Now, in Ezekiel chapter 33, you may have noticed, as Brother
Aaron read there, that it portrays the prophet Ezekiel as the watchman. The watchman. And I'm going to
deal with a few of these verses here at the beginning and speak
of that subject, the prophet as the watchman. And what I want
to do is show you how The gospel preacher is just that. He's the
watchman, the watchman on the wall, watching out for the people
of God, like a shepherd on the hillside watching below the sheep,
watching out for danger. Now the first 24 chapters of
the book of Ezekiel involve God's warning to the Jews in Jerusalem
of His wrath against their sins and the wickedness of not repenting,
not turning to Him. not turning to God, and they
stubbornly refused. Jerusalem was laid to siege and
later on destroyed, and that included the destruction of the
temple, that great edifices of Solomon that they thought ensured
them peace with God, just the building itself, just the religion
of it. and not what it meant, not what
it pointed to, not what it pictured and typified and prophesied,
which was the glory of the Lord in Christ and His church. And
so what happened there when Jerusalem was destroyed, when the temple
was destroyed, the glory of the Lord departed permanently from
the nation. Now that glory was never to return
until, until the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. That's the glory that returns.
That's the glory that excels. That's Christ. And then for the
next eight chapters, that involved God's judgments upon the seven
nations surrounding Israel because of their pride and their ill-treatment
of God's people. You remember, God told Abraham
back in Genesis chapter 12, he said, I'll bless them that bless
thee, and I'll curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall
all families of the earth be blessed. And those nations that
cursed Israel, they suffered for it. And what you have there
is in prophecy and type, that the world in opposition to the
people of God, his church, that they will, that they are and
will be cursed of God. And of course, those who bless
the church are those who are members of the church, who are
brought into the church, redeemed by the blood of Christ. So in
both cases there, what we have is a picture of fallen mankind,
isn't it? Man fallen in Adam. Man by nature, working out his
depravity. None righteous, none can work
out one, none want one God's way. But now in chapter 33, we
come to the third and final section of Ezekiel, in which the Lord
reveals the future of Israel. and how you define Israel, how
one defines Israel, it varies amongst commentators. But let
me just put it to you this way. What these chapters that start
here and go to the end of this prophecy, what they really tell
us, what they really told the people then that Ezekiel was
preaching to, has to do ultimately, finally, spiritually, with the
hope of salvation by the grace of God through the coming Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this is about. That's
what it's all about. And to show them that there's
no hope for them, there's no hope for any sinner, Jew or Gentile,
under that old covenant, because that old covenant was given to
expose sinfulness. And the fact that by nature we
all deserve damnation, We cannot keep the law, we're sinners.
But the hope of Israel is in the new covenant, the new covenant,
the hope that we have in Christ, and that applies to God's people
out of every tribe and nation. Remember he told Abraham, in
thee shall all families be blessed. So with that in mind, Ezekiel
stands as the watchman over the people. With that in mind, every
true gospel preacher stands as a watchman over the people of
God. So let's consider the prophet
as a watchman and the gospel preacher as a watchman. And what
he tells them here in the first verse is this, the people are
going to be judged for their sin. No exceptions, no excuses. The people will be judged for
their sins. But the watchman, He whom God
has put over the people as watchman, he will be held accountable if
he doesn't warn the people of the danger to come. Now that's
what he's saying. And Ezekiel was one who did warn
them. That's one thing that's brought
out here. Ezekiel gave a proper warning and a clear warning. False preachers who claim to
be watchmen, false prophets, they cried peace when there was
no peace. And you can compare that to God's preachers today
and false preachers who stand against Him. Look at verse 1.
Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man,
speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When
I bring the sword upon a land, that's God's judgment, if the
people of the land take a man of their coast, and set him for
their watchman, if when he seeth the sword come upon the land,
he blow the trumpet, I've entitled this message, Sounding the Gospel
Trumpet. That's the trumpet, the clarion
call. And warn the people. When we
preach the gospel, that's what we're doing. We're sounding the
trumpet. We're preaching Christ. And he
says in this, that warning. Warning the people that there's
no hope of salvation. There's no hope of forgiveness.
