The Watchman Of God

God Appoints Ezekiel a Watchman for the House of Israel 2:44

“Now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me.”

— Ezekiel 3:16-17 (NKJV)

Well, that same life or death context that exists in a battlefield is applied here in today's text in Ezekiel chapter 3. It's a slightly different setting, and yet this is life and death. And today's study in Ezekiel 3, God is making Ezekiel a watchman. He's saying, you are the watchman over the souls of the righteous, and you are sent to warn the wicked.

And if you don't do your job, if you don't do your job, then their blood's on your hands. Again, this is a life or death context that we're seeing here in Ezekiel chapter 3. Let's look at today's text once again. As we usually do, I'm going to look at verses 16 and 17 and work our way through the passage and then conclude with a few thoughts.

Verses 16 and 17. Now, it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, I've made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore, hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from me. All right, verse 16, we read that seven days have passed, and it begs the question, which we answered a little bit earlier, seven days since what?

Seven days since when? Well, as we said at the outset, it's been seven days since God initially came to Elijah in a vision there by the river Shebar, and he saw the chariots and the fires, and he heard God speak and all this. It's been seven days since he's been deposited back in the refugee camp there in Tel Abib, his seven days have gone by.

Now, at the end of these seven days, assuming Ezekiel has had time to process things during that time, God shows up here in a second encounter, and He speaks to Ezekiel once again. And in verse 17, He says, all right, I've given you a commission already to serve Me and to serve the people.

So he's a prophet that's being sent to the people. But here He expands on that commission by saying, verse 17, I've made you a watchman for the house of Israel.

Two Kinds of Watchmen: To Watch and to Warn 4:42

Now, how would Ezekiel have interpreted that term? Well, there was two types of watchmen. Now, the first one was the obvious one. There was watchmen that were there on high towers that looked out across the horizon to see if they could spot any enemy armies or anyone who was approaching the city or the temple.

The temple had watchmen as well. So there was watchmen that were utilized to look out for the Moabites and the Philistines and the Babylonians and the Syrians and all these different folks. That's one sort of watchman. Now the second sort of watchman was far more numerous.

If you had a farmer and he had fields and crops and the like, they would erect high points across the fields and they would appoint watchmen at night just to keep an eye out, particularly for thieves and who might steal crops, or if they were shepherds who had animals and the like, they might post a watchman to look out for wolves or lions or bears or tigers or lions, things like this.

So it was two types of watchmen. One was military-based and the other was to look out for their fields. Now, with that said, both of these watchmen had a pretty easy gig. Stay awake, watch out for anything that you might see that might pose a threat, and if you see something, say something.

This has been a popularized term in recent days, but it really goes back across the history of watchmen. If you see something, tell somebody. The watchman was called to watch out for enemies, thieves, intruders, and to raise the alarm. Now, let's say that you're a watchman.

Let's say that you're up on a high parapet, and you look out, and you see the enemy. You see the torches start coming across the horizon, and you can see the reflection of shields and iron. You've spotted the source of incoming danger. Now, the good news for you is that you've done half your job perfectly.

You stayed awake, right? You saw, you spotted, you watched, and you observed. So part of your job is done. But in order to earn the gold star, you got to do something else.

What's the second thing you got to do? You got to tell somebody. In our day, how many people look at the headlines and the world around us and nod our head and go, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But with that said, our tendency sometimes is to see things that might be problematic for our society, culture, family or what have you, but sometimes we don't raise the alarm.

Now, in the context of Old Testament Israel, if someone saw an enemy coming across the horizon, what good would it do to have spotted them if you don't say anything? None. If the enemy came in and slaughtered everyone and one straggler came up to you and says, what happened? You say, well, I saw them.

The guy goes, well, what did you do? Nothing. Your life should be forfeit, really. And that's what we see in today's text.

It's not simply a function of seeing things. It's a function of responding, saying, warning.

The Prophet's Charge to Warn the Wicked 7:26

“When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.”

