EP. 022 A Watchman Named “You”

Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located in

beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship Ministries

with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism, discipleship

and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church and other sermons

from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be your host for this

podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing to you and

bring you closer to God. Welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast. Today the

message I have put together is, A Watchman Named You and Will You Sound the Alarm? If you are going

to follow along in your Bible this morning, the scripture that I am going to use as a jumping off

point is Ezekiel 33, 1-8. You can go ahead and turn there if you are going to. As we jump in,

I just want to thank those that listen to the podcast and I hope that as we grow over time,

we bring more people in. If I can ask a favor that if you are listening, if you do regularly

download the podcast or listen to it, if you could share it, just so that we can get the gospel out

there as far and wide as possible. Thank you for that. An illustration I put together is I have a

story of a vigilant light keeper. This occurred in Cape de Rosaires, which is literally Rosebush

Cape. It is the easternmost tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, which was named after the abundance

of wild roses that were spotted there by Samuel de Champlain during his visit in 1632. This lighthouse

was built between 1853 and 1858 and after several major shipwrecks happened in this area. No expense

was spared building the lighthouse. It cost $115,000 and its lights could be seen up to 26 km away or

16 miles today at sea. Today, it is the only imperial tower-style lighthouse still standing

in the province of Quebec up here in Canada. Life at the lighthouse was pleasant because of its

location in the village. Unlike many others that were isolated or on islands or on points,

the proximity enabled the light keeper and his family to have a social life and attend school

and church and belong to the community. During the Second World War, Joseph Ferguson was the

light keeper at Cape de Rosaires and on September 15, 1942, while scanning the waters, he spotted

a German U-boat and the submarines that had been lurking in the estuaries for a few months. The

light keeper knew that they had sunk several ships. He sounded the alarm to the civil defense,

but was seemingly not taken seriously. Two ships were sunk that day, the SS Saturnus from Netherlands

and the SS Ingur Elizabeth from Norway. Let's jump into our text in Ezekiel 33, 1-8.

The subheading for this portion of scripture is Ezekiel is Israel's watchman. In verse 1, it says,

The word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, speak to your people and say to them,

If I bring the sword upon the land and the people of the land take a man from among them

and make him their watchman, and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet

and warns the people, then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning

and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of

the trumpet and did not take warning, his blood shall be upon himself, but if he had taken warning,

he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the

trumpet so that the people are not warned and the sword comes and takes any one of them,

that person is taking away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.

So you, Son of man, I am made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my

mouth, you shall give them warning from me. And if I say to the wicked, O wicked, you shall surely die.

You do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that the wicked person shall die in his

iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn away from

his way, and he does not turn away from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity,

but you will have delivered your soul. So what is a watchman? In our society today,

we are told by the world that it is wrong to judge. We're constantly being told how wrong

our beliefs are and how wrong our faith is as Christians. While we're being scolded for

upholding the word of God, they, the world, is also telling others to be on the watch for the dangers

of conservatism or religiosity or whatever kind of phobic idea that is in vogue at the moment.

They want to silence all dissent to the world's secular humanistic faith, and they place watchmen

in the media, in the government, and in our schools. This reality alone should prove the need to hold

the line to biblical truth, but unfortunately for many, it doesn't sound any alarm bells.

No warning goes off in the hearts, minds, or souls of many who call upon the name of the Lord.

Many of these people will be, you know, gladly or solemnly go along with the currents of the world,

and this is a sad situation because in Christ we are called to be bold and even at times defiant

to the ungodliness that we see in our time. This does not mean we are to take up arms against our

fellow man, not at all. It means that we are to preach the gospel with power, authority, zeal.

We are called to be watchmen, the sentries, the heralds for the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Now I put in there on purpose the fact that, you know, taking up arms because oftentimes today

what we see is some people saying it's time to rebel, it's time to take up arms, but the reality

is is that we are heralds of the kingdom of heaven, and what we should do first before anything were

to come to that level is we should be speaking the words of God. We should be standing firm with the

words of Christ. Just like Paul went before, you know, the kings and the and Caesar with the gospel

of Jesus Christ, he went all the way to Rome with the gospel of Jesus Christ in chains. We have to

be willing to stand up for the purpose of the gospel as watchmen's for the kingdom of heaven.

That is our duty, and that is what we should be looking to do as Christians today. So what are the

duties of a watchman? If you define a watchman, it's a person who keeps guard over a building at night

to protect it from fire vandals or thieves, or a person who guards or patrols the streets at night.

It could be, you know, you could use the term caretaker, custodian, patrolman, policeman, or warden.

A watchman has come to mean many things to us today, but I was able to find this job description

from a watchman position in New York. Now bear with me, it's a little lengthy, but I think it's

important for us to highlight the critical role that a watchman plays in our society today and why

it is so important for us to take this mantle onto ourselves because we deal with even higher

responsibility to Jesus Christ. So a watchman, this is the from from the job posting.

Watchman distinguishing features of the class. This position involves responsibility for

safeguarding personnel buildings, properties, supplies. Work is performed 24 hours per day,

does related work as required. Examples of work, illustration use only, check windows, doors,

entrances to the building, make certain they're secure, detour admittance of unauthorized persons

on premises, investigate unusual conditions or disturbances, prevent damage to the building,

check the conditions of fire hazards, punches watchman's time clock at regular intervals,

check elevator lights, operate elevators when required, give directions to public,

contact fire, ambulance, maintenance personnel and warranted, silence alarms when given written

instruction, identify hazards such as tripping, slipping, take corrective actions, so fix it,

check disturbances, check lobbies, building entrances, hallways for debris, required knowledge,

skills and abilities for the role, general knowledge of duties and responsibilities of a watchman,

ability to think and act quickly in emergencies, ability to write accurate reports of an incident,

willingness to work nights or on unusual shifts, integrity, reliability, courage, sobriety,

good vision and hearing, good physical condition, minimum safety,

physical condition, minimal acceptable experience and training, three months of satisfactory

experiences of watchman or labor, satisfactory completion of background check will be required

during the probationary appointment. This comes from chapter 336 of the New York state laws of

1992, requires that individuals who perform security guard duties must complete a pre-assignment

training program and must be registered with New York State Department of State. Training and

registration are required prior to the employment and employees must maintain their registered

status during the entire time of employment. So this is obviously an earthly view of the importance

of a watchman and it's kind of a funny thing for me to like read here but the reality is is when

you think about this, when you think about all those details, all those things that I just spoke

about, all the stuff that I kind of emphasize, you get the picture that as a watchman you're being

held to a higher standard and the watchman of the Lord, there's an expectation for those of us to

also know the the truth of Jesus Christ and use that in our duties day to day. So even though as

we're going around and working our jobs, we're raising families, we're going to school,

we're supposed to be watchmen for the kingdom of God. We're supposed to be doing this 24 hours a

day. Now this isn't something that you know we're saved by grace, it is not by works, but we also

understand that in salvation you have a changed heart and you desire to serve the Lord. So that's

what this purpose is all about. In service of the Lord we're going to want to you know prevent damage

to others. We're going to want to you know give people direction on how they can be saved. We're

going to want to identify hazards that are around us that might lead others astray. These are all

things that we should want to be doing as new creations in Jesus Christ because if you truly

been saved and set free and you've had that personal you know experience where where you've

come face to face with Jesus Christ in your own life and he saved you and set you free from the

bondage of your sin, why wouldn't we want to be looking for opportunities to warn others

so that they can too be saved or that we can warn them so that they won't fall into

the temptation that comes from Satan. These are all things we should want to do. So it brings me to

my next point which is God's watchman and we continue on in Ezekiel with chapter 3 verses 16

through 21 and it says at the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me, son of man I have

made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth you hear

from my mouth you shall give them a warning from me. If 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 in order to save his

life. That wicked person shall die for his iniquity but his blood I will require at your hand. But if

you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way he shall die

for his iniquity but you shall be delivered or you will have delivered your soul. Again if a righteous

person turns from his righteousness it commits a justice and I lay a stumbling block before him he

shall die because you've not warned him he shall die for his sin and his righteous deeds that he

has done shall not be remembered but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the

righteous person not to sin and he does not sin he shall surely live because he took warning

and you will have delivered your soul. So even from this this text of scripture we see you know

exactly what I was talking about before. We can warn people who are living in a life of wickedness

so they hopefully turn from their wickedness but we can also warn the righteous who who might be

