In the days of the prophets,
cities were warned about approaching danger by a watchman. They were in a tower on the wall
and they could see any danger that approached and they would
sound the alarm and sound the warning that danger approaches. The Lord describes His preachers
as watchmen. He said of Ezekiel, Son of man,
I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore
hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me. In
Isaiah 61, let me read this to you. He says, I have set watchmen
upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their
peace day nor night. Ye that make mention of the Lord,
keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, until
he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The Lord says here
in Isaiah 21.6, Isaiah says this, For thus hath the Lord said unto
me, Go, said a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. Now
we're going to take two prophecies here, Isaiah 21 down through
verse 11. But both of these make mention
of the watchman. And I want to show you three
things here that the watchman does in this passage. First of
all, the watchman sees. He says in verse 7 at the end
there, he says, he hearkened diligently with much heed. The second thing, the watchman
cries aloud to warn the people who's coming. He said he cried
a line. He cried as a line. When you've
seen the line, you'll cry as a line. And thirdly, the watchman
gives a charge to those who would inquire of what it is he sees. First of all, the watchman sees
A grievous vision. A grievous vision. Verse 1. The burden of the desert of the
sea, as whirlwinds in the south pass through, so it cometh from
the desert, from a terrible land. This is just as powerful as a
whirlwind of the desert coming through. A grievous vision is
declared unto me. The treacherous dealer dealeth
treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Now, the burden of
the desert of the sea, this is the burden of Babylon. The burden
of Babylon. And you know that Babylon, in
scriptures, is a representation of false religion. Revelation
says she's called Mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth. Now, in Babylon's dealings with
Judah, this is what Isaiah is foreseeing, or what he's been
mentioning up till now. And then I'm going to show you
something else he sees here. But in Babylon's dealings with
Judah, we see a great example, a great illustration of how the
falsehoods of this world, this world's mystery Babylon, how
she operates. Under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar,
Babylon captured Jerusalem and took the sanctified vessels from
the temple of the Lord, from the tabernacle of the Lord. 2
Chronicles 36, 18 says, All the vessels of the house of God,
great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and
the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he
brought to Babylon. When the serpent beguiled Eve
and Adam sinned in the garden, the sanctified vessels that God
had set apart in Christ Jesus were taken captive. And ever
since then, as we saw with Esau last week, when he departed and
went to build a name for himself to live in the land of Nod, when
Nimrod separated himself to go build the Tower of Babel, And
ever since, we've seen throughout Scripture, and it's true in the
whole world itself, that Babylon, the one who's making this world
drunk with her fornications, sinners, men and women, children,
is trying her best to take those sanctified vessels that belong
to God, that He put in Christ Jesus, and carry them away to
Babylon. We're told that Babylon took
the Lord's people like fishermen. These ones who work in Babylon
are fishers of men. Turn to Habakkuk. I thought that
was a description of the Lord's servants. They're fishers of
men. There's a difference. Let me show you. Habakkuk chapter
1. The Lord allowed Babylon to do
what they did. And he says in verse 11, Then
shall Babylon's mind change, and he shall pass over and offend,
imputing this, his power, unto his God. Now Habakkuk cries and
he says, Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, thou
hast ordained them for judgment. and Almighty God has established
him for correction. That's why he raised up Babylon,
was to prove his people, to separate his true elect from the false
in Judah. But listen to Habakkuk, thou
art purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.
Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and
holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more
righteous than he. and makest men as the fishes
of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them."
Now, here's what they do. They take up all of them with
the angle. They catch them in their net
and gather them in their drag, just like a fisherman does. And
all their tackle and all their nets and their devices they use
for fishing. Therefore, they rejoice and are
glad. Therefore, they sacrifice unto
their net. Who's that net stand for? The
one that's throwing it out. Me. Mine. Look what we've done. Look what I've done. Look what
we've... That's where the rejoicing is. In self. They burn incense under their
drag because by them their portion is fat and their meat is plenteous.
See the God that they serve? It's their belly. It's their
belly. Shall they therefore empty their
net and not spare continually to slay the nations? Babylon
shows no mercy to the Lord's people. Turn over to Isaiah 47. In verse 4, he says, As for our
Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel.
Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of
the Chaldeans. That's the Babylonian. For thou
shalt no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms. I was wroth with
my people. I have polluted mine inheritance
and given them into thine hand. Thou didst show them no mercy.
Upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. They went beyond the commission
that God gave them. And they went in just like the
king of Assyria did and said, we'll not only take what we've
been allowed to take, we'll go to Jerusalem. And we'll take
Jerusalem. We'll take the sanctified vessels
out of Jerusalem. We'll catch the men in our net
and our drag and rejoice in our net and our drag because they're
filling our bellies. and we lay heavy yokes on them.
Just like when they were in Egypt under the taskmasters and under
those that put heavy burdens upon them. There's no rest in
riches of this earth. There's no rest in the religion
of this earth. The only rest a sinner can find
is in Christ Jesus the Lord. He's the only place we can find
rest and peace and a safe haven from this Babylon. And yet Babylon's
rulers and her servants, they feast. They feast and they rejoice
and they're having a wonderful time with no fear of judgment
whatsoever. In our text Isaiah 21.5 This
is Isaiah speaking, but he's saying what the Babylonians are
saying in their camp. Isaiah speaking is one that's
in the camp with the Babylonians and he's declaring what it is
he sees in the camp. They say, prepare the table,
watch in the watchtower, eat and drink. Here's the problem
with their watchman in Isaiah 56.10. Isaiah 56.10 says his
watchmen are blind. They're blind. They are all ignorant. They are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark. Sleeping, lying
down, loving to slumber. Yea, they're greedy dogs which
can never have enough and they are shepherds that cannot understand. They all look to their own way.
everyone for his gain from his corner. 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."
Now give your attention here to what the watchman sees in
all this. Verse 2, Isaiah 21-2. He says, A grievous vision is
declared unto me. The treacherous dealer dealeth
treacherously. This is how Babylon has dealt
with the men of the world with Judah, but he's saying that this
treacherous dealer is about to be dealt with treacherously.
The spoiler has spoiled, but he's about to be spoiled. Here's
how. Go up, O Elam. Besiege, O Media. All the sighing thereof have
I made to cease." This is the Lord speaking. The Lord says,
I've caused, I've taken out every obstacle out of the way for the
Elam, who is Persia, and for Medea, who is the Medes, so that
they can go up and they can destroy Babylon. Verse 3, now bear in
mind here that Isaiah is speaking as one who is at this table,
in this camp, feasting and enjoying this heyday with Babylon. And now all of a sudden the news
comes. And here's what he says. Verse
3, therefore my loins filled with pain. The pangs have taken
hold of me as the pangs of a woman that travaileth. I was bowed
down at the hearing of it. I was dismayed at the seeing
of it. My heart panted. Fearfulness affrighted me. The
night of my pleasure, I was having such a good time, hath He turned
into fear unto me. Babylon was in ease right up
to the end. Look over at Daniel chapter 5.
Daniel chapter 5. I'm going to read this. This
is a little lengthy passage, but I want you to get this. You
know this story. Daniel 5 verse 1. This will help
get the picture in our minds here so we can see this. And
think of religion. Think of the falsehoods of this
world. Think of people enjoying themselves
and feasting and being merry and doing many wonderful works
and just sure of heaven as can be. I watched Daniel 5.1, Belshazzar
the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank
wine before the thousand. Here they all are, all of his
messengers, all of his officers. Belshazzar, while he tasted the
wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which
his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which
was in Jerusalem. These are those vessels. He's
going to abuse the vessels. "...that the king and his princes
and his wives and his concubines might drink therein. Then they
brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple
of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem. And the king and
his princes, his wives, and his concubines drank in them. They
drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass,
of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers
of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon
the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw
the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was
changed. and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his
loins were loose, and his knees smote one against another. The
night of his pleasure came to an end. The night of his pleasure
began to stop. What does he find out? So he
called for Daniel, and Daniel spoke of how God had dealt with
Belshazzar's father Nebuchadnezzar. Look down at verse 22. This is
what Daniel says to him. And thou, his son, O Belshazzar,
hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this,
but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, and they
have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and
thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines have drunk wine in
them." So he's repeated that now three times to us. The Lord did find that very appealing
that he took the vessels. and used these vessels to fill
himself, to fill his own belly with these vessels. Now watch
this. And you praise the gods of silver
and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor
hear, nor know, and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and
whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorified. Then was the part
of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written, and
this is the writing that was written. Mene tekel uphersen,
and this is the interpretation of the thing. Mene, God hath
numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Your day's over. It's at an end. Tycho, thou art weighed in the
balances and are found wanting. Perez, thy kingdom is divided
and given to the Medes and to the Persians." They were feasting,
making merry at the table. They said, watching the watchtower,
we're going to eat and drink and abuse these sanctified vessels
and fill our bellies with them and praise our gods. And God
said, you princes, anoint the shield. The Lord said to Cyrus
and Darius, kings of Persia and of the Medes, anoint your shields,
cover them in oil, go into the battle. Now's the time. And in
that night, verse 30 says, was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans
slain. Now, what do we see in all this? As the Lord's watchman For you,
this is what I say. We live in a world where all
that matters is pleasure. I was going to read what you
read, Art. We live in a world where what matters is pleasure. This is exactly what the Lord
said that these days would be like. Men will be lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God. Now they'll have a form of godliness.