— Ezekiel 3:18-19 (NKJV)

So verses 18 through 19, the warning is really the whole emphasis. The seeing things, that's the easy part. That's like 1% of what he's supposed to do. God says, I'm going to tell you.

I'm going to speak to you. I'm going to tell you what's happening. I'm going to tell you what's going on. I'm going to explain it all.

What he tells Ezekiel is this. I'm going to give you all the information you need to know. Your job is to convey it. The onus on Ezekiel was not that he needed to look everywhere for the danger.

God says, I'll tell you what the danger is, and it's Me. The danger is the people have been sinning, the people are wicked, the people are doing what's wrong, and I'm coming for them using Babylon or using other tools at My disposal because I will deal with wickedness. I will deal with iniquity, and you need to tell them that.

And if you don't do it, then when I come for them, their blood's on you. That's the message that we see here. Let's look at verses 18 through 19. When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die.

When I tell the wicked there's laws and commandments, and if you don't keep them, you don't follow them, there is punishment that is warranted. When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die. If you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.

And yet, if you warn the wicked, if you do what I'm telling you to do, if you warn the wicked, even if he does not turn from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity. But you, Ezekiel, you will have delivered your soul. You will have fulfilled your responsibility if you tell them what I'm sending you to tell them.

The Sentinel Crow: An Illustration of Watching and Warning 9:03

You know, in the animal kingdom, in the animal kingdom, one of the most underrated animals or birds in this case is actually the common crow. We look at crows, we don't think twice, that's a crow. If you're a bird watcher and ornithologist, what is it? If you're one who looks for birds and you see a crow, you don't care.

Your heart doesn't race when you see a crow. With that said, crows are brilliant compared to most birds. Crows are brilliant in this regard. Crows have the capacity, the ability to remember human faces and the interactions that they've had.

They have the capacity to remember actions that humans have undertaken. There have been tests that have been demonstrated that if you're sitting there with a gun out, crows will stay far greater distance from you than if the gun is holstered or hidden. These are the sort of things that crows have the ability to discern danger in a way that others don't.

They also have a societal structure. Now, a lot of animals do to an extent, but among crows, it's especially developed. Among crows, they have a type of crow, at least that we identify, as a sentinel crow. Now, what does a sentinel crow do?

Well, it does what you would expect. The other crows are foraging for food, you know, doing whatever crows do. But one crow stays up high, either flying about above or in the high treetop. And his job is to keep an eye for intruders, to keep an eye for danger, to keep an eye for bigger, more dangerous birds, snakes, what have you, to keep an eye out.

And if the sentinel crow sees something dangerous to the flock, does anyone know what a flock of crows is called? Oh, boy, you're sharper than I am. I had to Google this. A murder of crows, dear heavens.

A murder is what they call these things. So there's a sentinel crow that watches out for the whole murder of the crows in order to alert the crows if there's any danger. That's his job. Now, what's interesting, though, is this.

It's been observed in many cases that if the sentinel crow fails, if the sentinel crow is deemed to not do his job correctly, the other crows will oftentimes drive him away. They will attack this crow and send this crow packing. You see, on the one hand, a sentinel crow should watch out for danger.

On the other hand, it needs to caw, chirp, whatever they do. It needs to alert the other birds that there's a problem. If it doesn't, even in the bird world, they figure out that we don't need that guy in charge. Well, in verses 18 through 19, again, God's focus is on the warning.

Not so much on the spotting things, but on the warning things. In verse 18, God says that the danger that the people are in, the danger for the wicked, is not coming necessarily from the Persians or the Moabites or the Philistines or the Ammonites or even the Babylonians. The danger that they're in, God tells Ezekiel, is going to be a lot easier to identify.

And that's because the danger that they're in is going to come from His own divine hand. Just as God said with Moses, if you do what I've asked, do what I told you to do, things will go well. There's blessings. Blessings, things will go swimmingly.

