YOU ARE CALLED TO BE A WATCHMAN!
Serious questions arise when reading the book of Ezekiel. For instance, in three places within the 48 chapters, God gave weighty direction to the prophet about his responsibility to the people of Israel when God gave him a message for them. But was that direction intended just for prophets of old? Might it apply to us in the age of grace, as well? In these last days, it is appropriate that we take heed to what God told Ezekiel about souls and sin and the grave importance of the calling of a watchman.
Almost immediately as the book opens, God appointed Ezekiel to the office of watchman to Israel. The role of a watchman was sober, not to be taken lightly.
Ezekiel 3:17-21
"Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth warn them from Me.
"When I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered yourself.
"Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. However, if you have warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself."
Besides giving Ezekiel his appointment, God clarifies several issues in this passage. First, God makes it clear that the death to which He refers is not physical death. Everyone will die and leave his body unless the Rapture happens and snatches away true believers without their experiencing bodily death. Here God is referring to the second death described in Revelation 20:14-15.
Already in the heart of every sinner death reigns, because his spirit is dead:
"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." Ephesians 2:1-2.
Second, God condemns the notion of eternal security. Afoot today in many evangelical churches is the teaching that once a person is born again, he is safe no matter what he does going forward. A common tag for that practice is "sinning religion." Another is "hyper-grace." Not only does it give 'permission' to those who are born again to live as they wish, but it instills the (in)security of not losing their souls in hell when they do sin willfully. They believe they have a free ticket to heaven regardless of how they live.
Nothing could be farther from the truth! Elsewhere in Ezekiel God says,
"The person who sins will die." Ezekiel 18:20.
Perhaps this is the place to determine what God means by the term 'sin.' (To do an in-depth study of the various words used in the Old and New Testaments to denote sin, one can use Strong's Concordance and search on the word 'sin.')
From the Ezekiel passage quoted above, plainly both wicked or righteous persons can commit sin. Depending on the circumstances, sin can be intentional or unintentional. It may be evil to the core or intended to be good, but miss that mark.
For now we shall use God's definition in James 4:17, which says, "Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin." That signifies doing something but not doing it completely or correctly---missing the mark. It also means knowing what to do and not doing it at all. In other words, sin is either commission or omission.
What we also must recall are James' words when he said:
"Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh." James 3:11-12.
Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." He meant that no matter how much a person tries to please God or work his way to heaven by his own hands, he cannot produce a product better than its source. A sinful heart cannot produce righteousness.
COVID is a modern-day illustration of sin: Even if a person has no apparent symptoms but would test positive for COVID, he carries the virus and spreads it to others unintentionally. He contaminates everything with the virus whether he means to or not! The same holds true if he knows he has COVID and intentionally or carelessly mingles among other people without their knowing he carries contagion: it's still COVID! So is sin still sin, intentional or not!
Sin, therefore, is falling short of God's glory by our actions, thoughts and motives, and origin. Only those who are holy will see God (Hebrews 12:14). Contamination of whatever we produce comes from an impure source, our dead heart, whether it is intentional or unintentional Our heart must be made pure by the blood of Jesus alone in order to produce works God considers righteous.
The third and most frightening issue revealed to Ezekiel is that when God gave a message to him for the people, his failure to convey that message to them carried consequences! God meant that when persons died in their sin UNWARNED, He would hold Ezekiel responsible for their not knowing. What that means in today's day of grace is not discussed much. IF it means that the Church must declare the message of salvation to all the world and she fails to do so, does she lose her salvation or God's blessing? What a weighty responsibility that places on you and me to witness and tell others about Jesus' redemption from sin!
Ezekiel 18:4-5, 8-9, 20
Moving on, the next time God put matters of salvation before Ezekiel is found in chapter 18:
"Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die. But if a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness...if he keeps his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between man and man, if he walks in My statutes and My ordinances so as to deal faithfully---he is righteous and will surely live, declares the Lord GOD...The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."
My mother had a saying she quoted frequently: Every tub sits on its own bottom. In other words, each soul is responsible for his own actions, whether sinful or righteous. God makes that truth very clear in the verses quoted. Repentance leading to salvation is an individual matter of the will.
Psychology has infiltrated our thinking, even our theology, so that frequently children absolve themselves from accountability by blaming their parents or society for their misbehaviors. While it is true that how a child is trained or treated in his formative years influences how he lives, adulthood requires every person to accept responsibility for himself and his actions...at least that is God's standard! Change is possible, particularly when going from the kingdom of darkness and sin into the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is all based on repentance. Without repentance salvation is not effected in that heart. Being born again is based on the individual and his choice to submit to God.
God made that very clear to Ezekiel. There is no excuse for continuing to sin once a person had heard the truth from God. So, Ezekiel was charged first with being a watchman who was to warn the people of Israel when God gave him a word about their sin and how to be freed from its condemnation. Second, he was told to accept no excuses for sinning once he had proclaimed the message to them. He was told to proclaim that to the the people. They could no longer hide behind their excuses for sinning.
Finally, God wrapped together His watchman responsibilities for Ezekiel with the individuals' responsibility for their being righteous or continuing to sin and die in hell:
Ezekiel 33:12-13
"The righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin. When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die."
Once again God confirms that there is no such thing as sinning religion. Walk with a holy heart in all the light God has given you through the power of the Holy Spirit baptism, or forfeit the new life God gave you at your conversion when you choose to commit sin again. Assuredly, you will die! That's as plain as it gets!
Some argue that in this instance God means physical death. However, the contrast in this statement between a wicked person dying and a righteous man living is not physical...even the righteous man will die someday. No, God is talking about spiritual death.
As pointed out earlier, the spirit is already dead when a person practices sin. At physical death that lost person will drop into hell to be tormented apart from God's presence. When he or she hits hell, the image of God with which we are created and that is the unique life in us that communicates with God will be removed from their person forever! What they are left with is a mere unworthy soul and the form of a body that will suffer forever and ever.
In hell they will wait for the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of Time. There each one will stand before Jesus and see every sin they ever committed unveiled from books now being kept in heaven. Their own actions will condemn them in accord with what the Bible tells us about submission to Christ for forgiveness.
The linchpin of the hearing will be that their name is not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That glaring absence indicates they rejected Jesus to be their savior. They loved their sin more. Thus, they will be thrown like refuse into the Lake of Fire that God calls the Second Death because they did not expose their sin to the blood of Jesus and receive His cleansing. There they will be tormented beyond even what the most lurid descriptions of hell describe. And there NEVER will be a reprieve.
What is the application for us today?
Those of us who are recipients of the Gospel and have been transformed by the blood of Jesus and the baptism in the Holy Spirit have been declared watchmen for God to warn sinners to repent. Jesus charged us just before He returned to heaven:
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20.
What an awesome, fearful responsibility that is! In these Last Days we have a message, the Truth, to declare to those around us who are the world within our sphere of influence. Regardless of how our message is received and what price we must pay to speak and live it, God has given us a job to do. Time is short and the darkness around us grows at an alarming rate. Judgment is coming when it will be too late. We must walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit now and open our mouths and our arms when He so directs us.
The most fearsome part of the word God gave Ezekiel to do is this judgment:
"When I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand." Ezekiel 3:18.
What does God mean when He says, "His blood I will require at your hand?" Does our silence at crucial times when we ought to be declaring God's way to sinners mean we have sinned by disobeying the Holy Spirit? What sort of judgment does that bring on us when we are fearful or too ashamed to declare our witness to His salvation? I do not have a certain answer. It is a ponderous question that demands serious consideration and deliberate obedience!
The sobering bottom line remains: