WITHOUT REGRET
EZEKIEL 3:16-21
INTRODUCTION: Ezekiel was a prophet, priest, and prisoner during the time when the Jewish people went into exile as the judgment of God fell on them because of their sinfulness and idolatry, and were taken captive into the land of the Babylonians. God had called Ezekiel to a prophetic ministry in Babylon, and to the exiled people of Judah. The exiles, among which Ezekiel lived, like him, had come from the upper crust of Judean society. They were privileged people that had everything they needed. They were affluent, having everything. They had both wealth and health, but they were out of Jerusalem, they were separated from God. They were listening to the pleasant preaching of the false prophets who said the exile would be short and that there was no more judgment coming. It was in this setting Ezekiel was called to be a watchman blowing the trumpet of warning to a people that did not want to hear. In Ezekiel 3, I find three facts applicable to both the watchman and the people to whom he was to speak which also apply to each of us today: Responsibility, Accountability, and Regretability.
I. Responsibility
A. The Watchman’s Responsibility
1. Ezekiel 3:17 “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”
2. Ezekiel 33:7 “"Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth, and give them warning from Me.”
3. It is the watchman’s duty to alert the city of impeding danger or of an enemy’s approach. The watchman must remain on guard alert to any danger to sound the cry of alarm, awakening the city to action. It is not the watchman’s duty to fight the battle. It is not his job to repel the enemy. He is responsible to sound the alarm. He is to sound the alarm clearly for all to hear. He cannot control the people’s response, but it is his duty to sound the alarm. The people must answer for their own lives.
4. Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
5. A witness is someone who by explanation and demonstration gives audible and visible evidence of what he has seen and heard without being deterred by the consequences of his action. S. Briscoe, Getting Into God, p. 76.
6. Ezekiel 3:10-11 “Moreover He said to me: "Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ’Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse."
B. The People’s Responsibility
1. Ezekiel 37:4 “Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ’O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!”
2. God is speaking everywhere. God is not dead and he is not silent. Man is responsible to hear His voice as He speaks.
3. Proverbs 19:20 Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days.
4. Proverbs 28:9 “One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.”
II. Accountability
A. The accountability of the watchman
1. God holds us accountable to be faithful "watchmen" to those who are in our community and our world in which He has placed us.
2. The watchman needs to be a trustworthy man. He needs to be faithful and alert to his task--a man who understands the importance of his purpose, and who dedicates and gives himself wholeheartedly to live up to his responsibility. Whether the message he has to give is positive or negative, welcome or unwelcomed, he has to be utterly committed to give it when it is needed--no matter what the cost. If he fails to do so he will be give an accounting for his failing to carry out his assigned mission.
3. Ezekiel 3:18-19 “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.”
4. In Hebrew “his blood I will require at your hand.” The expression “require blood from the hand” is equivalent to requiring the death penalty (2 Samuel 4:11-12).
5. When a watchman would fail in his duty and lives were lost to an enemy, the watchman was guilty of dereliction of duty and guilty of a capital crime. God views our responsibility to be witnesses with equal importance.
6. "Millions of surveys which we have helped to take around the world indicate that approximately 98 percent of the Christians do not regularly introduce others to the Savior." - Bill Bright, president of Campus Crusade for Christ, quoted in Why Christians Sin, J.K. Johnston, Discovery House, 1992, p. 140.
7. Romans 14:12 “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God”
B. The People’s Accountability.
1. Ezekiel 33:4-5 “then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life.”
2. Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them: ’As I live,’ says the Lord God, ’I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die O house of Israel?”
3. Deuteronomy 18:19 “And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.”
4. Jeremiah 6:17 Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, ’Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ’We will not listen.’
III. Regretability
A. The People’s Regret
1. Ezekiel 33:4-5 “then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself…
2. Proverbs 11:7 “When the wicked dies, his expectation comes to nothing, and hope placed in wealth vanishes.”
3. Luke 16:25-28 “But Abraham said, ’Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ Then he said, ’I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’
4. Erwin Lutzer says that, "...Hell is the place of unquenchable, raging, unmet emotional needs, without painkillers or sedation. Hell is a place of eternal regret."