But if you fail, and there are curses. So the prophets, their job was to remind the people that there is laws that they are to keep, and if they fail to keep these laws, that there is danger from above, so to speak.

The Warning to the Righteous Who Turn Away 12:08

“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.”

— Ezekiel 3:20-21 (NKJV)

And God wants Ezekiel to reiterate that to the wicked people. All right, let's look at verses 20 and 21. Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die, because you did not give him warning. He shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand.

Nevertheless, if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning. Also you will have delivered your soul. All right, back in verses 18 and 19, God was talking about wicked people, right? In those verses, He's saying there's wicked people who need to understand the punishment, danger for being wicked.

And I want you to tell them, Ezekiel. Well, in these later verses, verses 20 through 21, he's transitioning from speaking to the wicked. And God says, I also have a message, Ezekiel, that I want you to give to the righteous. He says, not only tell naughty people they've been naughty, but also go to the righteous man and say, although you have acted righteously, although you're a man of faith and belief, there's things you're doing that are no different fundamentally from those who are wicked.

There's things you're doing, there's attitudes, affections, behavior you're doing that are wrong, and there is also a penalty for that. So God tells Ezekiel, He says, share this message, not only with the wicked who are obviously in the train tracks of condemnation, but also remind the righteous to do what's right, to stay in the faith, to obey the law.

He says, you've got two camps of folks, goat and sheep, minister to them both. Tell them both about My law. Tell them both about Me. And if you don't do this, if you just nod your head at what I'm saying to you and you really don't share this, then their blood is on you.

Their blood is on you.

The Minister's Responsibility for the Whole Counsel of God 14:01

Again, being charged with ministry of word and sacrament, it's daunting if for no other reason than there's some responsibility upon those who preach or speak or prophesy or what have you to contend for the whole faith, the whole truth. And that's what God is asking Ezekiel to do here. Now, let me ask you, I guess, a related question.

Let's say there's a church right now somewhere on the other side of the globe, somewhere far away from us. Let's say there's a church somewhere else where there's a pastor somewhere else who's faithfully preaching every week, opening up the word, saying, Thus saith the Lord. Let's say that such a church exists, as I'm sure that it does.

Now, what if in that church, what if no one's ever converted? What if the people listen and they don't respond? What if they don't seem to grow in their faith? What if they nod their head and go right out the door doing the same things they've always been doing?

Faithfulness, Not Results, Is the Measure of Ministry 14:49

How would we then evaluate that pastor's preaching if the people seem to ignore what he said? Well, again, you have to remember that the same holds true of the pastor and the preacher as held true of the prophet. The job is to proclaim truth. The job is to proclaim what is true.

Your efficacy, the degree to which you can be deemed to be efficacious, successful at what you're doing, is not a function of how many people come forward at a revival. It's not a function of how many people say amen or come up and say nice job. You're judged primarily, centrally by God, if you're a preacher, pastor, prophet, what have you, by the degree to which you have been faithful in opening this up and saying what it contains, preaching the word.

The people's response, really, that's the work of God through the Holy Spirit in the hearts of people. So a pastor somewhere across the globe, whether the congregation is right now, this very moment, responding to this man, listening, whether conversions happen or don't happen this week or next week, that's not the basis by which the individual will ultimately be judged by God.

What he'll be judged by is the degree to which he's been faithful in word and sacrament, the degree to which he has been faithful. The pastor cannot do anything more than plant the seeds. It's God who waters. Now, there's times in ministry, and quite honestly, it's true even in our church here, there's times in ministry when ministry seems to be going just wonderfully.

When seeds seem to be planted in water, there's abundant fruit. There's times when ministry is very enjoyable. But it's not always that way, is the point.

Elijah, Moses, and the Hardness of Human Hearts 16:22

If you think of Elijah, Elijah was one of the most famous prophets of all time. To this day, Jews at Passover meal keep a chair open for Elijah in case he shows up. Elijah is one of the best, most famous prophets of all time. And yet, there he was on Mount Carmel preaching to all these individuals, teaching, talking, prophesying, pointing to the one true God.

