NEVER Trust A Preacher!

I can't tell you how many times someone has said something profane and then apologetically looked at me and said, "Oooopps!! Sorry, Preacher!" Or that someone has said to me, "You are a preacher, you shouldn't (or should) be doing that!"

Preachers are human. They are no more holier than anyone else. We are just like you. We're subject to the same shortcomings everyone else is.

I'm going to suggest to you that there is no need for a preacher today.

You see when Jesus gave the Great Commission to his disciples and made them apostles, preachers were needed because the New Testament had not been written. The message needed to be gotten out and the only way the message could have been spread was by telling it orally. The New Testament was put into readable form in the first century AD by Holy Spirit guided writers in keeping with Jesus' promise in John 16, John 17, and II Timothy...

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. (John 16:12-15 NKJV)

Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. (John 17:17 NKJV)

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (II Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV)

Now then, what more can a preacher do than the Word can do?

You do not need a preacher to be saved. All you need to do is read the Word.

The Bible is written for common every day people. The Bible is easily understood when it comes down to salvation and living the Christian life. It is not as easy to understand when it comes to prophecies, types, anti-types, symbols, numbers, colors, metals, trees, and so on. These things generally are not salvation issues. Salvation is simply and clearly spelled out. The more you read the Word the more the other things unfold to you.

Can we have preachers today? Certainly. In fact we are all commanded to be preachers but we are to preach what Jesus said to preach in the manner Jesus said to preach. In fact, if one chooses to devote his life to preaching one can even live of the gospel and accept wages from the church. (I Corinthians 9:14)

The "job" of the preacher is to preach the word as Jesus has commanded.

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV)

Preachers often become crutches. They are leaned on by the members to do the things all Christians are supposed to do. The more letters they have after their names the better. We want them to have a BS degree, and an MS (More of the Same) degree is even better yet, a Phd, (Piled higher and deeper) degree, why, that's gold. We want them to attend seminaries and preacher schools, nothing wrong with formal education but you have to watch it extremely close because they get so much stuff thrown at them they don't have time to sort it out and because they have to walk the teacher's walk in order to graduate they tend to start believing a big bunch of nonsense. They come out carbon copies of their teachers.

They get dressed in fancy robes and titles like Reverend, Right Reverend, Doctor, sat in fancy chairs on stage at the head of the church and their pronouncements are seldom questioned by anyone.

And because they serve at the pleasure of the church members, they walk a fine line keeping as many people happy as they can. Every eye is on them to keep them on the narrow path most members won't walk. Most have families to support and obligations to keep and they live in fear they won't have a job come morning because some influential person was offended in some way.

There is the story about a newly hired preacher in Kentucky. His first sermon was on the evils of smoking and one of the members took him aside and said, "Careful Preacher, many of the members are tobacco farmers." Then he preached on the evils of gambling and the warning was, "Careful Preacher, many of the members are horse racers."

His next sermon was on the evils of deep sea fishing.

Then there is the mega-church craze where numbers, visual size and high living become all important. It's easy to build a mega-church, all you have to do is give people what they want. When you concentrate on entertainment in the guise of enlightenment and pretty soon you'll need glass towers and sports arenas. Give them hamburgers to get them there and you'll have to give them hamburgers to keep them there and pretty soon they'll want more than hamburgers.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. (II Timothy 4:2-4 NKJV)

I listen to a lot of "sermons" and a surprising number of them contain very few scriptures. A good number of them don't have any scripture. They are loaded with emotionally charged feel good personal experiences and homilies delivered with reverent preacher tones.

NEVER trust a preacher, not even me. I don't trust myself as far as I can throw myself which isn't far. ALWAYS trust the Word and develop the habit of asking, "Interesting. Where is the book, chapter and verse for that?"

Compare everything I say with the Word. Make me, and every religious guide you know, prove what is said agrees with the word.

It's extremely important.

We invite you to leave the built too late churches founded by men and explore the church of the Bible Christ built nearly 2,000 years ago.

It still exists today.