B. The Watchman’s Regrets
1. Brethren, if you had to look straight into His eyes, as we are going to have to do one day, what would your answer be? Supposing I should say, “well, Lord, I was so busy acquiring a little farm over at Hillside that I did not have time to love you. I did not have any time to honor you. I did not have any time to tell anybody else about you?” Well, your farm is gone and you are not there anymore, and here you are at the great day, God’s eternal day. How trivial these things would be. We would be ashamed to utter them. Our hearts would smite us so that we would be unable to say them.” John G. Lake
2. “No Christian is in a right condition, if he is not seeking in some way to bring souls to Christ.” C.H. Mackintosh
3. “An English clergyman came downstairs to the breakfast table one morning. Evidently he had a sleepless night, and his wife asked him, “What is wrong with you?” “Wife, I had a terrible dream last night.” “What was it?” The husband, who had not been winning souls, said, “I dreamed that we came before the judgment seat of Christ, and as the Master looked at me, He said, ‘Where are the souls of the servants in your house?’ I bowed my head and said, ‘I don’t know, Lord.’ The master asked, ‘where are the souls of the children in your house?’ And I bowed my head again and said that I didn’t know where the souls of my children were. Then the Lord said, ‘Where are the souls of the people in your congregation to whom you have preached Sunday after Sunday?’ And I had to answer, ‘Lord, I don’t know where they are.’ Then I saw hell opening and I fell into hell, and there were the souls of my servants, there were the souls of my children, there were the souls of my congregation whom I had not faithfully warned. They were all gnashing their teeth and cursing me because I had not faithfully warned them about going there.” Then the man dropped dead, right in the presence of his wife, and went into eternity.”(Jesse M. Hendley - “How to have a Revival”
Illustration: The faces of the three men were solemn as the mayor informed them of the catastrophe. “The rains have washed away the bridge. During the night many cars drove over the edge and into the river.” "What can we do?” asked one. "You must stand on the side of the road and warn the drivers not to make the left turn. Tell them to take the one-lane road that follows the side of the river." "But they drive so fast! How can we warn them?" “By wearing these sandwich signs,” the mayor explained, producing three wooden double-signs, hinged together to hang from one’s shoulders. “Stand at the crossroads so drivers can see these signs until I can get someone out there to fix the bridge.” And so the men hurried out to the dangerous curve and put the signs over their shoulders. "The drivers should see me first," spoke one. The others agreed. His sign warned, "Bridge Out!" He walked several hundred yards before the turn and took his post. "Perhaps I should be second, so the drivers will slow down," spoke the one whose sign declared, "Reduce Speed." "Good idea," agreed the third. "I’ll stand here at the curve so people will get off the wide road and onto the narrow." His sign read simply "Take Right Road" and had a finger pointing toward the safe route. And so the three men stood with their three signs ready to warn the travelers of the washed-out bridge. As the cars approached, the first man would stand up straight so the drivers could read, "Bridge Out." Then the next would gesture to his sign, telling the cars to "Reduce Speed." And as the motorists complied, they would then see the third sign, "Right Road Only." And though the road was narrow, the cars complied and were safe. Hundreds of lives were saved by the three sign holders. Because they did their job, many people were kept from peril. But after a few hours they grew lax in their task. The first man got sleepy. "I’ll sit where people can read my sign as I sleep," he decided. So he took his sign off his shoulders and propped it up against a boulder. He leaned against it and fell asleep. As he slept his arm slid over the sign, blocking one of the two words. So rather than read "Bridge Out," his sign simply stated "Bridge." The second didn’t grow tired, but he did grow conceited. The longer he stood warning the people the more important he felt. A few even pulled off to the side of the road to thank him for the job well done." We might have died had you not told us to slow down," they applauded." You’re so right," he thought to himself. "How many people would be lost were it not for me?" Presently he came to think that he was just as important as his sign. So he took it off, set it up on the ground, and stood beside it. As he did, he was unaware that he, too, was blocking one word of his warning. He was standing in front of the word "Speed." All the drivers could read was the word "Reduce." Most thought he was advertising a diet plan. The third man was not tired like the first, nor self-consumed like the second. But he was concerned about the message of his sign. "Right Road Only," it read. It troubled him that his message was so narrow, so dogmatic. "People should be given a choice in the matter. Who am I to tell them which is the right road and which is the wrong road?" So he decided to alter the wording of the sign. He marked out the word "Only" and changed it to "Preferred." "Hmm," he thought, "that’s still too strident. One is best not to moralize. So he marked out the word "Preferred" and wrote "Suggested." That still didn’t seem right, "Might offend people if they think I’m suggesting I know something they don’t.” So he thought and thought and finally marked through the word "Suggested" and replaced it with a more neutral phrase." Ahh, just right," he said to himself as he backed off and read the words: Right Road—One of Two Equally Valid Alternatives.” And so as the first man slept and the second stood and the third altered the message, one car after another plunged into the river. - "The Parable of the Sandwich Sign" from A Gentle Thunder ©1995 by Max Lucado