And yet, ultimately, he's chased off after this time on Mount Carmel. He's chased by Jezebel's assassins out into the wilderness. And he sits there crying under a broom tree, and he just thinks, I'm all alone. In Elijah's mind, at that moment, when he's crying under a tree, he knew he'd been faithful.

But he was evaluating his ministry on the basis of whether it was successful. On the basis of whether things had happened. Well, things had happened, it just wasn't what he expected or wanted to happen. So he sat there and he says, they've slaughtered your prophets and I alone am left.

And that's what he tells God. Well, what is God's approach to Elijah? Elijah, you know, he leads him off, he goes up to the mountain which we believe to be Mount Sinai. God shows His power through the earthquake and the fire and the like.

And then a still small voice, still small voice, after all of God's power has been demonstrated to Elijah, in a still, small voice. God reminds Elijah of His presence, and He reminds Elijah that he's not alone. And in that moment, there's a sense to Elijah that God is saying, I've got this. You're doing just fine.

You're doing just fine. You know, Moses. Moses right now is regarded very well by Christians, Jews. Moses has a high reputation in our day, but you know what?

In his own day, he didn't. His own peers and contemporaries, oftentimes they wanted to overthrow him. Some wanted to kill him, even his own brother and sister kibitz negatively about him. And so in Deuteronomy, Moses writes this lengthy book near the end of his life.

It's kind of the memoirs of Moses is what Deuteronomy is, and he's talking about the people that he's been serving. And he says that they're hard-headed, they're hard-hearted, they don't do what's right. This is, if they continue this way, which they probably will, things are going to be bad. Moses saw a lot of good things in his ministry.

At the same time, he saw the hardness of people's hearts and the fact that they didn't seem to respond. He sent all these spies into the promised land, the very place God had said you're going to go. And when they returned back from the promised land, 10 of the 12 said, no dice.

We can't take it. We can't do it. They're too tall, too strong, too formidable. Let's just hang out here in the wilderness for a while.

That's the sort of difficult, challenging ministry of a Moses or an Elijah or an Ezekiel. God says, I'm sending you hard-hearted, hard-headed people. And they're probably not going to listen. But Ezekiel, the degree to which I'm going to judge and evaluate your ministry is not based on what they do.

It's not based on how many come forward, how many hearts are changed, or what have you. I'm going to evaluate and judge you on the degree to which you've been faithful to the word I've given you. You do that, A-OK. You don't, their blood I'll require at your hand.

Watchmen in the Church, Home, and Community Today 19:23

All right, since we have Lord's Supper here this morning, let me look to wind up this short text. One of the questions I asked earlier, I asked the question whether the modern church has any watchmen. And if so, if the church does have watchmen, who are they? What are their jobs?

Well, the short answer is that yes, of course, the church has watchmen. If you talk about the church as the body of Christ, wherever they may be this morning, there are a great many who have been put in positions of authority, either within the church or even within their own family. Parents, you are watchmen in the context of your own home.

You are watchmen in the degree that you need to look out for danger that might otherwise affect or infect your families. You're to watch out for influences that are negative or harmful. And you're not just supposed to see them and go, mm-hmm, that's bad. You're supposed to do something, warn, act.

So we have watchmen, in a sense, throughout our family life. Of course, they exist in churches as well. They exist even in our community. We've got at least one police officer in our congregation, and he is absolutely a watchman.

He is literally out there at night looking out for the welfare of our people. We have watchmen in the church of God who are tasked with looking out for the welfare of the rest, the welfare of the sheep, parents, policemen, pastors, there are many. So the concept, the concept at the very least extends even into the present day.

With that said, assuming that we have many watchmen, assuming that some of us in this very room are watchmen, what are the two things that being a watchman entails? Well, we've already said it. Number one, you watch out. You pay attention.

