Fair Warning
God disciplines those he loves. The Word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Correction is to restore to an upright position. God makes a way where there is no way. In Ezekiel 33, the nation of Israel had turned its back on God. God is faithful to warn his people to repent, to turn from their wicked ways and to return to the Lord to walk in the path of righteousness.
According to Ezekiel 33:1-6 “AGAIN the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2. Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: 3. If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; 4. Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Ezekiel told the people to appoint watchmen to warn the people of the enemy’s approach. Israel understood what it meant to live in a walled city. The watchman’s call was to sound the alarm. In years gone by, many American preachers encouraged their congregations to keep a record of everyone with whom they shared the gospel of salvation. What is the application in today’s church? Bill Graham had said, “If God doesn’t judge the United States, then he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” God’s warning is to restore America to an upright position as one nation under God. Whom the lord loves he chastises.
In a culture that honors God, the land will prosper. There was an American counter-cultural revolution against godly traditional values in the 60’s. The culture began to emphasize the “rights of the individual” and self actualization with the emphasis on self. As a result families, communities, and churches began to atomize and fly apart. “Human Rights” are often “godly wrongs” according to the standard of the Word of God. The world teaches that good is evil and evil is good. Godly Men who used to be honored as heads of their families and pillars of their communities were instead marginalized and labeled as “male chauvinists.” They were admonished to subjugate themselves to women in general and their wives in particular. Men were relegated to a place of dishonor and irreverence in the culture.
God said to Ezekiel, When I bring a sword upon the land, if the people set a man upon the wall to sound the alarm, when he blows the horn, if the people don’t heed the warning, then their blood will be upon their own heads.
Some say that a culture has never survived “multiculturalism.” Factions, strife, contentions and insurrection are characteristics of the wisdom of this world. This type of wisdom is earthly, sensual, and devilish. According to James 3:16, Where there is envying, strife, and division, there is confusion and every evil work. Factions and divisions are contrary to the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The good news of the gospel of salvation is the solution to the problem of division. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Peace is only available through the Prince of peace. Peace is the result of reconciliation. To reconcile means to unify…to bring together that which has been separated. According to Ephesians 2:14-16, “For he (Jesus Christ) is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of (Old Testament) commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16. And that he might reconcile both (Jew and Gentile) unto God in one body by the cross”…
Ezekiel’s admonition to Israel continues in verses 6-7: But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.”
“So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
God always gives fair warning and a way of salvation. The context of John 3:16 says that Jesus Christ came not into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.
God has called his people to sound the warning and to spread the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, the works that I do shall they do and greater works shall they do because I go unto my father. The greater works is salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. For we preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ and him crucified. To those who receive the message of the cross of Christ we preach the resurrection and the righteousness of God through the atoning sacrifice of his son our Lord Jesus Christ.
God calls nations and individuals to repent. There’s a difference between regret, remorse, and true repentance. Repentance means to change direction. It is the inflection point where we turn from ourselves and unto the Lord Jesus Christ. A broken and a contrite heart God will not forsake. It’s not turning from sin that saves a man but rather turning to the Saviour from sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. The message of salvation is to heed the watchman’s warning.
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection…for I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live I live by faith in the one who loved me and gave himself for me. This is the testimony of Christ in us the hope of glory. We have been called as watchmen on the wall to share the gospel of the good news of God’s salvation. Therefore sanctify the lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asks you a reason for the hope (of Christ’s return) that is in you with meekness and reverence and respect for God.
May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael