The Watchman's Message

Good morning, everyone. A few weeks ago, I was in Cincinnati for some editorial meetings, our annual meetings for the managing editors and others involved in the editorial media areas of the church. And one of the discussions that we had dealt with the subject of the concept of the work of God being like the prophetic watchman of the book of Ezekiel. For those of us that have been around the church for a number of years, you are well familiar with the image from the book of Ezekiel chapter 3 and also Ezekiel chapter 33, where Ezekiel is set as a watchman over the house of Israel.

And God instructs Ezekiel to give a message of warning to the people, and if they repent, then the blood is not upon the head of the prophet. But if the prophet doesn't do his job and the sword and the famine come and take their lives, then the blood is on the watchman's head. It's a very interesting figure that is given to Ezekiel in his role.

We have used that ever since I can remember in the church. Mr. Armstrong felt that was his role within the church as a watchman. That was what we as a church were to do and did do and continue to do. We had a discussion about that, and out of that discussion, an idea propped in my mind. I said, what exactly does the Bible say about being a watchman? Sometimes that phrase gets thrown around, and especially in the last 20 years or so, a number of people tend to raise the flag of the watchman and say, they are the watchman, or they're doing the work of the Ezekiel watchman.

And the Ezekiel 33 worked and used that as kind of a banner and a rallying cry to legitimacy or the work of God. So I started going through the Scriptures, and I want to take you through as much as we can today to show you what the Bible tells us about this idea, this concept of a watchman from the Bible. And you'll find it to be, I think, enlightening. Because if we just stay in Ezekiel, we only get a part of the story.

Ezekiel is a very important part of the story, as we will show. We're not going to diminish any aspect of Ezekiel's commission given to him to be a watchman, but as we will see in the Scriptures, it is much broader than that. And there are many other dimensions to the idea of being a watchman. And I think you will find it informative, but also hopefully motivating as well. First of all, let me just mention that the idea of a watchman is someone who is to watch over the people of God or things.

You're watching for something. You're being vigilant. You're standing guard, if you will. And in the ancient world, this had a number of different applications. If you do just a very cursive study will show that even in the everyday affairs of life, a watchman was employed. They were used even prior to the time of harvest. Towers were built out in the fields, and a man would go out and live in the fields watching over the barley or the corn or whatever the grain might be as it was coming to the stage of ripening before it was time to be harvested.

But it was getting ready to mature, and it would be at a vulnerable point because wild animals could come through and take the crops, you know, ravage the crops. Or, thieves could come in and steal the crops. And so they would build towers, and they have found in various locations in the ancient Middle East large stone towers out in what were fields at one time where people would go. And for weeks at a time, a person would stay in the tower and just watch over the fields to make sure that they stayed there where they were supposed to be until the time of harvest.

And those people, they were watchtowers. You know, you've all heard the idea of a watchtower, and, you know, in one sense it was applied to just a plain harvesting situation to protect the crops of the field.

And so you see that applied there as well. A watchman is also, and we find mention of it in the Bible where a watchman would be up on the walls of the city watching for people coming and going and essentially watching the daily affairs of the city. There are references in the judges and in the book of Kings to watchmen going up to watch for armies coming or individuals coming and going. And you get the image there that a watchman was also someone that was placed over, in a sense, kind of a daily affairs on the walls of the city because in the ancient world they had these large walls. They were gated. They were the original gated communities. In the ancient world, you ever drive in these posh neighborhoods and you see a gated community and you say, boy, I wish I could live there. You wonder what kind of people live there, and really they're not that much different than you and I. They have the same problems and whatever, but you see these gated communities. In the ancient world, everybody lived in a gated community. The whole city had a wall around it and a gate was shut every day and opened every morning to protect the people. And they would have watchmen on the walls on a regular rotating basis watching the comings and goings of people within the city. And that was going on all the time. And so they would see the people and they would observe people, families and individuals, comings and goings within the city. We see the idea of a watchman applied to the prophets and not just the prophet Ezekiel. If you turn over to Hosea chapter 9, Hosea the ninth chapter, and verse 7. We will see here that in the case of another of the prophets, this is used. Hosea chapter 9 verse 7, it says, The days of punishment have come, and the days of recompense have come. Israel knows. The prophet is a fool. The spiritual man is insane because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity. The watchman of Ephraim is with my God. But the prophet is a fowler snare in all his ways, enmity in the house of his God. They are deeply corrupted, as in the days of Gibeah.

