Now tonight we're going to be
looking at the book of Ezekiel chapter 3. Ezekiel chapter 3. I've entitled the message, God's
Faithful Watchman. God's Faithful Watchman. In the word of God, the people
of God in every age, in every segment of time. But I will say,
especially in our day, because we are living in the last days,
the people of God are instructed to be on guard, to be watchful,
to be awake. to their times and the seasons
and the things that are happening around us in light, not of our
opinion, and not in light of the newspaper headlines, but
in light of the Word of God. That's why I had Brother Ron
read that first Thessalonians 5 passage. It speaks of the day
of the Lord. That's the day of His coming,
the day of His second coming. He'll come as a thief in the
night when nobody expects it. But we're not, it says, those
who walk in that darkness and that that day should overtake
us as a thief. Now that doesn't mean that we
know exactly when Christ is coming back like the man in California
kept trying to figure out. It means that we live in continual
expectation of his coming. That's what it means. He could
come any time. We don't know when. Time is set. And only God
knows the time. We feel like it's close, don't
we? I do. I've talked to many of you about
it. You think that too. But we don't know for sure. But
we know he is coming. And we know that we're to prepare.
And that preparation, he says in 1 Thessalonians 5.5, is that
we walk as children of light, children of the day. not of the
night nor of darkness. That is, not as if we don't care,
apathetic or ignorant, asleep to these things. We're on guard,
we're on watch. And he says here, he says in
verse 6 of 1 Thessalonians 5, he says, therefore let us not
sleep as do others, but let us watch. Be sober. That soberness there is clear
judgment. Clear thinking. The only way
that we can do that is by having the mind of Christ. 1 Thessalonians,
1 Corinthians chapter 2 says that. We have the mind of Christ.
And the only way that we can have the mind of Christ is to
be infiltrated in our hearts, our minds, affections, and wills
by the power of the Holy Spirit to know and discern the word
of God. And how does that apply to Ezekiel
chapter three? Well, look back there. In Ezekiel
chapter three, verse 17, the Lord tells his prophet, now this
is also in preparation of the prophet, commission of the prophet,
commissioning the prophet to go out and preach to the people
to whom God sends him. And he says, son of man, I have
made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. You're set as
a watchman. I believe that applies to every
prophet of God and every true preacher of the gospel. That's
what I am. I'm a watchman. And that watchman, that watchman
on the wall, people say, or watchman, what of the night? He's to be
alert. He's to be sober, clear thinking. He's not to fall asleep on his
post. And you know that doesn't mean
that we can't physically sleep. You understand what we're saying.
but that he's to be on guard for the people. He's said as
an under-shepherd. Christ the shepherd, his minister
is the under-shepherd, and they're to watch out from the word of
God for you, for the people of God. When danger comes, they're
to warn you. When you need to know something
from God's word, they need to tell you. They need to tell you
the truth. And that's what Ezekiel's doing here. So that's what we're
gonna deal with. But before we get to that, let's go back up
here to verse one of this chapter. Now the first three verses of
chapter three really go with chapter two concerning the empowerment
and preparation of the prophet. And we could put these first
three verses under this heading, God's word written on the heart. God's word written on the heart. This is God's word that given
to the prophet, but not just heard with the physical ear,
but heard with the ear of faith. The new ears, you might say,
the new heart. And he tells him now, he says,
I'm going to give you a message, Ezekiel. And this message, this
message comes progressively as he gives it to him throughout
the prophecy of Ezekiel, all through this book. But here's
what he says. He says, moreover, he said unto
me, this is the Lord appearing to Ezekiel, the Lord of glory,
the glory of the Lord, which is Christ himself appearing to
this man. And he says, son of man, again,
speaking, identifying him with fallen humanity, the weak of
humanity. Man totally dependent on God.