There's no hope of being accepted with God. There's no hope of
escaping the wrath of God. except the one and only way,
which is the way of God's grace in Christ. That's sounding the
gospel trumpet. That's the responsibility of
a true watchman. And he's to preach this warning
clearly, without confusion, without corruption. Paul spoke of this. Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter
11 with me. I'll give you a New Testament
analogy of this. Verse 2 of of 2 Corinthians chapter 11.
Paul writes here, he said, I'm jealous over you. 2 Corinthians
11 and verse 2, I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy. For
I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. But I fear less by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your mind should
be corrupted from what? The simplicity that is in Christ. Preaching the simplicity that
is in Christ is the watchman sounding the gospel trumpet.
And that word simplicity, don't get confused about that. That
doesn't mean simple-mindedness. It doesn't mean simpletons or
anything like that. It really, the best way to describe
it is single. The word single. The watchman,
when danger comes, he has one single message. Not a double-tongued
message. Not a confused or misunderstood.
One clear single message. And it goes something like this,
flee to safety. But where is there safety? Well,
I'm telling you, there's only safety in Christ. Nowhere else. The preacher who
gets up and says, now flee to the church, he's not preaching
the singleness that's in Christ. If he says flee to the baptismal
pool, he's corrupting the message. If he preaches flee to rededication,
or walk in an isle, or do this or do that, you see what he's
doing? He's corrupting the simplicity,
the singleness that belongs to Christ alone. My friend, there's
only one way of salvation. One single way. No other. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. There's
only one God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. There's only one Messiah. He's
God in human flesh without sin. There's only one way of righteousness,
no other way, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety
of his people. There's only one way of redemption,
one way of forgiveness, one way of being justified, one way of
being sanctified, one way of being glorified. Christ and Him
crucified, there's no other way. Now any preacher who corrupts
that or adds to that or takes away from that, look over in
verse 13. He says, for such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness,
whose ends shall be according to their words." There he's talking
about the false preacher, the false prophet, who doesn't preach
the singleness, the simplicity that's in Christ. That's what
that means. So Ezekiel had one message. Jeremiah had one message. Isaiah had one message. And that's
flee from the wrath of God in the only place that God has provided
a center for safety. And that's what Paul said, Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. There's no other way. Now back
here in Ezekiel 33, he talks about the responsibility of a
true watchman. Verse 3, if when he seeth the
sword come upon the lamb, he blows the trumpet. He sounds
the warning. He warns sinners. You're going
to be judged. You're going to have to face
a holy God in judgment. And I thought about the Apostle
Paul on Mars Hill. You know, he began speaking of
the God of creation, and then he went from the God of creation
to the God of judgment. That's how he approached the
Gentile philosophers on Mars Hill. To show them that they're
one and the same God, and he's holy, and he's just, and he must
punish sin. And he says that he's commanded
all men everywhere to repent. Why? Well, here's the issue. Here's the singleness that's
in Christ. Here's the warning. because God hath commanded all
men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day in which
He will judge the world in righteousness." Now, I've been accused of preaching
righteousness too much. Well, that's my single message.
Because that's how you preach Christ. That's how you preach
Christ. I'm telling you, that's how you
preach Christ. and don't misunderstand me, and
I don't get embarrassed, and I'm not going to make excuses
for preaching righteousness, because that's what Christ is
all about. That's what you need. That's what I need. God is going
to judge the world in righteousness, how? By that man whom he hath
ordained. Who's that? That's Christ. In
that he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead. Now you're going to face judgment.
I'm going to face judgment. Our only hope at judgment, as
Paul wrote in Philippians 3, is to be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Jesus Christ, even the righteousness
which is by faith. That's what this is all about.
To sound the warning was the only way the watchman can prove
that he was a true watchman, that he was sent of God, that
he had a message from God. And people today don't want that.
People today don't want the truth. People then didn't want the truth.
Ezekiel. Think about Jeremiah. How many
false preachers the people wanted to hear and the one they didn't
want to hear was God's true prophet, Jeremiah. They called him the
burden of the Lord. People today are the same. They
don't want the truth. You know what they want? They want results.
They want results. Give us a preacher who will get
us results. But I want to tell you something.
There's no true preacher of God who's responsible for the results.
