churches to entertaining people. Our churches are powerless. And so we've become entertainment centers in order to win the world. And we're not winning anybody. A few years back, according to Barna research, 70% of Americans said they were Christians. Seven out of 10 people in this country say they're Christians. I'd shake my head too, if I were you. If seven out of 10 people in this country are Christians, then who's fueling the pornography industry? Who's fueling the gambling industry? Who's going to all the nudity field and foul mouth Hollywood movies if 70% of the people in this country are Christians? Who's voting in all these politicians that are pro-homosexual and pro-abortion if 70% of the people in this country are Christians? That's what I would like to ask you this morning. More to reality, the Barna Research people recently found that 70 to 75 percent of Christian youth leave the church right after high school. Now I have a tendency to believe that statistic. 70 to 75 percent of our young people leave the church right after high school. The fact is that we're living in what this is this is what The researchers say we're living in a post-Christian era. Post-Christian era, isn't that sad? The research also discovered that each generation is more post-Christian than the one that came before it. We're on a decline as Christians. Our churches are on the decline. I think I read a statistic years ago, not that many years ago, but several years ago. Woodrow Kroll had a statistic that 4,000 churches close every year in this country. I want to say these watchmen that the prophet Isaiah talks about, they were ignorant. They were ignorant. They may have been well-trained, They may have been well-educated, but they were ignorant of God. They were ignorant of the ways of God. They were ignorant of the Word of God. And as Tyndale told the Catholic priest, If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more Scripture than thou knowest. In other words, the Catholic church in Tyndale's day had educated men. They had seminary-trained men. But they didn't know the Word of God. And Tyndale said, if I can help it, the guy that's plowing in the field is going to know more Bible than you. We've got a lot of preachers today with degrees but no heat. We've got a lot of preachers today that's been, they've been trained, but they don't know the Word of God. They don't know God. They don't know the God of the Word. That's worse than the other. They may have been able to minister to the intellect, but not to the heart. They could give facts, but they haven't experienced God. So they were ignorant. Then secondly, these watchmen were false. The Bible says that these watchmen were dumb. You know, we use the word dumb as meaning they're not smart, but that's not what the Bible means. The Bible means that they were silent when they should have barked. We've got a lot of preachers today in this country that should have barked, but they've been silent. I've been... A current event. has been this thing about the bathrooms in North Carolina. I have not seen a nationally known preacher mention that yet, hardly. There may have been a couple, but I'm just saying, where are the preachers? We expect our politicians to do right, but our churches need to do right. I'd love if the politicians would do right, but guess what? The responsibility falls on the pulpit, not the politicians. These watchmen, they were silent when they should have barked. They condoned sin. They condoned sin. We read in the text that In verse 11 of chapter 56, it says, Yea, they are greedy dogs. Well, you know, one of the things about being a preacher is if you preach the truth, you're going to upset some people and you might lose some offerings. You might have to cut your salary. You might even lose your church if you preach the truth. These people were greedy. They weren't going to do anything to compromise their situation. Greedy dogs, they were comfortable where they were at. We're not going to do anything to upset the apple cart. You know, Jesus preached his crowd away most of the time. These people told the people what they wanted to hear. They were ear ticklers. They didn't tell the truth. They just gave the people what they wanted to hear. They didn't preach the Word of God. They weren't faithful to the Word of God. They weren't faithful to God. They healed the people slightly. They put a band-aid on a gaping wound. They gave an aspirin to someone who had cancer. They didn't tell the truth. That's the problem with this nation today. It's preachers who won't preach. and won't tell the truth. Billy Sunday said, if you rub the cat the wrong way, you need to turn the cat around. If I rub your fur the wrong way today, turn around. These watchmen were false. They were silent when they should have barked. They were greedy. They were greedy. 2 Peter chapter 2, if you would please. 