That's what we are. For everything. Now we talk about
how man is totally dependent upon God for salvation. And that's
true. Every bit of salvation. None
of it's of me or of you. It's all of God. Salvations of
the Lord. Every aspect of it. The eternal
aspects of it. The time aspects of it. They're all of God. Salvations
of the Lord. I know people don't believe that
today, but it's true. But not only are we dependent
upon the Lord for salvation, we're dependent upon the Lord
for everything, even in this life. And so that's why he identifies
Ezekiel, and I mentioned how Christ identified himself as
the son of man, meaning his sinless humanity, wherein he identified
with his people, God's elect, his sheep, in our name and in
our nature, not our sinful nature, but in our human nature. He being
every bit human in his person without sin. God in human flesh,
Emmanuel. And he did that in order to redeem
us from our sins. He did that in order to take
our place and to die under the justice of God. But here he's
addressing the prophet as a son of man. That's what I am. That's
what you are. You're a son of man, fallen in Adam, weak, pitiful
human flesh, in constant need of mercy, in constant need of
grace. Every second of our lives, every
breath we take, is an expression for a child of God, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. And he says, eat that thou findest. What you find that I give you,
that's what I reveal to you, you eat that. Eat this roll,
you remember the scroll? That's what that's talking about.
It's a roll of a book. They wrote on papyrus and they
rolled it up in a scroll. Eat this roll and go speak unto
the house of Israel. In other words, he's telling
the prophets, you can't preach what you don't believe. You can't preach it in power.
You can repeat words. I mean, men can repeat words.
But I've often said this, if you look at the pattern of scripture,
when you talk about the difference between a false prophet in sheep's
clothing, and that's a particular category of false prophet now.
Now, all false prophets claim to have the truth, but there
are false prophets who claim to preach in the name of Jesus,
who claim to be Christian. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in your name? And the difference between a
false preacher and a true preacher in that is this. The false preacher,
he may be able to repeat the words for a little while, but
he cannot consistently day after day, night after night, message
after message, stay tuned to the word of God, the word of
God's grace. And the reason is, is because
his heart's not there. Paul called them transformers
in 2 Corinthians 11. They transform. into angels of
light. They can preach the truth for
a while, but they can't stay with them. That's the tense of
that construction there, that in the original language. It's
a temporary change. It's kind of like when in Rome
do as the Romans do. They can say the right things
at certain times, but they can't stay with it day in, day out,
message after message, because it's not in their heart. And
so he's saying, you, you, You take this to heart. Now we know
that it's the power of God alone that can write it on a sinner's
heart. Make us digest it to where it becomes a part of us, the
preaching of Christ. You know, if the preaching of
Christ is part of me, by the power of God, the Holy Spirit,
I'll never tire of preaching it. And I'll, listen, I can't
get away from it. You mark it down. And if the
preaching of Christ and Him crucified and the glory of God in Christ
and salvation by His grace is part of you, then you'll never
tire of hearing it. And you won't be able to get
away from it either. It'll feed your soul throughout eternity.
Listen to somebody stand up here and talk about how worthy the
Lamb is. You'll love it. Because that's the people of
God. So verse 2 he says, I opened
my mouth and he caused me to eat the roe. Now there's the
power of it. This was not a matter of Ezekiel's
free will. God caused me to eat it. You
know how he causes you to eat it? He makes you hungry for it.
That's what he does. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness, they'll be filled. He shows us
our sin and makes us hungry for Christ and his righteousness
and his blood as revealed in his word. And you'll hunger for
it, and it'll be the only thing that'll feed your soul. And so
it says in verse three, and he said unto me, son of man, cause
thy belly to eat and fill thy bowels with this roe that I give
thee. Then, Ezekiel said, then did I eat it, and it was in my
mouth as honey for sweetness. So there's the commission, there's
the revelation, there's the inspiration, there's faith in Christ, repentance,
there's the Word of God upon his mind and his heart to such
a degree that he cannot get away. This is what John called in 1
John 2.20, that unction from the Holy One. Whereupon that
which abideth in you, you will abide in it. The Word in you
and you in the Word. So there's God's Word written
on the heart. Here is the second thing and I want to take a little
time here from verses 4 to 11. This shows what he is about to
say here. I know it confuses a lot of people
because of the natural man's way of thinking. And because
of even a believer's limitation in understanding. Our limitation
in our finite mind. But what he's going to teach
here in these verses is very similar to what the Lord taught
in Matthew 11 and we'll be turning there in just a moment so you
can find Matthew 11. But what he's teaching here is
the greatness of sin against the light of truth. Now all sin
is great as far as the awfulness of it, the immorality of it,
the unbelief that that is the source of it. All sin deserves
death. But the Bible teaches here in
Matthew 11 and in other places, we won't go to all of them, that
sin against the light of truth is the greatest of all sins.