You keep eyes up. You're alert for danger. That's number one. But honestly, that's the easy one.

The number two thing is you say something. You warn people of danger.

Why People Resist the Warnings of God's Word 21:10

Now, I can't speak to all walks of life, but I can speak to ministry. And one of the interesting things in ministry is that people really don't respond to warnings that well. Now why do you think that is? Why do you think it is?

Well, it's usually because if you're warning someone about something, it's in conflict with the decision or approach that they've already undertaken. If you weren't a child, you see your child out playing in the streets, you know, playing near traffic, and you warn the child, don't play near traffic, don't be doing this. You're warning the child about an action that they already desire and are already undertaking.

So often our warnings, even in ministry, conflict with decisions that people are already committed to. And that's why they're not especially warm to the warnings. In Scripture, the amount of times warnings were given to people who really didn't want to be warned, who were doing what they wanted to do, and when a prophet shows up, how is he treated?

You know, Mr. Killjoy, he comes on in, he says, thou shall not do blank, and people go, ah, you know, I just, I need my space. Let me be me, that sort of stuff. Again, that's not the way it works. Samuel, you have the prophet Samuel, wonderful guy, just a prince of a man.

Samuel goes and talks to a king. His name was Saul. Is Saul a good king? No, not so much.

Saul is not a good king. And Samuel warns Saul on a number of occasions what to do, what not to do. And, you know, King Saul does his own thing on many occasions. And at a given point, Samuel tells Saul that the kingdom is being taken away from him due to his sins.

He's fallen under judgment. He's fallen under judgment for what he has done. Now, what was Saul's reaction to that? To go, oh my, I must go to my prayer closet and repent.

Is that what Saul did? Well, no. He spends like the next eight chapters trying to kill his successor. He says, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to be king. You will see.

And he tries to kill the man who would ultimately replace him. And when none of that worked, what did he do? He goes and sees a witch, right? So Samuel, the wonderful, magnificent, awesome prophet, you know, he's been telling me the way to do things, how to live, how to be a king, how to do all this stuff.

Sam's been giving this input, but Samuel and I are on the outs. He's really telling me things I don't want to hear. In fact, I'm going to put him at arm's length. Who should I seek out?

I know a witch. When we don't like what we hear from a pulpit, from this book, from any sort of godly source, what is our inclination? We go listen to sources that might be antithetical to that, but sources that we like because what they're saying conforms with what we want to do. The responsibility again for Samuel, Ezekiel, Elijah, Jeremiah is to warn people about what's going to happen.

How they respond really is up to them. There was another bad king named Ahab. We talked about him, I think, in our new members class this morning. Ahab, he wanted to get into a war with the Syrians.

He wants to get into a war, so he brings in, you know, the pagan prophets come on in. And now, if you're a pagan prophet, and the king comes on in, and the king really wants to do something, what are you probably going to tell him? Go for it. God's got your back.

These prophets would come on in. They were yes men. They would say, clearly, the king wants to go to war. Well, well, tell him he should go to war.

I mean, that was the easiest way to earn the king's graces, but then to tell him what he wants to hear. And so that's what they did. Now, what was funny with this particular occasion with Ahab is he's dealing with another king named Jehoshaphat, and they're talking about this stuff. And the other king says, hey, do you have any other prophets around here?

These guys seem to be all, you know, yes, but do you have anyone else? And, well, there's this one guy. This one guy, his name was Micaiah, one guy named Micaiah. And he just exhales.

You can just see it in Scripture. He exhales and he goes, but we're not going to talk to him. He specifically says this. This is Ahab talking about Micaiah.

He says, let's not ask Micaiah. I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but only evil.

Itching Ears and the Coming Departure from Sound Doctrine 25:14

People like good news, whether it's from a prophet, from a pastor, from a pulpit. If you tell people what they want to hear, generally speaking, they'll just eat that up. But tell them something they don't want to hear or which conflicts with choices that they've already made, or are continuing to make? And what's the response often going to be?