Only God Almighty is responsible for the results. All we're to
do is tell the truth. Warn the people. The watchman's
not responsible for the results. God takes care of that. The watchman's
work is simply to tell the Word of God. What does God's Word
say? And if he doesn't tell the Word
of God, he'll have to answer for this. Now, why will he have
to answer for it? Well, now let's look at it. Verse
4. Look at this. He says, when he warns the people,
it says, then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and
taketh not warning, If the sword come and take him away, his blood
shall be upon his own head. He has nobody to blame but himself.
And it says in verse 5, notice this, it says, He heard the sound
of the trumpet, and he took not warning. The blood shall be upon
him, but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. In other
words, listens and heeds the warning. You know what you have
there in those two verses? You have one of the best Old
Testament definitions of spiritual death. Did you notice what it
said there? It says, look at verse 5 again.
He heard the sound of the trumpet, but he took not warning. Now
that's spiritual death. It's like Christ said in Matthew
13 when He began to speak in parables. He said, they have
ears to hear. They hear the sound of the trumpet.
They have ears, but they do not hear. They don't heed the warning.
And you remember what he said there? Let's read that. I want
to show you something there. And why is it that men won't
hear? You see, that's spiritual death. That's what it is. It's
not that men and women cannot hear the sound of the trumpet.
It's not that they cannot hear the words that we speak. I've
often used Stephen. as an example of that. Do you
know everyone that picked up a rock and threw it at Stephen,
they heard exactly what Stephen was saying? What was the problem
then? They hated it. John 3, 19, this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world and men what? Loved darkness
and hated the light. Why? Because the light exposed
that their deeds were evil, their religious deeds. Remember who
he's talking to in John 3? Nicodemus, a Pharisee. Their
deeds were evil. Men can see the light, but they
hate it by nature. We all do by nature. I remember
when I saw it and hated it. I can remember it. There was
a lady down in Albany who told me that she'd sit in the audience
and just dream about shooting me in the head with a shotgun
when I'd preach to her. Because what I was telling her
that her religion was false. That's right. Evil deeds. That's
what the light exposes. But look here what Christ tells
the disciples here. In verse 10 of Matthew 13. He
says the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto
them in parables? Talking about the multitudes,
the Pharisees. And he answered and said, because
it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven, but to them it is not given. You realize that if
you hear this warning trumpet sounded from the watchman, and
you heed the warning and flee to Christ, you have a gift. You realize that's a gift. You
understand that. It's not a, don't take it for
granted. It's a gift from God. And why
did He give it to you? Well, I was born in Kentucky.
That counts for nothing. Or West Virginia or Ohio. It
doesn't matter. Why did He give it to you? Why
did He give it to me? Because I'm an American. No,
none of that. Because I've done my... No. For so, Father, it seemed good
in thy sight. Period. That's an amazing thing. He says in verse 12, For whosoever
hath, him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.
Whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing,
see not. Hearing, they hear not. Neither
do they understand. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. And
in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing
you shall hear, and shall not understand. Seeing you shall
see, and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed
gross, grown hard. That's what that means. Their
ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed.
That's a willful closing of the eyes. Now if you want to see
man's free will, there it is. He'll freely close his eyes to
seeing the light. Lest at any time they should
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand
with their heart, and should be what? Do you see that? Should
be what? Converted. And I should heal. They don't
want to turn loose of their self-righteousness. They don't want to turn loose
of their false hopes. They don't want to admit that
if God were to judge them based on their best efforts to keep
the law, their best efforts at religion and sincerity, that
they would gain nothing but death and hell. They're too proud. That's us by nature. That was
His disciples by nature. But yet in verse 16 He says,
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for
they hear. Now go back to Ezekiel 33. Verse 5, he heard the sound
of the trumpet, but he took not warning. He took not warning. And it says that his blood shall
be upon him, but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
What is it to take warning? It's to flee to Christ. It's
to flee to Him for salvation, for righteousness, for forgiveness.
Look at verse 6. But if the watchman see the sword
come and blow not the trumpet, the people be not warned. If
the sword come and take any person from among them, he's taken away
in his iniquity. Now that doesn't excuse or exonerate
the person whom the watchman did not warn, because iniquity
is iniquity. Where sin is charged, death comes. That's why our only hope is to
be like David. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputed not iniquity. Blessed is he to whom the Lord
imputes righteousness without works. That's our only hope.