And why is that? Well, it's unbelief. And listen
to what he says here. And what he's talking about here
is the way Ezekiel would be received by the people to whom he was
sent to preach. And he'd already said that. Remember over there,
he talked about how they are an impudent people, rebellious
people, they won't hear you. But listen to this, verse four,
he says, he said unto me, son of man, go get thee unto the
house of Israel and speak with my words unto them. You tell
them the word of God. For thou art not sent to a people
of a strange speech, and of a hard language, foreigners, whose language
you don't know, but you're sent to the house of Israel. Now who
was the house of Israel? These were the people of God
under the old covenant. These were the people who had
the law of Moses, had the ceremonies, the tabernacle, the temple. These
were the people who had seen many marvelous, miraculous, wonderful
things. These are the people who'd been
temporally smiled on by God in a way of temporal blessings.
And he says in verse six, not to many people of a strange speech
and of a hard language, whose words thou canst not understand.
Now listen, surely had I sent thee to them, they would have
hearkened unto thee. If I'd sent you to them, they
would have heard you. Now hold on to that thought, we'll come
back to it. Verse seven, he says, but the house of Israel will
not hearken unto thee, for they will not hearken unto me. For
all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. He keeps repeating
that, doesn't he? Impudent, hard-hearted, means
they are set. In your concordance there in
chapter two and verse four, that word impudent means hard of face.
In other words, You know, like the Bible says Christ set his
face like a flint to do the will of his father. Well, this impudence
means that the natural man's face is set like a flint in opposition. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Now again, now I caution you
and I caution myself too as you read this, ask yourself the question,
am I better than them? I mean, that's the way we have
to read this book now. I believe it. Many of you believe
it, if not all of you. Are you any better than this
group here? That's by nature, isn't it? Alright, look at verse
8. He says, Behold, I have made thy face strong against their
faces. Something has happened to Ezekiel. His heart's been
changed. His ears have been changed. His
eyes have been changed. Your face is set in opposition
to them. They're opposed to truth. They're
opposed to God. They're opposed to God's way
of salvation. They're opposed to Christ. But
you're just as opposed to them. In other words, your face is
set like a flint to preach God's word. And you know, you're convicted,
you're convinced of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
You have an unction. So you've got two opposing forces
here, okay? And he says, and thy forehead,
the forehead represents the mind now. You remember the high priest
of Israel had the plate over his turban, over his forehead
that said holiness to the Lord. And what that means is that that
was to be constantly on his mind. In the book of Revelation, it
talks about how the mark of the beast will be written on the
forehead. That's their mindset, the carnal mind, enmity against
God. Be written on their hands, too.
That's their works. See, their mind and their works
are in opposition to God, as opposed to the people of God,
whose minds, whose written on their forehead will be the word
of God. And he says, and thy foreheads
strong against their foreheads. In other words, your mindset
is against their mindset. Their mindset is works. Self-righteous,
self-will, self-declaration, self-exalting works religion.
Your mindset is the mercy and grace of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The righteousness of God in Christ.
Two different ways. Like Cain and Abel. Two different
mindsets. Two different ways. Two different
works. One's accepted, one's not. Verse
nine, as an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead.
This is God's work. If you're sealed and set in this
truth, and this truth is sealed and set within your heart and
your mind, it's God's done that. God did that. That's a miracle. He said, fear them not, neither
be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. Moreover,
he said unto me, son of man, all my words that I shall speak
unto thee, receive in thine heart and hear with thine ears. See,
his heart's been changed. He has a new heart. His ears
have been changed. He has spiritual ears. And go,
get thee to them of the captivity, and to the children of thy people,
and speak unto them, and tell them, thus saith the Lord God,
whether they will hear or whether they will forbear." Now, he said
that earlier. He said, in other words, whether they hear you
or whether they reject you, you still speak the same word. You
don't change your message or your methods based on their reaction. So here's the way Ezekiel will
be received, with opposition, with hatred, And if you think
about it, here's the context of this construction here, what
he's saying. The way he was received would cause you to think that
he was preaching to some unlearned, heathen, Gentile group who had
never heard the law of God or the word of God. But it wasn't
the case. Ezekiel was preaching to people
who should have known better than to reject the Lord in his
words. People who had the law, who had heard the warnings of
Jeremiah. Jeremiah had sent this bunch
a letter, remember? Telling them, Jerusalem's gonna
be destroyed. God's judgment is against this
place. You've turned it into a house of ill repute. And yet they were determined
in their minds to be against God and against his prophet.
And he says back there in verse 6, now go back there, he says,
now listen to it again, not to many people of a strange speech
and of a hard language, I'm not preaching to unlearned foreigners
who can't speak our language, whose words you can't understand.
I'm preaching to Israel. The descendants of Abraham. People who know better, should
have known better. But he says about this heathen
group that he mentions here, he says, surely had I sent thee
to them, they would have hearkened unto thee. Now turn over to Matthew
chapter 11. Now people see passages like
that. And it's caused a lot of people
to conclude, well, that means the Bible teaches that man has
some kind of natural ability within himself to choose the
things of the spirit of God. to choose the things of Christ.
Some kind of natural goodness or spark of goodness whereby
He is naturally able, if He chooses to do so, to receive Christ. And it's similar to verses like
this. Look at verse 20 of Matthew 11.
Our Lord's speaking this. He's talking about His generation
here. of fallen sinners. And it says
in verse 20, then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most
of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. He
mentions two here, Chorazin and Bethsaida. Woe unto thee, Chorazin. Woe unto thee, Bethsaida. For
if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sidon, now we don't know much about Tyre and Sidon,
unless you've just studied history, but they were seaports. They
were the kind of places looked upon by the Jews as what you
would look upon a seaport where a bunch of drunken sailors would
come into port and just raise cane and give themselves out
to fornication and all kinds of ill, immoral behavior. And that's what these cities
were known for. And what he's telling, Chorazin and Bethsaida,
they were noble cities of Judea. And he says, now listen to what
he says, he said, if the works which were done in you had been
done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago
in sackcloth and ashes. Sackcloth and ashes are emblems
of repentance. Sorrow over sin. So he says in
verse 22, but I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for
Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. That's
the greatness of sin against the light. Now, some people say,
well, this means there'll be degrees of punishment in hell.
And that may be so. I don't know that this specifically
teaches that. But what he says, a greater degree
of judgment, whatever that means. But I know this, that Tyre and
Sidon, symbolizing people in that ignorant state, in that
dark state, dying in their sins, will perish. in eternal condemnation
and damnation. But so will Bethsaida and Chorazin. And he said, it'll be worse for
you because you sinned against the light. Now that's what Ezekiel's
saying over there in Ezekiel three. It's what God's saying
to Ezekiel. And then it goes on verse 23. Now look at Matthew
11, 23. And thou Capernaum, which are
exalted unto heaven shall be brought down to hell. Now Capernaum.
For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been
done in, you see the next word? Sodom. Now we know about Sodom,
don't we? We read enough about Sodom. Sodom. He said, if the mighty
works had been done in Sodom that were done in you, it would
have remained until this day. God wouldn't have destroyed it.
He said, but I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for
the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. Now,
verses like that, as I said, they cause some people to conclude,
well, that means that man has the natural ability to believe,
the natural ability to repent, the natural ability to sorrow
over sin and receive Christ. But that's not what these verses
teach at all. In fact, the Bible does not teach
that. In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite, doesn't it? The
natural man, what? 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14, The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them, they are spiritually discerned. The
carnal mind is enmity against God. Who is he talking about
there? Is that somebody else? Is that some pervert over in
Sodom or something like that? No, that is the natural man.
That is all of us by nature, born dead in trespasses and sin,
ruined by Adam in the fall. But here is the thing about it.