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 14. The Bible says, Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls and heart, they have exercised with covetous practices Cursed children. Cursed children, which have forsaken the right way and have gone astray following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosar, who love the wages of unrighteousness. but was rebuked for his iniquity. The dumb ass, speaking with a man's voice, forbade the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the midst of darkness is reserved forever, for when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. Verse 19, while they promised them liberty, They themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning." And we read the rest of that in Sunday school this morning. Do you know we've got preachers today? We've got Baptist preachers today who are meeting in bars. I'm not kidding. They're having Bible studies in bars. We've got preachers. There's churches who actually have microbreweries in the basement. What I'm saying is to a lot of folks today who call themselves Christian, there's no such thing as right and wrong anymore. There's no such thing as right and wrong anymore. And it's no wonder the world is so morally confused if Christians don't even know the difference between right and wrong. It's no wonder. These watchmen were greedy. 2 Peter 2 and verse 14 says, Having eyes full of adultery, That's another thing. There's a lot of adultery going on in our churches. There's a lot of preachers committing adultery. There's a lot of preachers committing adultery and staying in the ministry. That's the day in which we live. These folks were greedy. The Bible says that they were exercised with covetous practices. Cursed children. I remember a quote I read from Spurgeon one time, he said, I've heard a lot of people stand up and say, pray for me, I'm having trouble with drink, or I'm having trouble washing my mouth, or I'm having trouble forgiving somebody. He said, but I've never heard anybody say, pray for me, I'm covetous. That's a little close to home, isn't it? And again, in verses, 1-3 in 2 Peter 2, it says, But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privileged shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow the pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, in their damnation slumbereth not." You know, these preachers, a lot of them are greedy. They're greedy. I'll just tell you right now, I'm not trying to be smart Alec, not trying to be mean. You cut my salary off tomorrow, I'm going to preach somewhere. I'll preach here if you let me, I'll preach somewhere else if you don't. by the grace of God. I'm not in this for the money at all. You can ask my wife. Most of my years, I've actually paid to preach, and if you've heard me preach, you understand that. I'm not interested in it. If I was interested in the money, I wouldn't preach the way I do. Somebody needs to buy me that book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, I think. No, listen, all seriousness, I'm not trying to win friends and influence people. I'm trying to preach the Word of God. And as my old high school teacher used to say, let the chips fall where they may. These folks were greedy. We have a nation today full of religious people, but it's a shallow religion. As one man said, it's a mile wide and an inch deep. It's a shallow religion. They talk about God in one breath and spew out curse words in the next breath. Jeremiah chapter 8. It says, Therefore will I give their wives unto others in their fields to them that shall inherit them. For everyone from the least, even unto the greatest, is given to covetousness. From the prophet, even unto the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. That's what's wrong in our country. People have been told, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. They need to hear the truth. They need to hear things like you can't be a homosexual and a Christian. Let me say this. You can't have a chain of gambling establishments and be a Christian. You can't live in fornication with your boyfriend. You can't shack up and be a Christian. They need to hear these things. There's no such thing as a Christian bank robber. I remember reading a story one time, this man interviewed a, well, it doesn't matter what color he was, but he was in prison for robbing a bank. And he said he was a Christian. And the preacher asked him, he said, well, what would have happened if you were sitting there holding the gun on that teller, and the rapture would have happened? He said, well, I guess I'd have been raptured. And then he went on to say, he said, God's just going to have to understand. Well, I got news for you, God don't understand. He does understand, but it's not what you think. That's the kind of stuff that we're facing today, folks. People aren't telling people the truth. And I believe God, I'm praying that God will give us the courage to stand for the truth. As a people, as a church, as a pastor, I'm praying that God will give us the courage to stand for the truth. And it's not going to be real popular, folks. I don't have to tell you that. You can see that, right? It's not going to be real popular. I want you to pray that God would give me the courage to preach the truth. Preach the truth. And I want you to pray that God would give us souls for our labor. Give us souls for our labor. You know, Most people don't see their need of a Savior because they don't understand the depravity of man. And they don't understand the God whom they've offended. But if God would ever show you the state you're in as a lost person, then you would see that you need to be saved. So what we need to do is tell people the truth and pray that God would show them their condition. That's what we need to do. You know, you can't talk anybody into heaven. God uses who He wants to, how He wants to, when He wants to. And our job is not to be super educated or a good salesman or a good talker. We just need to tell people the truth, folks. and let God work on their hearts.