Read Ezekiel 33:1-11
First I want to thank Joel and Seth who filled in for me last week while I was sick. And by the way, what a week! I told Joel he had made history. Last week’s attendance is the highest regular attendance in the entire 53 year history of this congregation. Only on special, “Bring a friend days” have we had more. May God bless us with 30, 60 and 100 fold growth! We will not be finished growing until everyone within our reach is a Christian. We may need to plant new churches in the process. Whatever it takes to reach all who will hear and obey the gospel and follow the Lord Jesus Christ! And this brings up another matter we must address. We need more parking and seating space. When, Lord willing, we finish our addition, we will be losing the two back pews on one side of the annex where a door will be built to access the new fellowship area, bathrooms and classrooms.
Stop and look around you. Do you see any empty spaces for people to sit? May God fill each space with a soul bound for glory in Christ! May every man, woman and child here be a soul bound for eternal glory in Christ.
Pray with me, please: Almighty God and Father in heaven, holy and awesome is your name. Lord, please look upon us with your blessing and grace. You have called us to come to Jesus Christ, the way the truth and the life. You have spoken to us by your only begotten Son in the words of scripture and commissioned us to take the gospel message of grace to every creature. Father, we are your watchmen, warning this world of the sure judgment to come, crying from the walls that the enemy is coming. And we thank-you, O God, that as we proclaim the warning, we also proclaim a glorious hope, the way of salvation through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for our sins. Father, thank-you that you take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, that you are not willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance. Your will, O God, is that all should turn to Jesus and live. We praise you, O God, and we lift up the Lord Jesus as the name above all names in whom is the hope of every man, woman and child.
O Lord, may we be faithful watchmen, who sound the warning and proclaim the way of salvation to those around us. Fill every empty space within these walls to overflowing, O Lord and show us what it means to be fruitful and multiply. Forgive our petty and sickly vision. Open our eyes to the harvest and help us to see with your eyes the possibilities. Not to us, be the glory, but to you the living God and Jesus Christ your Son. Teach us your ways, O Lord and may we walk in them. Show us where you would have us tear down, up root, overthrow and destroy, and teach us where and how to build and plant. Bless us, O Lord, that we may be good soil and receive your word humbly, obediently, and persist in it and share it to bear fruit of 30, 60, 100 fold for your kingdom. In Jesus name, Amen.
Ezekiel! What a prophet of God! His book is divided in two parts. Each part begins with God telling him, “Ezekiel, I have made you a watchman.” Chapter 3:17-20, and here in chapter 33:2-10. Your job, Ezekiel, is to warn them. If they listen they will be saved, if they don’t they will be punished. But, if you don’t warn them, I’ll hold you responsible!
Are you reading with us through the Bible this year? If you are, then you know that we are in the prophets and that there are some very unusual things in the prophets that stir us and warn us. Ezekiel did his job. Jeremiah and Daniel and all the other prophets, did their job. Do you know what Jesus says about this? In his final beatitude he says, “Blessed are you, when men persecute you and revile you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely because of me, rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for this is how they treated the prophets who were before you!”
Do you want the blessing of Jesus? Jesus wants us to join in line with the prophets! There are two reasons to tell others about Jesus. One is because it is your responsibility! Yes. You heard me right. Jesus has given you a job. Remember the great commission? Who is exempt from that? Shall we read it again? Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” Now, think about it with me. If Jesus commanded them to do this and we are to do all he commanded them, do we not have a responsibility to obey the commission too?
God expects us to share the gospel. It’s part of our Christian duty. Suppose no one listens to you… Did people listen to Ezekiel? What did God say?
Look at 33:30 "As for you, son of man, your countrymen are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, ’Come and hear the message that has come from the LORD.’
31 My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain.
32 Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.
33 "When all this comes true--and it surely will--then they will know that a prophet has been among them."
This illustration from James May: Sermon Central - In 1969, in Pass Christian, Mississippi, a group of people were preparing to have a "hurricane party" in the face of a storm named Camille. Were they ignorant of the dangers? Could they have been overconfident? Did they let their egos and pride influence their decision? We will never know.
What we do know is that the wind was howling outside the posh Richelieu Apartments when Police Chief Jerry Peralta pulled up sometime after dark. Facing the Beach less than 250 feet from the surf, the apartments were directly in the line of danger. A man with a drink in his hand came out to the second-floor balcony and waved. Peralta yelled up, "You all need to clear out of here as quickly as you can. The storm is headed straight here." But as other joined the man on the balcony, they just laughed at Peralta’s order to leave. "This is my land," one of them yelled back. "If you want me off, you’ll have to arrest me."
Peralta didn’t arrest anyone, but he wasn’t able to persuade them to leave either. He wrote down the names of the next of kin of the twenty or so people who gathered there to party through the storm. They laughed as he took their names. They had been warned, but they had no intention of leaving.
It was 10:15 p.m. when the front wall of the storm came ashore. Scientists clocked Camille’s wind speed at more than 205 miles-per-hour, the strongest on record. Raindrops hit with the force of bullets, and waves off the Gulf Coast crested between twenty-two and twenty-eight feet high.
News reports later showed that the worst damage came at the little settlement of motels, go-go bars, and gambling houses known as Pass Christian, Mississippi, where some twenty people were killed at a hurricane party in the Richelieu Apartments. Nothing was left of that three-story structure but the foundation; the only survivor was a five-year-old boy found clinging to a mattress the following day.
Those people died because they failed to heed the words of the watchman!
That policeman did his job. It’s too bad they didn’t listen.
Then there is the main reason for sharing the gospel. It is the only way a person can be saved… the only way. Paul wrote the Corinthians saying: 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."
20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
Listen! There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved! These words were spoken to Jewish leaders who rejected both the words and the ones who spoke them. But others who heard those words believed and heeded the warning and answered the call and received the good news in obedient faith. On Pentecost, Peter preached to thousands who gathered to find out what was going on when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the apostles. Peter preached that this Jesus whom they crucified, was raised to life. He told them that they had killed the prince of life! But God raised him up again and made Jesus both Lord and Christ! Convicted, they cried out, “What shall we do?” Peter answered them in these words: Acts 2: 38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call."
40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Be saved from this corrupt generation."
41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
What would it take to get you to warn others about the coming judgment against sin? Has God given you an exemption from duty? When you stand before the Lord, as you most certainly will, do you think he will make exception for your having not shared the gospel with others?
If Jesus is our Lord and our example, we have no choice but to tell others. There’s a great day coming, a great day coming, there’s a great day coming by and by, when the saints and the sinners shall be parted right and left, are you ready for that day to come?
Do you know someone who is not? Will you obey Jesus and warn them?
I’m warning you here today, that God has made you and me to be his watchmen. We must not fail to sound the warning and point to Jesus, the Way... the Only Way. Do you hear me?
If you won’t do it for the love of God, do it for the fear of God, but do it! Take a card from the pew and write the name of someone you know needs to hear the warning. Pray for them and share this name with a brother or sister in Christ who will pray with you for this person. Then go tell them what God says.