And Jeremiah taught it, Jeremiah 17, the heart is deceitful, desperately
wicked. Who can know it? Now, is he talking
about me? By nature, that's me. That's
you by nature. The only reason, if you're not
deceived today, I'll tell you why. It's not because you had
a better heart than the ones Jeremiah is talking about. It's
because God gave you a new heart and revealed Himself to you in
Christ. And then consider Matthew, look
over a page of Matthew 13. Now consider this one. You remember
Christ began to speak in parables. And you know that parables are
not children's stories. That's not what they are. And
they weren't given to simplify the gospel. Look at it. Matthew 13, 9. First he starts
off, who hath ears to hear, let him hear. We're going to see
that again in the last verse of Ezekiel 3. He says, and the disciples came
and said unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? And
he answered, now here's the reason he spoke to them in parables.
He said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it's not given. You've
got a gift from God. Not everybody has that gift.
Why do you have it and somebody else doesn't? Well, that's answered
over here in Matthew 11. For he said, I thank thee, O
Father, that thou hast revealed these things to babes and hid
them from the wise and prudent. For so, Father, it seemed good
in your sight. But look on, he says in verse
12, for whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall
have more abundance, but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken
away even that he hath. Therefore speak I unto them in
parables, because they see and see not. They have eyes, but
they refuse to see with those eyes. Well, what about the disciples?
Were they better than these? Well, the answer's no. The Bible teaches us that, no,
they weren't better. He says, hearing, they hear not.
They have ears, but they refuse to hear. Do you refuse to hear? Do I refuse to hear? If we're
believers, we'd have to say, no, we don't refuse to hear.
Why? Is it because we're better than these folks here? No. It's
by the sovereign grace of God in Christ. And that's the only
reason I can give you. That's the only reason there
is. He says, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah, which saying, by hearings you shall
hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and
shall not perceive. That's from Isaiah 6 when God
commissioned Isaiah to be the prophet. Verse 15, this people's
heart is waxed or grown hard. gross, and their ears are dull
of hearing, their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they
should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their heart, and should be converted, and
I should heal them. Now are these people worse than
us? Are we better than them? No. Verse 16, blessed are your
eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. You're blessed. Remember I asked at the end of
the message last time, do we really understand how blessed
we are if we hear and believe this gospel, see the glory of
God in Christ? Do you suppose that in these
passages that we've been reading that the Lord is telling these
disciples that they were better than these Pharisees and Sadducees
and unbelievers? Well, the disciple's ears, they
won't hear, but you've got better ears than them. Is that what
he's saying? Is that what this book teaches?
And you know better than that. You know this book doesn't teach
that. We know it's not true. Verses like, I tell you, verses
like these have one message, and that's it. And don't try
to get anything else out of them. They have one message, and that
is the biblical truth that the greatest sin any sinner can commit
is sin against the light of truth. Unbelief is what it is. Let me
ask you another question about this. Look back at Matthew 11.
Remember, he says here, woe unto you, Chorazin. Woe unto you,
Bethsaida. The works that were done in you
had been done in Tyre and Sidon. They would have repented, he
said. Now what he said there? Woe unto you, Capernaum. If the
works that were done in you were done in Sodom, they would have
lived, they would have remained until today. Now, if he means
that these people would have believed and repented if they
were given the opportunity, let me ask you this, why weren't
they given the opportunity? Why do you suppose God withheld
the opportunity from them? You know, the Arminian says everybody
has a chance. Why weren't they given a chance?
Well, you know salvation is not by chance. Now, no one can answer these
questions except by simply submitting to the scriptural teaching on
the sovereign grace of God. And that's it. Where God says
in verse 25 here, at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent, revealed them unto
babe. Even so, Father, for it seemed good in Thy sight. And he says, all things are delivered
unto me and my father. No man knoweth the son, but the
father. Neither knoweth any man the father
save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal it. God said,
I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful, I'll be gracious
to whom I'll be gracious. It's not of him that willeth,
it's not of him that runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy.
And my point is this, don't ever take this gospel and your ability
to see it and know it and love it for granted. It's an amazing
thing. Look back at Ezekiel 3. If anyone
should have listened to what Ezekiel was saying, it was Israel.
Much, much light, yet stubborn and self-righteous. But consider
that we're no better than they. Our salvation is all of grace
and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have nothing to recommend
us unto God. My ears aren't better than theirs.