He will remember their iniquity. He will punish their sins. And so here again the prophet is is likened to the job and the role of a watchman. In Isaiah chapter 29, we find this applied to the in the case of the prophet Isaiah chapter 21.

Isaiah 21 and the thought begins in verse 1 of Isaiah 21.

The burden against the wilderness of the sea as whirlwinds in the south pass through, so it comes from the desert from a terrible land. Again, here is building here the idea of danger and the need for alarm. Verse 2, a distressing vision is declared to me. The treacherous dealer deals treacherously and the plunderer plunders. Verse 3, my loins are filled with pain. Pains have taken hold of me like the pains of a woman in labor, and I was distressed. My heart wavered. Verse 5, prepare the table, set a watchman in the tower, eat and drink, arise, you princes, anoint the shield. So again, here is the idea of again preparing for some troublesome times that are coming upon the people. In this case, it's actually even set against Babylon in this case. But it goes on for the watchman. Verse 6, for thus has the Lord said to me, go set a watchman, let him declare what he sees. And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, a chariot of donkeys and a chariot of camels. And he listened carefully. So he goes on to show what it was. And this is aimed toward Babylon at this point. But again, you see the idea of a watchman being set to declare what he sees, what he observes about the times, the people, the dangers to the people, and to give a warning. Now, let's go notice in Jeremiah chapter 6, because the prophet Jeremiah has this used as well. Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse 16.

Thus says the Lord, stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where the good way is, and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls, but they said we will not walk in it.

And so the prophet Jeremiah is told to stand in the roads, stand in the mall parking lot, if you will, the busy intersections on the interstates, go where the people are, and tell them that they need to return to the old paths. And it's used here to describe the truth, the law, the covenant that was originally made with their ancestors, where the good way is. Walk in that way, and there you'll find rest for your life. You'll find peace of mind. Your depression will lift. Your stress levels will not be as great. You'll find rest if you return to obeying God and keeping His law. That's the whole subtext of what is being said here. When sin brings stress, sin brings problems, compromise, and many other challenges in our life. And the message here was to walk in the old ways. Verse 17 says, I said, watchmen over you. So this is here is in the plural, saying, Listen to the sound of the trumpet, but they said we will not listen. Therefore, hear you nations, and know O congregation what is among them. So in a sense, Jeremiah's message goes to all of the nations, and it certainly does when you understand and read the whole book of Jeremiah. The message of Jeremiah goes to other nations beyond Judah, but they are to hear the sound of listen for the sound of a trumpet, which again is the sound of war and alarm, of danger approaching. And Jeremiah followed in that tradition as well. Now let's turn and read in Ezekiel chapter 3. This is a very direct reference in Ezekiel to what he was told to do as a prophet. Ezekiel chapter 3.

And let's go to verse 16, where it says Ezekiel is a watchman. He came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came to me saying, 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. And then he goes on to say, so I understand number one, the Ezekiel warning message, and that's one of these terms that we've kind of it's been coined over the years, the Ezekiel warning message. The Ezekiel warning message is really God's warning message. It's not Ezekiel's message, it's God's. Always understand that. The warning always comes from God through one of his prophets, whether it's Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hosea, whoever it may be, it's God's message. And so it should technically we should say it's God's warning message. So whenever you hear the phrase Ezekiel warning message, and that becomes kind of a brand for somebody to establish their legitimacy or who they are, it's really it's God's message. But here Ezekiel is made as a watchman and he says, it's my word from my mouth, you give it to them. When I say to the wicked, verse 18, 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.