Well, what did Paul tell Timothy? In those latter days when they hear good, sound teaching, what are they going to do? Many are going to say, nope, not for me, and I'm going to heap up for myself teachers, because I have an itchy ear. Teachers who will tell me fables, and that which I want to hear, irrespective of whether it's true.

In the coming months and years, the words from this book, in the coming months and years, the words from that book, if they're effectively preached from this pulpit, they're probably going to be at increasing odds with the world around us. Is there an amen to that? I mean, again, I'm not telling you to say we don't know.

We see it. The words from this book are already at odds with the words and voice of the culture. It's likely, if the trajectory doesn't change, to be increasingly so in the time yet to come. We live in weird and wild times, and if that doesn't change, we're going to be at odds with the world around us.

Apostasy Within the Visible Church 26:26

But you know what? Here's something interesting that you might not have considered. We're not only going to be at odds with a pagan secularized world, but some of us within the visible church are also going to be at odds with others in the visible church. Why is that?

Because many within the visible church, many swaths, denominations, and the like, have already bent the knee to the world's precepts and teachings and have abrogated their responsibilities. Like prophets that just affirm what Ahab wants to hear, so have many pastors, churches, and the like. Is that a surprise to any in this room?

I should hope it's not if you've been paying attention. You know, if Israel could go apostate, if Israel could go apostate like time and time and time again, if the covenant community of God's people, Israel, could go apostate, then of course huge swaths of the modern church can go off the rails as well.

Many already have. Many have done what Ezekiel's contemporaries have done. They've abandoned hallmarks, doctrines, truths, precepts that they once clung to, and they've retained only the outward appearance. Maybe pews, maybe stained glass, maybe hymnals.

A facade of what once was. We call that Ichabod. Why? Because the glory has departed.

There are huge swaths of visible church, even in our day. It's like they're husks of what they once were. And their ecclesiastical bones move to the doctrines of demons alone. If that sounds harsh, you wouldn't have liked Ezekiel.

I have the receipts. You have the receipts. If you take time just to Google it, and you'll see that there are large swaths of the visible, visible body of Christ that have gone off the rails with some of the most essential matters of the faith. Again, in the New Testament, Paul says it's going to be this way.

And so you need to be on your guard. And you need to be one who rightly divides the word of truth. Who rightly brings God's word both to the wicked and to the righteous. And he says, many folks are not going to like it, whether it's Ezekiel's peers or Timothy's peers.

Paul says this to Timothy. He says, the time is going to come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts, after the things that are in their heart, after the desires that they have, they shall heap up to themselves teachers. Just picture a mountain filled with bodies, teachers. Up to the sky, they'll heap up to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they will turn many away from the truth, and they shall be turned unto fables.

These churches exist.

The Watchman's One Job: Ring the Clarion Call of God's Word 28:59

Now, as I close, let me offer this thought. We're not accountable for them. If other churches, other brick buildings with crosses on top, ignore sound doctrine or have itching ears, let God sort it out. Let Him deal with them accordingly.

In Ezekiel's case, the man was not accountable for the words of another prophet. You notice this. God doesn't say, Ezekiel, I'm going to make you responsible for what another prophet says. No. In Ezekiel's case, a man was not accountable for the words of another prophet.

In Ezekiel's case, he was not even accountable for how the people responded to what he said. But he was 100% accountable for what he said. He was not accountable for what someone else said, and he was not accountable for how people responded. But in these verses that we've looked at today, the watchman of God had one job, to ring the clarion call of God's word unto a darkened age and a darkened culture.

If he did not, the blood would be upon him. No matter how weird or wild the world gets around us, no matter what any other church denomination does or does not do, we have a job here in our own local context with those that we've been given charge to. We're called to fulfill our role in our families and our congregation and to a certain degree to the community around us to serve as watchmen, and we do so primarily through the preaching and teaching of God's word.

Let's pray.