But if the watchman sees the sword coming and fails to blow the horn to warn the people, and the sword comes and takes away a life, then that one will be taken away in his iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.' Sermons
I. A HOSTILE INVASION SUPPOSED. In the earlier days of human history raids from neighboring tribes were frequent. International rights and usages were things unknown. Such an act as a public declaration of war was never considered a public duty. The more secretly and suddenly a hostile army could make its attack, the more to its credit. Hence a border population was kept in continual suspense. It had to bear the brunt of a thousand alarms and a thousand perils. Such invasions were often the act of God. Even idolatrous and wicked men are sometimes God's instruments, God's hand. As often as the invaders marched on territory to vindicate a right or to punish an offence, they marched at God's command. If the motive for war was mere desire for plunder, or greed of laud, or sheer military ambition, God was not in it. For God cannot sanction any form of iniquity, whether it be public or private. But war is often the scourge which God uses to vindicate his claims or to punish men; and though in outward appearance the invasion may seem only a piece of human real ice, it is, in truth, an act of God's retribution. As God has his methods for chastising individual men, so has he his methods for chastising nations. His forms of penalty are myriad fold. II. A SENTINEL APPOINTED. In such a time of peril as that of invasion the people knit themselves together for mutual defense. It was wise economy to choose one who should be drafted off from other occupation to fill the watchman's post. One was selected for the office specially suitable. All were not equally apt for this work. Such a man was chosen as had long resided on the border territory, one who knew the distant signs and prognostications of war, one who knew the contour of the country, and could occupy the best points of observation. An expert with eagle eye and cool nerve was selected. This was practical wisdom. By such a precaution war was sometimes averted. If the foe lost the advantage of secrecy, his plans were foiled. Or a resisting force could be gathered. Or possibly the removal of their cattle, or their own flight for a time, would avert the catastrophe. The season or other natural circumstance would come to their aid, and the deadly clash of arms be avoided. Immense gain might be attained by well posting a sentinel. III. IT WAS A POST INVOLVING TREMENDOUS RESPONSIBILITY, The interests and fortunes and lives of the entire nation were placed in the keeping of one man. He was responsible to ten thousand persons of every rank and station. The safety of the empire hung on him. It was a distinctive honor to be selected for the post, a proof that he possessed remarkable qualities of soul; and this responsible occupation did the man good - it tended to develop all that was gracious and excellent in him. Responsible service is an ennobling and a joyous thing. It nourishes large and generous sympathy. IV. FAITHFULNESS DEMANDED. The characteristic quality of a watchman is faithfulness. He might be deficient in many bodily and mental qualities, and yet be a good sentinel; but fidelity to duty - fidelity to the momentous trust - there must be, or he had better not be a watchman. Better, far better, appoint no watchman than have a man who is unfaithful. The blood of tea thousand innocent man justice might require at his unfaithful hands. Equally true is this of God's watchman, the prophet. The first and most central requisite is faithfulness. He may be deficient in bodily stature and strength, he may be deficient in learning and culture, he may be deficient in high birth and in social standing, but he must be gifted with trustworthiness. This is an essential. If he be unfaithful, he is of all men most unsuitable. If he accepts the office, and neglects its high duties, his guilt is immeasurable. Better for his own sake, better for others' sake, that he had never been God's messenger to men, than to lack fidelity in his tremendous trust. An unfaithful preacher must be held up to the world's execration. V. POSSIBLE FAILURE. Yet even faithfulness will not ensure success. The people may not credit his warnings. They may deride his anxieties. They may persuade themselves that the peril is not so near as he avers. It is a matter that can wait. They may put down to official propriety, or to sensitive regard for his own credit, what ought to have been put down to wise solicitude and to approaching disaster. In a thousand cases men persist in deceiving themselves as to the nearness of the peril. Tea thousand men have fallen over the precipice of ruin through self-infatuation, and ten thousand more will follow. They will not learn practical wisdom from the folly and the ruin of others. And it becomes every one of us to lay the lesson upon our own hearts: "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Oh for a prophet's vision to interpret the signs of the times! - D.
Whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet. Homilist. I. THE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE WATCHMAN ON THE WALLS OF ZION AND THE PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD.1. The qualifications needed in a watchman: vigour, courage, intelligence, loyalty, fidelity. 2. The duties: vigilance, to watch; obedience, to warn. 3. The responsibilities: account of the service must be rendered to those who appointed him; safety of the city depended largely upon the faithful discharge of the watchman's duties. II. THE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE SOUND OF THE WATCHMAN'S TRUMPET AND THE MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL PREACHER. Here we are reminded of the trumpet call of alarm on the approach of danger in time of peril. The call was to be definite, distinct, emphatic, rousing. "Warning every man." The Gospel trumpet is to arrest the attention of men, call them to repent, to surrender, lay down their weapons of rebellion; and then, armed with the whole armour of God, go forth manfully to fight His battles. The Gospel message is a trumpet call to advance, and "no surrender"; it is never the call to retreat, or the proclaimer of defeat. There must be "no uncertain sound," for all truth is dogmatic, and ought to be definitely proclaimed. III. THE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THOSE WHO HEARD THE WATCHMAN'S TRUMPET AND THOSE WHO HEAR THE SOUND OF THE GOSPEL. The watchman on the walls of Zion simply sounded the alarm; it was for the people to believe and obey. So the Gospel hearers of today are responsible for the effects produced upon their hearts and minds by the Gospel message. (Homilist.) He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. In all worldly things men are always enough awake to understand their own interests There is scarce a merchant who reads the paper who does not read it some way or other with a view to his own personal concerns. In politics, in everything, in fact, that concerns temporal affairs, personal interest usually leads the van. Men will always be looking out for themselves and personal home interests will generally engross the major part of their thoughts. But in religion it is otherwise. In religion men love far rather to believe abstract doctrines, and to talk of general truths, than the searching inquiries which examine their own personal interest in it.I. THE WARNING WAS ALL THAT COULD BE DESIRED. When in time of war an army is attacked in the night, and cut off and destroyed whilst asleep, if it were possible for them to be aware of the attack, and if they had used all diligence in placing their sentinels, but nevertheless the foe were so wary as to destroy them, we should weep; we should attach no blame to anyone, but should deeply regret, and should give to that host our fullest pity. But if, on the other hand, they had posted their sentinels, and the sentinels were wide awake, and gave to the sleepy soldiers every warning that could be desired, but nevertheless the army were cut off, although we might from common humanity regret the loss thereof, yet at the same time we should be obliged to say, if they were foolish enough to sleep when the sentinels had warned them; if they folded their arms in presumptuous sloth, after they had had sufficient and timely notice of the progress of their bloodthirsty enemy, then in their dying we cannot pity them: their blood must rest upon their own heads. So it is with you. 1. The warnings of the ministry have been to most of you warnings that have been heard — "He heard the sound of the trumpet." In far off lands the trumpet sound of warning is not heard. 2. The trumpet was not only heard, but more than that, its warning was understood. If ye be damned, I am innocent of your damnation; for I have told you plainly, that except ye repent ye must perish, and that except ye put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ there is for you no hope of salvation. 3. Again, this sound was startling. Then, sirs, if ye have heard the cry of fire, if ye are burned in your beds, your charred ashes shall not accuse me. 4. In many of your eases the warning has been very frequent. A hundred times every year you have gone up to the house of God, and far oftener than that, and you have just added a hundred billets to the eternal pile. 5. This warning that you have had so often has come to you in time. You are not warned on a sick bed at the eleventh hour, when there is but a bare possibility of salvation, but you are warned in time, you are warned today, you have been warned for these many years that are now past. II. MEN MAKE EXCUSES WHY THEY DO NOT ATTEND TO THE GOSPEL WARNING, BUT THESE EXCUSES ARE ALL FRIVOLOUS AND WICKED. 