And so the responsibility is on that of the watchman. Yet if you 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've delivered your soul. So here's the the again the idea that the watchman delivers the message and whether or not it's it's listened to by the individuals, that's their responsibility. The watchman, Ezekiel in this case, just has delivered the message. Now we've understood this in terms of how the church preaches a message of repentance and warning over through through the years in its message. And it's not our job to convert everyone. It's not our job for everyone to be called in this age. We understand that as as the plan of God and the purpose of God, he's not drawing everyone to Christ in this age. There's that age to come, or the great white throne judgment. But nonetheless, we've understood a prophetic role of the church to deliver a warning message to preach the gospel as a witness and as a warning. And what people do with it is up to them. So we have that's always been factored into how we measure our success. I mean, this is what I'm getting to. You know, on your jobs when you get evaluated, or you evaluate how you're doing in sales, you measure your outcomes.

Sales, you know, are they up this quarter or are they down this quarter? If they're down, what do you do to get them back up? You do more direct marketing, you do this, you do that, and you get on an ad campaign, you do all kinds of things. You measure your success. And the church, we measure our success in, you know, more than one way. We want to see people in the chairs in the church. We want to see people call. We do want to see numbers. Let's be blunt about it. We preach the gospel so that people will be called. But we also know that God's not calling everyone. And we also recognize, then, that our job to preach the gospel, if it's to publish 500,000 magazines or to blanket the country with a media effort, that in a sense that, too, is a measurement of our success. Because if we get the message out, then we have done the role of giving, like it was given to Ezekiel, to give it as a witness. What people do with it is up to them. And certainly what God does is He's working and calling people as well. So we've had those factors that, in a sense, measure the success and how we look at the success of our the church all these years. And we still look at it that way. That doesn't mean we don't do the work. We don't do a job.

We understand we've got to do that, or the blood is going to be the responsibility is going to be upon our head. And that's what He's telling Ezekiel here when you go through this. Certainly, if a righteous person or if someone heeds the message and they turn from it, then they have an opportunity for salvation, physically and ultimately even spiritually. We recognize that as well. We're not going all the way down that road to explain all the details of that. But Ezekiel 33 essentially says the same thing as Ezekiel 3. I'm not going to turn there. But as we have looked as you and I look at these verses, and especially what we have here in Ezekiel, you see that the prophet is one who had a vision of some gathering storm clouds. It's like he was up on the city walls and he saw the dust clouds of the armies approaching on the horizon. And he would turn and he would shout to the people in the streets, there's danger coming. Close the doors. Prepare for battle. Sound the alarm. Prepare. Bring in the water supplies. Make sure we've got the food stored up. And he would shout that. But if nobody listened to it, if nobody heard, and everybody just kept going about their business, oh, we've got a Super Bowl to watch. I've got tickets for this play. You know, I've got this to do. I've got that to do. Then they were going to be caught unawares, and they would suffer the consequences of it. But if they heeded the report of the person that had been said as a watchman, then they had a pretty good chance of dealing with the problem that was coming. So a watchman saw the gathering clouds, and that was not always good. That was not good news. That was bad news. And coupled with it in the prophetic vein was a message, change your life. The prophet Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, they were individuals and in a sense were figuratively lifted above their society. And as God gave them that inspiration, they saw that Babylon or Assyria was going to be coming from a distant land. And though life looked good right now, there were problems down the road. But it was because of sin. So really the problem was coming. It was Babylon. It was Assyria. But what was the real source of the punishment?

If you were analyzing the message, and you heard Ezekiel's message here, what was the real source of the punishment and the danger?

It was God. God was the source.

The Lord said, God would use Babylon, He used Assyria, He used a gentile nation to punish His own people Israel, but it was because of their sins. And the prophet's message also included a call to repentance, to change your life. As we read back in Jeremiah, He was told to stand in the ways and tell people to get back to the old paths. And there they would find rest for their life. They would find peace of mind. But the message was coming from God, and the danger was really coming from God, because the destruction and the punishment was going to come from God. So all of this is part of what is a very strong message. But you know, when you look at this, and as we've understood it, as we've applied it, we've applied it to preach a warning message. But that's only part of the message.