I have no righteousness but Christ. And so he starts out here, look
at verse 12, he begins talking about preaching and the power
and the glory of the Lord. Listen to it. Then the Spirit
took me up. Ezekiel 3, 12. And I heard behind me a voice
of great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from
His place. It's all of God, it's for His
glory. I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures.
That's the ministers that appeared in chapter 1. Symbolizing the
ministers of the gospel. They touched one another. They're
in union. And the noise of the wheels over
against them. There's that wheel within the
wheel. That's the providence of God. All this working together.
And a noise of great rushing like many waters. So the Spirit
lifted me up and took me away. Going by the Spirit of God. And
I went in bitterness and in the heat of my spirit. Why is that? Because He knows they're not
going to receive me. But here's how you go, here's the issue,
here's the power. But the hand of the Lord was
strong upon me. There it is. Who's sufficient
for these things? Our sufficiency is with God.
And so then he sets him forth as the watchman. Listen to it.
Then I came, verse 15, then I came to them of the captivity at Tel
Aviv, that's right there by that river of Kibar that they were
in, dwelt by the river of Kibar, and I sat where they sat, and
I remained there astonished among them seven days. And here's God's
prophet. All of God's prophets, God's
preachers have always been compared to watchmen, were lookouts. who
stand a post on the wall and look out for the people. Danger
is coming. God told Isaiah this in Isaiah
62. I set a watchman upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall
never hold their peace day or night. Yet that make mention
of the Lord, keep not silence. Give him no rest till he established,
until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The faithful watchman.
He's the one who tells the people of God the truth as God reveals
it to him. He speaks peace all is well only
when there's true peace as proclaimed by God. Are you looking to Christ
for your salvation? Are you submitted to his righteousness
imputed and received by faith as your only ground of salvation?
Do you see him as the author and finisher of your faith? Are
you resting in him for all blessings? all grace, as the old prophets,
old writers said, all grace here and all glory hereafter, resting
in him, then I can speak peace to you. There's peace in Christ. That peace that the watchman
speaks is based upon righteousness and righteousness is found in
Christ. Now, where do you find it? If you're looking to your
baptism, I can't speak peace to you. If you're looking to
your church membership, your work, your efforts, your family
heritage, anything other than Christ, anything added to Christ,
I cannot speak peace to you. The watchman speaks danger when
the enemy is coming, the enemy at the gate, warning the people
to prepare or flee to a proper refuge for safety. Flee to Christ. Flee to the Word of God. The
Watchman guides the people to the only safe refuge and that
is the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood for the forgiveness
of all my sins and His righteousness for my justification before God.
Where else would you flee? The Watchman cannot speak peace
where there is no peace. There is only peace with God
in Christ. So he says, Verse 16, he says, it came to pass
at the end of the seven days that the word of the Lord came
unto me. Now, seven days, there's a lot of speculation about what
this means, but I know this, seven days, the seventh day was
the Sabbath, all significant to the message of God that he
gave to Ezekiel, which is a message of a finished work, the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His message was that of looking
to the future, not only to the end of their captivity in Babylon,
but mainly to the day of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is significant for their very existence. That's what the
whole promise of God to Abraham was. The blessing here is that
God's elect out of every tribe and nation, and it comes in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ and based on His finished work. And so he says in verse 17, son
of man, I've made thee a watchman under the house of Israel, therefore
hear the word of my mouth and give them warning from me. And
when I say unto the wicked that thou shalt surely die, and thou
givest him not warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked
way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity,
but his blood will I require at thine hand. Now that's serious
business. In other words, he's telling
me if I don't tell you the truth and you die in your sins, you'll
die in your sins, you'll perish, you'll die in eternal damnation,
but your blood will be required at my hand. That's serious business. Flee from iniquity. Where are
you going to flee to? Where is there a refuge? from
sin and iniquity. Look at verse 19. Yet if thou
warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor
from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou
hast delivered thy soul. That deliverance there is the
mark of salvation by the grace of God in Christ. It's not the
power of the preacher to save anybody. It's the power of the
word of God to warn us and to guide us to the right way. Look
at verse 20. He says, Again, when a righteous
man doth turn from his righteousness. Now he's not talking about the
truly righteous in Christ there because that person will never
turn from that righteousness. That's what the book teaches
us. That's what Genesis to Revelation teach. If you're righteous in
Christ, you believe it, you'll never turn from him. His seed
remaineth in him, his generation, his children, his offspring.