1. Some say, "Well, I did not attend to the warning, because I did not believe there was any necessity for it." There was enough in reason to have taught you that there was an hereafter; the Book of God's revelation was plain enough to have taught it to you, and if you have rejected God's Book, and rejected the voice of reason and of conscience, your blood is on your own head. 2. "But," cries another, "I did not like the trumpet. I did not like the Gospel that was preached." Well, but God made the trumpet, God made the Gospel; and inasmuch as ye did not like what God made, it is an idle excuse. What was that to you what the trumpet was, so long as it warned you? 3. But another says, "I did not like the man himself; I did not like the minister; I did not like the man that blew the trumpet; I could hear him preach very well, but I had a personal dislike to him, and so I did not take any notice of what the trumpet said." Verily, God will say to thee at last, "Thou fool, what hadst thou to do with that man? to his own master he stands or falls; thy business was with thyself." 4. There are many other people who say, "Ah, well, I did none of those things, but I had a notion that the trumpet sound ought to be blown to everybody else, but not to me." Ah! that is a very common notion. "All men think all men mortal but themselves," said a "good poet; and all men think all men need the Gospel, but not themselves. 5. Well, says another, "But I was so busy; I had so much to do that I could not possibly attend to my soul's concerns." What will you say of the man who had so much to do that he could not get out of the burning house, but was burnt to ashes. 6. "Well," says another, "but I thought I had time enough; you do not want me, sir, to be religious in my youth, do you? I am a lad; and may I not have a little frolic, and sow my wild oats as well as anybody else?" Well — yes, yes; but at the same time the best place for frolic that I know of is where a Christian lives; the finest happiness in all the world is the happiness of a child of God. III. Then the last thought is, "HIS BLOOD SHALL BE ON HIS OWN HEAD." Briefly thus — he shall perish; he shall perish certainly; he shall perish inexcusably. 1. He shall perish. And what does that mean? There is no human mind. however capacious, that can ever guess the thought of a soul eternally cast away from God. 2. But again, he that turneth not at the rebuke of the minister shall die, and he shall die certainly. This is not a matter of perhaps or chance. 3. Now, the last thing is, the sinner will perish — he will perish certainly, but last of all, he will perish without excuse, — his blood shall be on his own head. When a man is bankrupt, if he can say, "It is not through reckless trading — it has been entirely through the dishonesty of one I trusted that I am what I am;" he takes some consolation, and he says, "I cannot help it." But oh, if you make bankrupts of your own souls, after you have been warned, then your own eternal bankruptcy shall lie at your own door. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) People EzekielPlaces Edom, JerusalemTopics Accountable, Aren't, Blood, Blow, Blown, Danger, Doesn't, Hold, Horn, Iniquity, Note, Require, Responsible, Sees, Sin, Soul, Sword, Takes, Taketh, Trumpet, Warn, Warned, Watchman, Watchman'sOutline 1. According to the duty of a watchman in warning the people7. Ezekiel is admonished of his duty 10. God shows the justice of his ways toward the penitent and toward revolters 17. He maintains his justice 21. Upon the news of the taking of Jerusalem 25. he prophecies the desolation of the land 30. God's judgment upon the mockers of the prophets Dictionary of Bible Themes Ezekiel 33:65053 responsibility, for world Library The Warning NeglectedNow, this morning, by God's help, I shall labor to be personal, and whilst I pray for the rich assistance of the Divine Spirit, I will also ask one thing of each person here present--I would ask of every Christian that he would lift up a prayer to God, that the service may be blessed; and I ask of every other person that he will please to understand that I am preaching to him, and at him; and if there be anything that is personal and pertinent to his own case, I beseech him, as for life and death, … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858 Wesley Preaches in Newgate Gaol The Seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Religion Pleasant to the Religious. Second Great Group of Parables. Attributes of Love. Evidences of Regeneration. Of the Character of the Unregenerate. Preaching (iii. ). Thoughts Upon Worldly Riches. Sect. I. The Progress of the Gospel Reprobation. Thoughts Upon Striving to Enter at the Strait Gate. Being Made Archbishop of Armagh, He Suffers Many Troubles. Peace Being Made, from Being Archbishop of Armagh He Becomes Bishop of Down. According to which principle or hypothesis all the objections against the universality of Christ's death are easily solved Perseverance Proved. The Third Commandment Extent of Atonement. Free Grace Links Ezekiel 33:6 NIVEzekiel 33:6 NLT Ezekiel 33:6 ESV Ezekiel 33:6 NASB Ezekiel 33:6 KJV Ezekiel 33:6 Bible Apps Ezekiel 33:6 Parallel Ezekiel 33:6 Biblia Paralela Ezekiel 33:6 Chinese Bible Ezekiel 33:6 French Bible Ezekiel 33:6 German Bible Ezekiel 33:6 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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