When you look at other scriptures, there's another dimension to this message that is part of the announcement as well. And let's look in Isaiah chapter 52 on this, Isaiah 52. And let's look at verse 7. Isaiah 52 and verse 7 says, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaim salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns. Your watchmen, verse 8, shall lift up their voices with their voices. They shall sing together, for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord brings back Zion. These two verses alone are good news. Verse 7 actually uses that term. It says, How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. That's the gospel, the gospel of the kingdom of God. And that's good news. Those who carry that message of the coming kingdom of God, of also a message of repentance and how to live by the teachings and the laws of that kingdom today are in the same vein as the watchmen. If you want to look at it this way, the role of a watchman is to also preach the good news of the way to salvation.

Not just the bad news of repentance and wake up and smell the coffee and repent. That's part of it, too. But there's also the message of good news and how to live a righteous life today and how to experience a better life, the rest for your souls, as we read in Jeremiah. And that's part of the watchman's message as well. You see that very clearly here in Isaiah. And it goes on down to verse 10, The Lord has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

So it's not just for Israel and the tribes of Israel or even the modern nations of Israel. It's for the whole world. It's for all nations. The message of salvation and the good news is for all the ends of the earth to see ultimately the salvation of our God. These are verses that encompass the whole plan of God, but that is what the watchman is to do. So whoever picks up the mantle of the watchman and feels called by God to preach this message has got to preach the whole message. Not just a, if you will, a bad news message, but also the good news. They've got to both go together. Who wants to hear just bad news? And this is a dilemma we struggle with. We have the Good News magazine. I don't have a copy of it, but you know the magazine. And we were able in the beginning of United to get that name. It's kind of in the public domain so nobody can really trademark it. And we applied it to our flagship publication, but not every article and every issue deals with Good News. You thumb through it and there's some bad news in there. We talk about societal trends and problems. And so we struggle with that sometimes because when we evaluate our product because we want to be sure that we are giving out what the magazine says it is. Good news. Sometimes the critics will say, boy, you're just full of bad news. And I understand that. I do the bad news publication, World News and Prophecy. But even in that we try to balance that out in the approach that we take. But it's a challenge and you have to be very, very careful about it. But Isaiah 62 is another scripture here that we should note. Isaiah 62, beginning in verse 6, it says, I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace, day nor night. You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent and give him no rest till he establishes and till he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

So here's another Good News verse, if you will. And it's really in the context of the prophet praying and looking for Zion's peace. Verse 1, for Zion's sake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns. This really, the first five verses, is a type of a prayer. The commentators realize that a prayer of the watchmen, his prayer for the people, his prayer for the nation, his prayer for the church, for those who, for Jerusalem. And it is a prayer really of an intercessory prayer. And verse 6 nails that when it says, I've set watchmen on your walls that will never hold their peace, day nor night. They will make mention of the Lord.

This is a prayerful section of the prophecy here that not only applies, if you will, to one person, a prophet, or a watchman, but really, and one of the commentators brings out an interesting aspect of this, that the watchman of verse 6 may be the entire group of people, the entire congregation or the city, as it would have been then, but a plurality of people who are charged with this responsibility of praying and being a part of the watchman work.