Find me anybody in this world that's not saved. Everybody knows who Jesus is.
Everybody has got some kind of hope. Everybody's worshiping
some God. Everybody's done something and
they've got themselves right with whoever their God is. but
deny the power of the true and living God. Ever learning and
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Are you in Babylon? Look around. Look where we live. We're in
Babylon. This world is Babylon. We live in the midst of Babylon.
Babylon, we saw this last time, it was a beautiful place. It
was lovely. I mean, it was all the square
blocks and all the gardens and all the great walls to protect
and a great centerpiece of worship where they could go and worship
their God. It was beautiful. There's nothing
that, when you would see it, you would think, oh, that's evil
right there. It appealed to the eye. It appealed
to the flesh. I know this. I know this for
certain. In every generation in this Scripture,
God's messengers and His people and the places where they met
were never appealing to the masses. That tabernacle in the wilderness
was covered over in badger skin. with a bunch of slaves out of
Egypt out there around it. The days of Solomon and the days
of King David, it was the most triumphant time and had the beautiful
temple and all that. But that was to picture the glorious
reign of Christ Jesus our Lord and what it's like to be in His
kingdom and be under His reign and His rule. And the rest of
the time it was the Lord called fishermen that nobody liked. The religious men of the day,
they asked Him, where did you get your authority? You haven't been to our school.
You haven't been educated by Dr. Gamaliel. You don't have
the authority we have and we didn't send you. And we don't
like your gospel. The one thing that has always
made the difference, the one thing that has entered into the
hearts of believers and caused them to be able to discern from
a truth and a lie is the Word. Listen to the Word. Find out
about a man by listening to the gospel he preaches. Listen to
everything you can find that he's preached. Listen to every
message he's preached. If he's not consistent, get away
from him. Get away from him. What methods
does he use? Is he praising his dragon, his
net, and rejoicing in what he's done for his belly? Or is he glorifying God, putting
Christ forth, showing sinners their need of Christ? Is that
what he's doing? pleasures won't help you. You
can get all of this world that you can get. You can accumulate
everything you can accumulate in this world and it will do
you no good. I want you to get an education.
I want you to get everything you can as far as what you'll
need in this world to work and make a decent living and have
things you need and get by and and take care of your families
and have children, those things that you naturally desire to
have. But I've said this to you before,
I would rather see one of my kids be a, I hate to even name an occupation,
somebody might do it. There's no occupation that's
shameful, they're all honorable. but pick the lowest occupation
you can think of. That's just the basest, meanest
occupation. But if you've got Christ, and
you know Christ, you own everything. You own the treasures in heaven.
There's an inheritance laid up for you. You have it all in Christ
Jesus our Lord. And one day soon, everything
that men are hoarding up, everything that men are hugging on to, everything
that men are clinging to in this life, It's going to be gone. When it's left, when the Lord
leaves Babylon to themselves, it will be a nest for owls and
for beasts and for evil things. That's what this Babylon will
be when God takes His people out of it. And removes His presence, His
restraining hand from it. You think it's dog eat dog now.