headed down a wrong path about the stumbling block that's placed before them so they can

you know recognize the error of their ways and turn from that and both can save their lives if they

heed the warning. So this might sound remarkably similar to that earlier text that I read and it

should since it's a basically a restating in that same message. It is the responsibility aspect of

what it means to be a watchman. We are called to be heralds of the kingdom and guardians to our

fellow believers and the results of the alarm is not the concern it's it's what we need to make

clear is it's our duty to give the alarm. If we are diligent about our duties that is the expectation

the outcome is still up to the individual. We still believe in free choice it is that pesky

thing that we call free will right so we we understand that people aren't going to listen

all the time you know sinners are going to sin people might even backslide but it's our it's

our purpose to give the warning to give the alarm so that they hopefully will turn back to or turn

to Christ or turn back to Christ. We're not absolved from our duty just because we don't think it

matters it is because we think it does not matter that we have to exercise faith and sound the alarm.

The illustration that I started with was the one of the lighthouse the purpose of the lighthouse

is to warn others of impending danger once the message has been made we know that it it has still

been received it's still up to the recipient to accept the message and act upon it or else they

might end in calamity and Jeremiah 6 17 it says I set a watchman over you saying pay attention to

the sound of the trumpet but they said we will not pay attention this is the day and age that

we're living in this piece of scripture from Jeremiah is exactly kind of you know what we're

experiencing today where you could give a warning you could sound the alarm and people are going to

say you know keep it down we don't want to hear it and amos 3 6 is a trumpet blown in the city and

the people are not afraid does disaster come to the city unless the lord has done it we have this

idea today of it's your truth is the only thing that matters right it's this relative truth idea

so we could sound the alarm and people be like I don't believe in that I believe in this I believe

in my own thing and it's so relative to each individual that people will you know wander

headlong into danger because they don't they don't want to believe what's right in front of their

face you with all the issues we have in our in our western societies today you you give people

warning and say you're heading down a path of destruction and people go no no this is not a

path of destruction this is a path to prosperity when in reality it's a path right off the cliff

but that's why we you know we have to be a diligent watchman and that's this brings me back final point

being a diligent watchman it is not only for those whom you might save that you act faithfully in

your duties it is also for your own sake that you exercise faith and perform your duties diligently

in our illustration we see that the watchman is oftentimes part of the community in ancient israel

this was also true that means the watchman was not only responsible for signal but also

signaling the alarm but he was bringing attention to the danger that will affect his life and his

love ones and we are called to diligence because it keeps us right with the lord and first timothy

416 it says keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching persist in this for by doing so

you will save both yourself and your hears we are called to persist persist in keeping the watch

to look for those who can be saved to protect others and to protect ourselves from harm as well

and hebers 1317 says obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls

and those who will have to give an account as those who will have to give an account let them

do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you this is why we

have leaders in our church this the ministry is meant to be a position of service to the brothers

and sisters in christ we expect our leaders to hold themselves to a higher standard and to fulfill

the duties of a watchman this can be difficult when people being watched are ungrateful or don't

want to understand the danger that is present we could see this with ezekiel and with jeremiah

the people of israel were in no mood to hear the ravings of these two godly watchmen this is why

jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet he felt so strongly for his people and with the knowledge

of the impending doom that was about to fall in jerusalem it was hard for him to cry out warnings

that were going to fall on deaf ears he was abused and mocked but he was right he preached the truth

let us not be like the people of israel denying the dangers of our time let us take up the mantle

of the watchman and let us also carry the message of the cross to the world it is a message of hope

but if but it is also a message of warning all who have salvation in jesus christ are now on the

lookout we are all searching for those whom we can bring into the lifeboat of salvation

our world is sinking into chaos and is moving ever closer to destruction let us band together

to get as many people as possible into the boat jeremiah 29 11 through 13 says for i know the plans

that i have for you declares the lord plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and

hope then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and i will hear you you will seek me and

find me when you seek me with all your heart matthew chapter 7 verses 7 through 8 ask and it

Matthew 7:7–8

will be given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be open for everyone who asks

receives the one who seeks defines and to the one who knocks the door will be open and hebers 11 6

says and without faith it is impossible to please god because anyone who comes to him must believe

that he exists that he rewards those who earnestly seek him so in closing i have to wonder

how amazingly bad were things before the flood because we know that the bible tells us in genesis