It's talking about godly people who are, through their prayers, are protecting the city or the people from the ravaging forces of evil that are there. It's a prayer vigil. Really is what these first few verses of Isaiah 62 are talking about. A group of godly people that are praying for their people, who see their sins, who see the problems, who know the answers because they've been blessed by the grace of God and understand the salvation of the gospel and the good news, and want to see people's lives impacted in a positive way by it. They want to see people change. And in short, they are the co-workers, the donors, the members of the work doing the work of the watchman. But beyond the, let's say, the monetary aspect of the support, what's really being hit here is the prayer. They are praying for the watch, for the people. Really, it becomes, it points to a way of life, of people who are crying out continually to God, who feel patriotic in a much higher, deeper dimension than patriotism runs within any nation today. When we think of patriotism, we think of waving the flag, we think of marching off, we think of the 4th of July in our own country, and national pride and all. But patriotism from the prophet's point of view is to the kingdom of God. As well as to, Jeremiah was probably the greatest example of a patriot in the scriptures or among the prophets. He loved his people, he loved the nation of Judah, but he loved God's kingdom even more. And he loved God's kingdom more, he was able to say to the people, repent and change your ways. We once were a great people, we can be once again. But we've got to, the path to that is not through war, the path through that is not through homeland security, the path to that is through repentance. And that's the highest point of patriotism. And Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and hopefully you and I, brethren, pray for God's protection, pray for God's guidance, pray for the people that we live with, pray for our nation and our country.

In Ezekiel 9, just look back at Ezekiel 9. Let's go back there. This is brought out here in another example as God prepared Ezekiel, worked with him. Ezekiel 9 and verse 3. This was in the vision where Ezekiel was taken by vision back to Jerusalem. Ezekiel is a fascinating book to really put it all together. You know, it says in the first part of Ezekiel that he was by the river Kebar. You might think Anbar. Anbar Province. You ever hear that on the television these days?

One of those places where all the bad guys are blowing up things in Iraq. It may be in about that general area because Ezekiel was taken to Babylon at the same time Daniel was taken. He was in that first wave of deportees who were taken to Babylon. And Ezekiel was probably the same class of people like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But Ezekiel kind of got spun out into a role of a prophet and he had actually gone out from Babylon. It says in the first chapter, he's by the river of Kebar when he got the vision. And that was, you know, some miles away from Babylon and could have been a direction of where what today is called Anbar Province. But the same area of Iraq is where he was, what is now Iraq. But he went back in vision to Jerusalem. And in Ezekiel chapter 9 verse 3, Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the carob where it had been on the threshold of the temple. And he called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writers in corn at his side. And the Lord said to that man, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over the abominations that are done within it. So a mark was to be placed and those people were designated who were, who understood the problems of Jerusalem and were torn up over it, who were emotionally upset over it, over it, over the abominations of the city.

And they had a mark put upon them. And you can expect that these people with the mark were relatively few. The rest of the people were caught up in their own lives and the idolatry and were part of the reason for the destruction that was going to ultimately come upon the city.

But those who sigh and cry have a special place in God's heart and mind. In Amos chapter 6, Amos chapter 6 and verse 1, beginning in verse 1, it says, Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, Amos 6 verse 1, who trust in Mount Samaria, notable persons in the chief nation to whom the house of Israel comes.

Woe to those who are at ease in Zion. And then down in verse 3, it says, Woe to those who put off far the day of doom, who caused the seat of violence to come near, who lie on beds of ivory and stretch out on their couches and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments and invent for themselves musical instruments like David, who drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the best ointments, but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Here is a description of those who are in Zion and in Israel within the nation who were rich. They had beds of ivory. If you had a bed of ivory in this time, you had an expensive bed. Let's just put it that way.

You had it in that bed. That expensive bed was no doubt in an expensive house in a gated community with a swimming pool and everything else, all the other accoutrements. It's those who had the, shall I say it, big screen televisions. Not that there's anything wrong with big screen televisions in and of themselves. But what you have described here are people who are very affluent. Amos was, his message was talking to a group of people like that.

Notice, they sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments. There's no purpose to it. It's not that stringed instruments are the sin. There's an idleness. There's an emptiness to it.

They invent musical instruments like David. They drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the best ointments, but they're not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore, they shall now captive as the first of the captives, and those who recline at banquets shall be removed.

