How can any preacher affirm that he is bring the Word of God to his congregation when God has not spoken to him? Just because a minister enters the pulpit and serves up a talk to his people does not in any way mean that he got that message from the Lord.
In Jeremiah's day, prophets spoke and prophesied in the name of the God who did not speak to them. Where did their message come from? From their own selves? From their own reading and learning? Out of which pit did it emerge? They have come and spoken in the name of God, and they have said, 'God says...' but God has not spoken to them or given them a message. They are messageless messengers! They did not receive a Word from the Lord.
What have they done, then? They have dished up what are no more than their own words for the people. Their own ideas have been welling up within them, and they have been merely echoing the words of others. They have done their reading by way of preparation, but all they could give their people are the echoes of what others have said or written. Sermons today are exercises in regurgitation of others ideas. But there is no "word from the Lord." These men come and say, "This is the Lord's word for you today," but it is not! It is the message of man.
All such preachers are under the judgement of God for claiming to speak for Him when He has given them nothing to say.
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