Those who are justified before God in Him, forgiven by His blood,
clothed in His righteousness, who've been given life through
Him, they'll never leave Christ, because He keeps you. But when
a righteous man, he's talking about here, those who are seeking
to establish their righteousness by their outward works, and listen
to how we know that. Now look here, verse 20. When
a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness and commit
iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, God never lays
a stumbling block before His true children. He tests us to
bring us to look more and more to Christ, but He never lays
a stumbling block. And now think about the Pharisees.
He put a stumbling block in their way, didn't He? And who was that
stumbling block? It was Christ. And He says, before
Him, He shall die, because thou hast not given Him warning. He
shall die in His sin, and His righteousness which He hath done
shall not be remembered. Now, His righteousness, which
what? which he hath done. You see, the righteousness that
God's true children have is not a righteousness which we have
done. It's a righteousness Christ has done. You see the difference?
And he says, but his blood will I require thine hand. In other
words, what he's talking about, here's an immoral person who's
doing their dead level best to rebel against the word of God
in every way. Tell them the truth. Friend,
you're on your way to hell. You need to repent. You need
Christ. You need salvation by the grace of God. Now here's
another person who's doing their dead level best trying to establish
their own righteousness before God. Tell him the truth. Friend,
it'll do you no good. You'll come up short. Your righteousness
is filthy right. You need the righteousness of
God in Christ. Now you look to him. And he says
in verse 21, nevertheless, if thou warn the righteous man that
the righteous sin not, and he does not sin, he shall surely
live because he is warned. Also thou has delivered thy soul. Again, evidence of salvation. You see, there's three things
there. It sets forth number one, the conditional nature of the
old covenant. Sinners cannot meet its conditions.
They'll always fail. Any type of salvation or blessedness
that's conditioned on us will be a failure. Secondly, it sets
forth our need of God's grace and the righteousness of God
in Christ and not the righteousness of men. We don't need the righteousness
of men. It'll do us no good. We don't
have any to begin with. Even that which Adam had before
the fall did not keep him in that garden. We need the righteousness
of God in Christ freely imputed and received by faith. And thirdly,
it sets forth how false preachers will have a lot to answer for,
doesn't it? Those who cry peace when there
is no peace, they'll have a lot to answer for. Let me just read
the last verses. Here's God's judgment upon those
who refuse to hear. He says, in the hand of the Lord
was there upon me, He said unto me, Arise, go forth in the plain,
out in the desert, and I will there talk with thee, God and
His prophet alone, Christ and His preacher alone. Then I rose
and went forth into the plain, and behold, the glory of the
Lord stood there." There's Christ again, pre-incarnate vision,
presence, visitation. "'As the glory which I saw by
the river of Kibar, and I fell on my face,' just like John in
Revelation. Then the Spirit entered into
me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto
me, Go, shut thyself within thy house. But thou, O son of man,
behold, they shall put bands upon thee. That means they're
going to tie you up. Put a gag in your mouth. And they shall
bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them.
And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth. God's
going to stop him from talking when it's God's God's will that
he shut up, that thou shalt be dumb and shalt not be to them
a reprover, that is one who preaches repentance for their rebellious
people. And then verse 27, but when I
speak with thee, I will open thy mouth. In other words, when
it's time, you'll speak. And thou shalt say unto them,
thus saith the Lord. You're gonna preach God's word.
Now he that heareth, let him hear. He that forbeareth, that
is, cease to hear, let him forbear. For they are a rebellious house.
Do I have ears to hear? Do I have eyes to see? That's
the question. Has God revealed himself unto
me, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Well, if he
has, oh, how thankful we ought to be. How grateful we ought
to be, that miracle of grace, especially when by nature our
minds and our hearts are set against him until he brings us
down and causes us to submit to his way and his will and his
glory in Christ. All right.