Amos here is describing a lifestyle, a very affluent lifestyle, where people are more caught up in materialism than they are spiritual values. And they don't, they're not grieved for the affliction, the moral problems of their time. Brethren, we just had a week that, to me, epitomizes what Amos is talking about. If you really look at the news items this week—you know, I'm watching the news every day, and many of you are as well—we've had what I could call an out-of-control week, if you look at it. You know, the poor astronaut lady who drives 900 miles wearing a diaper to confront another woman in a love triangle—you know, anybody could do that, and it's more poignant because here's an astronaut, here's the cream of the military elite, a woman that has gone through psychological batteries and testing over the years, qualified for astronaut status. You don't get to that level unless you have been checked out in every aspect of your noggin. That's the best you possibly can, but it just shows anybody can change. So, you know, it can happen to any of us. But the poor lady cracks and has her face plastered all over the news, and for, what, 24, 48 hours? That's all you see. I'm sitting there eating breakfast, turn on Fox News, and that's all they're talking about. And what knocks it off from the number one spot of the headlines? Another poor tragedy of a woman who who who who who who who who had lived an out-of-control life, caught up in nothing but stardom, who was famous only for being famous, and who did nothing. But a sad life and a personal tragedy.

And then the lady, Ann and Nicole Smith, which wasn't her original name, and she dies for whatever reason, but she had an out-of-control life. It's a tragedy for her, what, three or four-month-old daughter and other surviving family. But it's an example of our age and of our entertainment, media-driven, celebrity-driven world where people can be famous for being famous. And that's all, for no no real solid contribution to society or the betterment of mankind, but just for being a celebrity. And but beyond that, it's the hours and hours of television and coverage that are devoted to it in the name of news. It's not news. It isn't news.

Three or four soldiers, American soldiers, died in Iraq during that same period that news people were fixated on those two tragedies, personal tragedies. Hundreds of Iraqis died, but American soldiers died. And who knows what else happened in terms of other major events? Iran inched closer this week to having a nuclear weapon, no doubt. And yet our news outlets were fixated on something like that.

And when I see a week like that, I thought about this section of Amos. And I thought about the fact that no one is really grieved for the affliction of our people, caught up in such a celebrity craze like that in an empty vapid style of life. And so when you come back to this, we started out by looking at the fact that it is the watchman and the role of a watchman, in a sense, translated to the collective group of people, those who sigh and cry, those who are grieved for the affliction of Joseph. And it's through their prayers that we gather out of Isaiah chapter 62 that they are calling out to God and asking for God's intervention and praying for people. What we're coming down to and showing is that the role of a watchman is joined to prayer, and it's in a collective sense. The godly watchmen will be fervent in prayer. You know, over in Luke 18, perhaps this what we've read here in Isaiah 62 is the foundation for what Christ said in Luke chapter 18 in this parable dealing with prayer, the persistent widow in Luke 18 in verse 1, where he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Maybe we can add a dimension to this particular parable by what we've just read. He said, there was a certain city and a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now, there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And so he relents. So, at one level, it's a story about a widow and a judge, a cold-hearted judge who finally relents and says, I will provide justice for her, you know, just because she continually comes to me, and I'm tired of listening to her. But go on to verse 6. The Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said. So he's pointing us, go back and dig a little deeper into what this judge said, because there's a deeper meaning. The Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, verse 7, and shall God not avenge His own elect, who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them. Who are the elect? They are the called, chosen, and faithful. They are the ones called of God. Remember what Christ said, but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened? The elect refer to Israel or to the spiritual Israel, the church. For shall God not avenge His own elect, who cry out, sighing and crying to the afflictions of Joseph, grieved over the afflictions of Joseph, and for the abominations within Israel?

God will avenge. I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?

Reading this parable in the context of the the the watchman story of Isaiah 62, I think, adds another dimension. This is not just about a widow seeking justice from a judge through wearisome coming and going out of his courtroom every day, but Christ points to another dimension of this meaning here that the people of God, the elect, are going to be, will be avenged, but their prayers will be heard. But He raises the question, when the Son of Man comes, will there be faith? Perilous times. Watching. It's a fascinating thing to consider.

Prayer, vigilant prayer, is part of the vigil of the watchman. And so when you put it all together, brethren, the concept of a watchman and the watchman's role is far more than just a warning and witnessing message. It's bad news, yes, but it always has to be married with the good news of the way to salvation and the good news of the kingdom of God. And there's another dimension to that those who are part of the work of the watchman are going to be those that are vigilant in prayer for God's kingdom. Pray Thy kingdom come and praying for the nation, praying for the people.