That's Christ. That's what that is. So he is
taken away in his iniquity, but look here, but his blood will
I require at the watchman's hand. That's the accountability of
the watchman. That's why Paul said, woe unto
me if I preach not the gospel. If I fail to stand up here tonight
or any other time, and fail to preach Christ to you and tell
you the truth, woe unto me." That's why he said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation.
Why should we be ashamed of the only message that'll save your
soul? The only way of salvation for a sinner. The wicked will
die, he says. The soul that sins shall surely
die. There's no doubt about it. But
he tells us plainly. Look at verse 7. He says, So
thou, O son of man, I have sent thee a watchman into the house
of Israel. Therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and
warn them from me. In other words, preaching the
word of God. This is a warning from God. It's
not a warning from man. And when I say unto the wicked,
O wicked man, thou shalt surely die. If thou dost not speak to
warn the wicked from his way, The wicked man shall die in his
iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. The watchman who lies, the watchman
who fails to preach Christ, the watchman who fails by speaking
peace when there is no peace, he'll be held accountable. I
don't exactly know what all that means. Some say, well, that means
that there will be a greater degree of punishment. I don't
know. But I know this, God says, I'll require it at thine hand.
But look at verse 9, he says, nevertheless if thou warn the
wicked of his way to turn from it, turn from your wicked ways.
Now what are your wicked ways? Any way of salvation but Christ
and Him crucified is a wicked way. That's why people hate this
gospel so much. That's why people hate this book
so much. Because it tells us that any
way that men and women seek for salvation, or for righteousness,
or for forgiveness, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified alone,
singly, is a wicked way, in God's sight. How do you know that's
why men hate this gospel? Because that's why Cain hated
Abel. The very first act of murder. came about over that issue, there's
not but one way. So he says, if you warn the wicked
of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn from his way,
he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.
That deliverance there has to do with the true preacher of
God's word revealing himself to be just that. He delivers
his soul, not in the sense that he saves himself. Man can't save
himself. No preacher can save himself.
But he reveals that he's saved by the grace of God in Christ.
He believes what he preaches. He believes it. Verse 10. Therefore,
O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel. Thus she
speaks, saying, If our transgressions and our sin be upon us, and we
pine away in them, how should we then live? Now there's the
question. How should we then live? Well, where sin is charged,
death is the sentence. If your transgressions and your
sins be upon you, what does that mean? If they're charged to you,
if they're imputed to you, you've got no hope. That's why we need
Christ as our surety. And so he begins there in verse
11. Listen to how he speaks. Now this can be a little confusing,
but it's really not if you look at it. It says, verse 11, saying
to them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. Now this had already been spoken
back in Ezekiel 18 and verse 32. He said, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his
way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why
will you die, O house of Israel? What does it mean that God has
no pleasure in the death of the wicked? You know, when we look
at the Scripture as a whole, we know, the Bible teaches, that
God gets glory from punishing the wicked. He gets glory. You know, everything that God
does, He gets glory in. Everything He does. And you know,
nothing He does is wrong. Everything he does is right.
Everything he does is just. Most preachers today look at
a statement like that. God says, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. You know where they go. They
say, well, see, God, He doesn't want anybody to die and go to
hell. Whenever He punishes the wicked,
He's doing something He doesn't want to do. That's not what it's
saying at all. That no pleasure. means that
God does not punish the wicked simply because He's a bloodthirsty
God. That's what it means. He's not
a bloodthirsty God. And I say that because I mentioned
this this morning, how the idols of man are just that, bloodthirsty
gods. In just about every major religion,
there's some form of sacrifice. whether it's human sacrifice
or animal sacrifice. And you know what that is, that's
a perversion that dates all the way back to what God commanded
in Genesis 3.21 when the sacrificial system of worship was established
and instituted by God. You remember He slew an animal
and made coats of skin and gave it to Adam and Eve. And what
a glorious picture of Christ that is, the blood of the Lamb,
the righteousness of the Lamb imputed. That's what that is.
Well, what's man done? Ever since, he's perverted it.
He's perverted it all along. And he's created these idols
who are bloodthirsty. They want animal and human sacrifices. And just like I said, I get thirsty
for water and every now and then I've got to take a drink. Well,
these idols, they're bloodthirsty. That's what they have to do every
now and then. They've got to take a drink. So they sacrifice
a human, sacrifice a child, sacrifice an animal. It's a perversion.
And why is it? It's not because of justice.
It has nothing to do with justice because their gods are never
appeased by those sacrifices. They have to keep doing it over
and over again. But with our God, you know what
it is? It's not bloodthirstiness. It's
not just because He derives some sick pleasure out of watching
people suffer and die. God's punishment of the wicked
is justice. That's what it is. And He's glorified
in that. And so when it says He takes
no pleasure in the death of the wicked, it just simply means
that He's not an idol. He's not a concoction of human
beings who, of ourselves, are bloodthirsty in a lot of ways. Even though, thank God, it might
be squelched by God's restraining hand in some instances. That's the case. God's not bloodthirsty,
He's just. And so He asked the question,
why will you die, O house of Israel? Why will you die? Look at verse 12. Therefore thou
son of man say unto the children of thy people, the righteousness
of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression.
That's how powerful the evil of sin is. You take the righteousness
of the righteous, Adam was righteous in the garden, but it was with
a human righteousness. Adam sinned and fell. What happened? The whole human race fell. And
in the day of his transgression, his former righteousness could
not deliver him. That's just a statement of fact.
That's not concocting some human being out here who is righteous
in himself. No, there's no such thing. There's
none righteous, no not one. But here's how this issue of
sin, how serious, how powerful and wicked it is, that the righteousness
of the righteous would not deliver him in the day of his iniquity,
the day of his transgression. Period. And as for the wickedness,
he says of the wicked, he shall not fail thereby in the day that
he turneth from his wickedness, neither shall the righteous be
able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth. Go
on to verse 13, when I shall say to the righteous that he
shall surely live, look here, if he trusts to his own righteousness
and commit iniquity and all his righteousnesses shall not be
remembered. What is that? My friend, you
know our problem certainly is not just one sin, is it? But
one sin is enough to sink a world to hell. Our problem is a multitude
of sin. And all our righteousnesses,
as men see them, as we judge them by nature, cannot deliver
us. And to trust our own righteousness
is deadly, the scripture says. The best of men cannot cure sin. That's what he's saying. Look
at verse 13. He says, but for his iniquity
that he hath committed he shall die for. The best of men cannot
cure this sin problem. The best righteousness of the
best of men cannot wipe away iniquity. Those who are under
the law are debtors to do what? The whole law. But then he begins
to talk about repentance. Look at verse 14. Again, when
I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die. If he turn from his
sin and do that which is lawful and right, then he adds, if the
wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk
in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall
surely live. He shall not die. None of his
sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him. They won't
be brought up. He hath done that which is lawful and right. He
shall surely live. Now what is repentance in the
Bible? What is it? God confronted Cain back in Genesis
chapter 4. He said, if you do well. Remember
that? Cain, if you do well. What does that involve? That's
repentance. Turn from your wicked ways, Cain, if you do well. What
is it to do well? Well, what was Abel's testimony
about doing well? You bring the blood of the Lamb.
And he certainly is not talking about anybody here losing salvation. He's speaking in terms of the
Old Covenant. The Old Covenant which brings
all men and women without exception in guilty before God by their
best works and is a schoolmaster to lead them where? To Christ
for salvation. Restoring the pledge. Remember
the pledge they made at Sinai? Remember the pledge they made
before they went into the promised land? Yes, we'll do all the works
of the law. Give again that he had robbed.
Make amends. Walk in the statutes of life.
What are the statutes of life? Well, according to the old covenant,
their existence and well-being in that land was conditioned
on their obedience. And so in a sense, that was the
statutes of life without committing iniquity. You'll live, he shall
not die. What does that tell us? How does
that help me? How does that help you? Well,
if you're like me, the only thing it's going to do for us is to turn, by the grace of God,
to the singleness of Christ. and rest in Him and plead Him.
That's what we're going to do in this Lord's Supper that we're
going to take here in just a moment. We're going to plead the blood
of Christ, plead His righteousness alone for our salvation. And
that's the sounding the gospel trumpet for the salvation of
God's people. All right? I'm going to ask now
if the men will prepare the bread and serve it.