Week 45: November 3 -
November 9, 2003
OUR RESPONSIBILITY
AS WATCHMEN Part
1
Key Passage: Ezekiel
3: 17-19
"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: 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.”
God spoke to Prophet Ezekiel as he sat stunned
and confused among the people of Israel who were taken away captive
in Babylon. He revealed to him his responsibility as a prophet and
a spiritual leader over the people to watch over their spiritual
life and warn them of the grave consequences of sin.
That same word is coming to us as those called and
commissioned to preach and teach the word of God under the New Testament
(Jn 15:16; Matt 28:19-20) to be diligent in watching over the spiritual
lives of those around us and be firm in speaking the undiluted word
of God to call back the sinful and the unconverted to God.
In our world today, filled with evil and wickedness,
where men and women mortgage themselves to Satanism, witchcraft,
occultism, idolatry, new age and other forms of evil practices; where
many fall prey to the spirit of false liberty and succumbed to the
lowest grade of human degradation, men defiling themselves with men
and women with women, heading blindly to the doom of Sodom. And where
these evils have begun to manifest in high quarters among the people
of God. Our responsibility before God, like that of a watchman on
the city tower, is three-fold: look out for approaching danger, sound
the alarm, and warn the people. We must preach the truth of God’s
word and declare to the sinner the true consequences of his sins
without fear. There is a certain fruit of sin and unrighteousness,
and that is death, which is everlasting damnation in hell. God’s
word to the sinner is to repent and turn from his evil ways, or he
will be damned. If he listens to our warning and repents, he shall
be saved and all the sins he committed shall be forgiven. However,
where we do not warn him and he dies in his sins, he will perish,
and we will face God’s punishment for failing in our duty to
warn him.
Determine today to step out of your comfort zone
and take God’s word to the sinner and the unconverted to turn
them to God’s righteousness. In so doing you will deliver souls
from everlasting damnation (Jam 5:20) and also wash your hands clean
from God’s judgment.
Written
by – Evangelist Oguazi Onyemobi