There's a far greater responsibility upon us as a people who understand what these verses are talking about. We have a collective duty and a collective calling. It hasn't diminished. It hasn't gone away because one man dies, because events turn a church upside down and cause so many to apostasize or to lose the vision of who we are as a people, who we are as a church, the role of the church. The message is still there. God still says to those who will pick that up, you are to give this message for me and to warn them for me. And when we read those scriptures, they should strike our hearts as a responsibility and as a very stark warning as to what we have in our hands through the church and what has been given to us in our day and in our time.

Where we will go with that, brethren, we will only God knows. But I see these scriptures as telling us something that is very, very important. Now, you know, the role of the idea of a watchman doesn't end here in the Old Testament. It's carried over into the New Testament.

And it's not so much that of a watchman as it is the idea of watching. I think we're familiar with a number of scriptures that speak to that. I'm just going to turn to one in Mark 13.

You might just jot down Matthew 24, 42, and Matthew 25, 13. But let's just look at Mark 13. We'll read that one. Christ used the concept of watching, and it's the same word which means to keep awake, to take heed, to watch. Then we read here Mark 13 and verse 32. It says, Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.

Take heed, watch. And that word watch is a Greek word, Gregorio. Think Greg, like the name Greg in Oreo, the cookie. Gregorio, translated watch here in the New Testament, and it means to be vigilant.

Take heed, watch, and pray. Always coupled with prayer. For you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to each his work and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore for you do not know when the master of the house is coming in the evening, at midnight, or the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say to you I say to all, watch. And so a very direct pointed warning here that sums up the other two verses that I referred to from Christ to watch. And this is not just watching Fox News. This is far more than that. This is praying, understanding our times and our society. It's watching our own lives, watching over what we've been given stewardship over because it says the master of the house is coming. And watch suddenly lest you are found sleeping as you've been given charge over something and you don't want to be found sleeping at your post. You know, I suppose it's still this way in the military. If a guard is set watch, at least in the old times, if the guard was certainly in time of war, if he fell asleep and was found asleep, the punishment was death.

Punishment was death for a watch, a guard to be found asleep at the post. And so that flows in through here because the very strong admonition to be alert and to be aware. And this is what one is told. It's interesting if you look over in Matthew 26 while we're here in the Gospels, let's just go back to Matthew 26. As Christ was being arrested on the night before he died, he found them asleep in Matthew 26 and verse 40.

This is where he had gone off to pray in the garden and he came back and, verse 40, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, What? Could you not watch with me one hour? A short time. Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit, indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak. So Jesus uses it here directly to his disciples and says, Look, you could even stay awake with me for an hour for a short time. Watch and pray. And in this, the meaning for us is that we have to be very vigilant that we don't fall away from Jesus, that we don't fall away from our personal walk and relationship with Christ.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. It's a warning unless we fall into sin. And it comes down to the personal level here. We have to be very, very vigilant regarding that. There are numerous other admonitions in the Scriptures in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 6. I will turn there.

In 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13, we're told to watch and stand fast into faith and to be strong.

Let all that you do be done with love, but to watch and to stand fast. There's a fascinating description back in Revelation chapter 16. I'll take you back there. Revelation chapter 16.

This is right in the midst of the seals and the bowls, the last plagues being poured out on the earth just as the very short period before Christ's return, his appearance. And in verse 12, the sixth bowl is poured out. On the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And John writes here, he said, I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. And so a picture here of demonic influence coming out of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet, and looking like frogs, pretty gruesome, pretty obscure. And he defines them in verse 14. He says, they are spirits of demons, performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. And this is the prelude to the battle of the place, the gathering of the place called Armageddon. But notice verse 15, which in my Bible is in red lettering, and if it's in red lettering, what does that mean? It means it's Christ's own words. So here we have a statement that's interjected directly by Christ, and it says, Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who falls asleep. No, it says, Blessed is he who watches. Blessed is he who keeps vigilant, who watches and keeps his garments, and that's referring to our righteousness and our walk in our life, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And then it says, they gathered them, these kings of the earth, together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon. What's interesting, right here in the middle of all of these end-time earth-shaking events and the drawing together of forces into the Middle East to the place of Megiddo, for this great final battle of God Almighty, we have an interjection of a statement from Christ, which is actually a blessing.