Wait till then. Wait till then. Unless God shows
us mercy brethren, the handwriting's on the wall. And we'll be found
wanting. We'll come up empty. I urge you, seek Christ. Don't rest until you have Him. Don't let your soul lay down
at night and find any peace, any ease, any respite in this
world until you have Christ the Lord. And then when you have
Him, if you truly have Him, if He's revealed Himself in you
and made Him the pearl of great price in your heart, you'll never,
never, never stop seeking His face. I know, I'm telling you
what I know, I'm telling you what I know for a fact. what I can experience, the Lord
uses me in spite of what I am. I am a vile, wretched, despicable,
despised, you don't even know the half of what this sinner
is. And God seems to give just a worthless vessel. He seems
to just keep on giving me, giving me, giving me, giving me freely,
freely, freely. Grace, grace, grace. Lifting
me up to Christ. Showing me Christ. Revealing
Christ to me. And using me in spite of me. Well, here's the second thing
the watchman does. The watchman declares who's coming.
He sees, he hearkens diligently, and he declares, let me tell
you who's coming. Verse 6. Isaiah 21.6, For thus
hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare
what he seeth. And he saw a chariot with a couple
of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels. And
he hearkened diligently with much heed, and he cried, A lion! You know what it meant when a
watchman was in a watchtower and he cried, A lion? Man, people would go to grabbing
kids, and people would go to grabbing their loved ones, and
grabbing everything they had, and they would go to running.
A lion? That's the king. The lion's the
king. When the lion is coming, the
lion's coming. My lord, I stand continually
upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I'm sitting in my ward whole
nights. You see, he's not slumbering.
This watchman's not slumbering. He's watching even in the night
watches. And behold, here cometh a chariot of men and a couple
of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen,
is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods, he's broken
unto the ground. Oh, my threshing, the suns, the
corn of my floor, that which I've heard of the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, have I declared unto you. In King Cyrus, the Persian, we
see a type of Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Look over
at Isaiah 45. I showed you this last time, but I want to show
you something in addition to this. Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, verse
28. This is what the Lord said of
Cyrus. He is my shepherd. Isaiah 44, verse 28. Isaiah 44, verse 28. Cyrus said,
He's my shepherd. The Lord said of Cyrus, He's
my shepherd. He shall perform all my pleasure. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's who He is. He says to
Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built. And to the temple thy foundation
shall be laid. Babylon had destroyed it. Babylon
had leveled it. But he said, I'm sending forth
my shepherd. And he's going to build it. Chapter 45, verse 1. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I've holden. to subdue nations before
him. I'll loose the loins of kings
to open before him the two-leaved gates and the gates shall not
be shut. I'll go before thee and make the crooked places straight.
I'll break in pieces the gates of brass and cut and sunder the
bars of iron. I'll give thee the treasures
of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that thou mayest
know that I, the Lord, which call by thy name, am the God
of Israel. For Jacob my servant's sake and
Israel mine elect, I've even called thee by thy name. I have
surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me, that you might
know that I am God, and there is none else. Look over at Ezra
chapter 1. I want you to see what Cyrus
did when he came in. Ezra chapter 1 verse 1 I Got a new Bible y'all bear with
me Ezra 1 1 now in the first year
of Cyrus king of Persia that the word of the Lord by the mouth
of Jeremiah might be filled. The Lord stirred up Cyrus, king
of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and
put it also in writing. And here's what he said. Thus
saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given
me all the kingdoms of the earth. He hath charged me to build him
a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Now look down at verse
7. You remember all those vessels?
that the king of Babylon took and abused. Also Cyrus the king
brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which
Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put
them in the house of his God. Look down at verse 11. All the
vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All of these did
Shezbazar, that's one working under Cyrus. He brought up with
him of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto
Jerusalem. He brought all those vessels back and put them back.
He built the house of the Lord. And he brought those vessels
back and put those vessels in the house of the Lord. And he
put it in writing that he did it. He put it in writing so generation
after generation after generation would know He did it. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He's God's anointed. He's our
King. He's our Shepherd. He's the captain
of our warfare. He's the one that came into Babylon
with His own blood, purged His people and satisfied God. And
when He rose from the dead, He brought all the sanctified vessels
with Him into the house of God, into Heaven's Jerusalem with
Him. And his fan's in his hand and he's threshing out the suns
of his floor right now. And he's building the house of
the Lord. He's building the house. And except the Lord build the
house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep
the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. He's the one who
builds this house. And he comes into the hearts
of his elect through the Holy Spirit, through the preaching
of his gospel, through his watchman crying out, The Lion! The Lion! That's who's coming. And He comes
into their hearts, just like He went into this earth here
and purged His people. He comes into our hearts and
He conquers Babylon within His people. And He breaks down our
gods, and He breaks down our images, and He takes away from
us all our vain refuge. And He makes us to behold Him
in all His glory. And He's coming again. This Lion's
coming again. He's coming in the last day.
And in the last day when the table is set and the feasts are
going on throughout the world and everybody's rejoicing and
abusing and praising their gods, this Lion's coming. He's coming. And then we'll all shout with
one victorious voice, fully, finally, forever, Babylon is
fallen, Babylon is fallen. The day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night, for when they shall say, Peace and
safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon
a woman with child, and they shall not escape. Now, here's the third thing,
and I'll be very brief. The watchman gives a charge to
those who come and inquire of him. And here the vision changes. We're dealing with someone else
now, but we're still focusing our attention on the message
of the watchman. The message of the watchman. Isaiah 21 11, the burden of Duma. He calleth to me out of seer. Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night? I wish we could find a sinner.
a sinner. I wish we could find a sinner
who comes asking questions because they want to know Christ. Not
because they want to scoff, not because they want to scorn, not
because they want a temporary peace of mind, not because they're
under some legal fear, but somebody who truly comes seeking to know
Christ the Lord. Heed the charge of the watchman.
Listen. The watchman said, The morning
cometh. Oh, good. The light comes. I'll be happy
then. I'll be fine. I'll be at ease then. Thank you,
preacher, for helping me out. I appreciate it. I can't tell
you how you put me at ease. I'm going to go back to my feasting.
I'm going to go back to my table. The watchman's not finished.
He said morning comes, but darkness is coming. Darkness is coming. And if it's just a temporary
satisfaction that you're looking for, if it's just a temporary
appeasement you're looking for, if it's just a legal conviction
you're under, it won't do you any good when daylight comes.
Because night's coming. And you'll be right back in that
fear and trembling with no peace. None whatsoever. But, he says,
if you will inquire, If you really are inquiring,
then inquire. Do you really have a question?
Do you really want to know who God is? What did the watchman
say to us this morning? What did he say in Matthew 7?
Ask. It will be given to you. Seek
and you'll find. Knock. A man comes to the door and he
knocks. I need bread. And the person inside hears him
knock and he says, it's late. I answer that door. I need bread. I need bread! Do you need bread? Do you need
bread? Do you need Christ the bread
from heaven? Pound on the door. Pound on the
door. He says, I'll open it. I'll open
it and I'll give you good things." Look at what he says. If you'll
inquire, then inquire. But return. Return. Repent. Turn from all your vain
trust. Turn from everything you're trusting
in. Turn from every bit of wisdom you think you have. Forget everything
you thought you knew. Leave all that behind. You can't
get in even with your own with your own understanding, this
waste in there, you can't even get in with your thoughts of
who God is. You gotta leave them behind. And come asking Him to
reveal Himself to you. Come, He said, return and come. Right there where you are. Right
where you are, right now. Come to Christ. If He's given you a heart and
made you willing and made you hungry and you've got to have
Him, you'll come to Him. You'll come to Him. And when you come to Him, always
be inquiring, always be returning, repenting, always be coming unto
Him. If you'll inquire, inquire. If you just want to ask questions, Be on your way. Got no time for
that mess. You just want somebody to see
how wise you are. How much you know. Do you know
Christ? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ?
Inquire. As newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word that you may grow thereby if you've tasted
the Lord's gracious, to whom coming? To whom coming? We don't ever stop. Continually
coming to him. And he says he will keep him
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him because he trusts
in him. Now, don't let us sleep. Let's don't slumber. Let's don't
sleep. Let's be watching. You're watchmen. Everybody that believes the Lord,
every servant of His is a watchman. And He says to us, let us watch
and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night. And they that are drunk, are drunk in the night.
But if we're of the day, if the day star has arisen, if we have
Christ's delight, Be sober. Put on the breastplate
of faith and love and helmet the hope of salvation, for God
hasn't appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, that whether we wake when
He comes or whether we sleep when He comes, we should live
together with Him. The watchman looks diligently,
and he watches at night, he watches in the daytime, and he sees the
danger. But he sees the Savior, and he
cries the line of the tribe of Judah. And he says to all who
would inquire, inquire, but leave everything else behind and come
to Him.