6 5 that the lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth and

that every inclination and of the thoughts of human of the human heart was only evil all the time

man had become so wicked that their that they were wicked all the time his thought life was

continually wicked no one alone was righteous only himself and his family were to be saved

the story stands as a testament to both god's righteous judgment and his mercy

i wonder if any of the souls that died in the flood repented before the end

we know then there is another judgment coming jesus refers to this in matthew and luke

and matthew 24 38 39 it says for us in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking

marrying and giving into marriage until the day when noah entered the ark and then they were

unaware until the flood came and swept them all away and so will be the coming of the son of man

and then in loop 17 26 through 27 just as it was written in the days of noah so it will be in the

days of the son of man they were eating and drinking marrying and giving into marriage until

the day when noah answered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all this picture of the

flood and the reality that noah would have been building this ark for a long time he was a watchman

and he was giving warning but nobody was willing to listen let us not let down our guard let us not

leave behind our post we need to be vigilant and sober minded we are watchmen and we are seeking

those who god means to save let us not grow weary but lord help us to continue on this path to bring

others face to face with the revelation of jesus christ so they might be saved i pray today that we

grow in our faith and our love for christ so that we will have the zeal necessary to build an ark in

our own lives even if no one else sees the purpose i pray that we believe or that we as believers

will grow in faith enough to act on god's will alone just like noah abraham moses and the apostles

i believe that we can be watchmen for jesus today in our time i believe it's our duty to do so

because we are looking to to you know bring more people into that life boat of salvation so if i

could have every head bowed every eye closed real quick as we close this this message

i just want to give an invitation that maybe you recognize from this message that you are headed

down a path that's going to lead to your destruction you're you're headed somewhere you don't want to go

and maybe this message has been effective in in in highlighting the fact that you need to turn

your course around and head to christ well you can do that you can come to christ all you have to do

is is accept him as your lord and savior and turn from your sin and it's a simple prayer you can

repeat after me and just say dear lord god i know that i'm a sinner but i know that you sent your

son jesus christ he died for my sins i turned from my sin i repent and i accept jesus to be my lord

and savior i thank you for salvation that comes through grace in jesus name we pray amen if you

send that prayer and you meant it in your heart then you've been written into the lamb's book of

life you are saved and it's and it's a powerful thing and i know that you you would have felt the

change and praying that prayer with with true you know humbleness but what's next what's next is that

you need to get a bible you need to start washing yourself in the word of god you can download

you know the u-version app it's got all sorts of different bibles and so it's free

if you need help finding a bible you know reach out to us here

be more than happy to help you out and then on top of that you want to pray to god start having

those conversations with god start crying out to him and say lord help me give me wisdom understanding

and then find a bible believing church to lock into what i mean by lock into is what i is i mean

you go there you find someone who's preaching the gospel and you become a part of that church a

and you become a part of that church a member of that church that and then you work towards seeing

others grow in their relationship with jesus christ become an active member not just a uh you

know someone who comes sits in a in a pew for a day and then they go back to their normal you know

life during the week no become a member lock in grow with the with your with the church body

both in your salvation and helping others to grow in theirs if you need help finding a church we

have 300 or 3500 plus churches worldwide i'd be more than happy to help you find a church

but if you're in the salmon arm area if you're in the seminar british columbia please you know

reach out visit us on sunday mornings we also do bible study on on wednesday evenings and we do

outreach on saturdays and so we we're constantly trying to push forward with our duties as a

watchman to bring more people into the into the boat of salvation so partner with us if you're

around i want to thank you for listening to this message and again if this message touched you

i pray that you know that god will move this message far beyond the boundaries of salmon arm

or canada or united states or the you know any you know any country i pray they would go everywhere

and that people would be able to hear the gospel message and turn to jesus christ but i i hope that

if this message did affect you that you would share it so that others can hear the message and

that the podcast can grow because the whole point of this is to get the gospel of jesus christ as far

as wide as possible so i want to thank you uh for coming back again and i can't you know i can't

wait for you to come back next time thank you god bless thank you for listening to the phsa potter's

house salmon arm podcast be sure to follow us on instagram at potter's house underscore salmon arm

to keep up to date on what we are doing join the conversation and discover how jesus christ

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