Remember, a couple of years ago, I gave a sermon on the seven blessings of revelation. This is one of those seven blessings that were, they are mentioned directly from Christ.

And he says, blessed is he who watches. There is a blessing. There is a good thing to watching, to being vigilant. And in the context of this, I take this brethren to say, you understand who the beast is and who the false prophet is. That's the context, because there's deception coming out of the dragon and out of the beast of the false prophet, these two human beings that Revelation 13 talk about, that are these powerful forces that come together and appear in this final period who deceive the earth. And with the help of Satan, they actually deceive the kings of the earth, and they draw them from the region of the east beyond the Euphrates. So you're looking at, you know, you look beyond the Euphrates, where do you, what's the prime target for this?

India, China, powerful nations that will have the armies to fill the quota for what is described in these verses in this time, which to me again comes down to our world today and where we live and understanding the times we live in. And yes, watching world news, watching the events and understanding the events that are shaping our current world, not with a blind, unbalanced obsession to where that's all you do, but watching so that we understand them from a biblical prophetic point of view, so that we don't get caught up in deception, so that we don't misunderstand because Christ says, blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments. So a righteous life and obedience to God is going to be part of the path that keeps us centered and focused so that we can understand these events and understand them as they unfold wherever we may find ourselves at the time. But it tells me that those are things that we need to understand. So I don't have any apologies for having an interest and a role and having the opportunity to edit a publication dealing with prophecy that we understand today's world news in the light of Bible prophecy. I think we should do that. And I think we should do it because I read Revelation here and I read what Jesus says and he says, you better be watching so that you don't get caught up by in a time of spiritual deception that's going to deceive the whole world in one final deception greater than anything we've ever seen. That's why it's important that we understand the power of Satan to deceive in all the various ways that he does. We've lived through a period of deception where so many in the church were blinded by deception and got caught up in an apostasy and a heresy that swept through the church. To the word, they don't even know who they are and what they believe in some cases or have accepted false teachings and doctrines that are whose God, you know, the father of those deceptions or these individuals or Satan himself mentioned in verse 13. And this is a greater period of time ahead. So it's important to watch. It's important that we understand. But ultimately, so that we are able to stand before God and not be naked and shamed because we don't have on the right clothing. And that is an allusion to another event called the marriage supper. That we want to make sure we have on the right clothing when we are there. So it's all part of that. The idea and the concept of a watchman went to Ezekiel. It was involved in Jeremiah's ministry. It was a part of the life of that time people understood the connection and the picture of a watchman. Christ tells us to watch today that we understand our times. We don't fall into sin. We don't fall away from our relationship with Him. In Colossians chapter 4, Colossians the fourth chapter, verse 2, Paul writes, "...continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving." That word, vigilant, is the same word translated, watch, in other locations. Same meaning.

Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in chains. And so we're told to be vigilant, to be watchful in prayer, so that we understand our times, the work that we are to do, and we say close to God.

We are not caught short spiritually in any time or in any aspect of our life. It's a multidimensional subject. This brief overview of it should help us, I think, balance out prophecy and the idea of a watchman and understand that it's more than just one person, that it even applies to the collective godly who are to be vigilant in prayer, sighing and crying for the afflictions of their own people. And watching, we stay vigilant in prayer so that our relationship with God is intact and we are never ever caught in deception. The role of a watchman has played a very important role in the work of God throughout the scriptures. And in our own time, as we have applied it and understood it, it has its role to play, and it has a tremendous amount of teaching yet for us and application as we continue on in the work of God.